My daughter, Elaina, definitely has the entrepreneurial spirit. When the weather gets warm, she can’t wait to get outside and sell lemonade or candy to the neighbors. Her Daisy troop participated in the National Lemonade Day in May, a free, community-wide initiative powered by Google for Entrepreneurs, and locally here in Indianapolis by entrepreneur Scott Jones (Indianapolis.lemonadeday.org). I … [Read more...]
10 Signs You Need to Outsource Your Marketing
I thought I'd have a little humor with this post, which I feel needs little introduction. Here are 10 signs that your business needs to outsource its marketing efforts: Your latest WordPress blog post still says, "Hello World!" You have 10 Facebook "Likes" on your Fan Page (and they are all your friends and family). You still pay $30/month for your email marketing software but … [Read more...]
Facebook Fan Pages: Back to Basics & Branding
So by now, most of you have heard about or seen the new Facebook timeline and changes to how Facebook fan pages will display at the end of March, 2012. So what does this mean for small businesses? 1) If you haven't branded your fan page yet, you're in luck. Gone are the days of custom tabs where companies practically begged you to follow the gigantic arrow pointing to their "like" button. Now, … [Read more...]
Marketing a Super City: 2012 Super Bowl in Indianapolis
As Indianapolis gears up to host one of this year's biggest events -- Super Bowl XLVI -- I can't help but notice all of the marketing and promotion the city has done to ensure that it makes a great impression on all who visit this week. Everywhere I look, I see banners on storefronts welcoming "Super Fans," ads offering "Super Discounts," and more. And of course, most of the planning for this … [Read more...]
Stop Waiting for the Magic Bullet: Get a Marketing Plan
As a marketing consultant for Indianapolis area small businesses, I work with a lot of start-up companies as well as other consultants. When they begin working with me, they are often overwhelmed with the many options for marketing their businesses and want me to provide some clarity. My response is to ask if they have a current (or previously created) marketing plan. If they don't, I tell them … [Read more...]