Small biz marketing tips

Two rams butting heads, with the caption, "Copying what the competition is doing is the best way to never stand out."

Business marketing: three three reasons why you should stop looking at your competition

Between the two of us, Theron and I have about 40 years of business marketing experience. And I’m willing to bet that the one thing we’ve heard the most in all those years is, “We should be doing [some idea] because our competitor is doing it”. These things that the competition are doing range from great ideas to really terrible ideas. But they all have one thing in common: the sense of gut-wrenching urgency from the requester. We have to...

Diners in a nice restaurant, with the quote, "Marketing is so much easier - and more important - than fancy ad campaigns and expensive agency tricks."

What you think is marketing isn’t really marketing (and what that means to you)

A week or so ago, we were chatting about the importance of marketing with a business owner, and it became apparent that sometimes the idea of “Marketing” with a capital “M” seems a bit daunting—and even perhaps irrelevant—when you’re dealing with the day-in, day-out challenges of keeping your business running profitably. And sometimes the basic underlying purpose of marketing gets lost in the translation, when agencies and so-called experts start to pontificate on the importance of “building your brand”, “developing...

A turtle crawling in grass, with the caption, "A critical eye is good. But second-guessing yourself too soon will break your marketing."

How to succeed in marketing your business: learn the patience game

My husband recently shared a Masters in Business podcast with me in which the Winklevoss Twins (of The Social Network/Facebook fame) were interviewed. You can listen for yourself, here. The point that hit me the strongest was that their investment strategy relies on a little-appreciated trait: patience. In fact, studies have shown that most professional investors are quite good at buying great investments. Where many of them fall down is in selling them; the majority make great selection decisions, then get...

An alarm clock, with the quote, "Marketing sometimes seems less mission-critical than other parts of your business. But it's a mistake to put it off.'

Five magic ways to make more time for marketing your business.

The other week, I put off writing our Guidepost blog maybe half a zillion times. Not because I didn’t want to, but because I had so much client work that I needed to do. There was a lot on my plate, and the blog—being a self-set deadline—was an easy one to let slide. Normally, I wouldn’t mention this, because I’m a marketing professional, so it’s a little embarrassing that I’m putting off doing my own marketing. And ultimately I did...

A city billboard, with the quote, "Great advertisements bring in customers. Bad ads waste money."

The small business guide to making a great advertisement.

Let’s talk about advertisements. On a macro level, there are two parts to effective marketing: deciding the right things to do, and then doing them well. Or, in other words, strategy and execution. We talk a lot about strategy around here (maybe too much?), so it’s probably time to talk a little more about the execution part. For instance, let’s talk about ads. Let’s say you’ve decided where to place an ad, and bought the ad placement (in the local...