Mainstream small business will more reliably get better results from social media if they view it more as selling than marketing. Why? Because effective relationship selling is personal, and now marketing is too. As social influences continue to profoundly affect business, just about every business activity is going to require relationship building skills. Traditional marketing or advertising was [...]
Category Archives: customers
Social Media is Still Uncharted Waters
When you are embarking on a journey whose destination is uncertain, you have to get comfortable with uncertainty. When it comes to social media, uncertainty has been, and for the foreseeable future, will necessarily be part of its use in your marketing equation. These are uncharted waters. Everyone is still learning. So, small businesses simply [...]
How Much Are Your Customers Willing To Take?
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Over time, customers acquire certain perceptions which influence their emotional response to new offerings. By recognizing such perceptions, you can position your offering so …
How to Make Your Small Business Look Bigger
Perception is reality, as the old expression goes. People trust big brands because they perceive them to be more successful and to offer greater value than smaller ones. But even …
Why The Best Products are Souvenirs
Marketing expert Seth Godin has more than once noted that a book is souvenir – a vessel for ideas that allows them to be readily used and shared. I believe we can further expand on that idea. Have you ever considered that the products and services your small business creates are souvenirs too? What Exactly [...]
How to Attract Customers
GUILTY. I will admit my fault up front. I literally spent a year building a fortress of ideas, marketing platforms, selling material, and products. The one thing I missed was you have to have customers and clients in order to make money!! Once I realized I needed to change my focus, I learned valuable lessons [...]
Pricing Lessons Learned From J.C. Penney’s
The Ron Johnson era at J.C. Penney’s has ended, leaving behind an important lesson for retailers of all sizes: Customers love a sale. Johnson took over as CEO of Penney’s …
How to Leverage Twitter for Business
Can Twitter boost your business? The social media site credits itself with myriad success stories, such as driving sales for HubSpot and increasing store visits for Brooklyn-based retailer Alter, through …
Social Media for Small Business – It’s Still Early Days
The art of marketing has always been about making meaningful connections with ideal buyers. Modern marketing is a practice that is new to most small businesses. Prior to that small businesses made meaningful connections through selling, not marketing. One of the reasons for this is that most of the media available in recent decades, including magazines, [...]
