Small biz marketing tips

A woman working on her laptop in bed, with the caption, "Working from home is the easy part. How do you react? What should you tell your customers? That's a bit harder. "

Marketing in the time of Covid-19: our small business thoughts

We didn’t want to write this guidepost. First, there’s the obvious reason: the fact that we even need to write it means that a lot of people are suffering, and worse. Our hearts are breaking. We also didn’t want to write it because of the sheer blizzard of communications from every last company that we ever gave our email to about how they are responding to the pandemic. One of our core tenets is that doing what everyone else is...

A man looking at an idea board, with the caption, "Not all marketing channels are built for small business. Choose carefully for your audience and your budget."

The top marketing strategies for small business, examined.

You’ve decided to take the plunge and up-level the marketing of your business. Congratulations, that’s awesome! Deciding to take control of your destiny by efficiently driving new customers to your company is a huge, (if sometimes daunting), decision. Of course, the first question most business owners ask is “OK, so what do I need to do?” And this is a great question; there are a lot of different marketing vehicles (also known as marketing channels) out there, and they all...

A car GPS system with the caption, "How can you reach your customers if you don't know who (and where) they are?"

Marketing targeting: how to pick an audience that won’t waste your money

There’s an old saying that goes something like this: “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll probably end up somewhere else.” Meaning that, while it can be fun to get in the car and go on an adventure, directionless wandering doesn’t work well if you’re trying to meet a group of friends at a new restaurant for dinner reservations which are set for a specific date and time. Instead, it’s a better idea to plug the address into Google...

A wall of vintage advertisements, with the caption, "Think marketing doesn't work? You may be doing it wrong."

Marketing doesn’t work! Or so we’ve heard.

One of the more common things we hear when talking to business owners is, “I’ve tried marketing before and it just doesn’t work.” Other variations are, “I’ve done Facebook marketing before and it didn’t work”, “I’ve tried search marketing and it didn’t work”, “I’ve tried email marketing and it didn’t work”… you get the idea. And indeed, marketing ISN’T a magic cure-all that will instantly turn your business around, and so some of these comments definitely have a kernel of...

A runner against the sunset, with the caption, "Wanna bring in new customers consistently? Approach your marketing like getting into shape."

What new year’s resolutions and marketing shouldn’t have in common.

The weekend after Thanksgiving I went for my normal morning run in the woods near my house. From my perspective, just another run on just another morning. But, unlike most mornings, the woods were full of runners that didn’t run there much. Or, like, ever. First, good for them. Running is an awesome sport! Second, we all know why they were there: it was the annual post-Thanksgiving feast guilt run. This is not unlike the post-new-year’s-resolution hit-the-gym-fest in January. You...