When it comes to digital marketing as a small business owner, you can't always do it all online alone. It's important to delegate and get the help you need to manage your website and online business directory listings like your Google My Business account. Here's the right way to add additional users and listing managers to your Google My Business Listing without sharing your sensitive Google password information or surrendering primary ownership. 

​By Julee Klein, Marketing Consultant & President​

Artificial intelligence and marketing automations are not just for enterprise and Fortune 500 companies. There are several time- and cost-saving applications that can help small businesses run more efficiently and scale some of their marketing operations.

​While not a complete list by any stretch, here’s a look at our three favorite, free, marketing automation “hacks” for small business owners. 

​By Julee Klein, Marketing Consultant & President​

Halloween has always been great for small business and larger retailers and this year is will be scarily similar. Americans plan to spend $87 on average per person on the holiday according to the National Retail Federation.  The organization also claims that Americans are expected to spend $9.0 billion in total, slightly down on last year's $9.1 billion. And according to Statista, "45 percent of Americans will shop at a discount store this year while just under a quarter will make their Halloween purchases online. When it comes to how people will celebrate, 70 percent will hand out candy, 50 percent will decorate and 48 percent will dress in costume." 

Take a look at Halloween shopping stats presented as fun-sized eye-candy by Statista: 

​By Julee Klein, Marketing Consultant & President​

We're finding that a lot of small business owners are inclined to wait until after Thanksgiving to really promote their holiday activities and events. But did you know that each year about 40 percent of consumers begin their holiday shopping before Halloween.? Yes! And according to the National Retail Federation, this number is growing each year. And likewise, this same retail organization reports that "20 to 40 percent of all sales for small and mid-sized retailers take place within the last two months of the year."

​By Julee Klein, Marketing Consultant & President​

We know it may sound a little crazy, but it's time to start thinking about the holidays and your holiday-related events and promotions. No really. According to the National Retail Federation, "each year about 40 percent of consumers begin their holiday shopping before Halloween." Now that's scary. 

But while it's time to start planning your Holiday promotions, it's also time to continue executing on your email campaigns. And to that end Constant Contact has come out with a short list of themes and ideas to keep you engaged with your customers throughout the month of September. We also offer some additional tips and ideas about each theme below the infographic.

​By Julee Klein, Marketing Consultant & President​

 As a small business owner it can be really rewarding to see the success of your local business translate into a positive impact in your community. But it turns out that entrepreneurs who incorporate philanthropy into their business model and marketing don't just benefit from "feeling good," they also tap into additional profitability that can be essential to the success of their enterprise.

For example, you're probably already familiar with TOMS Shoes. The Santa Monica, CA based company donates one pair of shoes to a child in need for every one pair of shoes sold. To date, TOMS has given away over 75 million pairs of shoes to children in need around the world as part of its “One for One” program. Turns out that adopting a commitment to a positive social impact is good for business.

So how can you, as a small business owner, incorporate a philanthropic mission with social impact into your business model and marketing plan? We have a few ideas:

Growth, in and of itself, is always the sign of a healthy business. In theory, you should be a little bit larger (and stronger, and more successful) today than you were yesterday. At a certain point the results of all of your efforts begin to generate their own momentum, growing into something that is ultimately much more powerful, and closer to your long-term objectives, than when you started.

Along those lines, one key thing to consider is: growing too quickly is often just as disastrous for a company as not growing at all. Unfortunately, many people don't realize that until it's far too late. But both slow growth and rapid growth lead to a massive number of small business failures every year. The good news, both are also easily avoidable with the right perspective.

​By Julee Klein, Marketing Consultant & President​

If you manage a business blog, you know that even your best blog content can age faster than cheese and become just as stale. Maybe it’s still relevant as-is, or maybe a few key points need a review and an update based on industry or market developments. But knowing how to prioritize and get the most value out of this older content can be a challenge. So where to begin?

​According to SEMbyotic, a digital marketing agency serving enterprise clients,  you should conduct a simple content audit. Here's how they break it down in the following infographic: 

​By Julee Klein, Marketing Consultant & President​

​Holy cow, it's already February! It's not too late to capitalize on February holidays and themes to better engage with your online communities and via email marketing. 

Of course there's the obvious theme of Valentine's Day. But Constant Contact has some other really great ideas about what you can be reaching out to your customers about this month. They've also included some insightful, compelling reasons to use email marketing to nurture your biggest fans in your contact lists. Check out the infographic: