Wednesday, July 20, 2011

It’s Easy To Get Free Advertising For Your Small Business


If you want to draw attention to your small business, try using media coverage. Local papers and magazines are always looking for interesting grand openings, re-openings and community events to cover. 

It’s true that these events do cost some money, but you can keep costs down and still produce a newsworthy event. Make it big enough, and the media coverage will help alert the local community that you are a business that gives back to the people supporting it. 

Take the time to plan a lively event, including food, entertainment, and special offers, looking for openings and prospects to partner with other local businesses as well. One cheap but effective option is to invite local musicians to showcase their talent at your location. Many aspiring musicians will perform inexpensively or even for free, just for exposure and practice. Likewise, local party planners may hire out a clown or superhero for a reasonable fee. 

Choose a charitable cause and showcase your generosity. Consider hosting an event that benefits a local pet shelter, a family with a child with cancer, or a homeless shelter. These worthy efforts will make you shine. Whatever you choose, make sure it’s big enough to get the attention of the local media. 


When you’re ready to roll, contact the media to let them know what you’ve got in store for them, playing it up big. Make sure you post information on your Website so you get the online crowd interested as well. You will have to put up some cash, but you can find ways to host an event on a shoestring budget if you are frugal. Most small businesses benefit greatly from getting this kind of publicity at the price of time instead of money.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

How To Adjust Your Marketing Based On Your Results


Many people think that the advertising and marketing they are doing is perfect as is, and they end up in a rut. Just because a marketing campaign has been bringing in good results is no guarantee that it will continue to bring in good results. As a manager or as a small business owner, you need to always be ready to adjust your marketing approach, based on results. 

Of course, if you want to know the results of your existing marketing method, you first have to know how to track and judge your results. One of the easiest and most accurate ways to know how your marketing approach is working is by paying attention to your company’s website. 

If you have a website for your company, you also need to make sure you have some sort of analytics system set up – something that will enable you to track where your traffic comes from. In this way, you will be able to gain an understanding of all the places that are sending traffic your way. For instance, if your company has a facebook or twitter, and you see that these sites are bringing hardly any traffic to the website, you need to continue to adjust your approach until this change. Another thing to monitor, in your analytics tool, is any ads that you have sprinkled around the internet that are intended to push people toward your website. You need to think of scrapping the ad and putting up something different the moment an ad starts to show a significant drop-off in the amount of traffic it is sending your way. 

If you use commercials for your company, aim to gauge viewer reactions to your commercials by putting them on YouTube. And you can use Google to judge the success of your radio ads, by Googling key words from your ads and finding what people are saying about it. 

You hear all the time that the customer is always right; well, when it comes to marketing, the success of your campaign is a direct reflection of the way customers are receiving it. You can achieve optimal success with your marketing as soon as you start to pay attention to the current success of your marketing campaign and to the reception among customers – always being ready to adjust your approach accordingly! 


Sunday, July 3, 2011

How To Get Your Red Sox News

As a fan of the Boston Red Sox, you probably feel that it is essential for you to keep up with the club every day. After all, with the Red Sox, more than with any other team in baseball, every game is important for the fans! If you seeking to know the best places for Red Sox news, use this guide as an aid to help you on your way. 

The Boston Globe: The Boston Globe is one of Boston’s oldest newspapers, which is full of award-winning writers and contributors. Compared to any other newspaper in the Boston area, the Globe will take care of you for all your Red Sox needs. 

Boston Dirt Dogs: Boston Dirt Dogs started as a blog run by a fervent Red Sox fan named Steve Silva, which very quickly became a phenomenon. Eventually, the Boston Globe ended up underwriting Boston Dirt Dogs, making Silva a full-time employee of theirs and putting the site under their umbrella. Although this site tends to take a more negative and skeptical approach to covering the Red Sox, it is a great place to go on those days when you are feeling down in the dumps about your favorite team! 

Sons of Sam Horn: Sons of Sam Horn prides itself on being the best bulletin board in sports, and it makes membership on the site extremely exclusive. And even though it is difficult to gain posting privileges anyone is allowed to view the message boards. 

WEEI: In order to get your beloved Red Sox news and updates when you are away from your computer, you need look no further than WEEI. This radio station is the absolute king of Boston sports, and with this station, you won’t ever miss anything you want to keep up with when it comes to the hometown teams. 

If the Red Sox happen to be your favorite team, you will have everything you need with any of these places – and now that baseball season is in full swing, it is the perfect time to start following your ball club.