Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category

SEO can be very elusive to some, but its downright something that all bloggers should concentrate on if monetization is a goal. If you are not in a niche market, targeted SEO can be very difficult and often comes post by post. The key is not get lackadaisical about setting it up before you hit that publish button.

I admit that I can be extremely lazy in this aspect on my own personal blog and its cost me big numbers over the years.

Sometimes publishing up to 3-5 articles a day for your audience can make you jump the gun and ignore the tags, the keywords, and the elements that will give you long term respect in the search engines, whose affects will last well beyond your initial audience.

Here are 5 tips to SEO your posts for some google love.

SEO Tip #1) Get your own domain. As much as google and wordpress wanna rope you in with their .blogspot and .wordpress, the only ones they are doing any favor to, is them. Regardless of what platform you are on, nothing can take the place of a top level domain in a .com .

Sure, if you have to settle for a .net (.org and .edu also get good rankings if they are relevant) then do, but nothing takes the place of a good old .com. Aside from the fact that it’s, well, the most known ending of all websites, the chances of being confused with another website with the same name won’t be one of your worries as you grow.

Finding something that is in your niche, a keyword likely to be typed in and tied into what you are selling or speaking about, and of course easy to remember and spell, is imperative to long term success. Not only will it be your branding, but a domain name is a direct reflection of the amount and type of visitors you get from search engine traffic.

When I set out to name my blog, I knew I wanted the word “mom” in my domain somehow. I wanted it to be unique, short, and as easy as possible to remember. It took about 10 trial names before I settled on “MomDot.com”, which was my clever rendition of Mom(dot)com. The biggest issue I have found with my name is that when I am speaking it, it takes a bit to have people understand.

Mom.com? No, MomDOT(dot)com!

• Tip #1A) I didn’t really think out the implications of the spoken word and often get caught up myself explaining my own name. Make sure you say your new domain out-loud before you purchase it.

1. Does it sound normal?
2. Is it easy to say, easy to explain?
3. If you were on the phone with a PR rep or a radio station,would it come out clearly?

• Tip #1B) As mentioned before, a domain is also a brand. Think long and hard on your brand. Do you want to reflect a business, a personal interest, a product, yourself? Its a lot easier to find a domain and establish it right the first time, then it is to get 6 months into it and change. Don’t jump the gun on purchasing something you are excited about, then later realizing it didn’t fit the overall goal and you have to start over. Page ranks are assigned per domain, so starting over could mean losing links, page ranks, and even recognition.

I know because at conferences, people call me “MomDot”, and not Trisha, quite often.

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SEO Tip #2) Think long and hard about your post titles. What you write in your title are the keywords that search engines give the most weight to. Its very easy to disregard your title and opt for something quick, easy, or cute, but titling something “my tips” as opposed to “Top 10 SEO tips for mom bloggers”, will pretty much insure your article begins and ends after you publish.

Search engines crawlers decide that your titles, the largest parts of each post that are generally bolded and in a bigger text, mean more. Remember a spider (also known as a robot or web crawler) reads your site by text, so the larger and closer to the top a word is, the more the search engines believe that is what your site, and essential your content, is about.

Here is a sample from my personal mom blog:

In the first graphic, you can see a post I wrote yesterday on Charlotte. While its a good conversationalist topic and asks a question, which inspires a comment response, as far as long term click throughs on that article, its going to be almost none when its off the front page.

Now on the 2nd article, you can see a comparison review I did back in December 1st, 2008 for Dyson. I opted for a keyword phrase for the title that most people would type in, which was comparing the two top lines of that vacuum out at the time.  Its been over a year and the second article still accounts for daily search engine clicks for my site.

Now imagine if you did that with the thousands of posts you write per year?

You are most likely missing out on 100’s of visitors that will never see your site because you didn’t take the extra 3 minutes it takes to SEO a post before you published.

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SEO Tip #3) Don’t ignore the permalinks:  Most people call them pretty permalinks. There is nothing worse then a permalink that is “http://www.yoursite.com/products/date/productname/bunchofjunkyoudontneed/post.htm

Not only is that nearly impossible for people to tweet (including you) without going to bit.ly (which unless its your mom they wont do for you, so your missing traffic in social networking too) but its also extremely unfriendly for a spider.

Remember, the closer to the top, the closer to the beginning, the more weight it gives. That means your domain name gets the weight, then the next word, then the next word.

Provided what your content is actually about is the LAST word, google may not even care by the time it goes through 9 words on your permalink. If your article is on “widgets” it needs to be ‘Hhtp://www.sitename.com/widget” .

The end.

Lets say your entire site is about that one widget and thats all you write. Change it up and use alternate keywords, phrases, and likely search terms that visitors will type in to find you.

A pretty permalink looks like this:

This should also, again, show you how important your domain name is.

You can search what users are typing into the search engines and find out keywords and alternate phrases at Google Keywords.

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SEO Tip #4) Everyone forgets about the pictures. Its easy to do.  But pictures are content. You upload them from your memory card and they are named picture234324.jpg and when you add to your site, you don’t even consider changing the name or adding alternate text.

Stop doing that right now.

Pictures, if named properly, can bring more relevance to your article. If you are doing a post on “Graco Strollers” and want to share a picture of a graco stroller, by all means NAME it gracostroller.jpg and put some alternate text on it like “Top Graco Stroller for 2009″.

Pictures are crawled and put into image search engines. I once had a picture in Bing send 17,000 unique visitors to my site in one day because it was the #1 picture term looked up that day in some freak story online and I was the #1 picture in Bing for it.

Yes, 17,000.

The post was extremely old, but the picture was SEOed properly. What would have happened if I had just left that photo named img1923923.jpg? I wouldn’t have been indexed for that term and I would have missed out on some major exposure.

