Power to the Small Business | Branding / Marketing Plans & Ideas / Social Media / Customer Experience Design / Digital Marketing

The social media evangelists are preaching: "Social media is the way, the truth, the light!" But is it right for your business? And if it is, how do you get started? Guest expert David Berkowitz is Director of Emerging Media & Client Strategy for 360i, a social media marketing company based in New York. In this episode of Power to the Small Business, David explains how get a social media program started and how to analyze whether or not a particular channel is for you. David says that while most of these tools are free, the time commitment can be enormous. You can find complete show notes and links on the blog: http://themarketingspot.blogspot.com/2009/01/starting-social-media-program.html

Your website traffic should not be a mystery. There are tools to help you track and analyze website traffic. Those tools are called web analytics. Tina Bean is Sales & Marketing for VisiStat, a real time website visitor tracking service. In this episode of Power to the Small Business, Tina Bean explains what web analytics are and what they can do for your small business website. Tina says that, "everyone with a website needs web analytics." Get complete show notes on The Marketing Spot blog: http://themarketingspot.blogspot.com/2009/01/marketing-basics-web-analytics.html

Your website traffic should not be a mystery. There are tools to help you track and analyze website traffic. Those tools are called web analytics. Tina Bean is Sales & Marketing for VisiStat, a real time website visitor tracking service. In this episode of Power to the Small Business, Tina Bean explains what web analytics are and what they can do for your small business website. Tina says that, "everyone with a website needs web analytics." Get complete show notes on The Marketing Spot blog: http://themarketingspot.blogspot.com/2009/01/marketing-basics-web-analytics.html

How do you solve the branding puzzle, especially if you're an existing business? Your brand is your company's most important asset, so you need to do it right. Alina Wheeler is the author of Designing Brand Identity, now in it's second edition. In this episode of Power to the Small Business, Alina Wheeler gives us four simple questions to answer. Answering those four questions is the start to designing your brand identity. Show notes and links are posted on The Marketing Spot Blog: TheMarketingSpot.blogspot.com

How do you solve the branding puzzle, especially if you're an existing business? Your brand is your company's most important asset, so you need to do it right. Alina Wheeler is the author of Designing Brand Identity, now in it's second edition. In this episode of Power to the Small Business, Alina Wheeler gives us four simple questions to answer. Answering those four questions is the start to designing your brand identity. Show notes and links are posted on The Marketing Spot Blog: TheMarketingSpot.blogspot.com

Mobile marketing was supposed to be hot in 2008. What happened? We're not really much closer to using mobile tools on a local level than we were when the year began. Part of the reason is that it's somewhat of an unknown for small businesses. Some of the big questions are "What is it? How can I use it? How do I get started." In this episode of Power to the Small Business, Kim Dushinski answers those questions and simplifies mobile in to something more understandable. Kim is the author of The Mobile Marketing Handbook. and her company is Mobile Marketing Profits in Denver, Colorado. Kim says there are certain mobile tools that are better for small businesses than others. Also, mobile marketing is not right for everyone.

Mobile marketing was supposed to be hot in 2008. What happened? We're not really much closer to using mobile tools on a local level than we were when the year began. Part of the reason is that it's somewhat of an unknown for small businesses. Some of the big questions are "What is it? How can I use it? How do I get started." In this episode of Power to the Small Business, Kim Dushinski answers those questions and simplifies mobile in to something more understandable. Kim is the author of The Mobile Marketing Handbook. and her company is Mobile Marketing Profits in Denver, Colorado. Kim says there are certain mobile tools that are better for small businesses than others. Also, mobile marketing is not right for everyone.

Can social media be used as a marketing tool for your business? Many social media evangelists say yes. That may not be necessarily so for the small business. The first challenge is to navigate the confusing social media landscape. The second challenge is to figure out how to use social media. In this episode of Power to the Small Business, Dave Evans helps fit all the pieces together of this marketing puzzle. Dave is a social media consultant with Digital Voodoo in Austin, Texas and the author of Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day. Dave says that social media can be a very potent marketing tool if you know how to use it. Listen to the episode to learn: What is social media? How to use social media to market a business? How to develop a plan to use it social media.

Can social media be used as a marketing tool for your business? Many social media evangelists say yes. That may not be necessarily so for the small business. The first challenge is to navigate the confusing social media landscape. The second challenge is to figure out how to use social media. In this episode of Power to the Small Business, Dave Evans helps fit all the pieces together of this marketing puzzle. Dave is a social media consultant with Digital Voodoo in Austin, Texas and the author of Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day. Dave says that social media can be a very potent marketing tool if you know how to use it. Listen to the episode to learn: What is social media? How to use social media to market a business? How to develop a plan to use it social media.

