Marketing and branding

Small Business Branding: What You Can Learn From The World’s Best Brands

Ross | May 22nd, 2013

  The 2013 Brandz Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands report was just released. The report offers important lessons for startups and small business. Apple is once again listed as the most valuable global brand, with Google, IBM, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola rounding out the top five. We’ve previously written about important lessons small businesses and [...]

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This Is Why Social Media Doesn’t Work For Your Business

Ross | May 21st, 2013

If you have invested considerable time and resources on social media marketing over the past year and feel frustrated, you are not alone. About 61% of small businesses don’t see any return on investment on their social-media activities … Yet, almost 50% say they’ve increased their time spent on social media, and only 7% have [...]

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Small Business and Social Marketing: Time for an Audit?

Mike | May 20th, 2013

Marketing is simple: spend $100 advertising your product or service and earn back $110 for your efforts. This has long been the underlying challenge for businesses large and small:  how do you acquire new customers, convince them to buy more of whatever it is you are selling, get them to tell other’s about your offering, [...]

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Small Business Marketing Guide: Types of Traditional and Online Marketing

Ross | May 1st, 2013

Many small business owners and young entrepreneurs are intimidated by marketing. There’s a good reason for this: marketing is expensive, can be time-consuming, and can be a waste of time. But marketing, when planned and executed correctly, can also lead to more sales and revenue. Whether you plan and execute traditional and online marketing strategies [...]

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How To Attract Customers And Not Waste Your Marketing Budget

Ross | April 25th, 2013

Should you invest your marketing time and budgets in social media, inbound marketing, content marketing, banner ads, pay-per-click advertising or customer service? Investing in the wrong marketing channels will do little to help your business grow but can quickly challenge your team and waste your marketing dollars. A new digital marketing report from Forrester surveying [...]

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Small Business Marketing Tip: Send Email Campaigns At Night To Increase Revenue

Ross | April 4th, 2013

A few months ago, we highlighted the best times and days to send email for opens and clickthroughs. A new study from Experian offers a different perspective on the best days and times to send email. According to Experian, Saturday and Sunday had higher open, click and transaction rates than other days of the week. [...]

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Email Design Best Practices For Small Businesses and Startups

Ross | April 2nd, 2013

It may seem obvious that consumers prefer better looking websites, but it’s clear that not all business owners appreciate the importance of design. After all, there are too many poorly designed websites (if you’re looking for tips to improve your website, we suggest you read web design best practices and tips and best practices and tips [...]

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Lean Business: Do Unto Others*

Mike | April 1st, 2013

The golden rule of word-of-mouth marketing: Be nice to thine customers and, lo, they shall be nice to you in return. The mechanical nuts and bolts behind this idea, in social psychology terminology, is represented by the concept of reciprocity. In short it referes to how people respond to a positive action with another positive action. [...]

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Marketing and Selling to Squirrels

Ross | March 19th, 2013

Attention span is the amount of time a person (or animal) can concentrate on something without becoming distracted. The attention span of a squirrel is one second. The attention span of a squirrel focusing on an acorn is 4 minutes, a huge increase! We’ll discuss acorns later (trust me, acorns are relevant to our conversation!), [...]

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