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Think You're An Industry Leader? Not So Fast

BY Anthony FrancoFri Sep 2, 2011

I was recently at my bank, telling the branch manager that I don’t like its online banking system. She was literally offended: “But we are the best in our industry, I’ll show you the results of our survey.” I said, “But it ... READ»

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Small Businesses Connecting with Customers on Multiple Fronts

BY Eric GrovesWed May 18, 2011

Small business owners who say their number one concern is attracting new customers seem to be making the right moves to address that concern according to a new survey.READ»

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Open Rate: It's About The Content. Duh

BY Eric GrovesTue Apr 26, 2011

By providing great content to your email subscribers, you can improve your open rates and get people sharing with others, either by forwarding or through social media channels. And it doesn’t have to be a "deal"--just make sure the content is useful to the recipient.READ»

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New SCORE Site Helps Coach Small Businesses

BY Eric GrovesMon Apr 4, 2011

SCORE has now made it even easier for small businesses to get help through a new website called e-Business Now, which promotes workshops, how-to guides, events, and more. READ»

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GroupMe the Winner at SXSW

BY Eric GrovesFri Mar 18, 2011

After spending a couple days at SXSW, my theory that there's a social app for everything is confirmed. While 99% of these social apps seem to add to the chaos of online living, one stood out as simplifying things: GroupMe, a free service that facilitates group texting and allows users to maintain relationships in clusters as well as one-to-one communications.READ»

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What Barriers to Small Business Success Would You Knock Down?

BY Eric GrovesFri Mar 4, 2011

The U.S. Small Business Association (SBA) is putting on an eight-city tour dubbed "Startup America: Reducing Barriers Roundtables," featuring senior officials from the Obama Administration, to get the public's input on how government can reduce barriers and be more supportive of innovation and entrepreneurship.READ»

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Spurring Business on a Snow Day

BY Eric GrovesTue Feb 15, 2011

Here in the snow-bound New England, we've had so many weeks of consecutive storms that the only happy small-business folks are the snow plow operators and roof shovelers. But a few savvy marketers are turning to email, social media, and mobile marketing to lure in snow-weary customers.READ»

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2010: The Year Social Went Viral

BY Eric GrovesWed Dec 22, 2010

As the sun sets on 2010, it's amazing to look back and see how social media has impacted all areas of marketing. Marketers have finally figured out that yes, social media can help drive business--if you do it right.READ»

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Save Money and Roll Your Own Groupon-style Offer

BY Eric GrovesWed Dec 8, 2010

Groupon's benefits are many: It has a great system in place for promoting deals offered through its many local sites, the transactional systems to handle the influx of deal buyers, and such deals can drive hundreds of new customers to a business. But, what if you don't have the margins to pay 50% of the deal's revenue to Groupon on top of offering a steep discount on your products and services?READ»

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Allocating Resources to Help Small Business Grow

BY Eric GrovesMon Nov 15, 2010

Tthe issue of figuring out how to allocate resources (time and money) for most small business owners hinges on two questions: One, where is my revenue coming from next month? And two, what's the best source of new customers to keep my business growing?READ»

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The Power of Coaching

BY Eric GrovesThu Oct 28, 2010

With the World Series underway, the Texas Rangers' Cliff Lee is standing in the spotlight as one of the top pitchers in baseball. But it was only three years ago that he was sent down to the minor leagues for a refresher. And in 2008, he won the Cy Young Award as the best pitcher in the American League. Even the best of the best need a little coaching now and then. READ»

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Does Facebook's Like = Permission to Market to?

BY Eric GrovesThu Oct 14, 2010

You've set up a Facebook Page for your business and the number of Likes is growing steadily. This means you're free to market to these folks at will, right? Not so fast.READ»

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Coffee Break Survey: Executive Toys 2010

BY Lynette ChiangFri Oct 1, 2010

VIDEO: Gal at ComicCon, the place where toy lovers collideThank Buddha it's Friday. A playful day, when meetings should be light 'n' easy, decisions fully reversible Monday and it's okay to occasionally flip back and forth between ...READ»

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Looking for Signs of Intelligent Marketing Life - Part 3

BY Eric GrovesWed Sep 29, 2010

Businesses have enough to keep up with when it comes to their site, blog, email newsletters, Facebook Page, and Twitter feed. The barrage of new sites such as Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp, or that yet-to-be-invented network is enough to send businesses ducking for cover. Fortunately, your customers will tell you what the next "big thing" is.READ»

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Asian American Advertising: It's Not All About Me

BY Lynette ChiangThu Sep 16, 2010

Over cold spicy eggplant and tofu noodles at Hunan, a typically cacophonous downtown Chinese eatery, Sunny explained how Asian advertising is less about the individual, more about the collective.READ»

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Looking for Signs of Intelligent Marketing Life - Part 2

BY Eric GrovesWed Sep 15, 2010

Radiant marketing is a simple metaphor with the sun representing a business and the planets the customers. Your job as a business owner is to keep the sun burning bright and not fade into a black hole, with marketing being key to that effort. So where does social media marketing fall in this planetary metaphor?READ»

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Looking for Signs of Intelligent Marketing Life - Part 1

BY Eric GrovesTue Aug 31, 2010

I once had an idea for a book that compares marketing to the solar system. That metaphor, which I call radiant marketing, is quite apt for describing how marketing efforts are being impacted by new technologies and new ways of connecting with customers and members. It's a simple metaphor, with the sun representing a business and the planets the customers. READ»

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Revving Up Your Social Media Marketing

BY Eric GrovesWed Aug 18, 2010

As more and more marketers jump on the social media marketing bandwagon, the inevitable questions about return on investment are cropping up. Of course social media marketing is worth it, even if that ROI cannot directly be measured in dollars. Need convincing? Here's my take.READ»

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Is Broadband Definition Too Narrow?

BY Eric GrovesMon Aug 2, 2010

Are you happy with your Internet connection? Chances are good that most of you reading this are quite satisfied with your connection. And yet, despite your personal satisfaction, there's been some debate among academic types over whether the U.S. is continuing to expand the reach and quality of broadband or falling behind in the bandwidth arms race.READ»

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Holsteins, Heroes and Heart: A Good Host Is Hard to Find

BY Lynette ChiangThu Jul 22, 2010

This week I embarked on what should be a simple task: finding a new web host. Like researching a new waterproof breathable jacket or non-stick omelette pan or taser to match your iPod nano, you trawl the Web, read the reviews, wonder which are bogus, glaze over at the offerings, wonder if you should be using Joomla or Wordpress, and if you need SSL and what is SSL anyway...READ»