Here’s a little trivia to share around the water cooler…today is National Tell a Story Day. National Tell a Story Day is observed in the United States each year on April 27th. The aim of the day is to encourage people to share all kinds of stories. It is a celebration of the art of storytelling in all of its many forms, whether fiction or non-fiction, a tall tale, or folklore. Whether it’s read from a book, one from your imagination or an actual story from a childhood memory, April 27th is … [Read more...]
10 Elements of a Good Small Business Website
A website is a business necessity today. It helps customers find you online, creates your home base for all of your digital marketing efforts and builds brand awareness and trust. But what makes up a good website? 10 things to consider when you’re planning/designing your website Make your website easy to navigate. Every website is different. New visitors need to get acclimated to how your website is set up and organized so they can find the information they want. Help people do that … [Read more...]
A Marketing Smorgasbord
In the spirit of Thanksgiving I'm offering up a wide variety of topics today starting with WordPress, a side of holiday marketing and finishing up with a serving of gratitude. WordPress Recently I talked about what not to do when building your business website…using drop and drag builders. If you missed that, read more here. I’m going to suggest a better way to build your website…WordPress. WordPress is a free content management system, which basically means it houses and enables you to … [Read more...]
Marketing Tricks and Treats
In the spirit of Halloween I’m going to share some marketing tricks and treats based on some interesting articles and posts I’ve come across this week. In other words, I’m curating content. I’ve spoken about this before. If you missed it or need a refresher you can read my article here. First up, something ghoulish… Drop and Drag Website Builders Some small business owners may choose to create their website with a drop and drag builder, such as Wix, because they think it is easier and … [Read more...]
I Dropped the Ball
I have a confession to make... I have not posted here for a while or sent my email newsletter in a while. So I haven't added fresh content to my website or stayed in touch with my subscribers...not smart. In the past I have talked about the importance of consistency. (I know…this is the pot calling the kettle black.) I’m going to be honest. Life got in the way, it was summer, I was focused on client work, and I was struggling with my newsletter somewhat, so I let it fall to the … [Read more...]
7 Tips for Writing an Effective Email Newsletter (Infographic)
In my last post I discussed how you don’t always need to write all of your own original content to fill your content marketing needs. Phew! But how do you do that? The answer is curating content. If you missed the post you can read it here. So today, I’m going to practice what I preached, and share an infographic with you that illustrates how to make the written part of your email newsletter better. This infographic comes from Michael Katz of Blue Penguin Development. Michael … [Read more...]
Curating Content to Fill Your Content Marketing Needs
Content marketing is here to stay because it works. It helps people get to know you, positions you as an expert and helps people choose to do business with you. Good content marketing is meant to help, not sell. People don’t want to be sold. The sale becomes a natural outcome of you being helpful and providing value to your prospects and customers. It’s a cost-effective marketing strategy that any business can and should implement. The key… Create and publish content that is … [Read more...]
5 Business Lessons I Was Reminded of When My Air Conditioning Broke
With Memorial Day weekend behind us and temperatures in the upper 80’s and low 90’s summer has “unofficially” arrived. A time to relax a little, enjoy the sun, surf and backyard BBQs. It’s a great time of year, unless your air conditioner isn’t working. And mine has not been. It’s been hot and uncomfortable…not so fun. As a result I had to hire a company to replace our unit. We had a few bids and thought we had chosen a company to do the work. Unfortunately for us the first opening for … [Read more...]
10 Helpful Tips for Creating Great Headlines
Your Headline Can Make or Break Your Marketing So you’re writing a blog post, article, email or some other marketing piece. If you want people to read it you better spend some time on your headline. On average, 8 out of 10 people will read headline copy, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest. Why? First, people are bombarded with information every day. We are all on information overload. Because of this we don’t actually read. We scan and skim to determine if an article has … [Read more...]
Blog or E-Newsletter…Which is Better?
There are certain things that are just better together… peanut butter and jelly, milk and cookies, bread and butter. I could go on but this list is making me hungry. And if you’re now thinking of things that go together, my guess is you didn’t say blog and newsletter. People often ask which one they should choose for their content marketing. That’s like picking peanut butter or jelly. Blog vs. Newsletter…What’s the Difference? Let’s start with blogs. A blog is where you keep articles … [Read more...]
I'm a copywriter, website designer and digital marketing consultant based in South Jersey, just outside of Philadelphia. I specialize in helping small businesses and professional service providers craft and deliver their message to reach more customers and clients.