9 Content Marketing Steps to Follow When You Have a Low Budget

9 Content Marketing Steps to Follow When You Have a Low Budget

Content marketing has become one of the most popular digital marketing strategies, with 88% of B2B marketers now using it in some form.

But it costs significant time and/or money. What if you don’t have those dollars to invest? What if you’re just starting out, or what if you’re already investing the bulk of your marketing budget in other strategies?

Though not ideal, it’s actually possible to start a content marketing campaign with no money whatsoever. Read more…

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Using Social Media Influencers as a Marketing Strategy for Better ROI

Using Social Media Influencers as a Marketing Strategy for Better ROI

Influencer marketing has become a prime choice for brands that want to increase exposure and get connected with a larger pool of potential customers.

There’s no question that influencer marketing is a worthwhile pursuit for growing brands. But, what comes into question is the way brands tackle their campaigns. It’s not uncommon for brands to adapt a non-focused, one-size-fits-all strategy to their influencer marketing, but this brings varied, and often less-than-ideal results because there is no focus on KPIs.

You can’t expect to handle your influencer marketing campaigns with a “throw everything against the wall and see what sticks” approach and also expect lasting, repeatable results. Read more…

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Keeping Up with the Changing Face of Advertising

Keeping Up with the Changing Face of Advertising

Advertising is changing at lightning speed with the internet. When businesses started flocking online, they found amazing opportunities to reach consumers outside of traditional media like print and television. But even in the last few years, those advertising options have shifted tremendously.

Gone are the days of the pop up – well, mostly. Gone are the days of the ads flashing in neon colors that you have to chase around your screen to get rid of – again, mostly.

People are much savvier about the way they engage online, and they are wary of slick and tricky advertising methods. Read more…

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How to Get Started with Influencer Marketing Campaigns

How to Get Started with Influencer Marketing Campaigns

Most experts agree: 2017 is the year for influencer marketing. Most marketers plan to launch at least one influencer marketing campaign in 2017. The reasons that this particular marketing strategy is surging right now are many. The first, and probably the largest reason is social proof.

According to research firm Yankelovich, Americans are exposed to 5,000 advertisements a day. Overwhelmed consumers are now experiencing “banner blindness” as they mentally tune these ads out. Read more…

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6 Ways to Create Content that Attracts Audiences and Customers

6 Ways to Create Content that Attracts Audiences and Customers

Coming up with ways to interact with your audience daily can start to make you feel as though you’re stretching your creative capacity a little thin. Yet developing strategies to engage with your audience and keep them coming back for more is critical to long-term social success. Connect with customers for the long haul with these content strategies that will spur conversation and tell a story over time.

1. Read more…

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How to Build Great Marketing Relationships for your Business

How to Build Great Marketing Relationships for your Business

You may have heard the term “relationship marketing” being tossed around recently. Relationship marketing refers to everything you do to develop strong, lifelong relationships with your customers. From influencer programs to referral campaigns to affiliate marketing, relationship marketing builds brand awareness and positions your brand as your customers best option. The most important part of relationship marketing is facilitating two-way conversations with your customers.

What is relationship marketing and what can it do for your business?

This type of marketing differs from traditional marketing in that it’s not transactional, but rather relational. Read more…

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6 Ways to Boost Your Inbound Marketing with Evergreen Content

6 Ways to Boost Your Inbound Marketing with Evergreen Content

You’ve heard it many times: reuse, reduce, recycle. Did you know that this piece of advice doesn’t just apply to aluminum cans and plastic water bottles?

You can repurpose your influencer marketing content to increase its value to your campaign. Think of it like a neighborhood recycling program: You’re preventing waste while putting resources back into the community – or, in this case, your company.

1. Read more…

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Mobile Strategies To Win Over Purchasing Preferences Of Women

Mobile Strategies To Win Over Purchasing Preferences Of Women

It’s a fact that women are now responsible for 85 percent of all purchasing decisions in the United States and recent research shows that they overwhelmingly prefer to shop in physical retail stores.

They like to touch and feel the products they’re considering buying and they enjoy the social interactions that come from shopping with friends and family.

What’s new is that they do so with their smartphones in hand while shopping at brick-and-mortar stores.

Their mobile devices have become valuable decision-making tools for what and where to buy. Read more…

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Why Entrepreneurs Need to Create Their Own Brands

Why Entrepreneurs Need to Create Their Own Brands

At some point in your career, someone has probably talked to you about how to brand yourself, how personal branding is this incredibly important thing that everyone is doing these days, how, if you’ve built a business and are trying to grow, it’s not something you can ignore.

Or is it? Personal branding, just like regular branding, is something that’s often completely out of your control. If you’re trying to brand yourself as something you’re not, it’s very difficult, if not impossible. Read more…

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3 Steps for Marketers to Get More Out of Social Media Posts

3 Steps for Marketers to Get More Out of Social Media Posts

The challenge of capturing the ROI of social media is almost as old as the Internet itself. The reason boils down to basic consumer behavior. For one, shoppers engage with brands at multiple touch points, across a range of devices. And new digital technologies are lowering the barrier for startups to enter the market. As a result, there’s more competition among lifestyle brands than ever before, according to a 2015 report from PwC’s Strategy division.

This landscape is creating a fragmented data picture-information often lives in silos between teams. Read more…

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Marketing Tips That Even Savvy Businesses Overlook

Marketing Tips That Even Savvy Businesses Overlook

Remember to listen:

Proactive listening is by far the most underused online marketing tactic. Too many companies have lulled themselves into believing that social-media monitoring is just waiting for someone to say something bad or ask a customer-service question. But strong social listening involves proactively listening for marketing and sales opportunities, stepping in front of demand, not just following it. Read more…

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Social Media Marketing – 6 Myths

Social Media Marketing - 6 Myths

Here’s why your company’s Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and other social media campaigns aren’t performing as well as they could be.

Over the past five years, social media has become an increasingly important part of many companies‘ marketing strategies. But there are still some misconceptions about how to use social media to drive sales and which services are worth the investment of company time and resources. Read more…

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How To Do More With Less – Smarter Content Marketing Strategies

How To Do More With Less - Smarter Content Marketing Strategies

The more you know about repurposing content, the more you realize you have a lot to work with. At the same time, the more you know about anything, the more you realize you have a lot to learn.

Dipping into your archive and giving a fresh take on quality pieces is a great way to extend your ROI, but it’s not effective to take the existing newsletter content and paste it into a blog post – it’s lazy. Read more…

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Tumblr – 7 Things To Know About

Tumblr - 7 Things To Know About

As the 32nd most popular website in the world, Tumblr is a big opportunity. But you can’t approach it as you would other marketing strategies.

With 105 million blogs and 49 billion posts, Tumblr, the free blog hosting and social networking site, is the 32nd most popular site in the world. So, if you’re not using Tumblr as part of your marketing efforts, you’re missing a very large boat.

Tumblr isn’t a blog platform like WordPress; it’s a social network that has a blogging platform. Read more…

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What To Look For When Selecting A Good B2B Digital Marketing Agency

What To Look For When Selecting A Good B2B Digital Marketing Agency

In the competitive and increasingly saturated B2B market, it’s never been more important for you to have outstanding marketing strategies. Finding a digital marketing agency that specializes in B2B is a great way to boost results, as long as they are right for your company and sector.

How not to do it…and what to do instead

The most dangerous move you can make is choosing the first digital marketing agency that you come across. Read more…

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Avoid These Four Social Media Marketing Mistakes

Avoid These Four Social Media Marketing Mistakes

Social media marketing is an area which seems to divide businesses. Some companies embrace it, invest in it, and generate fabulous returns from it, whilst other businesses are pensive, scared and unwilling to get online and start competing via social.

The early adopters of blog marketing, for example, are way, way ahead of their industry competitors.

Trying to catch up a thought leader is a virtually impossible task, after all. Read more…

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8 Reasons Why Your Content Marketing May Fail

8 Reasons Why Your Content Marketing May Fail

Today, nearly every business is attempting to become a content marketer. The results aren’t pretty. The noise is deafening and while there’s plenty of great content, every industry is being bombarded with junk-cheap imitations of the idea of content marketing-create original, compelling, helpful content. You can trace the problem to a long list of problems.

Customers care about themselves, not you. Read more…

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Avoid These 13 Content Marketing Mistakes

Avoid These 13 Content Marketing Mistakes

The science of content marketing is much bigger than publishing an occasional blog. Custom content has grown into a 43.0billion dollar industry, and even skeptics have to admit that it’s serious business. The best content marketers are wizards who are able to blend writing, multi-media content, PR, social media, and networking into a comprehensive online presence. Read more…

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How To Make A Case for Facebook Marketing

How To Make A Case for Facebook Marketing

Is your business on Facebook?

Do you need to convince your boss-or a client-that Facebook is a worthy marketing investment?

