News : Small Business Marketing

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is Emeric Ernoult – Enjoy!

This month’s theme here at Duct Tape Marketing is writing – you might enjoy these two posts if you have read them yet – 7 Things I Did Not Know About Writing Before I Started and How I Write and How I Decide What To Write

Marketing podcast with Mitch Joel I’ve been sensing a change these days. Actually, like most change, it happens in a way that is imperceptible, until you step back and look at something like a six month window. Then you can see it. photo credit: andjohan via photopin cc The world of marketing ...

The tweetable answer to the “How often should I blog?” question is this: Blog as often as possible, as long as you’re writing content that offers value to readers. But obviously there’s more nuance involved in answering this question, so let’s dive a little deeper into ...

People seem fascinated with routines – how other people get things done and the like. While you do need to develop your own way of getting it all done, it can be inspiring and reassuring to hear how others are doing it. (Yesterday I wrote – 7 Things I Did Not Know About Writing Before I Started)

I was recently contacted by a college student who asked if he could interview me for one of this classes.  One of the questions he asked is one I get a lot, so I thought I’d share my answer with you here.

I remember thinking I wanted to be a writer as far back as high school. Only thing is I didn’t really know how to become one.

Google announced an overhaul to Google Maps at last week’s Google I/O conference and, judging from what I saw on screen during the keynote, it looked very spiffy.

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

I wish you could’ve seen my face on Wednesday during the keynote at Google I/O. My eyes lit up big and bold and I’m sure my mouth opened wide while I wondered, “Did I just really see and hear them kill Zagat scores?”

When you’re creating any sort of communication aimed at a potential buyer, you want them to do what?

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is Teddy Hunt – Enjoy!

For many brands, gauging the return on influence marketing has been one of their sore points in recent years.

Call tracking is a topic that comes up at every Local U workshop that we put on and, in most cases, it’s because call tracking has caused all kinds of problems for the local business that’s doing it.

I’ve said repeatedly that building a vibrant community is the most important objective of any business these days.

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

I’ve said before that one great way to get topics for blog posts is to ask your readers. So that’s what I’m doing!

What if you could spend 3 entire days working on your business with only seven other business owners under my guidance. Oh, and what if it was free. I am conducting and filming a live 3 day workshop in San Francisco June 26-28 and eight lucky business owners get to join me for free as my in-studio ...

There’s just something about the promise and potential of data and technology – when used properly and for the benefit of customers as well as the business – that gets my motor running (sorry, Steppenwolf fans!).

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is Steve Aedy – Enjoy!

If you’re reading this while at the Local University workshop, a big welcome to you. Thanks for visiting SmallBusinessSEM.com.

Starting a new business, but stuck on finding the perfect idea? I hear you. In fact, you’re not alone.

John Jantsch talks about podcasting Podcasting is making a comeback thanks to a growing consumer demand for content. If you’re not listening to podcasts, or better yet, producing your own audio content, you better reconsider. photo credit: Bill Selak via photopin cc I’ve been publishing the ...

Much has been said in marketing circles about target markets, demographics, psychographics and other ways to define who and what makes an ideal customer.

Marketplaces have been with us for centuries. Around the time people started trading inside and outside of their village two models developed.

Influence marketing is at a crossroads. As we know it today, influence marketing is primarily defined by social scoring platforms like Klout, Kred and PeerIndex.

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

It’s guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is Gordon Graham – Enjoy!

Lots of people talk about business models these days, but what does it really mean? When it comes to starting or planning for business success your model is essentially your decision about how you intend to add value – which is another way of saying – how you intend to make money.

Yelp had a strong earnings report today, which you can read about there on Search Engine Land if interested. In short: revenues are up, losses down, and record-setting traffic.

The world has changed.  Things are different.  This is the new normal.  This ain’t your grandaddy’s marketing.

Marketing podcast with Brian Solis. photo credit: peasap via photopin ccThe more things change, the more they change. That’s my take anyway and it seems like we are in the middle a significant change once again when it comes to marketing. Search revolutionized the way we find things and altere...

I just got back from a trip to Cleveland and, less than 24 hours after I landed, Foursquare sent me this email:

Advertising is an important part of the lead generation puzzle. Some marketers suggest that you can do without the cost and low returns they attribute to advertising, but done right, advertising is a tremendous tool.

In two weeks (or less, depending on shipping), Influence Marketing: How to Create, Manage and Measure Brand Influencers in Social Media Marketing will be released.

Few things are more confusing to business owners and marketers than the idea of marketing strategy.

As a business resource, Slideshare stands pretty much head and shoulders above most other content platforms.

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

Over on Facebook, my friend Gini Dietrich posted a question about trying to locate an image, used by a non-profit organization in a new campaign.

This is interesting: Bing has just announced a significant change to its local business listing management platform.

Enjoy this guest post from Michael Reynolds is President/CEO of SpinWeb photo credit: Folk Media via photopin cc Inbound marketing is both an art and a science. The technology, metrics, measurements, testing, and goals are the science part of it while the creative campaigns and intuitive ideas are ...

That’s the age-old question, isn’t it? When you think about everything we’ve experienced in the last decade and a half – from the Y2K scare to 9/11, Iraq and then the recession – no wonder that a certain level of insecurity about the future has become a permanent part of our psyche...

Today’s guest post comes from Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Nicole Crozier. photo credit: noodlepie via photopin cc Without the same budget, resources and in-house expertise of larger companies, small businesses are at a disadvantage when it comes to marketing.  By default, responsibility fo...

In their excellent book Humanize, authors Maddie Grant and Jamie Notter share their insights into why a truly successful business needs to take the reasons social media has enjoyed exponential growth as a business imprint, and implement it across the organization.

I get asked what tools I use for some of my daily social routines on a somewhat frequent basis. The other day I got that question and it dawned on me that many of the tools I’ve written about for the basic stuff have changed or evolved over the past six months.

As a business resource, Slideshare stands pretty much head and shoulders above most other content platforms. From presentations to educational content and more, you can find information and curated media on pretty much any topic you have an interest in. As a research solution, Slideshare offers a...

This blog turned seven years old on Thursday. It began on April 18, 2006 with a poorly-optimized and completely forgettable blog post that I titled not after a U2 song, but after a Rolling Stones song: Start Me Up. That same day, I posted a second article — about the blogroll I used to maint...

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

Over the years one of the great breakdowns in many of the small businesses that I’ve worked with lies in area of sales.

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is Lee W. Frederiksen, Ph.D. – Enjoy!

With less than four weeks until Influence Marketing: How to Create, Manage and Measure Brand Influencers in Social Media Marketing is released, it’s time to offer a little taste of what you can expect when you buy it.

Social networking is (again) the activity that internet users spend the most time doing. It’s been this way for a few years now, and Experian’s latest report confirms it’s still the case.

I get asked lots of questions about tools, tactics and networks these days. People want to know what to join, what path to take, what new thing is going be hot.

Today, you face a brutally tough, maddeningly elusive new competitor: the “wisdom of crowds.” Social media gives consumers 24×7 access to the attitudes and recommendations of their most engaged peers.

Years ago, when I lived in Silicon Valley, there was a core group of about 50 people–the “cool kids”–who would make or break any social application that came about. Even though it often seemed, back in those days, that Twitter was down more often than it was up, the “cool kids” persisted in their use of it, and so it grew. Twitter’s founding team befriended and embraced the “cool kids” and success ensued.

Mention “influence marketing” today and it’s a good bet that the majority of people will think of social scoring platforms like Klout, Kred and PeerIndex.

In today’s inbound marketing, content driven, socially connected world organizations have become very, very good at building trust, providing education and moving prospects to the point of buying, but not always as good at transitioning all the warm fuzziness to the actual purchase experience.

Maybe I’m the last to know this, but Facebook is doing feet-on-the-street outreach to small business owners in the U.S., and has apparently been doing them for the past year or so.

I believe the highest objective of a successful organization is the building of a vital community.

Marketing is getting the details right.  And its always the simple things that companies mess up.  Lt me give you an example.

As a business resource, Slideshare stands pretty much head and shoulders above most other content platforms.

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

You just launched your new small business. Congrats! But now what? You’ve got a great website and you’re ready to start selling widgets or generating new leads. You’re ready to start making money. You know the internet is gonna be a huge part of that. You know you need to be visi...

Yesterday my friend Chris Brogan asked if he could write a guest post about what he’s learned growing his own business. I had already planned today’s post but was struck by the harmony of these two. If anything about this post resonates I invite you to read them both.

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s gust is Natalie Chan – Enjoy!

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s post comes from @chrisbrogan

Look around these days and you’ll find it’s hard to miss the growth of sites and services that rely on the more visual aspect of our senses growing rapidly.

The buzzer sounded last night on another fantastic college basketball season, and a chaotic NCAA championship tournament. Louisville is the men’s college hoops champ this year after beating Michigan in a great title game.

Outrage is outrage, regardless of where it starts. - Ann Marie van den Hurk APR. If you type the term “social media crisis” into Google, you’ll receive about 1.7 million results. Remove the quotation marks, and you’ll get almost 700 million results. Social media consultants ...

I’ve got another free eBook for you – keep reading! I’ve experimented with various coaching and consulting models over the years and while I’m a big strategy before tactics kind of guy I like some things about a model I call blueprinting. The idea behind blueprinting is to ma...

I’m in San Diego today speaking at Social Media Marketing World. The message of content marketing has certainly taken root in the digital and social marketing space and as the message of content, content, content grows louder and louder so too does the level of frustration.

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

This is a guest post by Adam Smith. Like many things on the internet, Local Search has always existed – long before Google, Google Maps or Google+ Local. In this article I’m going to explain how you can increase your company’s exposure through Local Search, with examples from current clien...

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is Vitra Singh – Enjoy!

Just a quick note for anyone who may have missed it: Google has started upgrading the Google Places dashboard with some stronger ties to the new Google+ Local experience.

Since announcing our book at the tail end of last year, both Sam and myself have been asked why write a book on influence marketing.

