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Monthly Marketing Ideas Small Business Marketing Resource

Marketing Ideas for September, 2018

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September 2018 Marketing Ideas Calendar

Monthly Holidays In September, 2018

National Italian Cheese Month: “September is National Italian Cheese Month, and there’s no better time to celebrate the buttery, bold, creamy, crumbly and nutty Italian Cheeses that are essential to our favorite Italian fare.” Surely a fantastic topic to tie into an ad, email, social media post, or promotion, for any Italian restaurant or pizzeria.

Pulmonary Fibrosis Awareness Month

National Self-Care Awareness MonthSelf–Care Awareness Month in is a time to remind us that taking care of ourselves, first and foremost, is essential. Self-care is often neglected in our everyday lives. This holiday can be used to promote fitness-related businesses such as Personal Trainers, Yoga Instruction, Massage Therapy, Chiropractic, Health Food Stores, restaurants with an emphasis on healthful choices, and restaurants wishing to promote healthy menu options.

Baby Safety Month

Better Breakfast Month

Classical Music Month

Fall Hat Month

Little League Month

International Square-Dancing Month

International Update Your Resume Month

National Blueberry Popsicle Month

National Chicken Month: Another obvious promotional opportunity for restaurants of all kinds. “Add chicken to your salad…, Chicken Wing Specials, All Chicken Dishes Come With…”

National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month

National Courtesy Month

National Honey Month

National Library Card Sign Up Month

National Mushroom Month

National Papaya Month

National Piano Month

National Potato Month

National Preparedness Month

National Rice Month

National Sewing Month

Save Your Photos Month

Self-Improvement Month

Whole Grains Month

National Suicide Prevention Month

Famous September Birthdays

9/5 Freddie Mercury

9/8 Bernie Sanders

9/9 Colonel Sanders

9/15 Prince Harry

9/21 Stephen King

9/26 Serena Williams

Weekly Holidays in September, 2018

Sept 3-7

National Payroll Week

National Childhood Injury Prevention Week

National Waffle Week

Sept 8-10

National Days of Prayer and Remembrance

Sept 9-15

National Environmental Services Week

Line Dance Week

National Assisted Living Week

National Suicide Prevention Week

Sept 15-22

National Farm Animals Awareness Week

National Rehabilitation Awareness Week

National Keep Kids Creative Week

Sept 23-29

Child Passenger Safety Awareness Week

Active Aging Week

Sept 26 -Oct 2

National Fall Foliage Week

Uncommon Daily Holidays in September, 2018

9/1/2018 National Tailgating Day

9/2/2018 National Blueberry Popsicle Day

9/3/2018 Labor Day

9/4/2018 National Newspaper Carrier Day / National Wildlife Day

9/5/2018 National Cheese Pizza Day

9/6/2018 National Read a Book Day

9/7/2018 National Food Bank Day / National Lazy Moms Day

9/8/2018 National Pediatric Hematology/ Oncology Nurses Day

9/9/2018 National Teddy Bear Day / National Grandparents Day

9/10/2018 National Swap Ideas Day

9/11/2018 Patriot Day and National Day of Service and Remembrance

9/12/2018 National Video Game Day

9/13/2018 National Peanut Day

9/14/2018 National Eat a Hoagie Day

9/15/2018 National Online Learning Day / Greenpeace Day / Responsible Dog Ownership day

9/16/2018 National Step Family Day / National Working Parents Day / Wife Appreciation Day

9/17/2018 National Apple Dumpling Day

9/18/2018 Air Force Birthday / National IT Professionals Day

9/19/2018 Talk Like a Pirate Day

9/20/2018 National Pepperoni Pizza Day

9/21/2018 National POW/MIA Recognition Day

9/22/2018 Elephant Appreciation Day / National Hunting and Fishing Day / American Business Women’s Day

9/23/2018 National Great American Pot Pie Day

9/24/2018 National Cherries Jubilee Day / National Punctuation Day

9/25/2018 National Comic Book Day / National Voter Registration Day

9/26/2018 National Pancake Day / National Women’s Health & Fitness Day

9/27/2018 National Chocolate Milk Day

9/28/2018 National Good Neighbor Day

9/29/2018 National Family Health and Fitness Day USA

9/30/2018 National Love People Day

fixing a slow website

A Slow-Loading Website is Disasterous

Please read this important message about slow websites. Your website speed is crucial for search engine optimization and for a good customer experience. 

