Tag: entrepreneurship

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…

Recommended: 9 Ways of Making Content More Effective

Many people accept that a slowdown in sales is a fact of business life during the summer. Well, nothing could be further from the truth, and as a business owner you need to get out of that frame of mind.

A summer slowdown may be something many people want because they expect this to be a season for vacations when the living is easy. Read more…

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

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. Read more…

Recommended: The 7 Crowdfunding Tips That Are Most Important

Want to get the word out? Did you know you can broadcast your crowdfunding project or campaign to over 2,500,000 active users on 40Billion, Twitter, Facebook, and Google for only $20, or as little as $5 a day? Buy a promo ad to promote your message, brand, product, service, fundraising campaign, crowdfunding project, or small business to the world.

Are you trying to raise money on Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or GoFundme? For over 4 years, aspiring crowdfunders and startup entrepreneurs have used 40Billion for affordable promotion across popular social networks in order to reach more potential customers and investors. Read more…

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. Read more…

Recommended: Email Marketing Is Still Alive And Well

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. Read more…

Recommended: 3 Ways To Get Your Employees To Share Their Honest Opinions

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…

Recommended: 5 Networking Tips That Entrepreneurs Need to Know

The old saying that we “treasure what we measure” – and vice versa – turns out to be highly relevant in networking.

In a world where the news media regularly reports the latest sports scores, stock market numbers and the weekend’s top-grossing films, wouldn’t you think business networkers would just naturally track how much they’re getting from their efforts?

While systems for following up, staying in touch and tracking results are key to networking success for both men and women, they’re especially vital for women. Read more…

Recommended: 8 Reasons Why Your Content Marketing May Fail

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. Read more…

Recommended: Small Business Blogging – 5 Easy Tips

You’re an aspiring entrepreneur, so why are you working for an entrepreneur? Is working at another startup a route to nowhere or a good career move? It just might pay to work at someone else’s startup before starting your own. Here are 3 reasons why:

1) Startups can take a chance on talent.

Getting a first job is key to launching your career as an entrepreneur. Read more…

Recommended: Are You a Micro-Manager? Here Are 3 Ways to Change

Want to get the word out? Did you know you can broadcast your crowdfunding project or campaign to over 2,500,000 active users on 40Billion, Twitter, Facebook, and Google for only $20, or as little as $5 a day? Buy a promo ad to promote your message, brand, product, service, fundraising campaign, crowdfunding project, or small business to the world.

Are you trying to raise money on Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or GoFundme? For over 4 years, aspiring crowdfunders and startup entrepreneurs have used 40Billion for affordable promotion across popular social networks in order to reach more potential customers and investors. Read more…

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. Read more…

Recommended: Think Twice Before Posting on These Social Media Sites

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…

Recommended: 25 Instagram Marketing Tips for Business

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…

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

Hiring staff can be difficult as a new manager, and making bad choices can be disastrous. These 5 easy steps will help you find the right fit for your company:

1) Determine what you need.

Many people make the mistake of not clearly defining the skills needed before starting to interview. This can lead to hiring people because you like them or they’re impressive in an interview. Read more…

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

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: How To Overcome 3 Horrifying Mental Challenges In Business

When should you start thinking about outsourcing some of your tasks? As a small business entrepreneur, time is always scarce, and you find that you just can’t do everything yourself the way you would like to. Maybe you’ve thought about outsourcing, but it’s not a simple decision because you need to compare the cost and quality of the person or company that will be working for you.

A simple search for companies using the terms “virtual assistant” and “outsourcing” will reveal a plethora of firms and virtual assistants that offer outsourcing services for everyday business tasks – such as customer service, tech support, bookkeeping, accounts payable, accounting, and even social media marketing. Read more…

Recommended: How to Manage Your Digital Marketing Without Falling Behind

Want to spread the word about your business? Did you know you can broadcast your product or service to our large audience across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and 40Billion for only $20, or as little as $5 a day? Buy a promo ad to broadcast your small business, startup company, product, or service to 2,500,000+ social users on 4 social networks – including Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and 40Billion – at once.

For over 4 years, aspiring entrepreneurs and startup companies have used 40Billion for affordable promotion across popular social networks in order to reach more potential customers. Read more…

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. Read more…

Recommended: Keeping Up with the Changing Face of Advertising

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…

Recommended: 8 Reasons Why Your Content Marketing May Fail

Even the most perceptive business owners can make a bad hire when they don’t pay attention to the right signs. Here are 3 personality types that can bring down your business and how you can spot them in an interview.

