Archive | March, 2012

What I learned about marketing from my grandfather’s sermons

My late grandfather was a Methodist preacher for over 55 years. He must have preached thousands of sermons throughout his career. A few years ago, I was visiting my grandmother, and I asked her if she had any of his sermons written down. She could only find one. Pa-paw rarely wrote transcripts of his sermons. [...]

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Takeaways from the SMC Knox spring fling with Ryan Sauers

Tuesday night, I had the privilege of joining Ryan Sauers and the Social Media Club of Knoxville at the Blue Coast Grille Margarita Loft for a wonderful night of learning, networking and free tacos. I’d never been to a SMC Knox event before, and to be honest, nothing frightens me more than flying blind into a [...]

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4 compelling statistics for why your business should shoot video

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last five years, you know you should have short, informative videos on your business website and on your YouTube channel. However, many business owners either haven’t shot any videos or have left the same stale content up for the last 12-18 months. People and companies [...]

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Monday Morning Links: Pinterest, copyrights, fact checking, Google art

In light of its ongoing growth and changing design, Pinterest’s visual experience was bound to bring up the copy right issue at some point. Last week, Gonzalo E. Mon wrote a piece on how to save yourself the lawsuit when you’re pinning for business. While personal accounts will not likely attract the attention of the [...]

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3 quick and easy steps to designing a company logo

The 21st century customer is always looking for shock and awe, whether it is in your product or in company’s overall look and feel. To create that shock and awe, you first need an outstanding logo. The logo is important because it’s the first thing that a customer sees. Before they check out your website or [...]

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5 fatal mistakes to avoid when participating in a trade show

I was once at a trade show where I was invited to sign up for a chance to win a prize. After I filled out the blue slip with my name and phone number, a kind man told me that no one would bother me. Perplexed, I asked him if he had any intention of following [...]

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Monday Morning Links: Apple gives money back, Amazon goes half-off, how to hire

Looks like you won’t have to pay $600 a share for Apple stock after all. After the iPad 3 helped Apple’s stock soar, Mashable reports that the computer company is thinking differently about how it relates to shareholders. “There are several reasons Apple is giving dividends,” Todd Wasserman writes, “but the primary one is that [...]

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Four tips to writing effective and persuasive copy

Nobody enjoys sales pitches. Advertisements saturate our culture. In order to make your product or service stand out, you have to learn the art of persuasive writing. As I learned from one of our clients recently, even sales people typically disdain sales people, precisely because they are sales people. They forge relationships just to make [...]

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How to build a loyal list of customers for your small business

No matter what, lists are important!  Everyone has one, from an RSVP list to Santa’s naughty and nice list. Lists help us keep track of what we need to do and prevent us from working long hours without getting anything done. To a business owner, the list of prospective customers and of current customers has [...]

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Monday Morning Links: Amber Case, SNL, cyborgs and SXSW

There’s always a cool conference I could be going to right now. Tuesday marks the last day of SXSW Interactive, the four-day social media/technology conference based in Austin, Texas. The social world flocked to hear keynote addresses on how technology has not only shaped business, but humanity as a whole. SXSW, or “South By Southwest,” [...]

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