Small Business Marketing and Online Marketing Articles from the Small Business Marketing Secrets Newsletter

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Small Business Marketing Articles Listing

• The 10 Best Books On Online Marketing for Small to Mid-Size Business
  This is a list of marketing books I developed from years of reading, buying and assessing marketing books. If the book doesn't have actionable information based on successful marketing campaigns, I'm not interested. These are my top ten favorite marketing books...

• Tips, tricks and secrets of do-it-yourself Search Engine Optimization
  Do-it-yourself Search Engine Optimization is a tough business because there is so much misinformation or old information out there. Want to do it yourself? Here's my TC Web Pros presentation on do-it-yourself search engine optimization...

• Creating Customer Loyalty when Customer Loyalty Seems to be Dying…
  Creating customer loyalty seems like an impossible task these days. However, it can be done by making sure that customers and clients see you as the "indispensible" person. Here's how...

• 3 Easy Tricks for Blogging About Your Business, Product or Service
  Has your business blog run out of steam because you can't find subjects to blog about? Here are three tricks (plus a bonus trick!) on how to come up with a never-ending stream of subjects related to your business, products or services to blog about...

• How to Create the Perfect Elevator Pitch
  An effective elevator pitch is absolutely necessary for any small business owner. If you can't communicate in 30 seconds exactly what your business does and why that person should be interested, you've already lost the sale. Here's how to be "pitch perfect"...

• How to Get Free Reports on Your Website's Performance
  Want free reports on how well your business website is performing? There are actually several things you can do and places you can go that will give you powerful...

• Small Business Online Marketing Plan for 2009 - part one
  Small business online marketing plan for 2009 is all about helping you, the small to mid-size business owner or marketing person, open up a new online marketing system that will radically boost your targeted traffic...

• A Great Marketing System Has You Consulting Rather Than Selling
  A great marketing system is all about automating the process of marketing so you can spend your time selling rather than prospecting...

• Ebook Reader Amazon Kindle – Is it worth the cost? A bookophile speaks out…
  Is it worth the cost...frankly, it really depends on what kind of person you are and what you plan to use it for. I’ll admit, I’m a book person...

• My Favorite Article Submission Sites
  There are few online marketing methods that give more bang for the buck for business website promotion than submitting articles to article submission sites. I use these article submission sites for two reasons...

• One Great Way to Reach a National Audience for Your Product or Service
  Recently, Joel Mullen, an Estate Planning attorney in my BNI group, informed us that he was going to begin marketing himself around a new legal “product” called a “Cabin Trust”. While the framework it’s created from is nothing new...

• SEO Software - Comparison Article Contrasting WebCEO 7.7 and Web Position 4
  SEO software, in my opinion, is absolutely essential to professional SEO. But before we even get into this comparison of WebCEO and Web Position, you may be wondering...

• How To Use Social Networking Websites to Market Your Business
  Judy Merrick-Lockett of Smooth Sailing Business Coaching recently asked me an intriguing question: “Have you found any way to use social networking websites to get more business?”

• Marketing For New Business in Today’s Awful Economy
  Despite what you hear from the “marketing gurus”, there is no “magic” marketing that will get you rolling in new business in days or weeks. Marketing requires a long term approach...

• Does a Small Business Really Need a Blog?
  Of course not. If that were true, only companies with blogs would be successful and everyone else would be floundering about helplessly. However, that said, a blog is a very valuable tool for...

• New e-Book - TRUST BUT VERIFY: How to Keep Your Search Engine Optimization Firm From Taking You to the Cleaners
  As a search engine optimzation expert, I've heard too many horror stories from small business owners who paid thousands of dollars for...

• New e-Book - SMALL BUSINESS MARKETING: How to Dominate Your Competition Both Online & Offline
  Everything in this ebook has only one purpose: Increase your sales! There is no theory, no "coolness factor", and you won't win any arts awards using these tactics. You'll just make money...

• Web site development and SEO: Save money and time
  Clients often ask me if it's OK to build a web site and then have it optimized for the search engines, after the fact. My answer is that it depends on their interest in saving time and money...

• USP - The Most Misunderstood Concept in Small Business Marketing
  I hear this term either misused or misunderstood by so many business owners it boggles my mind. This is the single most important term in the marketing lexicon...