Slow website speed is a drag on your customers’ time. User experience is crucial and a perception of the way you do business. These days, we expect web paged to load inside 2 seconds(literally). According to Alexa.com, a website which loads in 4.3 seconds is 88% slower than all websites worldwide. Slow to load = Bad for business. You could lose a potential customer before your home page loads!

Get a website speed test free, CLICK HERE.It takes less than a minute.

Search Engines Penalize Slow-Loading Websites

Website loading speed is a major criteria for search engine optimization. Search engines, especially Google, weigh “user experience” as one of the most important factors in SEO. Slow loading speed is a no-no and your website will fall in the search ranking against faster-loading sites.

How to improve website speed

Website loading speed is critical for a good user experience. This also means it’s critical for good search engine optimization. A better website host costs a little more but what you can make up in new customers far outweighs the cost.

How to Improve Website and Page-Loading Speed

One easy way to solve the problem of slow website speed is to move your site to a better host-a DEDICATED host. A dedicated host means your website is the only site on the server. This will be a little pricey for a typical small business website, BUT, if your website is responsible for converting new customers and real sales, it’s probably worth it. There’s other options-read on.

Most small business websites are hosted on the very cheapest hosting plans such as Godaddy, Host Gator, or Blue Host. These companies provide hosting on “shared” servers. This means dozens of websites and potential 1000’s of web pages, and tens of 1000’s of images, are hosted on a single server. Each of these sites are using and sharing the resources of the server. This causes slow page-loading speed. I’ve noticed this problem is getting worse.

A hosting plan on Host Gator can cost as low as $60.00/year but you’ll likely pay a bigger price in lost opportunities because your website speed will suffer. (What is a new customer worth to you, anyway?)

My best suggestion is to go with a Virtual Managed Server. This is what I’m using for my websites and recommending for my clients. 

I have a big website for my wholesale business, Mazer Wholesale, Inc. We have over 5000 items, plus hundreds of additional pages, images, and videos on that site. When my site was half the size it is now, it began to slow down. Because my site IS huge, and it IS a money-maker for me, I gladly spend the money for a dedicated host. This  host server has massive capacity and so I added a couple of my other smaller websites (formerly hosted on Godaddy) onto the Mazer Wholesale server. What a difference it makes.

High Quality Hosting Is Worth a Few Extra Bucks

Website speed is a major consideration if you want your website to show up high in the search results, especially on Google. Google puts a lot of weight on the user experience and therefore page load speed matters. A good website host will facilitate faster loading speeds.

My hosting provider and I are now providing website hosting on Virtual Managed Servers. This means we are providing website hosting to small to mid-sized websites. These servers have a large capacity but as a managed server, we keep the burden to a minimum so speed is at a maximum and never in jeopardy.

Reduce the Size of Images to Speed Your Website

Images are often a major cause of slow page loading. Photos can be huge in file size, especially those which are uploaded directly from a digital camera. Photos can be reduced in size easily with simple image editing software which is sometimes pre-loaded on computers. I use paint.net. It’s a free download.  If you need help with this, just ask. Images can also be compressed. Reducing file size by compressing them can be done on https://tinypng.com/

For help with any of this, just ask: go to https://smallbusinessu.org/askandrew/

How Website Speed Affects Google Ads

If you’re using Google Ads (formerly known as Adwords), your results could be undermined and your costs increased by slow page loading speeds.

  1. Google penalizes slow-loading websites with lower listing results and higher cost-per-click rates.
  2. Potential customers who click on your ads could easily click away of your website takes too long to load. You’ll pay for that click and you’ll have lost the opportunity to deliver even the slightest bit of information.

Malicious Virus Protection

Managed hosting (with our program) also includes protection against malicious attacks (computer bugs and viruses can make make their way from computers, emails, and websites and into host servers. Nasty stuff!). Our servers are constantly being updated to protect against viruses.