And speaking of social media advertising, don’t forget online marketing sites. You can visit 40billion.com which is a fastest-growing network of entrepreneurs and crowdfunders. They specialize in promotion of small businesses by broadcasting and promoting to its large network of several million users across the most popular social networking sites for small businesses – including Twitter, LinkedIn, 40Billion, and even Facebook. Read more…

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Word-Of-Mouth Marketing Is Still Very Effective

Word-Of-Mouth Marketing Is Still Very Effective

Word-of-mouth advertising is 10 times more effective than a traditional ad. Contrary to popular belief, less than 10 percent of those sought-after personal recommendations happen online.

In addition to word of mouth marketing, don’t forget online marketing sites. You can visit 40billion.com which is a fastest-growing network of entrepreneurs and crowdfunders. Read more…

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Email Marketing Is Still Alive And Well

Email Marketing Is Still Alive And Well

While some say that email isn’t an effective marketing tool anymore, research shows that it still has the highest ROI of any online marketing tactic.

One reason is that email is still a dominant avenue of communication in business. In fact, 91% check their email daily.
Email subscriptions to websites for updates and information is growing at the fastest rate ever, with 74% of consumers actually preferring to receive commercial communications by email.

Review Your Email Lists For Segmentation Opportunities

A common opportunity we uncover is email list segmentation. Read more…

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How To Gain Clients Trust – 5 Tips

How To Gain Clients Trust - 5 Tips

If you are the owner of a small business looking to increase your clientele, here are some tips on how to build a trusting relationship with your client.

Tip # 1: Be Upfront

How do you put your client at ease when he first comes to your home as a total stranger? It all starts with communication. You always call first. And then as soon as you get there, you jump right out of the car and knock on the front door. Read more…

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How To Develop A LinkedIn Marketing Plan

How To Develop A LinkedIn Marketing Plan

Do you want to learn how to present yourself and your business on LinkedIn?

Are you looking for a resource to guide your LinkedIn marketing efforts?

Whether you’re using LinkedIn as an individual or as a brand, the following tips will help you develop a LinkedIn marketing plan and find prospects and leads.

Create a Presence for Yourself

Make sure your LinkedIn account is secure. It’s important to be conscious of your privacy and security when using LinkedIn. Read more…

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Social Advertising Is Here To Stay. Learn To Live With It.

Social Advertising Is Here To Stay. Learn To Live With It.

Let’s face a simple fact, boys and girls: advertising on the social channels is here to stay and, increasingly, social butterflies who want to get noticed will have to spend money on it.

This will come as a discouraging news for the legion of social media mavens who like the free nature of the social channels but reality is reality and marketers, organizations and business who really want to advance themselves will need to get serious about spending money on social advertising.

We all know the major social networks need to produce revenue to remain viable and we’ve long ago realized ad sales is really the most successful revenue generator or any mass media. Read more…

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How To Make Social Media Marketing Success

How To Make Social Media Marketing Success

Social media-a requirement for inbound marketing success-holds real influence that continues to rise. A captivating social media presence is essential in the current business environment. Neglect social media, and your business will suffer. You will not be able to optimize your content marketing, website traffic, or lead generation and conversion without social media best practices.

Provide Real Value

Winning social media marketing requires active listening and genuine participation. Read more…

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Is Google Threat to Social-Media Marketing?

Is Google Threat to Social-Media Marketing?

Google is putting out its Wildfire. The seemingly harmonious relationship between the search engine giant and the social software platform is has come to an end after a partnership that lasted about 20 months.

As a part of Google, Wildfire’s aim was to help businesses improve their social media marketing efforts. Google’s interest and investment in Wildfire legitimized social media marketing in the eyes of many observers. Read more…

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Turning Holidays Gifts Into a Marketing Tool – 6 Ideas

Turning Holidays Gifts Into a Marketing Tool - 6 Ideas

Hopefully you’ve already created your annual customer and client holiday gift list. Whether they’ve been naughty or nice, all clients should get recognized in this holiday ritual. But how can you make your holiday gifts do double duty-not only as a “thank you” for the past year’s business, but also as a marketing tool to encourage more business in the new year? Here are some ideas.

Remind them of you:

The simplest way to make your holiday gift a marketing tool is to choose a promotional product with your company’s name and/or logo on it. Read more…

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Lead Generation: 19 Tips For Better Results

Lead Generation: 19 Tips For Better Results

Need more leads? Of course, you do!

A well-optimized landing page is one of the most effective methods of generating authentic leads for your business. It drives traffic to your website, develops familiarity with your visitors and can gain you warm leads.

But what marketing campaigns increase traffic to your page and drive conversions? What value exchange does your business need to increase leads?

And for year around affordable marketing, don’t forget online marketing sites. Read more…

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Secrets Of Virgin Atlantic’s Marketing Success

Secrets Of Virgin Atlantic's Marketing Success

Virgin Atlantic is a small airline with a big personality. This is how it lures customers from the big guys.

You may think Virgin Atlantic is a huge airline worldwide, but they’re not. Maybe they’re the No. 2 airline in the UK, but they don’t even hold a candle to United, American or Delta here in the U.S. So how does this airline with 18 departures a day survive, and better yet, thrive? They don’t have a huge digital marketing budget like you might imagine (more than you and me!) so they need to be very clever about how they market their product. Read more…

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How to solve one marketing puzzle

How to solve one marketing puzzle

Take a look at all of the marketing you’ve done over the last several months. Chances are, most – if not all – was effectively limited to product or service promotion. While offers and advertisements are important, promotions are really at the bottom of the food chain when it comes to building a strong brand. Products and services rarely differentiate a business.

Unless you’re the only provider of the goods and services your business provide, products and services don’t give people a reason to choose to do business with you; not really. Read more…

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Does Your Marketer Pass These 6 Traits?

Does Your Marketer Pass These 6 Traits?

When you’re getting ready for a website redesign, you need to make sure that you partner with a certain kind of online marketing agency. Anyone can say they design websites nowadays; but not everyone can say they produce websites that look great, are easy to use, and have a real, measurable impact on your revenue stream.

Your website is your most valuable marketing asset. It is your #1 salesperson, connecting with people 24/7/365. Read more…

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Step-By-Step Guide For Social Video Marketing

Step-By-Step Guide For Social Video Marketing

Here’s a list of buzzwords for you: social, video, and marketing. But if you put them together, they create something that can powerfully engage customers and greatly improve their online experience.

It’s a combination that works very well for online marketing: the grassroots, viral environment of social media; video’s ability to engage; and a strong marketing strategy.

You’re likely well aware of video’s value in bringing your brand and messages to life. Read more…

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22 Things Advertising People Learn to live with

22 Things Advertising People Learn to live with

1. Everyone hates status meetings.

2. When it’s eerily quiet on the line, you know the other callers are talking shit on mute.

3. And as soon as you get off the phone, you do this so you can chat about all the stupid stuff said on the call.

4. You see these buzzwords in emails almost every day.

5. Meeting invites are the bane of your existence.

6. Eating lunch at your desk is an everyday occurrence.

7. Read more…

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6 Tips To Achieve Marketing Goals

6 Tips To Achieve Marketing Goals

All marketing managers struggle with one thing. How to set goals for marketing department. It sounds like a simple-enough task, but over time I came to see goal-setting as something of an art; it requires practice, constant refinement, focus and a little bit of playfulness (unless you want to drive yourself crazy).

How do you set goals that are challenging yet still achievable (is there an exact formula for this, like always shoot for x% more than last month)? How many goals should you set–one, three, six? Should you focus on a new goal every week, month, semester, quarter or year? If you’re a small company and you need to achieve quick growth, how do you pick which goal is most important when there are a billion urgent things that need to happen? How do you stay focused on your goals (once you’ve finally decided on them) and not let other stuff get in the way, like tempting partnership opportunities or new tactics you want to try out?

Following six tips will help achieve marketing goals:

1. Read more…

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Popularity of Local Mobile Marketing

Popularity of Local Mobile Marketing

Location-based mobile marketing promises the sky: high conversion rates, surgical targeting, and rich consumer profiles.

But does it deliver? According to many accounts, it does.
Not surprisingly, retailers, brands, and agencies are scrambling to hone their location-based approaches. These encompass everything from “geo-aware” and “geo-fenced” ad campaigns, to hyper-local efforts keyed to Wi-Fi hotspots, and algorithmic location-based targeting of audience segments like soccer moms, bargain hunters, coffee enthusiasts, etc.

In a report from BI Intelligence on location-mobile marketing, key stats on the location-based services marketplace that indicate it’s supremacy in mobile marketing, explain how the most important techniques (such as geo-aware, geo-fenced, audience-based local-mobile campaigns) work, examine the cornerstones – such as data and audience building – to a successful location-based mobile strategy, look at who has the valuable location-based data, and analyze the six most effective local-mobile marketing tactics. Read more…

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Maximize Profit From Lean Advertising

Maximize Profit From Lean Advertising

The footwear industry has traditionally been a hotbed of memorable advertising, with brands such as Nike and Reebok spending millions to sign athlete-endorsers and hire ad agencies that create spectacular TV campaigns. Eye-tracking technology, facial-expression analysis, and lab experiments help better understand why people choose to view online videos, what narrative techniques keep them watching, and what features prompt them to share videos with friends. Read more…

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Reduce Your Website Bounce Rate With These 7 Steps

Reduce Your Website Bounce Rate With These 7 Steps

Are you finding that your website bounce rate is higher than you expected? Are you struggling to put your finger on what could be causing it? There are many factors which may make your bounce rate high or low but the main factor to work on is your website itself.

