Small Business Marketing Factors
Linda Morton suggests marketing for a small business needs to consider more than just what you do to promote and advertise your product or service. She argues you must consider the these small business marketing factors
- Your employees
- Your vendors
- Your distributors
- Your retailers
- Your competitors
- Regulators
- Customers
- The economy
- Nature
Erik Deckers – Comments on Writing for Blogs
Written by Amy Rowe
In his presentation at the Smaller Indiana, BlogIn, Erik Deckers shared his thoughts on how to write for a blog. Beginning with a great title:How to write gooder blogs then anyone else .
Erik advises: Good writing is clear, concise, precise, understandable and interesting.
- Be clear: Your clarity can be measured – check out: www.neilstoolbox.com
- Use short words, use short paragraphs
- Don’t overwrite and omit needless words
- Revise and rewrite
- Get rid of adjectives and adverbs
While SEO is important, write for subscribers before you write for the spiders.
Notes from Blog IN
Written by Amy Rowe
Ok, so here I am on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, indoors with a bunch of bloggers… so I hope I learn somehting!
Opening comments by Chris Baggott, Doug Karr, and Kevin Makics set the tone, with their own personal reasons for blogging.
Chris Baggott – Blogs primarily for business. My key take away from his comments: … People won’t subscribe to blog, or read it on a regular basis, but will find your blog through SEO when you write about topics which are relevant for them. Research shows you will win more searches then primary web site.
Kevin Makice’s blog began with the birth of their son. Today it covers a range of topics, with content provided by both he, his wife, and now his son. My key take away from his comments: Blogs are about finding different perspectives, from lots of different people, with lots of different perspectives. No one person will have the right answers but by reviewing all these different perspectives the truth will emerge
Doug Karr shared his thoughts on why people and companies should blog and how to do it right: My key take away from his comments:
Why Blog – Connect spheres of influence, education, influence, branding, networking, escape, fulfillment and money! And it allows him to remember stuff.
If you are going to do this do it right: Your blog needs to be driven by: Transparency, consistency passion, participate, momentum (steady, consistent effort) committee, coordination (with other marketing tools) and measurement
Rules for the Day
Whoever comes are the right people
Whatever happens is the only thing could have
Whenver it starts is the right time
When it’s over, it’s over
How to Burn Marketing Dollars Without Trying!
Direct mail campaigns, done correctly, can be a very powerful tool for small business marketing. However, a poorly planned campaign, can be a costly mistake. Here is a good article with practical tips on dos and don’ts for direct mail : Read More
And if you need help with your direct Mail campaign, contact Roundpeg!
A Small Business Marketing Success Story: John Tuggle, Guitar Teacher
Here is a great article I found on Searchengineland.com. The author demonstrates how a one-man-band can be successful turning passion into a living.
Meet John W. Tuggle, a guitarist and instructor who put his knowledge into a “how to” book and built a web site to sell it. Initially unsuccessful, he harnessed the power of affordable video to help sell his product. Stay with it, the video gets better as it goes.
Interested in affordable video for your website? Here in Indy talk to: Pinpoint AV, Associated Images and Visual Blaze
Jack and the Magic Beans
While the Magic Beans gave Jack his start, his own ingenuity lead to his ultimate success.
While the same is often true for small biz owners, in this video, Lorraine Shares one of her favorite “magic beans”.
Do It Yourself Marketing
Let Lorraine Ball teach you the secret to do-it-yourself marketing.
Make the Most of Your Marketing: Google’s Website Optimizer
First they came out with Google Analytics, now its Google Optimizer! Here is an article I found on small-business-guru.com that explains this great new tool from the folks at Google. Now its time to take your website to the next level.
Google’s Website Optimizer allows you to test changes in the website content of your pages in order to determine what will be most effective in getting conversions. You choose what parts of a page you’d like to test (e.g. headline, image, promotional text) and the technology runs an experiment on a portion of your site traffic to determine which content users respond to best. When enough data is collected, you receive a report and action plan to optimize your site for maximum results…Read More
Magic Beans
While the Magic Beans gave Jack his start, his own ingenuity lead to his ultimate success. The same is often true for small biz owners, there is rarely a “magic bean” Except in this video, Lorraine Shares one of her favorite “magic beans”
Spite is Not a Marketing Strategy
In a wonderfully well written post, Jennifer Laycock argues persuasively against attacking competitors as part of your marketing strategy.
