By karenscharf on October 7, 2008
I just finished up my business plan for 2009 (and if you haven’t updated your 2009 plan yet, I urge you to get started soon!) and I’m working with several clients to update their plans also. One of the roadblocks many of my clients run into is the difficulty of setting concrete goals and objectives. [...]
Posted in Develop Your Skill
By karenscharf on October 2, 2008
If you haven’t used pay per click advertising to drive traffic to your web site, now might be a good time to get started. Google has recently announced several changes that (I believe) will make it easier for a novice to learn the AdWords ropes. First Page Bid Is More Meaningful In the past, Google [...]
Posted in Develop Your Skill
By karenscharf on September 11, 2008
I came across a local news story a few months ago that had me absolutely astounded. A health insurance company here in Indianapolis released a statement saying they will no longer pay hospitals for performing the wrong surgery, performing surgery on the wrong body part, or performing surgery on the wrong patient. What really flabbergasted [...]
Posted in Develop Your Skill
By karenscharf on September 9, 2008
My most popular service lately has been copywriting, both for online web pages and offline sales letters. Whether you’re a service provider or a retailer, a solidly constructed sales letter (or better yet, a three-letter series) can work for you over and over and over again, for years and years to come. (And I’m not [...]
Posted in Develop Your Skill
By karenscharf on September 5, 2008
Does this sound like you… the economy is going south, and you’re starting to panic. You’re worried about the financial health of your small business. You think about slashing your prices to stimulate your sales. You assume you need to cut back on your marketing activities to save on expenses. If that sounds like you, [...]
Posted in Develop Your Skill
By karenscharf on August 30, 2008
I don’t know about you, but I get a little annoyed by the big-name pundits who declare “I refuse to participate in the bad economy.” Sure, it’s a great philosophy, but for the small business owner who sees his income shriveling away, who has to lay off long-time staff members, who downsizes his office because [...]
Posted in Develop Your Skill
By karenscharf on August 26, 2008
I’ve recently suffered a computer crash, and one of the folders that wasn’t backed up was one that contained all my testimonials. So I’m now on a mad-scramble to try to acquire new testimonials to use in my future marketing. Testimonials are an awesome way to boost your sales and grow your bottom line. There’s [...]
Posted in Develop Your Skill
By karenscharf on August 22, 2008
In my many discussions with small business owners and entrepreneurs, I often hear “time management” being mentioned as a pressure point. Most entrepreneurs wear many hats and take on multiple roles in their businesses, making it hard to juggle all the daily activities. Unfortunately, since many small business owners don’t consider marketing as a core [...]
Posted in Develop Your Skill
By karenscharf on August 21, 2008
I just returned from a one-day trip to Chicago. In the bumper-to-bumper traffic, it actually took over 7 minutes to drive 1 mile. Under normal circumstances, I might have found this a bit frustrating, but since Chicago is a mecca for advertising, I actually enjoyed sitting in the car studying the myriad of billboards dotting [...]
Posted in Develop Your Skill
By karenscharf on May 21, 2008
If you’re using a free report or trial offer as a lead generator, you obviously want your conversion rate as high as possible. If your landing page is clunky or confusing or just plain ugly, you might be losing out on many valuable prospects. I’ve recently implemented a few simple changes to a client’s landing [...]
Posted in Develop Your Skill
