4 Things Your Business Should Continue Post-COVID

At some point COVID will be relegated to the same level of concern the flu gets every year. It won’t shutter businesses, alter family celebrations, and be the fuel behind contentious court cases.

Someday.

Let’s pretend we’re there now. Let’s Move Hilliard Forward.

There are certain conveniences (and necessities) that businesses adapted during COVID that customers have become accustomed to. So, if you’re making plans for a “return to normal” you may just want to reevaluate what that looks like based on your customers’ newly developed expectations. 4 Things Your Business Should Continue Post-Covid

25 Marketing Questions You Need to Ask Yourself Today

Hope seems to be a big word these days. It’s taken the place of pivot. People are hopeful about recovery. People are hopeful about things returning to normal in the foreseeable future. And people are hopeful they can soon travel and visit loved ones they haven’t seen for a while.

If recovery is right around the corner, now is the ideal time to revisit your marketing strategy and plan. Making critical changes now can bring you into alignment to make the most of recovery. Plus, it’s possible the needs and desires of your target audience have changed.

Asking yourself the following questions about your business and marketing can help ensure that you have the data and information you need to make the most of the looming recovery. Marketing Questions You Need to Ask Yourself.

25 Ways to Become a Fun Business

Do you want to appeal to a younger demographic? Want to get people talking about you? Maybe you want to attract an ultra-cool influencer or celebrity customer? If you do, rebranding and becoming a “fun” company may be just the way to get more attention.

Why are we suggesting “fun”? With Gen Y being the largest generation in the U.S. in 2019, with an estimated population of 72.1 million, they have strong purchasing power. They also enjoy experiences and tend to tell others about products and businesses they like.

If you want more customers, becoming a “fun” business with an identifiable tone and brand, can help you build a loyal audience that enjoys talking about you.  How to Become More “Fun” in Your Business.

Think You have a Great Product or Service Idea?  Here's How to Know for Sure

The world is full of gurus who will tell you to set some goals, drive action, make it happen. And that’s good advice.  But just because you can, doesn’t always mean you should.  Launching a new product or service is not something you want to do because you had a wild idea one morning over coffee or in the shower. There’s a lot more that goes into the launching of that product or service. But research and development can be pricey.

What if you have a business idea you want to run with but don’t have the money to hire someone to crunch numbers and present data? Should you launch without it? If you do, that could prove to be even more costly.  So how can you test an idea without a huge investment?  Here are 5 (mostly) free ways to test your next product or service offering.

4 New Year's Resolutions for you Small Business 

This year has been a little more difficult to figure out new year’s resolutions. Part of that is because we’re all still reeling from the “lessons” we learned in 2020. Even the best prepared businesses lacked preparation for a global pandemic. Still, the new year is a great time to reexamine what you’ve been doing and how it can get better. Here are a few ideas.

Move Your Business Story Off of the About Page

Stories are more memorable than marketing or sales copy. But if you’re keeping your business story imprisoned in your About Us page, you’re losing an opportunity for a larger, more loyal audience. If you’re hoping that telling your business story will create more sales, you need to use it everywhere.  4 Places You Should Be Telling Your Business Story.

Start Selling Through Social with 3 Awesome Post Examples

E-commerce is the way to go. We know not everyone feels confident enough to implement e-commerce and certainly not mid-way through December or later. But we do have an easy way to get online and start selling there this afternoon.  In the long-term, you should be implementing an e-commerce system on your website if you have goods or services to sell. For one, people will likely be shopping online a lot and that probably won’t change. Plus, the suggestion we have below is a short-term one. With social media, you’re investing time in a property you don’t own and that can be problematic.  But for now, to meet the needs of holiday shoppers, you want to get up and running “yesterday.” If you don’t have a time machine, here’s how you can do it quickly with no techie know-how.