Copycat marketing is expensive and ineffective at best and can actually be counterproductive and damaging. This weekend I received a piece of copycat marketing category, and I think it demonstrates these points. I received what appeared to be an article torn from a...
Over on the Duct Tape Marketing Blog, John has some good tips for professionals that avoid marketing because they are uncomfortable with tooting their own horn. As a CPA, I've had this uncomfortable feeling myself and seen it in others. The accountants I know feel the...
Over on the Quick Books Community Briefing on Small Business Blog, Chloe DeVita has a post on one of my favorite small business subjects - Working IN your business versus ON your business. Chloe (Miss Enterprise - love that!) talks about the challenges of keeping your...
Over on Legal Ease, Allison Shields gives some great advice (Holiday Networking Tips, Networking for Shy People, and Networking: What do I say?) about networking. I have two other tips that I have picked up along the way that I would like to add. The first is to...
Catching up on my reading, I've noticed more people talking about the idea that bigger (in terms of market share) is not necessarily better. David Maister has an excellent post on his blog about the pursuit of growth for the sake of growth in professional...
As I was looking through a package of advertisements from a chamber of commerce, I was reminded of the saying "actions speak louder than words". I don't know about you, but I was lucky enough to receive this advice 3 or 10 million times while growing up, so...
Last week I spoke about the importance of the importance of educating your referral sources as well as your prospects. In today's Best-of Weekly, Marketing Sherpa has a case study (Open access until Oct. 29th) about a couple of companies who use automated e-mail...
Not getting the right kind of referrals is a common frustration for small business owners. In order to get the kind of referrals you want, you have to take the time to teach your referral sources how to spot your ideal prospect. Even though people love to give...
Yesterday, I saw what I thought was a good example of working with a strategic partner. I say “thought”, because on further review, it appears that the tactic of teaming with a strategic partner is not supported by any underlying marketing strategy. As I was leaving...
While reading Seth Godin's small is the new big , I came across the entry The Two Obvious Secrets of Every Service Business. The "secrets" are 1) Take Responsibility and 2) Pay Attention to Detail. This reminded me of one of the obvious, but essential...