Is your website HTTPS or HTTP?

HTTPS://www.websitename.com indicated a “Secure” website. The details are not important to understand. What IS important to understand is that if you don’t upgrade to HTTPS, your website will soon be dropping down, down, down on the search results. Visitors may even see a warning in their browser or pop-up which says, WARNING-THIS SITE IS NOT SECURE. To avoid this, your website needs an SSL certificate. In the past, this was only necessary for ecommerce websites (websites which sell products and collect credit card information). Now, every website need to be secure.

Not private warning-

Our Virtual Managed Hosting Plan specifically for small business websites can combine an SSL Certificate for a discounted price. This is very important and if you act before your competitors, it could give you a competitive edge. Want more information about this? Just go to www.smallbusinessu.org/askandrew

 

why you need HTTPS SSL Certificate

Why https: Is Important for Your Small Business Website

This is a very important message to my clients and all subscribers to the information I share. This is a warning, an opportunity, and a call to action. 

As a small business owner, you don’t need every last detail about the technology and the terminology of computer and internet-related stuff. In this post, you’re going to learn the reasons why your website needs to be https and why it needs to be done right away.

HTTPS vs. HTTP and Why You Must Covert Quickly (even if you’re a small business)

Simply, the ‘S’ in HTTPS means your website is secure. This was important mostly for ecommerce businesses who made sales and collected money online, but now it’s important for every website. Why? Because as of August 2018, Google is warning people when they visit websites which are not securewhy do you need https

NOT SECURE. Wow…that’s kind of harsh, right? You don’t want people seeing THAT when they visit your website. They may be inclined to get the heck out of there! But this isn’t the most important reason to acquire the security of HTTPS for your website.

HTTPS vs. HTTP and Search Engine Optimization

Google already favors secure websites (those with HTTPS) in search results. Websites without HTTPS (HTTP only) will fall in search ranking as more of your competitors acquire HTTPS. Get HTTPS quickly for a search result advantage over your competitors!

(For anyone who wants more info about HTTPS VS. HTTP, Wikapedia has some details and there’s no shortage of information on the subject.)

Not private warning-

This is another warning sign your website visitors may get when they visit your website. This adds up to disaster. If you don’t have a secure website indicated by HTTPS, you stand to lose both new and existing business.

There are still a lot of websites which have not yet been converted to mobile-responsive website. This is also an online marketing disaster. Both have the effect of providing poor (or zero) service to your customers or perspective customers and both have the effect of destroying your ranking on the search engines making it difficult to be discovered by potential customers who may be looking for a business like yours, especially if they don’t already know you exist.

If you’re reading this and you don’t have the SSL Certificate (the thing which makes the HTTPS on your website), we can help you with a fast and affordable solution.

Time is of the essence if you want to take advantage and get your SSL Certificate for your website before your competitors.

Facebook marketing ideas

3 Easy and Free Facebook Marketing Ideas

Having trouble making sense of Facebook to market your small business these days? Here are a few good ideas to get your business noticed on a small or $0 budget.

Facebook Marketing Strategy #1: Other People’s Audience

You’ve heard about using OPM (Other People’s Money). With Facebook, you can use OPA: Other People’s Audience. I’m specifically talking about the Facebook friends of your customers and employees.

Consider enticing your customers to do a check-in when they come to your business. With an average of over 338 Facebook friends (some have way, way more), a check-in could reach dozens of a customer’s Facebook friends. They see your customer’s name, the name of your business, and even a map showing your location.

A check-in gives your business credibility, similar to an online review. Your business is “worthy” of a check in…like a seal of approval. This kind of advertising is very valuable. It’s also free. But I strongly recommend an ethical bribe, like a discount on a product, or something free. Pile on the check-ins every day!

Bonus Tip: Make it a Selfie! Encourage your customer/guest to post a photo of him or herself included with the check-in. This gives the post more visibility. 

Get notified about more Small Business Marketing Ideas. Subscribe! CLICK HERE.

