About 30 years ago, do you know one of the best places to connect with your customers? Their car. The very first thing they did after they got into their car in the morning was turn on the radio. And chances are that it remained on for their entire commute to work, both back and forth. This offered advertisers a captive audience (literally, if the driver was on the highway!) But then around 15 years ago, things started to change. People stopped listening to the radio as much when they headed to work. Instead, they would put on music from…
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I don’t know about you, but every week I get “emails” touting a new secret SEO growth tactic or hack that promises to get me on the first page of Google! It got me thinking about how overwhelming SEO can be to entrepreneurs, because there are so many components to consider. Keywords, on-page and off-page optimization, link building, oh my! The list goes on and on. So, let’s start here, how much do you know about SEO? Sorry (not sorry) for the rhyme there, but it’s a question that every small business owner should be asking themselves. Over my many…
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The Reach of Facebook and Instagram Ads Do you know how many people use Facebook every month? Over 2.6 billion users! And 1.73 billion of those users are on it daily. How about Instagram? Instagram has 1 billion users every month with over 500 million accounts using Instagram stories every day. Wow! These are staggering numbers. Let’s break it down and simplify a bit to dig into some details, let’s get a little more local… There are over 221.6 million Facebook users and 112.5 million Instagram users in the U.S. only. Now that’s a significantly more useful number! For Facebook,…
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Do you ever feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day? That’s usually what I hear from most small business owners. They start the day ready to blow through their to-do lists, but still have half the list left at the end of hours. That’s usually because their time gets used up by small, time-consuming tasks like creating and scheduling social media as part of their digital marketing strategy. Personally, I write/design/schedule a month’s worth of social media content on Saturday or Sunday morning. I’ve developed a system over the years where I get up early and have it…
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Have you ever been sent a viral video? Creating a piece of content that goes viral is every small business owner’s dream! Not only does the free exposure exponentially increase the ROI on that content, but it also will dramatically grow your audience and raise awareness of your brand. There’s no perfect formula for viral content, and frequently luck and timing play a huge part in a piece of content becoming popular. However, there are a few things that all popular content have in common! If you’re here, you’re probably looking for some advice on how to make content that…
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Are you experiencing remote work for the first time in your professional life? Maybe you’ve heard, there have recently been some significant changes in the way the average American does their job. With physical distancing rules in place, many small business storefronts needed to close for health reasons. And even though some of them are opening back up, it will still be months until things are close to normal. Moreover, some of the big changes will likely stick around indefinitely: working from home, for example. Before COVID-19, only 1-2% of people worked remotely. Now, businesses all over the country have…
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What does the word “marketing” mean to you? Over the last few weeks, countless companies have been in a scramble. Trying to figure out a way to communicate with their customers during COVID-19. Their marketing used to be focused on big money spent on billboards, posters, and other traditional forms of marketing. Unfortunately, that would be money wasted while everyone is under stay-at-home orders. So, now they are putting their money into a highly-effective form of advertising that small businesses have been using for years: Enter digital marketing. Digital Marketing is an umbrella term that covers all aspects of marketing…
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Are you worried about your small business brand right now? Many small businesses are, understandably, concerned about their cash flow and staying open during the COVID-19 crisis. The burden social distancing has put on businesses of all sizes is unmatched in modern times. Even the strongest of companies are struggling with them. But it’s not only the financial side of your business you need to consider. Maintaining your brand over the next few weeks is going to be tricky. There are some ways that you can avoid any damage to it. In fact, you might even be able to strengthen…
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Do you use LinkedIn to connect with clients? When you ask most people about LinkedIn, they think it’s only a place to post your resume online. Wrong! LinkedIn has become so much more than a repository of work histories and references. Now, it’s a full-blown social media network, just like Facebook. With that in mind, this makes LinkedIn the perfect platform for finding new clients. Unlike other social media services, LinkedIn is entirely focused on your professional life. That means active users are trying to connect with like-minded people in their industry. It’s the perfect place for you to reach…
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Do you have the right tools to run your online business? With countless businesses shifting to online-only, many long-time small business owners are worried that they might not have the tools they need to manage their business effectively. Keeping on-track when you’re working from home can be challenging, and without the right resources, it’s much, much harder. Thankfully, I’ve been working from home for years, so I can help. Here are some of what I consider to be indispensable tools for any online business, small, medium, or large. What’s even better is that most of them are 100% free for…
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