In this episode, I use a story about fishing for stocked trout in Virginia to introduce a new series that I'll be running on the podcast next month called Spring Into Action.  The series is 30 simple, affordable, and practical marketing tips in 30 days, with most tips being things you can do on your own without hiring any marketing experts to help you.  If you implement all 30 of these tips, I guarantee that your business will explode (in a good way) in 2019.  Listen to this episode to learn more about the series and find out what trout fishing can teach us about small business ..read more

It's the end of the year, and that means it's time to take a look forward at some of the marketing trends likely to affect local small business owners in 2019.  In this episode, I discuss five specific trends that, in my opinion, will be so important in the coming year that businesses who choose to ignore them will do so at their peril.  ..read more

Most types of marketing (such as all forms of advertising, event marketing, direct mail, video marketing, etc.) are things that businesses can choose not to participate in if they don't want to. The topic of my episode today is a form of marketing that every business is already participating in whether they know it or not, and whether they like it or not--reputation marketing. Listen to my interview with Brian Greenberg, author of the book The Salesman Who Doesn’t Sell, to learn all about this very important topic for local businesses ..read more

When it comes to having a well-run business, marketing is a very important part of the process but it isn't the only part.  That's why I occasionally like to invite guests on my podcast who are experts in other areas of business management, and that is the case with Episode 232 of the show.  My guest for this episode is Scott Smith, the founder and CEO of Royal Legal Solutions. Scott is no stranger to high stakes litigation and has spent his career deconstructing asset protection structures and developing strategies that serve both to protect what you own, as well as leverage yo ..read more

My guest on this episode of the podcast is Nick Usborne, who is an expert in copywriting and web writing. He has written copy for some of the world’s biggest brands, including Citibank, Apple, Chrysler, MSN.com, New York Times, WebEx, the U.S. Navy, and others. He attributes his success to “conversational copywriting,” and he has recently started a training program for copywriters that teaches them that approach. In my interview with Nick, we talk about how local small business owners can find good copywriters and work with them effectively to improve their marketing.  ..read more

In every community, there are a few businesses that have been around so long and have become such a part of the fabric of the town that people just take it for granted that they'll always be there.  In some cases, the business is also taking it for granted...and in those cases, that business is in big trouble.  Listen to this episode to learn why it's dangerous for any business, old or new, to have the mindset that it is entitled to exist.  ..read more

In light of several recent news stories that have involved the intersection of local small businesses and divisive national politics, including the stories of Masterpiece Cake Shop vs Colorado and the Red Hen vs Sara Huckabee Sanders, I thought it was time to address the subject in a podcast. Specifically, I thought it was time to do a podcast to help local business owners think through whether or not they wanted to use their businesses to take a public stance on a divisive political issue.  The reason I am recording this episode now is that I think that in many of the stories about this ..read more

Last year, I started volunteering for the local chapter of a national organization called Heroes on the Water, which takes veterans and first responders and their families on free kayak fishing trips.  Helping out that organization has reminded me of something that I already knew--getting involved in the leadership of local nonprofit organizations is a great way to get access to people with a lot of influence in your local community.  In today's episode, I talk about what I've been doing with Heroes on the Water, give some tips about how to think strategically about supporting local ..read more

It's not every month that issues that affect small business marketing make international headlines, but this month there have actually been not one but two stories that could dramatically effect small business marketing. There is also another news item that almost went completely unnoticed, but that might have an immediate effect on any business concerned about getting positive reviews from customers on Google (which should be all of you).  I tackle all three of these news items in one whirlwind podcast episode, so buckle up ..read more

The small business marketing industry, in my opinion, is broken in two very important ways.  In today's episode, I explain what those ways are, and how together (marketers and the small business owners who buy marketing services) we can start to fix them. If you are looking for in-the-weeds marketing tips about a specific tactic, you can skip this episode.  This is a high-level discussion about some major issues facing my industry.  However, if you do listen to the episode, it just may change the way you think about buying or selling marketing services (depending on which side o ..read more