Marketing
How Small Businesses Can Get New Customers and Sell More
How to Get Started as a Professional Conference Speaker
Want to generate more business leads and add another income stream? Get ready to step onto the podium. Speaking at industry conferences is an excellent way to promote your services, …
7 Strategies for Getting Your Outdoor Signs Approved
Electronic signs have been a frequent target of politicians and neighborhood activists. Opponents often claim that neon, fluorescent, LED, and high-intensity displays taint wholesome communities with Vegas-style garishness. They typically …
4 Ways to Capitalize on Consumers’ Halloween Spending
From candy to costumes, Halloween can bring in big bucks for small businesses: The average celebrant will spend $72.31 on assorted Halloween-related products this year, according to the National Retail …
4 Customer-Service Lessons from Amazon
U.S. consumers will spend an average of 9 percent more with a business when they’re impressed with its service, according to a global survey conducted by Echo Research. High-quality customer …
5 Ways to Make Your Trade Show Booth More Exciting
Fall has arrived, which means conference and trade show season is hitting full swing. Perhaps your company is one of the many small businesses that will set up a booth …
3 Tips for Protecting Your Brand after a Daily Deal
Once you’ve released a “daily deal” through a site like Groupon or Living Social, your focus needs to shift immediately from marketing to managing the surge in website traffic and …
4 Ways to Capitalize on a Cruise Ship Visit
It’s a big day for small businesses when a cruise ship docks in their port city. Cruise ships can carry 6,000-plus passengers — and when those travelers disembark, they’ll play, …
5 Marketing Lessons from the Bottled Water Industry
Who would pay more than a 4,000-percent markup to buy a product that’s available practically for free nearly everywhere in the United States? Fans of bottled water, that’s who. The …
BBB Ratings Under Scrutiny Again
Here’s a foodie fun fact: Award-winning chef and restaurateur Wolfgang Puck has an F rating with the Better Business Bureau. The perceived discrepancy between ratings and reality on the BBB’s …
Collaboration Beats Competition for These Boutique Owners
At first glance, you might wonder why four competing boutiques in the mid-size city of Rockford, Ill., are joining together for sales events, such as a fall “boutique crawl.” Why …
Do’s and Don’ts for Working with the Media
There may be no such thing as bad press, but there are ways to make sure your story is told in the best possible light. Whether you reach out to …
In the Trenches: Sweating the Small Stuff
Being in the service business, there’s a lot that can go wrong. It’s in my nature to worry about anything that doesn’t go as planned, but as we continue to …
How to Get Your Product Featured on a Reality TV Show
No matter how you feel about reality TV, getting a product featured on a popular show can be a major boon for your company. After Maine-based Kids Crooked House’s custom …
How to Set Customer Expectations
Conventional wisdom has it that unhappy customers are far more likely than happy ones to tell others about their experiences. This axiom seems to ring true now more than ever: …
6 Things Netflix Did Wrong: What You Can Learn
In the space of just a few months, the DVD and video streaming service Netflix has gone abruptly from a pattern of rapid growth to one of losing customers, largely …
