All too often I see the uncanny resemblance between how a company implements their marketing plan and the yo-yo dieting phenomenon. Any business professional knows that a strategic marketing plan that is actively engaged is ideal, yet many times a company inadvertently finds themselves following a “stop-start” mentality with it. During busy times key marketing…
Optimization Made Easy
October 25, 2013 By
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…
Being Visible
October 18, 2013 By
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 Culture
September 4, 2013 By
While driving home from our family reunion this summer we stopped for a bite to eat at a Chick-Fil-A. I noticed the line of cars in the drive-thru and the number of cars parked in the lot. My initial reaction was “oh no, maybe we should find another restaurant.” I’m glad that we didn’t. Not…
Inbound vs. Outbound
August 14, 2013 By
With all the options available to business today to market themselves, it’s important to remember that not all options are created equal, especially if faced with a budget. A trend that is quickly gaining momentum is inbound marketing. Inbound marketing is advertising but through your own efforts. Examples include: writing blogs podcasts enewsletters video whitepaper…
The Power of “Like”
July 19, 2013 By
Facebook. For business, we can look at Facebook as one of the “faces” that the public sees. We can also look at Facebook as a means to create a “book” of our business successes, announcements, helpful tips, and events. From this perspective, it becomes obvious the significance of providing relevant, targeted, and personalized content. This…
Designated Champion
June 21, 2013 By
Regardless of the number of employees a business has, many of the daily functions of both big and small business are the same. Both need things like: accounting payroll sales customer service marketing The difference is that small business has fewer people to manage these functions, so it’s essential that the proper steps are taken…
Which Is It?
May 7, 2013 By
It is very common to get caught up in the daily responsibilities of running a business. Calling on clients, invoicing, returning calls, attending meetings, lunch appointments, networking…the list can go on and on. We can get so focused on working “in” the business that we forget to work “on” the business. The long-term success of…
Never Assume
April 25, 2013 By
No matter the size of a company, confusion and mistakes happen. We do not live in a vacuum, where each day can be predicted and people’s behaviors anticipated. Even though we may have our roles within an organization, there is overlap. But with small business, the overlap tends to be much greater, where people may…
The “Pitching” Rotation
April 11, 2013 By
Everyone in a company is part of the “sales team” – from the receptionist who answers the phone and greets guests, to the person who handles customer complaints. A great analogy, especially at this time of year, involves baseball. Every major league team has several pitchers, but each has their own role to play in…
