Innovation and Entrepreneurship
by Paul Mobley, MBA
From the category archives:
In the U.S., the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) establishes requirements for those who send commercial email, spells out penalties for spammers and companies whose products are advertised in spam if they violate the law, and gives consumers the right to ask e-mailers to stop spamming them. [...]
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E-Mail marketing is a wonderful tool a small business to use. You can communicate like the big boys with inexpensive tools to create and send mailings to your clients and prospects. These systems allow messages that are not only targetable but also accountable (you can see who opened the e-mail, when they did it, and [...]
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I was talking with a sports agent recently and was reminded how may micro-businesses there are out there. They’re built around the success and talents of one or a few individuals. These include athletes, musicians, artists, celebrities, etc. These people need the same things that are required for small business success: they need good advisers [...]
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The other day I called American Express about a problem that I was having on one of my accounts and it required talking with a supervisor. Unfortunately, there were no supervisors available. So instead of making me stay on hold until one became free they did a nice thing and asked for my phone number [...]
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The process of getting new work often requires putting it in writing. Sometimes an estimate or quote will work just fine, but for larger more complicated projects you’ll need to write a proposal. A “estimate” is for a simple product or service that requires just enough information to define the details of the sale and [...]
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Some small businesses generate a majority of their sales from referrals. If that’s true for your business … how many touch points are there in your interactions with customers that result in planting seeds or asking for referrals? When talking with your prospects for the first time do you mention that you get a majority [...]
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A blog is an excellent way to develop a connection with the community, expand your network, and gives potential clients gives some background into your thinking, values, and style. I think on of the greatest benefits is that it’s a way of staying present in the mind of your clients, prospects, and industry associates. Most [...]
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There are different styles of writing for types of publications. If, for example, you want your article to be more of a news story, then the journalist style of writing is best. Basically, you need to answer the who, what, where, when, and why questions in your article. Your lead or first paragraph should address [...]
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In today’s culture, a compelling, well developed website is essential in the growth of your company as a complement to the ongoing communication of your brand and experience. Many people will assess the value of your organization simply by their experience and interaction with your website. This fairly new phenomenon requires that your web presence [...]
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It is sad that marketing and brand development is often only viewed as an expense (something that lowers profit). The truth is that these types of efforts would be better viewed as an investment rather than an expense. “One of our major assets never appears on the balance sheet: the brand names under which we [...]
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Your budget or marketing channels don’t matter! The reason that large companies are successful is because they focused on their brand experience. The most common thing that people associate with this is a logo, website, or collateral materials…but is goes much deeper than that. The brand experience includes everything from how you answer the phone [...]
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Have you ever used the social bookmarking service del.icio.us? Not only is it a cool service but it also has a cool name. I don’t know who started it first but it’s a technique that we now know as domain hacking. My corporation owns about 50 different domain names (most are .com) but we’ve always [...]
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The importance of Google, and other search engines, varies for every business or product line. It is useful if the prospect is looking for you but doesn’t remember the web address or exact name of the product/service. They want to find you but don’t remember where to go. If this is your situation, then test [...]
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