Podcast interview with Chip Heath There’s a running joke in my family. When my girls were growing up I would often shout out to each of them as they were off to the next party or outing – “Make good choices!” While I was completely sincere in my words it never failed to draw...

In the beginning, you know about five years ago, some smart sales types discovered the awesome power of mining social networks for leads. In a way it was like the early prospectors digging around and bumping into gold with little more than an idea and some hard work staking claims. (This post I wrote in 2010 about mining Twitter for leads remains one of my most shared posts)

The New York Times has been running a series about female entrepreneurs/small business owners called She Owns It, and the latest installment includes some of the most honest quotes I’ve ever seen about how SMB owners think and feel about SEO.

If there’s one key area that social network giant Facebook has been weak in, its the mobile arena.

Introductions are gold – in fact, the right introduction, done in the right way is far more powerful than the typical referral, but there’s a right way and wrong way to make them.

As a business resource, Slideshare stands pretty much head and shoulders above most other content platforms.

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

That’s an old statistic from 2011. You may remember me writing about it before: 63 percent of U.S. consumers are more likely to use a local business if it has information available on a social networking site. I mention that stat regularly when I’m speaking at Local U workshops about so...

Marketing podcast with Dan Martell Have you ever wanted to seek out and find very specific advice for a really big thing you’re wrestling with? Or maybe for just that little thing that needs a specific experience or skill? Dan Martell – founder and CEO of Clarity.fmIf you’re in bu...

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is MaryAnn Bekkedahl. – Enjoy!

While bloggers will know all about Trackbacks and why it’s nice to get them, businesses may not be aware of their importance. Yet as the social web in particular continues to be graded, Trackbacks could become even more important, especially in the eyes of Google, as they look to rank the Authority of content and that content’s creators.

… and that’s okay, I guess. I say this because I see social media experts: 1.) Publishing valuable, original content on someone else’s domain. I just don’t get this at all. Why would anyone, much less a social media expert, publish their own content in such a way that it cre...

I’m guessing the headline for this post brought you here for one of two reasons – you were curious or you were dismayed by the thought of it. And I’m okay with either, but one of you is going to be disappointed.

One of the things most small business struggle with mightily is differentiation. And yet, it’s probably the number one factor in the success of one business over another.

You always hear about stories where people reconnect with coaches and mentors from their past, and get a long awaited chance to thank them for how they affected their lives.

Andy Beal is doing a really cool and fun interview series called The Beal Deal that features a new Q&A every Saturday morning with marketing industry personalities on his Marketing Pilgrim website.

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

Enjoy this guest post from Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Joe Costantino. photo credit: seeveeaar via photopin cc What separates the good from the great in any endeavor? What allows one athlete to compete at a consistently high level for many years, while another, who may appear on the surface to p...

Last month, Twitter published an article on their developer blog, about new metadata being added to the Twitter API. There were two additions – one to help identify the language of a tweet, while the other was the ability to allow developers to “rank” tweets. This second addition is of partic...

Effective email marketing is an essential ingredient in any marketing plan. It has, for many businesses, become the most important conversion tactic for selling goods and services.

Today’s guest post is from Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Sean D’Souza. – Enjoy!

For the last three months, I’ve been trying to resolve a payment issue with Reliance Home Comfort, a water heater service provider in Canada.

Marketing podcast with Jonathan Fields A few weeks ago I started a series of posts I’m calling Recover You. The series is focused on practices and habits that I believe lead to a healthier mind, body and spirit, a healthier business and ultimately a healthier economy. You can catch the entire Reco...

You sweat and toil and create new products and services that you just know that market is dying to get their hands on.

There are lots of posts online about how to make your first dollar, or even how to grow a modest side business. But there’s precious little information on how to build a billion-dollar company.

There’s been a lot of crying and screaming in the past few days since Google said it would close Google Reader on July 1st.

In all likelihood you’re familiar with the term “bucket list” made extremely popular from the 2007 Morgan Freeman, Jack Nicholson film by the same name.

Our big annual March Madness tourney for SEOs and online marketers around the world is open again! It’s time for SEO Madness 2013!

As a business resource, Slideshare stands pretty much head and shoulders above most other content platforms.

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

Mention “social graph” to social web users, and the two most likely names that you’ll get in return are Google and Facebook.

This week’s announcement that Google Reader is shutting down has me and many others waxing a bit nostalgic.

Twitter can be a tough nut for small businesses to crack. You send out tweet after tweet after tweet and … nothing. (This is why Twitter has been doing small biz education and on-boarding for a while now.)

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is Gregg Schwartz. – Enjoy!

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is Jeff Kline – Enjoy!

One of the most common mistakes marketers make is that they think their customers and prospects care about them, what they sell and how it works. The human truth is consumers really do think, feel and ask “what’s in it for me?”

Six years ago, I began a love affair with the potential that social media could offer. While I’d been online for much longer, meandering from blogging to forums and gaming, it was only when I started really getting into what MySpace, Facebook and Twitter offered that I saw something bigger th...

Marketing podcast with Bernadette Jiwa Perhaps one of the most primary objectives of marketing is to get people talking about your business. Sure, you actually want them to buy from you, but when there’s buzz, when people think what you’re doing matters, there will be sales. photo credit...

I’ve been playing the marketing game for over twenty-five years and the term “integrated marketing” has been around at least that long.

It seem intuitive to us that if we’re heading to a trade show as an exhibitor we should be thoughtful about how to maximize that time and dollar investment. Yet somehow, when we’re attending a show or conference as an attendee, we don’t seem to give it the same consideration.

If you thought influence marketing was a hot topic at the moment for marketers and brands, it’s only just beginning to really take shape. While much of the conversation both here on this blog and across various networks has concentrated on where social influence is today, this is a just the prelu...

In almost every marketing and sales situation you often need to pose question after question to get at what the problem might actually be. Or often, a good line of hard questions can help eliminate a problem a client thinks they are trying to solve and get them to see the right direction to move.

It’s pretty amazing to me that in December 2012, the National Association of REALTORS® would run an article offering SEO advice that includes

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

Last week, I posted the following update across a couple of networks: Please don’t use “Reach” as a viable metric. It’s a BS number to get clients to pay more for data: don’t go down that road The update resulted in some great discussion on both sides, with agreement a...

Facebook made big news today with the introduction of a new News Feed experience, one that’s going to roll out slowly to all users.

It is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is Chris Goward – Enjoy!

This guest post is brought to you by Outbrain – Enjoy! photo credit: aussiegall via photopin cc Third-party endorsement or exposure of your brand can be a powerful tool in spreading awareness and reaching audiences to  drive new leads.  But one earned media placement only goes as far as the ...

You may have noticed this is my first blog post in 2013. Despite this blog receiving over 1.2 million unique visitors last year, I almost gave up on it entirely. Here’s what happened…and the huge mistake I made (which probably isn’t what you think.)

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is from Aaron Houghton – Enjoy!

Email.  We hate it when our inbox is overflowing but we love the possibilities as marketers.  Email flows freely (sometimes too freely!) and because of that, I think we sometimes take it for granted.  We assume it has magical powers of some kind….and so when we want to reach an audience — we just fire off an email or three.

Marketing podcast with Matthew Dixon photo credit: Niccolò Caranti via photopin ccI’ve been spending some time writing about how the job of sales has changed dramatically over the last few years. In recent posts I outlined what I called the Disciplines of the New Sales Professional and followed t...

Spend any amount of time around social media conversations, and one word usually pops up more than any other – transparency.

I’ve been asked to speak at three different social media related events over the next few months and in each case I’ll be sharing my thoughts on the future of social media.

When you think about it — being in the dark is always scary. When you were a kid, laying in bed and you heard a strange noise in your closet or under your bed you never thought to yourself, “hey, I bet there’s an ice cream sundae making machine in there!”

As a business resource, Slideshare stands pretty much head and shoulders above most other content platforms. From presentations to educational content and more, you can find information and curated media on pretty much any topic you have an interest in. As a research solution, Slideshare offers a...

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

I’m a bit late in finding this, but it’s too good not to share even if it is a bit old.

It is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is James T. Noble – Enjoy!

One of the things I’ve always been a huge proponent of is fostering true brand loyalty for the long tail – strategic and continuous and  growth – versus getting quick buzz hits then using the rinse and repeat formula. This stems from various reasons but the core overall one is si...

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is from David Tully– Enjoy!

Today’s guest post is from Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Dan Kraus. – Enjoy! photo credit: jean-louis zimmermann via photopin cc C O N T E N T One little 7-letter word that makes marketers and business owners alike cringe a bit.  We know we need new, fresh, content to attract prospects...

Marketing podcast with Martha Beck It’s a tough enough thing to scratch out a vision for your business and perhaps even tougher to keep it alive. photo credit: Mozzer502 via photopin cc As the owner of a business you’re expected to create the vision, impart it on the troops and hold them...

If you compare the services springing up around social media compared to any other technological advance in the last 20 years or so, you might come to the conclusion that this phase in our digital evolution has turned into one of the biggest land grabs since high level web domains were opened up.

That new slide deck that I said I was working on a couple weeks ago? That’s for MivaCon 2013, the annual conference put on by the e-commerce software company, Miva Merchant. It’s happening next week — March 6-8 in San Diego (one of my all-time favorite cities). And get this: IR...

So, I’m thinking the title of this post may have brought you here out of curiosity if nothing else, but I assure you the following concept possesses immense opportunity for the creative thinking marketer.

This is a guest post by Jim Belosic. Facebook contests, especially giveaways and sweepstakes, are popular on Facebook for a good reason: if the prize is right, the contest generates buzz and motivates people to spread the word about the contest and the brand that’s hosting it. We’ve seen ShortSt...

Small business owners and entrepreneurs create new stuff everyday. And the feeling that a business, product or service is their “baby” leads to constant fussing over making it good enough, better or perhaps the best.

As a business resource, Slideshare stands pretty much head and shoulders above most other content platforms.

