Facebook ads may be one of the most underutilized forms of local advertising. No matter how small your town, I’ll bet you have locals present on Facebook. My home town of Alva, Oklahoma, has hundreds of Facebook users. And when you start thinking about how many people in your target area are online, you’ll realize…
Letting customers set your price sounds crazy. But Radiohead made a $10 million success out of letting customers name their own price to download their album, In Rainbows. Others have experimented with this business model, too. Here is one of the most interesting twists I’ve read: let your loyal customers help you determine the right…
Our friend Bruce Christensen, CEO of PartyWeDo, sent me this idea. It’s from a yarn store in Florida, but anyone could use it. Basically, the store allows customers to bring in yarn, or any fiber related gift, all wrapped up like a present. Then at a designated time, they play white elephant exchange. Read the…
Our friend Chel Wolverton helped me connect with award-winning novelist J.C. Hutchins to talk about promoting on little or no budget. I thought small businesses could take some lessons from his success. J.C. is best known for his high-tech 7th Son thriller trilogy, which he released as free serialized audiobooks from 2006-07. With more than 5 million…
Facebook can be a powerful tool for small business, and our friend Shama Hyder of Click to Client (2013 update: Shama’s firm is now called Marketing Zen) shared some outstanding tips in her presentation at BlogWorld Expo. Tip 1: Create a fan Page, not a personal Profile, for your business. Fan pages are the best way for…
Many times, it is worth paying for help with what seem like free tools like social media, websites, or even photography. Look at it this way. If you want to build a house, you probably already have a hammer and all the tools you need. You can find some lumber pretty cheap. There are even…
[Please welcome back our friend, frequent guest poster, and smart copywriter Denise McGill, with a timely reminder. -Becky] By Denise McGill If you haven’t done so already, now is the time to order those holiday business cards to let clients know they are appreciated! It’s no news that the economy is performing at below par…
“Memorable experiences are the ultimate scarce commodity.” That’s what I scribbled while driving, listening to Chris Anderson’s Free. The marginal cost of digital distribution is falling toward to cheap to measure, so it makes sense to offer many digital products for free. For example, the Audible copy of Free I was listening came with no…
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