1) The Narcissist.

It’s easy to make the mistake of hiring a narcissist. They are often charismatic and radiate self-confidence. Read more…

Recommended: Targeting B2B Customers Effectively When Your Targets Keep Moving

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…

Recommended: Word-Of-Mouth Marketing Is Still Very Effective

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…

Recommended: How To Overcome 3 Horrifying Mental Challenges In Business

Don’t you love when brands interact with you in a human, authentic way that leads to a satisfactory experience? That is, your problem is solved, and your needs are met.

What do we do when we have such an experience? Well, we talk about it. That is word-of-mouth buzz from social interaction that’s authentic and customer-service focused.

Here are 2 ways to generate this type of buzz for your business’ brand:

1) Communicate in a contextual way.

If a customer posts a negative message about your product or sends you a direct message on social media sites to request support, that immediately provides you with context for response. Read more…

Recommended: How to Become a Twitter Marketing Expert Quickly

Want to spread the word about your business? Did you know you can broadcast your product or service to our large audience across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and 40Billion for only $20, or as little as $5 a day? Buy a promo ad to broadcast your small business, startup company, product, or service to 2,500,000+ social users on 4 social networks – including Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and 40Billion – at once.

For over 4 years, aspiring entrepreneurs and startup companies have used 40Billion for affordable promotion across popular social networks in order to reach more potential customers. Read more…

When should you start thinking about outsourcing some of your tasks? As a small business entrepreneur, time is always scarce, and you find that you just can’t do everything yourself the way you would like to. Maybe you’ve thought about outsourcing, but it’s not a simple decision because you need to compare the cost and quality of the person or company that will be working for you.

A simple search for companies using the terms “virtual assistant” and “outsourcing” will reveal a plethora of firms and virtual assistants that offer outsourcing services for everyday business tasks – such as customer service, tech support, bookkeeping, accounts payable, accounting, and even social media marketing. Read more…

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

Recommended: Step-By-Step Guide For Social Video Marketing

Here’s something that you should immediately put into action on your website. This concept is so simple, yet most of the time extremely overlooked: With every single transaction, you should be controlling where your customer goes next.

So many people miss out on this golden opportunity for additional profit. Read more…

Recommended: How To Challenge And Beat The Big Boys In Local Sales

Every business owner knows how to wear a lot of hats. When first striking out on your own, you have a hand in finances, marketing, product design, and everything in-between. But as your company grows, you need to empower your employees to feel that same sense of independence.

Autonomy is one of our fundamental human needs – an essential component of a healthy workplace – our need to be driven by personal interest and enjoyment.

Employees that feel empowered are happier, more motivated, more committed to their jobs, and less stressed. Read more…

Recommended: 7 Steps to Boost Content Marketing Success

You’re an aspiring entrepreneur, so why are you working for an entrepreneur? Is working at another startup a route to nowhere or a good career move? It just might pay to work at someone else’s startup before starting your own. Here are 3 reasons why:

1) Startups can take a chance on talent.

Getting a first job is key to launching your career as an entrepreneur. Read more…

Recommended: Networking Events Are A Waste Of Time If You Don’t Do This

Want to get the word out? Did you know you can broadcast your crowdfunding project or campaign to over 2,500,000 active users on 40Billion, Twitter, Facebook, and Google for only $20, or as little as $5 a day? Buy a promo ad to promote your message, brand, product, service, fundraising campaign, crowdfunding project, or small business to the world.

Are you trying to raise money on Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or GoFundme? For over 4 years, aspiring crowdfunders and startup entrepreneurs have used 40Billion for affordable promotion across popular social networks in order to reach more potential customers and investors. Read more…

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. Read more…

Recommended: 6 Fundraising Tips Most Startup Entrepreneurs Don’t Know

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. Read more…

Recommended: How To Turn Your Exit Page Into A Sales Opportunity

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…

Recommended: 3 Traits Of Successful Entrepreneurs

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. Read more…

Recommended: 6 Reasons Why Time Is The Business Owner’s Most Scarce Resource

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. Read more…

Recommended: How to solve one marketing puzzle

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. Read more…

Recommended: 6 Fundraising Tips Most Startup Entrepreneurs Don’t Know

Want to spread the word about your business? Did you know you can broadcast your product or service to our large audience across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and 40Billion for only $20, or as little as $5 a day? Buy a promo ad to broadcast your small business, startup company, product, or service to 2,500,000+ social users on 4 social networks – including Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and 40Billion – at once.

