Duct Tape Marketing

I don't know about you, but I get a little annoyed by the big-name pundits who declare "I refuse to participate in the bad economy." Sure, it's a great philosophy, but for the small business owner who sees his income shriveling away, who has to lay off long-time staff members, who downsizes his office because he can no longer afford the rent, it can be a hard attitude to adopt.

Does this sound like you… the economy is going south, and you're starting to panic. You're worried about the financial health of your small business. You think about slashing your prices to stimulate your sales. You assume you need to cut back on your marketing activities to save on expenses.

Testimonials are an awesome way to boost your sales and grow your bottom line. There's nothing like social proof for easing your prospects' minds and encouraging them to buy. Testimonials should be used everywhere, but some are more effective than others. So what can you do to ensure that your own customers provide you with award-winning, or shall I say sales-generating, testimonials? Just follow these 3 simple steps:

Unfortunately, many small business owners don't consider marketing as a core business activity (what a shame), it's often the task that gets set aside when time is crunched. But by taking just a few minutes to plan ahead, your future marketing activities can go much smoother; you'll be able to complete your marketing activities quickly and easily.

I just returned from a one-day trip to Chicago. I enjoyed sitting in the car studying the myriad of billboards dotting the landscape. One billboard in particular caught my attention. It was a cut-away shot of a new minivan – the one with the pop-up table in the back. The billboard showed the interior of the van with four captain's chairs encircling the pop-up table with a headline that said "Your Table Is Served". I think the billboard missed the mark.

Pay Per Click campaigns are not set it and forget projects. Without advanced planning and continued monitoring, they can become extremely unprofitable. Use these proven techniques to squeeze the most ROI out of your PPC:

If you're using a free report or trial offer as a lead generator, you obviously want your conversion rate as high as possible. If your landing page is clunky or confusing or just plain ugly, you might be losing out on many valuable prospects. I've recently implemented a few simple changes to a client's landing page that resulted in double the conversions. These changes are all easy to do, so I urge you to try them yourself:

One of the services I provide for my clients is sales copy critique, and one of the problems that I see very often in sales copy is "too good to be true" syndrome. I understand the importance of highlighting the great benefits of your product or service; but it's important to address the downside also.