A Blog for Small Business Online Reality
I had a good year last year, gained some new clients, and was happily busy for the second half of the year (occasionally flat out!) When my other half suggested a holiday pre-Christmas my immediate thought was “How? I’m way too busy to take a break.” It’s a common refrain for many small business people.
Continue reading “How to take a holiday when you run your own business”
Note: this post is written for everyone, ironically enough as you will see if you keep reading. It is for new bloggers, seasoned bloggers, and all blog readers.
Don’t you just hate it when a blog post doesn’t deliver on its promise? When it has a catchy title like “The One Secret You Simply Must Know to Succeed in Business” but then waffles on about 50 little things and tries to summarise them into some lame one word idea such as “Authenticity”.
If you haven’t yet heard the terms Inbound marketing and Outbound marketing, you may feel you’ve been missing out on something important. But it’s highly probable that you’re already doing some of each, without knowing the marketing industry jargon. Make 2014 the year to put the power of Inbound Marketing to work for your small business. Here’s how…
With a new year fast approaching, it’s time to reassess your business marketing methods. Not just review what’s been working, but what will you need to focus on in future. Don’t you wish you had a crystal ball to tell you what will be “the next big thing” so that you can be ahead of the wave for once? Or to show you how to create a video that will go viral?
Continue reading “Online marketing for 2014 – where to focus your efforts”
The marketing arena has changed dramatically in recent years. In many ways it’s now easier and cheaper for small businesses to excel with DIY marketing. I’ve listed here 5 free options, but bear in mind that nothing’s really free – they all cost you in time, and there are always some drawbacks to ‘free’.
I’m starting to explore a world I’ve so far avoided. The world of video, as a marketing tool.
A client told me last week that he wants to start a Facebook page for his business. He described it as a “must do”. I immediately bristled. Who says it’s a must do? Why do you believe it’s a must do? “Well, I’ve been told it needs to be a long-term thing, and results may not be visible, but, you know, everyone’s doing it… so it’s a must do.”
Whenever I hear that “must do” phrase, I like to counter it with my own favourite phrase:
“It depends…”
Continue reading “The one thing you MUST DO in small business marketing”
This confession may surprise you. I am an anti-marketing marketer. There’s a lot to dislike and distrust about marketing, so I know I’m not alone in hating it. I also know that it’s not a blanket hatred. There is plenty of marketing that I admire, and enjoy, and there’s some that I’m not even aware of as marketing.
So let me start with a rant about the bad stuff, before exploring some of the good…
Continue reading “Marketing – the Ugly, the Bad and the Good”
RHD Blog – One year on.
In my last post I asked whether a blog is worth the effort. Tomorrow marks the anniversary of my first published blog post and here I am, 12 months down the track and pondering that question. Is it worth the effort?
It’s something I’ve been pondering, as I enter my 12th month of blogging. Is blogging worthwhile? Am I being of use to anybody? Do I even have anything original to say? And how long will my advice remain relevant in this rapidly changing online world? Continue reading “Is a blog worth the effort?”