Reading Time: < 1 minIf you own a small business, you’ve likely gone through at least a few “feast or famine” cycles. They’re easy to get into. Sales are solid, and you’re too busy for marketing. As a result, things slow down so then you start marketing more. Now sales are solid again, and you’re too busy for marketing. […]
Marketing
Show people their super power
Reading Time: < 1 minIn his book “Nothing you don’t already know“, author Alexander den Heijer shares a simple but powerful statement: You don’t inspire people by revealing your super powers; you inspire people by helping them reveal their own super powers. This applies to inspiration, but I also think it can apply to your website and marketing. As […]
The best use of hashtags
Reading Time: 2 minHashtags show up all over the place in social media; sometimes used well, sometimes not so much. Here are some quick thoughts on them. They started for groups Chris Messina first proposed using a hashtag back in 2007. They weren’t linked to each other, but the idea was that users of his group could search […]
Your website should bring value to your users
Reading Time: < 1 minThe title seems obvious, but is often overlooked. We can get focused on other things that are indeed important, like speed, security and SEO, but at the end of the day it’s all about what kind of value your site brings to your users. Headline, headlines, text headline, headline The common issue we see is […]
I’ve been around since 1976
Reading Time: < 1 minWhen a visitor first arrives on your website, they want to know three basic things (sometimes known as “the grunt test“): What do you offer? How will it make my life better? What do I need to do to buy it? Something that isn’t on that initial list? The age of your company. That information […]
Problems come from ignored complaints
Reading Time: < 1 minBusinesses hate to see complaints, and we all know that. You work hard to put something out into the world, and then someone reaches out to explain why they don’t like it. As bad as a complaint may feel, though, ignoring it could be far worse. As Nico De Bruyn said in We’re All Marketers: […]
Your “why” doesn’t need to be about you
Reading Time: < 1 minIn Simon Sinek’s excellent book “Start With Why“, he offers a simple premise: People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it That’s entirely true. However, people also may buy from you based on how you make them feel. In a TED Talk that Simon gave back in 2009, he offered the […]
It’s people, not platforms
Reading Time: < 1 minIn the book We’re All Marketers, author Nico De Bruyn makes a pretty clear statement that a lot of people seem to miss: To be an effective marketer, you need to recognize that it’s people, not platforms, that influencing today’s buyers. Put another way, Facebook isn’t going to help your company — Facebook users are. […]
Use URL shorteners for better QR codes
Reading Time: 3 minWith the “don’t touch anything” approach to handling COVID, particularly at restaurants, we’re seeing a bit of a resurgence with QR codes. Couple that with the fact that iPhone and Android both read QR codes from the main camera app (instead of needing a separate app) means that they’ll likely stick around to some degree. […]
Some first steps with Google Search Console
Reading Time: 4 minYou may be familiar with Google Analytics, used to track traffic on a website, but not as many are as familiar with Google Search Console. I thought I’d take a minute to explain why you might want to set it up. The great thing about Google Search Console is that there is nothing you need […]