If you are on wordpress, this is your screen when you upload a picture….there is a reason all of that is there. USE IT.

Also, when you are adding pictures, surround the picture itself with text that contains keywords and excellent content. Again, let me point out that a robot spider is crawling your page, not a real person, so you have to lead it to what your post is about.

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SEO Tip #5) Don’t forget about them keywords: Using keywords in your posts are important. Remember to think about what you would type in to the search engine to find your post.

Would it be a “how to bake a cake”, would it be “top chocolate cake recipes”?

Start using those phrases and words embedded in your post correctly. Use them as lead ins to your paragraphs, connect them in your permalinks and post titles, and give it a really good sprinkling of healthy terms.

• Tip #5A) Do not pad your post with all the same search term. Search engines call this “stuffing” and it can actually hurt you. While you may want the search term “mom blog”, don’t just use that phrase.
• Use mom blogs, mom blogger, mommy blogs, top moms online, influential blogs, etc.  Its also better to seek out lesser used search terms where you are likely to capture the majority of the audience. You may be competing with 1000’s of sites with the word “mom blog” but maybe only a few hundred with the term “top mom blogger”. I would rather capture the majority of the 100 people that are typing in the latter, then 10 out of the 1000 that type in the larger name of ‘mom blog’.
• Tip #5B) While I would never recommend a misspelled word in a blog, there are many words that are commonly misspelled and consequently mistyped, into the search engine. Naming a photo or an atl text with the common misspelling can bring you search engine results to those typing it in wrong.

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• Bonus Tip)  Meta Tags: Your blog has a name. Your blog has a description. Again, where you put each word is where google ranks it. Its not a smart idea to put your business/blog name first in those title tags unless you are really known as that name and that will be your search engine type in key words.

Again, use words that people will type in to find your site in your blog title AND in your blog description.

In my example of my mom blog, you can see that I have chosen to put the term “mom blog” at the beginning, my site name second, and my personal name last. Now in my description, I am constantly changing it. I used to be on the front page of google for “Mom Blogs” and now I am on the top of the 2nd page simply because I was testing new description key words.

It makes a difference.

Another thing to point out is the term “mom blogs” is NOT the term “mom blog”. You have to SEO for the exact terms you want. In my case, taking out the terms ‘public relations’ and ‘media’ would be smart as the majority of my site isn’t related to that, and instead adding keywords that will be better for my personal site.

You can find out what your site says about you at this FREE META TAG ANALYZER. Just plugin your domain name and voila. Now you know what the spiders see. If you don’t like what it says, use this Meta Tag Generator to fix, and then add to your header in your blog.

If you are on Wordpress, you can also use plugins like All in One SEO, which is a very flexible and easy way to get this done.

Bonus Tip #A) Don’t think that you can add keywords that have nothing to do with your site. Just because the word “sex” gets a lot of google type in per month, doesn’t mean you can throw that in your title, permalink, and site description and its going to bring you 1 million sex addicts. Your content still has to be relevant to what you use. Google is wise to fake keywords, so they wont give you weight unless your site is, in fact, about sex. Make sense?

Now this article could go on at least another 20 paragraphs in SEO tips, but another tip is, don’t cram everything into one article at the same time. Break it up so your spiders can read it properly and so your visitor doesn’t get bored and quit reading.

I sincerely hope this was helpful and check back for upcoming tech articles and more SEO tips in the future. If you liked this article or found it helpful, we would appreciate a tweet or a link so other mom bloggers can be inspired.

To your success!

~Trisha

Want more blogging tips? Check out Trisha’s newsletter!

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Trisha Haas is the owner of MomDot, often referred to in the media and a partnership in Top Mom Blogger, a helpful site to grow your blog.

Howdy! Hope you’re doing well!!

On Tuesday, I gave you a “Tackle it Tuesday” task – Gathering up all of your marketing efforts into one place. Now, for Thoughtful Thursday, I want you to take a moment and give some thought to your gatherings.

Grab a piece of paper and jot down the following questions and the answers to these questions:

• Does your marketing mesh with your current vision?
• Are you happy with what your message says?
• Do you need to revamp your message or your brand?
• Are there any additional places that you can be marketing?
• Any other ideas or thoughts that come to mind?

These will be the basis of your marketing plan for 2010. This will help to direct your sales vision. This information is crucial to your success in 2010!

Think…Think…Think…

And then let me know if you need help!

A

Welcome to our first Tackle it Tuesday. Every Tuesday I will be doing a post with the goal of tackling something (anything) that will help your business get ahead.

Today’s tackling goal: Gathering up all of your current marketing efforts.

If you are like most companies you should have a variety (even if it is a small one) of marketing efforts; this may include a combination of the following:

• Profiles on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn
• Links in online directories or other websites
• Print ads for magazines, newspapers or directories
• Collateral such as promo videos, brochures and business cards
• Giveaways like pens, magnets etc.
• Anything that has your company name on it anywhere, anyplace

Some of these items may be as easy to locate as your yellowpages book, your desk drawer or maybe your car (what do you mean you don’t have marketing materials in your car?!). Other items maybe harder to find.. Doing a search on the major engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN) will probably bring up items you didn;t even know where out there, so do that as well.

Perform the following searches in these engines and you’re all set:

1. Type the following in the search bar: link:http://www.yourdomain.com and press search.. This provides you with a listing of any site that has linked to you.
2. Search your own name “First Last” in both Canadian and American options
3. Search your business name “Business Name” in both Canadian and American options

(The reason for my use of quotations is this, if you type in your name as First Last, what the search engines will do is bring up any/everyone with your same first and/or your same last name in the search results. If you add quotation marks, the search engines limits the results to what is written inside the quotes; It will show your name only.)