Viral marketing gets too much credit. Slap together a hilarious video, slap it on YouTube and then people all over the world will rush to see it. Problem is, that very rarely leads to quantifiable business. And that type of viral marketing is practically useless to a local small business. JD Hinton writes songs, is a performer, and he lives in Central Texas. Last month he hosted an amazing event that he simply refers to as a wine concert. But it was much more. It was actually a jazzy, bluesy, eclectic event. The event sold out in four days and was was marketed almost exclusively by a form of viral email. There were no jokes, no funny videos, no amazing claims. Listen to how JD did it.

Viral marketing gets too much credit. Slap together a hilarious video, slap it on YouTube and then people all over the world will rush to see it. Problem is, that very rarely leads to quantifiable business. And that type of viral marketing is practically useless to a local small business. JD Hinton writes songs, is a performer, and he lives in Central Texas. Last month he hosted an amazing event that he simply refers to as a wine concert. But it was much more. It was actually a jazzy, bluesy, eclectic event. The event sold out in four days and was was marketed almost exclusively by a form of viral email. There were no jokes, no funny videos, no amazing claims. Listen to how JD did it.

Word of mouth is often called the most powerful form of advertising. But the concept perplexes many small businesses. What is it? How does it work? Can it be controlled? In this episode of Power to the Small Business, word-of-mouth expert Jackie Huba provides some answers to those questions. Jackie is the author (with Ben McConnell) of Creating Customer Evangelists and Citizen Marketers. She believes that customer evangelism should be a primary concern of your business. Huba advises that you build word of mouth in to the DNA of everything you do in business. See complete show notes on the blog: http://themarketingspot.blogspot.com/2008/09/word-of-mouth-tips-from-jackie-huba.html

Word of mouth is often called the most powerful form of advertising. But the concept perplexes many small businesses. What is it? How does it work? Can it be controlled? In this episode of Power to the Small Business, word-of-mouth expert Jackie Huba provides some answers to those questions. Jackie is the author (with Ben McConnell) of Creating Customer Evangelists and Citizen Marketers. She believes that customer evangelism should be a primary concern of your business. Huba advises that you build word of mouth in to the DNA of everything you do in business. See complete show notes on the blog: http://themarketingspot.blogspot.com/2008/09/word-of-mouth-tips-from-jackie-huba.html

Guest: Michael Dowd - Outrider.com Is the search engine world already changing? Just as Google establishes itself as the monster of search, will it now have to conquer a new frontier? There are two different worlds of search: the PC and the mobile search space. While they may have similarities, they are not exactly the same. Listen to the podcast as Michael educates us on what you need to know about search in the coming mobile revolution. Different ads and different organic search results show up in your mobile browser when you search. Meaning you can search a term in mobile and the same term from a PC and get different results and different ads. Usually, mobile optimized websites show up first in organic results. Non-mobile optimized sites are not given as much weight in mobile search. PPC or search marketing works much the same way on mobile search as it does on traditional search. Now is a golden time to get into mobile search marketing. You can get in early and establish a high quality score because click-through rates should be higher. Go into mobile search marketing with your expectations tempered. Advantages now are efficiency and low cost, but there just aren’t as many searches as traditional search. So for the next couple of years you may spend more manpower on the campaigns. But when mobile search begins to get populated, you will have established yourself. To get started with mobile search, begin with the traditional powerhouses, Google and Yahoo, then start experimenting with other search engines. Yahoo has really been the mobile search innovator between the two, especially with the Yahoo Go product. Yahoo Go is a widget for your mobile phone that serves as the gateway to the mobile Internet. Just about every industry has a place in mobile search. No-brainers are automotive, fast-food chains, malls, grocery stores, anything with a store locater. Use mobile marketing to provide coupons and widgets to your customers.

Guest: Michael Dowd - Outrider.com Is the search engine world already changing? Just as Google establishes itself as the monster of search, will it now have to conquer a new frontier? There are two different worlds of search: the PC and the mobile search space. While they may have similarities, they are not exactly the same. Listen to the podcast as Michael educates us on what you need to know about search in the coming mobile revolution. Different ads and different organic search results show up in your mobile browser when you search. Meaning you can search a term in mobile and the same term from a PC and get different results and different ads. Usually, mobile optimized websites show up first in organic results. Non-mobile optimized sites are not given as much weight in mobile search. PPC or search marketing works much the same way on mobile search as it does on traditional search. Now is a golden time to get into mobile search marketing. You can get in early and establish a high quality score because click-through rates should be higher. Go into mobile search marketing with your expectations tempered. Advantages now are efficiency and low cost, but there just aren’t as many searches as traditional search. So for the next couple of years you may spend more manpower on the campaigns. But when mobile search begins to get populated, you will have established yourself. To get started with mobile search, begin with the traditional powerhouses, Google and Yahoo, then start experimenting with other search engines. Yahoo has really been the mobile search innovator between the two, especially with the Yahoo Go product. Yahoo Go is a widget for your mobile phone that serves as the gateway to the mobile Internet. Just about every industry has a place in mobile search. No-brainers are automotive, fast-food chains, malls, grocery stores, anything with a store locater. Use mobile marketing to provide coupons and widgets to your customers.