Imagine accessing a virtual universe where you can create an entire world, bringing your physical world experiences with you. It was only thirty years ago that the internet became publicly available, and twenty years ago that many businesses realized that a website was a necessity for marketing. And let’s not even talk about how long
A fundamental truth of working in SEO is that link building has become more difficult. As more and more people have devised questionable methods of link building, Google has become much more strict about what constitutes a quality link. Widget links? Try again. Scholarship links? Considered “a tricky situation.” Even the sacred guest post is
What are the Maverick principles? Maverick is an acronym that stands for Momentum, Audience, Value, Enjoyment, Relationship, Improvement, Consistency, and Kindness that was coined by Franziska Iseli in her book Social Media for Small Business. The Maverick principles are the basis of how small businesses need to approach all of their social media activities. “Social
Marketing strategies are key to any business’s success. For small businesses, developing the right digital marketing strategies is vital to their success. While it might be tempting (and convenient) to put all of your marketing spend behind one digital marketing promotion idea, it’s better to spread the wealth between different tactics. Small businesses need to
As a small business owner, it can sometimes feel like you’re constantly spinning plates, from accounting tasks to the physical daily operations of your business. It’s no wonder that when you add marketing into the mix, you have no idea where to turn. Marketing as a concept is something that, unless they’re in the field,
Most marketing and sales books talk about the sales funnel; however, the funnel model has one serious flaw. While the sales funnel is based on driving the customer through the funnel to make a purchase, it ignores the power of the customer to build momentum for the business. The flywheel concept, on the other hand,
Much of the lean movement is based on the understanding that as organizations mature, the things that make them more competitive (more resources, better talent and more sophisticated processes) are the very things that now slow them down. Continuous improvement is the only way to sustainable, competitive advantage focused on the future. Steve Blank, a
Modern technology has completely changed the landscape of pretty much everything. People are used to instant gratification, of taking control of the wheel. They know what they want, when they want it, and how they want it. And thanks to multimedia streaming services, gone are the days of having to sit through commercials from businesses
Every business faces the difficult challenge of determining where to best direct its digital marketing spend. Figuring out which platforms will be the most profitable for your business depends on your target audience, your budget, and how people find products and services like yours. But there are some overall strengths and weaknesses to each of
What is Relationship Marketing? The way I look at it is it’s creating a connection between salespeople, your current and past clients, and your perfect prospects. What you’re trying to do with this type of marketing is create a conversation between two people. There are three big ideas around relationship marketing that I want to
Major corporations really want you to know how much they care about small businesses — as long as those small businesses don’t compete with them or cause them too much trouble. During the pandemic, big companies were sure to draw attention to the ways they were supporting the little guy. Facebook highlighted all sorts of
Creating a solid social-media strategy for small companies requires a lot of imagination and hard work. A small amount of planning goes a long way too. In the previous 10 years, the use of social media in the U.S. has grown from 7% to 65%. The swift acceptance of platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and