Legacy Marketing Services

In yesterday’s post, we talked about being competitive with a small business in a challenging business environment. Today we are going to look at 10 ways to make the most of your money in your marketing plan when your budget is limited.

Know what works. Have a method of tracking where existing customers are coming from.
Repeat your success. Keep in contact with current customers and notify them of specials and new products. An e-newsletter is a cost effective way to keep your name in front of your customers.
Look at where your business is currently coming from and identify ways to expand that base. Are there additional services you can provide?
Are you spending all of your money in low trust, low return venues? Evaluate your current marketing and promotions in relation to the marketing trust pyramid.
Network. Most people think about business to business when they think of networking, and that is a very valuable avenue. However if you are a small business owner, every person you come in contact with should know what you do and the product or service you provide. You shouldn’t be obnoxious about it, but you should be close to it.
Do joint marketing with complimentary businesses. A friend of mine does an amazing job of this with her …

Everyone has an email addict for a friend. You know . . . the ones that send dire warnings that would take two minutes to debunk on Snopes (Dawn, I love you, but you are way too trusting of emails), or threaten,

“You will have seven years of bad luck if you don’t forward this email to ten friends in the next five minutes.”

Whenever I get those, I always think, “Gee . . . thanks for thinking of me.”

However, yesterday my friend, Angela, sent me a forward that truly made a positive difference in my day. It was a list titled “45 Life Lessons and 5 to Grow On” by Regina Brett of The Plain Dealer.

The list starts off with this:
To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most-requested column I’ve ever written. My odometer rolls over to 50 in August, so here goes:
Then follows 50 lines of absolute gems of wisdom, one of which is enough to ponder for a day.

As I read through the tips, there were several that hold true for businesses as well.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

While you need to have a plan for your business, it is important to remember that the plan is for the long-term. It doesn’t have to be done all at once. Many times when I talk to a business …

This is part three of our Web Site Basics for Business Owners series.

In the last article in the series, “Web Site Basics for Business Owners,” we talked about how the different components of a web site work together. This week we are going to go into domain names in more depth.

What is a Domain Name?

A domain name is how people find your web site on the internet. The domain name system (DNS) is managed by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). Among other responsibilities, ICANN determines which extensions will be available for registration (.com, .net, .org, etc.) and accredits private companies known as registrars to manage the actual domain registrations.

How to Get a Domain Name

There are thousands of sites out there that offer domain registrations. I use www.GoDaddy.com. They have great prices, awesome customer service (you can actually get someone on the phone without getting lost in a phone system purgatory), and have great tools in their account management.

I don’t use any of their other services; however, all of my domains get registered through them. If you need to find a domain, they are having a sale through June 12th on .com domains. (Save 30% on domains: Go Daddy $6.95 .com Sale!)

One thing to remember is that you are paying to register to use the domain name and the registration has to be kept current.

Choosing Your Domain

Now there is an art …

A couple of years ago, I read an article in the paper about “time debt.” We promise more or overcommit to more time than we have to give.

I’ll admit, I’m a big offender in this . . . huge. No, not just huge, but “HU-ooGE” as Donald Trump would say (imagine the pursed lips.)

So after I read the article, I made a decision to be more accountable with my time.

Know What You’re Working With

The first step I took was to map out how my week looked and how much available time I actually had. I’m visual, so this was truly a schedule drawn on paper. I listed all of the things that I ideally wanted to do both personally and professionally: exercise, network, work on personal projects, etc.

What I quickly discovered is that I don’t have nearly as much disposable time as I thought I did.

After that shocker, I worked out what looked to me to be a reasonable schedule.

Track Time Spent

The next step was to track the time it took to accomplish tasks. Since I already kept a journal with running notes, this wasn’t too big of a stretch.

Again, it was sobering to find out that I couldn’t cram as much as I thought I could into a day.

However, as I kept on with the tracking, readjusted my expectations, and set more realistic goals, the amazing thing was that …

Last week in the first part in the “Web Sites for Small Business” series, we discussed why your business needs a web site and the first step to getting online.

If you’ve filled out the Web Site Planning Worksheet, you will have a good idea of what needs to be covered on your web site. The next step is to determine how to get it there.

This week we are going to cover the very basics of what makes up a web site.

There are three main components to having a stand alone web site for your business: a domain name, the files that make up the web pages, and hosting on a server. All three of these components are what people normally refer to when they say that they need to get a web site.

The manner in which a domain, web pages, and hosting work together is similar to renting a box at a mail facility.

Let’s say you work from home and want to have a mailing address other than your home. You go to some place like the UPS Store, or here locally, Mail and More, and rent a mailbox.

You are given a mailing address, and anything that is then sent to that address is placed in your mailbox.

With a web site, the domain name …

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