Marketing your small business or service firm can be frustrating – particularly if you don’t have a marketing system in place. This brief video outlines how you can get rid of that frustration and systematically attract your ideal customers.
Archive for Small Business Marketing
By Bill Brelsford · Comments (0)
Friday,
January
27th,
2012
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Tags : duct tape marketing, marketing system
By Bill Brelsford · Comments (0)
Wednesday,
September
21st,
2011
The updated and revised version of Duct Tape Marketing: The World’s Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide
The latest version of the book includes new sections covering:
- using content to be found
- fusing online and offline tactics
- how to create a total web presence
- practical ways to get more from social media
- using the marketing hourglass to run your marketing
Here is a short video from John explaining why he released a new version of his best selling book:
New visitors to this blog should know that I am a Duct Tape Marketing Consultant, so I am a little biased, but I think this new edition has a lot of great information in it to help you take your business to the next level.
The new edition of the book comes with a free Duct Tape Marketing Signature Brand Audit. A Signature Brand Audit is a free 30 minute session with an Authorized Duct Tape Marketing Consultant to review your existing marketing, give you a quick snapshot on the effectiveness of your web site and suggest several ways to make improvements right now. This is like receiving a guided tour of the main principles contained in the book.
Drop me a note if you have any questions about the book or applying the principles it contains to your business. You can also get your free Duct Tape Marketing Signature Brand Audit here.
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Categories : Books, Small Business Marketing
Tags : duct tape marekting, john jantsch
By Bill Brelsford · Comments (0)
Monday,
May
9th,
2011
Every month the folks at SurePayroll publish their Small Business Scorecard, a nationally recognized economic indicator that tracks the health of the U.S. small business economy. The scorecard is created by analyzing payroll data from small businesses around the country.
According to the Scorecard. April marked the seventh consecutive month of flat or shrinking hiring numbers across the nation. Optimism, which was at 69 percent in March, dropped significantly down to 52 percent.
The increasing reliance on contractors suggests that business is picking up, but small business owners don’t have the confidence or bookings to create jobs.
Does the SurePayroll Scorecard match up with what you are seeing in your business or practice?
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Categories : Small Business Marketing
Tags : SurePayroll
By Bill Brelsford · Comments (0)
Tuesday,
May
3rd,
2011
The folks at Etsy will be hosting a workshop featuring Duct Tape Marketing‘s own John Jantsch.
The folks at Etsy believe in restoring community and culture to our commerce. If you’ve never heard of Etsy, I encourage you to learn more about Etsy here.
If you live in the New York area, you can attend for just $5 – RSVP here (snacks and refreshments will be provided!). You can also attend virtually via Etsy’s Livestream channel.
Here are the workshop particulars:
When: Tuesday, May 24th from 7 – 8:30 p.m. ET
Where: Etsy Labs at 55 Washington Street, Suite 712 (7th floor) Brooklyn, NY & online via Etsy’s Livestream Channel.
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Categories : Small Business Marketing
Tags : duct tape marekting
By Bill Brelsford · Comments (1)
Monday,
May
2nd,
2011
National Small Business Week is May 16th – 20th. National Business Week has been around since 1963, but it doesn’t always gain the attention it deserves. According to the SBA, there are 27.2 million small businesses in America. More than half of Americans either own or work for a small business. These small businesses create 60-80 percent of new jobs in the country.
As part of the celebration, I’ll be giving away some great tools and resources to help you grow your business. Each day during National Small Business Week I will be randomly selecting someone from my list of newsletter subscribers to receive one of the prizes below. If you already subscribe, there’s nothing more for you to do – just sit back and wait for the sweet prizes to roll in.
Not a subscriber? You can sign up in 5 seconds here.
Here’s what you can win:
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An autographed copy of John Jantsch’s book The Referral Engine.
Teach your business how to market itself by creating your own Referral Engine. |
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An autographed copy of Michelle Golden’s Social Media Strategies for Professionals and Their Firms.
Read my recent review of Social Media Strategies for Professionals and Their Firms. |
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Social Media Pro is an online self guided course that will deliver the exact hands-on information you need in five very practical self paced sessions delivered over four weeks.
More information about Social Media Pro including a complete agenda can be found here. |
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Local Search Pro is an online self guided course that will deliver the exact hands-on information you need in four very practical self paced sessions delivered over four weeks.
More information about Social Media Pro including a complete agenda can be found here. |
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Sales and Marketing pro combines great planning software with plenty of deals from “best in class” strategic partners who provide the tools you need to go from plan to implementation.
Learn more about Sales and Marketing Pro on our blog. Or visit the Sales and Marketing Pro website. |
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Categories : Marketing, Small Business Marketing
Tags : small business week
By Bill Brelsford · Comments (0)
Thursday,
April
28th,
2011
May 16th – 20th is National Small Business Week. As part of small business week, Constant Contact will be hosting their Get Down to Business event where you can learn more about how to use social media to grow your business.
If you are in the Kansas City area, come join me at this free event. I will be one of several panel members that will be answering your questions about using social media to market your business.
The Kansas City event is May 17th and will be held at the Johnson County Community College. You can find more details about the program and sign up to save your seat here – http://tinyurl.com/GetDown2BusinessKC
See you there.
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Categories : Small Business Marketing
By Bill Brelsford · Comments (1)
Wednesday,
February
16th,
2011
Disclosure – I am part of the Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network. Duct Tape Marketing and Palo Alto Software are Strategic partners. The marketing plan piece of this tool is based on the Duct Tape Marketing methodology. Long story short – I’m biased – but I’m not getting paid to write this.
