Women mistrust advertising today. And why not? Bloomingdale’s issued an apology for a 2015 catalog ad that many saw as encouraging date rape. In the ad, a man is seen staring at a beautiful woman who is looking in the opposite direction and includes the caption, “Spike Your Best Friend’s Egg Nog When They’re Not Looking.”…
Despite the advent of new technologies, it’s getting harder to reach consumers. Not because they aren’t connected. It’s quite the opposite. Consumers are so connected that the large audience you want to reach is now fragmented, spread thin across numerous digital channels. For brands hoping to reach their audience online, they’re faced with two choices:…
February is a time to reflect on the relationships you’ve built with the ones you love. And for small business owners, few relationships are as treasured as those you’ve cultivated with your customers. By developing a customer relationship marketing strategy, you not only strengthen ties with existing customers, but are certain to woo new ones…
Marketing is changing. The fundamental principles of marketing still exist, but the “how to” has changed dramatically. As marketers, we create an exchange of value between brands and the consumers they service. But to remain relevant, we’ve had to adapt our strategies to keep pace with the market trends currently disrupting small business marketing as we…
Tired of DIY marketing? Well, you should be. It’s hard enough to manage running a business without throwing in how to market it. That is, unless you’re a marketer. The fact is, running an effective marketing program takes not only an in-depth understanding of your core business and culture, but also a strategic perspective on…
For those who have been in business for a while now, you have at least a high-level understanding of how marketing impacts your sales. You’ve noticed trends that stimulate an increase and missteps that trigger a decline. But one thing is certain; a failure to connect your marketing with your sales objectives won’t deliver good…
Depending on your industry, year-end signals a period of celebration and rest. You look forward to taking a little time off around the holidays to enjoy family and friends. You reward employees and colleagues for a job well done. But business owners looking to grow their businesses next year may slow down, but they don’t…
Social media is sexy and direct mail is dead. If you take the advice of some, you’ll completely abandon all offline marketing efforts for digital campaigns that may look good but fail to deliver sales. The reality is, direct mail isn’t pushing up daisies just yet. In fact, depending on your industry, it’s alive and…
Tales of ghosts and goblins may give you a fright this Halloween, but very few things are scarier to a content marketer than to hear the words, “content marketing is easy.” Nothing could be further from the truth. And this month, we’ll be covering marketing myths, like this one, that jeopardizes your business’ ability to…
People hate being sold to. This explains why salespeople understandably find selling to new customers so daunting. It doesn’t have to be if you follow a few guidelines: Be interesting: conversation Cold calling is (mostly) dead. The best way to find new customers is to meet them out in the real world. Just understand that…
Turnover is expensive. For Human Resources Managers, this is common knowledge. It’s cheaper and less disruptive to keep a good employee than to find a new one. But retention efforts aren’t confined to employee directories. Business owners, too, must consider retention efforts – client retention. And as with anything long-term, it starts with fortifying your…
“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” John Wanamaker nailed it back in the late 1800s when he summed up just about every small business owners’ feeling toward marketing their businesses at some point. Despite following all the rules – the recommended social media posting…