And speaking of improving your bounce rate and get more from your marketing budget, don’t forget online marketing sites. You can visit 40billion.com which is a fastest-growing network of entrepreneurs and crowdfunders. Read more…

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Benefits of Ad Retargeting (Remarketing)

Benefits of Ad Retargeting (Remarketing)

Retargeting Ads. You’ve seen them. But, do you know what they are and how they benefit your business?

Unfamiliar with the difference between retargeting and remarketing? They’re the same thing. Google uses the term “remarketing” while Facebook tends to use the term “retargeting”.

Smart marketers and business owners use Ad Retargeting to:

. Bring back landing page visitors who don’t convert

. Re-engage with abandoned shopping cart prospects

. Upsell products to highly targeted, interested customers

. Increase brand awareness.

A highly optimized, targeted, conversion-centric landing page averages an 8-10% conversion rate. Read more…

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Seven Winning Market Strategies To Generate Sales

Seven Winning Market Strategies To Generate Sales

Every firm has something that it calls a market strategy. Unfortunately, many market strategies are ineffective and almost guarantee failure.

Market strategies that really work always have the following characteristics:

1. They are strategic rather than tactical.

This sounds simple, but it’s a point that many people find confusing. Strategies define goals to be achieved while tactics define the actions you’ll take to achieve those goals. Read more…

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Great Digital Marketing For Bootstrapped Entrepreneur

Great Digital Marketing For Bootstrapped Entrepreneur

One of the best channels for bootstrapped entrepreneurs is digital marketing. Here’s how to do it right.

I personally believe that one of the hardest roads traveled is that of the bootstrapped entrepreneur. When you’re starting out, you need to figure out a way to market your company on a shoestring budget. This generally means that you need to focus your efforts towards time-intensive activities that do not require an extensive amount of cash. Read more…

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Five Prong Approach To Creating Effective Social Media Marketing Strategy:

Five Prong Approach To Creating Effective Social Media Marketing Strategy:

Creating a social media marketing strategy is a sin qua non for every social media marketing professional in order to have an effective social media campaign. Social media marketing should be merged with your traditional marketing plan.

Following Five Prong approach will help create an effective social media marketing strategy:

1. Read more…

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Best Online Sites For Small Businesses To Advertise

Best Online Sites For Small Businesses To Advertise

Are you a small business owner who feels just wasting your dollars to advertise?

Do you want to know where actually the best places to advertise your small business online?

So, let’s get started.

In addition to sites mentioned blow, don’t forget other online marketing sites. You can visit 40billion.com which is a fastest-growing network of entrepreneurs and crowdfunders. Read more…

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The Choice: Google+ Vs. Facebook

The Choice: Google+ Vs. Facebook

Google+ is a nice social network that is quite different from Facebook in many ways but it was all the rage when it came out and people were waiting for e-mail invites to join the network. The initial buzz has been over for quite a while, and now it is time to really see if Google+ can overtake Facebook at some point and become a more popular and larger social network.

Are the Numbers Important?

At some point in the future the numbers may take Google+ over Facebook, but numbers are only one part of the equation. Read more…

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Is Twitter A Good Marketing Tool For You?

Is Twitter A Good Marketing Tool For You?

What do you think in reality Twitter is? It has long been one of the most important social media platforms available on the internet. But what do you feel is the true use of this wonderful website? Over the years, websites, such as Twitter and others are becoming more and more popular. It offers immense potential for businesses to connect to a large number of their target audience. Read more…

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Can Social Media Marketing Be Outsourced?

Can Social Media Marketing Be Outsourced?

Social media plays a very vital role in the online presence of a business or the brand, and more and more consumers are turning to these outlets to connect with brands they like. Social media is the best way to actively engage with your customers both active and potential, and if done cautiously and correctly, can of great advantage to your business by targeting a specific audience for your brand. Read more…

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5 Fundamentals Of Marketing For Any Business

5 Fundamentals Of Marketing For Any Business

Marketing strategies and tactics can be very different, depending on your industry, size or location. But there are five fundamentals your marketing must accomplish, no matter what type or size of business you run, and no matter where it is.

If your marketing is not accomplishing one or more of these five marketing musts, it might not be bringing your small business the new customers, brand advocates and followers you need to build a strong organization. Read more…

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Why Twitter for Small Businesses?

Why Twitter for Small Businesses?

Are you debating whether your small business should invest time on Twitter?

Do you wonder how Twitter can help your business?

By being an active part of the Twitter community and sharing the right mix of content, you can reach a larger audience, generate more leads and become the go-to source when customers are ready to buy.

Twitter has evolved a lot since 2007. It used to be about conversations, but these days some would say it’s just another way to push out marketing messages and links without true engagement with customers. Read more…

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25 Instagram Marketing Tips for Business

25 Instagram Marketing Tips for Business

With Facebook declining in popularity among younger users, more and more businesses are turning to Instagram to reach younger demographics.If you plan to adopt a similar strategy, you’ll want to take a look at the following Instagram marketing tips and tricks for getting the most out of your presence on the site.

Fill Out Your “Bio” Section

Before you pass “Go” and collect $200, be sure to fill out the “Bio” section of your Instagram profile. Read more…

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One Man Marketing Department !!!

One Man Marketing Department !!!

As a small business, or a one man (or woman) show, marketing can be downright difficult to tackle. Where do you start? What would a realistic marketing plan be? How can you get the most out of your time? These are all questions that small businesses face. Here’s how to rock it out as a one-person marketing department.

Set Realistic Goals:

We’ll just throw this out there – you’re not going to have the capabilities of Proctor & Gamble when it comes to your marketing efforts. Read more…

 

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Selection Of A Good Marketing Manager – 6 Must Have Qualities

Selection Of A Good Marketing Manager - 6 Must Have Qualities

The marketing manager is a critical component to any company’s success. They’re the ones responsible for using creative, cunning, and savvy interpersonal skills to make the company’s product or service known. A company might sell a groundbreaking, innovating product, but it won’t matter much if no one knows about it.

Marketing directors can take a business struggling to make ends meet and jump-start its growth. Read more…

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Improve Your Mobile Advertising Campaign: 10 Tips

Improve Your Mobile Advertising Campaign: 10 Tips

Figuring out how to use mobile ads for a startup or small business isn’t easy. Most entrepreneurs have struggled with online advertising, period. And adding mobile to the mix can seem confusing and expensive. But with so many people on their phones 24/7, neglecting to explore this new territory is a mistake.

Here are 10 tips for better results:

1. Use In-Ad Engagement to Lower CPAs.

There is a rule in mobile that every additional click required loses half your audience. Read more…

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6 Tips For An Effective Text Message Marketing Campaign

6 Tips For An Effective Text Message Marketing Campaign

If you want to reach local customers and keep them coming back to your business, text-message marketing is one of the most effective strategies for doing so. While email marketing messages are opened by a small percentage of recipients, text message ads are typically viewed by almost all recipients.

SMS messaging is also an ideal way for sending coupons that will get noticed and used, at a much lower cost than printing physical coupons. Read more…

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3 Winning Social Marketing Strategies From Top Brands

3 Winning Social Marketing Strategies From Top Brands

Do you follow a brand in social media? Are you glad you did? If that’s the case, they are doing either one of three things:

. Connecting with one of your passions and/or interests.
. Entertaining you with their engaging personality.
. Providing interesting and/or important information to you.

If you’re a small business owner, you may want to consider which of the three strategies you’re following. Read more…

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How To Promote Your Business Between Thanksgiving And Christmas

How To Promote Your Business Between Thanksgiving And Christmas

Black Friday might hold first position, but there are eight other special holiday shopping days that can help you build business before Christmas this year.

In addition to below mentioned 9 holiday shopping days, don’t forget to use online marketing sites for your year-round promotion. You can visit 40billion.com which is the fastest-growing network of entrepreneurs and crowdfunders. Read more…

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Facebook And Marketing: 4 Useful Tips For Success

Facebook And Marketing: 4 Useful Tips For Success

Let’s face it. Facebook and Marketing works very well. I am getting so tired of reading article after article of people writing about how marketing on Facebook is a waste of time. Whether you are a B2C or B2B company it doesn’t matter. If you are not getting results from Facebook you need to change your strategy plain and simple. While it does take a bit of time, effort and budget there is no doubt Facebook is effective and should be at or near the top of your company’s digital marketing plan.

