The screenshot to the left shows a category page for a shopping cart, recently completed for DRAW Decal. It was a challenging project with several false starts as we first had to learn what wasn’t going to work. We nearly went with ZenCart, but settled on CS Cart for ease of use. Criteria for cart selection included the ability to add products and images as a mass upload via spreadsheet, ease of use for administrators and customers, and it needed to be a self-hosted solution. The final cart included over 1,000 products, each cross-referenced into at least four categories. It features built-in mailing list and newsletter creation capabilities. Our client received his first two orders on the evening the cart went live, and quickly wrote to tell me ‘this works slick!’

While the shopping cart software worked flawlessly as a shopping cart, it left a few things to be desired as a content management system. As usual, WordPress and iThemes came to the rescue. The screenshot to the right shows one of several albums on the gallery page on the WordPress portion of the site. All images to the gallery are added easily in Flickr, and each album updates in real time as changes are made. The gallery was created with Simple Viewer Pro, and I highly recommend it.

The Holiday Express Riding Train is a labor of love for Joel Occhuzzio in Richardson, Texas. His new website requirements included ease of use, ease of adding images and video, and the ability to accept sponsorships and donations via PayPal. Joel ‘The Trainman’ is a warm and caring grandfather who delights in making the holidays special for children and those with special needs. Our Dallas associate, Susan Hamilton, and I worked together on this site to give it the warm, family-oriented, grandfatherly feel that we believed would prove to be a huge benefit to his viewers.

This isn’t all we’ve been up to, of course. On any given day there are several projects, both print and web-based in the works. This week, we’re finalizing a postcard project for one client and a magazine advertisement for another, writing copy and providing design recommendations for a lawyer’s website, updating and upgrading client websites and our own, and continuing to implement a few diverse social media plans.

We’ll be back on course with our weekly 30-minute marketing tips later this week or early next. Thanks for hanging in there with us through the busy spells. If there’s anything in particular that you’re struggling with or you’d like us to write about, please drop us a note in the comments below. Thanks!

My Dad often uses that kind of questioning when trying to explain something to me. He loves to incite thought, and isn’t above a little ribbing to get you to consider a notion.

Progressing isn’t a matter of whether or not a certain ‘thing’ exists, rather, that choices were made.

“It’s not our abilities, Harry, that show what we truly are, it’s our choices.” ~Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Chamber Of Secrets

If that ‘thing’ is anything, it’s the ability to make choices. Two steps forward and one step back is a slow way to get to the top, although for a season, everyone experiences that. You can’t get past anything that you don’t go through, however. It’s what’s on the other side that motivates us and propels our ambition.

My youngest daughter played soccer on a city league when she was in kindergarten up through the second grade. She was the smallest on the team, some would say the runt of the litter, but she knew that ball needed to get inside the goal. There wasn’t one girl she wouldn’t take out to get it in there, either. Sitting in the penalty box was often the result of making the wrong choice with determination. She has always been a very determined young lady. She’s eighteen now, but I can still see her, running with her curly head down as fast as she could straight into another girl to knock her down like a ram! So tiny, so strong.

I’d like to remind her and everyone else that we can be determined to do the right thing or the wrong thing, and it’s not only the determination that brings us success, but the choices we’re determined to make.

Take 30 minutes today to make preliminary decisions about your trajectory. Start with where you want to be five years from now, and break it down to what that means you’ll have to do this year to make that happen. What then, will you need to do in the next six months, one month, and week to stay on course? Just a notepad and paper, your brain and you. Have a little meeting with yourself to see if you really want what you’ve chosen, and then determine to break through the inevitable obstacles until you arrive at your goals.

Oh, you’ve got what it takes alright. It takes you, determined effort, and hard choices. The question in the long run won’t be “Did you have what it took?” but “Did you do what needed to be done?”

There are many article submission sites out there, believe me – I’ve gone through several. What I love about EzineArticles.com can’t be said in one sentence.
If you don’t know what you’re doing, their tutorials will develop your skill, and if you do know what you’re doing, well…you’ve probably already been using the site. If you’re a lousy scammer/spammer using unhealthy tactics, they will toss you out on your ear. It’s nice to know that when your article has been approved, you won’t be mistaken for that. Here are a few of the reasons you should take 30 minutes to build your author profile on this particular submission site and establish credible articles surrounding the niche you’ve chosen to tackle.

• All articles are available for reprint with your personal bio box attached with it.
• Your bio box includes your business information and links back to your Web site.
• You can take advantage of keywords they provide based on your content, or you can add your own to increase visibility.
• If you have a basic knowledge of HTML, you can refine your article format.
• If you don’t have any knowledge of HTML, you can write in the ‘what you see is what you get’ editor – or WYSIWYG
• When you sign up for their newsletter, they hand serve you ideas for article submissions right through your inbox.
• At every stage of your article submission, you are given advice and guidance to improve your article before it goes through approval and goes live.

The link strategy here is especially helpful if you take the time to research the keywords that your readers will be using when they look for information you divulge. Your article will be required to fit into a category and if possible, a sub-category. When you’re careful to use appropriate keywords in your category, title, teaser summary, and headers, your articles will be found when someone Google’s those terms. Remember to write for a human first, and a spider last. Don’t assume the words by themselves do ANYTHING, they don’t. Good writing incorporates keywords naturally, and thereby causes a reader to want to read your information. That practice will cause search engine spiders to notice the correlation between the words that are typed into search by a searcher, and the words used in your article.

Once your article is approved it goes live immediately. Make sure you promote it by:

• Using a URL shortener like bitly.com, or an owly link from Hootsuite, and post the article’s URL on Twitter.
• Post to Facebook with a short reason why your article should be read.
• Link to it on your MerchantCircle blog or newsletter.
• Write a blog post for your Web site and refer to your article.
• Write several related articles and set them up in a Squidoo lens surrounding that topic.

Have fun developing this skill. It will benefit you greatly over the years. The more articles you have in the directory you’ll be building for yourself, the better your links will get. Naturally, the longer your articles are live, more eyes will have a chance to review them. Meanwhile, you benefit from the link in the bio box back to your Web site.

Have your prices been reduced for a sale or have they been reduced by 25% for 3 days only?

Platitudes and generalities roll off the human understanding like water from a duck. They leave no impression whatever. To say, “Best in the world,” “Lowest price in existence,” etc. are at best simply claiming the expected. But superlatives of that sort are usually damaging. They suggest looseness of expression, a tendency to exaggerate, a careless truth. They lead readers to discount all the statements that you make.” ~ Claude Hopkins, Scientific Advertising

Whether we’re talking about your overall message, the sales copy for your next ad, or the content of an email blast, the more specific your message, the more weight your message will carry. A specific message is either truth or a lie. There’s no middle ground, less opinion, more fact.

If a claim is worth making, make it in the most impressive way.

Today’s Assignment: Create a checklist of specific claims that you can make about your product or service. Don’t just file it away when you’re through. Post it somewhere you’ll see it often. Add to it or delete from it as needed. Refer to it when creating your next ad or promotional copy. Turn it into a flier and use it as a “leave-behind.” Post it to your Web site as an FAQ page or as a list of reasons to do business with you.

David Daniels of Radon Specialists of WI does this brilliantly. Every customer question and its answer is posted to an extensive FAQ page. Another page shows photos of poorly installed Radon systems by unnamed competitors, each with an explanation of what was done wrong and why it matters. The end result is a site that shows his company’s expertise. He doesn’t shout “we’re the best” from the rooftops; he specifically shows how and why they excel at what they do.

Wired ZipLine Challenge Course in Canton, Texas has the right idea too. They’ve issued a charitable challenge: Fan them on Facebook from now through the end of March and they’ll donate $1 to North Texas Food Bank for each new fan. They’ve issued a press release with (you guessed it) all the specifics.

Get specific. It works!

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” ~Albert Einstein

Productivity, efficiency, and small business marketing go hand-in-hand. As small business owners, we simply don’t have time to waste. I don’t know about you, but I’m the business owner, the bookkeeper, the project manager, the marketing director, the maintenance department, and many times also the technician that physically does the work. Unproductive days and inefficiencies carry a price tag, sometimes a big one.

Productivity in small business marketing begins with identifying your most important goals, then breaking them down into your most important tasks. We’re tossing marketing ideas at you twice each week, but it’s up to you to determine which of these ideas move you closer to YOUR goals.

If you fill a container with little pebbles and sand first, you’ll find that there’s not sufficient room for the big rocks. Productivity is filling the container with the big rocks first, then the pebbles and finally the sand. Those big rocks are the things that must get done to move you toward your goals. If we don’t consciously add the big rocks first, the sand filters in without any forethought – another day, another opportunity lost.

So what do you want to accomplish before the end of this year? What are you doing to move toward your goals?

