Express Marketing Memo

Get Specific About Your Offer

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:44:08 +0000

Do you offer "quality service" or do you have a "7 Point Checklist" that shows why I should use your product or service?

Have your prices been reduced for a sale or have they been reduced by 25% for 3 days only?

"Platitudes and generalities roll off the human understanding like water from a duck. They leave no impression whatever. To say, "Best in the world," "Lowest price in existence," etc. are at best simply claiming the expected. But superlatives of that sort are usually damaging. They suggest looseness of expression, a tendence to exaggerate, a careless truth. They lead readers to discount all the statements that you make." ~ Claude Hopkins, Scientific Advertising

Whether we're talking about your overall message, the sales copy for your next ad, or the content of an email blast, the more specific your message, the more weight your message will carry. A specific message is either truth or a lie. There's no middle ground, less opinion, more fact.

Simply Delicious Link Building Tips

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:34:32 +0000

Two years ago, I wrote several posts about using Delicious.com for social bookmarking. Those posts are no less relevant today than when they were written in 2008. I still use Delicious.com as my bookmark manager because it allows me to keep one set of bookmarks that can be easily accessed from any computer and I still find the social aspect of it to be highly beneficial.

In effect, it's a human-edited search engine, only returning results that others have found useful. But sometime between then and now, Delicious.com improved its service. Now it also allows me to send bookmarks with my comments to others within my network, to anyone via email, or broadcast them through Twitter. This enhancement saves me time because many of my bookmarks are meant to be shared.

More Goodies from Google LBC

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:29:15 +0000

Have you checked your listing on Google Local Business Center (LBC) lately?

Just this month Google added a new feature to their Local Business Center. Now you can post short snippets of information directly to your LBC listing as frequently as you like. Wouldn't that be a handy way to keep your listing fresh and updated with the latest information?

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words, and that's definitely the case with today's article. It's short on words, with plenty of screen shots.

Link Building Tips – Your Facebook Page

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:00:32 +0000

With 250 million+ active users, it's safe to say that at least a portion of your customer base is on Facebook. It's no longer the domain of college students, but the online hangout for moms, dads, grandparents, and more importantly – people of all ages and interests from your locale. Real people and organizations are on Facebook - that's their USP and that's why YOU need to be found there. Being on Facebook shows that you're real - and makes great strategic sense at the same time.

Where Should I Advertise My Business?

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:09:12 +0000

We talk a lot about online advertising here, but conventional, print advertising is still the life blood of many brick and mortar small businesses. Some of you are reaping the results of well-written, well-placed advertising. Others are frustrated by a lack of results.

My question to you today: Are you paying enough attention to saying the right thing to the right people? If not, the wrong people are hearing your message, meaning nothing you could say to them would induce them to buy. Even if the right people (your target audience) hear your message, if it's the wrong message for them, it's of no value to you.

Be sure to click through to read the rest of this article and today's 30-minute challenge!

Link Building Tips – Your Digg Profile

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:31:34 +0000

Here's a tip you might not find anywhere else. It's a happy little discovery I made back in November '09. You can rank for a page bookmarked on Digg within 19 hours on Bing. Your submission doesn't have to be voted up or commented on. It just needs to be a valid submission. That little discovery changed the way I look at Digg.

Fuel Your Small Business Success by Scheduling Learning Opportunities

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 18:52:42 +0000

One theme you may have noticed throughout this blog is that we place a high value on continually being in learning mode. We practice this by subscribing to and reading worthwhile publications, both online and off, by investing in marketing and business books that form a solid reference library, and of course, by the experience of trying and testing new ideas.

Today's 30-minute tip is to invest in your business growth by scheduling time to learn. Don't just leave it to chance. Add it to your daily or at least your weekly schedule and treat it like you would an important appointment with a customer. Make the time for it.

Here are three free marketing magazines that we recommend and that regularly arrive in our mailbox. One deals exclusively with running a website, another with selling products online, and the third with all forms of direct response marketing.

Link Building Tips – Your Twitter Profile

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 14:12:07 +0000

Let’s start 2010 with a bang, and dive right into helping you and your business get found online. Today and every Thursday this year, you’ll find one or more quick link building tips. Apply them as you receive them and I guarantee that at this time next year you won’t still be wondering how to [...]

Build Your Email List – Jump Start Your Marketing

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:43:09 +0000

I love the beginning of a new year. It’s just a date on the calendar, but there’s something about January 1 that says “fresh” and “new.” I go into planning mode and figure out more stuff in two weeks than in the previous six months. This first post of the year is a natural time to [...]

The Best Laid Plans …

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 18:17:37 +0000

How can 2010 be just days away, when there’s so much left unfinished from 2009? Has this year flown by as fast for you as it has for me? December, in particular, has been nothing but a blur. Earlier this month, I wrote a post (never published) about the importance of stepping back from your business [...]

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