Relationship-Based Marketing for Small Businesses Small businesses often have the challenge of growing customers without advertising dollars. Relationship-Based Marketing can be a cost-effective way to grow business. The old saying, “’Word of mouth is the best form of advertising,” is true now more than ever. Below is a four-step process: 1. Define what you do and what differentiates you fro...

Whenever speaking at a seminar I harp on my audience to use social media to create dialogue with their connections.  The entire point of social media is to foster two-way conversation between users.  If you try to use social media to simply push out your message you will immediately be ignored or worse, ridiculed. So how do you create dialogue with you consumers?  Here are five quick steps: 1. ...

Don’t Lose Touch – The Importance of Marketing Offline The age of new media is here. The latest buzz in marketing focuses on social media, internet promotions, FourSquare coupons, and Augmented Reality web cam scanners. These are all incredible advances in technology and great ways to connect to your consumers via the internet. It is essential for any business to stay current and involved wit...

On Tuesday nights at 8-9pm EDT we host a chat session on Twitter where small business owners can ask questions, share stories and make new contacts. To follow the next chat go to Tweetgrid.com and follow along on Tuesdays. If you want to add to the conversation, you must have a Twitter user account. For more details on the chat check out Where To Turn For Small Business Answers. This week’s top...

On Tuesday nights at 8-9pm EDT we host a chat session on Twitter where small business owners can ask questions, share stories and make new contacts. Follow hashtag #smbiz. To follow the next chat go to Tweetgrid.com and follow along on Tuesdays. If you want to add to the conversation, you must have a Twitter user account. This week’s topic is Offline Networking. Expert Panel of Blog Special...

Small business and networking go hand-in-hand just like peas and carrots. In fact, one could make the argument that you can’t have one without the other. The problem is, with the dawn - and success - of social networking via the Web, many of today’s entrepreneurs think you can successfully “network” without ever actually meeting many others in person. Sometimes you may thin...