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:

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. 

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: 

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."

We see it alot. The small business with a neglected web presence where updates to content on the site are made from time-to-time to include new products or services, or add or remove a team member, but a real content audit and review for search engine optimization (SEO) is rarely considered. Sadly, SEO is probably the single most important marketing tactic small businesses can adopt. If you're a small business serving your local community, wouldn't you want to show up as a top result when potential new customers are looking for your products or services online? 

If you're not yet convinced that SEO is worth the investment of time and budget, consider this slew of stats collected by the folks at Milkwhale:

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.

Back in April, Constant Contact announced a set of new features that make emailing your customers and contacts easier and faster. The new features also allow your templates and content to be more powerful and provide more value to your recipients. Check out this overview video:

Brands of all sizes and stripes are finding that they can achieve better brand engagement and greater marketing success with peer-generated, authentic content than they can with more conventional, multimillion dollar campaigns.

There are a couple of reasons for the fun phenomenon. According to a 2016 survey conducted by Olapic, a visual content strategy agency, 76 percent of consumers trust peer recommendations over ads. Also, user-generated content (UGC) is much less expensive to produce and a much more efficient way of reaching customers today where they live and play - online and on social media. UGC marketing strategies rely on visual content that consumers create themselves – a much more affordable option than traditional advertising. Well, if you can inspire them to create it that is.

​So let's get to it. Here are some great examples of brands inspiring fun and engaging user-generated content:

A great website homepage is built with intent and designed to serve different audiences. Think about how and why visitors may come to your website. There will be those seeking to find a solution to their problem, hoping your product or service does the trick. But there will be visitors who are still researching and gathering information as well. Your homepage will also need to help job seekers, vendors, and potential business partners find their way around, too.

A great homepage incorporates elements that will attract traffic, educate a variety of visitors, and invite conversions. These elements move visitors from "just looking" to completing their desired task and submitting a contact form and becoming a lead.  Or if you're selling online, these elements will help shoppers with completing a sale and becoming a customer.