Share or Die This content from: Duct Tape Marketing If the explosion of the web and social media has taught business anything it’s that you must put out tons of great content and be willing share, let others copy, use and otherwise exploit it your, not their, benefit. The old school model of proprietary content locked, either behind a 27 field form or worse, copyscape or encryption model, is not only silly it’s hurtful to your brand... 

5 Ways For Small Businesses To Get In The Location Game This content from: Duct Tape Marketing Location based check-in type services are this year’s overhyped topic – with good reason. While you may not understand why someone wants to be the mayor of their barber shop, you do need to recognize the behavior that social location services such as Gowalla , Foursquare , Yelp! and Facebook Places represents for the local business. Shoppers... 

Weekend Favs September Four This content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr. Good stuff I found this week: Paper.li – organizes links shared on Twitter into an easy... 

Delivery is the New It Thing This content from: Duct Tape Marketing if you’re looking for a way to differentiate your business or products and create a killer competitive advantage you may not have to look any farther than how you delivery of your products and services. Now, delivery is a fabulously flexible term when applied to business, so I use it here to talk about physical deliver of goods as well as digital delivery or information... 

WiseStamp Brings Your Email Signature to Life This content from: Duct Tape Marketing On the spectrum of really big marketing tactics, the email signature isn’t terribly sexy, but this little touch can say a lot about what you do and how you connect. If you’re like me, you send a lot of email so why not make sure your email signature is working in the background for you. This doesn’t mean you need flashing lights and honking... 

Creating a Boutique Business This content from: Duct Tape Marketing Marketing podcast with Sarah Petty (Click to play or right click and “Save As” to download – Subscribe now via iTunes The term boutique is often associated with fashion or beauty related businesses, but it’s a concept that can apply to any business. Case in point is this week’s guest on the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, Sarah Petty, who by …  Read More →

5 Ways to Make a Database For Your Customers This content from: Duct Tape Marketing Standard marketing CRM type practice suggests that you should create and supplement a database of customers and prospects with the idea that you build more and more information to use to help build deeper relationships and create additional selling opportunities. What if you look at database building as a service you provided for your customers? Now, in some... 

Weekend Favs August Twenty Eight This content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr. Image credit: Charles Lam Good stuff I found this week: Color Blender – Input two... 

The Most Wasted Page On the Web This content from: Duct Tape Marketing Among the millions and millions of web site pages out there, one kind of page is often wasted space just begging for some marketing think. And no I’m not talking about the About Us page, but it might be close second. Most businesses online understand the need to capture leads through ebook, seminar and email newsletter sign-ups. Depending on the service you use the... 

5 Ways to Get Rockin Reviews This content from: Duct Tape Marketing Reviews and testimonials have always been a nice way to offer third party proof that your company does what it says it does and that your customers are happy campers and willing to talk about it. Reviews, however, have become even more important now that local search directories like Google Maps and Yelp! have made them a foundational element for ranking well for local search.... 

How To Increase Landing Page Conversion This content from: Duct Tape Marketing Marketing podcast with Rick Perreault and Oli Gardner of Unbounce (Click to play or right click and “Save As” to download – Subscribe now via iTunes Landing pages, those web pages you create and use to entice visitors to take a single action, have come a long way in terms of functionality and use. Internet Marketers have used them for years and with... 

How to Automate a Lead Engagement System This content from: Duct Tape Marketing Technology has allowed us to move past the days when we simply drove a prospect to our website, captured their name and email address, and started them in a drip system in hopes that at some point they would click on a link in one of our emails and buy something. Today’s lead generation system is a fully automated lead engagement system aimed at delivering... 

Are You Creating Art or Creating a Factory This content from: Duct Tape Marketing I have to warn you that today’s post is a bit of a ramble because I’m working through something that feels kind of big, but that I don’t know that I’ve concluded. If you’ve read this blog or, for that matter, anything I’ve written you know that I believe a business is a system and marketing is perhaps the most important component... 

Weekend Favs August Twenty One This content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr. Image credit: Haydn Blackey Good stuff I found this week: “Mad Libs” Style... 

5 Reasons Why Facebook Places Is Kind of a Big Deal This content from: Duct Tape Marketing Facebook announced what can clearly be called a “me too” location check in function yesterday , but hey, when you have half a billion people using something, even a copied innovation can have huge immediate impact. Facebook Places is a smart-phone location check-in feature that allows users to share their location, find the location of their...