As small business owners, the internet has given us so much. It’s often used for procrastinating, with cat videos on YouTube or reading random articles on Wikipedia. But that’s the “bad” stuff. It’s also given us social media networks that we can use to connect with clients directly.
Read MoreNew Year’s Eve is fast approaching, and that means a brand-new year will be starting soon. Around this time, I tend to start looking back on everything that I’ve accomplished over the last 12 months and everything that has changed.
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Have you ever seen A Christmas Carol? The scene that always stuck with me as a small business owner was seeing Bob Cratchit having to stay late on Christmas to finish his work. Boy, I’ve been there (Although being my own boss, I guess I am sort of my own Scrooge too…)In December, there are so many things on your plate, from work to family, to the holidays themselves, that it can be tricky to get everything done by the last week of the year (not to mention stretching every dollar). But thankfully, there is a holiday miracle that can…
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We spend so much time talking about the marketing potential of Facebook and Instagram that we sometimes forget about a very popular social media service: Pinterest!Although Pinterest doesn’t necessarily have the same reach as Facebook (although that might change in the future), it does have over 200 million dedicated users who do one billion searches on it each month. That’s an incredible amount of activity and engagement. The big difference between Facebook and Pinterest is in their purpose. While Facebook is designed to bring people together, making is a fantastic way to connect with clients and customers, Pinterest is a…
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Do me a favor? Check your junk mail. Seriously, go in and take a look at just how many well-crafted marketing emails from businesses that you know and frequent are mixed in with your junk mail. I am going to bet that there are tons of them. Even if you wanted to check out these emails, they are unfortunately surrounded by SPAM and scams, and it would be a huge pain to go through all of your junk mail to sort them out. Now, consider this. There is a pretty good chance that your own well-crafted marketing emails are sitting…
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Do you know what the most effective method of advertising was back in the golden age of “Main Street” America? The storefront window. Pedestrians would walk by and look in all of the storefront windows on main street to see the most interesting and expensive items sold. And it worked! People would come in off the street to take a look around the stores. If the store owner was a particularly effective salesperson, they would walk out with a bag full of products, maybe even the one they saw in the window. In the marketing world today, the storefront window…
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Are you consciously aware of how you purchase products? I’m not talking about the process of paying for it, I mean the process that begins the moment you become aware of a product to the moment that you use it. This is known as a sales funnel and you need to be aware of it for any marketing strategy to work. No matter what your chosen method of advertising, whether it be Facebook Ads, email marketing, or social media, you need to have a sales funnel in place. A virtual assistant can help you build a sales funnel, writing all…
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Providing your customers with value is what business is all about, and that also goes for your advertising. No one wants to read dry, boring copy going on and on about how great your business is. Customers are far more savvy than that, they know how advertising sounds and they know to ignore it. The way you can connect with your customers today is with content. If you provide them with authentic, personality infused, valuable content, like blog posts, free downloads, email campaigns, etc, then you can sneak in under the advertising radar (stealthy selling, anyone?) by giving them what…
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Do you have an email list of your customers on your computer? Most companies do, but few companies properly take advantage of them. There is a reason why every single lottery, freebie, or giveaway asks for your email, and it isn’t actually to get in contact with you if you win. They want your information. The more emails they have, the more people they can potentially contact. Your company should be utilizing this exact same model of gathering emails and informations of potential and current clients. Developing your email list is not only a fantastic email marketing tool, but also…
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Let’s take a trip back in time for a minute… Direct mail marketing was an incredibly popular and effective form of advertising before the advent of the internet. Companies would send out printed newsletters or magazines that would keep their customers in the loop about any developments with their business, coupons or deals in the near future, and a personally written letter. Today, mailed physical newsletters have pretty much disappeared, but they’ve been replaced by something that is potentially much more effective and powerful: digital newsletters. An electronic newsletter, can help solidify your connection with your customers! Do you have…
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