I’m a big Joe Pulizzi fan (even though he wears a lot of orange…sorry Joe…not a fan of orange). I read his previous book, “Epic Content Marketing” and thought it was a great read. I’m on his email list and regularly get content and information from the Content Marketing Institute. So I was eager to […]
Today I went to Bootcamp. Small Business Bootcamp that is, with Jim Joseph, author of The Experience Effect for Small Business and President of Cohn & Wolfe North America. The focus was how to build a brand customers love. Jim took his popular class from NYU and boiled it down to the basics of building a brand experience that will make people want to spend money with your company.
1 – Define your brand. Know who you are and what business you are best suited to own. Don’t go into retail if you’re not a people person. Make sure your interests and skills play to the business you’ve chosen. Define who your best customer is and why they are your best customer. Every small business must learn that there are some customers you just don’t want or need. Creating a profile of the best customers give you a guideline to follow on where to find more of them. Ask yourself what gaps in the market place can you make money on? There’s big money in niches if you can find the right one. Read more
Video is all the rage online, but how does a small business crack into the online video scene? Steve Garfield shows us just how easy it is in his book, Get Seen: Online Video Secrets to Building Your Business (New Rules Social Media Series)
In the upcoming week, I’m paying tribute to one of my favorite online marketing and pr gurus, David Meerman Scott. I love David Meerman Scott. I’m not afraid to admit it (although please don’t tell our spouses). Love and admiration aside, I think David’s books are a must read by any small business owner and / or anyone that deals in online marketing and ecommerce. So, I’ll be reviewing my favorites in this book review series that I’m calling: “Don’t Hate Me For Loving David Meerman Scott.”
“New Rules” details how the internet has completely shattered the rules of traditional marketing and public relations. It’s not about contacting the press to sell your story. It’s not about posting a brochure of your product offering. It’s not about using propaganda to sell your wares.
The New Rules are about having a voice and taking part in a conversation. It’s about solving problems for people and educating. It’s about establishing yourself and your company as a trusted resource, an expert at whatever it is that you do. It’s about new ways to reach people. Read more
If you work with anyone that has not yet come to terms with the realities of corporate blogging and what it means to your company’s online marketing strategy, do them a favor and buy them a copy of “Blogging to Drive Business.” At 173 pages it was an easy read, whether you’re a blogging beginner or novice.
This book covers all the blogging basics, details techniques and strategies for blogging success, and lists dozens of helpful resources. I especially liked the detail that was given for optimizing your blog and blog posts.
I was happy to see that the small business owner was covered with techniques on how to incorporate blogging into your online marketing plan, ideas for how to get started, and services to make your blogging easier. Read more
We’ve all run across websites that look like they were designed in someone’s basement by a 12 year old. Right? I don’t think the majority of business owners set out to design a crappy looking website, but all to often, the end result is just not pretty. I believe most of these cases could be classified under the heading, “you don’t know what you don’t know.”
“Web Design for ROI: Turning Browsers into Buyers & Prospects into Leads” by Lance Loveday and Sandra Niehaus delves into the topic of how to design websites that really make money and convert visitors to buyers. This book is an easy read at 190 pages, with lots of colorful pictures to show the good, the bad, and the ugly of web design. Read more