For over 4 years, aspiring entrepreneurs and startup companies have used 40Billion for affordable promotion across popular social networks in order to reach more potential customers. Read more…

Dreaming about leaving that “day job” and starting your own business? Doing that is easier said than done. As anyone who has ever contemplated starting a business knows, the risks of the venture loom large.

How does one leave the security of a job and paycheck and benefits for the uncertainty of a new business? The potential perils seem too big, but risk is part of the game. Read more…

Recommended: 12 Proven Content Marketing Tricks to Maximize Traffic

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. Read more…

Recommended: 6 Ways To Promote Your Auto Parts Store Online

What is Crowdfunding?

Over the past 10 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. Read more…

Recommended: How to Manage Your Digital Marketing Without Falling Behind

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…

Recommended: How To Attract Customers Without Saying A Word

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.

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

Recommended: Email Marketing Is Still Well And Alive – 5 Reasons

Does your name matter? It might, in the case of your new business, if you want people to remember it. Judging from the long list of businesses a simple Google search yields when you query “naming your company,” it matters a lot.

While there are several technical strategies that can be used when choosing a name for your new venture, you can just as easily flip through the business section of any newspaper to get an idea of how other entrepreneurs are doing it.

However, don’t take this decision lightly. Read more…

Recommended: SEC And Crowdfunding: Things You Need To Know.

Want to spread the word about your business? Did you know you can broadcast your product or service to our large audience across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and 40Billion for only $20, or as little as $5 a day? Buy a promo ad to broadcast your small business, startup company, product, or service to 2,500,000+ social users on 4 social networks – including Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and 40Billion – at once.

For over 4 years, aspiring entrepreneurs and startup companies have used 40Billion for affordable promotion across popular social networks in order to reach more potential customers. Read more…

Imagine you’re leading a brainstorming session at your company. You want to come up with growth strategies for your startup, so you gather your team in a meeting room, generate lots of ideas, and choose the most promising one. Many small business owners use that approach, but unfortunately, it often doesn’t work. Read more…

Recommended: 3 Secrets To Marketing Your Small Business Successfully

Some define a business plan as a formal document that takes a long time to create and isn’t flexible, doesn’t get reviewed and doesn’t get revised. Then they say a business plan isn’t useful.

That’s sort of like saying getting regular exercise isn’t good for you because some people overdo it and end up with joint damage.

It would be better to advocate a type of business planning that could be called lean business planning. Read more…

Recommended: When To Start Outsourcing Some Of Your Busy Work

What is Crowdfunding?

Over the past 10 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. Read more…

Recommended: 5 Networking Tips That Entrepreneurs Need to Know

After you’ve surrounded yourself with the best talent you can find, creating an environment that stifles open communication can render that investment useless.

Perhaps your employees are afraid to give you honest answers about your business or feel like they need to agree with every idea you have, even the obviously bad ideas. Read more…

Recommended: How to Become a Twitter Marketing Expert Quickly

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. Read more…

Recommended: Why Twitter for Small Businesses?

Unless you’re an accountant, the word accounting probably strikes fear in your heart, or a little bit of nervousness, at least. For aspiring entrepreneurs, the feeling is probably amplified. After all, poor bookkeeping out of the gate not only can set a project back in the short term, it can really come back to bite you over the long haul. Read more…

Recommended: 5 Ideas for Marketing Your Business Brand Effectively

Want to spread the word about your business? Did you know you can broadcast your product or service to our large audience across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and 40Billion for only $20, or as little as $5 a day? Buy a promo ad to broadcast your small business, startup company, product, or service to 2,500,000+ social users on 4 social networks – including Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and 40Billion – at once.

For over 4 years, aspiring entrepreneurs and startup companies have used 40Billion for affordable promotion across popular social networks in order to reach more potential customers. Read more…

To be an innovative entrepreneur, you want to foster creativity in your daily life so that your mind is ready when opportunity arises.

Unusual combinations, sometimes called “remote associations,” are related ideas that may seem unrelated at first glance. They are the essence of creative thinking.

To cultivate creativity, you want to increase your chances of stumbling on an unexpected link. Read more…

Recommended: Using Social Media Influencers as a Marketing Strategy for Better ROI

Should you charge a premium price for providing an extraordinary experience and value? Why bang your head against the wall trying to undercut competitors’ prices?

