All Entries in the "Marketing" Category
10 Tips for a Great Customer Call to Action
A call to action (CTA) is one of the most critical parts of any marketing message, whether it’s delivered by email, direct mail, on your website, Facebook page or any other way. A call to action should spur the customer or prospect to take the next step (call, click, stop by, download, “like,” tell a [...]
A Secret Google Tool for Local Search Success
It’s been almost three years since Google launched one of the most useful tools ever devised to help small business owners plan more effective advertising campaigns for local online search. Yet this free and insanely useful tool called Google Insights for Search (GIS) remains a well-kept secret among a handful of search geeks, corporate quants [...]
Why Daily Deal Sites are Doomed
Unsatisfied small business owners are abandoning daily deal sites such as Groupon, LivingSocial, Travelzoo and BuyWithMe and won’t return in sufficient numbers to sustain such sites long term. That’s one key take-away from the most exhaustive study yet done on the daily deals phenomenon. The study by Rice University business school professor Utpal Dholakia –probably [...]
Link Direct Mail to Mobile with QR Codes and Save
As cousins from opposite sides of the marketing family, direct mail and mobile marketing haven’t had much in common. That is until now, thanks to the folks who deliver our snail-mail, the good old U.S. Postal Service. USPS will soon launch a “Mobile Barcode Promotion” program to boost the value of direct mail by integrating [...]
12 Local Business Online Marketing Success Secrets
Consumers seeking a local business, professional or other service provider search and choose differently depending on the product or service they need. That seems like common sense, but it’s often misunderstood. And that creates special opportunities for local business owners who get it right to be found first by customers searching online. The basic secret [...]
Facebook Beats Yelp in Local Business Reviews Battle
More fuel for the Facebook fire: The “Like” button, launched in 2010, is already more popular than Yelp as a way for customers to show their support for a local business online. Results of a new Harris Interactive survey also reveal that no single source or factor dominates the consumer decision-making process of which local [...]
8 Getting Started Twitter Tips for Business
Small business owners, local businesses and startups of all stripes are embracing social media marketing with gusto. Signups on Facebook and Twitter are soaring. And why not? Biz owners see these platforms as free marketing that may be tricky and unknown, but well worth a shot. After all, when half of local businesses say they’ll [...]
Local Business Owners Plan Big Boost in Online Ads
The great local business digital migration continues. Following up a year when small business pulled big bucks from print in favor of digital, biz owners are holding yet another digital bash in 2011 by increasing their online spending to market themselves by a stunning 29%, compared to a 4.5% increase for offline spending. So says [...]
10 Tips for Postcard Marketing Success
With all the emphasis on high-tech marketing methods these days, a few tried-and-true methods get forgotten. Postcards are one of them, but they are experiencing a revival as business owners re-discover their powerful charms to deliver results. Postcards are a simple, low-cost sales tool that’s easier to use than ever thanks to websites that offer [...]
New and Affordable B2B Leads and Lists Online
A BizBest 30-Second Solution: Hoover’s – which has the biggest and best database of business contact information anywhere (85 million contacts and counting) – has launched two new ways for small businesses to find leads and build B2B lists via affordable “view only” and pay-as-you-go services. For the first time, the new “Essentials” and “Lead Builder” [...]
