It continually comes to my attention that a good deal of businesses don’t do as they preach. As a brand (which to my reasoning is your reputation), you have a responsibility to deliver an authentic experience to your marketplace. A basic example of this off-brand thinking is a real estate agent who buys a home from a private seller. When they are out pitching their services they tout the benefits of dealing with a professional sales person on both fronts – buyer and seller. What does this say about their integrity if their system is good enough for you but…

Branding is critical in understanding where your company fits into the grand scheme of things. In the public domain, discussions on branding are almost exclusively focused on multi-national brands. Brands we see in our daily lives. Brands such as Apple, General Motors, Google and McDonald’s. In discussing these powerful brands it becomes hard for small and medium size enterprises to recognize the value of branding. To these entrepreneurs, branding is the domain of world companies. Not so. Small to medium size businesses are the main employers in our marketplace. From my experience a great majority of them do not take…

Your marketing is working. You are running an effective Google Adwords campaign. Your social media efforts are generating leads. Your Google Pagerank is increasing. And, you are attending tradeshows and utilizing local SEO. You are a medium-sized business and these advertising methods are generating 30 – 40 BtoB leads a day. Each of these prospects filled out a form asking for a product demo, more information or free content. They contacted you first. Sounds great doesn’t it? But here’s the problem: your revenue is not increasing. Your sales numbers are not going up. Why? There are only five possible reasons…

Quotes are incredibly useful and powerful. This simple truth applies to the press releases incorporated in your marketing mix. In addition to having an interesting news angle or memorable title, a key element of a press release is the quote. Quotes that support the focus of a press release enhance its message. Whether quotes are from people in the industry, others who have experienced what the piece is about or even those from famous individuals that inspire action, these personal touches can drive a message home. When press releases are included in their marketing mix, businesses can use quotes to…

Let’s just get right to it… ONE: I can’t think of a better way to increase my ‘expert profile’. Putting your opinion out there through blogging is a terrific way to show your audience what you’re made from. It allows to to control the conversation about you. Teaching your audience by providing valuable content shows your confidence and willingness to reach out. It also proves that you do indeed know what you’re talking about. TWO: I love the publicity I get. One of the benefits of blogging that took me by surprise 7 years ago when I started blogging was…

A/B testing created quite a stir when it was first introduced as a viable testing method for optimizing websites or email copy. There is actually a lot to be excited about when it comes to A/B testing because it can get you actual results, even if you don’t have extensive experience in computer programming. You might not be aware of it, but you’ve probably already visited sites that use A/B testing. You might have even participated in an A/B test already. A lot of big sites are already using this method to optimize their web pages and optimize conversion rates,…

Let me ask you a question. What do you think, is the cornerstone your brand online? Website design, Your voice, Your product quality and all the other things we talk about here? Well yes, they are of course important and play a part in the make up of your brand but the foundation of all online brands is… The Domain Name

In a previous article, I provided some of the essentials to promoting a digital product online. If you didn’t take those steps, revisit  Marketing Your Virtual Goods: 5 Essential Practices for Online Content Creators to benefit from low or no-cost methods of getting your product visible. Now that the basics are out of the way, here are 5 more techniques to not only get noticed, but convert prospects to sales. 1.  Samples & Reviews Find outlets for articles you can write to provide help and advice while stealthily marketing the eBook. You can use article farms like Ezine Articles or…

LinkedIn is a rapidly evolving social media platform that appeals more directly to business people than do Facebook and Twitter; specifically, business-to-business (B2B) possibilities. You undoubtedly know that. Most of those folks want to be successful with LinkedIn promotion and generate new leads, business, or career opportunities. What you might not know is how exceptionally you can fail on LinkedIn as a busy entrepreneur or small business owner. It’s easy! Just follow these 10 easy steps. Leave Your Profile Summary Blank This is crucial to failing on LinkedIn. Lots of people want to turn up in People searches, but not…

Spring is here and I’m taking the time today to see how I can improve my efforts to get my message out. I’m always trying to augment what I do with effective tools. A few things that I’m looking into is a mobile version of my website, webinars, getting more serious with Twitter and live workshops. My web stats tell me that 24% of my visitors did so with a smartphone. That was enough to tell me that a mobile version of my website would be a smart move. I’m in the process of this now. The trick appears to…