Selling premium products and services at premium prices leads to greater profits. If you want to make a million this year, you’d have to sell 40,000 copies of your product at $25. Read more…

Recommended: Keeping Up with the Changing Face of Advertising

When was the last time you took a vacation? For many young entrepreneurs, the answer is probably “I can’t remember,” or “I don’t have time for vacation.” But you just might want to rethink your aversion to time off. To run a successful company, you’ll need to be there, of course. But you’ll often need to also take time to clear your head or even distance yourself from the business in order to think about how to grow more effectively. Read more…

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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…

Recommended: How To Be More Creative In Business

Trust, attraction, and engagement… sounds like the recipe for a deep and lasting relationship, right?

Not surprisingly, consumers can experience and feel these same attributes for a product, and as a result, they form lasting, loyal relationships with the brands that serve them.

Unfortunately for brands, connecting to a potential customer at this level is difficult and time-consuming. Read more…

Recommended: 8 Best Practices to Optimize Your Video Landing Page

As content marketing continues to grow in popularity, a question being asked more and more is “should I replace my traditional marketing with content marketing?” The short answer is no.

It’s easy to pile onto the idea that print, radio, and even TV are on their way out as marketing platforms – but if they are effective, you shouldn’t give them up. Read more…

Recommended: 6 Smart Email Triggers for Marketing Automation

Want to get the word out? Did you know you can broadcast your crowdfunding project or campaign to over 2,500,000 active users on 40Billion, Twitter, Facebook, and Google for only $20, or as little as $5 a day? Buy a promo ad to promote your message, brand, product, service, fundraising campaign, crowdfunding project, or small business to the world.

Are you trying to raise money on Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or GoFundme? For over 4 years, aspiring crowdfunders and startup entrepreneurs have used 40Billion for affordable promotion across popular social networks in order to reach more potential customers and investors. Read more…

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…

Recommended: 6 Ways To Promote Your Auto Parts Store Online

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

Entrepreneurs 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. Read more…

Recommended: How To Avoid Summer Slowdowns, And Keep Growing Your Business

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.

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

Recommended: How To Attract More Customers With A Great Mobile Website

What should you include in an introductory email to a potential VC investor if your goal is to actually get them to open it and read it? Although every investor pitch and every investor is different, these 4 blunders are common to most of the unsuccessful ones:

1) The email has a worthless subject line.

Too often, entrepreneurs use boring, worthless subject lines in their investor pitches. Read more…

Recommended: 5 Networking Tips That Entrepreneurs Need to Know

The new marketing concept of brand journalism is the practice of covering your business and industry like a reporter. In other words, you’re transforming your marketing efforts into publishing efforts.

The big guys in your industry are likely already fully entrenched. In fact, some are practicing this new style of content marketing so effectively you probably haven’t even noticed that their content is marketing driven.

Here are four tips on how you can get started:

1. Read more…

Recommended: Email Marketing Is Still Well And Alive – 5 Reasons

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. Read more…

Recommended: With So Many Social Networking Sites, Which One Is Right For Your Business?

Want to get the word out? Did you know you can broadcast your crowdfunding project or campaign to over 2,500,000 active users on 40Billion, Twitter, Facebook, and Google for only $20, or as little as $5 a day? Buy a promo ad to promote your message, brand, product, service, fundraising campaign, crowdfunding project, or small business to the world.

Are you trying to raise money on Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or GoFundme? For over 4 years, aspiring crowdfunders and startup entrepreneurs have used 40Billion for affordable promotion across popular social networks in order to reach more potential customers and investors. Read more…

Imagine you’re leading a brainstorming session at your company. You want to come up with growth strategies for your startup, so you gather your team in a meeting room, generate lots of ideas, and choose the most promising one. Many small business owners use that approach, but unfortunately, it often doesn’t work. Read more…

Recommended: Improve Your Mobile Advertising Campaign: 10 Tips

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…

Recommended: Secrets Of Virgin Atlantic’s Marketing Success

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…

Recommended: 3 Ways To Prevent A Mistake From Destroying Your Business

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. Read more…

Recommended: 5 Ways Entrepreneurs Who Take Vacations Are More Successful

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. Read more…

Recommended: Traditional Marketing And Content Marketing: Can They Co-Exist?

You want your employees to perform at their best, but there’s a fine line between being a tough manager with high expectations and being an unreasonable asshole. Here are 3 tips to ensure that you’re on the right side of the line and don’t lose your best workers:

1) Give your employees a reason to give a crap. Read more…

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

Want to get the word out? Did you know you can broadcast your crowdfunding project or campaign to over 2,500,000 active users on 40Billion, Twitter, Facebook, and Google for only $20, or as little as $5 a day? Buy a promo ad to promote your message, brand, product, service, fundraising campaign, crowdfunding project, or small business to the world.