Below are 4 top tips for creating a successful Facebook page:

1. Read more…

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How to Maximize the Marketing Potential of YouTube – 9 Tips

How to Maximize the Marketing Potential of YouTube - 9 Tips

Most social media strategies involve routine updates on Facebook and Twitter – and if they’re particularly ambitious, Instagram and Pinterest. Even if they do create video content, few marketing teams have discovered how to access the full viral potential of YouTube. But a great video, optimized for sharing, can catapult a startup into trendiness.

1. Partner With YouTube Celebrities

There are many YouTube users who have hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Read more…

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Promote Your Business on a Tight Budget

Promote Your Business on a Tight Budget

This ‘P’ is for Promotion and Publicity. Not to be confused with Marketing. Marketing deals with how you express your essence, your identity. Promotion deals with how you convey your marketing message to your target audience, and Publicity is what you get when people notice your offer and talk about it. That happens when your offer is compelling enough that it will create some serious buzz. If you are not making enough waves in the media, you aren’t kicking hard enough!

Publicity and promotion is where you educate someone about your product and they feel inspired to contact you to know more with a view to buying. Read more…

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How To Dominate the Market – 8 Tips

How To Dominate the Market - 8 Tips

A variety of internal and external forces can affect the longevity of products and services your business offers. Understanding how your business excels where your competition does not is a crucial element in dominating your market. Incorporating these strategies into your marketing plan can push your organization into becoming an industry leader.

1. Create your own niche.
Perhaps the most effective method for market domination is to create your own niche market. Read more…

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Improve Your E-Mail Marketing – Follow These 10 Steps

Improve Your E-Mail Marketing - Follow These 10 Steps

Most brands have a “pretty decent” email marketing program, but could it be better? Take a look at these 11 things to try and improve your engagement.

1. Take a hard look at your preference strategy.

There are three tips on capturing preferences: ask them, observe them and group them (into categories). Use your preference page to ask the consumer about other channel preferences, including informing about your social media outlets.

2. Read more…

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Instagram And Marketing: Tips To Succeed

Instagram And Marketing: Tips To Succeed

What is Instagram? Instagram is a social networking application based on photo & video sharing. More than 20 billion photos have been shared on Instagram and 60 million are shared every day.

Brands no longer create social media websites just for the heck of it. Today, social media channels are helping businesses generate product sales and business leads. Read more…

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Small Businesses: How to avoid these 5 E-Marketing Mistakes

Small Businesses: How to avoid these 5 E-Marketing Mistakes

Simple mistakes are easily made when running a small business, but they can also be easily avoided or remedied if attention is paid to the proper problem areas. A few common mistakes that all small business owners can easily avoid.

1. Strong web presence is a must.
The internet provides access to a resource that works for you 24/7 virtually for free – use it to your advantage. Creating a web presence that will be positive and lasting should always be a proactive effort rather than a reactive one. Read more…

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Target Marketing – Everything You Need To Know And More

Target Marketing - Everything You Need To Know And More

Target marketing is about attracting customers who will buy what you’re selling.

In order to target market effectively, you’ll need to know exactly who purchases your products and exactly how to reach them. And acquiring that kind of knowledge requires some research and planning on your end.

The evolution of target marketing
Target marketing is the most current method of marketing to consumers based on research into their interests, hobbies, and needs, and it didn’t spring from nothing. Read more…

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Small Business Blogging – 5 Easy Tips

Small Business Blogging - 5 Easy Tips

Starting a blog is just the beginning. Publishing a blog post? You need to let the world know that your awesome blog exists!

So how do you do that? That department is called “marketing”. Blog marketing could sound like too much of a technical word and many small business bloggers don’t even want to hear about it.
Of course, there are advanced marketing techniques that you need to learn, and master someday. Read more…

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Cheap Ways To Get Exposure, Stay Profitable.

Cheap Ways To Get Exposure, Stay Profitable.

What do smart entrepreneurs do different to ensure their business stays profitable? They do the simple things right. Simple things really, like finding cheap ways to get exposure, or hearing their customers out, or networking in the right places. Number one marketing tip is don’t just think outside the box, get rid of the box! Be creative. Think Guerrilla. And if that doesn’t work, sometimes it just doesn’t hurt to ask. Read more…

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Marketing Made Easier – Follow These 10 Tricks from The Pros

Marketing Made Easier - Follow These 10 Tricks from The Pros

Marketing is the lifeblood of any startup – without it, the company will be sure to sink.

Here is a list of the top ten marketing tricks:

Social Media
1. Boost your posts.Give your social media content a boost. Businesses are finding it more and more difficult to get their message heard. By the latest estimates, Facebook is showing only 6 percent of a business’ content to their fan base. Read more…

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Content Marketing Made Easier With These 5 Tricks

Content Marketing Made Easier With These 5 Tricks

Everyone’s abuzz about content marketing these days, and for good reason. While advertising isn’t dead, the digital age has spawned a brave new era for today’s marketer. “Selling” doesn’t work like it used to. But informing, educating, and even doing a little entertaining, does.

That’s content marketing: Providing information of value that convinces an audience you are a trusted expert on your topic of mutual interest, and puts you top-of-mind when it is time they make a purchase decision. Read more…

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12 Proven Content Marketing Tricks to Maximize Traffic

12 Proven Content Marketing Tricks to Maximize Traffic

Are you sick and tired of the same old content marketing tricks that just don’t seem to increase your traffic?

Today’s audiences are tired of the “same old, same old”, so the time is right to be innovative, take a few risks, and implement some all-new tactics into your strategy.

If you’re risk averse, never fear – while these tips may be unusual, they’ve been proven:

1. Expert Content
In a very recent, fascinating study on content marketing best practices, Nielsen research found that “expert content,” like news coverage or a thought leader endorsement, really works.

2. Read more…

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6 Ways To Promote Your Auto Parts Store Online

Auto parts is one of the fastest growing ecommerce sectors.

Clearly, there’s demand for aftermarket car parts and accessories. But how can an auto parts store increase their sales to reach more customers who want what they’ve got?

Here’s 6 steps to increase your online auto store revenue.

1. Optimized Landing Pages
For an ecommerce site, having an optimized landing page for your products increases your sales. Read more…

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8 Things to Consider When Launching an App on a Meager Budget

8 Things to Consider When Launching an App on a Meager Budget

So, you’ve created the perfect app. Bravo!

It may come off as a surprise to you that, in reality, this actually means only half of the work is done. The remaining half is to let the world know that it exists.

There is a workable method to increase the reach and visibility of your app. Follow this step-by-step process.

8 Things to Consider When Launching an App on a Shoestring Budget

1. Read more…

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Crowdfunding Made Easier With These 4 Tips

Crowdfunding Made Easier With These 4 Tips

With the tough economic climate, crowdfunding has become a popular and alternative method of raising finance for a business, projects or ideas. Crowdfunding platforms are convenient, simple to use and reach a wide audience of investors at a low cost.

Crowdfunding can be defined as a collective cooperation of people who network and pool their money and resources together, usually via the Internet, to support efforts initiated by other organizations. Read more…

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How To Maximize The Power Of Twitter – 10 Lessons Learned.

How To Maximize The Power Of Twitter - 10 Lessons Learned.

With Twitter having more than 300 million user accounts, it has become an important network for companies to reach out to their customers. There are well-established and successful brands that have come up with best practices companies could emulate to attract a loyal following and transform customers into brand advocates.

Here are ten marketing lessons for successful utilization of Twitter:

1. Read more…

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How To Avoid Summer Slowdowns, And Keep Growing Your Business

How To Avoid Summer Slowdowns, And Keep Growing Your Business

If your business experiences uneven revenues during summer months or other seasonal slowdowns, you may be looking for new summer marketing ideas to grow your organization. Here are four ways you can give in order to get more customers and sales this summer.

For seasonal businesses that thrive during summer months, marketing might be a cinch. For those that experience uneven sales, slowdowns or other seasonal disruptions, lack of cash flow might mean that summertime is not so hot. Read more…

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How To Promote Your Startup On A Shoe-String Budget

How To Promote Your Startup On A Shoe-String Budget

What do smart entrepreneurs do different to ensure their business stays profitable? They do the simple things right. Simple things really, like finding cheap ways to get exposure, or hearing their customers out, or networking in the right places. With all this covered, the Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) for every new customer falls low enough to make their business model sustainable in both the long and short run.

If you have a young business that’s losing steam fast compared to its rivals, it’s very likely you’re facing a competitor who has found inexpensive and effective ways to market itself to new customers. Read more…

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How to Empower Entrepreneurs With Crowdfunding

How to Empower Entrepreneurs With Crowdfunding

Prior to Crowdfunding, starting a business was nearly a mission impossible.

Entrepreneur had only three choices of raising capital: (1) Friends & Family (2) Bank and (3) Angel or Venture Capital.

Then in 2007, all that changed when Prosper.com launched the first peer-to-peer lending service in the US. Since that time a number of other Crowdfunding sites have popped up, including Kickstarter, which in 2012 raised more than $10 million for the Pebble Watch project.

