11Jun 2014 by Cindy Berrier No Comments

Surveying the Competitive Landscape: A Competitive Analysis Checklist

Marketing, Planning, Small Business Info, Website Tips
Are you thinking about adjusting your retail pricing?  Introducing a new product?  Shortening your turnaround times?  Before you proceed on any one of these important marketing strategies — which will also directly impact your financials — it’s critical to create an in-depth analysis of your competition. Sound like a daunting task?  It can be but the pay-offs are considerable. All online businesses must differentiate themselves to drive more traffic to their website. For example, if your competitive analysis indicates that your turnaround times are no better or worse than everyone else, then it’s time to either move onto another stage of your research or focus on the necessary improvements to lead the pack. (more…)
Read More
05Jun 2014 by Cindy Berrier No Comments

Affiliate Marketing – What It Is And How To Get Started

Customer Acquisition, Customer Retention, Marketing, Online Marketing, Small Business Info
[caption id="attachment_7522" align="aligncenter" width="540"] [credit: tweakyourbiz.com][/caption]What is Affiliate Marketing? Affiliate marketing basically stemmed from the realization that companies had an opportunity to market their products and services to consumers with the millions of websites that are visited each day. At the same time, website owners were realizing that they should be compensated for the hard work they put into providing their visitors valuable content. So, affiliate marketing emerged as a solution to help form relationships between advertisers (your business), publishers (websites that promote your business) and consumers (people you hope to buy from your business). (more…)
Read More
04Jun 2014 by Cindy Berrier No Comments

How to Set Up Google Authorship

Content Marketing, Marketing, Online Marketing, Small Business Info, Social Media Marketing
Did you know that by establishing Google Authorship, you help build authority and gain recognition with the content you publish? Setting up Google Authorship is a simple process and only takes a few minutes. Follow these six easy steps to set up Google Authorship! 1. Create a Google+ profile. If you already have a Google account, good news! Google has already created a Google+ profile for you. If you don't have a Google account, setting one up is free and easy. Just go to Google's signup page and follow the steps outlined in the gray box. Keep in mind it’s important to have an easy recognizable headshot as your profile photo. 2. Add the websites you publish to on your profile. When viewing your Google+ profile, click on the “About”…
Read More
29May 2014 by Cindy Berrier No Comments

8 Design Elements to Incorporate Into Your Next Email

Customer Retention, Design, Email Marketing, Marketing, Monthly Email Marketing, Online Marketing, Small Business Info
From snazzy subject lines to appropriate segmentation, there are so many factors that contribute to a successful email marketing campaign. One incredibly important element is the actual design of the email. A good email design can mean the difference between getting the subscriber to read your content and engage with your brand or simply close the message. With that said, let’s take a look at eight elements that help make up a successful email design. Design Element 1 — Adhere to Brand Standards If you have a company, you should have standards for your company’s brand — even if you are a company of one. Brand standards set the tone and feel of your company. They set expectations for the consumer. Consumers like to have expectations set and met for them…
Read More
28May 2014 by Cindy Berrier No Comments

How to Announce a New Business

Customer Acquisition, Marketing, Online Marketing, Outdoor Marketing, Promotional Marketing, Public Relations, Small Business Info
Take everyone out to celebrate. You did it! You made your entrepreneurial dreams come true! Take a night to kick back and celebrate with those that helped you along the way. Have the whole team get together for a celebratory dinner and, hey, even make it the first expense on your new company tab. Give the group a souvenir to remember the night by … perhaps a laser-engraved pen with the company name on it. Submit a release. Albeit a bit traditional, submitting a news release is a tried-and-true method of getting the word out about your new business venture. You may even consider hosting a ribbon-cutting ceremony or something of the sort for local community leaders. If you choose to do so, make sure the local papers know as…
Read More
27May 2014 by Cindy Berrier No Comments

Looking at the Big Picture: Branding First

Customer Acquisition, Design, Marketing, Monday Marketing Minutes, Small Business Info
Building your brand is one of the most important steps in developing a new business. The number of small- and medium-sized businesses out there is growing exponentially — and you need to make sure your company is ahead of the pack. What differentiates your biz from the rest? And how will you communicate those factors to your prospects? One word — branding. What is branding? Some define branding as a “name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.” (American Marketing Association). Others define branding as “the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decisions to choose one product or service over another.” (Seth Godin, author of ‘Linchpin’). However you…
Read More
20May 2014 by Cindy Berrier 13 Comments

Go Big or Go Home! 9 Tips for Yard Sign Marketing

Customer Acquisition, Design, Marketing, Monday Marketing Minutes, Outdoor Marketing, Small Business Info
Ah, sweet summer time. Time to get ready for everything you love about summer. Picnics, days at the beach and … yard sign marketing! Hurray! Custom yard signs can be a highly effective customer acquisition tool if done correctly. Take your outdoor advertising to the next level by following these nine tips for effective yard sign marketing. Stick with single-sided. It is very hard to find a spot on a busy street where both directions of traffic will be able to read your yard sign clearly. So, it’s probably a better idea to have two signs that have your message on a single side, so as not to force drivers traveling in the direction furthest away to try to read your sign and eventually give up because it’s too hard…
Read More
12May 2014 by Cindy Berrier No Comments

3 Easy Ways to Boost Gift Certificate Sales

Customer Acquisition, Customer Retention, Marketing, Monday Marketing Minutes, Product Uses, Products and Services, Promotional Marketing, Small Business Info
Does your small business harness the often overlooked power of Gift Certificates? Think of a past birthday or Christmas — how many gift cards or certificates did you receive? Actually, take a look in your purse or wallet ... how many do you have floating around right now? Like many of us consumers out there, we love both receiving and giving custom gift certificates. They're easy and almost guaranteed to let either yourself or that special someone find exactly what it is they seek. So, give the customers what they want! Read on for three easy ways to boost gift certificate sales for your business. (more…)
Read More
10May 2014 by Cindy Berrier 2 Comments

Long-Tail Keywords: The Long and Short

Customer Acquisition, Marketing, Online Marketing, Search Marketing, Small Business Info
[caption id="attachment_7370" align="aligncenter" width="350"] [credit: quantummarketer.com][/caption]For years, SEO specialists have concentrated on high search volume keywords in their optimization efforts. If you could rank in the top three entries on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) for your head keyword (i.e. product keyword) you were living large. Unfortunately, the competition is and remains fierce for those top spots. Enter long-tail SEO (queue divine background music). Long-tail SEO strategies have proven to increase conversions, allow sites to rank higher for less competitive keyword phrases, and best of all, long tail keywords go hand-in-hand with what all the kids are talking about, semantic search. But what it is and how can you use it to your benefit? (more…)
Read More
05May 2014 by Cindy Berrier No Comments

Secrets of Success: 5 Entrepreneurs Share Their Best Startup Advice

Marketing, Monday Marketing Minutes, Planning, Small Business Info
Jiminy Cricket would have you believe that all you have to do is make a wish, and your dreams will come true. What a croc. The truth is that dreams are a fine place to start, but unless you put in the effort and take control of your own destiny, those dreams are never going to cross over into the waking world. No one understands this truth quite like successful entrepreneurs. When you’re struggling to succeed in a market where 80 percent of new companies die an ignoble death, you have to do more than just dream; you have to act and you have to be smart about it. But hey, don’t take our word for it; take the word of those entrepreneurs who managed to keep their heads above…
Read More