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

When you look at a lot of the talk on the social web around brands, much of it centers on a few core mindsets:

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is Chris Warden. – Enjoy!

If you can see this blog post, you’re seeing the domain on its new servers at Tiger Tech. This is a Good Thing, but there are a couple FYIs to share:

Marketing podcast with Randy Gage Back when I started my own business, some twenty-five years ago, I was a bit of rebel. I was taking a leap and doing something that many considered terribly risky. photo credit: jjay69 via photopin cc Well, the game has changed dramatically since then and now not st...

This guest post features Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Kelly Weppler The key to producing marketing results has a lot to do with consistency.  If you’re guilty of ‘one and done’ marketing, it’s unlikely that you’ll see any kind of success.  Routine and consistency help to build momentum...

This is a cross post with the Influence Marketing blog. Since Sam and I announced our book at the end of last year, many people have asked us one primary question about it: Is it for people looking to increase their social score, or is it something different? The one sentence answer to that is fairl...

Last week I wrote about what I called the Disciplines of the New Sales Professional. What I was describing more than anything was a mindset shift or maybe even the strategic approach to sales that must exist these days.

I totally get that you are trying to make a living and that someone at your radio station, newspaper, TV station, magazine etc. says that my client should be advertising with you.  And maybe they should.

I suspect I’ve uttered the sentiment in the image below several thousand times over the past few years.

I’m working on a new presentation that I’ll be giving next month and, unlike many of my recent talks, this one is SEO-focused.

As a business resource, Slideshare stands pretty much head and shoulders above most other content platforms. From presentations to educational content and more, you can find information and curated media on pretty much any topic you have an interest in. As a research solution, Slideshare offers a...

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

About a year and a half ago I warned bloggers and content creators to take author markup and authority and Google+ seriously.

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is from Josh Pigford – Enjoy!

You’ve certainly heard all the talk about the need for passion in your work. There’s no doubt that doing what you love is essential, but getting really good at what you love is how you turn it into a profession. Passion alone isn’t always enough when it comes to creating a mutual exchange of value.

Enjoy this guest post from Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Patrick Giammarco photo credit: Sam Beebe, Ecotrust via photopin cc It’s no secret. These are challenging times for small businesses. We’re all searching for the answer to the question: “What can we do to win our share of business and e...

Marketing podcast with John Mackey The title of this blog post is the gut wrenching, eye-opening question that every business must consider if they are to make a difference. photo credit: phill.d via photopin cc I’ve found over the years that most business owners are motivated by the fact that...

There’s a Walgreens a few blocks from my house. It’s a convenient place to get just about everything, so I’m there a few times a week.  It seems like every week they are collecting money for some charity.

You might be aware of a certain email that’s doing the rounds at the minute from LinkedIn that’s generating some online buzz.

One of the sure signs of a person who is going to be successful is that they wholeheartedly behave in lifelong learning. I didn’t say believe in life long learning because I’ve found just about everyone believes in it. But few actually act upon that belief.

The art of selling has evolved tremendously over the last few years. This is in large part because markets have immediate and deep access to the kind of information once delivered as a primary function of the selling process.

I don’t think there’s a formula or recipe for business blogging success, but I do think there are some traits that are common to great company blogs.

As a business resource, Slideshare stands pretty much head and shoulders above most other content platforms. From presentations to educational content and more, you can find information and curated media on pretty much any topic you have an interest in. As a research solution, Slideshare offers ana...

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

A few weeks ago I started a series of posts I’m calling Recover You. The series is focused on practices and habits that I believe lead to a healthier mind, body and spirit, a healthier business and ultimately a healthier economy.

In about 11 weeks time, Influence Marketing: How to Create, Manage and Measure Brand Influencers in Social Media Marketing (affiliate link) will be released. 11 weeks – that’s kinda scary!

At a recent jaunt to Disney World*, I found a great marketing reminder for us all.   Right in front of the brand new Gaston’s Tavern in Fantasyland, there’s a huge statue of…no shocker, Gaston. (For those of you unfamiliar with Beauty and the Beast — shame on you!).

As you’ve likely heard the U.S. Postal Service has proposed ending 1st class mail delivery on Saturdays. It’s also no secret that the Post Office is hemorrhaging money and needs to find ways to stem the losses.

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is from Robert D. Smith – Enjoy!

Marketing podcast with Ekaterina Walter With over a billion users, a place in the everyday life of over 60% of Internet users and a track record as one of the fastest growing companies in history, the title of this post may seem odd. photo credit: Anirudh Koul via photopin cc But, like every white-h...

If you’re reading this while at the Local University workshop, a big welcome to you. Thanks for visiting SmallBusinessSEM.com.

I’ll admit it; I’ve looked high and low for just the right tool to keep me organized, on task and up to date on all my to-do lists and projects.

This is a guest post by Joshua Hardwick. I hear about “content marketing” all the time and to be honest, I’m sick of hearing about it. Ever since Google rolled out their Panda algorithm update a year-or-so again, it seems to have been the topic of just about every blog post out th...

Many bloggers dream of writing that epic blog post. One that drives so much traffic, links and shares that the front page of Reddit is a foregone conclusion.

Two of the best Superbowl commercials from yesterday were by Budweiser (no shock) and Jeep (a little more surprising).  Lots of tweets and FB updates mentioned “tearing up” as they watched them.  I reacted the same way.

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

A social business is one that becomes engaged, transparent and nimble. – John Mell, IBM

I don’t always care about SEO with every blog post that I write. That’s because I’m not always trying to hit a home run with everything I publish.

For the past decade, we’ve been talking about experiential marketing. It’s not enough to create an awareness of your product — you need to, when you can, connect with your consumers (B2B or B2C) in as tangible and memorable a way as possible.

Today’s guest post is brought to you by Tony Messer – Enjoy! helgabj via photopin cc A funny thing happened in the Gym locker room today. I became an expert on corrective laser eye surgery! That in itself was strange enough, but what makes this even stranger is that the person I learned...

Today’s post marks a bit of a milestone for me, as this post is the 1,000th one since I started this blog back in September 2008.

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is from Andy Sernovitz – Enjoy!

Marketing podcast with Michael Port photo credit: Kalexanderson via photopin cc Most marketers are clear about targeting their marketing and advertising messages. but when it comes to referrals it seems that notion is no longer valid. The thing is, we all want referrals, but what we really want are ...

This is a nice touch from Foursquare, I think. They’ve created a mobile app that business owners can use to help manage their Foursquare listing.

Business plans are great, useful even, but the planning process and a growth oriented plan of action is where it’s at for the small business.

Just over 20 years ago, when I first got into marketing, professional reviews were the lead driver of foot traffic to storefronts.

This post brought to you by Grow America. Grow America announces its $35,000 Innovative Product Competition for passionate entrepreneurs. Enter the competition to get going and get growing.

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

Marketing podcast with John Jantsch photo credit: Russ Neumeier via photopin cc Business owners often view marketing as something they must finish so they can get back to work. Marketing, as I’ve stated often, is never done, it’s just another system that you must operate at the highest l...

A little while back, I wrote about the difference between analytics and insights. My key point was while we may have awesome data at our fingertips, not knowing what to do with that data renders it obsolete and ineffective. A new survey, with responses from attendees of the recent DMA2012 conferenc...

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is from Don Campbell – Enjoy!

Last week I wrote a post that addressed the overwhelming amount of things you need to focus on in order to build a Total Online Presence. I broke it down into 12 months of action themes to make it easier.

As a rule, we love it when people say something that is so utterly foolish we immediately begin ripping it apart.

In a word: Conversion. That’s the main problem with local blogging and local content. It’s often easy to get local traffic to your website or blog, but in a lot of cases, you’re going to have trouble converting that traffic into customers. Don’t get me wrong. I’m genera...

One of the things many social media purists will tell us is that we can’t “monetize” social media communities. A social media community is a warm, fuzzy place where no marketing should occur, and we simply talk about how cool social media is for individuals and brands alike.

If you’re a small business located in Austin or Corpus Christi, TX — or you know one that is — give some thought to attending our upcoming Local University workshops.

Now that more and more organizations are investing time and money into social media participation, people are looking for ways to measure the return in terms of direct business rather than fans, friends and followers.

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

When is a private thought not a private thought? When online curation tool Storify decides to bypass privacy wishes and share that thought publicly. Over at AGBeat, there’s an interesting (and alarming) story about how Storify can be used to post private updates on Facebook publicly. By using...

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is from Matt Anderson – Enjoy!

Normally at MMG, we caution clients to be careful of the “I don’t listen/watch/do therefore neither does my target audience” trap.

Marketing podcast with Bill Cates Subscribe now via iTunes Everyone loves referrals, but let’s face it – the real point of a referral is a customer. If you’re getting plenty of referrals, but few are turning into new clients, it’s time to change a few things about your approach to referrals...

Facebook announced a substantial upgrade to its search function on Tuesday called Facebook Graph Search. (An awful name, by the way. Wow.)

The context in which an idea, thought, sales pitch or even piece of music is received has a great deal to do with the value or importance we place on it.

Via Mike Blumenthal comes word that Google has again/further clarified its stance on incentivizing reviews with this response in the Help forums:

When social media first began gaining popularity with brands, the first thing they wanted to know was, “What are people saying about us?”

I’ve been taking business owners through the beta of my Total Online Presence Program of late and the comprehensive nature of this mindset is certainly reinforcing the overwhelming amount of stuff there is to do online if you are to tap the full potential of building a Total Online Presence.

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

Countless times I’ve made the point that blogging and content is best done on your own site and domain because you own it. And, unlike posting on a platform or domain that you don’t own, you make the rules and no one can take that content away from you.

The Farmer had been the same all his life. He used the same hoeing tools his father, and his father’s father, had used. He used the same ox-pulled plough from the last century that was weathered and broken, but The Farmer insisted did as fine a job as any of these newfangled tractor machines....

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is from Scott Yates – Enjoy!