What is Crowdfunding?

Simply put; Crowdfunding is a collective cooperation of people who network and pool their money and resources together, usually via the Internet.

Now anyone with a computer or mobile device and an internet connection can research, review and become an investor in a business with a push of a button. Read more…

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9 Don’ts of Crowdfunding Campaign

9 Don'ts of Crowdfunding Campaign

Crowdfunding opens up a new world of opportunity to startups. Crowdfunding campaign is convenient and has the potential to reach a wider range of investors, but it’s not easy. It requires much thought and effort. Most of the crowdfunding projects fail due to inadequate planning.

Following are nine reasons as to why crowdfunding campaign fails:

1. There’s Not Enough Buzz
When it comes to a crowdfunding campaign, you have to hustle to create the buzz around it, convincing others that people are really “hot” on your idea. Read more…

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SEC And Crowdfunding: Things You Need To Know.

SEC And Crowdfunding: Things You Need To Know.

9 Ways the New SEC Crowdfunding Rules Will Affect Your Business

The SEC adopted new crowdfunding rules in late 2015. Following information will help learn all about the important changes, and what it means to you.

The new SEC crowdfunding rules could be a game-changer for your business, but there’s a lot work to be done on your end before you can reap the benefits.

Following 9 tips will help you understand new regulations little better.

1. Read more…

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13 Marketing Tips When Using Social Networks

13 Marketing Tips When Using Social Networks

Social media can be a slippery slope. Stretching yourself too thin by trying to be on every site can result in disengaged users. Failing to engage users on the right platforms will only amount to yet another lost marketing opportunity.

Here are 13 best practice tips when using popular social networking sites.

FACEBOOK

Facebook is by far the biggest and most popular social media platform. Read more…

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Using Hashtags in Social Media Marketing

Using Hashtags in Social Media Marketing

In case you hadn’t noticed, the hashtag has pretty much taken over social media.

With sites like Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagram all using this format to organize content, it should be clear that this once forgotten character on the keyboard has finally made the big time.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there who just don’t seem to understand the new trend. Read more…

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The 7 Crowdfunding Tips That Are Most Important

The 7 Crowdfunding Tips That Are Most Important

Crowdfunding is a collective cooperation of people who network and pool their money and resources together, usually via the Internet, to support efforts initiated by other organizations. Unlike angel investments, in which an investor takes a large stake in a small business, with crowdfunding, you can literally attract a “crowd” of people – each of whom takes a small stake (if any) in a business idea by contributing towards an online funding target. Read more…

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Word of Mouth Marketing and Social Media

Word of Mouth Marketing and Social Media

Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM) has always been a powerful way to influence business results.

Why should Marketers care about WOMM?

If you could master what has been identified as the most valuable form of marketing-the one that consumers trust above all others and the one that is most likely to drive sales for your company – would you instead choose to ignore it or leave it to chance?

Why would you simply choose to sit back and hope conversations will just happen organically about your brand? If you want to win the marketing race in 2017, you need to unleash the power of word of mouth. Read more…

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The Secret of All Successful Marketing

The Secret of All Successful Marketing

Marketing is simple. It can seem mysterious and highly technical: Experts talk at length about the techniques they use. People scream from the rooftops about how you’re doing it wrong. Books upon books and blogs upon blogs make it seem like an immense subject.

It’s not that difficult. You market to people and you get leads in. Period. It’s only lack of this one point that makes it seem hard. Read more…

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8 Best Practices to Optimize Your Video Landing Page

8 Best Practices to Optimize Your Video Landing Page

There are a ton of benefits to having videos on your landing pages. For starters, videos are an easy type of content for your potential leads to consume (and retain), plus most people actually want a video to explain the product or service to them.

It’s important to note that videos are not the only thing you need to focus on when it comes to creating an optimized landing page that converts. Read more…

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Top 3 Crowdfunding Tips to Get Funded

Top 3 Crowdfunding Tips to Get Funded

Crowdfunding is a collective cooperation of people who network and pool their money and resources together, usually via the Internet.

It seems like everyone is using crowdfunding to kick off their new business venture, be it a new coffee shop, or gadget. With the tough economic climate, crowdfunding has become a popular and alternative method of raising finance for a business, projects or ideas and has become popularized online by sites such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and GoFundMe.

Now anyone with a computer or mobile device and an internet connection can research, review and become an investor in a business with a push of a button. Read more…

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Crowdfunding or P2P Lending – Which is Better for My Small Business?

Crowdfunding or P2P Lending - Which is Better for My Small Business?

When you are looking for funding, the dilemma use face is crowdfunding or peer-to-peer lending? This is the question many business owners are asking now that these alternative forms of business finance have become mainstream on the back of ineffective lending from the banks. So, the ultimate question then is, which method of finance would work best for you and your business?

Crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending are two innovative ways to get money into your business. Read more…

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8 Key Steps to a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign

8 Key Steps to a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign

Crowdfunding is a way of raising money for a new venture by soliciting small donations from many people online. The biggest platforms in the industry are Kickstarter and Indiegogo. In the last five years, crowdfunding has grown from a tool for off-beat bands to raise money from fans for an album they can’t afford to produce to a way for some really high tech inventors to get access to capital for their new, innovative startups.

Following is the checklist of 8 steps to prepare for your campaign.

1. Read more…

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6 Smart Email Triggers for Marketing Automation

6 Smart Email Triggers for Marketing Automation

Triggered or targeted emails can be a great way to deliver the right content at the right time to the right people. A sincere thank you, a courteous confirmation, or a concerned abandoned cart message that automatically follows a specific behavior someone took on your website can be the difference between a very happy customer and losing a contact altogether.

As long as the automated email is relevant, timely, and provides value to the recipient, triggered emails can be used to save marketers a tremendous amount of time and, more importantly, better engage your contact database. Read more…

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Aug 25: Uncommon Ways To Find Investors For Your Startup

Uncommon Ways To Find Investors For Your Startup

Lack of funding often causes young entrepreneurs to give up on their ventures before ever getting off the ground. The many rejections, ignored emails and missed calls thrown your way from potential investors can be quite demoralizing, to say the least. Sometimes it seems like searching for a needle in a haystack, but entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart.

It’s imperative for young entrepreneurs to look beyond what is considered the normal route in business, especially as they seek that crucial first investment. Read more…

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How to Become a Twitter Marketing Expert Quickly

How to Become a Twitter Marketing Expert Quickly

Although Twitter started off as a consumer application, businesses have realized in recent years that Twitter’s effectiveness makes it perfect for marketing. People these days have short attention spans and sending out your message, known as a tweet, in a quick sentence or two can get the idea out there before potential customers have time to lose interest. But how can you successfully use Twitter marketing?

Once you’ve decided that Twitter is going to be a part of your marketing strategy, it’s important that you take it seriously. Read more…

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4 Ideas for a Customized Marketing Strategy to Reach the Right Audience

4 Ideas for a Customized Marketing Strategy to Reach the Right Audience

Reaching the right audience at the right time with the right message is very crucial to any marketer. You already know why you need to do it. The problem is that you’re part of a small team and that there are only 24 hours in a day. What you need is an arsenal of high-impact tactics that are creative, easy to implement, and proven to work.

1. Get visual.

Your brand’s look and feel communicates much more than words, such as your personality, values, and story. Read more…

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What Entrepreneurs Need to Know About Equity Crowdfunding to Raise Money

What Entrepreneurs Need to Know About Equity Crowdfunding to Raise Money

Equity crowdfunding is the process whereby everyday people (the “crowd”) invest in an early-stage company, which is not listed on a stock market, in exchange for shares in that company. These shareholders have partial ownership of the company and stand to profit if the company does well.

For the first time, the JOBS act is allowing unsophisticated investors to purchase your stock. Whereas traditional investors are a good source of input regarding your business plans, crowdfund investors may invest entirely on emotion, which means the input they provide may not be very constructive.

Equity crowdfunding will benefit many companies that aren’t well-suited for funding by traditional venture capitalists. Read more…

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Crowdfunding vs Venture Capital

Crowdfunding vs Venture Capital

It seems like a catchy idea is all an aspiring entrepreneur needs these days in order to raise money on crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and GoFundMe. Do crowds gravitate toward funding bad ideas? Or can crowds make rational funding decisions and, better yet, exceed venture capital investors and banks in identifying promising projects?

The crowd is often thought of as being a group of fools, but it turns out the crowd does consider the quality of projects and outcomes pretty well. Read more…

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Does Your Marketing Strategy Work For You?

Does Your Marketing Strategy Work For You?

Why isn’t anyone buying your products and services? It doesn’t matter how great your products and services are or how nice your offices look if no one has heard of you. That’s where good marketing comes into play. Unfortunately, many small businesses make the mistake of focusing all of their efforts on other aspects of their company and forget to make marketing a top priority. When that happens, businesses struggle and often fail. Read more…

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Essential Tips for Successful Crowdfunding

Essential Tips for Successful Crowdfunding

It seems like everyone is using crowdfunding to kick off their new business venture, be it a new coffee shop, or electronic gadget. But the usefulness of crowdfunding is still debatable. Is crowdfunding even right for your business?

