The beginning of a new year is a prime time for year-end reviews. For many businesses, it’s the time to review annual budgets, expenditures, goals and traffic, and for good reason. There’s nothing like looking back to look forward, since it helps business owners reflect on strengths and weaknesses and figure out where to lean in or pivot for the year ahead.
Where some businesses go wrong, however, is making the start of a new year the only time they do a check-in. When it comes to their digital presence in particular, business owners would do well to make dedicated time for review sessions not once a year, but every single quarter (at a minimum). The digital space is changing ...
Who doesn’t love getting things for free? But when brands give out freebies, they’re rarely actually free for the brand. So how do you make sure you’re getting a return on investment if you’re not getting paid? We’ve compiled a list of tips for how to do freebies right.
Give Away Something of Actual Value
Chances are that people won’t remember you if you give them a free pen with your company’s name on it. But if you host a raffle for product samples or for a free hour of your services? That’s a different story. Potential customers are more likely to become customers when they’ve received a taste of what they’re missing.
Add Urgency to Your Offer
People respond best to freebies ...
The Business Council of Westchester (BCW) is the largest business organization in Westchester County, NY, representing more than 1,000 members. Its membership includes multinational corporations and businesses of all sizes, colleges and universities, hospitals and healthcare biotech firms, not-for-profits, entrepreneurs, and all levels of government.
TMCC works with the BCW to publish three annual guides:
The Membership Directory
The Relocation & Moving Guide for Westchester and the Hudson Valley
The Westchester County Economic Development Guide
TMCC provides editorial, design, advertising sales and printing/shipping support for the BCW’s publications. Most recently, a 2025 update of the Membership Directory featured articles with information about the BCW’s programming and events, as well as a comprehensive directory of the organization’s membership.
Here is a selection of ...
In case you haven’t heard the buzz online, the Google core update that rolled out in August 2024 has had a major impact on page views and user traffic for more than a few websites. As per Google, the update aims to improve search results so they’re geared toward reader service and are “genuinely useful.”
Sounds vague, right? It all ties back to Google’s focus on E-E-A-T, which stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. In other words, page rankings on search aren’t just about SEO, but a whole slew of factors. Now, instead of working on optimizing a page with the likes of keywords and meta text, creators need to also strongly consider things like brand reputation, site longevity ...
If you want to know why brand voice matters to your company’s success, just remember the chicken sandwich wars.
Back in the distant social media past of 2019, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen launched a chicken sandwich. Chick-fil-A apparently took exception to this, tweeting what the New York Times called “a thinly veiled critique” of the new offering.
Thus, the first salvo of the chicken sandwich wars was fired. Within 15 minutes, Popeyes’ Twitter account returned fire with the now-immortal words “…y’all good?”
The tweet went viral, leading to such massive demand for the new Popeyes sandwich that lines formed around the block at local Popeyes restaurants and the company eventually had to concede it had simply run out of the popular offering.
While creating ...
It’s common practice for visitor bureaus and chambers of commerce to print and distribute an annual guide. But there are good arguments for publishing more often! Take a look at just a few of them.
Avoid Outdated Content
When a publication has a shelf life of a year, content can grow stale — especially if it’s about events, exhibitions or member anniversaries that have already passed. Publishing twice a year instead of once reduces the likelihood that customers or prospects will pick up a book with obviously outdated information.
Go With the Seasons
This is especially crucial for visitor guides. The sorts of activities visitors may want to pursue are significantly different in the spring/summer and fall/winter seasons (think garden shows in the ...
As any business owner today likely knows, social media is a powerful tool. Whether that means setting up a strong Google Business Profile or managing a Facebook page, business professionals need to have a pulse on what their online presence looks like. Unsurprisingly, few platforms garner as much attention as Instagram. For business owners, the photo- and video-based platform can serve as a major asset to help promote products and services or get the word out about new offerings.
Here are a few tips to make the most of the platform:
1 | Craft strong captions with a consistent voice
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but that doesn't mean you should ignore the caption. Instead, use the caption space ...
Every visitor and convention bureau faces the same struggle year after year: how do you promote the same sights, restaurants, shops and venues repeatedly, while still making your content seem fresh?
Luckily, we can help. Here is a list of expert tips on how to keep your travel content compelling from one year to the next.
1 | Add a multimedia component
Even if you publish a print guide (which you should), you can add interest to the guide by linking to videos via QR codes throughout the book. The videos could be behind-the-scenes footage of photo shoots you did for the guide, or a quick, informal tour of a notable local place by one of your staff members.
2 | Tell a ...
A Google Business Profile is a powerful way to help your business on search — and it’s easier to manage than you think.
You know that moment when you’re searching for something on Google and you see a business profile card pop up? That’s a Google Business Profile page in action. A built-in feature on the search engine, these free profiles offer businesses the chance to develop a strong first impression online. And, since more than 83% of the global population uses Google as its primary search engine, according to Statista, chances are high that a Google Business Profile will get more than a few eyeballs on it.
So how can you set up your Google Business Profile?
1 | Google Your ...
Whether you’re a membership association, a nonprofit or an employer in the education or healthcare space, you have important messages to communicate — and stakeholders who need to hear that message.
What better way to keep potential members, donors or alumni engaged with your mission and vision than with a magazine that highlights your needs and accomplishments?
For one, the consistent publication schedule of a magazine means your stakeholders are reminded of both your existence and your value on a regular basis, whether it’s monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly.
Also remember that a beautiful magazine can be a keepsake, lending your message the kind of staying power that’s difficult to achieve in the digital age.
1 | Consider Print vs. Digital
Your magazine could be ...
