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by Joe Manna
Small businesses can't go toe to toe against large retailers on Black Friday. It's just not a fair fight... But small businesses can still capitalize on Black Friday in ways the Big Box stores can't or don't.
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by Rob Eleveld
The good news is that you don't need an MBA and you needn't have taken an accounting class to figure out the basics of your cost structure and an associated billable rate.
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by Kate Toon
You send a great proposal, but now the client says your costs are too high. Should you reduce your rates to win the job, or should you stick to your guns and risk losing the project altogether?
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by Ayaz Nanji
Fully two-thirds (67%) of bloggers say paid sponsored/branded content is their most profitable revenue generator, according to a recent report from Zig Marketing. Moreover, though 90% of bloggers say they use an advertising network, only 17% say it is their biggest revenue source.
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by Tim Riesterer
Companies looking for more profitable growth often turn to three common strategies. But each has a major flaw that causes leaks in precious margin. Here are counterintuitive ideas to make each strategy more effective.
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by Ayaz Nanji
Nearly 3 in 4 shoppers (74%) are more sensitive to price in 2013 compared with 2012,
according to a recent survey of US consumers by Parago.
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by Ted Wham
The time has come for air travel and hospitality brands to address an existential threat to the travel industry: Customer loyalty has all but vanished.
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With the holiday season all but here, more small business owners are making Small Business Saturday an integral factor in their holiday sales plans, according to a survey from American Express and the National Federation of Independent Businesses.
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"It's an old adage," writes Amanda Hinkle in an article at MarketingProfs. "Driving increased sales from your current customers is easier than acquiring new customers."
And yet, it's an old adage many retailers don't heed: In a recent survey, only 37% said they use cross-sell and up-sell programs to boost ...
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by Karl Wirth
We often think of marketing as a way to acquire customers. But, today, business is more relationship-based and therefore just as focused on retaining customers. So how do the 7 Ps of marketing apply to customer retention?
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by Michael Stevens
Armed with smartphones, shoppers are going to brick-and-mortar stores to evaluate products—then, often while still in the store, buying them online to get deals. That's "showrooming." Here's what you can do about it.
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When Kantar Media asked over 2,500 people what encouraged them to purchase more products online, the top two responses had something in common: the word "free." "More than three out of four shoppers cited 'free shipping' as the factor that would get them to purchase, and the second most common ...
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"Local deals. Daily deals. Group-buying deals," writes Amy Fowler at MarketingProfs. "Call them what you will, but they're all the same thing: a very expensive form of marketing that can run a small business into the ground if utilized incorrectly." Why? Because you're not just providing a deeply discounted product ...
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by Vahe Habeshian
The insurance category fetches the highest cost-per-click (CPC) rates in Google AdWords pay-per-click (PPC) advertising: nearly $50 per click, according to new keyword research data from search marketing software provider WordStream Inc.
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"The recession has caused lots of companies to panic," writes Laura Ries at Ries' Pieces. "And when companies panic, they print coupons and throw up sale signs. Look in your mailbox, your email inbox or your newspaper and you will see what I mean. Everybody is having a sale."
There's only ...
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Especially in this economy, small businesses are tripping over themselves to tell customers about their low, low prices. But in an article at MarketingProfs, Dan Hill argues strenuously against price-leading campaigns and gives reasons like these:
It is not a sustainable long-term strategy. "One of the key advantages of a sale ...
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by Dan Hill
Leading with price in your messaging suggests your brand has nothing else to say or show for itself. And that's not good for a host of reasons.
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We've mentioned that you can draw traffic to paid mobile applications by creating a free "lite" version. Once users deem it useful, they may be happy to pay for the full version.
But what's a company to do if it can't afford to create a whole new version of an existing app—with ...
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In September, UNIQLO UK launched Lucky Counter, a piece of marketing genius that compelled users to Tweet about the company's products. Each time they did, the products got more appealing.
