A Commodity?

There are many things we know, be it business or personal related, but sometimes just knowing something isn’t enough.  It may take a certain way of presenting an idea to us, or the particular phase of our life at the time that gives us greater clarity.  Either way, something we “know of” can turn into…

Optimization Made Easy

Let’s do a little test online.  Google a generic search term for your business.  For example, if you are a flooring company located in Cincinnati, Ohio, type “Cincinnati flooring companies.”  Where is your company found?  Is it the first page?  The second?  The tenth? If your company is not found on the first or second…

Not a “Field of Dreams”

Who doesn’t love the movie “Field of Dreams?”  It stars Kevin Costner who plays a farmer that has a vision of a baseball diamond right in the middle of his corn field and then hears the words “If you build it, he will come.”  This is a classic story that turns a man’s dream into…

Being Visible

You just never know where and when an opportunity will present itself, do you?  In business, opportunity could be lurking anywhere.  And to be successful, you always need to be prepared for it. More often than not, potential customers are quite happy with who they are currently doing business with, and many times it may…

Marketing: A Scary Word?

While at a recent social media seminar, one of our participants raised her hand and said the following, “I think marketing is a scary word.”  She elaborated by saying that marketing seemed too ambiguous and vague to her, so she wasn’t even sure what it meant.  It was then that I fully realized the undeniable…

3 Percent

3 percent. Based on 100 percent, 3 percent is really a very small amount.  Yet that small amount is largely responsible for a company’s success in any given year.  Surprisingly, many companies, both large and small, see 3 percent as too big so they go even smaller. Now you are probably asking “3 percent of…

Cold Calling

“A lead is like someone giving you a stack of business cards to call.” While at a recent event at the Paul Brown Stadium, I was able to enjoy lunch with several professionals I knew through my affiliation with Business Network International (BNI). As luck would have it there was a lovely, young women who…

The Marketing “Personal Trainer”

How many of you would say that you are self-motivated?  Hopefully the answer you say aloud to others is the same as the one you are thinking. Working as a small business owner, or for a small business, requires self-motivation.  And while we may have a lot of it, there are inevitably times that we…

It’s All In the Details

Details.  We notice them.  Especially when it affects our day: Too much salt in your entree. Music that is too loud at a venue that you can barely hear the other person talk. Poor lighting. Cold coffee when it reaches your table. Flat soda. All those examples reflect details in our daily lives that we…

Engage Your Target

So you have identified your target audience.  Now it’s time to consider how to engage with them to the point they remember you. I’m sure that you know someone within your professional circles who seems to be everywhere. Who when someone asks, “do you know _________?” and everyone says, “Yes!”  Engaging with your target audience…