By Dana Wallert As a virtual assistant and website designer, I’ve been working on a what I’ve found to be a highly underused marketing tactic. I live in Lawrence, KS. We’re a college town which means there are tons of freelance designers in and just out of school. We’re also a stone’s throw from Kansas…
Drew, of The Marketing Minute, has put together an awesome PDF of marketing lessons he learned on vacation at Disney. They are simple, direct and to the point. And more important, the lessons end with a challenging question to help you evaluate your own business. New to SmallBizSurvival.com? Take the Guided Tour. Like what you…
Today’s rural entrepreneurship news is full of ideas you can copy and adapt. Start a rural food festivalIf you have a rural food or ag business, get together with your neighbors to start a rural food festival. Read about a successful food festival in Isreal. Get the attention of your government; copy “Rural Oregon Day”All…
The high profile Freakonomics Blog noticed a tiny slice of rural business, when they profiled the Farmers Only online dating site. Farmers Only got noticed because it fit into one of their trends: niche online dating sites. Which brings us to the business idea: target your product or service to the rural and small town…
Another great small town small business idea: If you can draw, consider painting windows of small businesses in your town. A local artist used to do a healthy side business of decorating business windows with seasonal designs. Since we can’t draw at all, we miss her! Could you provide a similar service in your small…
Our friend Jack Schultz found the best ever “shop local” campaign. (From Oklahoma, of course!) An advertisement from the Perkins Community Foundation really caught my eye in the Perkins Journal. It showed a picture of the local fire department fighting a fire in the community with this caption, “If you have a fire, you need…
Our friend Zane Safrit has created three podcasts on creating word of mouth around your company. Safrit knows about this. His company uses WOM exclusively. They no longer use any traditional advertising. The three steps sound easy, but are hard to do well. That explains why so few people do this. The introduction is here….
If you make a product that you want to sell in the big chain stores, like Walgreens or Winn-Dixie, you probably want all the help you can get. I just found the TGroup Marketing blog, presented by Turner Marketing Group, specializing in reaching the mass market retailers. The articles are good, and specific to this…
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