Profitable Email Marketing Tactics for Offline Businesses

We print it on our business cards and stationery.
We give it out to (almost) anyone who asks for it.
We conduct research and gather valuable information with it.
We rely on it for communication with associates, friends and family.
“It” is e-mail. And there’s no denying that e-mail is as common of a communication tool as telephones — [...]

Quick Tip: Shower Power

If most of your best ideas seem to come to you while you’re in the shower but appear to have gone down the drain when you try to recall them later, try this: keep a grease pencil in the shower area so you can write ideas or key phrases on the shower stall walls. (But [...]

Get Great Business Advice for FREE

I often receive e-mails from business owners asking for advice in marketing, publicity, finance and operations management. Unfortunately, most of the advice I give has to be in fairly general terms because in order to give advice that will benefit each specific business, I would need to fully understand the dynamics of each individual situation, [...]

Quick Tip: Out of Sight, Out of Mind

If you have people who can’t serve customers because they are doing other tasks (i.e. making calls, tracking orders, preparing a bank deposit, etc.), arrange for them to perform those duties somewhere else. It’s frustrating for customers to approach an employee who is not willing to wait on them, or to be told to find [...]

Make Your Business Work Like Magic

I’ve been fascinated by magic and magicians since I was little. A successful magician can reach behind my ear, say “abracadabra” and – voila – pull out a quarter. Or with focused concentration, and two taps of a wand, a rabbit comes out of a top hat that was previously proven empty. On a bigger [...]

Business Success: No Pain, No Change

Whenever I sit with a client who has hired me to assess and identify ways to streamline their business operations, we eventually get around to what I call the “no pain, no change” discussion. I can present a neatly packaged assessment report with recommendations for increasing efficiencies or streamlining processes, but new efficiencies and streamlining [...]

The Art of Asking for Referrals

Last week I received an email inquiry from a woman named Donna. She told me she was having miserable luck getting referrals from her clients and ask, “What am I doing wrong?”
After a few email exchanges to determine how she was approaching clients, I was a bit stunned to learn the way Donna was going [...]

Quick Tip: Error Incentive

Although a little bit “old school” this marketing tactic is as effective today as it has been in the past. Offer a discount to anyone who can spot an error or specific phrase in your marketing copy (one that you purposely put in). Make sure the error or phrase is very obvious and that it [...]

Make Your Advertising Words Count By Using Bottom-Line Benefits at the Top

I get dozens of marketing pieces in both my mailbox and email box on a daily basis. I’m betting that you get more than your share, too. How do you sort through it?
Most of us only read the headline and take a quick glance at the photo on direct mail pieces – using less than [...]

Quick Tip: Business Card Billboards

Get the most out of handing out your business cards. Convert them into tiny, portable ads by printing on the back side with:

A discount coupon for your products or services
A “free with purchase” offer next time they stop in the store
An invitation to sign up at your website to win a prize in your monthly [...]