5 Completely Avoidable Marketing Mistakes That You Can Correct Right Now

February 29, 2012 By
stepping on rake

It’s one thing to try out an idea only to look back and think, “Wow! What a mistake!” Those are often “good mistakes” – the kind you learn from and can use as a springboard for your next endeavor. But it’s another entirely to make one of those “stupid mistakes” that are so pernicious and so avoidable that all you can do at the end of the day is slap yourself on the forehead and wonder why you did it. These are the kind of mistakes that you can correct almost immediately, if only you realized you were making them. Find out what they are and how you can quickly turn headaches into opportunities.

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The Internet Marketing Challenge: How To Avoid Your “Ooooh, Shiny!” Moment And Stay Focused On Results

February 27, 2012 By
cat chasing bead

You need an email list. And a Facebook page. You’d better be on Twitter. And how’s your blog? If you’re a local business, you have to run Foursquare deals. If you’re any business, you’ve probably run AdWords. Are you behind the QR curve? Don’t worry, MVS is on the way. Stressed yet? Until technology invents the 400 hour day or the magically replenishing budget, you’re never going to be able to do it all. So how do you know when to jump on the bandwagon and when to say no? Find out how to escape “shiny object” mentality and stay focused on marketing tactics that work.

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SEO vs. SEM: What’s The Difference, Why Does It Matter, And How The Heck Do You Do Them Both?

February 24, 2012 By
peanut butter and jelly

Most businesses are familiar with SEO, if only from the standpoint that they know it’s something they need to do and they probably lose sleep over how to do it right. But few make a distinction between the “O” (Optimization) and the “M” (Marketing). They’re related – but different. And how you approach them can make the difference between a successful website and one that floats among the flotsam of the internet hoping to bump up against a customer. Find out what the distinction is, but more importantly, find out how to tie them together into a successful marketing strategy.

Filed Under: Search Marketing Tagged With: , , ,

Listen To Your Mother: Advice For Making The Sale On Your Website

February 22, 2012 By
magnifying glass

This series of tips and practical advice was born one evening some months ago during a phone call with my mother. As she complained about the umpteenth thing that had irritated her that day, she digressed into chatter about her attempt to buy a gift online. It didn’t go very well, because it turned out that every time my mother “clicked to enlarge” a photo in order to see the product more clearly, another photo popped up – of exactly the same size. My mother never did make a purchase on that site, because tiny photo after tiny photo with mockingly inadequate “enlarge” functions drove her away. I share this with you now because my mother could have been your customer. Find out why it’s important to pay attention to small details on your website if you want to turn visitors into customers.

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5 Questions with Chad Small, Headmaster of The Rumson Country Day School: Innovative Education & Lifetime Friendships

February 20, 2012 By
rumson

Helping children excel inside and outside of the classroom has been a tradition at The Rumson Country Day School since 1926. For the last 23 years, Chad Small has been the school’s headmaster, integrating innovative educational methods to better prepare kids for high school, college and beyond. In an industry where budgets are always tight, Chad has found that his best marketing tool is word-of-mouth. He has spent more than two decades building a reputation of excellence and engendering trust in his community. Coupled with social media outreach to parents and students, Chad’s experiences teach us that building personal relationships is powerful marketing.

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The 30 Second Pitch: How To Make The Most of Every Opportunity

February 17, 2012 By
handshake

The 30 second pitch is an essential marketing tool. Also known as “the elevator pitch,” the idea is to explain who you are and what you do in the short amount of time it takes to ride an elevator from the ground floor to the top floor. The way we do business today has evolved so while you may never actually use your 30 second pitch in the proverbial “elevator”, there are plenty of places where you will use it; both expected and unexpected places. Every person you meet is a potential client. Whether you’re at a tradeshow, getting a latte or at your daughter’s soccer game, a business opportunity can present itself anywhere. Be prepared with your 30 second pitch. Here are some tips for how to craft your pitch to make the most of a first impression.

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When Building Your Website, Call In Your MVP; And I Don’t Mean Your Most Valuable Player.

February 15, 2012 By
engineering diagrams

If you are running a business chances are you either have a presence on the web or will in the future. For many businesses, especially those just starting out, a simple out-of-the-box website solution may be all that you need to meet business and marketing goals. But for other businesses looking to capitalize on the strengths of the internet and emerging technologies, a custom website or application can be far more worthwhile. Making the transition to a web-based app is easy for some and difficult for others, but there are ways to avoid spending loads of cash on specialized labor to end up with a web product that does not yield a return on your investment. The solution is to let the MVP drive the process. No, not the Most Valuable Player; the Minimal Viable Product. Find out how this iterative approach can save you a ton of time and money and keep you from wasting any.

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14 Ways To Make The Sale Instead Of Giving It To The Competition Tip 14: Give It Away

February 13, 2012 By
gift

If you’re reading this, it means you care about your business and are willing to do what it takes to make it great. This tip is not for the faint-of-heart. It’s not for the lazy, the unmotivated or anyone who just wants the paycheck and the ability to go home afterwards. It’s for those of you who – like me – take personal responsibility for and pride in making your businesses succeed. What I’m about to tell you to do may seem counterintuitive to the very idea of running a business but if you’ve got the passion, dedication and expertise, it can be the fastest path to winning loyal customers. I’m about to tell you how giving away your best ideas can win you more loyal customers than you could’ve imagined.

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SEO For Busy People: Easy Ways To Use Keywords To Hook Search Engines And Get Better Listings

February 10, 2012 By
search engine hook

Think of a search engine as a hungry fish and your website as a hook. What dumb fish is going to chomp on your hook without good bait? Your keywords are the bait, but you’ve also got to load it up properly. If you went fishing and threw some bait in a tree and hid a bit under some rocks, how successful do you think that fishing trip would be? You’ve got to get the bait on the hook, and that’s what this article is about. If you read my last article about how to choose keywords for SEO, you should have a stack of them just sitting around waiting to be used. Now I’m going to tell you how to use them to hook a search engine.

Filed Under: Search Marketing Tagged With: ,

5-Minute SEO: Learn How To Choose Kick-A$$ Keywords In Less Time Than It Takes To Drink Your Morning Coffee

February 8, 2012 By
SEO

Everyone can understand the basic building blocks of a search optimized website. And there is nothing more basic and more important to SEO than the keyword. It hardly matters how brilliant your site is, how perfectly coded, designed and configured if it uses no keywords – or the wrong keywords. But how do you know which keywords to use? How do you begin to guess what people are searching for? And with all the garbled industry mumbo jumbo about things like long-tail keywords, where do you even start? Read this kick-start guide to choosing keywords that makes it as easy as drinking your morning coffee.

Filed Under: Search Marketing Tagged With: ,
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