You are not your target market. This simple sentence is powerful. It is my best advice for recruiting volunteers. And on the plane ride home from BlogWorld, it inspired three more stories. Here’s the first one: Quit hanging around with your own people. Go find the customers. I see many business owners or freelancers talking…
Mobile is the future of marketing, but no one is talking about the specifics. What do you do? How does it work? Tourism Currents co-founder SheilaScarborough sharing mobile secretswith Texas tourism pros. One thing that is here now, and works especially well for tourism-based businesses, is mobile coupons. A business can send just the coupons…
The narrower your niche, the wider your opportunity. After I wrote that story, Darrell Hyatt asked a great question: Sheila Scarborough and Darrell Hyattshare a laugh at dinnerat BlogWorld Expo 2010 When you narrow your niche, how do you find the clients inside it? Let me walk you through an example, from my own business…
At the Revitalize WA conference I sat in on a session by Scott Day with Urban Development Services, on Fifty Ideas for Retailers That Cost Less than $50. This is part two of the best of his tips. Go back and catch part one: Small Town Retail Ideas.Floor Plans Boehs Hardware in Helena, Oklahoma,has an open floor plan,baskets…
At the Revitalize WA conference I sat in on a session by Scott Day with Urban Development Services, on Fifty Ideas for Retailers That Cost Less than $50. People are not buying the same way they did three years ago. People are thinking and buying “inexpensive” far more often. Scott recommended a few tactics to…
Small town businesses and tourism groups are using Twitter for marketing and building community. One of the problems with that can be the limited reach. Twylah is one tool to reach more people, even those who don’t use or maybe don’t even like Twitter. Normal people view a Twitter page as something of a foreign…
Yes. Use them anyway. While QR Codes will disappear from popular use at some point, the idea of a link from the offline world to the online world won’t change. Whether the next technology is near field communications (NFC) or something we don’t even see yet, you can and will adapt. Believe in the idea of…
Small businesses struggle with website options. With all the do-it-yourself tools available, it’s tough to know when to turn to a professional for help. Long ago, Martin Kelly put this up as a comment here. I think it’s still relevant and helpful to small business owners. A few of the do-it-yourself website choices A few…
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