Is Your Small Business Ready to Go Global?

The National Export Initiative is an encouragement for small businesses to give aid in tapping into the global marketplace. Exporting is a great opportunity, however small business owners need further assistance before jumping into this with both feet. According to the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index (GEDI), the United States ranks third in the field of entrepreneurship. In the quest to grow your business, it is not surprising that you want to take it to the next level.

doing business on a global scale

Exporting your products and services to other countries denotes that your client base has grown to include the international market. This is growth for your business.…

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Realizing the Potential Of Online Video For Your Business

why businesses should use online videoAs an SMB CEO, you must take on multiple roles to ensure that your company has the greatest chances of success. One of the most important of these roles for building your business is marketing. As technology evolves and consumers spend more and more time on the Internet, you must utilize online tools in order to keep up with technology and compete with big businesses. Online video is one of the best marketing tools out there to attract consumers to your company.

Web video is not just for playback of traditional broadcast content or million dollar ad campaigns.   In fact, it is an important part of any marketing and commerce experience on the web.…

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Small Businesses and Digital Marketing in 2011

Marketing has come a long way from traditional tools used in print or magazine media. We are in an age where everybody who is anybody is interconnected and with a cursory view of your profile, it is pretty easy to know which market you would most likely be under.  As such, entrepreneurs have a greater chance of locating their target markets without leaving their desks.

digital marketing in 2011

In a recently conducted Zoomerang survey, most SMBs would either increase their digital marketing efforts or retain them in 2011. If small businesses are considered by many as the lifeblood of the economy, especially as far as job generation is concerned, then new customers are the holy grail.…

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7 Tools For Measuring Social Media Marketing ROI

tools for measuring social media roiSocial Media is going crazy viral as each day passes. Nowadays, it seems that everybody and their mothers use different social networking sites for a variety of purposes. In a show of entrepreneurial spirit, small businesses everywhere started to get on this marketing technique and follow it with such gusto that every article seems to focus on this strategy.

The measurement of your return of investments is important because it gives you an understanding of how effective a particular marketing campaign is. Sadly, 84% of those using social media do not measure ROI.

There are various tools which you can use to measure social media ROI.…

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Kickstart Your Online Community With Your Offline Customers

Developing a thriving online community is a challenging task for many small businesses. But if you have a business with an offline component – a retail store or physical location, a call center, or any other offline way that you interact with customers and prospects – you can use this to your advantage. Don’t compartmentalize your thinking by trying to build your online community only with people that you reach online.

I suggest focusing efforts at first on bringing your existing (and happy!) customers into the online fold – this can really help build your community, grow your audience and kickstart organic online community growth.…

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Publicity for Publicity’s Sake

Internet marketing can be tough. You would need to have an effective strategy in place depending on what stage your business is in. The competition is fierce as everyone vies to take the top spot on search engine results.

online business publicity

There is a saying that bad publicity is still publicity and this is one line in marketing that reputable businesses should never cross. Take the case of the DecorMyEyes scandal. In a gist, the owner of this online eye wear business uses negative customer reviews to be on the top echelon in Google search.

It is a well-known fact that to be in the coveted top spot on search engines, you would need to have high page rank sites link to your site.…

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Reaping the Soft Benefits of Email Marketing

In my previous article, Making Money: The Economics of Email, I discussed the customer acquisition cycle and how email marketing fits nicely into that effort, acting as the grease to speed the process along. Email has direct financial benefits, but there are also a number of other benefits that are difficult to track. For example, if your logo appears in an email, you might not see sales from people who drove right over to your store to make a purchase, but it might make your website seem more familiar to a visitor who has seen the email, and that might make her more comfortable making a purchase at a later date.…

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Are You Ready For American Express OPEN’s Small Business Saturday?

American Express Open's Small Business SaturdayEntrepreneurs are getting ready as everyone looks forward to the inception of a new shopping event: Small Business Saturday. The first-ever event will take place on November 27, as part of American Express Open’s plan to support the local economy.

America’s largest employers are still small businesses and it makes sense that the industry gets the attention it deserves by having a whole day dedicated to it. The national movement is getting more traction as the actual event draws near. Advocacy groups as well as the public and private sector unite to support this national campaign. This concerted effort to support small, independently-owned businesses would help to drive sales in the holiday weekend shopping traffic.…

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How Creating an eBook Can Help Develop Your Online Presence

create ebooks to boost your online presence

There are a number of reasons to create an eBook to help develop your online presence. Here are a just a few of them:

Build your email list

As many online entrepreneurs will tell you, building your email list is one of the most crucial things you must do in order to establish presence online regardless of whether or not you intend to make money. Certainly if you want to make money through your website and your presence online, an email list is even more vital.

But how to get people to hand over their email addresses to you – willingly – and with open ears to what you have to tell them?…

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Making Money: The Economics of Email

economics of emailI live close to a golf course, so my garage is always full of golf balls collected by my children. We literally have big plastic containers filled with golf balls sorted by type and condition. While I like to keep a container with the best of them in my trunk to restock my endless need, my children have other ideas.

Mitchell and Madeline, who seems to have the same entrepreneurial spirit I have, would rather sell these balls back to the golfers as they drive by our house on their way home.

The reality is, turning a profit on free golf balls might prove less profitable than they hope.…

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