If you’re out there selling something – stop it right now! Stop selling and start branding. Your brand has a story to tell. Educate your buyer so they have all the knowledge they need to make an intelligent decision. If you start selling, they’ll just roll their eyes and try to get away from you. They won’t trust you. Find out where their anxiety lies, and show them a way out with knowledge. Encourage them to compare. You’re approach will be refreshing to what they see. I take myself as an example. I position myself as the branding expert. I…

This is the third case in a series about using Facebook Groups to grow your brand, engage with your community and of course, ultimately, market your business. Today’s case is: 90 Day Low Carb Challenge and Bonus: Weekly Marketing Challenge founded and managed by Lynn Terry At the time of writing, this group is over 40,000 members strong. A mind boggling number. Lynn is a natural at engaging her people so let’s find out how she does it. Why Did You Start Your Facebook Groups? ”If you build it, they will come” only works for Kevin Costner. 🙂 When it…

This is the second case in a series about using Facebook Groups to grow your brand, engage with your community and of course, ultimately, market your business. Today’s case is: Internet Marketing Super Friends, founded by Mike Hill. Why did you start the Internet Marketing Super Friends Facebook Group? To prove that we could take the largest group of people who were thought of to be “greedy” and make “giving is the highest currency”. Why Facebook Groups over a forum on your own site? Because everyone was doing forums and not coming to the people where they were! I had…

This is the first case in a series about using Facebook Groups to grow your brand, engage with your community and of course, ultimately, market your business. Today’s case is: Foodaplenty Blog Network, managed by: Foodaplenty At time of writing, the group is at 420 people with new members joining everyday. It’s among one that’s very active on Facebook but beyond that. Foodaplenty does a great job of involving their members in various projects that are outside of Facebook like their Must-Try Favorite Recipes from Foodaplenty Blog Network Members. Very smart! So we asked them how they do it. Why…

It is true there are plenty of other social networks that are very popular, many of them have specific targets and depending on your business, they could be more effective for you. At this time, Facebook is still a major destination for anyone online, around over the world. That’s pretty hard to ignore. How to we make use for Facbook for business? There’s Facebook Pages, which apparently are no longer very effective. There’s Facebook advertising, however they are also getting stricter by the day on their advertising rules. It’s not uncommon to hear about people having their ad accounts shut…

Many of us don’t even want to think of a natural disaster wreaking havoc with our lives but it is a reality that it could happen. Obviously some areas are more prone to hurricanes, twisters, floods, etc. but disaster can strike anywhere. Are you prepared? Is your livelihood, aka your business, prepared? Here’s an infographic that covers much and will give you some things to think about to prepare your business. Boston University Master of Science in Management Online

People want to be treated as individuals catering to their thoughts, beliefs, likes, dislikes and so on. Using mindset segmentation can help you create a stronger bond to your customers. You’ll get some great ideas to help you implement a strategy of your own from a recent post at MarketingProfs.com.

When running a small business you wear many hats. It can be a struggle to maintain and follow through on everything you need to do to grow your business. Here’s an infographic that provides you with some great information to increase your “business intelligence.” Boston University Online

There was a time when you started a business and the first thing you did after putting up the shingle was to start building brand awareness. The first order of the day was to find a location. If it was a business that met with consumers you chose a location that was convenient for them to visit you. If you had a services business you like chose a location that was prestigious and would immediately impress those who crossed your threshold. Next order of the day was to decorate. If your budget for decorating was several hundred or several thousand…

Over many years a business’s brand accumulates dreaded branding debt. The more branding debt accrued the bigger the challenge to come out from The Branding experts, Branding Debt under it’s weight and move your brand forward. The more branding debt you own the harder it is to differentiate yourself and grow your marketshare. If you haven’t figured it out yet, “Branding debt” is real and it’s damaging your company from the inside AND out. Branding debt is all the negative things that is dragging your company down. Branding debt can include but is not limited to:…