Facebook Marketing Strategy #2: Demonstrate Your Stuff

Scrolling through the Facebook feed, you’ll notice almost every post you see either has an image (photo) or a video. Facebook knows people pay more attention to posts with this type of content. I recommend posting photos and videos of your product, your services, or your food. Explain the photo or video in words in the post. These posts will usually get pretty strong visibility, PLUS, the words you use in your post becomes searchable content. Yes, Facebook is a search engine in its own right. Facebook users search for content in the search bar at the top of the Facebook page.

Bonus Tip: Get your customers to be a part of the demonstration. Tag them in the post and/or encourage them to use the photo with their own check-in. 

Facebook Marketing Strategy #3: Drive Them Back to Your Website

Most, if not ALL your Facebook posts should have readable content and a link back to your main website. The link should carry the Facebook user to a page specifically congruent with the message on the post, and an offer to select a coupon and leave their email address…and perhaps an offer to buy something right then and there.

These aren’t the only good ideas, of course. Have any good ideas of your own to share? If you do, just leave a comment at the bottom of this page.

The One Good Idea Newsletter

Marketing ideas calendar-August 2018

August 2018 Marketing Idea Calendar

Ideas for August 2018 promotions, emails, and social media posts

Subscribe to get this valuable marketing resource in your email every month! CLICK HERE.

Monthly Holidays

National Crayon Collection Month

Family Fun Month

National Catfish Month

National Eye Exam Month

National Golf Month

National Peach Month

National Water Quality Month

Romance Awareness Month

National Goat Cheese Month

Happiness Happens Month

National Sandwich Month

National Panini Month

National Brownies at Brunch Month

Get ready for Kindergarten Month

Black Business Month

National Immunization Awareness Month

Children’s Eye Health and Safety Month

International Peace Month

MedicAlert Awareness Month

Motorsports Awareness Month

Spinal Muscular Atrophy Awareness Month

National Back to School Month

The One Good Idea Newsletter

Birthdays

8/3       Martha Stewart

8/4       Barack Obama

8/13    Sarah Huckabee Sanders

8/17    Robert DeNiro

8/19    Bill Clinton

8/23    Kobe Bryant

8/26    Mother Theresa

8/29    John McCain

 

Weekly Holidays

 

August 1 -7

International Clown Week

National Cleanse Your Skin Week

Simplify Your Life Week

 

August 6-12

National Bargain Hunting Week

International Assistance Dog Week

Exercise with Your Child Week

 

August 7-13

National Fraud Awareness Week

National Farmers Market Week

National Stop on Red Week

National Hobo Week

 

August 13-19

National Health Center Week

Elvis Week

National Aviation Week

National Resurrect Romance Week

 

August 25-31

Be Kind to Humankind Week

The One Good Idea Newsletter

Daily Holidays

 

8/1/2018              Respect for Parents Day / National Raspberry Cream Pie Day

8/2/2018              National Coloring Book Day

8/3/2018              National Watermelon Day / National IPA Day

8/4/2018              National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day

8/5/2018              National Friendship Day / National Sisters Day

8/6/2018              National Root Beer Float Day

8/7/2018              Purple Heart Day / National Night Out Day

8/8/2018              National Dollar Day

8/9/2018              National Book Lovers Day

8/10/2018            National Lazy Day / National S’mores Day

8/11/2018            National Son’s and Daughter’s Day / National Garage Sale Day / National Presidential Jokes Day

8/12/2018            National Vinyl Record Day

8/13/2018            Left Handers Day

8/14/2018            National Creamsicle Day

8/15/2018            National Relaxation Day

8/16/2018            National Tell a Joke Day / National Roller Coaster Day

8/17/2018            National Thrift Shop Day

8/18/2018            World Honeybee Day

8/19/2018            National Soft Ice Cream Day

8/20/2018            National Radio Day

8/21/2018            National Senior Citizen Day

8/22/2018            National Tooth Fairy Day

8/23/2018            National Sponge Cake Day

8/24/2018            National Peach Pie Day

8/25/2018            National Park Service Founders Day

8/26/2018            National Women’s Equality Day / National Dog Day

8/27/2018            National Just Because Day

8/28/2018            National Bow Tie Day

8/29/2018            National Chop Suey Day

8/30/2018            National Grief Awareness Day / National Toasted Marshmallow Day

8/31/2018            National Matchmaker Day / National Trail Mix Day

The One Good Idea Newsletter

Time Management Ideas

Firing a Bad Customer


Hi again, it’s Andrew Mazer from Small Business University where the philosophy is one good idea can change your business and change your life. If you know me at all, you probably know my, my background story that I’ve been a wholesaler since 1986. I started my own wholesale company years ago and through that business experience and learning how to market my business and various ways, especially marketing online has giving me a rather thorough experience so that I have become a marketing consultant. And then that’s how Small Business U. was born.

