Here are five important social media marketing tips and tricks every small business should know to maximize their time and effort online:

This is it. The summer is almost over. August is upon us so let's kick your email marketing in gear before it's time to start planning your Holiday Season marketing strategy. Crazy, we know! But the good news is August is a great time to leverage the beautiful outdoor weather, summer vacations, and back-to-school activities in your email marketing content. If you're looking for ideas for how to end the summer season on a high note, these email marketing tips from Constant Contact should help make your business a hot spot in August.

In 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) became law, and since then businesses, both large and small, have been required to make their physical business environment accessible to the differently abled. 

The ADA is a broad civil rights law that seeks to shut down discrimination, whether intentional or not, of those that need physical or cognitive accommodations to have equal access to state and local governments, nonprofit organizations, labor unions, and businesses. ​

ADA requirements apply to any agency, organization, or business with 15 or more employees. According to the law, these entities must make “reasonable accommodations” for employees that are disabled. But there is more you need to know to avoid running afoul of the law and ADA compliance when it comes to your small business website.

As a small business owner, deciding where to spend our marketing budget can be a challenge. On the one hand you may want to be everywhere and not miss an opportunity to woo potential customers. On the other hand, you need to be strategic about your digital marketing spend to ensure you squeeze the most marketing juice out of your campaigns. 

​So how do you discover where your potential customers are hanging out online and how do you engage them there? Luckily we've found some great data to share...

Have you ever gone into a brick-and-mortar store and been frustrated by the experience? Maybe the aisles were too narrow or the line at the checkstand was too long. Or perhaps the music was too loud or the staff just unhelpful. As shoppers, we understand that these negative customer experiences impact sales. But as small businesses are we looking at our web presence in the same light? If not, we should and here's why. 

Last year's statistics on blogging are pretty compelling. Blog posts continue to be among the top performing web pages for both business-to-business (B2B) companies and those businesses that target consumers (B2C).  

Don't take our word for it. Review the blogging statistics infographic from Gate 39 Media, a financial services marketing and technology agency . It's worth a look. And be sure to review the additional resources and tips below the infographic on how to get your small business blog started.

According to Marketing Sherpa, 61 percent of email subscribers would like to receive promotional emails every week, and 38 percent would like to receive them more frequently. 

Although we question if those statistics should be applied to every industry, we do think that small business marketers should be communicating with their customers and subscribers at least once per month. By emailing your communities once a month you'll stay top-of-mind, be able to communicate special offers and sales, and better nurture your customer relationships. 

Here are some ideas from Constant Contact on how to spread the love all month long:

We have a lot of empathy for our small business clients who are struggling to make an impact on social media. It can be a challenge to devote time and resources to managing your social channels. It can be even harder to continue to tread that social water if you're not seeing results in the way of an increase in followers or engagements. 

But if your primary focus on social media is worrying about content ideas and what to post, you may be missing out on opportunities to engage your followers and grow your communities. Here are six things you should be doing on social media besides posting your own content to help you be more a efficient and effective social media marketer:

If you've been in business for awhile, eventually you face the reality that at some point in time you will need to raise your prices. Usually external forces are at play - either your suppliers have raised theirs or other costs of doing business have increased. Clearly, this is not the most pleasant aspect of small business ownership, but a reality nonetheless. 

​So how do you go about raising your prices without risking sales volume and loyal customers? ValPak offers some valuable insights and data points to consider: