Recently I was talking with a friend about the typical Christmas (or holiday, if you want to be politically correct) gifts that companies send to their associates and clients—and how most of them are a waste of money. Over the years, Jerry and I have received gifts from business associates that ranged from excellent wine to [...]
Is a picture really worth 1,000 words? Absolutely. Maybe more. Pictures are powerful. We live in a visual, fast-paced world. Images grab attention and give the reader an at-a-glance answer to the “why should I read this?” question. They can dramatically improve the effectiveness of almost any written message, including web copy, content marketing, social [...]
Why I Switched to MailChimp from Constant Contact When our company first started doing email marketing, we used Constant Contact as our email service provider. I appreciated many things about the service, especially the various training programs. But gradually my frustration level with Constant Contact increased, so a few years ago, we switched to MailChimp. [...]
Several months ago, I met someone I thought would make a good source for a Conversations ebook on email marketing. Conversations is our series of affordable ebooks based on in-depth conversations with leading subject matter experts. This potential source was speaking at a business event I attended. (He uses speeches and seminars as lead generators.) [...]
If you're trying to get publicity for yourself or your company, the 24-hour news cycle along with the proliferation of cable news channels and online news sources makes the chances that you'll be interviewed by a media outlet greater than ever. So what do you do when you're contacted by a journalist who wants to [...]
What do you say when clients ask for a discount? Most small business owners and even a lot of professional salespeople find it difficult to deal with customers who want to haggle over price. In the past when quoting my professional fees, my usual practice was to say that I could only reduce my [...]
Adult coloring books are for more than just coloring. When I first suggested to Jerry that we collaborate on a coloring book for adults, he thought it was a crazy idea. He hadn’t heard about how popular the adult coloring book trend had become, but—good husband that he is—he was willing to humor me. He’s [...]
Facebook groups are a great way to cut through the newsfeed clutter and engage in a meaningful way with your fans on Facebook. Benefits of having a Facebook group include: Any user can start a Facebook group on any topic. This makes groups a great resource not only for marketing but for internal business [...]
Your profile picture is one of the most important elements of your online presence. There may be plenty of photos of you floating around, but your profile picture is the one that’s going to get the most views. It’s the one that most people see first—and most often. What does it say about you? Does [...]
When your customers complain, be sure you understand what they want before you take action. I recently downloaded a free digital product. I absolutely understood that the source was going to try to sell me more products—and that’s fine. But in the first few days after I downloaded the product, I was inundated with emails [...]