Here’s some information and and a few tips that will help explain crowdfunding concepts and how you can take advantage of them to fund your business.

What is crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding is a way of raising money for a new venture by soliciting small donations or investments from many people online. Read more…

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How to Get More Out of Your Social Media Marketing This Year

How to Get More Out of Your Social Media Marketing This Year

Social media has become more important than ever for businesses. Social media is only getting bigger, and if you don’t embrace it now, you’re going to miss out on a lot of amazing opportunities to connect with your customers.

You have to utilize social media more this year. In order to achieve that goal, you have to have a game plan. Below is a list of specific ways that you and your marketing team can embrace social media in the new year and beyond.

Integrate Your Blog

Those who haven’t yet integrated their marketing blogs with their social media accounts are seriously missing out. Read more…

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5 Mobile Marketing Methods That Work

5 Mobile Marketing Methods That Work

Marketing has gone mobile. Most shoppers use at least one mobile device to research and purchase products online. Maybe your small business doesn’t have a mobile-friendly site yet. But do you need one?

1: Determine whether you need a mobile site

Before you start developing a mobile site, figure out if you really need one. Start by checking out your competitors’ websites on your phone. If your local competitors are mobile-web-friendly, it’s a strong sign you should be too.

Next, analyze the stats for your desktop site. Read more…

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5 Tips for Digital Marketing Success

5 Tips for Digital Marketing Success

As the world has grown increasingly accustomed to staying connected digitally and on-the-go, nearly all of the more traditional marketing methods have become irrelevant. We’re going to take a look at what digital marketing is, and how you can harness its power to achieve success for your marketing campaign.

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing is the total opposite of outbound marketing. Read more…

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How to Create Influence on Twitter

How to Create Influence on Twitter

Crowdsourcing is a hot topic as an interesting social media phenomenon. Sometimes it starts accidentally when an injustice is exposed or a good deed is done. Other times, it is started intentionally to garner support for a cause or operate as a focus group for an idea or product.

Whether accidental or intentional, there is no better platform to crowdsource influence than Twitter. Read more…

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The Unexpected Benefits of Crowdfunding

The Unexpected Benefits of Crowdfunding

In addition to the money provided by backers, crowdfunding can generate other, unanticipated benefits for small businesses. Two such benefits are 1) new customers and supporters, and 2) access to additional financing and specialized services.

New Customers and Supporters:

Everyone who contributes to a crowdfunding campaign is a potential new customer and loyal advocate for your brand. Not only are they likely to purchase from you in the future, they also are a source of great feedback.

You get amazing feedback by putting yourself out there. Read more…

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4 Mistakes That Hurt Your Crowdfunding Campaign

4 Mistakes That Hurt Your Crowdfunding Campaign

On some of the most popular crowdfunding platforms – such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and GoFundMe – less than half of the campaigns hit their funding goal. How do you make sure your crowdfunding campaign isn’t a failure? Here are four potential mistakes to avoid.

#1: Starting off too slow

If you want to hit your fundraising goal by the end of the campaign, experts recommend focusing on raising 30 percent of it in the first two or three days. Read more…

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Viral Video Marketing 101

Viral Video Marketing 101

Video is rapidly growing and quickly becoming a staple of marketing strategies. If you have not yet incorporated video marketing then you are simply behind the curve. Not only that, but you are losing out on the various benefits that having a video strategy provides.

Importance of Video:

The reason video is such a powerful medium lies within its ability to engage, educate, and influence potential and existing customers. Read more…

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7 Steps to Boost Content Marketing Success

7 Steps to Boost Content Marketing Success

Everyone is busy in creating his own content marketing strategies. Companies have sensed the importance of this form of digital marketing and have been trying their best to create high quality content.

Here are 7 important steps in content marketing that every blog should include. It is a true assumption that the content promotion strategies very much depend on the nature of the business, but the following points can be applied to any kind of content.

1. Read more…

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How to Manage Your Digital Marketing Without Falling Behind

How to Manage Your Digital Marketing Without Falling Behind

Business owners often struggle with a perpetual to-do list for running their companies, and it seems to be getting longer all the time. Digital marketing, in all its varied forms, is becoming increasingly important as more and more of your target audience is searching for and finding products and services on the internet. Marketing experts recommend employing a hearty dose of social media, blogging, local SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and review site management to grow your client/referral base.

With everything else you have to deal with, how can you stay on top of Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin multiple times a week, not to mention a weekly blog, email campaigns, videos creation, and reputation management? If you recognize the value these activities will bring to your business, but don’t have the resources to hire someone to help you with it, consider these 5 tips to make it work efficiently for you.

1. Read more…

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4 Growth Hacks to Turbocharge Your Small Business

4 Growth Hacks to Turbocharge Your Small Business

There’s good news and bad news when it comes to marketing your small business. The good news is that as a small business owner, you are the perfect person to promote your product or service. You’re knowledgeable and passionate, which are two of the main ingredients in an effective marketer. The bad news is that marketing can take up a lot of time and money. And extra time is not something that entrepreneurs come by very often.

Here are 4 simple marketing ‘hacks’ that will help boost your small business marketing efforts and make your life as an entrepreneur a little easier.

* Identify your strengths

There are a ton of options for marketing your business – newsletters, social media, attending events, etc. Read more…

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8 Social Marketing Fails to Avoid

8 Social Marketing Fails to Avoid

1. Little or no social media or blogging activity.

Why start a blog and never publish? Why start a Twitter account and never tweet? In social marketing, you have to show up and be active. Yes, starting that Facebook page was a good idea, but unless you are going to be consistent in posting and using it, just forget about it.

You can save time by using sites like 40Billion.com, which specializes in broadcasting and promoting posts to its large network of several million users across the most popular social networking sites for small businesses – including Twitter, LinkedIn, 40Billion, and even Facebook. Read more…

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4 Ways to Market Your Bootstrapped Startup Online

4 Ways to Market Your Bootstrapped Startup Online

Some marketing strategies become less effective and some more effective. As a startup with limited resources, you need to pay especially close attention to what’s current so you can get the most bang for your marketing budget. You already know that you have to setup social media accounts. But here are few other ways you may not have considered.

1. Make an Explainer Video

Everyone knows that video production is effective for business, but many startups dismiss the idea because they believe it’s expensive. Read more…

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6 Creative Ways of Marketing Your Startup on a Budget

6 Creative Ways of Marketing Your Startup on a Budget

There are endless ways to finance your ideas, but there’s nothing like marketing a startup with a modest budget. Limited funds give you an excuse to flex your creative muscle and truly share your vision with the world.

Don’t rely on the same old banner ads and Google reviews. Instead, try these seven marketing strategies to place the spotlight on your business.

1. Share your story

Instead of just introducing yourself as an entrepreneur, develop a narrative that differentiates your company from others and sparks conversation. Read more…

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10 Content Marketing Ideas to Promote your Small Business or Startup Company

10 Content Marketing Ideas to Promote your Small Business or Startup Company

Small business marketers who use content marketing are able to reduce the cost of leads, increase awareness and position themselves as leaders.

In recent years, marketers have been forced to think differently about how they engage with potential customers, particularly small business marketers.

Every year, customers have increasing control over what marketing messages they wish to consume. Read more…

Recommended: 7 Steps to Boost Content Marketing Success

10 Content Marketing Trends You Need To Know For Success

10 Content Marketing Trends You Need To Know For Success

Content marketing online is continually changing and evolving. If you’re behind the content marketing curve, now’s the time to get caught up – here are 10 content marketing trends that are relevant today.

1. Social Media Content is King

Social media marketing is the most popular content promotion tactic by a mile. 87% of B2B content marketers are active on social media, while 81% have articles on their websites.

Lately, sites like 40Billion.com have made social media content marketing easier for businesses by broadcasting and promoting their articles to its large network of several million users across the most popular social networking sites – including Twitter, LinkedIn, 40Billion, and even Facebook. Read more…

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11 Ways to Write a Compelling Crowdfunding Campaign

11 Ways to Write a Compelling Crowdfunding Campaign

One of the most important aspects of your crowdfunding campaign is the story you tell, as it has a direct impact on the overall impression that your project conveys. In the end, this is what will get someone to become your supporter. Your choice of words can actually make a huge difference in your campaign’s results.
Before getting started, you have to decide if you or your team are the most suitable to do the work. Read more…

Recommended: 11 Ways to Write a Compelling Crowdfunding Campaign

Email Marketing Tips for Small Business

Email Marketing Tips for Small Business

Keeping the doors of your small business open can depend upon your ability to market to potential clients. Email marketing has been a mainstay strategy throughout the technological era. Prior to this, companies were limited to direct mail for advertising. Using the postal service could cost a small fortune and your materials might end up in the trash as junk mail. Read more…

Recommended: 13 Marketing Tips When Using Social Networks

7 Ways to Grow Your Business Through Marketing Partners

7 Ways to Grow Your Business Through Marketing Partners

You can attract new customers, increase sales and grow your pipeline instantly by partnering strategically with other businesses. There are many mutual benefits that make the work required to build a strong marketing partnership worthwhile. There is the implied endorsement that goes along with it as well.