Action Tips:

1. At the beginning of the week, list three big rocks that you want to accomplish before week’s end. Remember, these are the things that move you toward your goals.
2. Schedule time to tackle your big rocks into your weekly calendar. If you don’t schedule the time, it will fill up with something else … happens every time.
3. Do something every single day to move you toward your goals. Better yet, make it the first task of the day so that nothing gets in your way.
4. At the end of the week review your progress. Don’t skip this step! Did you meet one or more of your goals? Go ahead and gloat … you earned it!

Feel like sharing? I’d love to hear about what you’re doing to move toward your marketing goals. Please leave your comment below.

How far did you get with your holiday ‘campaign’ thinking? You’d better get busy because you’re almost out of time! Oh, I know, next year you’ll really get on it, right? Next year you’ll start in July and have all your great ideas off the ground in plenty of time. We’ve all said that before, but you know what I’ve learned? We tend to repeat our bad habits. Let’s just give this some thought, you’re not absolutely too late, and if you start something now you can perfect it next year. You’ve got to start somewhere, so let’s brainstorm.

Are any of these ideas still available for you?

• Company Calendars
• Holiday Signature Message–Just a nice “Happy Holidays!” in your Outlook signature. Simple, professional, why not?
• Refrigerator Magnets–Inexpensive, and can be done with magnet sheeting right through your own printer. You can still get these professionally done, too.
• Company Photo Postcards–Your employees or family dressed nicely and smiling can be a charming reminder of your appreciation for their business.
• Boxed cocoas, teas, coffees, or chocolates–Many times you can use your child’s school fundraiser to fill this type of order. Make sure they are in on time, and that you choose low cost items.
• Special ‘Holiday Only’ Service–Is there anything that you can offer only during the holidays that adds a special touch to something you already offer?
• Holiday E-Cookbook with favorites–Inexpensive and easy to offer using AWeber services.
• Negotiate Discounts with Restaurants that you can give out as coupons for a percentage off with meals. Win-Win because you’re promoting them in the process.

You are getting close to running out of time! Knowing that, don’t forget that your employees may be getting a little pinched for time, too. Why not offer the services of a personal concierge for errand running, gift wrapping, or even shopping? You will be surprised at how affordable it can be to be so thoughtful! Plan now, and offer when it helps the most.

Once you’ve figured out what you want to offer, you need to figure out how you want to tell your customer base and potential customers about it.

• Postcards / Direct Mail
• Google Coupons
• Hangers / Inserts
• E-mail Newsletters
• Web site post or page

Remember to track your sales through your promotion this year, so you can see how it stacks up against future years. This can be done easily by using a promotion code on the methods described above that are only used through this promotion. We like using a new page on our website with a slightly different URL that can only be found by using the information available on the promotion. All business generated from holiday promotion goes directly to one location, making it much easier to track. If you use that method, why not use a simple survey to see how they felt about the level of service they got with your company? If you offer something additional, like the E-cookbook or a free report about something necessary, when they leave their contact information, you also add leads to your list for next time.

What types of promotion are you using this holiday season?

Photo Credit: mbtrama on Flickr

It’s that time again. If your holiday campaign was planned and ready to launch in July, good for you! If you’re just now getting around to it, have no fear. This 30-minute idea generator should help you get your head around it before the end of the day so you can implement it soon.                                

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

The Contracting Business

• Start promoting seasonal check ups. These are great for every single home contractor: plumber, handyman, HVAC, pool service, maid service, electrician. Decide how you can best serve your customers by going through their entire home looking for ways they could save money or deter disaster with preventative maintenance. People get too busy with parties, family projects, and shopping to adequately notice some of these things, and getting the house drains cleaned out or the electrical outlets tightened up can be a great offer that possibly prevents crisis at a time when families just want to enjoy each other.

The Food Service Industry

• Package priced meals for the family–either dine-in, take out,or prepared in-home–are great ways to make you the easy choice for a nice meal.
• A personal chef or maid service might even offer grocery shopping for the busy family.
• Offering to prepare and present the meal or appetizers at holiday parties for a fee is nice, too.

B2B / Professional Services

• Sending holiday candy or coffee mugs to your accounts is a nice (albeit well-used) way to keep your name in front of your clients.
• It might also serve your customers to offer a discount on hourly services or project fees. Be sure to carefully size and time your promotion so that it doesn’t keep detract from your own family time during the holidays! Do your homework, and offer bite size help at discount prices for limited time only.