So today I’m going to talk about firing customers. Sometimes you have to fire customers, and this is a delicate situation, but it is also very important. I fired a customer today, customer of my wholesale business, because he was wasting too much of my time. I don’t take a big thrill in this, but sometimes, it’s necessary.

Firing a Bad Customer is a Time Management Technique

Have you ever been in the situation where a customer who’s costing you way more in time and aggravation than the customer’s worth? If so, it’s a real good reason to fire that customer. Of course, you have to do it in a tactful and gentle way. In this particular case, the guy was a very small customer. Don’t get me wrong, small customers are okay. I like doing business with small customers too. Sometimes when you’re not busy and you get one of those small orders, it’s better than nothing. But this guy always required a negotiation over a couple of boxes of trash bags and negotiation over an already inexpensive item and he doesn’t even need to order a lot of them. So anyway, he wants to negotiate, ask a lot of questions, ask why is the price is higher than the price from 2 years ago.

I actually think this guy is a very successful, actually. He’s not stupid. I believe this because I have an idea of where he lives in a very affluent neighborhood. I think he’s pretty well to do. But when somebody is costing me, hours or more to process to finalize and process a small order and he’s taking up that much time for me, it’s really taking away opportunity cost. When somebody takes you away from other opportunities, you can lose valuable time your could be doing something more valuable or productive. I’d be better served taking 20 minutes to meditate than 20 minutes to go back and forth with this guy’s emails, questions. and special requests. So when something is that aggravating to you and takes away that much opportunity that you could be doing something more productive than it’s, it’s wise to gently get rid of the problem.

You don’t want to do it in a way that the guy ends up giving you a bad review or, or blabber mouth into people. But generally speaking, you’re pretty safe in doing this as long as you don’t become belligerent about it. I’ve fired people before that were just, a real pain in the neck and made life and business miserable.

Firing a Customer Can Be Goof For Morale

This even applies if customers make your employees miserable. Protecting a good employees from the pain of dealing with a bad customer will nourish your relationship with them. Don’t be afraid to get rid of those customers who are pulling you or your people down because it’s also pulling your business down, and pulling the life out of your day.

If you’ve been thinking about firing customers before, if you’ve ever been on the fence about it, it’s okay to do it. Just be gentle and thoughtful about it. Be as polite as possible.

I’m Andrew Mazer for Small Business U. You check out our blog and sign up for our The One Good Idea Newsletter for more ideas about marketing, management, motivation, and technology. See you next time. Tell a friend.

Marketing tips for small business

Easy Marketing Tip-Just 2 Words

I don’t know who said it first, I think I heard it from Joe Polish. The saying is, “Marketing is everything and everything is marketing.” In this case, marketing is what happens when the bill has been paid and the transaction is completed. Praise goes out to the retail store, Five Below, for listening to my complaint and responding with speed and sincerity. 

It’s easy to stand out against just about all others in your industry by doing the simplest, easiest, most obvious, common sense things.

Hi, I’m Andrew Mazer from small business university where the philosophy is one good idea can change your business and change your life. I’m going to tell you a quick story today about something that happened last night after I got The High Impact Marketing Newsletter by Mike Capuzzi. I’m a member of his high impact marketing club and Mike is a friend of mine and a very good marketing brain. His stuff is really, really good. And when I get the newsletter I try to set aside some time to go through it right away. It’s several pages and it’s very, very valuable. So I decided to take the kids out for water, ice and bring the newsletter with me, and while they ate their water ice, I’d sit on the bench and go through some of the newsletter. And so the kids decided that, since Five Below, a discount store that has mostly a kid’s stuff in it, they decided to trade their opportunity for water ice to go to Five Below and get a treat there.