• Can Social Networks Really Help You Build Your Business or Career?
  Have you ever received an email with the subject line of “Join my network on LinkedIn”? Have you ever wondered what LinkedIn is and how it could help you? If you haven’t heard about LinkedIn and have a professional work life, I encourage you to read on...

• How To Differentiate Yourself From Your Competitors Without Competing on Price
  I was watching Squawk Box on CNBC the other morning while I was eating breakfast. The producer price index numbers had just been released. They indicated the biggest jump in the producer price index since...

• Using Blogs, Articles and Newsletters to Dominate Your Niche in the Web
  Don’t let me scare you off talking about writing articles, newsletters and blogs. I know it sounds like a ridiculous amount of work. And if you’re a business owner, we both know...

• Using Integrated Articles to Maximize Website Visitor Conversions
  "Integrated Articles" is a term I've coined to explain how business website copy should be written to convert website visitors into buyers or contacts. The quick definition of Integrated Articles is...

• Regularly Adding Relevant Content to Your Business Website Benefits Your SEO in Two Ways
  Actually, there are many benefits to your company from regularly adding relevant content to your website besides just search engine optimization. But for this article, I want to site the two biggest SEO benefits...

• How Claude Hopkins took Schlitz Beer from 8th in Sales to First in America
  I don't know how many of you have ever heard of Claude Hopkins. Born in 1866, Claude was the creator of modern advertising. If you're in my business and you haven't studied this guy's work, you have no business being a copywriter.

• Claude Hopkins Schlitz Ad
  Back of each glass of Schlitz beer there is an experience of 50 years. In 1848, in a hut, Joseph
  Schlitz began brewing. Not like Schlitz beer of today; but it was honest.

• Sales Manager Tools - Identifying Website Gaps in Lead Generation and Sales
  Sales manager tools - The Internet is a cost-effective lead generation and sales tool and, unlike most off-line media, its effectiveness is easily measurable. It's also easy to identify gaps in performance...

• Website Promotion Plan- An Easy Step-By-Step Guide
  Website promotion plan creation is not all that difficult. However, it does require forethought and knowledge. Just like (I hope) you have a marketing plan for your business, you should have...

• Successful Presentation Skills are Key in Making the Sale
  During more than two decades as a public speaker and a decade in front of the camera in TV news, you might say I got comfortable in front of a crowd. What I didn’t fully realize then was how uncomfortable many people are...

• Six Things You Must Know before Your Business Website can be Successful
  Search engine optimization and powerful copy get people to your website and convinces them that you understand their problems and can offer them real solutions.

• Emotional Intelligence - The Bottom Line of Business Success
  Emotional intelligence is the number one factor determining success, according to Daniel Goleman, author of Working with Emotional Intelligence. In his book he says, "...emotional competencies make up...

• Website Copywriting - Don't Let Your Website be a Bad First Date
  Website copywriting and dating? What's the connection? I'll give you a hint. Have you ever...

• What's Involved in a Website Analysis?
  You may or may not know that I offer a free website analysis for existing websites. While you may not care about having a free website analysis done on your website, I find that people are amazed when...

• What is Search Engine Optimization and How Does it Really Work?
  Search Engine Optimization is the art, science and guesswork of trying to get a website higher placement in the top search engines. Right now, the top search engines are...

• Create Advertising Slogans That Create Sales
  Effective advertising slogans aren’t easy to create. However, when you have a winner, everyone knows it. And the best ones are...

• Create Website Content Quickly, Cheaply and Easily
  Create website content quick and easy? Sounds like an oxymoron doesn't it? Well, hopefully, if you've been...

• At least a fart will make you stand out in a crowd
  I admit. This wasn't the most delicate way to make a point. But it got your attention. So let me throw another line at you. "The person who isn't stepping on any toes is standing still."

• What You Absolutely Must Know About Search Engine Optimization
  The first and most important thing you must know is that no one can just “SEO” your site and be done with it. If someone offers to SEO your site...
  

• How to Create Your Own eNewsletter
  It’s not as hard as you might think. In fact, with the help of one of the eNewsletter marketing services like...

