Want marketing tips and best practices?

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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Woman with a megaphone, and the quote, "You won't attract new customers if you only talk to your current ones"

Marketing pro tip: stop talking to the same people.

October 22, 2018

Ask anyone what marketing is, and most would say that it’s advertising. (We’ll save whether or not that’s really the best definition of marketing to another day.) In other words, they think it’s getting your product or service out in front of new potential customers. Emphasis on the new. With that in mind, you may be surprised that a lot of small business owners forget to promote their business to people outside their own customer/fan circle. Why? It’s probably because...

A man taking a selfie, with the quote, "People don't care about your business. To make them care, make it about them."

Nobody Cares: the fundamental understanding of great marketing

September 21, 2018

This may sound harsh (and a little ironic, since I’m writing something for people to read right now), but People. Don’t. Read. They really don’t. They scan, they flip by, they click close. And they really don’t care about you. Before you give up in despair, let me tell you how you can use this to your benefit and why this is a good thing. Really! First, what do you do about it? Keep it short. Make it interesting Seriously,...

A redheaded young woman, with the quote, "Put a (real) face to your customers, and write your offers to them. It helps make your copy relevant."

Do you know what your customer looks like? (How to build a great customer profile)

September 12, 2018

I’m just going to leave this here: a really strong customer profile (or two) is even more important for a small business marketing program than it is for a bigger business. Why? Because larger programs have more money to spread around and therefore less need to be super targeted. (I’d argue that is lazy marketing, but there’s no need to go there.) But you, as a small business owner, need every last marketing dollar to strike straight to the heart...

An audience under a quote that says, "If you don't know who your customers is, YOU CAN'T MARKET TO THEM."

Want small business marketing that works? Get to know your customer.

September 12, 2018

First, the bad news: the statistics on new business failure are pretty grim. About half by year five. Yikes. Think about that for a moment, but don’t panic. Because there is good news. The good news is that many experts (Forbes and Business Insider among them) cite a failure to understand and connect with customers as a top reason for a lack of success. And, while you can’t control macro shifts in the economy or really even market demand, you...

Hello world. We’re Urban Sherpa Marketing Co.

July 2, 2018

I first truly understood the value of small business to the community when I was running the marketing department at a community bank. We had a lot of smaller privately-owned companies among our customers, and I spent a lot of time with them. I learned that small businesses hire locally. They take care of their people. They know their customers. They know they have a role to play, and they take that role seriously. They give back. They are the...