In today’s plugged-in society, e-mail marketing is an important component of your overall marketing strategy. Done right, you attract and retain loyal customers. Done wrong, however, you risk losing subscribers and tarnishing your brand. Here are four tips for sending effective, engaging newsletters. 1.) Don’t clog up inboxes. We all receive too much e-mail. Don’t turn off customers by sending newsletters too often. This is the number one reason people unsubscribe. Start by

As a small business, your logo is your main identifying mark. It portrays what you stand for as a company; is one of the first things that comes to mind when customers think of your brand; and when used effectively, can be leveraged to create loyalty and to promote the positive attributes of your business. In this post, we discuss the different types of logos that exist; the important factors that comprise a logo; and the steps required in creating a logo that is both effecti

As a small business owner you may feel that the marketing tactics that you are doing do not work or do not give you immediate results for your business.  You have tweeted, posted, blogged, networked and paid hundreds of dollars to local newspapers, but feel like the effort and the money is going down the drain. What can make a big difference in your marketing effectiveness  is sitting down and creating a clear and targeted marketing strategy.  Make some crucial decisions that

Many of my clients are still unaware of what SEO is or why it matters to their small business… so I am posting this to go back to basics. SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process of being found and getting traffic to your websites via the free or organic listings found on search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. When someone searches via one of these major search engines, the search engine scours the internet to find the best match for their users search. This is d

by Julie Mierau We all know that physicians pledge to “first, do no harm.” But do you know Google’s company motto? “Don’t be evil.” Yep, it’s true. That’s the guiding principle at arguably the world’s premiere Internet-based company. Pretty big statement for a pretty big company. But why not something equally as ambitious for a small company? How about this: “Remember, our customers pay our bills.” Or this: “Tell the truth.” Or even: “I’m doing this my way.” Give it some thou

1. Hire some help! – School is out and kids are smart. Especially with computers and the internet. Hire one for the summer and have them help you set up that social marketing campaign you have been meaning to start. Have them set up a Facebook Page, Twitter Account and even a blog. Join the conversation with your customers online. ONE WORD OF CAUTION! If someone is helping you set up Facebook or Twitter account make sure that you own the profiles and that you learn ho

Maybe it’s just me, but I get really annoyed when a business or organization I do business with offers special deals for new customers but nothing for existing customers. Just this morning, a business association announced that if you join during May, you can be entered into a drawing for $7,500 worth of free marketing materials. Well, silly me, I joined back in February. I’m not eligible. I understand trying to draw in new customers. I do the same in my own business. But whi

Everybody’s talking about branding these days. Marketing consultants want to charge companies to create brands — and sometimes rightfully so. Website consultants want to charge to create an online brand — again, sometimes rightfully so. Image consultants want to charge you to create your personal brand. But is that money well spent? At a seminar this morning, Celann LaGreca, principal at the LaGreca Group, offered three basic questions for creating your personal brand. As sma

The one thing I noticed is that on email, texts or websites, phone numbers that are viewed on a smart phone are automatically  activated by a simple click.  If a number is listed correctly on your smart phone device you can click it and it will automatically make the call.  This is very nice when you want to make a call and don’t have a great memory or a pen nearby. The problem I kept having is that many websites or individuals emails  list their phone numbers incorrectly.  I

Hopefully at this point you have at least a facebook account where you socialize with friends and family. You may also have a Linked In account where you “network” with colleagues in the community and industry. If you don’t have these things I would suggest getting these things going and start building those natural contacts with the friends you already know. Setting up basic profiles and socially participating is the easy (and fun!) part. Now you want to determine how to use

How do you buy products and services today? What is the first couple of things that you do to begin the process? I am guessing that some type of internet research was very close to the top of your “to do” list. The fact of the matter is that the evolution of technology has completely changed how we as consumers make purchase decisions. So if consumers have changed the way that they buy products and services, small businesses need to change the way that they market to their cu

Social Media Toolkit: The Nuts & Bolts of Your Social Media Strategy Posted using ShareThis #SmallBusiness #Socialmarketing #Entrepreneur #SearchEngineOptimization #Marketing #digitalmarketing #SocialMedia

The main reason is to provide interesting, useful and frequent content to your customers, potential customers, industry experts, media, etc. The second reason is by getting these people interested and reading your content a chain reaction starts. Individuals start linking to your posts via other blogs, emails, facebook pages, forums and web pages. Because of this more people read your blog and other things related to your blog like your web page, facebook page, etc. Because o

I do a lot of reading, thinking and brainstorming on ideas for small business in small communities like Council Bluffs and across southwest Iowa. Here are three ideas that are definitely not innovative or for that matter, new… but just may work in today’s economy. The main thing to think about in starting a business today is to keep start up costs AND overhead/operating costs low.  Keep them low until you can develop a market and generate sales.  Then start thinking about buy

Want to trade accounting services for goat cheese? How about bike repairs for graphic design? Advertising for overnight accommodations? Small business owners get lots of offers to swap services or trade products. These types of barter arrangements can be quite appealing, sometimes helping you purchase a product or service that your budget precludes under other circumstances. Some businesses find the concept appealing enough that they subscribe to barter associations, the hope

In the next few days/weeks I will focus on some tips and observations that I have picked up in the last very busy months.    In the mean time call or visit us and the Iowa Small Business Development Centers to learn more about what we can offer your small business or startup. Tip #2 – Make Sure You Are Listed on Local Search Engine Directories Can your customers find you if they are searching for you by your business name?  More importantly , can potential customers find you

Everywhere you turn for marketing advice, you’ll hear how important word-of-mouth marketing is. Start-up business owners even list this as their only approach to marketing a new product or service. Why? Simple: They think it’s free. In fact, you can manage your word-of-mouth marketing. And it’s effective. But it ain’t free. There are experts, like BzzAgent (www.BzzAgent.com), who can help you, if you have the money. Or you can sign up to be a BzzAgent, test some products for

Okay, choir, heads up. The sermon is about to begin. A marketing plan is more than an advertising campaign. All together now, a marketing plan is more than an advertising campaign. This weekend, I reviewed a marketing plan created by a group of college students for a nonprofit theater. Great idea, giving students real-world, hands-on experience in creating marketing plans. Bad idea not to require that they complete any meaningful research or that their final product actually

I love everything that is marketing and am eager to get ideas and usually will spend time learning everything I can from anyones’ perspective.  That is why it is surprising that when I received in the mail a “free” package of newsletters containing ideas for small business marketing I tossed the whole lot in the recycle bin after only glancing at the cover. The newsletter was printed on ivory paper with black print and boring black & white clip-art.  It looked like it was cre

In the midst of everyday tasks of general business housekeeping and putting out fires, business owners always have those “big picture” business changing tasks that they want to complete.  You may want to develop a new marketing strategy or institute a new operating system, or start using social network sights for business to business networking. Try treating these tasks like habits that you want to create for your business and take one step at a time for 21 days.  First defin