Strategy is a key to a success. Many business professionals attend local networking events with the hope of finding others they can partner with in order to grow more quickly. Read more…

Recommended: 6 Tips To Achieve Marketing Goals

6 Marketing Tips to Bootstrap Your Startup

6 Marketing Tips to Bootstrap Your Startup

Every day we are bombarded by brands fighting for our attention; how can you possibly make your startup stand out? Marketing your startup in today’s competitive business economy is undoubtedly difficult and expensive, but there are steps you can take to make sure your startup gets a good chance at success.

Before you start, make sure you have a firm grasp on two key things. First, you want to make sure that all of your marketing strategies identify and build upon what makes your business unique in your space. Read more…

Recommended: Great Digital Marketing For Bootstrapped Entrepreneur

New to Crowdfunding? Here’s What to Expect.

New to Crowdfunding? Here's What to Expect.

With the popularity and success of crowdfunding as a new way to fund new projects, it’s easy for other aspiring entrepreneurs to believe that sites like Kickstarter are their golden ticket to launching a business. But the reality is, crowdfunding isn’t always as simple as it seems.

Whether you’re looking to raise a small amount of startup cash or acquire a larger sum through equity crowdfunding, there are a few challenges you might face during the process that you may not have expected.

Choosing the right platform

The first step is to choose the right platform. Read more…

Recommended: 8 Social Marketing Fails to Avoid

4 Steps to Crowdfunding Success

4 Steps to Crowdfunding Success

The biggest problem that many small businesses throughout the United States face is how to secure startup or initial funding from traditional lenders. Since the 2008 financial meltdown, banks are under a lot of pressure to make safer loans, resulting in stricter underwriting guidelines and fewer loans being approved.

With the advent of crowdfunding providing a more accessible option, the amount of small businesses with crowdfunding campaigns has significantly increased. Read more…

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5 Crowdfunding Steps Proven To Raise Money on GoFundMe

5 Crowdfunding Steps Proven To Raise Money on GoFundMe

This post on how to raise money successfully using simple crowdfunding steps answers common questions for startup entrepreneurs and small businesses thinking about using crowdfunding to raise funding.

I have been in the crowdfunding space since 2008, after experiencing first-hand one of the biggest problems plaguing new businesses: There was a $40 billion gap in funding every year! That year, I founded one of the first crowdfunding platforms for U.S. Read more…

Recommended: How To Promote Your Startup On A Shoe-String Budget

5 Crowdfunding Steps Proven To Raise Money on Indiegogo

5 Crowdfunding Steps Proven To Raise Money on Indiegogo

This post on how to raise money successfully using simple crowdfunding steps answers common questions for startup entrepreneurs and small businesses thinking about using crowdfunding to raise funding.

I have been in the crowdfunding space since 2008, after experiencing first-hand one of the biggest problems plaguing new businesses: There was a $40 billion gap in funding every year! That year, I founded one of the first crowdfunding platforms for U.S. Read more…

Recommended: 25 Instagram Marketing Tips for Business

Is Crowdfunding Right For Your Small Business?

Is Crowdfunding Right For Your Small Business?

What is Crowdfunding?

Over the past eight years, crowdfunding has emerged as a popular tool for individuals to raise financing for business ventures.

Entrepreneurs typically raise small amounts of money from a large number of backers, or “the crowd,” usually via the Internet. Backers receive some sort of reward or, less commonly, an equity- or royalty-based financial return. Crowdfunding platforms – including Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and GoFundMe – have raised billions of dollars, and the industry is still growing with niche service providers such as 40Billion which focuses on crowdfunding promotion for small businesses.

For small and new business owners looking to raise capital, crowdfunding is an increasingly popular option. Read more…

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5 Crowdfunding Steps Proven To Raise Money on Kickstarter

5 Crowdfunding Steps Proven To Raise Money on Kickstarter

This post on how to raise money successfully using simple crowdfunding steps answers common questions for startup entrepreneurs and small businesses thinking about using crowdfunding to raise funding.

I have been in the crowdfunding space since 2008, after experiencing first-hand one of the biggest problems plaguing new businesses: There was a $40 billion gap in funding every year! That year, I founded one of the first crowdfunding platforms for U.S. Read more…

Recommended: Is Twitter A Good Marketing Tool For You?

3 steps to triple engagement by adding a Twitter image to your ad

3 steps to triple engagement by adding a Twitter image to your ad

Read more…

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Hooray, it’s 40Billion Friday! Save 15% OFF …

It’s 40Billion Friday! Save 15% OFF everything at checkout. Promote your company, broadcast your profile, or advertise your product or service to the world.
40Billion Friday and this limited time offer will end at 11:59pm PT, so take advantage of these savings now.
40Billion-Friday

COMING SOON: Take the 40Billion Challenge!

COMING SOON: Take the 40Billion Challenge!

 

Promote your company on 40Billion, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, & Google …

Promote your company on 40Billion, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, & Google. Under $40 per month. Start free: http://www.40billion.com/companies

 

Low CPM? Get over 1,000,000 ad impressions for under $100 per month guaranteed! Advertise & be seen …

Low CPM? Get over 1,000,000 ad impressions for under $100 per month guaranteed! Advertise & be seen at http://www.40billion.com/ads

Unbeatably low CPMs for social media marketing!

 

How will you celebrate Black History Month?

How will you celebrate Black History Month? http://www.40billion.com/post/24230

 

COMING SOON: Take the 40Billion Challenge!

You may have heard of the old Pepsi Challenge, but have you heard of the new 40Billion Challenge? Stay tuned… it’s coming soon.

NEW: Check out the Video Wall for great videos from entrepreneurs, business leaders, & you every day at http://www.40billion.com/videowall

NEW: Check out the Video Wall for great videos from entrepreneurs, business leaders, & you every day at http://www.40billion.com/videowall

Watch lots and lots of great videos you’ll want to see every day! Startup videos, motivational videos, instructional business videos, pitch videos, funny videos, inspiring videos, user videos from whiteboard posts, and much more.

http://www.40billion.com/videowall

COMING SOON: 40Billion TV for entrepreneurs, business leaders, and creative people

COMING SOON: 40Billion TV for entrepreneurs, business leaders, and creative people

Stay tuned for lots and lots of great videos you’ll want to see every day! Startup videos, motivational videos, instructional business videos, pitch videos, funny videos, inspiring videos, user videos from whiteboard posts, and much more.

coming soon to 40Billion.com

Chris Rock about the difference between rich and wealth…

Chris Rock about the difference between rich and wealth. WARNING: Explicit language and very funny!… http://www.40billion.com/post/4520

 

SAY OF THE DAY…

SAY OF THE DAY: “The entrepreneur builds an enterprise; the technician builds a job.” -Michael Gerber http://www.40billion.com/post/3470

 

SAY OF THE DAY: “Winning…

SAY OF THE DAY: “Winning starts with beginning.” -Robert H Schuller http://www.40billion.com

 

 

ENTREPRENEUR’S DILEMMA: What comes first, business or family?…

ENTREPRENEUR’S DILEMMA: What comes first, business or family? Submit your answers below…

 

12 Reasons Why 40Billion is Better Than LinkedIn. #12…

12 Reasons Why 40Billion is Better Than LinkedIn

#12: 40Billion works great in Firefox web browser; LinkedIn does not.

http://www.40billion.com/post/2327

40Billion-is-Better-than-LinkedIn

12 Reasons Why 40Billion is Better Than LinkedIn. #11…

12 Reasons Why 40Billion is Better Than LinkedIn

#11: All the magic happens on one page, your 40Billion profile, so it’s easier to use.

http://www.40billion.com/post/2312

40Billion-is-Better-than-LinkedIn

12 Reasons Why 40Billion is Better Than LinkedIn. #10…

12 Reasons Why 40Billion is Better Than LinkedIn

#10: Users can add company listings to advertise businesses, products & services.

http://www.40billion.com/profile/1215204016#whiteboard

40Billion-is-Better-than-LinkedIn

 

 

12 Reasons Why 40Billion is Better Than LinkedIn. #9…

12 Reasons Why 40Billion is Better Than LinkedIn…

#9: When you upgrade to a Promoted Profile, 40Billion helps you get more contacts.

http://www.40billion.com/profile/1215204016#whiteboard

40Billion-is-Better-than-LinkedIn

 

 

 

12 Reasons Why 40Billion is Better Than LinkedIn. #8…

12 Reasons Why 40Billion is Better Than LinkedIn.

#8: 40Billion has a What’s Happening area that keeps you up-to-date on the latest from your contacts, and it’s on your profile page.

http://www.40billion.com/profile/1215204016#whiteboard

40Billion-is-Better-than-LinkedIn

 

 

Welcome to the New 40Billion – worldwide social network of entrepreneurs, business leaders, & creative people

Great news! 40Billion is now the social network of entrepreneurs, business leaders, and creative people. The new 40Billion site enables you to promote yourself, your business, and your creations to the world.

