Marketing Minute: Shopping

Let's get your website to work a little harder for your business. If you have a business that sells product, I encourage you to add a shopping cart or PayPal buttons on your website. You can make sales 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. National trends show more people are shopping online and they're doing it at all hours of the day and night. Good shopping carts are not cheap, but they work. Locally, Ayers Pottery has a shopping cart that sells additional product for them each month. Even if you only have a few products to sell or want to encourage donations to your worthy cause - a PayPal button will work to bring in added dollars to your business or organization. Think about it. The web is growing - put those numbers to work for you.

Marketing Minute: Press Releases

Sending out a news or press release to the media can highlight your business accomplishments. It's very important to make sure your release truly is newsworthy. The best way to send a release is through email. It saves our overworked media employees data entry time and helps with accuracy. Start with an attention getting headline. That's what everyone reads first. Then write about the most important things first and the least important subjects last. Include all your contact information in case the media wants to do a more in depth story. Attach a high quality photo if appropriate because it will get more attention from the press and viewers. Identify people in the photo. Make it easy for the media to use your next news release.

Saving Time

"A man who stops advertising to save money is like a man who stops a clock to save time." – Henry Ford