New Business Referrals – Chicken or the Egg?
I just started reading The Referral Engine by John Jantsch, author of Duct Tape Marketing, the legendary guide to practical marketing for the small business.
I’ve seen John speak on a couple of occasions and I can tell you one thing – the man knows marketing. What’s more, he ...
The Power of FREE – A Campaign Update
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a marketing epiphany I had to a problem many of us small business owners face. Not enough customers, zero interest in my services, apathy to my offers. It all sounds so familiar, doesn't it?
So the light ...
The Power of FREE – an Experiment in Marketing: Part 2
In Part 1, I was searching for a way to grow my Austin customer base but wasn't sure how to do it. I realized I needed a Hail-Mary pass, a lightning strike to score some points with the elusive Austin market. Now here's what I decided to do:
The word “FREE” popped ...
5 Customer Truths Your Favorite Coffee Shop Can Teach You
Yesterday, I went to a Starbucks just in front of my office. I’ve been going there since it opened almost two years ago. It’s not an everyday thing but I’ll drop by two, maybe three times a week.
If you’re like me, when you go to your favorite coffee ...
Five Good Reasons VARs Should Consider Merging Now
There are many compelling reasons for VARs to consider mergers in the wake of the worst recession in over 50 years. Not the least of which is this sobering fact from the March 2010 issue of CRN: the number of VARs in North America dropped 50,000 over the last two ...
Five Ways to Get Thousands to Read Your Next Press Release
For most practitioners of PR, churning out press releases is a little like flipping hotcakes. It becomes a fairly easy routine after you’ve done a couple hundred or so.
A press release is the artistic equivalent of a sonnet, a pencil sketch, a classical music etude. It’s a concise marketing tool ...