Weird that I’d write a blog post about paying for content in a free content world, isn’t it?! Weirder yet that StartupNation has for years on end been a STRICTLY free content site and hosts many tens of thousands of pages of free content and features.
So why have we recently launched a paid content offering [...]
If you want to increase your level of returning customers, there is one major thing that you need to take care of at the very beginning of every relationship - Expectations.
This may sound simple, but if you don’t spell out what you are going to provide for the money, you can run into major confusion [...]
In the time it takes you to shop at your local grocery store, you could implement simple and easy changes to your website to make it stand out from the crowd.
Online competition is fierce. Consumers and B2B (Business to Business) buyers have many choices. Checking out your competitors is merely a click away. So it’s [...]
As a business owner, I love being my company’s “evangelist.” I get huge kicks from educating and exciting people about becoming a customer. But frankly, there’s an even more important—though arguably less exhilarating—aspect to closing new business. We call it, the art of follow up.
My feelings about this were confirmed and further fueled at [...]
As Halloween approaches, you’ll see spooky ghosts, goblins and monsters everywhere. But for many of us, the real scare comes from talking to media members.
If picking up the phone to pitch a reporter gives you the chills, here are three simple tips to make the experience less frightful:
1. Prepare.
Before calling a reporter, know what that person [...]
You put a lot of time and energy into your website so that it represents your business in the right way. Sometimes, though, it can be too easy to focus on the technical and visual elements of a site before realizing that it’s just not conveying a warm, human feeling. Sometimes, a business website can [...]
Many new clients tell me that they have a blog, but no one is reading it. Other clients ask me if they need a blog.
Well, if you have a blog, or are wondering if you need one, you may have these questions:
• What’s the point?
Before you start writing, figure out why you want to have a [...]
In today’s climate of social media marketing, business owners are encouraged to get word out about their company in as many formats as possible. According to Michelle Carroll of 1stop Marketing Solutions:
"Companies are looking for new ways to sell their products and engage customers. Social media is an effective and low cost marketing strategy that [...]
Innovate or die.
OK, it’s not always as severe as that, but sometimes innovation truly changes an entire industry and means wealth for one company and bankruptcy for another.
Think about how NetFlix outmaneuvered Blockbuster. Or how Google outmaneuvered Yahoo!. Or how Apple with its iTunes store outmaneuvered Tower Records, Virgin and the entire music industry.
The problem [...]
As the “royalty” status of Hollywood stars has risen, so has their effectiveness as key influencers in consumer purchasing behaviors. Celebrity product placement is considered an “influencer-marketing” approach for helping brands increase their competiveness in an increasingly crowded marketplace. Marketers and small business owners can harness that power through strategic product placement opportunities that have [...]