Dry-Cleaning Services

• Holiday parties and stored clothes coming out of their suit bags makes for big business in this industry. Even so, offering additional tailoring or repair with a cleaning tells your customers you know exactly what they need.

That’s all for today. Our next post will talk about different ways to get the word out about your holiday promotion. What types of promotion are you using this holiday season? Please add your ideas in the comments, below.

Photo Credit: Photo’s o Randomness on Flickr

Let’s pick on plumbing contractors for a minute. A complimentary business might be an HVAC contractor … or really, any home services professional. Now, the plumber can go it alone and only work on drawing new plumbing business with all advertising at his own expense … or by partnering with another home services professional, both the plumber and the partner could double their results at no additional expense.

For example: Joe’s Plumbing creates a flier jointly with Bob’s Heating, each printing the number of fliers they intend to mail or distribute door-to-door, each responsible for his share of distribution. Maybe Joe’s Plumbing offers a slight discount to customers who use Bob’s to get their furnace checked. Or maybe Bob’s Heating offers a coupon to customers who call Joe to replace their water heater within the next three months. You get the idea … be creative!

Your 30-minute assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to make a list of potential marketing partners. Think about what you have to offer and what you hope to gain from this informal partnership.

What types of businesses might this work best for? Have you ever tried this and was it successful? Please respond below and tell us what worked or what didn’t work!

Photo Credit: Steve Weaver on flickr

Have you defined your business? In other words:

• Who are you?
• What do you offer?
• What sets you apart … and why does it matter?

Grab a pencil and notebook or open a new Word document, set the timer for 30 minutes and write the answers to these questions. This is for your use only, so don’t worry about spelling or form; just express it. Write it out!

Simple, right? This simple exercise is the first step in developing your sales message. For existing business owners, it will help you identify holes in your marketing communications or reveal areas that could use a little polish … so that the real you matches your message.

Feel like sharing? Leave your name (not keywords), email address, and company Web site in the boxes below, along with a few sentences that define your business. Yes, you’ll get a link back to your site, that is IF you have a real site to promote (not a spam blog) and IF you refrain from using keywords for your name. Objectionable content or links will be deleted. Real comments are heartily encouraged and rewarded!

Photo Credit: dotbenjamin on flickr

Yes, that happened to me last week, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. Be honest … you’ve experienced it a time or two yourself. And actually, it’s a good thing! That flash of revelation sparked some profitable changes for my business endeavors. So let me ask you … what are you waiting for? How much cash are you leaving on the table because you’ve not yet implemented that great idea you had last week, last month, or last year?

I’ll admit that it takes time for an idea to germinate. Generally speaking, a seed doesn’t sprout overnight. Permit me a gardening / forestry analogy … some seeds only need water and a short amount of time to sprout. Others first need to spend time in cold storage; still others need the heat of a forest fire.

But regardless of what it takes to get that seed to begin to grow, one thing is certain, it’s going to need water, light and protection if it’s going to survive and thrive. Are you tending your garden? Are you nurturing your innate creativity? Are you taking steps to move your ideas forward? And if you’re feeling the scorching heat of today’s economic climate, might you take some comfort and hope in the mighty Lodgepole Pine, which makes up nearly 80% of the forest in Yellowstone National Park? Its resin-sealed cones require the intense heat of a forest fire to release the seeds inside! That’s right; there may never be a better time to release that great idea you’ve been sitting on!

The Back Story:

As you may know, we launched a new business about a year ago: Zero To Sixty Marketing LLC, a virtual marketing firm. It took off with a bang, even without much of a Web site – relying instead on word-of-mouth and the luxury of exiting the starting gate with a few strong customers. Within the past two weeks, we’ve devoted considerable time to a major Web site upgrade, sparking many new ideas and implementing many that I’ve sat on for far too long.

The Zero To Sixty Marketing Web site has its own team-written blog, and its focus has been very similar to Express Marketing Memo … too similar, in fact. So, I’ve decided it’s time for a change. From this point on, Express Marketing Memo will focus on rock-solid, actionable ideas that you can implement in a half-hour or less. Zero To Sixty Marketing’s blog, “Inside Line,” will pick up where Express Marketing Memo leaves off, and cover the bigger picture. There may be some overlap, but I guarantee that each blog will carry useful information for the small business owner. If you haven’t done so already, be sure to subscribe to both blogs today!

Photo Credit: SpaceRitual on flickr