September 2016 Small Business Marketing Update
In an effort to keep my business contacts up to date on the latest developments in the world of small business marketing, I send out a newsletter every month featuring tips, news stories, and updates about my business. This is the online version of the newsletter for August of 2016.
Supercharging Your Referral Marketing and Customer Retention Programs
One of the most effective and affordable marketing strategies around is also one of the least sexy and most underutilized. That’s the message shared by Shaun Buck, the CEO of The Newsletter Pro, on the most recent episode of the Small Business Marketing Minute podcast.
Use the player below to listen to the episode:
Four Ways to Waste Your Time on LinkedIn
When used correctly, LinkedIn can be a very useful tool for finding and connecting with strategic partners. It can also be a great compliment for in-person networking done at the local level (think chamber of commerce events, BNI meetings, etc.).
Unfortunately, a lot of local business owners either aren’t using LinkedIn at all, or are using it very badly. If you want to guarantee that any time you spend on LinkedIn is wasted, just do any one of these things:
- Don’t upload a picture of yourself to your profile (or better yet, upload a cropped photo with half of someone else’s head sticking in the picture).
- Send requests to connect to people you don’t know. They will really appreciate this and think very highly of you.
- When you send someone a request to connect, be sure not to change the default statement that says “I’d like you to add me to your professional network”. The last thing you’d want to do is remind the person how you know them or where you met them.
- Immediately after connecting with someone, send them a message on LinkedIn telling them about your services or trying to sell them something. Cutting right to the chase will save lots of time.
Hopefully, you realize I’m being sarcastic with the above statements. If you’d like some actual tips about how to use LinkedIn, click here to read my interview with Liam Austin from Entrepreneur HQ.
Tool of the Month: LastPass
Do you ever have trouble remembering your passwords? Do you use the same password for every site as a result? Is that password “Password1234” or something equally insecure?
LastPass solves all those problems. It automatically generates random passwords for you and fills them in when you return to a site. Did I mention it’s free? Visit LastPass.com for details.
Book of the Month: 80/20 Sales and Marketing by Perry Marshall
“Every once in a while, a book arrives that seems to speak the right message at the perfect time. 80/20 Sales and Marketing is one of those books. Perry Marshall has delivered a work of simple genius. He reveals a pattern that is so woven into natural law that, when you open your eyes to it, you’ll see it all around you.” –Ben Hunt