Are you trying to raise money on Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or GoFundme? For over 4 years, aspiring crowdfunders and startup entrepreneurs have used 40Billion for affordable promotion across popular social networks in order to reach more potential customers and investors. Read more…

Whether you’re a startup or established entrepreneur looking to grow, you’ll probably have to deal with common mental challenges along the way to success.

NEGATIVE THINKING

Slumps happen in business and life. Start asking positive questions when you find yourself thinking: “I’m not good enough. Read more…

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Many of us dream of leaving the workplace while in our 40’s or 50’s instead of sticking it out until age 65. Early retirement is a tempting goal, but it can be tough to achieve.

There are four major obstacles to early retirement:

1) You have less time to earn money. If you start working at age 20 and retire at 65, you have 45 years to produce income. Read more…

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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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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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Should you charge a premium price for providing an extraordinary experience and value? Why bang your head against the wall trying to undercut competitors’ prices?

Selling premium products and services at premium prices leads to greater profits. If you want to make a million this year, you’d have to sell 40,000 copies of your product at $25. Read more…

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What are some common challenges that small business and startup teams face? Long hours, conflicting personalities, not enough space, or too many mistakes?

A business team should undergo comprehensive team training in order to perform at a high level. Read more…

Recommended: New to Crowdfunding? Here’s What to Expect.

Want to get the word out? Did you know you can broadcast your crowdfunding project or campaign to over 2,500,000 active users on 40Billion, Twitter, Facebook, and Google for only $20, or as little as $5 a day? Buy a promo ad to promote your message, brand, product, service, fundraising campaign, crowdfunding project, or small business to the world.

Are you trying to raise money on Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or GoFundme? For over 4 years, aspiring crowdfunders and startup entrepreneurs have used 40Billion for affordable promotion across popular social networks in order to reach more potential customers and investors. Read more…

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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What is Crowdfunding?

Over the past 10 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. Read more…

Recommended: What Entrepreneurs Need to Know About Equity Crowdfunding to Raise Money

PRO: Free money to get your business started.

If you win, you could be awarded over $100,000 in cash and/or prizes that you can use to build, hire, and get your startup off the ground. In most cases, there are no strings attached and you don’t have to give up a percentage share of your business equity. Read more…

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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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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. Read more…

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Have you ever heard the expression, “Content is king?” While content comes in many forms, engaging content is scarce these days. The fact is, you have only a few seconds to capture the interest of your website visitors or potential customers. There is simply too much competition for attention to expect that people will invest too much of their time in trying to decipher bad content. Read more…

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Want to spread the word about your business? Did you know you can broadcast your product or service to our large audience across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and 40Billion for only $20, or as little as $5 a day? Buy a promo ad to broadcast your small business, startup company, product, or service to 2,500,000+ social users on 4 social networks – including Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and 40Billion – at once.

For over 4 years, aspiring entrepreneurs and startup companies have used 40Billion for affordable promotion across popular social networks in order to reach more potential customers. Read more…

Small businesses are especially vulnerable to hacking because they usually lack the technology expertise and site security that larger companies have. They also suffer more if their lack of expertise slows repairs and their ability to get back to work. Read more…

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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. Read more…

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What is Crowdfunding?

Over the past 10 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. Read more…

Recommended: 3 Reasons Why You May Not Need To Write A Business Plan After All

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…

Recommended: New to Crowdfunding? Here’s What to Expect.

Despite the importance of Social Media, Email Marketing is still the most powerful tool to connect with people. Everyone has at least one email account these days, whether it be for business or personal reasons. According to The Radicati Group, more than 34% of the worldwide population uses emails – Which accounts for nearly 2.5 billion people. Read more…

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Dreaming about leaving that “day job” and starting your own business? Doing that is easier said than done. As anyone who has ever contemplated starting a business knows, the risks of the venture loom large.

How does one leave the security of a job and paycheck and benefits for the uncertainty of a new business? The potential perils seem too big, but risk is part of the game. Read more…

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Want to get the word out? Did you know you can broadcast your crowdfunding project or campaign to over 2,500,000 active users on 40Billion, Twitter, Facebook, and Google for only $20, or as little as $5 a day? Buy a promo ad to promote your message, brand, product, service, fundraising campaign, crowdfunding project, or small business to the world.

