Spring Clean Your Marketing For Success

Just like closets and cupboards, marketing strategies and assets can accumulate clutter over the course of the year – It’s time for some spring cleaning. Marketing Spring Cleaning

My friends over at PR Web shared with me three great tips on how to make sure your marketing is current, polished, and efficient:

1. Clean up your lists

Bounced back and duplicate emails are ineffective and can damage your goodwill with customers, journalists and other stakeholders. Go through your lists to verify that names, email addresses and other information are still current. Delete inactive addresses as well as duplicate or incomplete entries.

This is especially important for your media list. Journalism is a fast-changing world and writers move to different outlets and cover different topics. Ensuring that you’re contacting the right people with your news is critical when it comes to generating publicity for your business.

2. Revisit your social strategy

Take stock of how you are using your social media channels and content. If you’re neglecting certain channels or networks, consider deactivating them until you have the time and/or resources to maintain them regularly. Focus on cultivating the channels that serve your business best.

Check that your content still aligns with your overall marketing goals.

  • Has your strategic message changed at all?
  • Have your social media goals changed?
  • Do your analytics show any weak areas that need improvement?

Answer these questions to evaluate whether you need to update your social strategy.

3. Update your boilerplate and website

It’s easy to forget about your company boilerplate. Take stock of your accomplishments and milestones from the last year and update your boilerplate accordingly.

The same goes for your company website. Have you hired new team members? Secured killer press coverage? Launched a new product or service? Now is the time to update your website to reflect your recent growth.

Don’t let out-of-date information and content weigh down your marketing. Spring-cleaning your strategy is crucial to long-term success.

Easily Attract Clients In Your Own Backyard

The power of the Internet affords many of us the opportunity to reach prospects and work with clients around the world. There's a lot of value there, but that sometimes can cause one to forget that there are plenty of people right in their own backyard who (and are looking for) their products and services.

In this week's video I share 3 simple suggestions that will help you to get clients in your own local area. It's only 2:49 minutes, and you'll learn some online and offline methods that you can easily implement in 2013

What will you implement in your business this year? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment below!

How to Market Your Business and Increase Your Profits When You’re Always On the Go

I don't know a single entrepreneur who isn't busy and on the go these days. Folks who are struggling to grow their business often lament that they don't market like they should because they don't have enough time.

But the truth is we are each allocated the same amount of time each day, we just have to choose how we're going to spend it. This means that you need to make the most out of every moment. Don't make excuses about what you can’t do. Instead, focus on what you CAN do. NO ONE is too busy to market and today's technology makes it easier than ever before to stay in touch with your audience while you're out and about.

If you have a Smartphone (or a tablet like an iPad), I've got good news for you! There are dozens of apps that are designed to help you run your business from anywhere. Here are a few apps that I have found particularly helpful: Read more about How to Market Your Business and Increase Your Profits When You're Always On the Go

5 Small Business Marketing Tips Every Business Owner Needs To Know

Catapult SuccessHaving an arsenal of small business marketing tips can help you catapult your business to success.

As a business owner, you should be constantly searching for small business marketing tips that can be used in your business. This will ensure that your marketing efforts are always fresh and relevant. We have collected some of the best small business marketing tips that every owner should know.

Appeal to emotions because emotion almost always wins over reason. 

In your marketing messages, whether they are print, online, video or other, appeal to the emotions of your audience. If you make your audience feel something, that feeling will certainly win out over reason. It is much easier to evoke sentiments than it is to win an argument. Read more about 5 Small Business Marketing Tips Every Business Owner Needs To Know

7 Small Business Advertising Ideas That Rock

Man with LighbulbUncover the 7 small business advertising ideas that will help you grow your business to a huge success.

Having a variety of small business advertising ideas at your fingertips is a necessity for any business owner who wants to build his business and succeed in his niche. While there are literally hundreds of ways to advertise your small business, focusing on a select few proven ideas will deliver the best results. Here are 7 quality small business advertising ideas to help you meet your goals.

Work with a Complementary Business

By working with a non-competing business on joint advertising ventures, you can reach more people and spend less for better results
Raise your prices.

While this is a tricky area, your prices may actually be holding your business back in terms of growth. If your prices are too low, your potential customers may not see your business as one of quality. Study your competitors’ prices and make a decision about any adjustments you need to make to your own fee structure. Read more about 7 Small Business Advertising Ideas That Rock

How to Write An Email Series That Builds a Relationship and Generates Profits

If you've studied online marketing for any length of time, you'v likely heard it recommended that you have some type of free offer on your website that you give away in exchange for a visitor's name an email address. You may have even landed on this blog as a result of the FREE marketing toolkit that we offer here. Here at Smart Simple Marketing we call that free offer your "Problem Selling Gift".

Turning that free gift into clients and sales requires that you stay in touch with the new subscriber and develop a relationship with them. The easiest way to do this is by setting up a series of automated email messages, also known as autoresponders, that are automatically delivered to your new friend once they sign up for your free gift.

Clients and students often ask me to help them come up with the content for these messages because they struggle with what to say that sounds engaging and authentic. That's why I thought this article by Justin Gray, CEO of LeadMD - Marketing Automation Experts, was so useful. Check it out!

Read more about How to Write an Email Series That Builds a Relationship and Generates Profits

“Set It and Forget It” Marketing That Actually Works

"I don't have the time" is the #2 reason I hear small business owners explaining why they don't market their business consistently. (The #1 reason is a lack of money -- that is a thought I'll consider in another post).

I know you're pressed for time...I am as well. Which means we need to be thoughtful and strategic about leveraging technology to do the work for us so that we keep a steady stream of leads knocking at our door.

My friend Ashley Acker, founder of Entrepreneur Jungle, published this great article last week with 5 easy ways to "set and forget your marketing" that actually work. Leave me a note below and share how you can apply ONE point from this article to your business this week!

5 Ways to Automate Your Business      [Read more...]

Profitable Marketing Lessons From the Beach

Wil and I were hanging out at the beach yesterday and though I was resting and enjoying the afternoon sunshine, I learned a very important marketing lesson that I wanted to share with you. Check it out:

How can you apply this lesson to your business? Share your thoughts with me below.

A Marketing Recipe That Is Guaranteed to Succeed (SSMS Episode 82)

Subscribe to Sydni's PodcastA lot of folks marketing "strategy" is throwing stuff out into the world and seeing what sticks. Some jump from idea to idea, concept to concept and never make any progress. To me, marketing is like cooking (which I LOVE) and to create real success in your business you need to follow a recipe. One that is customized to your personality, your business and your goals. In this week's episode I teach you how you easily find your recipe and "cook up" delicious success in your business!

Best Apps for Optimizing Your Facebook Fan Page

If you're using Facebook Business Pages to drive traffic to your website (which should be the goal of the page), you're likely quite interested in keeping up with the latest and greatest applications to help you get the most of out of this tool.

My friend Kristine Maveus-Evenson, President of Capture Hits, shared this great list of recommended apps that I want to pass along to you:     Read more about Best Apps for Optimizing Your Facebook Fan Page