Keep all of these newly found marketing methods in an envelope for now because I will guide you through another task (one that needs this info) on Thursday.

Have fun searching!!

Ariane

TGIF! We made it! What a great Small Business Week – Loads of collaboration, prizes being donated, Retweets flying around and tons of business being drummed up! I would have to say, this week has been a great success!

We received great feedback from yesterday’s Tip sheet on “Got Less Than $500 in the Bank? MARKET Your Biz!!”, Our Retweets flew around – putting tons more entries into the prize pot!
Make sure you join us on Twitter and Retweet this post for your entry to win one of our great prizes!

So far, our Small Biz Week Prizes include:

• A $265 Small business Tax Package from Hilary McDonald Accounting
• A Virtual Office Subscription from 5050Biz
• The Couponizer coupon system
• New York Times best seller “One Year to an Organized Work Life” from the author herself Regina Leeds
• Limited edition T-shirts from RIPT Apparel
• The book 101 Media and Marketing Tips for the Sole Proprietor from Nanette Miner, a.k.a. The Training Doctor
• “How to Do Space Age Work with a Stone Age Brain: using your brain style for small business success with less stress” from Eve Abbott, Organizer Extraordinaire
• .. more prizes arriving daily!!

Every time you Retweet this post you’ll receive one entry to win a prize!
Prizes were originally going to be given out today – but people who will be will be Retweeting this post will miss out! So plans have changed and all prizes will be given out on Monday!

As I said at the beginning of the week, this week’s posting would be out of our usual – with one post per day, Monday we will return to our usual scheduled posts – 1 – 2 per week. We have awesome spotlights coming up AND we have a new feature – Ask the expert – where you can submit a question to one of our experts (Legal, Financial, HR etc.) and receive an answer!  But for now, without further ado – here is today’s post!

SAVING MONEY IN YOUR FIRST YEAR OF BIZ! (Download Here!)

