Small biz marketing tips

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...

A sports referee with the quote, "Don't let one bad call derail your marketing campaign. Real progress comes when you learn from your mistakes."

Bad calls are gonna happen: a small business guide to marketing campaign fails.

What do marketing campaigns and sports have in common? If you pay attention to any broadcast sports on a regular basis, you’ve been impacted by the so-called Bad Call. The refs make an absolutely insane ruling that leaves the fans absolutely flabbergasted, screaming things at the TV like: “There’s no way that wasn’t a catch!” “Come on, refs, whattya have to do to get a pass interference penalty in this league? He was flat-out mauling the guy!!” “He had it...

Two twins, with the quote, "So what if you've said it before. Say it again. In marketing, repetition is actually a good thing."

In marketing, it’s OK to repeat yourself. Really. It’s OK to repeat yourself.

Important newsflash: using messaging once, or covering a topic in a blog post once, or executing a brilliant marketing strategy once, does not make it off-limits for the rest of all time. As humans, we tend to get bored with things that we experience on a regular basis, whether it’s eating at the same place for lunch every day, listening to the same songs on the way to work on your way home, watching Star Wars 76 times in a...