During the holiday season, TVs were bombarded with commercials that encouraged consumers to shop small. On Small Business Saturday, even the President and his children took part in the efforts to shop locally. The good news is this year’s massive marketing campaign by American Express, had a better result than the previous year. According to Businesswire, over 100 million shoppers came out and shopped locally on November 26, which was 27 million more than was projected. That is approximately 1/3 of the American population, according to the US population Clock.
That kind of impact is what movements like the recently passed [...]

Starting your own small business can be an huge undertaking, both financially and time-wise. Most small business owners are experts in their field or industry but when it comes to the many details of actually starting their own business, they may be novices. Learning what permits, licenses, taxes and other necessary equipment or supplies are needed for their industry takes the majority of their time and resources. But once they wade through all those necessary tasks and finally open their doors, it is time to make sure they have customers, and that’s when the real challenge begins!
Marketing and advertising your [...]

This news story from The Daily Dose, “YouTube to Give Away $50 Million in Free Advertising for New Video Program,” indicates that YouTube is giving away up to $50 million to entice small-business owners to sign up for a video advertising service called Google AdWords for video. The service is meant to replicate features from Google’s AdWords for search, such as pay-per-click, but for video advertising instead. 

If you’re not already doing so, you might want to consider using YouTube to promote your small business Here are five tips to get your started.
Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
Before you do [...]

So many businesses are getting into short form copy writing marketing efforts on the Internet that the Web has begun to be saturated with the kinds of short, SEO optimized page articles that entrepreneurs are counting on to get them more visibility online – but as with all kinds of outreach and marketing, a good rule of thumb applies here: when everybody is doing one thing, do something else. The emergence of electronic books is an opportunity for many small business leaders to pioneer different kinds of “literature promotion” of a certain kind of business.

Common Goals
With e-books, a small business [...]

With the right funding and ideas, anyone can start their own business. The hard part is keeping your business alive. Your business must be quick to adapt to changing market currents, or quickly get swept away with the retreating tide.
Over the past decade, many previously indomitable brands – such as Nokia, Yahoo and Blockbuster – have seen their market shares plunge due to a failure to adapt their business model efficiently for changing demands.
These companies often get stuck with slow moving management proudly clinging to the ideas of the past. How can you ensure that your company identifies the need [...]

One of the social phenomena that has occurred as a result of the popularization of social networks and mobile computing is the democratization of game creation. Simple software tools allow creative people to quickly produce professional-level games, and social media outlets allow the quirkiest and most entertaining games to reach a huge audience at very low cost. Many gaming businesses focus their efforts on creating such games for the mobile and social network markets. However, some companies from a collection of industries are becoming increasingly interested in using free games as marketing tools.
Advantages Over Other Marketing Methods
While the use of [...]

If you’ve been viewing blogs solely as a medium for recreational rants and trivial pursuits, you could be missing out on a savvy marketing tool to increase your organization’s exposure and your bottom line.
Blogs are big business.
Since their evolution more than a decade ago, blogs have been used by everyone from A-list celebrities, to politicians, to business owners in an array of industries.
In fact, Google “business blogs” and you’ll receive more than a million entries as a search result. They are indeed the “new black.”
Though there are as many purposes as there are users, here are the most important benefits [...]

With little working capital working in their favor, small businesses must be clever and strategic in their marketing efforts.
Particularly considering that marketing and advertising represent one of the biggest expenses most businesses will incur. Not only is it one of the biggest expenses; it’s also one of the most important. The R.O.I. (return on investment ) can either make or break an otherwise struggling business.
With this in mind, here are five low-cost ways to create a buzz about your business without going broke.
1. Quality Business Cards—-Just because you’re small in size doesn’t mean you should have a strong image. No [...]

The rise of social media as a marketing platform has led to a number of common questions and misconceptions among entrepreneurs. Because it is such a new venue, and because it is so different from more traditional marketing methods such as direct sales and broadcast advertising, many problems exist when it comes to gauging effectiveness compared to other methods. As startup businesses are usually strapped for cash, coming up with a cost-effective marketing strategy is one of the most important things they can do.
Opportunity Cost
One of the major misconceptions about social media marketing is that it is “free.” For instance, [...]

There’s a lot of talk around how to enhance a small business brand – after all, these smaller companies often face an uphill climb in terms of very competitive markets, and the brand is the key. Products and services don’t often sell themselves, especially when there are a lot of competing offers around. The brand is the tool that marketers use to springboard products and services into much higher rates of patronage, which then, in a positive cycle, promotes more visibility for the brand, etc.

Putting Strategies Into Words
A lot of positive activities around promoting brands can be boiled down into [...]