Assuming you’ve read my post about what a directory is, I’ll spare you the replay. You know what a directory is but how about a “local directory”? You’re a genius if you said it’s a directory that specializes in local business listings. See the Google SERP below? Take a good look and tell me what you see. The search terms used were “printing 75229″. You get bonus points if you get this one right.
The Google …

You’re busy enough trying to keep your head above water in the current market climate. The last thing you need is one more learning curve; one more area of your business that requires some of your time, patience, and probably some money, right? Well, it’s true that your online effort is at the heart of your overall marketing plan, and, yes, it’s true that almost every other aspect of your marketing plan integrates quickly with …

Measuring things is the key to improvement and measuring all-things online is critical to the success of your marketing efforts. The measuring of online activities is called “web analytics” and there are a couple of ways you can pick up knowledge in this area.
1. Here’s a couple of suggested blogs by masters in the realm of web analytics. You would do well to read everthing they write.

Avinash Kaushik’s blog, Occam’s Razor. Avinash is also the …

Ask almost any small business owner if he measures the performance of his business and he’ll tell you that he does. Some using sophisticated accounting practices, others instinctively tracking only a handful of key indicators, and more still tracking only by total sales volume. But ask them if they hold their web site responsible for its contribution to their business and you’ll usually get one of these answers:

We do that already.
My web hosting company has …

See if you can answer these 4 questions, then we’ll grade your paper:

Do you have a written marketing plan?
What’s the annual profit value of your average account?
How much revenue was your website responsible for in the past 12 months?
Do you know what your closing ratio is?

Finished? How’d you do? Let’s review…..
Do you have a written marketing plan? No? You just wing it, right? Rather than mapping out your trip and planning …

Conventional wisdom dictates that marketing and a good sales effort are the last things to cut during a downturn in the economy. Conventional application suggests a lot of businesses didn’t get that memo.
Economic downturns are accompanied and fueled by fear. Fear puts on the brakes. Marketing is viewed as expendable and is often the first victim of the budget axe, probably due in large part to its own history. Until less than 5 years …