Small Business

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• Small Businesses Moving Aggressively to Online Marketing
  Small and midsize companies (SMBs) continue to move marketing dollars to digital channels, according to BIA/Kelsey, which now forecasts digital spending among US SMBs to reach $16.6 billion annually by ...
  Forecasts, Online Marketing, Research Summaries, Small Business
• WOM, Forums, Blogs Top Influencers of SMB Buyers
  Though word-of-mouth recommendations still have the greatest influence on purchasing decisions among small and medium-sized businesses, online forums and blogs play a huge role in the process, too—and a more ...
  Research Summaries, Small Business, Social Media, Word-of-Mouth
• Social Media Gets Mixed Reviews From Small Business
  Small business owners are still lukewarm about social media: 53% say they use social media for business, but only 12% say social marketing is a must for their business, according ...
  Research Summaries, Small Business, Social Media
• How to Build Facebook Friends and Fans for Your Small BusinessTim Reeve
  [Slide Show] Though it's great to have tons of Facebook friends, those friends are worthless if they aren't engaged. Here are six ways to attract and retain Facebook friends who ...
  Advertising, Community, Facebook, Small Business, Social Media
• What Your Company Can Learn from This Parking Garage
  "If there's one message I have stressed more than any other over the last few years," writes Bill Taylor at Harvard Business Online, "it is that it is not good ...
  Creativity, Small Business
• Beware of Shiny Marketing Toys
  Many marketers can't resist a shiny toy. Whether pay-per-click in the mid 1990s, Web 2.0 in the early 2000s or mobile marketing in the late 2000s, we want it—and we ...
  Marketing Strategy, Marketing Tips, Small Business
• How to Enchant Your Customers and Employees
  Guy Kawasaki recently spoke with Stephen Denny about his new book, Enchantment, and the themes in its subtitle: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions. "As he says, there ...
  Customer Engagement, Small Business, Social Media
• How and When to 'Reply All'
  The "reply all" button can produce all kinds of headaches—from filling inboxes with unnecessary chatter to damaging a brand's reputation. "Unwitting or careless use of reply all spawns much mischief," ...
  Collaboration, Email, Small Business
• Small Business Owners Working Harder, but Happy
  More than three-quarters of US microbusiness owners say they are very (42%) or extremely (35%) happy to work for themselves, according to Vistaprint's newly launched Small Business Happiness Index, which ...
  Career Management, Research Summaries, Small Business
• Small Business Marketing: Social Surging, Email Still Most Effective
  Though the use of social media among the nation's smallest businesses surged in 2010—a trend likely to continue in 2011—email and brand websites are still the two most effective marketing ...
  Email Marketing, Research Summaries, Small Business, Social Media, Websites
• How to Put Your Customers on Hold
  In a post at the Neuromarketing blog, Roger Dooley recalls trying to minimize wait times when his company oversaw a small call center. "We knew (from those times when we ...
  Customer Engagement, Small Business, Social Media
• Two Content No-Nos for Your Blog
  "On one of my recent trips on the Content Revolution Tour with the great Ann Handley of Marketing Profs," writes Becki Dilworth at the Bridgeline blog, "I found myself hanging ...
  Blogging, Content, Small Business
• How to Create Customer Personas
  "Your site has hordes of visitors every day clamoring to check out the vintage comics you sell," writes Veronica Maria Jarski at MarketingProfs Daily Fix. "But what do you know ...
  Customer Behavior, Personas, Small Business, Website Design
• Three Tips for Making Smart Hires
  Successful marketing requires a strong team—whether it's dealing with customers on the front line, writing copy for email campaigns or developing products. "One way to hire smart is to never ...
  Collaboration, Management, Small Business
• Ask Customers What You Don't Do Well
  When you spend proverbial blood, sweat and tears building a small business, the last thing you probably want to do is ask customers what you're getting wrong. But it doesn't ...
  Collaboration, Customer Engagement, Small Business
• Are You Getting Twitter Right?
  "Building a brand through social strategies doesn't happen overnight," writes Maria Pergolino at Marketo's blog, "it requires a sustained commitment using effective strategies for engagement and relationship building." Even as ...
  Marketing Strategy, Small Business, Social Media, Twitter
• Why Customers Might Want to Pick Up Online Orders at Your Store
  Barnes & Noble pioneered the concept of online orders shipped to brick-and-mortar stores for customer pickup. In Marketing by the Numbers, Leland Harden and Bob Heyman present a case study ...
  Case Studies, E-Commerce, Small Business
• How to Fire a Bad Customer
  When you're trying to hold on to every last customer, you might not realize that some of them are doing your company more harm than good. "One thing most business ...
  Customer Engagement, Customer Relationships, Small Business
• Ten Reasons You Shouldn't Ignore Social Media
  Plenty of businesses thought social media was a passing fad—something that would dazzle everyone for a brief time and disappear. But as the Facebooks and Twitters show staying power, Christine ...
  Consumer Electronics, Customer Engagement, Small Business, Social Media
• Small Business Marketing: Social, Search Fastest-Growing Channels
  Despite a lack of investment in marketing technologies and staffing over the past two years, many small businesses are now stepping up investments in digital channels such as social media, ...
  Digital Marketing, Research Summaries, Search Engine Marketing, Small Business, Social Media