Showing category "Marketing Practice" (Show all posts)
One of the reasons small businesses struggle with spending money on marketing is because they are not sure if they are getting the bang for the buck. There is only so much money to spend, but how do you know if you are getting a return on your investment? If you asked most business owners if the money they disbursed on marketing was well spent, they most likely could not tell you.
There are some marketing components that it will be hard to determine the actual dollar figure return because the... Continue reading ...
How many times have you been asked who your target market is and depending on whether you are business to consumer or business to business, you have answered – anyone or any business? The reality is that this is not true and is usually where a start-up or small business owner can get in the most trouble and end up spending time and money that does not provide you the return you want or need.
What is your target market? If you could select a business or consumer that was a perfect fit for y... Continue reading ...
Search Engine Optimization is written a lot about, but seems to be greatly misunderstood by most of how it works and what has to be done to make it work for your small business web site. Though I had search engine optimization in my website from the beginning, I couldn’t understand why my rankings were not improving. As a small business owner myself, I looked at the different tools and I couldn’t understand why they cost so much and why SEO professionals charged so much. It was not unt... Continue reading ...
You have decided that you need a website for your small business and now you have everyone who can spell web approaching you to develop your website. Some are graphic designers, others are IT developers, and are even others picked this up as a hobby and turned it into a business. As you weed through the fog, you find some that are truly full service web development houses. The problem is that the average small business owner will go for door number one or two because the price appears to ... Continue reading ...
Have you ever wondered why the marketing that you have implemented in your business has not worked for you or why you are not getting the return on a marketing program your sales group talked you into in order to generate leads? You may have even decided that marketing just does not work for you. The problem with marketing is that it needs to go hand in hand with your sales strategy and needs to be utilized for your industry, your sector, your specific market, and your geography. If that has ...
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Only 50 percent of small businesses in Canada have a website and I would hazard to guess that of the 50 percent that do, there is a large percentage of those that have one page with their address or they paid a relative or friend to create a few pages on the fly in their spare time. Are you one of those people that did just that because someone told you that you needed a web presence? Unfortunately, if you spent anything for this, it was a waste of money. No one can probably find you becau... Continue reading ...
All of us think that lead generation as a pretty simple concept and yet if you ask 10 different people what it is and how they do it – you will get 10 different answers. Many believe – we will market to someone and they will come. The truth of the matter is they will come if you have put the right lead generation strategy in place for your business. If you develop a strategy that is right for your target market, that can be implemented within your budgetary constraints, and follow-... Continue reading ...
Linkedin is the best B2B online networking tool that I have seen or used. I have been using the site myself since 2005 and upgraded to a business account 3 years ago. Each time I use the site I find more and more value in it as a premiere Social Networking site for business. I thought I would pass along what I have learned, so that others might receive similar benefit. When I first joined the site, it was more about it being the “new” way to network and I will admit I initially just stuc... Continue reading ...
Are you as small business owner that is a baby boomer asking yourself – how in the heck is Twitter and Facebook that my kids use going to help my business? If you aren’t sure or haven’t even considered Social Media, then you need to think about the following. Who are my customers and how are they influenced? If you answered that all of your customers are 50 and over and would never use Social Media, then think again. Ask yourself who influenced that decision maker and how that person ma... Continue reading ...
Over the years, having worked in marketing for extremely large companies and also for small ones, I found that there are some discrepancies when talking about marketing budgets. Typically in a company the marketing budget should be around 10-15% of your annual revenues, and when a company is starting the percentage is much higher in order to gain awareness in the market. The truth of the matter as we all know is that is the first budget that finance or investors go after to cut. Though we a... Continue reading ...
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