Everyone loves saving money but it can be a make or break factor in your first year of business if your money is not taken care of properly. Read the following tips on how to save money for things like staffing, advertising and even purchasing supplies!
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Get a Great Accountant
Save money your first year in business by keeping your finances organized. One of the most important components to staying on top of your finances is to make sure you are working with good accountant. A good accountant will make sure you are planning effectively for taxes so there are no surprises at filing time. Secondly, keep good records. This means keeping all of your receipts, business and personal together, preferably in some sort of filing system. The more you have them organized the less you will spend on bookkeeping and accounting charges.
Hilary L. McDonald, Accountant – www.HilaryMcDonald.com
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Take a Vacation
One of the often overlooked aspects of a successful business is time off to recharge the batteries. During the early years of my business I knew I needed time off, yet my wife and I were trying to conserve cash. One of the things we did was to schedule a 3 or 4 day weekend. Throw a suitcase in the trunk and pick a direction. We’d travel until some caught our interest, then we’d stop and check it out. We made sure that we had a room by 4:00 p.m., then we’d scout the area surrounding the area. For a few hundred dollars we were able to have a great time and energize ourselves. The key was not to have an itinerary. The combination of not having an itinerary and exploring new places was all that it took to refresh the mind and renew the spirit
Dale Furtwengler, Furtwengler & Associates, P.C. – http://www.furtwengler.com
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Swap It
Swap for the services you need like marketing and web development or even vacations on Zakle.com
Eric Stamos, Co-Founder – Zakle.com
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Share Expenses
Look for partners to share the cost of a booth with you at Trade Shows. I have been fortunate to have shared a table with Reiki Pet Healers at Pet Expos that I really wanted to attend. It was WELL worth it!
Lisa Illman, THE KRITTER KOMMUNITY – http://kritterkommunity.com
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Create Your Own Network
Create a Meetup.com networking group in your area of business and have prospects come to you for thought leadership! Just make sure you have content of value to offer them.
Michael Shostack, Qualified B2B Leads LLC – www.qualifiedb2bleads.com
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Go to College
I had a college intern this summer helping research and collect information for an email series I am about to launch. She was free (I fed her a lot)
Denise LaBuda – www.moneywizdom.com
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Give Your Stuff Away
Make in kind donations rather than giving cash to get sponsorship exposure
Susan Barry, Hive Marketing – www.hive-marketing.com
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Catch Up On Your Reading
Read “5 Ways To Start A Business For Under $1000”
Heather Allard, The Mogul Mom – http://www.themogulmom.com
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Get Your Office Equipment for Free
Join your local Freecycle.com chapter (free) and ask for whatever you need to set up your office or store: office furniture, office supplies (binders, in baskets), office equipment, display stands, etc
Sue Freeman
Footprint Press, Inc. – www.footprintpress.com
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Question Everything
When you are considering spending money, on anything, ask yourself if you really, truly need it at this stage of your business. Maybe your website can be a lot simpler than you realize. Maybe you don’t need business cards yet. Maybe getting office space is premature. Small business budgets are usually so thin that money shouldn’t be spent until an issue keeps coming up and can no longer be ignored.
Mark C. Webster, Websterism – http://www.websterism.com
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Check Out the Credit Union
One of the “ankle bitters” that can nibble away on a start-ups budget is banks fees. You can avoid many of these fees by turning to and using a credit union. When I first started up my own company I first visited a national bank and they wanted to have average balances or there would be a fee, there were check fees and all kinds of fees. When I went to the credit union all I had to do was to deposit $25 into a savings account to open up an account and there were no fees and on top of that I earn a little tiny interest each month from my money. I have found the credit union I use to be friendly and are more start-up friendly verse the large national banks.
Sharon Evans, Founder of Trillion Dollar Funding – www.trilliondollarfunding.com
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Become a Community Member
Give up your gym membership, and take up walking/running. Gyms are expensive, plus it’s easy to zone out at the gym. Instead, walk or run through new parts of your city. While you are out, take mental notes on new businesses in your area, or business owners you would like to contact. The only way to understand how to do business in your community is to be a member of your community!
Ansley Meredith, Owner, ENERGIZED Media Relations – www.energizedmediarelations.com
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Rack Up the Points
Use a small business rewards credit card to pay for every day purchases (including advertising) Just pay it off at the end of each month and keep the points!
Carolyn Adams, Borders + Gratehouse – www.bordersgratehouse.com
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Use Coupons
Using coupons can save you tons of money in the first year of business and beyond! A great system to use to keep your coupons organized is the Couponizer, a proven system of tools designed to help you save more money, more consistently.
Ariane Griffiths, President, Foundation Studio Marketing & Promotions – www.foundationstudio.ca
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Create Bench Marks
When you sell X amount of dollars, get a part time secretary or a new phone system, or anything else you may need.
Orit Pennington, TPGTEX Label Solutions, Inc. – www.tpgtex.com
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Be Energy Efficient
Not only is this good for the planet, but often times it saves you money! Turn off all the lights when you leave or if you aren’t in a specific room. Unplug machines from the wall over the weekend. Set the A/C or heat to reflect when you are or aren’t in the office. Use fluorescent light bulbs – they require less power and last longer. Purchase paper and toilet paper made of recycled products.
Samantha Scott, Grand Poobah, Pushing the Envelope – http://www.GetPushing.com
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Get Advice
Start an advisory board consisting of an attorney, accountant, business coach, marketing director, etc. This way you get free professional advice on an ongoing basis.
Marian H. Gordon, Yippee Print & Marketing – www.yippeeprinting.com
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Lose the Commute
The biggest, and most costly, mistake I almost made was leasing an office when I started my PR and Marketing Communications firm. Now, I have 2 employees who work for me out of their homes, as do I, without the added cost of office rent. I think it’s the largest single cost, apart from labor or raw materials that a company can incur in many instances.
David Manzer, The Sage Closer – www.thesagecloser.com
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Educate Yourself
Free Learning – NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation has a free entrepreneurship curriculum for educators, but you can get it too. Go to universities for lectures. It’s just as good or better than networking events you pay for.
Kathy Korman Frey, Founder, Hot Mommas Project – http://www.HotMommasProject.org
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Negotiate
Many people know next to nothing about negotiation when they setup their first business; Learning that skill is the single greatest opportunity to save money. Slash 10% on supplier’s prices or office rent and that money goes directly to your bottom line each and every month afterwards. You don’t have to be Donald Trump to negotiate, and there is one secret few ‘insiders’ will share: Often simply making the effort to negotiate will get a discount.
Richard Kershaw, Quality Nonsense Ltd. – www.QualityNonsense.com
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Do It Yourself
Do everything you can by yourself for as long as you can, and then do it a bit longer.
This allowed us to learn the business first and focus on ancillary skills second. This trades efficiency, i.e. time which we had, for money which we did not have. There is no better way to get better at something than doing it over and over, even if you don’t want to.
Damien Casten – www.candidwines.com
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Join a Co-op
Joining a group of like-minded individuals can save you lots of money! The Mom Entrepreneur has a seasonal co-op shop where you can advertise your company for less money than if you were to advertise by yourself. By pooling your resources, you can get the same (if not bigger) bang for your buck than going it alone!
http://coopshop.themomentrepreneur.com/
Ariane Griffiths, President, Foundation Studio Marketing & Promotions – www.foundationstudio.ca
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Keep Your Eye on the Little Things
As a new business owner, an excellent way to save money is by watching the little things. I added up the little subscriptions for $10 here or $15 there to be listed with this service, etc and I spent $205 just trying to get my business’ name out there and I don’t believe there was any ‘payoff’!
Monica Barnett, President, Blueprint for Style – http://www.blueprintforstyle.com
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Be Selective
Be selective when choosing networking events to attend. A luncheon can easily cost $30-$45, but you might get away with $5-$10 to attend a happy hour. You can meet just as many people, if not more, when attending a cheaper event. (Nobody talks at a luncheon while you’re eating all that expensive food anyway!) Also, if you have attended one group’s networking functions for a few months in a row, take a couple months off to try a different group. You could make new contacts by exploring different opportunities, and you will have that “new kid on the block” cache when you eventually return to your first group!
Ansley Meredith, Owner, ENERGIZED Media Relations – www.energizedmediarelations.com
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Ask for Help
Just ask for help, many people will help you out if you plead your case.
Peter E Raymond, President + Chief Innovator, Human Condition – www.hcxdesign.com
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Carpool
Carpool to lunches, meetings, etc – you get a double benefit – save gas and network/build a relationship with the person you’re riding with
Shari L Frisinger, CornerStone Strategies LLC – www.cornerstonestrategiesllc.com
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Give an Incentive
Create an incentive for customers and prospects to post testimonials to a Facebook fan page. An example might be: “Post your favourite reason why our product is so good on our fan page (using YouTube video) and win free tickets to a sporting event provided by XYZ partner”.
Nathan McKelvey, Founder, Hidden Equity LLC – www.hiddenequity.com
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Put Down the Bottle
My first year in business I drank tap water. It won’t kill you and it’s a lot cheaper than bottled water.
Shane Fischer, Attorney at Law – www.fischer-law.com
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Volunteer Your Time
I knew that I had to build my business through networking but I didn’t have a lot of money to join associations and networking groups. My way around this was to call the group facilitators to volunteer my services of running the registration table, or any other helpful tasks that would offset my attendance fees. The majority of people took me up on my offer. I was able to find out whether or not this was a membership I wanted to pursue, AND promote my business, AND provide an extra hand when needed, all on my shoestring budget.
Lauren Milligan – www.ResuMAYDAY.com
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Go Digital
Instead of paying for my own business telephone line, I now have a GoogleVoice account which picks up my calls and creates text messages for me!
Monique Harris, Photographer – www.mportraitphotography.com
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Rent It
Don’t waste money setting up a fancy office. Either work from home or find a low-rent out-of-the-way space. If you need to impress a client, there are plenty of places to rent a conference room by the hour.
Shel Horowitz, Author, 8 books – http://www.frugalmarketing.com
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Outsource It
My biggest expense today is payroll. But when I first started I saved a ton of money by farming out work to independent contractors across the world, which I found on sites like Guru and Elance. I connected with talented people and paid by the project, and had almost zero in payroll, payroll taxes, workers comp, employee benefits, bonuses, etc.
Jay Kamhi, President, Kamhi World – www.kamhiworld.com