Marketing podcast with Bob Burg I suspect the title of this post will raise some eyebrows. I mean relationships aren’t about ROI right? They’re about something much deeper. Something you don’t measure in the same way you might, say, the performance of an ad. photo credit: Angela Radulescu via ...

Let me paint you a picture. You have a new product that you’re bringing to market in the next 60 days. You have the opportunity to showcase this new product at the world’s largest and best attended trade show for your industry. You showcase the product and within hours — you have o...

A few weeks ago I started a series of posts I’m calling Recover You. The series is focused on practices and habits that I believe lead to a healthier mind, body and spirit, a healthier business and ultimately a healthier economy.

You won’t be hearing me refer to “GetListed.org Local University” anymore. It’s not that the local/small business workshops are finished … quite the contrary. They’re alive and well, and operating under a new name:

A vibrating object will pick out its resonant frequencies and vibrate at those frequencies, essentially “filtering out” other frequencies present.

This is a guest post by Paul Mayze. The barriers to blogging are now lower than ever.  At least, that is the theory. On WordPress and Blogger it takes minutes, if not seconds, to set up your blog. On Tumblr, adding content is child’s play (and if in doubt you can repost something from someone el...

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

Marketing podcast with John Jantsch photo credit: the camera is a toy. via photopin cc As content becomes increasingly important in the marketing mix, it must take on an elevated place in your strategy and planning. The use of high quality, education based content has become an essential ingredient ...

smx logoSMX West is a little more than two months away — it’s happening March 11-13 in San Jose, California. I’ll be coordinating and moderating three sessions, two of which are mostly set for speakers. The third session, though, is currently accepting pitches: Must-Have Local Sear...

As we enter a new year, I traditionally start by highlighting people and news to keep an eye on in the year to come.

Marketers need to measure a lot of things in order to get better. Not everyone does and those that do sometimes measure the wrong things.

Note: For six years, I’ve ended every month with a list of the best articles that I read that month about online marketing. The first one was published in January 2007.

John Jantsch talks Fiscal Cliff on Wall Street Journal Radio photo credit: Ennor via photopin cc There’s plenty of talk and a fair amount of angst swirling around the made for reality TV Fiscal Cliff negotiations. I was asked several times last week about the impact these talks and falling ove...

Look, it’s the last day of 2012 and you are likely either thinking about what you’re gonna do to make next year better or you’re sick of hearing people talk about what you should do to make next year better.

“Best” is such a subjective term. Says who? Determined how? Depending on the nature and goals of your blog, there are a few different ways you could determine the “best” articles. I’m not really selling anything here and don’t bother tracking conversions through ...

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

As we come to the year end, I traditionally wind down by highlighting people and news to keep an eye on in the year to come. This year is no different, (yeah, I’m predictable that way). Previously, I shared 5 bloggers for you to watch in 2013 – today, and in no particular order, here are 5 ...

Some of my favorite tools and services have gone through some pretty big changes recently – enough so that felt it warranted a post just to point the changes out.

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is from DJ Waldow  – Enjoy!

Blogging is great, but does local blogging also work? If you’re a small/local business owner, that’s a smart question to ask if you’re thinking about using a local blog as a marketing tool. Note: I’m using the term “local blog” to refer to a blog where the main f...

Marketing podcast with Seth Godin Few people have captured the post industrial world of work like Seth Godin. Now, you make think of him as a marketer – and he is a brilliant one indeed. I believe, however, his greatest contribution to business is the very clear message about how work has evol...

As we come to the year end, I traditionally wind down by highlighting people and news to keep an eye on in the year to come. This year is no different, (yeah, I’m predictable that way) so to kick things off here are 5 bloggers you really should subscribe to in 2013. 1. Jon Loomer Jon Loomer ...

For the last two days, I’ve been sitting at my computer itching to write something epic. Looking at the blank screen, thinking of words I can write to convey the feeling I have inside that I need to share something epic and life-changing.

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

As we come to the end of another year I wanted to send a very simple message of thanks. There’s no Holiday Sale, free shipping or act now call to action in today’s post. Today I just want to share the short video above that I hope you find contains some inspiration. I firmly believe tha...

The end of the year = predictions for the upcoming year.  All of them are interesting but the one I really put stock in is JWT‘s annual trends report.  They invest a huge amount of time and money to explore and investigate our culture and I’m always impressed by the line-up of experts they reach out to, before they release their report.

There are a lot of people running around these days calling themselves “entrepreneurs”. However, I’ve discovered a few fool-proof ways to quickly see the differences between successful entrepreneurs and wantrepreneurs–or people who want to start a business, but who actually aren’t going to take action and create a real business.

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is from Dr. Melody King – Enjoy!

Imagine if Google re-ranked local businesses based on the time of day that the businesses are most popular with their customers…

Marketing podcast with Guy Kawasaki photo credit: Patrick Gage via photopin cc I asked the question contained in the title of this post in a community I moderate on Google+ (Consultant Exchange- join us if you are a coach or consultant) Somewhat predictably answers fell into two camps – those ...

If you follow any kind of tech or social media news, you’ll know about the announcement from mobile photo app Instragram and its new Terms of Service that come into play on January 16.

Smart salespeople have learned to tap the power of social media, but sadly, many companies still see social media tools and networks as a pointless and even scary place for their sales teams to focus.

This is a guest post from Feather Hickox. The average consumer receives over 16,000 marketing messages each day. Marketers face a daunting challenge to break through that volume of noise. This challenge has given rise to Big Marketing – the use of Big Data analytics to develop personalized market...

For some time now I’ve been suggesting that social media as we’ve come to address it over the last few years doesn’t really matter anymore because it just is. We’ve given up on seeing it as some separate practice and accepted that it’s simply a function of marketing that must be integrated.

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

In the short time I’ve played with the new Google Maps app for iOS, I’ve become really happy with how the local business listings look.

This is a guest post from Dan Norris of Informly. Recently I launched a new feature inside my simple stats dashboard Informly that helps content marketers measure how effective their content is. I’ve been creating a lot of content leading up to the launch of Informly last week and one thing I...

Mistake #1: Not having a pre-game plan. Trade shows are one of those things that sneak up on you. You’re going to have to be out of the office for a few days, you need everything shipped in advance and you’re juggling your regular work. But the prep work should be done months in advance, which y...

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is from Ross Kimbarovsky   – Enjoy!

Here are a couple articles worth reading: What Makes for a Good Author Photo in the Local Results? (Part 1) What Makes for a Good Author Photo in the Local Results? (Part 2) Mike Blumenthal invited me, AJ Kohn and Cyrus Shepard to do a small, unscientific study of a handful of online avatars ̵...

Marketing podcast with Dan Pink photo credit: ernestkoe via photopin cc My father was a salesman in the classic Willy Loman kind of way, without the sad tragedy part. He got up each week, packed his bags and went on the road to exchange his time and information for the monetary reward of an order. H...

I recently had the good fortune to sit down and chat with Mark Zohar, founder of Toronto-based viral search and predictive analytics service TrendSpottr. And I was literally blown away by what they’re doing and how they’re looking to change social business.

Next week my staff and I will hole up for an entire day of planning. We do this quarterly, but once a year, we “really” do this. This is our chance to step away from all of those seemingly meaningless little things and think bigger. It’s our day to say what if and why not. It’s the time to set the course for next year and perhaps realign with the vision for the next three to five years.

As part of the run up to the launch of Influence Marketing: How to Create, Manage and Measure Brand Influencers in Social Media Marketing, Sam and I have decided to do things a little differently.

When I think about the work I do these days very little of it actually needs to be done on a “real” computer.

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

Take a look around the web – especially on social networks – and you’ll see a lot of people and brands complaining about their marketing results. From complaining about lack of action on a blog or website to little return on Facebook or LinkedIn, there’s a whole swathe of pe...

Facebook Page-watch update: There are now more than 13 million Facebook Pages, up slightly from the 12.8 million reported about six weeks ago.

This post is one in a series of tips for making your small business run better and is sponsored by UPS. UPS is all about logistics — the logistics that makes your business run better and faster

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is from Alexia McCormick  – Enjoy!

This is a guest post by Jennifer Dunn. It’s back. Last week grandma posted the old, “With this status I hereby declare that all my Facebook content belongs to me and only me…” and all of a sudden the mythical Berner convention is gunking up your Facebook feed again. First off, this ...

One of the biggest benefits of social media is the way the medium can help you get in front of people you’d never normally reach. From cost savings (financial) to the sharing between friends, social media offers opportunities like never before. Of course, like anything that gives you a bigger...

Marketing podcast with Dave Kerpen photo credit: br1dotcom via photopin cc Dave Kerpen had the foresight a few years ago to lock up the term Likeable. It’s the name of his business, Likeable Media, the name of his mega selling book Likeable Social Media and it’s been applied to his lates...

Most businesses don’t create a plan for the upcoming year because it’s too daunting a task.  Which is why I’m a big advocate of the one page business plan and why I am sharing our one page business plan template with all of you.

A dashboard is such an important concept when it comes to easily accessing the health of a business. photo credit: istargazer via photopin cc Just like a the dashboard on a vehicle, the point of a business dashboard is to give you a quick look at whatever it is that’s important to your business ...

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr or one that...

Here’s my roundup of the best search/marketing posts that I found and read during November. If you’re new to this blog, this is a monthly feature that began way back in 2007. You can find earlier “Best Of”s for each month in the Link Roundups category archive. I never include my own posts in these end-of-month recaps.

Over at Mashable, Todd Wasserman wrote a piece about most social media marketing being a waste of time. Todd’s premise is simple:

A few weeks ago I started a series of posts I’m calling Recover You. The series is focused on practices and habits that I believe lead to a healthier mind, body and spirit, a healthier business and ultimately a healthier economy. You can catch the entire Recover You series here. photo credit: sh...

Drew’s note ~ Here’s some practical advice from the folks at Simple Machines Marketing and we couldn’t agree more.  We often start our engagements with new clients with an audit like Charlie describes:

One of those “this is the best time to publish blog posts” articles (an old one) was making the rounds on Twitter today, and I couldn’t resist the urge to throw cold water on the concept.

