Over the past three weeks, we have discussed how different aspects of marketing have the potential to benefit small businesses. Once you’ve implemented marketing efforts, measuring the success of these tactics is equally important. Being able to correlate these initiatives with ROI shows what was effective – and perhaps what wasn’t. When measuring, it’s important to determine key performance indicators (KPIs) for each effort. What numbers translate to success? On Facebook, ar

Building relationships with customers is the name of the game when it comes to creating a thriving business. When you develop meaningful connections with your clients, you stand a better chance of prospering from their repeat business and the word-of-mouth referrals this creates. Social media is very quickly becoming an indispensable tool for building relationships with customers. It is especially valuable for small businesses because of its accessibility and affordability. B

With little to no budget for flashy, high profile marketing campaigns to promote your small business, it might be easy for you to disregard the realization of such efforts as a pipe dream. Fortunately, that doesn’t have to be the case. Here are a number of things you can do to build word-of-mouth for your brand that won’t obliterate you among the competition. Conduct an online contest. When used with social media, this is a great way to engage your customers and grow your fan

Because of the scope needed to put together a serious effort, marketing can certainly seem like an expensive or overwhelming endeavor. For that reason, we have put together a 4-part series focusing on different aspects of marketing from which small businesses can benefit. Our hope is that, after reviewing these posts, the thought of applying marketing to your small business will not seem so intimidating. It is commonplace for small businesses to spend 7-8 percent of their rev