small business promotion Tag

26 Mar

Posted at 11:09h in Public Relations, Small Business by
[caption id="attachment_1182" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Chinese symbols for fame"][/caption] Woo woo alert!! Readers, since you're so enamored with the Feng Shui tip about wearing red underwear to give you energy on TV, I thought I'd provide five ways to use the ancient Chinese art of feng shui to improve the results of your PR campaign. Think this is weird? The Chinese often refuse to erect a new office building in China until  it's been certified for Feng Shui. Here in this country, folks like Roger Green and Carole Hyder are in high demand for their feng shui workshops and consultations. When I did Carole's PR, people used to line up out the door at her book signings. First find the area of your office or home on what they call the Bagua that is the "fame" area. (It's basically the back middle area of your office) Then it's time to decorate.

16 Feb

Posted at 10:42h in Social Media by
Thank you to professional writer and blogger Beth Graddon-Hodgson for giving us the insider info on how pro bloggers work...and how to pay them. Check out her website or follow Beth on Twitter As many companies jump on the blogging bandwagon, they’re faced with one major dilemma as they wonder “what the heck do we pay these people?” The problem is that there are companies and independent writers who have set standards that go to two extremes – those who accept bottom dollar rates just to get the business, and those who gouge their clients for all that they’re worth. With this in mind, most companies have the wrong idea about reasonable payment.

21 Jan

Posted at 12:57h in Public Relations by
Since I'm working the Minneapolis Boat Show this week I thought it would be appropriate to share my top tips for getting great public relations for any event. Although they all might not be as big as this one, events work well for traditional broadcast and print pitches. But there's definitely a trick to it - here are some things that work for me.

17 Jan

Posted at 18:09h in Integrated Marketing, Small Business by
There are a lot of business owners that despise marketing as much as some people despise working out. Just like going to the gym, it's easier to stay on track if you've got a someone you're accountable to. Some business owners use groups on social media sites like LinkedIn to ask questions and find guidance but I think it's important to have a live person you know that can be a sounding board for your marketing activities. There are tons of great networking groups where you can find potential contacts. Here's a list of some of the small business social networks you can tap into locally to help find your marketing workout buddy.

08 Jan

Posted at 13:29h in Integrated Marketing, Small Business by
It's important to change up your marketing efforts and try new things...without throwing out the things that work.One of the hardest things to measure is the synergy that develops when you combine marketing mediums. It's the basis for integrated marketing communications (IMC) concepts but no one has really captured where the actual motivation occurs to get your customer to buy, call, whatever.  To keep tweaking your marketing recipe you constantly have to look for new ways to get your message out there...here are a few ways to do that each month that won't take much time.

29 Dec

Posted at 10:13h in Integrated Marketing, Small Business by
Marketing - as opposed to sales remember - is one of those proactive tasks that seems to get pushed aside for more urgent ones. An astute commenter in my last post mentioned you need to always be planting seeds for future business to grow. Just like your workouts if you put marketing time on your schedule each week and hold it sacred, you'll see the benefits very quickly. Here are some tips for finding the right time to work on your promotions, social media, advertising, whatever you consider 'marketing'.

21 Dec

Posted at 17:16h in Integrated Marketing, Sales, Small Business by
How much time should you spend on a weekly basis doing marketing and promotion tasks? It will vary of course but there are some rules I've learned working with a broad swath of companies and industries over the past couple decades including B2B, B2C, online and retail.Feel free to poke holes in my theories here...but tell us all WHY so we can learn from your successes.