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is from Aaron Houghton  – Enjoy! Image Credit: Qole Pejorian Flickr CC Throughout my career I’ve run my own small businesses, consulted with small business owners, and built software for small business users. I’m on...

Targeting local Facebook users? Struggling to get noticed in their newsfeeds? Struggling to get local folks to like, comment and share what you post?

This post is one in a series of tips for making your small business run better and is sponsored by UPS. UPS is all about logistics — the logistics that makes your business run better and faster Sustainable growth comes from doing more of what really creates growth and less of what you get pu...

You may have noticed there’s been more emphasis on influence and the role it plays in marketing and social media on this blog recently. Well, there’s good reason for that.

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is from Collis Ta’eed – Enjoy! Image credit: Shane Pope In the age of social media, blogging is even more important as a small business marketing weapon and if anything, it has been enhanced by social media. A blog ca...

Lately, I’ve seen a lot of posts across the web that say having an opinion when blogging is bad.

Next week I’ll travel to the Middle East to meet with a large group of SME’s on the verge of unlocking their potential. photo credit: Mukumbura via photopin cc The entrepreneurial environment in many parts of the world is undergoing dramatic change. Even in cultures that are very government an...

This is the time of year where work grinds to a halt. We have another two weeks or so before the holiday frenzy, parties, hangovers and the general professional apathy creeps in and productivity becomes a dirty word. But don’t give up hope yet.  I think there’s still a few things we can...

(Disclaimer: As the headline says, this article doesn’t represent an official SMX position. These are my personal thoughts, based on how I like to put a session together and what I like to see in session pitches. Other session coordinators may do things differently, and may not agree with the tips I share below.)

Content creation must involve strategy. That’s the part that you must understand or its production is little more than a chore. photo credit: markyweiss For some time now I’ve been preaching the idea of a “total body of work” approach to content for marketing purposes. Waking up each day a...

Just 20 short years ago, marketing was pretty easy. You got your budget, you allocated it to the media buy (TV, print, radio, direct), and away you went.

Every effective marketing strategy lives and dies by the ability to capture and communicate the strategies core point of differentiation in a simple, yet compelling, manner. When your market can actually understand and perhaps even feel how your business is different from every other business that...

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr or one that...

A rather new service called Zapier is poised to change how people work on the web. I know this sounds like a bold prediction, but here’s why I think it’s true. Web apps are awesome. In many ways they’ve given even the tiniest of businesses the ability to compete, manage and grow on a global ...

This post from Matt Hixson of Tellagence originally appeared on the Jugnoo blog. I was flattered (and a bit surprised) when  Jugnoo asked me to speak at their summer social media event in Toronto, Social Mix 2012. We’ve been in conversation about the challenges around measuring the marketing ef...

It can be a chore to drive traffic to your website. So, once you do gain a click through organic search, a referral or an ad, you need to you do what you can to keep them there long enough for them to dig in and see what you’ve got. photo credit: theunquietlibrary Below are a handful of tactics ...

I don’t know John Burke, and he’s probably a kind and smart guy, but I don’t think his article does business owners any favors:

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr or one that...

Chase R. recently emailed with a question about small business blogging: We’re a local business and our main jewelry ecommerce site (www.thediamondstore.com) has been around for quite some time. A little over a year ago when we revised our website, we launched a WordPress blog at a new domain...

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is from Aaron Dun – Enjoy! “Don’t Wake Up With Your Website in a Ditch” Expand Your Content & Your Contributors to Keep Your Content Marketing Strategy Humming As content explodes around you, if you are the only...

When you read a blog, what’s your preferred method – desktop browser or mobile (say, smartphone or tablet)? According to the analytics for this blog, my mobile browsing traffic accounts for just over 6,000 visits per month (or around 10% of my traffic), and they tend to stay on the sit...

This post is one in a series of tips for making your small business run better and is sponsored by UPS. UPS is all about logistics — the logistics that makes your business run better and faster One thing is for certain – it’s become much easier to work virtually these days. New online a...

Marketing podcast with Robert Greene photo credit: gnackgnackgnack via photopin cc It’s funny how pretty much everything is instructional in one way of another. When Robert Greene published the now cult classic The 48 Laws of Power people were a bit polarized. According to LA Times the book,...

Over the years I’ve given lots of presentations and attended lots of presentations. photo credit: Gue?rgui I read about it, study it and do what I can to get better at the art. But here’s the deal, I’ll never be a super entertainer, but I care deeply about people getting practical informatio...

This is part two of a three-part series on Finding Strategy. Each post includes a free template. So, I’ve been preaching this one pretty hard for a bunch of years and see no end in sight, because it’s just that important. Find a way to differentiate your business, one that matters to s...

Storytelling, storytelling, and more storytelling. Seems like every marketing book, blog (including mine if you’ve been reading this week’s posts) and study is talking about how we should be using storytelling as a marketing technique. I couldn’t agree more.  Unfortunately, I thin...

Oracle is a well-respected brand when it comes to solutions for I.T as well as social media and business intelligence for enterprise users. They have a collection of toolsets that cover everything from loyalty programs to service management and analytics.

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr or one that...

You may have noticed that I haven’t published anything here during the past week. There are two reasons for that:

This post originally appeared in my column for American Express OPENForum. photo credit: Joel Bedford via photopin ccAs you start preparing for next year, you may wish you had a crystal ball to see what’s in store for your business. Lucky for you, for the past three years at Open Forum, I’ve b...

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is from Terry Costa – Enjoy! People who conduct searches on a website convert at a higher rate than people who don’t. So it makes sense to find ways to improve the search on your e-commerce site. There are several ideas...

Over the last few months, lots of folks have asked why they’d want to use Jugnoo versus their current platform of choice (say, Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Trackur, etc).

This post is one in a series of tips for making your small business run better and is sponsored by UPS. This time of year many businesses turn to planning as a way to determine the path for the upcoming year. It’s a great practice and one that I support without hesitation. photo credit: fiddle o...

Let me tell you a little story.  I promise — we’ll close the circle with some marketing insights but I need to set the stage.

A few weeks ago I started a series of posts I’m calling Recover You. The series is focused on practices and habits that I believe lead to a healthier mind, body and spirit, a healthier business and ultimately a healthier economy. photo credit: Mait Jüriado via photopin cc You can read my overvi...

This is a guest post from my wife Jacki. She has just self-published her first book It Never Happened, a Young Adult fiction romance, available now for digital download. This post originally appeared on her blog, but I wanted to share it here as I feel the question of definition, and the assumptions we make when it comes to dumbing down our own messages, transfer well to business and marketing in general, as well as our own blog community.

Most people view marketing and selling like this. photo credit: tiffany yelitza You target a market segment, tell them what you have to offer, maybe work in a little solution selling and hope they choose you. Or You target a market segment, respond to RFPs and hope they choose your price. Either w...

As the buzz about content marketing, social media and all things digital continues to rise, one of the catch phrases that gets a lot of attention is storytelling in marketing.  We afford it incredible lip service but do we actually practice it?

While social media is perfect for customer service and marketing, there’s a growing need for a company’s Human Resource (HR) team to be involved too.

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr or one that...

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is from Tommy Walker – Enjoy! Image credit: WhatTheCell   You did it! You got past the discomfort and pitched a popular blog – and they’ve agreed to showcase your magnificence. You poured hours forging the mo...

Here’s my roundup of the best search/marketing posts that I found and read during October. If you’re new to this blog, this is a monthly feature that began way back in 2007. You can find earlier “Best Of”s for each month in the Link Roundups category archive. I never include my own posts in these end-of-month recaps.

Here’s more/new evidence that speaks to the value of small business blogging — specifically, they speak to the impact that blogging can have on traffic and leads.

Marketing podcast with Harley Manning (Click to play or right click and “Save As” to download – Subscribe now via iTunes or subscribe via other RSS device (Google Listen) I think most of us would agree that the reason our businesses exist is to exchange value with a customer for ...

Most people, when faced with the blank screen on their computer and a deadline for a new marketing piece looming, get a little uptight.

This week, the eastern coast of the U.S. has been battered by Hurricane Sandy, one of the biggest storms to make land in the U.S.

Pay-per-click advertising (PPC), when used correctly, is a very powerful way to drive traffic and conversions. photo credit: alles-schlumpf via photopin cc The used correctly part includes effective targeting and testing, writing compelling ads, creating compelling offers and managing the bid and ...

Last week, the good folks over at Social Media Breakfast Waterloo were kind enough to invite me over to speak to their members.

Google Analytics just keeps getting better and better as far as I’m concerned and marketers that use this free tool need to get better and better at understanding what it can tell you. On a side note, anytime Google improves a free tool they are probably getting ready to offer a paid version. Qu...

Figuring out what is best for your company’s social sharing accounts can be tough. Not only do you have to figure out what to share, but you also need to know how and when to say it. The folks at Compendium crunched the data of over 300 companies’ social sharing statistics, to identify some social sharing best practices.

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. Restored DC3 sits atop The Roasterie Coffee Plant I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post ...

A couple of weeks back, I sent an email out to my subscribers asking about blog comment systems.

Earlier this week, I invited readers to submit questions that might become good topics for future articles … and you responded! A few of you submitted very specific questions about local SEO and local search, which would normally be fine except for the fact that I’m not doing much local...

Been wondering where to get a sample editorial calendar for your blog? Just this week I found two very good ones, and both are free.

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is from Gregory Ciotti – Enjoy! Everybody is all abuzz about “creating buzz” these days. We as marketers operate in an industry obsessed with content that is “buzzwothy”, “viral”, and ...

This post is one in a series of tips for making your small business run better and is sponsored by UPS. Scheduled communication may be one of the most powerful team and accountability building tools available when done the right way. photo credit: MoDOT Photos Meetings are an essential aspect of g...

Facebook is announcing its 3rd-quarter financials today, and the conference call with investors included an update on how many small businesses have a Facebook business page.

