FREE Content-Packed eLetter Reveals "Weekly Local Online Marketing Tips, Hype-Free"

Once or twice a week I send out new videos, audios and other tips about what's working now in local online marketing. I deliver very high content ... and you'll love it. So go ahead give me your name and e-mail and I'll include you in my next update.

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Local Businesses: 3 tips to handle online complaints and manage your reputation

by Michael Cage · 1 comment

in On Local Business Marketing

Afraid your social media presence could leave your business vulnerable to criticism and negative reviews? Well whether you like it or not, your customers are online. And they’re talking about you on sites like Yelp, MerchantCircle and even on Google itself. From The New York Times Small Business section: “Social media for business now is ...

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A local small business e-mail marketing success story

by Michael Cage · 0 comments

in On Local Business Marketing

Short on money for advertising but desperate to get more local customers and clients in your doors? That was the case for Danny of Danny’s Meat & Catering in Racine, MI. With no money to spend on TV, print, radio or other traditional forms of advertising, Danny turned to inexpensive but highly effective e-mail marketing ...

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Is “find a need and fill it” bad marketing advice?

May 18 On Entrepreneurship

Just because marketing advice is repeated often … doesn’t make it true. “Find a need and fill it … that is the key to successfully marketing a business.” – Someone who needs to be slapped around a little bit. Truth is, follow this “find a need and fill it” advice and you are inviting commodity ...

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Alexander Ovechkin, exceptional experiences and marketing your business

October 27

Hockey is one of the most exciting sports to watch live. If you’ve never been to a game … go … and thank me later. From 2001 to 2004, Michele and I regularly went to the MCI Center to watch the Washington Capitals. They were underperformers, but the Caps have one hell of an owner ...

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Philosophical marketing and the DNA of your business

October 6 On Entrepreneurship

A software product I use has undergone massive changes over the last 6 months. So much so they skipped from version 1 to version 3. In response to complaints about the changes on their forum, they offered the following basic response: We did version #1 and people complained, so we completely changed the ways things ...

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Messy offices, ADD and Entrepreneurs

October 1 On Entrepreneurship

And now for a mix of interesting stuff I read this week… Hi, my name is Michael and, despite my endlessly unorganized office, I love looking at office pr0n. Way too much time spent at Flickr this week. [Flickr Home Office Photos] …speaking of which, the US Census says half of all small businesses are ...

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Anthony Robbins, Infomercials and Experiential Marketing

September 27

When I teach marketing workshops to information entrepreneurs, I tell a story about myself and Tony Robbins. A little over a decade ago I would time my nights so I could come home and watch his “Personal Power” infomercial. I couldn’t afford to buy the tapes (no CDs at that time) … but just watching ...

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In the experience economy your customers want…

September 25

From Jim Gilmore, of The Experience Economy fame… In the Agrarian Economy, the dominant purchase criteria was Availability (price being set by supply-and-demand, and only influencing the quantity of materials purchased in the marketplace). In the Industrial Economy, Cost became the dominant driver of purchases as Mass Production made more and more goods affordable to ...

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Job #1 when marketing to small businesses

August 28 On Entrepreneurship

Three professional service businesses with the same marketing problem, only they don’t know it: An accountant offers an amazing tax planning service for fast-growth start-up businesses … and FAILS. A marketing “expert” has a system to increase repeat sales … and CAN’T GET A SINGLE CLIENT. A web design firm knows they can build web ...

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How to grab and hold attention in an attention-starved world

August 8

It seems the latest trend is to declare the long marketing message dead. As “proof” … people cite shortened attention spans, increased multi-tasking and an “immunity” to advertising. Have you ever rented a movie that was so bad you stopped watching 15 minutes in? Would it have mattered whether it was only 90 or 60 ...