Blog

Recording a song or an entire album can take weeks, months, even years depending on lots of variables. While it is true that some bands can go into a studio and do 1-2 takes to capture the various instrumentation and vocals that go into a final recording, the production typically takes much longer. Then there […]

Contrary to the implication of how most people use the term “conversion,” capturing someone’s email address or phone number isn’t the final step in earning a customer. In the digital space, it’s actually the first step. (Or probably the second or third, but the first big one.) What you need to do once you have […]

Yelp reviews can make or break a small business, especially a restaurant or new business. But like most review sites, what is a small business to do when their Yelp reviews go wrong? A reader reached out recently with just that situation. She wrote: I would like to know if you have any advice as to […]

New Year’s resolutions aren’t just for people, you know? What bout your New Year’s small business resolution for 2017? Sure, you have goals and objectives, strategies and tactics to run your business, but why not also throw in a little “let’s do this better this year” challenge into the mix? For my particular small business […]

Small business branding is typically an accident. The business is born out of a passion to perform a specific craft or serve a specific consumer. You love computers, so you start a computer repair business. You love helping others stay solvent with their money so you start doing bookkeeping for friends. And so on. Most small businesses are […]

We live in a sea of noise. Whether it’s the cacophony of it that is our social media feeds or the multitasking nightmare of our daily to-do list, there never seems to be enough time to get it all done, to take it all in. This is also true with marketing. In an effort to […]

If you’ve followed or read my work very long you know that I don’t do a lot of book reviews. When I do, you should pay attention to them. I’ve just finished The Customer Loyalty Loop by Noah Fleming and have to say that in the era of Jay Baer’s Hug Your Haters, I didn’t […]

We’ve started talking about how small businesses can make a transition from a referral based business to a lead-generation business and we’ve focused on the website as the starting point. But now let’s start to take our strategic thinking for our small business forward and build out the next step in the process, which is […]

For you to be successful with digital marketing as a small business, you still have to start with your small business website. Certainly, it is possible to make waves without. Social media sites give you free (except for the time commitment) and easy access to potentially reach a lot of people. But for customers to […]

Dawn Wigginton is a dynamite online and offline media mind here in Louisville. We were chatting recently and she had a client recently who asked her how much reach and impact online reviews, particularly a bad review on Facebook had on a business. While Dawn and I discussed online reviews a bit, she came up with […]

A mortgage broker called me yesterday to ask for some advice on social sharing after hearing me speak at a recent event. She works for a bank in a small central Kentucky town and wanted help with the technical end of sharing good content. Her basic issue was she didn’t know where to find the good […]

  You’ve probably heard me whine before about how some of the best social technology software platforms ruin themselves. They come out with low or free price points, get enough users to attract investors, then are forced by the investors to focus on the enterprise and leave the small business folks behind. It’s one of […]