There was a time when the art of SEO practitioners focused on building out highly optimized pages dedicated to narrowly defined themes or keywords. So, if you had an insurance business you would build one page designed to show up in a search for life insurance and another for health insurance and ...

I’ve said before that one great way to get blog content ideas is to ask your readers. So that’s what I’m doing! Longtime readers will probably remember some old posts here on SBSM in which I answer questions from readers. I call them “SBSM Mailbag” posts, and it’...

Sometimes, you just have to take your hat off to excellent examples of promotional campaigns done right.

There are some human truths that, if you allow them to, can dramatically impact your marketing efforts and focus.

Building an effective online presence these days has moved beyond the realm of the occasional event and into the daily routine of the marketing department. It doesn’t matter if it’s just you, as opposed to the traditional definition of department, online marketing must become a habit that’s ...

If you’re an RSS subscriber, please take a moment to re-subscribe at my new RSS feed URL:

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I spoke at a conference in Las Vegas this week and this was the view outside my room I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound ...

Marketing podcast with DJ Waldow and Jason Falls (Click to play or right click and “Save As” to download – Subscribe now via iTunes or subscribe via other RSS device (Google Listen) There are a handful of generally accepted “best practices” when it comes to email. Some have w...

First, a caveat – I don’t know the folks whose quotes I’m about to use as examples of why the PR industry is struggling. They could be (and probably are) very smart and accomplished business people.

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is from Frank Strong, director of Public Relations, Vocus – Enjoy! There is no shortage of social media advice.  Unfortunately, much of it is often at odds, conflicting and even confusing. For example, consider sched...

Short answer: I don’t think so. You may see a few articles and blog posts today citing the latest Reply.com (the company that bought Merchant Circle last year) small business survey, and this is another. The survey of more than 3,400 SMBs covered a lot of topics, from politics to business cond...

Marketing Smart by my friend John Gumas from Gumas Advertising is a collection of proven strategies and tips to help you take on your competitors and win!

This week, I’m trying an interesting experiment with my blog–and with you. I’d like you to try it out and participate, as well. This is time-sensitive and won’t be available after October 19 at 1PM Central time.

You don’t have to be a Foursquare user to use Foursquare’s local search engine anymore. It’s open and live to anyone at foursquare.com/explore.

As bloggers, we talk a lot about the world around us. We talk of the things that matter to us and our readers – marketing, knitting, Pinterest, motorbikes, etc. Anything and everything. And, for the most part, these blog posts do matter and is why we have readers. Yet sometimes, we need to ta...

As the political debates continue in the U.S., world economic news seems as mixed as ever and jobless rates continue to inch back down in several sectors, talk continues to center on the hope for recovery. photo credit: Conan (TK) via photopin cc It’s has been a slow and challenging climb out of...

For those of you who are new SBSM readers & subscribers, here’s a list of noteworthy posts you probably missed from one year ago. I try to put together a post like this each month to introduce new readers to old content that might be worth reading.

Quick heads up for the excellent bloggers and Twitter users that might be reading: We’ll be closing the speaker pitch form for SMX Social Media on Friday. The conference happens in early December in Las Vegas, and I’m coordinating two sessions:

Today is Blog Action Day*.  What does that mean? It means that thousands of bloggers from over 108 countries will come together today to blog on a single topic.  Ironically — this year’s topic is the power of we.

Years ago, I led a customer service team for a well-known telecommunications company in the UK.

I launched and new product last week and thought it would be instructional to do a tidy little roundup of the content marketing for that new product, a book called The Commitment Engine. This post really has two purposes. First, to showcase the coverage from my book and give you a handy jumping in...

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr or one that...

I’ve been investing in better design lately and it’s making me money. But, what is better design? photo credit: jm3 For some that term might simply mean better visual appeal, more pleasing to the eye or stylish. To me it means better communication. The primary thing I have to offer is informat...

Google made a couple small changes yesterday to how it integrates the Zagat rating system into local business reviews and local search.

When Dale Carnegie wrote the book on influence more than 75 years ago, he probably didn’t realize the impact he was about to make on society. Just ask the 15 million people that have bought the book since 1936.

I conducted a live to YouTube Google+ Hangout yesterday to tell some of the stories of the very cool entrepreneurs that got to know in the process of writing The Commitment Engine. I love the streaming technology and plan to use it more. During the 30 minute session I talked about How Mary and T...

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is from Laura Roeder – Enjoy! The “Problem”: Ever felt overwhelmed by social media advice? Everywhere you look, there are articles full of conflicting information about Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter strategie...

Today’s post is a direct answer to a question I receive frequently. photo credit: madamepsychosis First, the question – “I get that I need to produce lots of content but what should I write about?” And now, the simple answer – “Write about things that your customers and prospects want ...

If you’re in the business of marketing to different cultures – and, in a way, aren’t we all? – when was the last time you took a look at how your marketing is focused?

My latest book The Commitment Engine – Making Work Worth It launches this week so I am holding two live opportunities to talk about what it takes to make work worth it. I’ll cover topics like clarity, culture, community and purpose. 1) Live Hangout Presentation – I will stream a pre...

Maybe this describes your small business, or a client’s small business: 1.) You know you need to create great, unique content so you can target relevant local keywords and attract new search traffic. 2.) You offer the same (or very similar) products/services in multiple cities. 3.) You’r...

Blogging software, such as WordPress, automatically gives your content an advantage when it comes to the “on page” factors that search engines consider important in determining what content to show in search results. photo credit: Stuck in Customs via photopin cc That’s one of the reasons I ...

Video is a very useful medium that most companies underuse. But when they are used…they’re typically used to sell or teach.  All of that is well and good.

DearWorld.me shot by Robert Fogarty This week my latest book, The Commitment Engine – Making Work Worth It, ships in the U.S. The central theme of the book is purpose – or more specifically, how to get very clear about why you do what you do, how to bring that to your business and how ...

Some five years ago I wrote a post with a similar title and extolled the virtues of producing content strategically and in multiple formats. Much about content has continued to evolved in the time since I started writing about it. Entire books have been dedicated to the specific topic, many tools ...

If you’re an RSS subscriber, please take a moment to re-subscribe at my new RSS feed URL:

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but urge you to check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr or one that I...

When I was growing up, one of my all-time favourite cartoons was the one with Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner.

I have a new book coming October 11th called The Commitment Engine – Making Work Worth It. I know, I know, I’ve talked a lot about it lately, but bear with me. The book is a more personal look at some of the important elements of building a business that serves your life and there&#...

Your pricing strategy should never be accidental.  It’s a vital element in your marketing mix.

For many people, social news website Reddit was something they’d never heard of. That changed on 29 August, when President Obama took to Reddit to answer questions around his policies.

Getting more email subscribers is job #1. Email is and has long been the number one producer of return on marketing investment for businesses large and small. photo credit: @yakobusan Jakob Montrasio via photopin cc Acquiring the contact information of someone who has expressed at least a mild int...

I’ve been collecting stories of late about what it means to be an entrepreneur, about what work means, about value, purpose and passion. I started asking people about their work and about what makes work worth it to them. I’ve collected many of these stories and find them both inspirat...

I’ll admit to being a little biased here – I’ve had a huge crush on Australian songstress Kylie Minogue since her acting days way back when in Australian soap Neighbours.

Why do case studies work so well? It’s simple really. Everyone loves a good story. And there’s a reason why Aesop and others opted to teach their life lessons through stories that have been told and re-told for many years. Smart parents know this trick too. They teach lessons to their child...

I use the term “Internet Marketer” in the title here in a less than flattering way. There are certainly those who make a living selling products and services via the Internet that deliver real value, but many “info and Internet” marketers also prey on people’s fears, hopes and irrati...

Don’t screw this up. Starting a business blog the wrong way or in the wrong place can have serious, long-term negative effects on your success. For example, you could spend three years blogging and end up with no equity to show for it. Ouch.

I’ve made a bit of a career out of talking with, listening to and understanding entrepreneurs and small business owners. I’ve worked with thousands of you over the past twenty plus years or so and at some point most of the discussion I’ve had center on the idea of strategy. It&#...

Here’s my roundup of the best search/marketing posts that I found and read during September. If you’re new to this blog, this is a monthly feature that began way back in 2007. You can find earlier “Best Of”s for each month in the Link Roundups category archive. I never include my own posts in these end-of-month recaps.

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr or one that...

If you’re wondering which is more potent — search or social media — as is often my answer — it depends.

One of the biggest challenges in social media today – apart from ROI, depending who you ask – is that of natural language.

As more and more people adopt social media tools and get used to Tweeting, Liking and Checking In, smart marketers are employing a raft of tactics to get them to do more and more of just that. One of the most important reasons to promote and incentivize sharing on social networks is that it can mu...

Hi guys, First, I just want to say thank you for subscribing to my blog – I sincerely appreciate it, and always look forward to reading your thoughts and takeaways at the end of the posts. Today, I’m kind of excited to share a new “project” that I’d love for you to chec...

Here’s an equation that every business owner needs to understand. Know + Like + Trust = Buy. Whether you sell toothbrushes or multi-million dollar medical equipment and everything in between — until a customer: Knows who you are Likes who you are Trusts you there is no purchase.  The ...

Yesterday you learned what makes a good landing page and the 9 concepts below can be used as a checklist to keep you on track the next time you run a marketing campaign. 1. Where landing pages sit in the funnel To understand the role of a landing page it helps to show visually how they fit into yo...

There are only a handful of tickets left for GetListed.org’s Local University Advanced next week in New York City. It’s happening on Monday, October 1st, the day before SMX East formally begins.

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is from Oli Gardner – Enjoy! You’re do loads of awesome marketing: ads, promos, contests yada yada yada. And you send all that hard earned traffic to your homepage where people lose the information scent from your ad, g...

This is part of an advertisement that appeared recently in our local newspaper. It’s an insert from a local law firm promoting a presentation on estate planning.