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I truly hope you enjoed this series of tip sheets! I had a great time putting them together and more than anything else – meeting all of these great people who went out of their way to provide a little insight in helping you get your business started (or revitalised) on the right path!!

* All of our Retweeters will be listed on Monday along with all the winners too!!!

Have a great weekend!
Ariane

Happy Thursday!
I hope you enjoyed yesterday’s Tip sheet on Turning Admin Nightmares Into A Dream! I have to say that I am sorry – I forgot to include the download link – so here it is!

Our Retweets continued – putting tons more entries into the prize pot!
Make sure you join us on Twitter and Retweet this post for your entry to win one of our great prizes!

So far, our Small Biz Week Prizes include:

• A $265 Small business Tax Package from Hilary McDonald Accounting
• A Virtual Office Subscription from 5050Biz
• The Couponizer coupon system
• New York Times best seller “One Year to an Organized Work Life” from the author herself Regina Leeds
• Limited edition T-shirts from RIPT Apparel
• The book 101 Media and Marketing Tips for the Sole Proprietor from Nanette Miner, a.k.a. The Training Doctor
• “How to Do Space Age Work with a Stone Age Brain: using your brain style for small business success with less stress” from Eve Abbott, Organizer Extraordinaire
• .. more prizes arriving daily!!

Every time you Retweet this post you’ll receive one entry to win a prize!
Prizes will be given out tomorrow so keep the Retweets coming!

Please accept my apologies in advance as you will be receiving 1post a day (only for this week), but I know you will not be disappointed with the content!

Check out today’s article to learn about proven tips, must haves and Must NOT do’s for Marketing Your Biz!!

Less Than $500 in the Bank? MARKET Your Biz!!

Many Business owners have been conditioned to believe it takes tons of money to successfully market a business! The time has come to be “re-conditioned” – to KNOW that you don’t need money! We’ve rounded up some of the best Proven Tactics and Must-Haves for a Cheap Campaign as well as pointed out what NOT to do when marketing your business! Grab a pen, a pad of paper and get set to market!

Proven Marketing Tactics

Make Google Do the Work
Take “Google Alerts” out for your name and company and also on “keywords” that target your marketing niche. I have Google Alerts on “kindergarten” and “Let’s Get Ready for School”. Everyday Google sends me a list of free leads that tag all the stories and blogs that include my key word(s). Those leads are for journalist and bloggers who tell you amazing details – like a school just received 1 million dollars for their early education program!
Stacey Kannenberg, Cedar Valley Publishing, www.cedarvalleypublishing.com
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Network
Creating relationships with other small businesses will fuel you forward. Think of companies or products your clients might also be interested in and develop relationships with those business owners. Offer coupons to their customers or a referral bonus to the business.
Laurie Davis, Founder, eFlirt – www.eFlirtExpert.com
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Give ‘Em Something for Free
Offering a free resource related to your business, such as an e-book that guides your prospective customers through a particularly difficult part of the purchasing process, can be a way to attract attention within your industry. Such an approach does require you to spend a little time promoting that resource (as well as creating it), but the monetary cost is negligible – most business owners know more than enough about their businesses to effectively educate clients.
Thursday R. Bram – www.thursdaybram.com
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Enter a Contest
I entered every entrepreneur contest I was old enough for and some that I wasn’t. At age 11, I wanted to enter the Young Entrepreneurs of America contest but the minimum age was 16. I entered anyway and in my entry essay explained why I thought they should consider me. I was told the judges were so impressed with my creativity that they created a new category for kids under 16 and I was the first recipient to win.
Jason O’Neill, Creator, Pencil Bugs Plus, Forbes Top 10 – www.pencilbugs.com
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Establish Yourself as an Expert
Answer questions on appropriate online forums and groups (such as LinkedIn, MarketingProfs, etc). Being helpful establishes you as an expert and keeps you top of mind when members of the forum have a problem you can solve
Jodi Kaplan, Principal, KaplanCopy – http://www.kaplancopy.com
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Pick Up the Phone
I know its old fashion but a new start up cannot be afraid of using the phone. Creating a script, a sales letter and looking up suspects online doesn’t cost anything. Instead of waiting for social media (blogging, tweeting, answering questions online) to get results take a proactive approach and this will result in uncovering qualified contacts.
With the $500 spend it on creating a website that reinforces the message that is being said during the phone call.
Ceri Ruenheck, It’s Your Call – www.itsyourcall.com
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Beg, Borrow & Sell
Borrowing someone else’s audience is all about finding a win-win. For example, I wanted to produce seminars but with no list, no facility and no built-in audience, it would be expensive and difficult to get started. Instead, I joint ventured with local organizations to put on seminars for their audiences. Leisure Learning Unlimited hosts a variety of classes on everything from computers to dance to goat farming (Really!). Getting my courses into their catalogues meant that they handled the marketing, registrations and other administrative tasks, while I could just show up to speak.
Cathy Stucker, The Idea Lady – http://IdeaLady.com
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Show It Off
One of the best ways to market start-up small business on the cheap is by attending live networking events—and paying for a display table. The key is to commit to attending at least 2 per month, and making sure you have some helpful, fun or interesting freebies on your table for people to take away. This works whether you’re selling products or services. When I launched my last business as a small business marketing copywriter I did it exactly this way. Even though I was selling a service, I had writing samples, one-page tips sheets people take-aways, a promo letter explaining my services and business cards. Together these made a nice little display. And within 6 months I was very busy with new clients.
Stacy Karacostas, Practical Marketing Expert, Success Stream – www.success-stream.com
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Put It On The Map
Set up a profile in the Local Business Listings on Google Maps, Yahoo Local and Bing Local. It’s free, it doesn’t take too long and will give them a presence in the Local search results for the area in which they do business. It will also serve as a mini website where they can give details about their business, themselves and their products and services, offer coupons, post photos and videos and get reviews.
Mary Bowling – http://www.seoverflow.com
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Pay For It
Offer finder’s fees/commissions to people that refer you business.
John Schulte, President and Chairman, National Mail Order Association (NMOA) – http://www.nmoa.org
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Have an Open House
If you are lucky enough to have a retail location use it to your marketing advantage. Invite speakers, have distributors give product demonstrations. Then serve tea or wine & cheese and invite your customers & prospects. Tell them to bring a friend. You’d be surprised how well this can work for you.
Randye Spina, Chief Solutions Officer, Affordable Marketing Solutions LLC – www.myaffordablemarketing.com
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Get Media Coverage
Belong to all the free sites for media leads: www.helpareporter.com; www.pitchrate.com; and http://www.reporterssource.com to name a few. I have been interviewed on hundreds of radio shows, over 30 parenting magazines, over 30 television segments and 15 newspapers! Can you say free publicity and free credibility?
Stacey Kannenberg, Cedar Valley Publishing – www.cedarvalleypublishing.com
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Reach Out

