a marketing guide for small business
Marketing Lessons
Marketing: Communications and Calls To Action
Apr 4th
Communications Work Best With a Call To Action
It’s easy to get caught up into the bells and whistles of marketing and forget that the underlying purpose behind all marketing and communications, which is to stimulate some desired action.
- A marketing newsletter has to go out because it is the first of the month, but it wasn’t planned, so content is slammed together and there is no call to action.
- An email announcing a “Sale” or “New Products” is distributed to a subscriber list with a mild request to call for more information.
- Someone purchases or downloads a document and there is no More >
Marketing: Who Do You Want to Reach?
Feb 1st
In conversations with small business people about their customers, I’ll hear these words:
Who do you want to reach?
Everyone can use my product!
Okay. But not “everyone” is beating the doors down to get this small business owner’s product, so the premise that “everyone” is the audience doesn’t hold water.
Let’s go a step further. “Everyone” could purchase Coke, but they don’t. Some prefer Pepsi, others want Mountain Dew and others prefer Dr. Pepper. So, Coke could spend a lot of money and resources trying to convert these drinkers of competitive products or they could recognize that such efforts are going to be More >
Marketing & Downtown Parking Meters
Jan 20th
What do parking meters have to do with retail marketing? Good question. I think you’ll see the connections as you read about my recent experience.
I attended a meeting last night where a city planning consultant presented some preliminary results to a small business community. This consultant was hired to figure out strategies to make our suburban city more successful commercially and more enjoyable for the residents. One of the issues she presented last night was the hot potato topic of parking and parking meters.
A little background. Some of the retailers attending didn’t believe our city had sufficient parking. City code More >
Marketing Bloopers Keep On Comin’
Jan 13th
7 Lessons Small Business can learn from the Big Boys
Marketing Bloopers
First there was Netflix snafu last summer that just kept giving, one dumb, dumber, dumbest move after another. Finally, after losing around a million customers and calling in the PR pros, it got its act together and slowed the bleeding.
This was followed shortly by the childish hissy-fit by the banks, namely Bank of America and fellow too big to fail cronies, reacting to Congress capping the fees they could charge small business. The banks decided to make up the difference by charging their customers a mythical fee to access their accounts. Perhaps More >
3 Marketing Lessons from George, The Artist
Jan 4th
The Artist, George
What does a silent movie have to do with the marketing of one’s small business?
If you had asked me this question prior to seeing The Artist, I would have said “not much”. But after, well, after seeing the movie, my response is “a lot”.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with The Artist, it is one of the recently released movies capturing some Oscar buzz and, yes, it is a silent movie. If you enjoy engaging movies with humor, joy, sadness, ending on a high note, than The Artist is a movie to see. I am no Ebert, so I won’t wax More >
Marketing Lessons from Moneyball
Nov 14th
or What Baseball Can Teach Business about Marketing
Last night, my husband and I went to see Moneyball. Neither of us are baseball fans but we are movie buffs and watching a movie at your local theater is a good thing to do on a rainy day. If you haven’t seen Moneyball, do. Then you can tell me if the following observations are on target.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the story of Moneyball, it is about Billy Beane, Manager of the Oakland As. After a fantastic season, Oakland lost three of its best players to other teams with More >
Small Business – 5 Marketing Lessons…
Nov 7th
…from the Big Boys
Big Business
Recently, we’ve had some simply stunning marketing blunders. Blunders from Big Business that can also impact small business. It began with a continuing series of marketing missteps from Netflix back in August of this year. Most of you probably are well aware of the pricing increase, the introduction of a new company, Qwikster and the sudden demise of the yet-to-be created new company.
Like a blubbering pods of confused whales, comes more marketing blunders from the banking industry…particularly from the we’re too big to fail clan. Bank of America (BOA) decides it will just introduce a $5 debit card usage fee. Wells More >
3 Marketing Lessons from Netflix
Sep 19th
Image via CrunchBase
Netflix has really struggled over the last couple of months. This site has remarked on Netflix initial announcement and on the company’s most recent decrease in customer projections. Most of that struggle has been the result of thoughtless communications. Perhaps in the rush to take evasive actions from a business perspective, they overlooked the customer when they announced their recent price increase. To make matters worse, during the uproar of customer backlash, Netflix’s attitude seemed to be to dig in their heels.
Well, it seems management finally got the message and posted the video below last Sunday night. In the video they More >
