Facebook has announced that they will close their Gift Shop on August 1st. But their exit will not end party for others. The company made it clear in their announcement that third party gift applications such as Birthday Cards and Hallmark Social Calendar etc. will continue to work, and gifts received through their own application will continue to be visible on user profiles. Continue reading “Facebook closing Gift Shop – but not for entrepreneurs”
Google Targets Late Adopters in the E-Book Market
Google’s next move won’t help sour sales for Kindle, but it will make e-books more readily available to any customer with Web access. This summer the company plans to launch Google Editions, a platform for selling digital books that will also be available in a Web browser friendly format.
According to a New York Times report, the move will rescue independent bookstores that are being squelched out of the market by giants such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Google went directly to the American Booksellers Association, the trade group for independent bookstores, to hammer out the partnership which should also drive the adoption rate of its Google Checkout online payment system. Continue reading “Google Targets Late Adopters in the E-Book Market”
Social Networks: Free R&D for Small Business
How do you keep your products and services fresh? Three words – “Research and Development”. True, R&D can be expensive and time consuming, but without it you could be wasting money trying to convince your target market to buy your products when you should be providing the products and services that they actually want.
Most small businesses think that they have to get to ‘big’ before they can afford R&D – not true. Here’s our quick guide to using social networks for research and development (R&D) on a shoe string budget: Continue reading “Social Networks: Free R&D for Small Business”
Stop Your Email List from Shrinking
Businesses that depend on email marketing to engage customers will notice two things about their email list every year; 1. Your email list will shrink by at least 15% before the end of the year, 2. Your bounce (email return) rate will be greater than it was the previous year – but does this mean you are losing your subscribers? That depends on your Website.
Customers no longer depend on emails to keep up with the latest news from their favorite marketers – thanks to SPAM (the worst kind), your recipients have grown tired of wading thru emails to decipher which ones they really want to read. Continue reading “Stop Your Email List from Shrinking”
Lead Conversion: How to Keep Your Fish
A solid marketing plan must include a budget for online marketing regardless of the product or service being offered. If a potential customer calls, it means your marketing campaigns are working; but the best online marketing campaigns can be derailed by lousy offline sales. Here are three rules your sales rep should keep in mind the next time your phone rings:
Demo, not promo. Your potential customer has already seen the promotion on the Website – that is why they are calling so there is little need to re-state it. Move on to the next step of demonstrating how your product or service can meet his/her needs. Scheduling a Web or in person demo Continue reading “Lead Conversion: How to Keep Your Fish”