So we walked over to Five Below and , my daughter picked out something and, my son changed his mind, decided to go back for water, ice. But anyway, we got to the counter, the guy took our money and , gave me the change in the receipt and that’s it. No, “thank you.” And that is like my biggest pet peeve, I think, whenever I go to a place and they don’t say thank you when they take your money…when they take my money, it really, really pisses me off. I mean, every cashier, every owner, every manager should train their cashiers to say thank you. And it really makes me crazy when the owner doesn’t do it. But it’s crazy. You’re supposed to. I mean, they look at you like you’re supposed to thank them for buying something at their store. Man, that drives me nuts.

Customer service mistakes can cost $1000’s

And the real irony is that Mike Capuzzi was talking about mistakes. Look at the headline, Do You Make This Mistake in Business? And he talks about a bunch of mistakes that people make in their business.

This is like the one that I hate the most-when people don’t say Thank You. So it was really ironic that this newsletter came at the same afternoon I had this experience. And so, when I got home I went onto the Five Below website and I just had to get it out of my system. So I dug in and I found a place where I could contact consumer affairs desk or, or whatever they call it. And I sent an email and I told them that I must have been in their store 50 times, and I don’t think anybody ever said thank you when they took my money.

I woke up early in the morning, but by 8:30 in the morning I got an email back from Five Below and they were sincerely concerned about my experience. And they said, thank you for bringing this to our attention. And if you would please let us know where you shopped last night or if you usually shop at different stores. Let us know more about what happened and we’ll see if we can fix up that situation. And I told them that, I always go to the same place. I’ve been to other stores, but I can’t really put my finger on that, on the locations, but I’ve been to this store before. I told them where it was. The lady got back to me and she says, “There’s a gift certificate in the mail for you for 25 bucks.”

Now I didn’t do it for the gift certificate. I’ll take the gift certificate, but it didn’t do it for the gift certificate. And I’m not telling you to do it so you can go get a gift certificate. But I’m telling you that number one, if you’re in the restaurant business, the retail business, any kind of business, were you dealing with the public…if you don’t take a moment to make some eye contact and say thank you or send a thank you email or a thank you card or something, you’re leaving something on the table. I think a lot of people may be numb to it now. They don’t even expect a thank you. So even if you do give a thank you and they’re not expecting it, you’re a leg up on most other businesses out there, so I highly recommend you do everything you can to thank people for giving you money.

Okay, so please, business owners get with it. The least you could do is say thank you when somebody gives you a piece of business.

I’ll  give another shout out to Mike Capuzzi and The High Impact Marketing Letter. Give it a try. If you’re in business, you’re going to learn some valuable stuff and surround yourself with more smart people and great business ideas. Learn about The High Impact Marketing Club at https://club.mikecapuzzi.com/

I always say one good idea can change your business and change your life. And this newsletter is always full of good ideas and just being in Mike Capuzzi’s world will definitely introduce you with a bunch of good ideas. So that’s it for today. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Sign up for The One Good Idea Newsletter so you never miss a valuable article, video, or idea. www.smallbusinessu.org . Check out the blog and catch you next time. Thanks for watching and reading. Share this with a friend and on your favorite social media spot.

Small business marketing tips-permission based marketing

The Best Marketing is Permission-Based Marketing

When I owned a warehouse and sold merchandise to independent retailers, I knew I could buy 100 cases of just about anything and sell it almost at will. Why? Because I had a big list of customers who wanted to know when I had a good deal on something. In the early days, I would call them one-by-one. when fax machines became ubiquitous, I’d send fax offers. When email came around, I sent emails. The point is: having a list of customers who welcome your offers and marketing messages is as good as gold…like money in the bank.

Hi, I’m Andrew Mazer or from Small Business University and this is your one good idea video which goes hand in hand with The One Good Idea Newsletter: subscribe to to it! CLICK HERE.

I want to tell you about a subject that’s a really important subject for just about any kind of business and it’s called permission based marketing. What is that? Permission based marketing is when people actually ask you to send them your marketing information to send them your advertising. Now, how does that happen? When people subscribe to your list, when people say, sign me up for your newsletter or sign me up to receive your specials and coupons…when they give you their business card and they drop it in the, fish bowl or the basket, or when they sign up on your website, They’re giving you permission to market to them. This is a gift!

