By Sabrina Sucato
If you’re a business owner, you know that a newsletter can be a powerful tool. When done right, it’s a chance to connect directly with an engaged audience that’s expressed interest in your products or services at one point or another. However, because email is such a widespread platform, there are far too many ways for this valuable tool to go south. Here are the top mistakes to avoid when sending newsletters:
1 | You add contacts who haven’t opted into your newsletter.
If you only take one thing away from this article, let this point be it. Legally, businesses can only email contacts who have expressly opted to receive email communication. This is all well and good if ...
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By Tina Irgang Leaderman
The first thing that probably comes to mind when you hear “publishing” is books, or maybe magazines. But there is a whole wide world of publications beyond those two media, and it just might help you tell your brand’s story in a lasting, compelling way.
The “custom” in custom publishing is a nod to customer focus. Custom publishers listen to your needs and can write, design and print (or sell ads for) a publication that meets those needs exactly. There’s a mix-and-match component too: if you’d rather write your own content, but need someone to design the pages, a custom publisher can do that. If you do your own writing and design but need help selling ads ...
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If you’re a business owner today, two things are probably true for you:
You need to be on social media.
You don’t have the time, bandwidth, or know-how to manage your own social media.
This needs vs. realities scenario is a common dilemma for many business owners. On the one hand, they know they need to have a presence on social media to share their offerings and remain competitive. On the other, they have so much going on in terms of day-to-day operations that they often don’t have the time to carve out a few hours a week for social media strategy and implementation.
Fortunately, that’s where a dedicated social media manager can be a saving grace.
Why You Need a Social ...
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In this milestone anniversary year for America, you may be thinking about your company’s next upcoming milestone as well. Whether it’s 20 years, 50 years or 100, keeping your brand and value proposition alive for a long time is cause for celebration.
But what should that celebration look like? You may be thinking about throwing a party for employees, customers and other stakeholders, but there’s also something to be said for a more tangible keepsake.
When Baltimore’s General Ship Repair Corporation approached its 100th anniversary, the company asked us for help in creating a book that would trace its history, establish its expertise and help celebrate its contribution to Baltimore shipbuilding. The resulting publication looked back on four generations of family ...
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The FIFA World Cup is coming to America in 2026, with cities including New York and Philadelphia hosting games for the world’s biggest sporting event. For local businesses, the World Cup presents a nearly unprecedented opportunity to market themselves to a global audience. Here are some tips to help you make the most out of that opportunity.
1 | Familiarize yourself with the match schedule
The schedule of World Cup matches and venues is available online, so take a look and take note of the teams that will be playing in your vicinity. You’ll see an influx of fans from these countries in your area around that time.
2 | Tailor campaigns and sales around match dates.
Now that you’ve got your audience ...
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If you’ve been online in any way, shape or form recently, chances are high you’ve stumbled across an AI search engine. From ChatGPT to Claude to Perplexity and beyond, AI tools have become seemingly omnipresent — and for good reason. With such a wealth of information, these platforms can serve as valuable tools for business owners and entrepreneurs hoping to improve workflows and save time.
Now that AI has become so integrated into search engines (Google’s AI overviews, anyone?), those good ol’ SEO practices you’re likely familiar with won’t always cut it. So, what’s a business professional to do? Adapt, of course! After all, it is possible to show up in AI search. You just need to get familiar with ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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