For over four years, our platform introduced crowdfunding to U.S. small-business and startup entrepreneurs, facilitating more than $100 million in raises. We recently spun off our U.S. crowdfunding business, and we have expanded 40Billion as a social networking platform for entrepreneurs worldwide.

Your new profile page includes amazing features that help you promote your creative stuff. For example, you have your own whiteboard, where you can post news, questions, messages, links, photos, videos, and just about anything that you want to share with your contacts or the world. If other users like what you’ve posted, they can easily repost, reply, and share your posts.

Upgrade to a Promoted Profile, and we’ll automatically promote your profile daily to over 40,000 contacts, followers, and fans on 40Billion, Twitter, and other popular social networks. This is a great way to increase your exposure, get new contacts, advertise your business, and show off your creations.

Check out the new 40Billion now, update your profile, and see what’s happening in your network. Please LIKE our profile too.

“T.E.D. – The Entrepreneur’s Dilemma” book on Twitter… COMING SOON

“T.E.D. – The Entrepreneur’s Dilemma” is the story of a self-destructive, aspiring entrepreneur. It unfolds 140 chars at a time. COMING SOON at http://www.twitter.com/40billion

 

How to Promote Your Raise to Over 10,000 Potential Funders Automatically

Upgrade to a “Promoted Raise” to extend your reach to a broader audience of potential funders and investors. Let us promote your raise (i.e., fundraising project for your business) to amplify your fundraising project with targeting options to reach likely funders who may be interested in funding your project.

We’ll promote your Raise automatically to over 10,000 followers on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, on our blog, and via individual emails to members with similar interests (using our Funding Probability tool). We don’t promote using pay-per-click or search engine optimization, but instead utilize social media impressions and email marketing which produce more affordable, proven results.

A Promoted Raise is promoted daily (at least once per day) to followers on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, on our blog, and via individual emails to members with similar interests. 40Billion has over 10,000 followers and over 200,000 members who are potential funders for each project. At this time, you can select either 1 day, 7 days, 14 days, or 28 days for your promotion period. Your Raise will be promoted every day including weekends during the promotion period. The service fee for a Promoted Raise starts at only $10.

To upgrade your Raise to a Promoted Raise, please follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to My Account at http://www.40billion.com/my-account.asp now;
  2. Click PROMOTE next to your Raise (you must have created a Raise already, so start a Raise first);
  3. Use the dropdown box to select the number of days (from 1 to 28);
  4. Click CONTINUE;
  5. Click PAY NOW, and complete your transaction;
  6. We will start promoting your Raise on the next business day.

 

 

Who Really Invented the Lightbulb? Really?

Did you know that Thomas Edison did NOT invent the light bulb? Really, he was just the first to successfully bring it to market and raise awareness of it.

Successful entrepreneurs don’t focus on the fear of someone stealing their idea (especially if you have a patent). They focus on executing on the opportunity by bringing their idea to market.

This is what the 22 inventors of the incandescent light bulb before Thomas Edison FAILED to do.

That’s right. Twenty-two inventors had the idea before Edison, and Edison didn’t necessarily steal their idea. He just did a better job of taking it to market, and this is where the value is.

If you have an idea, protect it, and then you can just focus on executing and bringing your product or service to market successfully.

Did you know that 40Billion provides an informative business startup guide for protecting your ideas and intellectual property through patents, trademarks, copyrights, and NDA’s?

Download the short MP3’s and listen to them on your computer or in your iPod, while at home, in the office, or on-the-go. Then, download the easy-to-use templates that come with each startup guide.

Go to http://www.40billion.com/startupguides/ today.

Is the “American dream” dead?

Is the idea of achieving the “American dream” a dying fantasy that is becoming impossible for more and more people? Yes, unfortunately, it is true. There is no doubt that the economy is suffering, and suffering with it is the American dream.

Entrepreneurs can’t afford to start businesses, families can’t afford to buy homes, and students can’t afford to go to college. Banks don’t seem to care, and the government seems to be paralyzed from the waist down.

But the fact is you don’t need a bank loan in order to build and grow a successful business, just like you don’t need an Ivy League college degree in order to be a successful entrepreneur and businessperson (though, it can help). We have to help ourselves and save our own economy, our own businesses, our American dream.

Raise money. Build dreams. 40Billion.com … Let’s start here!

40Billion.com logo

Run Away, or You Will Fail…

There is one thing that invariably stands between an entrepreneur’s idea and their success: NAYSAYERS.

When our founder dreamed up 40Billion back in early 2008, so many people told him that a social funding network for startups via the Internet would never work. Venture capitalists, attorneys, friends, family, even some entrepreneurs were naysayers. Just 4 years later, it’s become an industry, and we’ve worked with the SEC, Congress, and President to create new laws facilitating social funding networks for small businesses raising money. There… Told you it would work!

Naysayers are everywhere. All too ready to say that your idea won’t work. That nobody will buy it. That it’ll never work in “the real world.”

Naysayers predicted failure when the copy machine was invented in 1956. And when Google launched in 1996. And when Facebook launched in 2004.

And pretty much every time an entrepreneur conceives a new idea, there is a naysayer waiting to tell them it won’t work.

Has this ever happened to you?

Don’t let naysayers quash your dreams or stop you from pursuing them to the fullest. The naysayers are often wrong.

5 tips for approaching friends and family about your business

At 40billion.com, we provide online tools to help small-business and startup entrepreneurs increase access to funding and resources by leveraging their social networks, including friends and family. Here are 5 tips that we give to entrepreneurs to help them approach friends and relatives about their business:

1.  ASK FOR ADVICE & REFERRALS, NOT HANDOUTS

When you approach friends and family about your business, just share your idea in a conversational manner, and ask them for their advice, feedback, or referral. People are usually glad to give you their point-of-view if they think their advice or feedback may be helpful. And, if they really believe in you, they will either offer to help or they’ll be willing to refer you to someone who can help.

2.  FORMALIZE A LOAN OR DISCOUNT

Businesses often get started with a loan from the entrepreneur’s friend or relative, but it can be difficult to manage the relationship, especially if the loan is not formalized with a written agreement. Create a formal loan agreement with details of the loan, including what is owed, when payments are due, and any consequences for missing payments. Even if you’ve promised a discount to your friend or relative in exchange for a loan or referral, put it in writing and provide a discount coupon that can be redeemed. This may significantly reduce the risk of ruining your personal relationship over business.

3.  GIVE A PRESENTATION

Are you serious about your business? Then give a business plan presentation to your friends and family, and show them. This is your chance to display your professionalism and passion, while getting free advice and feedback from people you know. The result could get you closer to the funding, resources, and customers you need to get your business up and running.

4.  POST ON SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES

Add a description of your business to social networking websites, such as Facebook and LinkedIn. This easily allows your friends and family to read about what you’re doing and spread the word to other people they know. So, instead of you going to them, they will come to you and ask about your new business.

5.  KEEP IN TOUCH

Be sure to thank your friends and family who supported you or helped you spread the word. Then, be sure to keep the lines of communication open by sending them regular company updates to let them know that their support has been put to good use, and you’re achieving those milestones that you set in your business plan. These communications will go a long way toward maintaining good relationships with your friends-and-family supporters, and they will be more likely to support you again as customers, investors, advisors and advocates.

The Secret to Success is…

All great ideas start in the same place… the minds of the entrepreneurs who conceived them.

But why do most of these ideas never go anywhere, while others become great new products and services, or social changes that impact millions of people?

One great trait of winning leaders – entrepreneurs who are able to successfully execute on their ideas – is their ability to visualize success.

Research shows that the most winning leaders naturally visualize themselves being successful well before they actually achieve success.

Visualizing success is simply the process of visualizing yourself after you have achieved your goals. Whatever your entrepreneurial goals are, start to visualize what success will look like. Once you really picture it, your mind will accept the possibility of it becoming a reality. This will motivate and help you on the journey to actually achieving your vision.

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What is the #1 cause of business failure?

According to the SBA, the #1 reason why entrepreneurs fail to launch and grow successful businesses is simple: LACK OF FUNDING

So what happens if you can’t get funding? Well, if you don’t have any money, you can’t even start your business in the first place. And even if you do start it, if you have too little funding, chances are good you’ll go out of business!

Here’s the GOOD NEWS: You can avoid business failure by learning how to successfully raise money from everyday investors and funders in your social network and on 40Billion.com.

Think about it… if you knew how to quickly and easily raise $20,000 or $200,000, most of your problems would disappear, wouldn’t they?

www.40billion.com