This is certainly not the first time I’ve written about using stories in business and it certainly won’t be the last. Desk and chair of Sugar Maple and Paduak, Dan Dunbar AP Woodworking I’ve been spreading the message of employing personal stories in marketing and selling for ove...

According to leading business analysts Gartner, as many as 10-15% of social media reviews will be fake by 2014.

Talk about mobile and tablet usage dominates computer hardware conversations and the implications are one of the hottest topics in marketing right now as well. photo credit: waferbaby via photopin cc Website visitors are now consuming content from our sites in a dizzying array of devices, formats ...

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr or one that...

This is a guest post by Matt Andaloro. Twitter, the never-ending story. It’s a platform I find myself pitching to my friends and family more and more, as it has increasingly become a platform that the general public has become more open to using on a regular basis. As a result of this, people...

Yesterday I conducted an online seminar to over 1,300 small business owners and marketers and covered the big picture approach to integrating all the online moving parts such as content, SEO, Email marketing, social media marketing, online advertising, mobile, location, conversion and analytics. N...

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times — your brand is not your logo.  It’s so much more.

Almost nine out of 10 small business reps say social media has been helpful to their business, but other stats in the same survey lead me to think that number could be even higher.

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is from Bob Bare – Enjoy! Does Your Brand Pass The Personality Test? Consumers often seek out brands they like, know, and most importantly, trust.  A brand’s functionality is crucial, but the emotional benefit attache...

Seems like it’s been eons since I’ve written about some change at Twitter, but this visual change is probably worth taking a look at. View of header on the Twitter homepage While we’ve always been able to create custom Twitter Backgrounds, Twitter has now added a custom header mu...

I’m coordinating two sessions at SMX Social Media this December in Las Vegas: Traffic Boosting Twitter Tactics Blow Me Away Blogging Just wanted to get this post out there as a reminder that we’re accepting speaking pitches right now, because I’m pretty sure there are some excell...

So, if you’re a regular reader of this blog (and thank you!), I think I owe you an apology for any dizziness I may have caused you in the last couple of months.

First off, one answer to the question posed in the title of this post is, it depends. The Internet has certainly turned the traditional act of selling solutions into a commodity act. photo credit: Paul Mayne via photo pin cc See, there was a time when a salesperson’s job was to find out what the...

I was going through my iPod tunes over the weekend, adding some new ones and building some new playlists.

Recently, I was asked a question I receive somewhat frequently and I thought the answer might apply to others in the same boat so I’ll share it here. photo credit: Andrew Feinberg via photo pin cc The question was this – How do I demonstrate that I can help a prospect when I have no proof ...

The other day I got a direct mail solicitation from Google.  Yes, that Google. It was a good reminder me (and now to you too) that none of us can afford to get lazy when it comes to media mix. If the King of Online recognizes the power of a printed piece, then we should probably pay attention too. ...

When you visit a website or blog post and hit the Facebook Like button, what’s your intent behind that action?

There’s a well-worn line of thought in entrepreneurial circles that suggests that if do what you love, the money will come. photo credit: o4orange via photo pin cc This one phrase has probably done more to hold business owners back from discovering their greatness than anything else I can imagin...

Although some surveys suggest that Facebook has become the primary way that many small businesses invest in their online presence, there’s still plenty of data out there that suggests Facebook is a mixed bag when it comes to measuring success.

For those of you who are new SBSM readers & subscribers, here’s a list of noteworthy posts you probably missed from one year ago. I try to put together a post like this each month to introduce new readers to old content that might be worth reading.

Why are you running a business? (Alternatively, why do you want to start one?) Stop and think about this for a bit. You need a good reason as to why you’re doing this. Otherwise, you won’t make it very far. I ask this question of other budding entrepreneurs a lot, and I often hear a res...

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr or one that...

It seems strange to think that Jugnoo’s Social Mix event was way back in July. It still seems so fresh, and we’re continuing to get great feedback and praise today, almost two months later. There’s no doubt it was an incredible day, with lots of lessons learned and shared. On a personal lev...

Lots of marketers have given in to the need to produce lots of content. This need has become so prevalent that many have actually begun to adopt a publishing mindset. photo credit: sogrady via photo pin cc With this mindset comes the need to schedule, plan and strategize about relevant content nee...

There’s so much going on in the social media world — it’s hard to keep up.  But don’t worry — we’ve got the answer for you.

Marketing podcast with Mike Michalowicz (Click to play or right click and “Save As” to download – Subscribe now via iTunes or subscribe via other RSS device (Google Listen) photo credit: Darwin Bell via photo pin cc Okay, I’ll admit the title of this post is a bit odd for a...

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is from Barry Moltz – Enjoy! This is a world of talkers. Business people are constantly chatting on their cell phones, email, blogs, texting or using whatever social media tools they can find.  They are telling people ...

I hate blog comment spam. Hate it with a passion. I’m extremely vigilant in deleting comments that don’t add quality to the conversation around my articles and I happily zap things that look like spam, even if they otherwise fit my comment guidelines. The Akismet plugin does a fine job ...

Over the course of the last few weeks I had the chance to team with Vocus (NASDAQ: VOCS), a leading provider of cloud marketing software, to analyze the results of a new survey of 400 decision makers at small- and medium-sized businesses (SMB) and their use of social media, which shows among other...

I’ve seen some pushback lately about the value of social media as a lead generation/sales tool, and Facebook more specifically. I’ve said before that Facebook isn’t right for every business, but here’s proof that you can generate leads — real estate leads, in this case — via Facebook.

Social marketing software company Awareness has just released the second part of its bi-annual State of Social Media Marketing report for 2012, and it makes for some pretty interesting reading.

Introducing The Commitment Engine As you can see from the image here, my third book – The Commitment Engine – Making Work Worth It is just about ready to go. And, I would like to give you a free copy! A bit more on that in a minute, but first, what’s the book about? This book is und...

(download full-sized infographic made by B2BMarketing.net) Interestingly, the answer is yes.  And no.  According to a recent study done by Experian Cheetahmail (download the white paper) shows that open rates are up but click rates are down a little bit in the 2nd quarter of 2012. (As you can see...

This is a guest post by Erin Robbins O’Brien. What is “big data” and why should it matter to marketers? I recently posited the question, “Do marketers know what ‘big data’ is?” at a networking event for marketers, and the response I got was unexpected: “Do they really need to?�...

It’s pretty easy to get caught with your face buried in a computer screen and forget that the world out there is a pretty amazing place. Plus, that’s really where opportunity exists. photo credit: Ti.mo via photo pin cc Sure, taking care of customers, writing sales letters and growing your bus...

Dear Seesmic User, As the news of Seesmic being acquired by Hootsuite settles and you look to decide what you wish to do next, we’d love to offer you another option to moving to Seesmic’s new home. As someone who used Seesmic back when it was a simple video-sharing tool, and seeing how ...

I saw this on Scott Monty’s Facebook status…and loved it.  I couldn’t track down the creator but if I do, I’ll update the post.

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr or one that...

This is one of the most difficult blog posts I’ve ever written…because I’m about to admit something that’s not easy to talk about. Even though I know some people will not be comfortable with the decisions I’ve made, I think putting all my ugliness, fear, and doubt out there may help you. And if writing about what I’ve been going through and subjecting myself to haters means that even one person gets real help, well, then, I have to write it.

With the publishing of yesterday’s article, the five-part series on small business blog SEO is complete. In the series, I spoke about the importance of internal linking — providing links on your blog to other content on your blog. I also talked about making it easy for others to link to your content. So, assuming most people won’t want to link to five separate articles, here’s a recap of the series in one post that I think others will be more likely to link to.

A lot of questions often get the same answer. Why do I need to be on social media? Because you need to. Why do I need to blog? Because you need to. Why do I need to make videos as a promotional tool? Because you need to. The funny thing is, because you need to is often mistaken for because I have no...

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is Mike Michalowicz – Enjoy! The London Olympics were nothing short of amazing.  Top athlete after top athlete trying to outdo each other.  Just like to business going to head, there is only going to be one gold medali...

(This is the fifth article in a five-part series about blog SEO. This series was published two years ago on HyperlocalBlogger.com with an emphasis on local blogs, but has been updated and rewritten for publishing now.)

Over the last few years I’ve mentioned in positive ways the various Facebook Social Plugins, such as the “Like” button, which has really become a pretty standard feature on my sites these days. Using the Facebook Comments Plugin on Making Work Worth It I have not always been as p...

You know…sometimes we make things so much more complicated than they need to be.  Do you want to own or work for a company with longevity, a strong reputation and customers who are your best advertising?

This caught me by surprise when it crossed my desk this afternoon: OpenTable is saying that it has more than 15 million restaurant reviews.

We are the supercool. That’s not a smug or ego-stroking statement. It’s more a statement of celebration. Why are we supercool? We’re the conversationalists. We’re the network communities. We’re the end user champions. We’re helping to transform business into the way it’s meant to be p...

This is installment number two of a series: Crowdfunding: A playbook and case study. (Check out the entire series here) photo credit: Haags Uitburo via photo pin cc Today’s post focuses on making a compelling pitch and determining how to create incentives that draw the interest needed in order g...

Bloggers are a breed apart from many other online outlets. That’s not meant in a grand or condescending way – just that it takes a very different mindset to be a blogger, and one that stays the course.

Do you know what’s one of the big problems for small business owners and entrepreneurs? Having too many answers. photo credit: @Doug88888 via photo pin cc In fact, they often have so many ideas, notions and answers, they can’t stay focused on any one thing long enough to know if it’s THE...

It seems like every business is rushing to build a Facebook Page.  But once they get it built — they’re not too sure what to do with it. Many just ignore it, publishing once a week or less Some use it as a sales channel — pushing out deals and wondering why people are ignoring t...

(This is the fourth of a five-part series about blog SEO. This series was published two years ago on HyperlocalBlogger.com with an emphasis on local blogs, but has been updated and rewritten for publishing now.)

There’s a new book called Rules of the Hunt* that is unlike many of the business books on the shelf today.  No witty parables, no acronyms for an overarching belief, in fact it’s absolutely void of anything trendy or theoretical. Instead, this book is just down to earth and friendly advice like you might expect from a trusted mentor.

