In 2013, you’ll need good writing more than ever

writer

Ever since the advent of social media turned the Web from a one-way medium with website owners talking to passive audiences into a truly interactive, two-way conservation where audiences can talk back, the demands for higher quality internet content, especially writing, have increased. Don't sell me; talk to me In the past, customers and other web visitors would settle for straight up pitches, … [Read more...]

Make product first, add marketing second?

Web 2.0 word cloud

Seth Godin's column today asks us to rethink when businesspeople start to think about how to reach customers and ambassadors for a new product or service. As Godin writes, things have changed: In the Mad Men era, we added marketing last. Marketing and advertising were the same thing, and the job was to promote what was made. In the connection era, the marketing is the product, the service and … [Read more...]

Marketing is dead. Long live marketing!

"The traditional marketing playbook is broken," said HubSpot CEO Brian Halligan at a recent conference. What did he mean? In the old days, you could buy attention for your business through ads and mailing lists. Today, with so much competition for your customers' or clients' attention -- from 500 channels of cable TV, satellite radio, outdoor ads in places where billboards have never gone … [Read more...]

Teaching courses on WordPress and social media

social media ROI

If you live near Staunton or anywhere in the central Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, we'd like to invite you to sign up for one -- or both! -- of the courses we'll be teaching this fall at Blue Ridge Community College in Weyers Cave. First, starting on the evening of Wednesday, September 21 and continuing for three more Wednesdays after that, Erik will help you build your own web site in … [Read more...]

I have a Facebook page, so I don’t need a website

What's not to love about Facebook? It's easy to use. Anybody can start up a page for their business in a few minutes. Lots of your customers and personal contacts are already on there, so it's easy to get a bunch of friends right away. And best of all, it's free. And that means no fees for web hosting, web designers and search-engine optimizers. Sounds perfect. Until you consider the danger … [Read more...]

How can becoming a thought leader help your business?

Every business wants more customers or clients. And most businesses also want more word-of-mouth marketing -- the most effective way to drive sales. To get both of these things, what you need is an audience, one that is ever growing. To get that audience, to keep them interested in you, and then to recruit even more people to join your audience, you need to establish yourself as a likeable … [Read more...]

The cheapest way to retain customers

customer loyalty cartoon

Too many businesses focus on attracting new customers while forgetting about the loyal folks who've already bought from them. That's too bad, because research has shown that it can be five times more expensive to get a sale from a new customer than to sell something to somebody who's already bought from you. For that new customer, you have to figure in the money you spend on ads and … [Read more...]

More people, money and time may not help

Q: I know I could build my business if I only just had more access to financing. But the banks are so tight these days with loans and lines of credit. I really want to get into a bigger location, but I can't seem to make it work. What can I do? A: Constraints -- deadlines, short staffing, distance from customers or suppliers, low marketing budgets -- are just a part of business, as they are of … [Read more...]

How to convert customers online

LandingPage-Infographic

With all the clutter out there, it's hard enough to get people to visit your website or blog. And it's just getting worse, with more than a million new websites added every single month. I've talked many times about how to cut through that clutter and to go the people who are most likely to be interested in you: offer content that will be valuable and interesting to them, keep it short and … [Read more...]

Free advice can lead to customers

Everybody knows that free samples can bring in new business. But for the manager or entrepreneur, the question is always, how much to give away free? You don't want to give away the proverbial store. At the same time, if you're giving out samples, you don't want to look cheap. Better not to do it at all. It's one thing if you have hard costs -- say, ice cream or iPods. But if you're in a … [Read more...]