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Exceptional Marketing

Shoestring marketers inherently understand that one of the main components in the success of their small business is how to position themselves as unique, remarkable and extraordinary. In today's vast ocean of millions of competing small businesses, you and your business will quickly drown if you remain ordinary. It is only the exceptional that survive.

However, the word "exceptional" can be incredibly intimidating for the small business owner. It conjures up images of superheroes and non-human strength. Be that as it may, it is not difficult to become exceptional in today's market. One of the most common dictionary definitions of the word exceptional is, "not conforming to a general rule or pattern." Basically, you don't want to be like everybody else.

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Jessica Swanson, our official Shoestring Marketing Expert

The Marketing World Is Changing!

In the last five years marketing has changed tremendously. With the onset of the internet and now social media sites, the marketing world has literally turned upside down.

Interestingly enough, marketers were not the ones to initiate these changes. The change was set into motion by consumers.

Consumers became tired of aggressive, directive and interruptional marketing tactics. They became tired of companies telling them what to buy and how to spend. Consumers wanted to take part in the buying decision.

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Jessica Swanson, our official Shoestring Marketing Expert

Marketing Through Massive Visibility

We live in a world where our potential clients and customers are barraged with thousands and thousands of ads every single day. The competition is fierce, the climate is noisy and it's not going to lighten up any time soon.

So how can a small business owner, on a shoestring budget, even compete? The answer is simple: repetition through massive visibility.

Research suggests that we are exposed to over 4,000 ads each day. As a result of "advertising overload", our brains are forced to filter out and ignore most of these ads.

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Jessica Swanson, our official Shoestring Marketing Expert

Marketing Is Everything That You Do

What is the definition of marketing? The dictionary states that marketing is the business activity of presenting products or services in such a way as to make them desirable. Obviously, marketing consists of writing great ad-copy, producing creative business cards and designing innovative websites that sell your products and services.

However, there is an integral part missing from the dictionary definition of marketing. In fact, the missing ingredient is so important that it can literally mean success or failure for the small business owner. Marketing is actually every single interaction we have with our potential customers and clients that present our products or services in such a way as to make them desirable.

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Jessica Swanson, our official Shoestring Marketing Expert

Your Profile Picture Matters

If you are a small business owner who is serious about boosting your income, listen up! Your profile picture matters. I have seen thousands of profile pictures including those that are silly, indecent, weird and just plain unprofessional.

Obviously, if you are utilizing free-marketing strategies, you're going to tap into social media marketing. And ALL of these sites allow you to upload your picture.

Remember, marketing is all about transparency, visibility and connectiveness. That is, people want to get to know the person "behind the company."

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Jessica Swanson, our official Shoestring Marketing Expert

How to Market on Facebook IN 15 minutes Each Day

Marketing your business on Facebook is a wonderful way to find new clients, business partners and customers. In fact, there are thousands of professionals who are members of Facebook just waiting to do business with you.

Of course, you want to make sure that you are not on Facebook to sell yourself and your services, but instead to offer helpful and valuable information and advice to your new community of friends.

The main problem that most small business owners face is that Facebook marketing can be extremely time-consuming and difficult to manage.

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Jessica Swanson, our official Shoestring Marketing Expert

Marketing Is Not The Same As Advertising

Most small business owners mistakenly think that marketing is synonymous with advertising. They believe that if they put an ad in their local newspaper, run a Google Adwords campaign and stay active on Facebook, that's all there is to it.

However, marketing is so much more than running various advertising campaigns. Marketing is every single encounter that you have with your prospects, customers and clients.

Marketing is the way that you answer the phone; marketing is the speed at which you answer your customers' emails; marketing is how cheerfully and quickly you refund your customer's money.

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Jessica Swanson, our official Shoestring Marketing Expert

Marketing 101: Stop Interrupting and Start Interacting!

A radical change has occurred in the world of marketing. Just five years ago, before the onset of the internet and social media, most marketing entailed "interrupting the consumer." TV commercials are a perfect example of interruptive marketing. As you watch your favorite Thursday night program, suddenly a commercial breaks onto the scene and interrupts you. Obviously, consumers are beginning to rebel against interruptive advertising, because, let's face it, no one likes to be rudely interrupted.

According to Kirby and Marsden (authors of Connected Marketing), 90 percent of people who can skip TV ads, do skip TV ads. In addition, 65 percent of people believe that they are constantly bombarded with too much advertising. So, as a marketer, the first question that you must ask yourself is, "How effective is interruptive advertising?" The answer should be blatantly obvious!

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Jessica Swanson, our official Shoestring Marketing Expert

5 Reasons Why The Fortune Is In Your List!

You've probably heard time and time again the old marketing adage "the fortune is in your list." Whether or not you are familiar with this motto, the truth of the matter is that there truly is no better way to build your business.

No matter what small business you operate, you absolutely must take the time to build a targeted list of interested prospects and satisfied customers. The most effective way to accomplish this is to have a simple opt-in form on the first page of your website that offers your prospect a free and valuable gift in exchange for their name and email address. This gift can be a special report, ezine subscription or downloadable ebook.

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Jessica Martin, our official Shoestring Marketing Expert

Marketing 101: Don't Put Your Eggs In One Marketing Basket

Many years ago, poultry farmers would gather their eggs, place them in baskets and put them on wagons to bring them to the market. Of course, the poultry farmers didn't need to be reminded that if all their eggs happened to be in one basket, and that basket fell off the wagon, financial tragedy would occur. The very same rules apply in today's world of marketing. Too often small business owners rely on just one or two marketing methods to sustain their businesses. They are then surprised when their business remains stagnant or, even worse, loses money.

However, shoestring business owners implicitly understand that in order to obtain the best results, they must arm themselves with an abundance of marketing tools.

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Jessica Swanson, our official Shoestring Marketing Expert