You Look Familiar, But I’ve Forgotten Your Name
People forget birthdays, anniversaries, names and meetings. The list goes on. So, why should someone remember your business? Just because you provide a good product or service at a good price with excellent staff doesn’t mean customers will be back. But, it may not be intentional; chances are they just forgot. To keep from becoming […]
The “I Need More Customers” Checklist
When my coffee maker quit making coffee, I found the manual and started going through the checklist to diagnose the problem. So, if there is a checklist for coffee makers, why not one for neighborhood businesses that don’t generate enough customers? So, after a little background, I’ll give you one. Where Things Go Wrong Think […]
What is a Neighborhood Marketing Center?
Editors Note: The Neighborhood Marketing Center has been renamed BubbleLife Connect. My son is on Facebook everyday and never on email. I’m on email all the time and seldom on Facebook. My wife surfs the web each morning to find her news. My brother-in-law doesn’t surf the web but uses Twitter to keep up with […]
Through the Eyes of “the Google” – How Google Looks at Your Website
Your business website should always do two things well: Help Google tell searchers about your business. Convert web visitors to phone calls, leads or store traffic. Get these two things right and you’ll immediately see the results in your business. This article helps you understand how to solve the first problem. A future article will […]
Yelp! I’ve Got a Bad Review!
Why Doesn’t Yelp Show My Great Reviews? Yelp.com is a marvel of business reviews from everyday customers. I’ve used Yelp many times to locate a restaurant when in an unfamiliar city, and I’m not alone. Almost 50 million people visit Yelp every month. With over 18 million reviews, “Yelpers” have a lot to say about local […]
Your Customer is Up – Is Your Website?
Have you ever been asked for your phone number and you go blank? Most of us don’t call ourselves very often and those that do usually just get a busy number – go figure. A business website is a lot like our own phone number, we expect others to use it, but seldom use it […]
Email Dominates Sharing of Online Content
A recent study by Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research Technologies shows that email still dominates sharing between friends, family and co-workers. The breakdown was as follows: Email – 86% Facebook – 49% Telephone – 25% Mail – 9% Twitter – 4% Blog – 3% LinkedIn – 2% “Social media has opened up new opportunities […]
Why You Should Never Hire a “Social Media Expert”
I was going to write an article on why approaching social media as a standalone endeavor always fails. But this article from Peter Shankman sums it up better than I ever could. His conclusion couldn’t be more spot on: “Social media is not “cool.” MAKING MONEY IS COOL. Social media is simply another arrow in […]
What’s Inside Your Neighborhood Marketing Black Box?
Neighborhood marketing and advertising is often a black box. Money pours in at the top of the marketing black box and results (or sometimes the lack of) magically occur. What happens inside the block box is left a mystery. The information most businesses want to know can’t be seen. Did people see my ad? Did […]
What in the World is a Neighborhood Content Strategy?
Being middle aged, I don’t really think of 10 years as a long time. But, based on the amount of changes, the last 10 years has brought in neighborhood marketing, it may be remembered for its Jurassic qualities. Dinosaurs still marketing the same way they were 10 years ago may face extinction. Every customer or […]