Put your hand over the logo on your last advertisement.Could it belong to another business in your industry?If the answer is yes, you may have an opportunity to make your marketing work harder.Last month, I wrote about community involvement and its role in building familiarity and trust. People need to know who you are.But once …
When business owners think about marketing, they often think about advertising first.Digital ads. Social media. Print. Email. Google.Those are all important pieces of a marketing strategy, but some of the most effective marketing a local business can do doesn't start with an ad.It starts with showing up.For a local business, your community is part of …
"Business has slowed down. We need to start marketing again."I've heard some version of that sentence a lot lately.It's understandable. When business is good, marketing feels less urgent. When the market becomes uncertain, it can feel like an easy expense to cut.But there's a problem with that approach.What if the slowdown is happening because you …
Business owners often ask me what the biggest marketing mistake they can make is. They expect me to talk about ineffective social media posts, poorly designed ads, or spending money in the wrong places. While those things matter, I believe the biggest marketing mistake is much simpler. It's being forgotten. Think about the last time …
I was recently talking with a business owner who told me they had allocated their entire marketing budget to Google Business. It wasn't an unusual conversation. In fact, I hear some version of it quite often. The thinking is simple: "That's where people are searching, so that's where I should spend my money." I could …
Why Doing It All Yourself Might Be Holding Your Business Back The "new year energy" that fueled many business owners' marketing efforts often begins to wane by this time of the year. The ambitious DIY plans set in January—posting daily to social media, launching a newsletter, and managing digital ads—frequently collide with the reality of …
Over the last several days, I have found myself coming back to the same thought again and again. The biggest opportunity in marketing right now is not a new platform, a new tool, or even a new tactic. It is something much simpler. It is showing up consistently. That may not sound groundbreaking, but in …
When business owners talk about marketing success, the conversation often centers around big ideas. A great campaign, a new platform, a creative promotion, or a larger budget is usually seen as the key to better results. While those elements can certainly play a role, there is one factor that regularly separates effective marketing from ineffective …
By March, most businesses are actively spending their marketing budgets. Campaigns are running, ads are placed, and promotions are underway. It is also the point in the year when patterns begin to emerge and mistakes become easier to spot.
A new year often feels like a reset button for business owners.
