Category: Word of Mouth

9 Years of Building Trust in a Consumer Website

9 Years of Building Trust in a Consumer Website

WholeLatteLove.com is an ideal example of a consumer ecommerce website for small businesses looking to build trust online.  We’ve spent about $3,000 with the “Everything Coffee” website, Whole Latte Love (TM) over the years.  Here’s why. Photo: Cynthia and Jim’s (Latest) Espresso Machine My husband and I have a guilty-pleasure habit of daily lattes and [...]

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Social Media Shifts from Fad to Small Business Requirement

Social Media Shifts from Fad to Small Business Requirement

Erik Qualman has done for social media what the Freakonomics guys have done for recent social history and economics. In case you missed it, his video below is insightful, entertaining and eye-opening. In his video Qualman asks, “Is Social Media a Fad or the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution?” If you’re a small business [...]

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How to: Build a Consumer Brand from Scratch

How to: Build a Consumer Brand from Scratch

If you’re an entrepreneur launching a new product, one of your biggest challenges is to get your shiny new object in the hands of potential buyers. For Internet services, that’s easier to do these days.  You can create compelling content on a web site, like Mint.com.  Then blog, market, do public relations, foster word of [...]

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Marketing Tactic: Compelling Web Content Helps to Grow Your Business

Marketing Tactic: Compelling Web Content Helps to Grow Your Business

Bill Clinton famously said, “It’s the economy stupid.” In today’s online race to find new customers and grow your small business, “It’s the content stupid.” Success in the new world of marketing is based largely on creating and publishing killer content that attracts prospects to your site.   Marketing is—always has been—99 percent education. Photo: iStock.com [...]

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Building Word of Mouth Marketing in Startups & Small Business: DiRTY Red Athletic Gear for Women

Building Word of Mouth Marketing in Startups & Small Business: DiRTY Red Athletic Gear for Women

When speaking with startup company founders and small business owners, I constantly ask how they are marketing their products and services.   How are they getting the word out to their target customers?   How do startups build buzz?  In short, how do small businesses leverage that best of all possible small business marketing power tools—word of [...]

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Five Ways to Find Topics for Your Small Business Blog

Five Ways to Find Topics for Your Small Business Blog

Small business blogs are now a must-have for most companies that find buyers via the Internet. Especially small businesses that know that many of their buyers are finding them as a result of Internet search engines and want to be easy-to-find on the Internet. There are tons of blogs by marketing companies (as captured by [...]

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How A Small Company Uses Online Video Effectively

How A Small Company Uses Online Video Effectively

  After seeing dozens of news stories about the “Will It Blend?” online videos from Blendtec (the devices blend golf balls, cigarette lighters, iPhone…) seeing the results from this now- legendary small business marketing tactic is impressive. According to Inc.com Magazine , Blendtec’s viral online videos netted not only 35 million YouTube views but a nice [...]

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Testimonial Marketing Goes Audio (Online)

Testimonial Marketing Goes Audio (Online)

All business marketing efforts can benefit from (more) customer testimonials.  Testimonials from delighted cusotmers are the holy grail for marketing and word of mouth marketing.  John Jantsch, award-winning blogger and owner of Duct Tape Marketing, found a great online tool to make it easy to obtain testimonials (here is John’s post). The name of the [...]

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How to Win Business Using Blogging, Word of Mouth Marketing: 3 Mini-Case Studies

How to Win Business Using Blogging, Word of Mouth Marketing: 3 Mini-Case Studies

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Do You Wait for Audio White Papers (Podcasts) to Become Mainstream?

Do You Wait for Audio White Papers (Podcasts) to Become Mainstream?

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