• Change your voicemail monthly – have you listened to your voicemail lately? If not, try it.
• Give one referral away every day – who will you recommend today? I believe the more you give out the more it comes back to you 10 fold! It works, try it out.
• Write one thank you note every week – there are so many reasons to thank people but few people take the time to do this, it will make you more memorable.
• Invite someone to a networking event with you – help them expand their network while you get to increase yours too.
• Conduct a tele-coffee – (this is where you make a coffee, and I make a coffee and we talk on the telephone!) I do tele-cocktails on Fridays! These take no more than 15 minutes and they are very productive!
• Ask your network for help – reach out, you will be so glad you did. People want to help you but maybe they don’t know what you need? Choose to reach out to one person today.
• Join a non-profit Board – giving back in your community will increase your brand and your network and feels great too!
• Donate your time – give to a cause you are passionate about i.e. read at your local school, volunteer at a soup kitchen, visit aged care facilities where you live, and offer to shop for someone – there are so many people who could use your time and talents.

Neen James CSP – http://www.neenjames.com

Must-Haves for a Successful “Cheap” Campaign

Get A Signature
One of the biggest returns is to put testimonials in your signature lines on email.
Colleen Francis – www.engageselling.com
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Have a Website
The most important marketing tool a startup needs is a website and it doesn’t have to cost you. You can have a website that works for you and one that is cheap; about $8/month for hosting. My website is not the most fancy but it does what it’s supposed to do.
Tina Hill, Owner, Kidzsack – www.kidzsack.com
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Use Postcards
They are cheap (both to print and to mail) and they are colorful and eye catching.
You cannot NOT read a postcard; If an envelope comes in the mail you look at the return address and decide to pitch it in the garbage right then or look at it (usually later) with a postcard, by the time you look at it – you’ve pretty much read it
They allow you to send small bits of information to your target base on a regular basis –staying in front of your clientele rather than doing a big push and hoping it hits.
Nanette Miner, Ed.D., The Training Doctor, LLC – www.trainingdr.com
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Send a Greeting Card
Use greeting cards to market your service…they are affordable, effective and boast a 99% open rate. They must however, identify and relate to the problem your target is experiencing and include a strong call to action.
Donna Pullan, MAKE CONTACT MARKETING – http://www.MakeContactMarketing.com
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Have a Writer in Your Corner
If you’re starting a new company, I also strongly urge you to hire a talented writer. Tweeting about something timely, interesting and newsworthy will certainly help you acquire Twitter followers and drive them to your website, but you’ve got to have something attention-grabbing on your site to keep them there. Write a monthly newsletter or a blog – again, both free. And don’t boast. Write about things that are affecting your market. Think outside of the box.
Jessica Knott, Marketing Coordinator, Mary Kraft Staffing and HR Solutions – www.marykraft.com
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Use Creativity
During a conference a few years back, I went to the Dollar Store and put together “survival kits” for all attendees, which included an assortment of goodies – pens, doodle pads, post-it notes, breath mints, a highlighter, paper clips, and a piece of chocolate. I put them in quart size Ziplock bags that had my photo and contact info on them.
After the conference, I sent a pair of Dollar Store flip-flops saying, “It was great to get my foot in the door. I can’t wait to meet you.”
In the end, 4 business owners each gave me $3500 sponsorship packages, which totalled over $14,000.
Nancy Michaels – www.GrowYourBusinessNetwork.com
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Give Incentives
We are currently around 1000 fans on both Facebook and Twitter. We feel that creating a community is key to maintain a customer base and have it grow quickly. We currently are running a tee give away promotion on twitter where we give away a free tee each week to a follower who tweets a phrase mentioning our name. In the past 10 days that has reached over 4800 people. Facebook is great because our new design shows up in the news feeds of our fans each day. If they comment or “like” the design this is then put on their friends news feeds.
Matt Ingleby, RIPT Apparel – www.riptapparel.com
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Make it Visual
Create a home grown video and put it on You Tube and your website.
If you don’t have a camera you can get an inexpensive flip camera for under $165. Provide information that’s of real value to your prospective clients or customers.
Make it short, sweet and pertinent.
Lisa Tener, Author, Book Coach – www.LisaTener.com
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A Social Profile
Create social networking profiles on all the sites that match your target market as well as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. I am on over 40+ sites. Even the sites that I am not active in get traffic. I have one that has over 24,000 page views, another over 5,000, 6,000, 150 — now times that by 40 and that’s free exposure for YOU! The more people that know your name, the bigger you will be! The best compliment I get is – I see you “everywhere”!
Stacey Kannenberg, Cedar Valley Publishing – www.cedarvalleypublishing.com