The folks at Palo Alto Software are launching a new product today called Sales and Marketing Pro. This software builds upon their Marketing Plan Pro software – expanding to include more help for managing your sales planning and execution. Just like Marketing Plan Pro, Sales and Marketing pro combines great planning software with plenty of deals from “best in class” strategic partners who provide the tools you need to go from plan to implementation.
Here is the dashboard (click on the image for an expanded view) that you see when you launch Sales and Marketing Pro. The dashboard is divided into 3 main sections:
- Sales
- Marketing
- Toolbox
Sales
This section contains software tools to help manage your sales process. If you need a customer and contact management system, Palo Alto has teamed up with Batchbook to give you six month’s access to their social crm program for free. You’ll also receive a free, customized training session to help get you up and running.
Setting and managing sales appointments is one area where it is easy to spend a lot of time better spent elsewhere. That’s why I was happy to see that Sales and Marketing Pro includes a 3 month free trial for Appointment-Plus. Once you start setting appointments without the back and forth of multiple emails to find a mutually agreeable time, you’ll wish you had used this service sooner.
Want to focus on your sales forecast and milestones without having to create a complete marketing plan? The Sales Plan section allows you to do just that by breaking out the sales related sections of the full marketing plan software.
Marketing
Sales and Marketing Pro still helps you create a Duct Tape Marketing style marketing plan just like you can with Marketing Plan Pro. Start with the Basic Marketing Plan to get up and running quickly. Later, you can change to the Standard Marketing Plan as you need to add more detail to your plan. The software is loaded with examples and audio files to guide you along the way.
In addition to the planning software, Sales and Marketing Pro includes other marketing tools to help you implement your plan. Email plays a big role in small business marketing and Sales and Marketing Pro includes offers from Vertical Response to help you with your stay-in-touch marketing campaigns. Also included is a 3 month subscription to Email Center Pro – a very cool tool that helps you stay on your email communications with your customers. If you have more than one person that handles email accounts like “info@” or “customerservice@”, then you will want to take a look at Email Center Pro.
And if you still need a website (you have one, don’t you?), they have even included a free domain name for 1 year along with a 3 month trial website hosting account from Network Solutions.
Tool Box
The toolbox is a collection of resources that will help you implement your sales and marketing plan.
In the Sales and Marketing Library you will find a collection of articles on everything from pricing, to customer service, to creating a marketing forecast. The library also includes 2 eBooks – one about social media and one about search engine optimization. Rounding out the library, there is a special offer to purchase a copy of the Duct Tape Marketing book for only the cost of shipping.
Sales and Marketing Pro is currently selling for $99.95 which includes free shipping and a 60 day money back guarantee. Learn more on the Sales and Marketing Pro website.
Stayed tuned as I plan to have a webinar demonstrating Sales and Marketing Pro along with some giveaways of the software.
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By Bill Brelsford · Comments (0)
Friday,
January
21st,
2011
[Disclosure – SurePayroll is a customer, we worked to produce an e-book about using social media to grow an accounting practice. The award in this post has nothing to do with that.]
Congratulations to my friends over at SurePayroll who have been named as finalists in four Stevie Awards (American Business Awards) for Sales and Customer Service. The categories they are competing in are:
- National Sales Team of the Year
- Telesales Team of the Year
- Sales Department of the Year – Financial Services
- e-Commerce Customer Service Award
SurePayroll is no stranger to the Stevies. In 2009 they took home a " Customer Service Department of the Year" Stevie award. In 2010 they were finalists in "Company of the Year" and "Most Innovative Company" categories.
This year’s Stevie winners will be announced at on Monday, February 21 at the awards dinner hosted by the Eden Roc Renaissance Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida.
Congratulations and best of luck to the folks at SurePayroll.
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Categories : Accounting, Small Business Marketing
Tags : SurePayroll
By Bill Brelsford · Comments (0)
Saturday,
January
8th,
2011
[Hat tip to Tim Berry of Planning, Startups, Stories]
FITE officially launched around the world late last week. FITE stands for Financial Independence Through Entrepreneurship – I love that. Through FITE, you can help women worldwide start or grow a business.
From the FITE website:
Our mission is to provide women entrepreneurs access to small loans that will help them start or grow a business; and to help educate the public at large about the benefits of empowering women entrepreneurs so that they “can hold up their half of the sky.” In just the first 2 years, we aim to help at least 25,000 women in this capacity.
In addition to pointing out a wonderful cause, this video is also a great example of how small businesses and organizations can use video to get their word out.
To learn more and get involved, visit the FITE website
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Categories : Misc., Small Business Marketing
One of great things about being part of the Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network is that we have a a number of great partners to help you implement the tactical components of your marketing strategy. One of those partners is Pixability. Pixability makes it dead simple for add high quality video to your marketing mix.
John Jantsch, founder of Duct Tape Marketing, will be teaming up with our friends at Pixability to present a free webinar in which he will discuss how to:
- identify your target clients
- produce marketing materials that educate
- create your core marketing message and use video to promote it
- use videos on your website that generate leads 24/7
This free webinar will start on January 19th at 12:30 EST. Register NOW: http://bit.ly/eH8oBb
Pixability will also be giving two businesses a ‘video makeover’. If you would like your company’s video to be shown, please submit a link to your video to yelena@pixability.com.
If you have questions about how you might use video to grow your business in 2011, feel free to give me a call at 913.962.9261.
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Categories : Marketing, Small Business Marketing
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Copyright © 2012 All Rights Reserved