Thursday, October 24, 2013

10 Ways to Make Small Business Week Count

BDC tweet Small Business make up 99.8% of companiesIt's nearly the end of BDC Small Business WeekTM  (Oct 20-26), and besides talking to myself, I haven't had one conversation about the state of small business, their value to our communities, or participated in a learning opportunity or networking event! Not for lack of time, but rather for lack of attention.

This got me thinking that it really is important to take note of small business.  

We all know that if we don't use local small business, we lose them. We lose a resource, and option, an employer, and a bit of character in our towns.  

So, how do Canadians show their "support" for small business besides the obvious "Shop Local, Buy Local" programs?

Friday, April 26, 2013

Getting on the Front Page of Google: Just Press 1

Like many businesses, we've been getting a lot of calls lately from a 360 area code, who never leaves a message but keeps calling.   It's always a robot caller implying they work for Google and guaranteeing (yes, guaranteeing) to put our business listing on the front page of search engines.   Sometimes I just hang up, but this time.... 

I finally decided to make them stop calling.  I pressed "1" to receive the offer. 

Friday, January 25, 2013

Websites are the new brochure, and social media is not a marketing plan

20 years ago, just before the internet took off, we used to call it the "brochure solution" because all our clients thought they needed a brochure to sell their product, program, or business service.

They often got a brochure, or a postcard, or a flyer, or a direct mail piece, but they also got guidance on how to design them, how to write them, what to do with them, when & how to distribute them, and how to support their investment with other marketing tools like news releases, events, advertising, speeches etc.  We could add a lot of value to that little brochure request.

Today, the website is the new brochure.
While everyone needs one, and they're worth investing in, they need a lot of support.  New products, programs, and business services need more support than "putting it out there on social media." Social media can help drive traffic to your website but there's so much more than that to do. Social media (Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest Google+ etc), isn't a marketing plan.  

When we develop marketing plans we consider strategies in public relations (including social media, text messaging, events, email etc), government relations, media relations, stakeholder relations, customer relations, staff relations, advertising (online, mobile, traditional etc), product and content development. When designed into an integrated marketing plan, these strategies can all help achieve your goals as well as drive traffic to your website.

So don't make the mistake of making a website and social media your only marketing solution.
If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well.