Category Archives: promotion

The Best of The Marketing Spot – 2010

Fair thee well, 2010. Another year of marketing blogging has come and gone, but not to be forgotten. Here’s a look back at the best of the The Marketing Spot blog in 2010, organized around the four essential spots of small business marketing, as illustrated by The Marketing Circle of Life. These were chosen the top posts of the year using a complicated and proprietary algorithm calculating four different factors (but mainly just popularity).
Overall, it was a good year for The Marketing Spot blog with traffic and visitor count up 28% over 2009. For the second year in a row, the most-viewed post overall was this one from 2009: The Basics of Marketing: What is a Brand?, with nearly 10% of all pageviews. Not surprising since it ranks at the top of Google’s search results for “What is a Brand?” But it is ineligible for this year’s honors because it was written in 2009. Now…on with the countdown!
Best-small-business-marketing-blog-posts

BRANDING

1. What Makes a Brand Awesome? – What’s the difference between an ordinary brand and one that’s awesome? This article analyzes a local restaurant (with video) and identifies the factors of branding awesomeness.
2. Consensus is the Enemy of Branding When it comes to branding, the only vote that counts is yours.
3. Want a fresh start? Reframe your business. – What to do when customers start losing interest and you feel like your business is going stale.

EXPERIENCE

1. What is Great Customer Service? – Courteous, prompt, eager? Nope. This article identifies what makes customer service great.
2. Loyalty Programs, Frequency Programs, and Cheese – Loyalty is an emotion, not a program. How businesses miss the mark with loyalty programs.
3. How to Make a Billion Dollars Through Marketing – Think it can’t be done? Then how do you explain what Tony Hsieh did with Zappo’s? Or better yet, let him explain it to you.

CONVERSATION

1. The Science and Art of Your Facebook Posting Strategy – The most popular post written on the blog this year. How to engage your Facebook page fans with a well-rounded status update strategy.
2. Keep On Blogging in the Face of a Social Media Wind – Don’t stop blogging! The long-term benefits are too important. Some resources to help you stay the course.
3. How to Get Fans for Your Facebook Business Page – Simple tactics to get more fans for your business Facebook page.

PROMOTION

1. 12 Exceptional WordPress Website Resources for Small Business WordPress is the small business owner’s best friend. And here are 12 14 WordPress Resources to help you get to know your best friend.
2. What Should You do About Discount Pricing? – The best minds in marketing share their advice on how to handle discounts and pricing.
3. The Interruption Fallacy – Interrupting people with advertising is not always a bad thing. In fact, sometimes people are glad you interrupted them.

FOUNDATIONS

This group of posts didn’t fit so neatly into any category, but readers made them some of the most popluar posts of the year.
1. Our Future Depends on A Culture of Entrepreneurship My plea to revive the entrepreneurial spirit in America.
2. The Entrepreneur’s Soul – A simple post searching for the ingredients of an entrepreneur’s soul.
3. There is No Magic Marketing Formula – If you’re searching for a magic marketing results formula, your search will never end.
Thanks for part of The Marketing Spot Blog in 2010! Please stick around for new year of small business marketing advice and ideas. Look for a few changes in 2011.


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The Conversation – Promotion Connection

In my four spot marketing model, as illustrated in The Marketing Circle of Life above, you see that the Conversation spot and Promotion are connected. Here’s how it works. Conversation is the unpaid evangelism about your business that occurs through person-to-person word of mouth, online social media, and publicity about your business in the media.

How do I get my name out there?

…is a frequent question I hear from entrepreneurs, and it’s actually a good question. People must be aware of you before they can purchase from you. There is something to be said for simple exposure, especially if your product or service is not a high-frequency purchase. You may think you have a memorable business, but

Quote Spot: Promotion

A collection of quotes about promoting your business. “Never sell a product or service. Always sell a concept.” – Advertising Secrets of the Written Word by Joe Sugarman I consider sampling to be the most effective marketing method…assuming that you have an excellent product or service.” – Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson “The new

>What are you selling?

> Is it what your customers are buying? Too often the focus is on the product or service. How much will we charge? How can we package it? Let’s have a sale! But let’s change the perspective, because people aren’t buying your product or service. They are buying what they get from that service. For

Promoting Your Business: Use the Right Tactics

This is the third in a three-part series on how to promote your business. Part 1: The Message: How Should I Promote My Business? Part 2: The Media: The Complete (Thumbnail) Guide to Choosing the Right Media Part 3: The Tactics (Today) You might think that mixing new media with traditional media requires two different

The Complete (Thumbnail) Guide to Choosing the Right Media

This is the second in a three-part series on how to promote your business. Part 1: The Message: How Should I Promote My Business Part 2: The Media (Today) Part 3: The Tactics: Promoting Your Business: Use the Right Tactics You may have heard that traditional media is dead, don’t advertise there any more. That’s

Starting a Social Media Program

Episode #23 of Power to the Small Business podcast. The Internet show about small business marketing. The social media evangelists are preaching: “Social media is the way, the truth, the light!” But is it right for your business? And if it is, how do you get started? David Berkowitz is Director of Emerging Media & Client

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