• If You Try to be Everything to Everyone...
  The biggest mistake I see small businesses and individuals make in their marketing materials and websites is the attempt to be “everything to everyone.” They try to sound “corporate” or remove any semblance of personality from their copy...

• The Secrets to an Effective Business Card
  Almost every day I go to some kind of networking event around the Twin Cities. And in all of this networking I do, the one constant is swapping business cards. And, yes, I run into people who make the ultimate faux pas...

• No Product or Service is Flawless. Make Flaws a non-Issue
  As business people, we know that every product or service has flaws; even our own. However, the natural tendency is to...
  

• Five Keys to Writing Killer Web Page Headlines
  You probably are wondering why I keep pounding on the importance of headlines. I beg, I plead, but you still just don't get it. Here's the reason...

• ROI Is More Important Than Branding
  My take on branding is simply that it is where marketing is forced to go when the scale of the business has...

• However Branding is Still Important For Small Business
  I hope readers of that last article didn't misconstrue my meaning. I still think that a certain amount of branding is absolutely essential to any successful business. And far too many businesses...

• If You Don't Differentiate, You're Dead!
  I run into this problem all the time. Most of the businesses I work with have no real idea what sets them apart from their competitors. Or they think...

• People Buy Based on Emotion and Then Justify the Decision With Logic - Write copy that appeals to emotions.
  One of the biggest mistakes people make when they write copy for websites is assuming that the person reading the copy is a logical machine. Not a chance...

• Embedded Commands - Getting website visitors to do what you want them to do
  Embedded commands are not as sinister as they sound. Just like hypnosis, you can't force people to do what they don't want to do. However, you can nudge them into action...

• Anchored Text and Anchor Tags Are Key Ingredients for SEO
  Anchor text or anchor tags within your web page copy are important for SEO and website usability for a number of reasons...

• Keeping Your Reader in Focus
  Have you ever been on a first date or a blind date and all the other person did was talk about themselves? Did you go out on a second date with that person? I doubt it. The same is true of your web copy...

• Don't Waste Another Dime on an Ineffective Website
  Most web designers are either technicians or artists. They can write masterful code or create beautiful websites. But most of them will admit, they don't know how to write web copy...

• So You Think Your Website is Just a Brochure?
  I recently had a client tell methat in 7 years, he’d only had one contact from his website. Of course, then he admitted that if one person had contacted them from the web, perhaps there were other web sales they were missing out on...
  

• Who Needs Search Engine Optimization and Why?
  If you do all your contact work by networking with people, a great way to establish yourself as an expert in your field or with your type of product, is to have a website full of content...

• Why Avoiding the Fancy Stuff - Java, Flash, DHTML - Will Help Your Search Engine Placement
  Okay, I'm not saying never use Javascript, Flash or DHTML. They have their place and can be very valuable assets depending on what your site is about or for. However...
  

• Web Copy Mistakes: The Five Words That Guarantee Your Website Will Never Generate Any Leads
  I hear this all the time. “It's just an information site. We don't need any sales copy.” And in a way, they're right. They don't need a site that looks like...

• Web Writing Headlines: The Most Powerful Headline Ever Written
  This headline is considered by many in the marketing world to be one of the most powerful headlines ever written. Why? It combines the four elements that every headline should have...

• Writing for the Web Seminar PowerPoint
  Here's the powerpoint I used for my Writing For The Web seminar...

• If You Want to Know What Google Thinks is Proper Search Engine Optimization…Ask Them
  That's not as strange as it sounds. Google has posted what they consider proper Search Engine Optimization on their website and following their advice gives you...

• Why Mirror Sites, Doorway Pages and Splash Screens are Bad For Your Site
  Has a “web expert” ever suggested that you create Mirror sites (websites that have identical content as your site but are on a different URL) to get more targeted traffic? If they have, they've given you very bad advice...

• Make a Splash Screen That Does What You Need AND Gets Great Search Engine Placement
  You can create a “splash screen” that directs people to the division of your business they are interested in and is still “eye candy” to the search engines.
  

• Small business marketing and sales articles from Entrepreneur Magazine!
  Entrepreneur Magazine is a great source of helpful articles on Small Business Marketing. You can find a bunch of them here...
  

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