I’m teaching small business owners, especially those in restaurants, retail businesses, service companies how important it is to try to capture customers’ contact information and potential customers’ contact information.

How do you get peoples’ contact information? You make a value proposition: a good offer, a coupon, or some good information are good incentives to offer in exchange for their name and email address. This can be executed very easily if you don’t know how to do it yourself. It’s easy to set up. (We can help you with this, just ask). It’s very, very simple and suddenly you can start to build a list of people who say, “Yes, send me your stuff!”

Interruption Marketing-The Opposite of Permission-Based Marketing

The opposite of permission based marketing is called interruption marketing. This is the kind of marketing that lands on your kitchen table, you see on TV commercials while you’re watching a show or hear on the radio. Clipper Magazine, Money Mailer, and ValPack,are example of interruption marketing you may be marketing with. It’s an interruption because people haven’t asked for it. They need to deal with it regardless if they open it to see its contents or not. As you can imagine, most of the people toss in in the trash without looking at it.

Interruption marketing is hitting a lot of non-prospects and it’s more expensive. About 100% of the permission-based marketing list prospects. Why else would they give you permission to send them your marketing message?

Why Some Business Owners Resist This Type of Marketing

Lots of business owners don’t want to send their customers email. They don’t want to be a bother. This is wrong thinking.

When people ask you for your email information, you’re not being a burden to them. “I don’t, I don’t want to be that guy that bombards people with email.” Well guess what? Permission based marketing means they asked you for it. It’s almost your obligation to send them your stuff. You don’t have to be worried about bombarding. People will always be able opt out of your list, and some will…that’s okay. Most people will stay on.

Email Marketing is a Numbers Game

Let’s say you get 1000 people on your list. That may sound like a lot, but it’s really not a lot. If you’re in the restaurant business and if you advertise in print and things likeGroupon , people will visit your website in large numbers. If you give them a good incentive on your website, they will opt into your list. You can build a very big list rather quickly once you have a plan to do it.

Let’s say for example, we started out of the out of the thousand subscribers, every time you send out an email, on average, about 30 percent of those people will open your email. That’s 300 people will open your email and then if you have something they want, about 10 percent of those 300,(between 5 and 10 percent…let’s say 7 percent) will end up doing business with you. That’s 21 people. People generally don’t just show up at the restaurant alone, they’ll bring somebody else with them, maybe their whole family, so this 21 people could easily turn into 50 or more. Now this turns into some significant money.

What about those other 70 percent of people who don’t open your email? Well, people don’t always buy. They don’t always have time to look, but they can delete your email or ignore it altogether, but guess what? They will look at your at, at their email inbox and they’ll see the name of your business and the subject line and they may choose not to open it this time, but you’ll still make an impression on their brain. They’ll still remember you. This is a way to stay in top of mind position. There are businesses out there that spend millions and millions of dollars on TV ads and radio ads just to stay in top of my position.

Reminding Your Customers You Exist

A lot of very big companies spend millions of dollars just to keep their brand burned into our consciousness. You can do that with all the thousands of people who already know you. It’s not their job to remember to do business with you, it’s your job to remind them you exist and just by having one email showing up in their email inbox once a week or once every other week, will remind them that you exist. This matters. This will really help you but you don’t have to spend a lot…this is pennies.

Okay, so permission based marketing is yours. It’s a 21st century phenomenon and you can add it to your marketing tool box. It’s not difficult. It’s very, very cheap and you can even automate most of the process. I urge you to look into permission based marketing, email marketing, and build a big valuable marketing list so you can push a couple buttons and get customers to make your phone’s ring, your doors swing, and your cash register cha-ching. Ask me if you need help with this CLICK HERE.

I hope you enjoyed this episode of the one good idea video newsletter, and if you have any questions, if I can help you in any way, just let me know. If you want to subscribe to our digital newsletter, which will send you a about once weekly or twice monthly, just go to www.smallbusinessu.org/ogi which stands for One Good Idea and that’ll take you right to the page. Thanks a lot for reading/watching and I hope to hear from you. See you next time.