Do NOT Attempt These Marketing Snafus

Inconsistent Branding
Make sure that your company brand is consistent across all of your marketing mediums. If you have a social profile, ensure that the look is in line with your website and print marketing collateral. If it is not consistent, you run the risk of confusing potential clients and making yourself look unfocused.
Ariane Griffiths, President, Foundation Studio Marketing & Promotions – http://www.foundationstudio.ca
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Don’t Buy It
The most expensive and least effective thing you can do as a new business is to pay for advertising. It will suck up your budget instantly and rarely has the desired result. Come up with your own “advertising”…it could be as easy as printing out handouts and distributing them at a local Farmer’s market.
Dick Barnes, The Freeland Group – www.freelandgroup.com
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No Pushing or Bribery
Do not try to push journalists and bloggers who are not interested in writing on your topic and do not offer payment for PR people to do things for you.
Danny Wong, Director of Marketing, Blank Label – www.blank-label.com
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Don’t Forget to Follow-Up
Most sales are lost because no one bothered to follow up and no one asked for the sale. Don’t leave money on the table.
Deb Kolaras, Small Business Coach – www.bizcoachdeb.com

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Here is the link to today’s tip list! Go forth and MARKET! and don’t forget -Prizes will be given out tomorrow so keep the Retweets coming!

Have a great day!!
Ariane

Howdy!! I hope you are having a good October so far!! It’s pretty crazy to think that September went by that quickly!

October is usually the time when tradeshows, expos and craft fairs start to gear up for their busy season (the holiday season!!).

I have been privvy to some good show times over my past few years in business – I have been a vendor in small craft shows, medium consumer shows and even a HUGE weekend show that boasted over 80,000 attendees!!

I have learned TONS along the way about booth setups, ease in preparation and take down, time management tricks (to keep you occupied during your “slow” times) and even small tidbits that you didn’t even think of… zip tie anyone?!?!

Throughout all the times I have been prepping for shows, one thing remained the same – my “Booth Kit”. My booth kit has been my savior over and over again and even yesterday – when I was at my first show of the season, I actually inspired a few other vendors to create their own booth kit too.. I was setup in about 15 minutes and when I was done, I was out in 5 minutes flat!

The Checklist is loaded with tons of things to pack in your kit (as seen in the pic here) and guarantees that you will never be left without anything for a successful tradeshow ever again!!

I have The Checklist stuffed inside a clear sheet protector, taped to the inside of the cover of a medium rubber tote. Once filled, I throw the lid back on the tote and stick it inside my suitcase on wheels (with extending handle). All my small stuff fits neatly into the tote and then my bigger stuff fits into the suitcase and I zipp’er up and I’m good to go!

Yesterday’s show was a fabulous event that we sponsored; Stilettos & Sneakers.

Produced by Talk of the Town Events, Stilettos & Sneakers was a day long event that showcased a plethora of services that benefit the women of my town (Georgina). The turnout was amazing as women lined up at the entrance doors waiting to get in! The first 300 women were treated to a pretty cool bag filled with tons of swag and treats from all the vendors at the show!

There were mini makeovers, manicures, massages and even people getting their haircut on site! A fashion show and mini yoga classes could be found at various times throughout the day helping to keep attendees at the show for longer periods of time.

Foundation Studio was there showcasing it’s newest product (which I will have up online later this week!) and received great feedback! We had a raffle item that was donated by Jolie Mack Designs – a gorgeous pair of “Baroque Down” earrings – Our winner will be contacted tomorrow (I haven’t even unpacked the booth kit yet!)

Jennifer Anderson, CEO (Community Event Organiser) & Owner of Talk of the Town Events thought of everything when it came to entertaining the attendees – I can’t wait for her next event!

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I encourage you to download my booth kit checklist and get yourself duly prepped for your next tradeshow. Then drop me a line and let me know what your tips, tricks & tools for tradeshow success are. I’d love to hear them so that I can share them with everyone else and make this tradeshow season a success for everyone!

Cheers to a productive week!
Ariane

No-one likes to deal with a mess, and there a few worse messes than “boogie” nosed kids and unorganized businesses!!

The creators (Mindee & Julie) of “Boogie Wipes” have created a solution for both! Can you believe it? Fix your gnarly nose and your business at the same time?! It’s true!

