When we talk about small business marketing, we always talk about starting with a sound marketing strategy before jumping into tactics. One of key elements of your marketing strategy is identifying your ideal customer – those customers in your sweet spot, the ones you...
It's the day after a workshop and I am faced with the same situation that we all face... How do I catch up on the work that piled up yesterday and make sure I start implementing my ideas from the workshop? Here are some of the ways I try to tackle this problem. I...
Last night I attended a networking event during which I was asked what the biggest mistake I see when working with people on their marketing plans and strategy. My response was “not knowing who to say NO to”. My response may sound just like another way of saying “you...
Evernote is one of my favorite tools and I’m becoming a huge fan of their company too. Evernote’s stated goal is to “give everyone the ability to easily capture any moment, idea, inspiration, or experience whenever they want using whichever device or platform they...
We all have face competition in our businesses, but that competition may not always be coming from where we think. When working customers on their strategic marketing plans, I typically see four broad categories of competitors. I’ve listed them below along with some...
I am in the middle of reading Todd Henry’s The Accidental Creative: How to Be Brilliant at a Moment's Notice(Amazon affiliate link). Part 2 of the book is about Creative Rhythm – how it affects our work and how to establish your rhythm to unleash your creativity and...
Due to time constraints, I had to omit this topic from my presentation at the Constant Contact event last week, so I thought I would share it here. When I speak to small business owners about their frustrations with using social media to build their business, I often...
If you are building a social media audience for the sake of “reach” then you may be doing just that. You have probably seen formulas like this: #followers X #messages = reach which are typically followed by a discussion the importance of “maximizing your reach”, with...
Everyday we hear about a new tool that will make it easier to get our message out, easier to connect with customers, and easier to sell more stuff. The problem is, without a strategy, every idea sounds like it “could work” and if we are not careful, we can spend all...
[ This post originally appeared in my newsletter. I don't usually repost, but I've had a lot of interest in this topic recently, so I thought I would share it here as well] We marketing types are good at giving advice about using social media tools to “have...