Today’s guest is post is written by Eric Koester.

When Gini Dietrich made her 2012 predictions, she (correctly) included integration of disciplines and social commerce.

But, I’d expand social commerce to be a bit more broad. You see, I agree mobile commerce is the next big thing – and a critical opportunity businesses can’t ignore.

The question is: How can a small business owner actually cut through all the noise and reach today’s “always on, always connected” customer?

At Zaarly, we’ve interviewed hundreds of small business owners. Based on their feedback, coupled with our own discoveries, we’ve found there are six ways business owners can “go mobile” without going broke.  Continue Reading »

Today’s guest post is written by Ifdy Perez.

There is so much good in this world, don’t you agree?

I love HuffPo’s new Good News section because I get to start off my day reading and curating inspirational stories to my online community of do-gooders.

In fact, just this morning, I read a story about how a daughter was able to postpone the foreclosure on her parents’ home by writing a letter to Bank of America.

How awesome is that?!

But amidst the social good stories, I’m swamped with a cloud of negativity that follows me from blog to blog. Total #buzzkill.

Call me naïve, but I don’t understand the reason for it. An explanation could be that unfiltered access to Internet + free speech (with little or no consequences for those actions) makes it easy for us to bash others online.

Still, we’re drawn to reading those articles and jumping on the “Hate Train” for some reason.  Continue Reading »

Today’s guest post is written by Brian F. Martin. 

True story: Fifteen years ago, I invested $5,000 in both my niece and nephew’s college funds.

I was always taught if you put away a little money, when you come back years later it will have grown exponentially due to compound interest.

I recently had dinner with my niece and nephew and presented their checks from this original money. The amount of each? $5,500.  Continue Reading »

Today’s guest post is written by Rich Burghgraef.

If you were to sit in on one of our internal meetings at Randolph Sterling, Inc. you would more than likely hear someone on my team ask me to provide more content for our blogs, social media, and other marketing efforts.

I don’t have a problem sharing my ideas and I enjoy writing. The problem is making the time to do it.

I run a sales company and as such I am sales-focused. When I think of the time it takes for me to write an article or to discuss the website, my first thought is, “How many sales calls could I have made in that time and would that have been more productive?”

I am not in the minority with this thinking…I may not be completely correct, but I’m not alone.

For the first five or so years of my business’s existence, our ideal prospects were other sales-focused companies. Usually we were brought in to help with sales issues such as covering an open territory while they hired a replacement, handling the “top of the sales funnel” while the in-house team focused on the leads, or assisting simply in cleaning out their databases. Continue Reading »

Today’s guest post is written by Mana Ionescu. 

During the holidays I prepared two days of meals, made three grocery trips, and cooked for about 12 hours straight.

In the end, we ate for 45 minutes each day, and the mashed potatoes were the most popular food item.

This reminded me of the lesser-known, and rarely-discussed side of marketing.

Behind the public side of marketing there are fundamental mechanisms that take place. And, just like cooking, marketing is a process that culminates in a quickly-consumed output.

Much too much conversation happens around the output so I decided to put together a list of the “secret sauce” ingredients that will help you improve your marketing efforts, starting with the foundation. Continue Reading »

Today’s guest post is written by Ardath Albee.

I was invited to join the panel of a roundtable over on Focus last week to share my thoughts on what B2B marketers learned in 2011 and make a few “bold” predictions about what’s coming at them in 2012.

I was joined by Adam Needles, Michael Brenner and Craig Rosenberg.

The discussion got a bit lively, and you can listen to the archive.

In the meantime, I’ll share with you my perspective based on what I’ve seen, heard, and discussed with B2B marketers during the past year.

Before I start, I’d just like to say that it’s been a very interesting year. Continue Reading »

Today’s guest post is written by Tim Frick.

Google analytics  offers a wealth of tools for tracking website performance.

But what if the most important site functions—such as e-commerce, donations, event registration, or ticket purchases—take place on another site?

You’re in luck, Google has a powerful data tracking app for this. Continue Reading »

Today’s guest post is written by Terence Stephens.

Business inspiration and ideas come from funny places.

In an October episode of The Office, Robert California launched into a short monologue saying customers either know what they want and buy it on the Internet, or they don’t know, and go to stores with customer service to help them figure out what they want.

Because of this, he continues, big box stores actually fear shops with knowledgeable staff who aid the customer in fulfilling their needs, “Customers will willingly pay our higher prices and then they will say to us, ‘Thank you.’”

Was this just an example of Hollywood establishing a successful CEO character or a valid observation?

I reflected on my experiences and spoke with sales and entrepreneur friends.  There is definitely something to learn for anyone operating a small business whose income depends on ongoing business relationships. Continue Reading »

This post is co-written by G Squared (Geoff Livingston and Gini Dietrich).

Guess what?!?

We finally get to talk about our new book! We joked, early on, that it’s not nice to tell prolific bloggers they can’t write about what they’re writing about. It’s been a challenge, that’s for sure.

But it’s time to let the cat out of the bag because Marketing In the Round: Multichannel Approaches In the Post- Social Media Era is listed and ready for pre-sale on Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

I was trying really hard not to be a douchecanoe who gets all excited about these little milestones, but it’s really stinking cool to see your name listed on Amazon. I mean,really cool.

About the book… Continue Reading »

Today’s guest post is written by Danny Brown.

There’s an old saying that too many cooks spoil the broth.

This is equally true for businesses, particularly smaller ones.

While it’s essential to grow to continue early success, it’s also important to keep realistic with your aims.

Whether it’s launching new products, starting a PR/marketing/advertising campaign, or adding sections to your website, taking on too much will leave you thinly spread.

And, ultimately, less effective.

Instead, concentrate on one or two growth areas, and make them as strong as they can possibly be. This will allow you solid ground for increasing activity at a later date. Continue Reading »