Sales & Marketing Articles For Entrepreneurs & Small Business OwnersRevitalizing Your Creativity As A MarketerCreativity is the fuel that successful marketers run on, without it you are just another run-of-the-mill marketer with boring ideas and dull concepts. Therefore it is paramount that you do everything you can do exercise your creativity and keep it alive. “If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of […] Reviewers for Hire Will End Publicity, Company CredibilityReviews Your Way – Gartner reports that marketing/communications people are in such a rush to get positive reviews and increased numbers on their Facebook, Printerest and other social media sites that they are bypassing professional journalists and buying reviews, fans. But it is a dangerous path because consumers are smarter and have more sources to […] Getting to Grips with SEO or CROSearch engine optimisation and conversion rate optimisation are a necessity for any online business. It involves a lot of hard work designing and developing a website, but SEO and CRO are an additional battle. Your site might look fantastic, sell unique products and be affordable, however if no one knows you exist and your website […] Better Sales through Lead ManagementOn the Internet, content is king. If you expect to throw up a dummy site and start raking in the dough overnight, then you’re in for a rude awakening. Seems that, as advanced as we’ve become with technology, the “want it now” mentality is a hard one to shake in the area of sales. But […] Web Sites Are Built for Visitors … Not Designers“‘The water sleeps until the great snake.’ These aren’t just drawings, they’re directions. Get me a map!” – Indiana Jones, “Indian Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” Paramount, 2008 We love buzz words. You know, innovation…marketing ROI (Return on Investment)…social media…branding…positioning…differentiation…segmentation. Yeah, they’re all cool; but do you know the words we like […] The Best Marketing is Collective Leadership“Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the A-Team.” – Narrator, “The A-Team,” Universal TV (1983) We sat through a recent DEMO Conference that bills itself as focusing on […] Basic Sales Principles for Entrepreneurs / Business OwnersGarry Duncan, in an article that appeared at Businessjournals.com, enumerated a few key principles for sales people. Among the roles of a business owner is being the company’s top sales person – the rainmaker. It is not enough that you, as an entrepreneur, know everything about your products or services. You should be able to […] 3 Reasons to Buy a LED Sign for your BusinessLED signs are popping up everywhere—they shout from the streets, in front of restaurants, big and small businesses. Some wonder what the hype is all about and whether the bright, bold signs are worth the investment. But more and more business owners are seeing that they are for these three reasons: 1. Increases revenue The […] Summer Marketing Ideas for New BusinessesNew businesses and those that are struggling to grow are faced with many challenges in terms of self-promotion. One of the biggest challenges these businesses face is the question of how much to spend on marketing and advertising, and what will give them the most bang for their dollar. Summer and the warmer weather presents […] How To Create A Professional Direct Mail CampaignWe have all been here. We spend hours and hours and put our blood sweat and tears into a new product or service (our baby) and then realise it wont sell itself. You might have already thought of advertising and created an excellent advertising campaign but have you given any thought to direct mail? Direct […] 7 Ways Your Business Can Benefit from Exhibiting at a Trade ShowTrade shows and exhibitions are a great way of getting your brand out there to the people you really want to notice it. But you need to know what you want before you go in order to get the most out of exhibiting. It’s an expensive business after all. You’ve got travel costs, the cost […] What Those Who Present to Male Audiences Can Learn From The NFL RedZone ChannelFirst, for those who don’t know what the NFL RedZone Channel is, let me explain. This is from their Web site http://redzonetv.nfl.com/about/. “NFL RedZone, produced by NFL Network, whips around every NFL game on Sunday afternoons delivering the touchdowns and most exciting moments as they happen and in high definition. When a team goes inside the 20-yard […] It’s Time to Play – Heading Toward Gamification NationGamification, the use of game design techniques to solve problems, motivate and engage people, is poised to become a leading digital marketing trend, according to brand consultancy Millward Brown. Although at present, gamification is largely driven by novelty and hype, Gartner forecasts that by 2014, 70+% of major companies will have at least one “gamified” […] Going ViralNot that long ago I was sitting in a meeting with a client (a local college) and he told me he had some great news. “We just started a new class at the college and we videotaped the first class. The professor is fascinating, the subject is fascinating. We want you to take this video, […] What Should Hiring a PR Firm Cost?After you’ve made the decision to retain the services of a PR firm, the hard part starts. How do you find the right firm? How do you know they will provide what you want and need? And perhaps most important, can your budget handle their cost requirements? It is first important to understand the billing […] The Real Crisis With Crisis PROne of the fastest growing areas of the public relations business is crisis management, or crisis communications, or crisis PR, or issues management, depending on what you want to call it. Simply put, crisis PR is the art, and I do mean art, of helping a corporations, organization or individual manage their image when a […] Crisis Communications in a Transparent WorldThe public relations business can be categorized in two parts. Pre-internet and post-internet. While some may argue that there really is no difference between how PR was handled pre-internet and how it it handled now, it cannot be argued that journalism is the same. And, with journalism being at the crux of corporate and crisis […] PR Starts with a PR PlanWhen embarking on a PR / marketing campaign, it is critical that you first start with a plan. Achieving goals and objectives is what PR is all about, and you need to clarify what your goals and objectives are so you have a way of measuring that the plan is working or what needs to […] Non Profit PR – Marketing With a MissionIf you’re the executive director of a non-profit organization, you come to work each day with two things on your mind. First, how can your agency best fulfill its mission, and second, how will you get the funding you need to fulfill your mission. The two are intertwined, a Catch-22 if you will. While most […] Public Relations Is Not Just For PR ProsIf a company hires a public relations firm and then sits back and expects the PR firm to work magic, the company will be terribly disappointed. Effective public relations is not a job — it is a process. It is not just writing news releases and doing special events. And, it is not the sole […] |
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