Igniting Business Blog

For small businesses and bootstrap entrepreneurs, marketing effectively on a budget can be a difficult task. Instead of trying to mimic large companies who have even larger budgets and a whole staff of people dedicated to maximizing ROI, small companies should develop a distinctive marketing plan that strategically sets them apart from their competition and promote their business in an effective way. Here are the three concepts small businesses must hone when developing marketing strategies that really work.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a core element in developing an effective website marketing strategy. According to PEW Research, "Roughly eight-in-ten Americans are online shoppers." Additionally, studies indicate "65% of Americans indicate that when they need to make purchases they typically compare the price they can get in stores with the price they can get online." This means your audience is already online, searching for options within your industry. When audience members search for goods and services online, a strong SEO strategy helps bring your website to the top of search results.

If you have a small business or you're just starting to branch out and build your brand online, consider using social media platforms to promote your company. Users want to be on social media, so it's a great avenue for your business to reach them where they already are. Managing your social media at all times of the day can be demanding though, so consider connecting your new social media platforms to a social media management application/tool to help with scheduling and organization.

What's your real goal behind the metrics your company monitors and evaluates? Even if your first response to this is "making money," that's a valuable goal to reiterate. In today’s article, we’ll discuss how metrics may not always align with a core goal of “making money”.

Small businesses can get great mileage from promotional products, a creative way to market your company branding in the new year. Start 2019 with a fresh stock of new promotional products to leave a lasting impression on current and potential clients and customers. In today's digital printing world, you can brand almost anything. You can do more than print on pens; everyone already has plenty of those! The key is branding smart and being different. Here are five unique promotional items to help leverage your company brand.

In today's market, it is common knowledge that every business needs a website. Whether you're an international corporation or a local retail store, you need to have a presence on the Internet in order to reach out to your customers and potential customers. Just having a website isn't enough, though. That website needs to be accessible, user-friendly, and optimized for both search engines and your users.  Consider these key tips to make your website even better.

In an era where 94 percent say an online review has convinced them to avoid a business, reputation management online is more important than ever. Here are four areas to focus on when it comes to managing your brand's reputation on the web. 

Starting a new year is often a time of personal reflection to determine areas of personal growth for the new year.  Likewise, January is a great time to reflect on areas of growth for your small business.  When it comes to marketing and your small business’ digital presence, you may feel overwhelmed by the variety of avenues, platforms, tactics, and strategies.  Rather than giving up before the year even begins or chasing strategies in (what seems like) 50 million directions, check out our suggestions below to focus your small business on 4 key marketing avenues and successful tactics in each of those avenues. 

When most people consider content marketing, they focus almost entirely on creating the actual content. While that's important, as you need to have quality content to grab and hold your audience's attention, a creator needs to also have a plan for how they're going to get people to pay attention to the content. Otherwise, your message will easily be lost in the shuffle.

Pay-per click marketing, commonly shortened to just PPC, is one of the most popular methods of advertising on the Internet. While it may seem simple at first glance, it takes a lot of hard work and experience to get the most out of a PPC marketing campaign.