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Welcome to our font of marketing wit (well, we hope!) and wisdom. We collect all our tips and tricks for better marketing programs here to share with you all, and guide you on your way to success.

Even if you never become a client of ours, we hope you can glean some tricks of the trade to make your marketing program—and your business—stronger. Enjoy!

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Small business open sign, with the text, "It's always easier to business plan with the marketing basics in mind than try and figure out how to reach customers after the fact.

The new small business marketing checklist

January 10, 2019

Let’s talk about new businesses. Specifically, the marketing planning they (ahem!) should be doing. First of all, trust me, I know how many things a business founder has to think about. General business planning, of course, but also legal things. And tax things. And how you’re going to serve your customers best, and how you’ll make sure your product is the highest quality it can be, etc, etc. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that marketing can wait until after...

A businessman holding a christmas tree, with the quote, "Why would you put a lot of resources into something you'll be publishing right when people are the most distracted?"

Our gift to you: do you really need that holiday marketing video?

December 20, 2018

‘Tis the season for corporate holiday cheer, which in this day and age means holiday email after holiday email, from every business contact you have ever made—and even probably some you haven’t. And a high proportion includes their version of the dreaded holiday video. Now, I’ve done competitive research on corporate holiday videos. They range from the mind-numbingly boring (the vast majority), to cringe-inducingly awkward (a healthy second), to the occasionally truly brilliant. Yes, brilliance is possible, but let’s just...

A stressed looking business owner, with the quote, "think you can't afford marketing? Do you have any choice?

Three quick, cheap, and easy marketing wins for small business

December 11, 2018

I speak to a lot of small business owners (particularly the really small business owners) who tell me they don’t do any marketing because they can’t afford marketing. To which I respond: You’re probably already doing marketing, but you just don’t know it (whether you think of it that way or not, your website is important marketing!) Doing a tiny bit of cheap marketing is better than doing no marketing at all and How the heck are you going to...

A computer screen showing a Wordpress theme, with the quote, "Your website is your most important marketing investment. Make it great."

The official Urban Sherpa great website checklist.

November 30, 2018

In an earlier post, we went out on a limb and made the claim that a really good website is the most important marketing investment a small business can make. In fact, just the other day I was giving a local business a free phone consultation (yes! We do that!), and the business owner said her biggest concern was how their marketing could help them stand out from their competition. Of course, I suggested she update their website. Why? Because...

A man looking at a planning board, with the quote, "Want to fail at marketing your small business? Try to do too much."

How to fail at marketing your small business: try to do ALL the things

November 27, 2018

Let me tell you a story. I recently talked to a small business that had hired an experienced marketing person to put together a marketing plan for them. That person put together a very professional and thorough marketing plan. A plan that simply didn’t work. What went wrong? Well, that thorough marketing plan, with all the best practices and bells and whistles, failed to take one thing into account: the fact that it was a small business. With a small...