June 2018 marketing calendar

Monthly Marketing Calendar for June 2018

As a service to small business owners, we provide this free resource to make your marketing more memorable, fun, and effective. 

June 2018 Monthly Marketing Ideas Calendar

Monthly Holidays

African-American Music Appreciation Month

Aquarium Month

Fight the Filthy Fly Month

LGBTQIA Pride Month

Men’s Health Month

National Accordion Awareness Month

National Adopt a Cat Month

National Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Month

National Candy Month

National Camping Month

National Country Cooking Month

National Dairy Month

National Great Outdoors Month

National Iced Tea Month

National Papaya Month

National Safety Month

National Soul Food Month

Rose Month

Turkey Lovers Month

 

Birthdays

6/1       Marilyn Monroe

6/8       Barbara Bush

6/12    George H W Bush

6/12    Anne Frank

6/14    Donald Trump

6/21    Edward Snowden

6/27    Helen Keller

6/28    Elon Musk

 

 

Weekly Holidays

 

June 3 – 9

National Business Etiquette Week

National Headache Awareness Week

Pet Appreciation Week

 

June 11 – 17

Men’s Health Week

 

 

June 17 – 23

Animal Rights Awareness Week

Lightning Safety Awareness Week

Old Time Fiddlers Week

Fish Are Friends, Not Food! Week

Universal Father’s Week

 

June 28 – July 1

Watermelon Seed Spitting Week

North American Organic Brewers Days

 

Daily Holidays

 

6/1/2018              National Leave the Office Early Day / National Say Something Nice Day

6/2/2018              National Trails Day / National Rocky Road Day

6/3/2018              National Cancer Survivors Day

6/4/2018              National Cheese Day

6/5/2018              World Environment Day / National Moonshine Day

6/6/2018              National Drive in Movie Day / National Running Day

6/7/2018              National Chocolate Ice Cream Day

6/8/2018              National Best Friends Day / National Name Your Poison Day

6/9/2018              National Donald Duck Day

6/10/2018            National Iced Tea Day / National Herbs and Spices Day

6/11/2018            National Corn on the Cob Day / National Making Life Beautiful Day

6/12/2018            National Jerky Day / National Red Rose Day

6/13/2018            National Kitchen Klutzes of America Day / National Weed Your Garden Day

6/14/2018            World Blood Donor Day / Flag Day

6/15/2018            National Smile Power Day / National Flip Flop Day

6/16/2018            National Fudge Day

6/17/2018            Father’s Day

6/18/2018            National Go Fishing Day / National Splurge Day

6/19/2018            National Martini Day

6/20/2018            National Ice Cream Soda Day / National Vanilla Milkshake Day

6/21/2018            National Selfie Day / World Music Day / Summer Begins

6/22/2018            National Onion Rings Day

6/23/2018            National Pink Day / International Widow’s Day

6/24/2018            National Take Your Dog to Work Day

6/25/2018            National Strawberry Parfait Day

6/26/2018            National Beauticians Day

6/27/2018            National Sunglasses Day

6/28/2018            National Handshake Day / National Paul Bunyan Day

6/29/2018            National Camera Day

6/30/2018            National Meteor Watch Day / Social Media Day

 

How to Make a Great Facebook Post

I got an email the other day and I just HAD to open it. The subject line was just irresistible. It said:

How to Create the Perfect Post on Facebook

This blog article could just as easily be about creating a great email as it is about making a great Facebook post. That’s why I decided to just talk it out in video.

Below the video, I have linked to the  article the email was originally linked to. There’s also a Free Report available called, The Groupon Solution I want to give you. If you’ve ever done a Groupon “Deal” or if you’re thinking about doing one, this report will shed light on how to squeeze more profit out of each customer, plus how to get more repeat customers (the real reason for ALL advertising).

Attention business owners. Sign up for my Free Newsletter to get where I share ideas like this one every month. I call it The One Good Idea Newsletter™ because I know that one good idea can change your business and change your life.

A company called Manta sent me the email which inspired the video. Follow this link to read their article.