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

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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.

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

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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.

5 Ways To Market Your Business Online On Zero Dollars A Day

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If you’re short on budget you’ve still got something you can invest in the ongoing success of your business: time. With time, dedication and some know-how, you can get your business in front of people and attract prospects and new customers without investing a single cent in professional marketing services or advertising. The most shoestring startup can generate business by leveraging the power of web, search and social marketing with only the investment of your time. Here are 5 ways to market your business online with no budget at all.

The Biggest Marketing Mistake You Could Be Making (And What To Do About It)

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I’m about to make your life easier and your marketing better by sharing one of the most overlooked, underrated yet most powerful allies you have as a web, search and social marketer: content. If you’re not creating, using and promoting content as part of your marketing strategy, it’s such a huge mistake that you should stop what you’re doing and start counting those lost dollars now. Here’s what makes it so important and how you can turn what might sound like a scary concept into your business’s new best friend.

5 Questions With Claude Blanc, President & Business Coach, CHB Associates: How To Thrive In A Difficult Economy

Claude Blanc

At one time, he led international corporations. Now, he’s a local business owner who coaches other local business owners. Claude Blanc offers a unique insight into what it takes to overcome challenges and thrive, even in a difficult economy.

5 Easy And Actionable Ways To Engage Fans On Your Facebook Business Page

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You have a Facebook business page, and now every day, along with making sure the phone calls get made and the to-do items get crossed off the list, you’ve got to figure out what to put in that horrible empty status box. Fear not, faithful Facebooker! There are strategies you can use to engage even the most reticent fans. Here are five you can try for yourself.

10 Mistakes To Avoid On Your Facebook Landing Page

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A Facebook landing page can increase the chances that someone will like your company’s fan page by 50%. When you combine sound strategy with valuable content and the right aesthetic, you’ll have a powerful marketing tool. When you don’t, you run the risk of creating a bad first impression – and you know what they say about first impressions.

Small Observations: Quotation Marks Are For Conversations, Not For Marketing!

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Today, I would like to discuss the senseless, often absurd and regularly contradictory use of quotation marks in advertising, product displays and marketing in general, so your marketing does not become as senseless as others who have transgressed against reason.

An Introduction To Content Marketing

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Bill Gates wrote the original “Content Is King” article in 1996. Love him or hate him, he was correct. He said people “must be rewarded with deep and extremely up-to-date information that they can explore at will” and “those who succeed will propel the Internet forward as a marketplace of ideas, experiences and products – a marketplace of content.”

In Writing And In Business, “Simple Can Be Harder”

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When you read a blog, a business letter, an email or a web page, do you wish for more text? Only rarely. Yet we mistakenly think people reading our marketing communications will make time to trudge through our complicated thought process and figure out how it applies to them.