Are you trying to raise money on Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or GoFundme? For over 4 years, aspiring crowdfunders and startup entrepreneurs have used 40Billion for affordable promotion across popular social networks in order to reach more potential customers and investors. Read more…

Shareable content is your gateway to success in content marketing. If you can get your users to share your content regularly, or in high enough volume, you’ll gain access to thousands of new potential followers, earn tons of referral traffic, and you’ll gain permanent links that boost your domain authority and your website’s potential to rank higher in Google searches.

But what makes a piece of content “shareable” in the first place? Logic would dictate that there are certain qualities that shareable pieces have in common, and if they do, it should be possible to replicate those qualities in your own work.

So what makes people want to share content with others, and how can you use this to your advantage?

Technical factors

Videos, quizzes, and list-based articles tend to get more shares than other types of content, possibly because they’re relatively quick and easy to digest. Read more…

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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. Read more…

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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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It’s easy for new entrepreneurs and even seasoned business owners to be frazzled and to panic when mistakes happen. As your business grows and employees and partners are stretched thin, the risk of mistakes, errors and accidents increases. Mistakes happen, but they can destroy your brand’s reputation – whether your company has made a billing error, sent an embarrassing email with leaked confidential information, or recalled a bad product.

When mistakes happen, what should you do? Here are 3 suggestions for how to deal with unexpected disasters and keep them from destroying your company:

1) Act quickly and fix it. Read more…

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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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The Holy Grail of social media outreach is engagement, which goes beyond broadcasting to interacting with your fans. While some businesses might use 40Billion, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social networks to drive traffic to their own websites, the more that people are engaging with your posts and sharing your content with their own networks, the more brand loyalty you can build.

While there’s no tried-and-true formula for everyone to maximize engagement all the time, outreach on social media doesn’t have to be like blindly throwing darts at a board. Read more…

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Want to spread the word about your business? Did you know you can broadcast your product or service to our large audience across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and 40Billion for only $20, or as little as $5 a day? Buy a promo ad to broadcast your small business, startup company, product, or service to 2,500,000+ social users on 4 social networks – including Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and 40Billion – at once.

For over 4 years, aspiring entrepreneurs and startup companies have used 40Billion for affordable promotion across popular social networks in order to reach more potential customers. Read more…

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. Read more…

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Tech startup companies and business entrepreneurs don’t have a lot of room for miscalculating buyer behaviors. Here’s what you need to know to be able to anticipate, identify and satisfy changing buyer behaviors for the sake of creating an effective marketing strategy.

The buyer you engage with today won’t be the buyer you engage with tomorrow. Read more…

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Many people accept that a slowdown in sales is a fact of business life during the summer. Well, nothing could be further from the truth, and as a business owner you need to get out of that frame of mind.

A summer slowdown may be something many people want because they expect this to be a season for vacations when the living is easy. Read more…

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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…

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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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The Holy Grail of social media outreach is engagement, which goes beyond broadcasting to interacting with your fans. While some businesses might use 40Billion, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social networks to drive traffic to their own websites, the more that people are engaging with your posts and sharing your content with their own networks, the more brand loyalty you can build.

While there’s no tried-and-true formula for everyone to maximize engagement all the time, outreach on social media doesn’t have to be like blindly throwing darts at a board. Read more…

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Want to get the word out? Did you know you can broadcast your crowdfunding project or campaign to over 2,500,000 active users on 40Billion, Twitter, Facebook, and Google for only $20, or as little as $5 a day? Buy a promo ad to promote your message, brand, product, service, fundraising campaign, crowdfunding project, or small business to the world.

Are you trying to raise money on Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or GoFundme? For over 4 years, aspiring crowdfunders and startup entrepreneurs have used 40Billion for affordable promotion across popular social networks in order to reach more potential customers and investors. Read more…

Why do startup entrepreneurs have a difficult time finding and recruiting good employees? Hiring the right people is a difficult task for many companies, even well-established businesses. The main difference is that startup entrepreneurs are often unable to retain the employees that they hire, and there are several reasons for that. Read more…

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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. Read more…

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To be an innovative entrepreneur, you want to foster creativity in your daily life so that your mind is ready when opportunity arises.

Unusual combinations, sometimes called “remote associations,” are related ideas that may seem unrelated at first glance. They are the essence of creative thinking.

To cultivate creativity, you want to increase your chances of stumbling on an unexpected link. Read more…

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