Do Local Businesses Still Need a Website?
Does your website still serve a purpose? Google’s primary objective is to answer people’s questions as quickly and as accurately as possible. Years ago, if you searched for a product or service, you would have been required to click a link to another website from the search page. This is no longer true. If you…
Read MoreHow to Write Marketing Text Messages That Will Drive Sales
How to Write Marketing Text Messages Marketing text messages have become over 4 times as effective as marketing emails. Research shows that customers are 8 times more likely to redeem text coupons than email coupons. Your customers are almost 400% LESS likely to even open their emails: compare marketing texts open rate of 98% to marketing emails’ meager 22%.…
Read MoreHow to Get Inbound Marketing Right for Your Small Business
If you have a small business and you want to maximize your returns, paying attention to inbound marketing is critical. First, let’s examine what it is and how inbound marketing can help your small business. A Bit About Inbound Marketing Inbound marketing is more about your customers than you. It is about providing them with…
Read More10 Free Marketing Tools You’ll Want to Try
Who doesn’t like FREE stuff? I’m always on the lookout for free marketing tools to share with small business and nonprofit readers and clients. These ten below encompass content marketing, SEO (search engine optimization), music, writing, marketing research, direct mail marketing, animation, videos, and CRM (customer relationship management)! 1. Portent’s Content Idea Generator When you need…
Read MoreHow to Analyze Your Data for Decision-Making
The best type of data analysis takes data and turns it into value from actionable insights. But the road in between is by no means a straight path, and has several pit stops that can derail that end value. In my 1,389 hours of data analysis at Seer (that’s nearly 2 months straight – 14% there,…
Read More4 Crucial Issues Every Entrepreneur Should Care About
As an entrepreneur, it’s easy to get caught up in what you’re doing on a daily basis. You might forget about some of the social, economic, and environmental issues facing our world, because you’re just trying to get your product to market or work all the bugs out of your service. In fact, you might…
Read MoreThe 3-4-5 Party
When a customer at one of her other parties is hesitant about hosting, Leslie Adderhold, a manager with Pink Zebra, asks them what is holding them back from having a party. Most often it is a time issue so the 3 – 4 – 5 party is a perfect solution Simply put, the 3 –…
Read MoreHire for the Soft Skills
Remember a few years ago when it was simple to hire? There were so many people that had been displaced by the recession that finding a qualified and available candidate was a piece of cake. That is definitely not the case today. The employee shortage is real and in certain sectors, it’s a serious crisis.…
Read MoreThere’s Good News for Women in STEM and Ending Gender Bias
According to a study by the Girl Scouts Research Institute, over 80% of girls are interested in pursuing a STEM career and 13% say it is their first choice for the future. Unfortunately, many girls lose interest in STEM by the age of 15, due to lack of female mentors, role models, or hands-on practice.…
Read MoreSubject of a Business Tax Investigation? Here’s What You Should Do
In terms of situations you’d rather not find yourself in, being the subject of a small business tax investigation probably ranks quite high. The first you’ll usually know of an impending tax investigation is a letter from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) arriving in your mailbox. This is actually an important point because the IRS…
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