How? Lucky Counter featured a diverse, limited array of UNIQLO products and prices. Click on one, and you'd be invited to Tweet ...
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by Matthew Stibbe
Who said small firms can do business only with other small firms? If you can get your foot in the door, working for Fortune 500 companies is the smart way to grow a profitable marketing firm. This is how one small company found ways to turn its small size into ...
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Setting SaaS [software as a service] pricing is an important but daunting task for most early stage start-ups, especially when they don't have a track record. The first task in selling SaaS, writes Bob Warfield in a recent post on Enterprise Irregulars, is getting anyone to pay anything for your ...
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by Dean Rieck
If you're using direct marketing to sell your products and services, then you know that it's all about making an offer. But are you testing your offers to find out what work best? There are hundreds of offers and thousands, perhaps millions, of offer variations you can test. However, some ...
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by Miles Galliford
Since the Internet began, some 40 years ago, most of its content has been free to access. Today, that is still the case. However, paid content is one of the fastest-growing areas of Internet business, generating more than $15 billion in revenues in 2009 in the US alone. With so ...
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by M. P. Friedman
This article originally addressed the seven worst marketing mistakes. But seven wasn't nearly enough. The list grew until it reached unlucky 13. Here are the first four.
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When people click on your unsubscribe button, there's a good chance it takes them to a preference page where they can confirm the unsubscribe request, or adjust their subscription to a topic and frequency they prefer. But what about including an offer that tempts them to stay?
In a post at ...
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![Small Merchants Expect Holiday Sales Boost From Small Business Saturday [Infographic]](https://i.marketingprofs.com/assets/images/daily-chirp/small-biz-saturday-sm.jpg)
"It's an old adage," writes Amanda Hinkle in an article at MarketingProfs. "Driving increased sales from your current customers is easier than acquiring new customers." And yet, it's an old adage many retailers don't heed: In a recent survey, only 37% said they use cross-sell and up-sell programs to boost ... more
When Kantar Media asked over 2,500 people what encouraged them to purchase more products online, the top two responses had something in common: the word "free." "More than three out of four shoppers cited 'free shipping' as the factor that would get them to purchase, and the second most common ... more
"Local deals. Daily deals. Group-buying deals," writes Amy Fowler at MarketingProfs. "Call them what you will, but they're all the same thing: a very expensive form of marketing that can run a small business into the ground if utilized incorrectly." Why? Because you're not just providing a deeply discounted product ... more
"The recession has caused lots of companies to panic," writes Laura Ries at Ries' Pieces. "And when companies panic, they print coupons and throw up sale signs. Look in your mailbox, your email inbox or your newspaper and you will see what I mean. Everybody is having a sale." There's only ... more
Especially in this economy, small businesses are tripping over themselves to tell customers about their low, low prices. But in an article at MarketingProfs, Dan Hill argues strenuously against price-leading campaigns and gives reasons like these: It is not a sustainable long-term strategy. "One of the key advantages of a sale ... more
In September, UNIQLO UK launched Lucky Counter, a piece of marketing genius that compelled users to Tweet about the company's products. Each time they did, the products got more appealing. How? Lucky Counter featured a diverse, limited array of UNIQLO products and prices. Click on one, and you'd be invited to Tweet ... more
Setting SaaS [software as a service] pricing is an important but daunting task for most early stage start-ups, especially when they don't have a track record. The first task in selling SaaS, writes Bob Warfield in a recent post on Enterprise Irregulars, is getting anyone to pay anything for your ... more
If you're using direct marketing to sell your products and services, then you know that it's all about making an offer. But are you testing your offers to find out what work best? There are hundreds of offers and thousands, perhaps millions, of offer variations you can test. However, some ... more
When people click on your unsubscribe button, there's a good chance it takes them to a preference page where they can confirm the unsubscribe request, or adjust their subscription to a topic and frequency they prefer. But what about including an offer that tempts them to stay? In a post at ... more
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