The following is a list of guidelines and rules that can be used to help entrepreneurs collect, develop and use customer testimonials in their small business marketing. It’s important to use testimonials the right way because it’s definitely frowned upon to use a testimonial in a misleading way. Ask for testimonials: Don’t be shy about asking for a good testimonial to be used in your...

Everyone writes and blogs about trends and predictions for the coming year, so we’ll join the crowd. John Arnold wrote about 10 online marketing trends for 2010 on Entrepreneur.com. We’d like to list them here and debate whether or not we agree with his assessment to “test, invest or rest” the tactics. Many we agree on but there are a few we disagree with so here’s ou...

Here are six great small business marketing ideas that are easy to implement for any entrepreneur. 1. Position yourself as an expert If a client sees an article that answers some of their key questions, written by an expert (YOU), they are more likely to trust your company. Here are a few suggestions on becoming an expert: Expert Articles Find an industry publication and contact the editor about w...

What is the relationship between social media and PR? A lot of buzz and chatter is going around about this question. Social media is an exciting new prospect. I noticed that a lot of social media also seemed to fall into the “PR” category. As a PR expert, I’d like to introduce you to the next level and present a new idea – Hybrid PR. Social media is a great way to supplement your PR an...

Now that virtually the whole business world is online let’s take a time out to reflect on our Web presence to see if there are specific places we can sharpen our small business Web site. Below are 14 areas many entrepreneurs may not actively think about to improve their business Web site. (if you would like to add to this list, comments at the end are ALWAYS encouraged) 1. Review your headli...

Everyone is bad at spelling at some point, especially when we’re in a hurry. Look at it this way, how many times have you gone to Google, typed something in, and then realized that you didn’t spell your keyword correctly? If you’re a perfect speller on the computer every single time, go ahead right now and try this. No, really, we won’t tell anyone. Ok, did you notice that ...