Marketing & lead generation

As consultants we can often get caught up with finding the next contract, but are we looking in the right place? Although important to garner new clients, sometimes we let our past clients wither away. It’s easy to do as we get caught up with one contract after another. It’s unfortunate though because our past […]

Via Marketing Idea Blog, here’s a great idea for marketing your business: create your own holiday. But how do you create your own holiday? Pick a holiday related to your business or cause. For example, October 23 is Mole Day — which helps promote moles to people interested in chemistry. To ramp up publicity, send

Think you’ve got a good small business customer relationship management system going, just because you have a database full of email addresses? Think again. Top 5 reasons email addresses are useless To be truly valuable, leads need to be qualified You need permission to contact people — otherwise, you’re spamming An email address tells you

Okay, I know I said it before, but get those holiday cards in the mail! If you’ve been holiding out because you’re too busy, you may want to start thinking about holiday ecards. They may not be quite as endearing as traditional holiday cards, but they can at least be delivered in a reasonable amount

This week’s Friday 5 was compiled by yours truly. I’ve regularly advocated networking as a way to find new clients and build your business. If you want to network online, try these tools: Top 5 places to network online Business networking tools, such as LinkedIn Social networking tools, such as Facebook and MySpace Blogs (by

For many businesses, December is a time to thank those who’ve supported us during the past year. Some people send out business holiday cards, whereas others take their clients out for lunch. Still others send gift baskets, chocolates, or other presents. I just received my first gift card from a business partner. She enclosed the

If you’re planning to send out business Christmas cards (or, better yet, holiday cards) this year, you’d better get going. By December 17th or so, many business people start taking vacations, meaning they might miss your cards. If you want to make a great impression, get your cards out before the holidays. Try to get

Let’s say that you are suddenly stripped of all your marketing tools and programs and you must choose just one. If you could only have one marketing tool, what would you choose? I’d choose my business cards. Sure, a website can generate leads and support your marketing tactics. And brochures are great once someone has

Our weekly Friday 5 covers the top 5 mistakes to avoid in hiring a freelance web designer. Many consultants and small business owners need to hire a freelance web designer to build or overhaul their websites. But it’s not as simple as walking into a retail store and asking for the box on the top

If you’ve poked around for freelance jobs on the web, you may have run into online bidding sites. Work from Home Momma shares her thoughts about bidding sites. She notes that freelancers on these sites offer their work for hire at extremely low rates. I’ve always steered clear of bidding sites, since I know I