Jeremy Durant

Many small business owners struggle with the implementation of web marketing, SEO and social media marketing strategy. They tend to overcomplicate their strategy and because they make it so complicated, they can't execute. I will try to simplify a web marketing strategy that a time-pressed small business owner can manage.

As more clients rely on the web to determine the best partners for their business, it is important that your firm's website design is not only compelling and professional but also a "living resource center."

Corporate behemoths such as Kashi, Starbucks, State Farm, etc. want to be positioned as the friendly neighborhood brand that helps enhance your life. If the "big boys" are doing this, why not accept your small firm for what it is? Being small is a competitive advantage and we will discuss how to maximize the positives of being small and minimize the negatives.

Email marketing has two objectives: lead generation or lead nurturing. We recommend two different email marketing approaches when it comes to each. We will discuss each tactic below.

As the economy turns downward again, what lessons have we learned as small business owners from the 2008 "Great Recession?" 2008 was not that long ago, so fortunately most of us have not forgotten our successes and mistakes. There are three lessons that I have learned that I think are best practices for any business as they navigate through this uncertainty. They all relate to making decisions rooted in confidence, not rooted in fear.

Up until 5 years ago advertising has essentially been a monologue, a one-sided conversation with the advertiser only speaking to the target audience. Now consumers talk to one another and no matter how much money a brand has to allocate, they can't create a brand story without it being true. As a B2B company, you need to have a dialogue with current and prospective customers.

As a start-up business, paying for Public Relations services can be cost prohibitive. In general, a good PR agency can start at $2k a month. Many people think of PR as "free advertising" but it really requires time and effort to position your business as a thought leader. In this article we will discuss some options that will help your start-up business succeed at PR.

As a small business employs a marketing plan to generate new leads, it is important to continuously measure ROI. Discover tips for measuring the ROI on your marketing campaigns.

There is much confusion among business owners regarding SEO guarantees. Many business owners want some sort of guarantee that their site will rise the search rankings if they allocate money to SEO. It makes sense. If you are allocating thousands of dollars a month to SEO, you want an assurance that the dollars will generate a healthy ROI. WARNING: Be very careful with these guarantees.

As entrepreneurs, we are constantly selling and being sold to. Do you ever notice that anyone involved in sales is not called a "salesman"? They're called account executives, business development, relationship managers, etc. The main reason for this title change is that sales has garnered a poor reputation over the years. Just the title "salesman" will turn many people off. The titles have changed, but unfortunately some people still follow an outdated, traditional sales method.