3 Smart Marketing Strategies You'd Be Stupid To Miss

All insults aside, I wanted to write a post to motivate and inspire you to take bigger risks and dive into some of the hottest marketing trends. Now is the time to become an early adopter! If you're still sitting "on the fence" about high-tech marketing strategies, you risk missing out on some truly golden opportunities. I've included 3 hot marketing trends in this post that you should definitely start implementing right away.

The 3 Most Important Marketing Questions

There's a lot that can get in your way as a business owner. You need office supplies, your employees have HR questions, your email is blowing up, and on and on. Distractions are around every corner, behind every phone call, and inside every nook & cranny of your business. That's why it's so critical to keep your guard up and your focus clear.

Your #1 most important job as a business owner is to grow the business. And growing your business means you need more sales coming through the door every day. As the saying goes, "If you're not growing, you're dying." That pretty much sums it up.

Are You In The Marketing Business Or The Money Business?

Today's online marketing world is filled with talking heads. Apparently all you need to be a "marketing expert" today is a Twitter account and a few groupies to back you up at every turn. Social media has changed everything about online marketing (and peer review), and yet it has changed nothing about how business works, how sales are made, and how customer relationships are won and lost. In this post, I want to take a stand against "marketing for marketing's sake" and encourage Small Business Owners and Everyday Entrepreneurs to remember that marketing is pointless if it doesn't generate results.

What Is Direct Response Marketing?

It's such a great question and yet such a difficult one to answer! Nonetheless, I'm going to try my hand at answering this exact question without making your eyes glaze over and your mind turn to cottage cheese. Understanding what makes Direct Response different can mean the difference between a successful marketing campaign and an unsuccessful one.

Just like American politics is divided primarily between Republicans and Democrats, the world of marketing is generally divided between what you would call "Brand Marketers" and what you would call "Direct Marketers." To be fair, these two worlds often do intersect (even though the staunch advocates on either side would never accept that idea!) and the one school of thought compliments and blends into the other.

Direct Response Website Design 101

One of the most important principles of Direct Response Marketing is that "media is just media." While plenty of online marketing thinkers would have you believe otherwise, it's a plain and simple truth. Just because we're talking about websites, doesn't mean the rules of conversion, lead generation, and targeted response somehow go out the window. Of course not! Your website should be built with the core principles of Direct Response in mind. And for that reason, you should constantly revisit your website to tweak and improve your results. Here's a guide to help you do just that...