Here’s my roundup of the best search/marketing posts that I found and read during August. If you’re new to this blog, this is a monthly feature that began way back in 2007. You can find earlier “Best Of”s for each month in the Link Roundups category archive. I never include my own posts in these end-of-month recaps.

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr or one that...

Wouldn’t it be great for small business owners if, rather than having to seek out and manage their business listings on dozens of local directories, they could manage that information solely on their own websites?

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is Joel Libava – otherwise known as The Franchise King – Enjoy! If your business doesn’t have a website, it doesn’t have a chance. And, I’m not even talking about a professionally designed and optimize...

When I was younger, I did some horrible things. Some, I didn’t know better because of age. At least, I’d like to think so. For example, when I was four years old, I threw a tantrum fit while shopping with my pregnant mother. As she told me off, I punched her in the stomach. Now, I̵...

Sometimes parody can be a great teaching tool. Don’t miss the Condescending Corporate Brand Page for a steady stream of reminders of how not to be annoying with your Facebook Page. Brilliant. I love it. This is a post from Matt McGee's blog, Small Business Search Marketing. Best. Facebook Pa...

Crowdfunding is undoubtedly this year’s hottest topic and trend and with good reason. The ability to publicly raise funds for your idea, product, or company, by gaining access to millions and millions of potential investors, gives anyone with an Internet connection access to a little or a lot of...

(This is the third of a five-part series about blog SEO. This series was published two years ago on HyperlocalBlogger.com with an emphasis on local blogs, but has been updated and rewritten for publishing now.)

Marketing podcast with Phil Auerswald (Click to play or right click and “Save As” to download – Subscribe now via iTunes or subscribe via other RSS device (Google Listen) Here’s my take. There is no resource scarcity issue, dependence on oil, shortage of water, climate cha...

It seem intuitive to us that if we’re heading to a trade show as an exhibitor we should be thoughtful about how to maximize that time and dollar investment. Yet somehow, when we’re attending a show or conference as an attendee, we don’t seem to give it the same consideration.

One of the things that never ceases to amaze me is the lack of basic customer service smarts in many companies. It seems such a dumb game to be playing, as well. For example, if a company’s customer service is poor, that’s more than likely going to mean a very big uphill struggle ahead in t...

Recently I wrote a post that described why blogging is even more important in the age of social. The post outlined the increasing benefits of using this powerful tool as a key driver of marketing related content. A few readers chimed in and asked me to detail the mechanics of my blog set up so tod...

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr or one that...

An exercise we don’t do often enough (especially if you sell a service rather than a product) is taking a look at how our customers actually use what we sell them.

Over at Jugnoo, we’ve been tinkering away on a few updates to our solutions. Between now and the end of September, there are even more cool updates being dropped in, and these will turn our dashboard into the fully-fledged offering that’s going to answer a lot of questions around social...

(This is the second of a five-part series about blog SEO. This series was published two years ago on HyperlocalBlogger.com with an emphasis on local blogs, but has been updated and rewritten for publishing now.)

There’s a renewed meme going around these days about marketing being dead somehow. Well, to paraphrase Mark Twain – the reports of the death of marketing are greatly exaggerated. photo credit: trawets1 via photo pin ccLook, the landscape in marketing has been rapidly shifting over the last te...

The title of this post might be one of the most important questions that entrepreneurs never ask – or at least fail to consider the answer to frequently enough. Truly understanding the answer to this question may define the difference between a feeling of success or failure in business ̵...

Facebook is overwhelmingly the most effective social media marketing channel for small businesses, with exponentially more saying it’s better than Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and all other social networks.

If you search “content marketing” on Google, you get about 560 million results. There are events dedicated to content marketing, and folks like Brian Clark, Joe Pulizzi, Marcus Sheridan and others are huge proponents of the term. So, big business then. And yet… Is there really suc...

(This is the first of a five-part series about blog SEO. This series was published two years ago on HyperlocalBlogger.com with an emphasis on local blogs, but has been updated and rewritten for publishing now.)

Keeping up with all the changes going on in the world of social media, or even in the singular world of Facebook, is a task. Instead of trying to keep up with and report on every little tweak, I like to focus on and test out the things that I think will give me the greatest bang my time buck and t...

You start blogging because you want to do something. Be someone. Be a part of something. It doesn’t matter what your goals are – thought leader, business leads, brand awareness, monetization, or even just a place to post thought – you blog because of a particular reason. The problem is, no ma...

Let’s assume the following is true: Your brand is not your logo but instead it is the essence (heart, true north, reason for being) of your organization. A business either builds a brand of distinction or has to compete based on price A brand isn’t easy or common.  Most companies don&#...

I’ve been asked by a consulting group to present ideas on marketing to an audience that will consist of IT managers for professional services organizations. Now, some of you might wonder what these folks need with marketing – in fact, some in the audience might wonder the same thing. photo cr...

For those of you who are new SBSM readers & subscribers, here’s a list of noteworthy posts you probably missed from one year ago. I try to put together a post like this each month to introduce new readers to old content that might be worth reading.

photo credit: nosha via photo pin ccMy weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite ...

It’s okay to not have a blog. But the benefits of having a blog — a good one — are so dramatic that I can’t imagine why any small business owner would prioritize other social efforts above it. Here are four reasons that small businesses should be blogging. Blogs Show Your H...

Two days ago, social influence tool Klout published a blog post on how they had updated their algorithms to answer critics of their service. From the post: Today, we’re introducing some of the most significant product updates in Klout’s history. With these updates, we’ve concentrated on helpi...

Every so often I get asked if blogging still matters now that we have Tumblr, Facebook and Twitter. That question used to frustrate me greatly until I started making this distinction. photo credit: Mexicanwave via photo pin ccNo, the act of blogging itself does not matter any more, but the act of ...

I’ve been using relevant images in my blog posts since I starting blogging in 2003. I think it’s pretty much an accepted and expected practice as a way to illustrate how something works with a screenshot or create impact with a shot that helps tell the story or point from the post. pho...

Two months ago, Bing and Yelp announced a local content partnership that looks like a win-win for both parties.

Here’s how most brand evolve.  The organization’s leadership huddles up at a corporate retreat (or if it’s a start-up, around the kitchen table) and decide on a tagline and maybe a logo.

Over the past ten years I’ve worked with hundreds of consultants and coaches teaching them how to market their businesses. I’ve spent twenty-five years learning how to build my own marketing consulting and coaching business and I’ve developed a network of independent marketing consultant...

Depending who you listen to or read in the social media space, the best reason to use social media for your brand varies. It can be for listening; resolving issues; lead generation; focus groups; recruitment; and much, much more. All good reasons. All good value. And yet…. While these are all so...

If you’re launching a new product, designing a sale or getting your business ready now for your version of Black Friday or Small Business Saturday, there are series of steps that you need to include in the planning process in order to create the most effective campaign. photo credit: khalid alma...

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr or one that...

For the last four years, I’ve used the Feedburner service on this blog for folks that are kind enough to subscribe. It was the simplest and – at the time – most effective way for bloggers to offer subscription options. Then Google bought it, and it went downhill. Subscriber number...

I had a few little electrical projects that needed to be done around the house. So I turned to my Angie’s List favorites.

Over at Jugnoo, one of the things we’re spending a lot of R&D time on is natural language, and how conversations and people truly connect to each other.

The Google+ live video chat function called Hangouts has been with us over a year now and I thought at the time it might be the best feature of Google+. However, it was the recent On Air addition, which allows you to broadcast and record your Hangout to your YouTube channel, that made me really ta...

It can be. For example: If you don’t like doing legwork and want quick solutions regardless of quality, social media is a waste of time. If you don’t like knowing what your customers are saying about you, social media is a waste of time. If you think LinkedIn is a non-productive busine...

There are many moving parts involved in marketing and the online elements increase in importance with each passing day. But, marketing is a system, and to effectively operate this system you must assemble and integrate each of the important parts into something that looks like the whole. Your onli...

When marketing people start talking about mobile these days, and they’re doing it a lot, they usually default to tactics – mobile ads, SMS, throw in some near field communications and we’re on the mobile track. photo credit: Drriss via photo pin ccI’ve been doing this a long time and with ...

When I was young and impressionable (and still trying to make an impression), I believed – foolishly – that I had to answer to people. Whether that was my boss, colleagues or peers, I was under the impression I had to answer to them in all I did. Now, before folks get the wrong impressi...

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr or one that...

One of the best marketing investments a company can make is to spend time and resources on bringing a new customer on in a way that exceeds anything like what they’ve experienced in the past. This is where sale number two comes from and this is how a profitable referral relationship blossoms. ph...

As bloggers, we all have different goals. Some may be to monetize your blog; some may be to get a book deal; some may be to become recognized as an expert in your field; others may be to share company news and updates. Some may even just be to have a personal outlet where you can let your creativit...

Yelp announced its latest quarterly earnings today, but rather than the financials, these are the numbers that caught my eye:

Over at Jugnoo, one of the things we’re spending a lot of R&D time on is natural language, and how conversations and people truly connect to each other.

Join me for a Google+ Hangout live streaming to YouTube at 1:30pm ET today for: Media Manipulation – fact or fiction – a frank conversation with Ryan Holiday (@ryanholiday), author of Trust Me I’m Lying – Confessions of a Media Manipulator and Peter Shankman (@petershankman), VP, S...

I spent a few days in Vegas recently and the 24/7 chaos was overwhelming. It’s pure overload for all your senses – tons of people everywhere, driving billboards, TVs in the restrooms, a wide array of smells, and a cacophony of sounds at full volume. It’s a little like how we’re assaulte...

Here’s my roundup of the best search/marketing posts that I found and read during July. If you’re new to this blog, this is a monthly feature that began way back in 2007. You can find earlier “Best Of”s for each month in the Link Roundups category archive. I never include my own posts in these end-of-month recaps.