The Truth About Marketing

marketing truth Gone are the days where marketing can be done by just buying a small ad. Business cards are no longer attracting customers and sending mail or postcards may not get you new clients. These are traditional marketing strategies. We used to witness how these strategies helped entrepreneurs to manage their business. But this is no longer the case.

We may say that all these traditional models of marketing are obsolete. If you are aspiring to get high profits, more clients, or to establish more sales, or generate a lot of money; then it’s time for you to move on to higher levels of marketing.…

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Facebook Strategy For Your Small Business

facebook strategy for small businessesDo you have it backwards when it comes to Facebook?

Here’s what no one in the social media space seems to want to say: Facebook is a difficult place to reach new eyeballs organically if you do not already have good brand awareness.

There I said it. If you are trying to use Facebook to reach a new audience, organically (i.e. without paying for Ads), from scratch – you are facing an uphill battle.

Yes, the stats on how many Facebook users exist are mind-boggling. In reality most of those people will never actually encounter your brand on Facebook, unless you pay good money for them to.…

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How To Get SEO Value From NoFollow Links

seo value from NoFollow linksIncreasingly, it’s getting harder and harder to find sites willing to give you high-quality SEO links. Instead, most web sites today will only give you links that are blocked using a NoFollow tag.

The NoFollow tag tells Google NOT to consider your link in their ranking algorithm. Even though you may get referral traffic from this link, Google will act as if this site had never heard of you at all.

These types of NoFollow links are especially common with large portals, social media sites, blog comments and other sites that allow you to create public profiles.

Let’s take YouTube for example.…

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How To Get Your Proposal Accepted

business proposalsThe commercial cleaning industry is a tough business to get started in. There’s a lot of competition for very few clients, and the work is incredibly hard & unglamorous. But if you stick with it for a long time, you’ll find that it can be a very rewarding career.

Although most of our business now comes from word-of-mouth, it wasn’t always this easy for us to attract new customers.   Early on, we had a lot of trouble getting our proposals accepted.

We’d spend a fortune on advertising… just for the opportunity to bid against 20 other companies.

And bidding often meant taking 2 hours out of my day to drive over to the prospect’s site, talk to them and look over their office.…

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A New Way To Think About Bribery-Based Business Models

bribery based business modelsIt seems like every week, I hear about another start-up with a bribery-based business model. Some genius decided that they can pay people to visit their web site, and that this would somehow evolve into loyalty. But sure enough, a few months later, they all vanish just as quickly as they appeared.

The simple fact is that bribing customers works about as well as paying money for genuine friends.

If you’d asked me to help paint your house this weekend, I’d say yes because you’re my friend. But if you offered me $25 to come help you, I’d probably feel insulted and decline your request.…

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Your Customer Is Not A Computer

treating customers like people not just a computerSometimes Internet marketers seem to do everything right tactically… but they can’t seem to get the sales they’re after. Whenever I see this, especially with extremely hard-working entrepreneurs, the problem is usually one of those “big picture”   strategic issues that can be easily missed when you’re caught up in the work.

It’s easy to forget you’re working on a car when your head is under the hood and all you see is engine.

In the bricks-and-mortar world, sales are made based on relationships. Customers can easily visit your place of business and see your employees face-to-face. This goes a long way to build the kind of trust and comfort that accelerates the sales process.…

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How Promotional Items Can Build Your Brand and Your Business

promotional marketing productsIn this age of social media marketing, it’s easy to forget that one of the easiest, most cost-effective ways   to get your small business in front of people is to give them a gift. According to an Advertising Specialties Impressions study, 84% of promotional products recipients remember the advertiser on the custom promotional items they receive. And, given that you can get items for a lot less than you can get online ad space, promotional items are a great way to market your products or business in these tough economic times.

Here are some tips on how to use promotional items to make an impact for your small business:

Think Form and Function: One of the biggest challenges in using promotional items is in choosing a gift that will end up on someone’s desktop and not in the trash can underneath it.…

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What’s Your Sustainable Competitive Advantage?

competitive advantageLet’s talk about strategy for a second.

If the Internet has torn down so many of the traditional barriers that prevented businesses from becoming successful, why is making money online so much harder than doing business in “the real world”?

Well, strangely enough, the lack of barriers is actually a disadvantage since it pushes more competitors into your market. This actually makes it HARDER to do business online, rather than EASIER.

Also, you must keep in mind that if you DO become successful, other people will begin to copy you… or even automate your tactics! If you haven’t properly defended your position, they can quickly move in to drown out your lead generation channel.…

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Paper Marketing is Not Dead

direct mail marketing with postcardsJudging by the tone of most marketing blogs, you would guess that all business was either conducted on Google or Facebook. But it’s easy to forget that many of the tried-and-true methods of the past are still just as valid today.

Take postcards for example… they’re fantastic!

You can just load up your prospect list in Excel, run the stack through your ink-jet printer, and you’re ready for the mailbox. There are no letters to fold, no envelopes to stuff, and (for large volumes) no stamps to peel.

Postcards also work great in tandem with your online efforts. If you record a different themed webinar every month, you’ll have a new reason for prospects to engage with you in each mailing.  …

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Four Attractive Ideas for Growing Your Small Business & Bottom Line

marketing ideasHere’s the hundred and first time you’ve heard it:   it’s a tough market out there.

Small business owners are flooded with more priorities than they can handle, ranging from raising capital to streamlining processes to everything in between.   Whether a function of not enough time in the day and/or limited know-how, marketing, advertising, and promotional tasks are quick to slip through the cracks.   But they don’t have to.

Luckily, the following four promotional strategies require little time, know-how, or budget.   What’s more, they are proven concepts that will help to increase your business’s recognition, pool of customers, and most importantly, your bottom line.…

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