Firstly, let me explain the nose issue…

“Boogie Wipes” are made with saline to dissolve boogies (mucus) caused by the common cold, allergies or otherwise booger-filled kid moments.  Extra soft and scented in Great Grape, Fresh Scent or Magic Menthol (for extra stuffy noses) Boogie Wipes are recommended by Pediatricians as a gentle, effective alternative to a dry tissue”

Mindee and Julie are extremely inventive and obviously can spot an idea a mile away – what a great example of re-purposing a resource – taking a simple tissue (which causes pain after numerous wipes) and saline spray (which is god awfully uncomfortable) and combining the two – genius!

The ladies have also made droves of people re-think their thoughts about small business. I know what you’re thinking “So has everyone these days” but this is different.

“Motherhood is bootcamp for running your own business” and it’s so true! We can of course expand that to include Dads as well.. so “Parenthood” is bootcamp…

The ladies point out that being a parent means that you have to be Courageous and Instinctual, have Stamina and Spirit, be Detailed and Organized and have loads of Patience and Flexibility - aren’t these the same characteristics that have been driven into your brain as an Entrepreneur?!

Mindee and Julie have gathered some of the best resources to help parents with their entrepreneurial journey and I am proud to say that Foundation Studio is now listed as one of their “Business of Being A Mom” resources in their category of Advertising and Design Brilliance!!

The resource list is well worth the read and has everything from PR, Manufacturing and Networking to Distribution and even Funding.

So grab a coffee, sit back, relax and get reading on how to get rid of the “boogies” in your life for good!!

Hope you’re having a great day!!
Ariane

Happy September!

By now you should be back to school, back to work, back to reality :S Not always a good thing, but I personally like this time of year – almost like a fresh new page, you get to focus, you get to reconnect, you get down to business!

Last week, I wrote about a social media checklist, hopefully you had a chance to look them over and put them into action.. if not – check out the previous post to grab the checklists – getting your social media marketing methods into place..

This month, I have a ton of new stuff coming to fruition so it’s a great time to roll out a special!
Check out our partial Social Media portfolio and then Contact us today to get your Social Media Marketing in Gear.. and get your September Sales rolling..

September’s Social Media Mayhem Sale!

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Mike Samson, Twisted Sticker

Location: Burlington, Ontario, Canada
Website: http://www.twistedsticker.com
Twitter: TwistedSticker
Facebook (Business): http://www.facebook.com/shmamberley?ref=nf#/group.php?gid=6375421897&ref=ts

The Entrepreneur Behind The Biz:
Having been in the label/barcode industry for 15+ years, circumstances allowed me the opportunity to launch Twisted Sticker initially focusing on our personalized labels. I am a work-from-home dad with a 10 year old son & 7 year old daughter. Twisted Sticker has now been going strong for over two years and I am very excited about the direction we’re going in.

[SinglePic not found]The Biz:
Twisted Sticker’s initial product offering was the personalized labels & iron ons. Sure, there are other companies offering a similar product but we wanted to change it up. My kids were never into the “cute & cuddly” designs so we wanted to offer something cool as an alternative. Many of the designs we offer are because of the kids’ input or input/suggestions from our customers. In addition to the personalized labels, we offer “business printing”. Many of the parents that were ordering the personalized labels started to ask if I can print other stickers & sizes etc. so we naturally started to offer a broader product range. We will shortly be launching an awesome new product line. The feedback we have had so far has been incredible and we are looking forward to being able to offer it on a regular basis starting August ‘09.

Why we shone a spotlight on it:
Twisted Sticker is a unique and fun company on an all round basis – offering 100% customisable stickers and labels, you are in charge of your order – right down to the color, quantity and even font styles. The customer service is bar none – Mike actually drove 2+ hours to deliver my order! I’m certainly not saying that you’ll get a personal delivery, but even throughout the entire design and order process, Mike stayed in contact with me to ensure that I was going to end up with a perfect end product!! Twisted Sticker regularly has customers supply their own designs, pictures or graphics and that’s one way they separate ourselves from other label/sticker companies. A happy customer contacted Mike recently with a testimonial that sums up who Twisted Sticker just perfectly…”Thank you for taking so much time to make it right. People like you are very rare these days. I think you are doing a great thing and I wish you the very best of luck.”

Know an Entrepreneur who deserves a Spotlight? (Maybe you??) Let us know!

Hey there! I hope you are having a great week thus far.. Our week over here has been good – busy, but good..

So, as to drag out the obvious, I will get right to the news of this post;

Seeing as though I am a positive person, I will start with the good (Glass half full) point of view.

The Good News

I am going back to school – College actually.. after a lengthy decision making process, my family and I came to the realization that this would be a great step to help me solidify my career, update my skill set and in turn, service my clients even better I applied to a leading College in the Marketing field and after a lengthy application and waiting process, I have been accepted to start at the beginning of January!!

Before I go any further, I do want to stress that I WILL STILL BE OPERATING FOUNDATION STUDIO - there is no question to that – I love my clients and the variety of projects I get to work on and that is part of the reason I am heading back to college – to get updated with all the newest technical, trendy and current marketing methods and practices; to service you better.

The ONLY thing that will change will be our hours of operation – what that will look like will be determined by my schedule and once I receive it, I will let you in on the details too!

The Unfortunate News

Seeing as this acceptance was somewhat out of the blue, a large plan is going to have to be set aside; The Work From Home Expo is being cancelled. I cannot at this time, give the WFHE the attention it deserves and as many of you know, I don’t go through with something unless it is with all of my engines a flame!

I hope you understand and continue to stick with Foundation Studio as you have in the past. I have some great stuff up my sleeve – and you better believe I’ll be sharing all of the tips and tricks that I learn from College with you!!

Cheers to a new beginning or should I say…

A refreshed future!!!

Ariane