Over the years, I've heard countless small business owners utter the phrase, "We get most of our business from referrals." or "We don't do any advertising...our customers come to us." As a marketing and advertising consultant, businesses who rely on referral marketing alone make me cringe a little (okay, a lot). I understand the logic behind their perspective. They are some of the … [Read more...]
Justifying your Content Marketing Expense
Content marketing sure is a popular buzzword these days. For those of you who are unsure of the benefits of content marketing, it's essentially the creation and distribution of valuable, relevant content in order to drive an action (click to website, call, etc.). We hear reports of companies increasing their spend in this area, and how it's the new "future of marketing." But for marketing … [Read more...]
12 Marketing Tips for a Successful Year
For those companies without the luxury of a large sales and marketing department, I thought I would gift you with 12 ideas (one for each month of the year) on how to positively impact your marketing results in the coming year. Refresh your Brand: Is your current company brand up to par? Consider revising or re-designing your company’s logo. If you have a logo you’re happy with, make sure … [Read more...]
Blogging: the Key to New Customer Acquisition
For business owners trying to win at the search engine optimization (SEO) game, there’s an overlooked technique that actually works better in the long run, and costs a fraction of the price of Google keyword advertising: blogging for business. This tip will help you discover the reason why your current website isn’t ranking well on Google, and show you how this technique costs much less, but … [Read more...]
What is Content Marketing?
You may have heard the term ‘content marketing’ floating around lately, but how many of you know what it means, and how to apply this strategy to your business’ marketing plan? First of all, to understand content marketing as a strategy, we need to define content marketing. All forms of advertising have content, of course. Types of marketing content include: Headlines Taglines or … [Read more...]
5 Tips to Boost your Website Traffic
Often, my Indianapolis small business customers come to me asking how they can increase web traffic for their company’s website. Are you a small business trying to get noticed online in a sea of other competitors? Perhaps you don’t want to spend a fortune, or to do a complete overhaul of your existing website. In these cases, here are five tips you can try which may give your website an instant … [Read more...]
Why you need blogging, email and social media
Looking for a quick way to boost your marketing this year? I recommend focusing your business on three things: 1. Blogging 2. Email Marketing 3. Social Media Marketing (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+, etc.) Let me tell you why I think this is a great strategy for most businesses. 1. Let's start with Blogging: Blogging, as you know, is a content … [Read more...]
Top 10 Reasons you Should Blog
Blog Defined: For those of you who don't blog regularly for your business, you may be wondering exactly what a blog should contain. According to Wikipedia: A blog (a truncation of the expression weblog) is a discussion or informational site published on the World Wide Web and consisting of discrete entries ("posts") typically displayed in reverse chronological order (the most recent post … [Read more...]
De-Mystifying Social Media
For anyone who is new to social media, the thought of using it in your business can be a bit overwhelming. However, it looks like social media will be around for a while, so if your business isn’t taking advantage of the opportunities that it offers, it is time to jump on the bandwagon and see the value for your business. With a little time, and some training, I hope to de-mystify social media … [Read more...]
Twitter Tips for Insurance Agents (and Small Business Owners)
Note: I was fortunate enough to be asked to write an article for the Jan/Feb issue of Indiana Insurance News. This is the article which appeared there. I will also be publishing a future article for their Nov/Dec issue on De-Mystifying Social Media. If you’ve done some research and you know that your customers, vendors, prospects or influencers are using Twitter, it might make sense for … [Read more...]