Quora


A website devoted to answering people’s questions on a variety of subjects. The twist with Quora is that it allows you to interact with others on the site and develop relationships while also giving a sense of fun. Two reasons to use it: to build your expertise and to get answers to questions. Click here to try it out.

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Prioritizing Made Easier

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Every small business owner knows what it feels like to have a "million" things to do and nowhere near enough time. We are constantly prioritizing, sometimes deliberately and sometimes less consciously. During the past month, I've done a heck of a lot of prioritizing. Some of you may remember the old screensavers where raindrops would run down your screen. That feels like my calendar lately, all the tasks slipping later in the day. Last week I needed to start some strategic planning and knew I needed to get focused fast. On-the-fly prioritizing wouldn't cut it. My marketing hero, Bernadette Jiwa read my mind and came to the rescue. I encourage you to read her article Always, Sometimes, Never for a simple approach to business planning. I hope it helps you as much as it's helped me at a time when a quick way to get focused was critical to making progress. Click to Tweet this Article originally published in the Work Better, Not Harder newsletter May 30, 201...
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A Planner for Marketing your Events

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The devil is in the details when it comes to planning an event. There's so much that can go wrong just in the marketing of it. For instance, there's nothing like a wrong date for generating a flurry of emails. Wednesday, April 19th... oops, April 19th is a Tuesday! It helps to have a planner so I made one - download fillable PDF here . It really has 2 purposes: To ensure all the details are captured in one place and can be easily referenced. To communicate the details to others who will help market the event. Tips: Once you identify your marketing platforms, you can create a more detailed campaign plan which includes messaging and frequency. Don't forget the visual! It's so important to have an image that connects with your ideal customer. The platforms you identify will also determine your image requirements (different sizes). Double-check the details and proof all the text, especially if you'll be sharing your planner with others. The informati...
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You Manage What You Measure

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One of my favourite bosses worked by the motto “if it’s worth doing, it’s worth measuring”. When I whined that something just couldn’t be measured, he would say, “There’s always something to measure.” And he was always right. It’s an important concept for small business owners. Having a set of metrics that you watch and that you feel are the key drivers of your success, helps you keep clarity. If you don’t have goals stated for your company, and if you don’t regularly measure how you’re doing against those goals, you won’t have your resources focused on the right priorities . The more public you can make your goals the better. Transparency of goals drives performance because it creates both a commitment and a sense of urgency. Commitment and urgency are key drivers of success. People often measure the wrong stuff, or measure with the wrong precision (either too high-level or too detailed). There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach but there are two pretty universal measures...
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Storage for Great Ideas - Back of Book (BOB)

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Do you often flip to the back page of your notebook to jot down content ideas ? If not, start! When I'm teaching small business classes about online marketing, I insist they start a page in the back of their notebooks for jotting down ideas for blog or social media posts. This page will extend beyond one, but it's the start of something great. BOB (for back of book) becomes a new friend... your idea catcher . When you are looking for something to write about or post, check your BOB for ideas. Click to Tweet this Article
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5 New Strategies to Supercharge your eMail Marketing

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If you've been publishing a regular monthly newsletter, you already know the benefits of reaching out to your contacts. You've invested time and money to build your readership and your reputation. You've provided value consistently and people have come to look forward to your newsletters. It’s time to crank it up a notch and send more emails. You've earned it. The 5 strategies listed below weren't invented by me but some of them may be new to you. Or perhaps you've rejected them in the past and it’s time to think again.  The goal of implementing these ideas is to ‘touch’ your contacts more frequently than you are now. There are other advantages built into each one as well. 1. Create and promote a new free resource. Make it amazing. Make it better than any other resource you've ever created. Make it something people would pay for. Give it away with no strings attached. Am I suggesting you give it away without getting an email address in return? Y...
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What I Learned from Susan Sweeney

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I was surprised and delighted to hear that my website had been used recently as an example in a webinar that Susan Sweeney facilitated for the Centre for Women in Business. You see, without knowing it, Susan has had a huge impact on my website. The first workshop I attended of Susan's was in Regina in 2002. It was long before I actually had a website. Among the many takeaways that day, one has always stuck with me: the importance of fresh content and quality control for your website. When I started my business, I knew the only way I was going to have fresh content was if I took control and managed my own website. By constantly working on it, I’m inspired about what changes to make. Keeping content fresh creates another challenge – it means a lot of changes. And a lot of changes mean opportunity for mistakes. I’m a stickler for details and I know how I react when I click on a link and it doesn’t work. When I asked Danielle to be our official Daley Progress website au...
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Adding Audio to your Content - Part 1

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Natasha in her studio (guest post by Natasha Marchewka) ***  Click to listen in rather than read Have you considered adding audio to your blog or eNewsletter? As a voice actor, someone who uses and sells their voice for a living, showcasing my voice and having an archive of recorded blogs is an obvious choice for me. Adding audio to marketing adds to the multimedia dimension, offering readers more engagement. Lucky for me, Linda Daley of Daley Progress has embraced my audio blogs as she is able to listen to it weekly while completing other tasks! But adding the element of an audio file isn't limited to voice actors. Including a voice in your content, be it a blog, newsletter, website, or social media is just smart.  When you want your client or customer to have the perception of a personal connection with you, offering more of yourself, like a photo, audio greeting, or even video is another step closer to making your way into their hearts and minds. Who might...
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The Myth of Double Opt-in

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One day, not so many years ago, an email marketer with big glasses and a funky haircut decided to add a bunch of people he didn't know to his email list. When he got complaints, instead of owning up and politely offering to remove them, he said, “I didn't do that. Someone else must have signed you up.” This geeky guy was the first of many. And so, the myth of the mysterious newsletter signer-upper was born. The email marketing industry somehow had to address this strange phenomenon. How could they keep these signer-uppers from signing other people up? And so, the double opt-in process was born. Of course, this made it really difficult for the signer-uppers to cause mayhem. No longer did signer-uppers gather on Friday nights over beer to wreak havoc on the email marketing world. Now the experts, who not so many years ago were preaching that having a double opt-in process was a must, are saying that maybe it’s not so necessary anymore. I have ye...
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Breaking Routine

A routine is not necessarily a bad thing but if blogging topics have become routine for you, chances are that your audience feels the same. One way to break the routine is to put very short survey questions on your blog asking your readers what topics they would like to read more about. What are they interested in today? Surveys on your blog will identify topics of interest to your specific audience. Just remember to keep it very short. You don't want them clicking out before they are finished and most readers today move quickly from screen to screen. Click to Tweet this Article
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How To Give and Get Great Referrals

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Originally published in  Work Better, Not Harder newsletter March 27, 2018 How about that feeling when a colleague sends you a new referral? Great, eh? Referrals are so much more than new business; they're also a sign of trust . That's why we need to treat our referrals with such care. But what happens when you discover a referral isn't so good... or is downright wrong for you? During the past few months, I've been on both ends of this interaction. It can be awkward for all three parties. It comes down to expectations . The referrer sets certain expectations when they make the referral - and they can be about any number of things, including prices and turnaround time. Unfortunately, the referrer may not know the business they are referring has changed their offering - so it no longer meets those expectations. Disappointment abounds. How to receive good referrals: A good friend once told me how important it is to keep my potential referrers informed abo...
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