The blog about small business marketing

Is Your Website a Crime Scene? standard

Is your website a crime scene? Do visitors find their expectations exceeded and have a great experience when they open it?

Beware the Sales Tax Nexus standard

The Official 2019 Tax Season may be over, but the discussions regarding Interstate Sales Tax isn’t and that brings to mind the sales tax nexus. If someone isn’t careful, this Sword of Damocles known as uncollected sales tax hanging over the heads of retailers and service providers may become a reality. Nexus, also called “sufficient physical presence,” is a legal term that refers to the requirement for companies doing business in a state to collect and pay tax on sales in that state. For example, if you sell goods or services in Los Angeles, you must file and pay California state taxes. Up to now, retailers that sell online across state lines are not necessarily responsible for collecting and reporting sales ...

Top 5 Ways to Avoid Online and Offline Content Violations standard

Avoiding online and offline content violations, and the possibility of litigation should be on the minds of any serious small business person actively blogging and other forms of content production. The 5 ways we’ve found to avoid content trouble is to follow these recommendations. Now, please realize this is NOT legal advice of any kind, it is merely what you might consider as a good start toward risk avoidance and avoiding copyright entanglements. Centralize your Data - eliminate silos The first step in avoiding online and offline content violations is to understand that you have much more data than you realize. In fact, you’d probably be shocked at how much data really exists in your business, and I’m just talking about your ...

Your Ideal Client – Who Is It Really? standard

As a business owner you probably think the world is your market, and that anyone with money is your ideal client. You couldn’t be more wrong.

Bogus Email; is the Third Time the Charm? standard

If you are anything like me, you’re sick and tired of bogus email that attempts to corrupt your computer, steal your information, compromise stuff like identity, bank information and all sorts of other nefarious deeds. As a business person you are in charged with positively impacting your clientele (or target audience), provide information through a variety of means, and recognize the importance of email, which has long been at the top of the tools list for doing so. Every developed business depends on email for communicating directly with it’s customers, clients, prospects, or patients. It’s the one way to know the message is getting through to them. That is, it used to be. As email continued to grow as fast as ...

Is 2019 the Year to Rediscover Yourself? standard

Here Are 6 Things to Consider in Doing So It’s barely the end of the first month of this New Year and already the gyms are beginning to become less “busy” with resolutions falling off by the day. What started out as compaction is now settling back to a normal member flow, and the machines are nearly always free and available when I want one. However, I ask this with your best interest at heart. Is 2019 the year to rediscover yourself? Your business, specifically, but you are so much the business when you’re an entrepreneur, so it almost goes without saying. If you really want to make some positive change in your business and your life, consider doing these 6 ...

Email Marketing: Care and Feeding standard

In every aspect of business there is always room for improvement. Your email marketing tactics are no different and require some care and feeding along the way. Yes, you’ve probably been achieving your email goals but there are still opportunities to find a new approach to your content creation, drive new subscribers to your database, or improve your website SEO. Maybe it’s time for a new look and feel, for a website or email template. There is no shortage of tactics in need of refinement. Let’s Focus on One Aspect Here How much of that matters if you are using an email list that hasn’t been properly managed? Routinely maintained? Regularly purged? You’re probably a savvy marketer and as such you probably make ...

How is Multi-Channel Content Delivery a Lot Like a Pizza Taste Test? standard

We’ve all seen the blind taste tests for soft drinks, wines, beers, and even bottled waters. I think a Pizza Taste Test is a lot like a multi-channel Content Delivery strategy.

How is Email Marketing a Lot Like Dating? standard

A lot of small business owners shy away from email marketing and marketing automation out of a lack of understanding. Email marketing automation is a lot like dating, like a person seeking a mate. Now, hear me out and you’ll see the correlation in a minute. Attract A person seeks a mate, so they go through whatever rituals they believe will attract what they believe to be the right “type” they envision to be ideal. So, they go on this crusade of finding the right candidates. The more the person knows who is really an ideal suitor, the better the results, right? In email marketing automation there is a lot attraction work that occurs once the ideal audience is determined so ...

Why Automate Your Email Marketing? Let Me Count the Ways standard

Automate your email marketing, and marketing automation in general, are two of those terms that are often a intertwined mistaken notion, depending on who is shouting it and who is the receiver. If a MA sales person speaks to a Fortune 1000 company, it means one thing. To a small, local store owner it may mean something completely different. So, let me share with you what Forrester Research says about the definition of Marketing Automation. “Marketing Automation is defined as processes that help generate new business opportunities, manage volumes of business inquiries, improve potential buyers’ propensity to purchase, and increase alignment between marketing activities and sales results.” That means that not only email is automated, but a CRM system is integrated into ...