Category Archives: Companies

Specific examples from companies and organizations.

Market Your Business by Submitting to Online Directories

Companies, Websites

Ohio_Business_ProfileDuring the month of May, my marketing company - Marketing Resources & Results - is profiled by the State of Ohio.

The state is focusing on successful women owned businesses this month.

I’m honored that my company was one of the businesses selected to be profiled.

So, how did we get selected? Just like so many things in business, we were prepared and kept our eyes open for opportunity!

Are you prepared to market your company? Do you have your summary statement? 4 photos that represent the business? Do you know where to look for an online directory that makes sense for your business?

The state of Ohio takes submissions for their directory of businesses.

Besides the state level, there are lots of potential directories that may be interested in profiling your business:
Yelp, DMOZ, City-Data, Thomas Register, and more.

It’s important to use only legitimate directories, not link farms that charge you for listing your domain.

I’m assuming you know why it is important to have online visibilty for your company. If you’re not seen on line, in many cases, your business simply doesn’t exist.

So, where do you have your company profiled? Share the link below in comments.

Save Your Marketing Budget by Skipping the Yellow Book Advertising

Companies, Marketing, ,

Yellow Book errors reinforce my decision to not use this advertising mediaAnother copy of the Yellow Book was left by my driveway this weekend. For years I have encouraged my clients to skip the phone book advertising. It just doesn’t make sense to pay the high fees when so many people use the internet to look up a category or even a phone number of a company they want to call.

But I couldn’t resist seeing if my company’s listing was still included in the white pages. It was. But had three errors:

  1. The name was incorrect - It should be Marketing Resources & Results
  2. The address was incorrect - We moved from Maple Drive seven years ago this month.
  3. The phone number was incorrect - The number listed is the fax number.

Other than that, I didn’t have any problems with it. (I’m being sarcastic.)

I contacted them several times a few years ago, but have given up.  If there are 3 mistakes just with my company’s information… I wonder how many mistakes are in the entire book.  Unfortunately, once these books are printed, the paper has been wasted and there is no way for the mistakes to be corrected.  Unlike on line directories, these directories take up space and seem to multiple.

Time to recycle.  Here’s a little fun video I made to express my displeasure… Click here if you’re reading in an RSS feed without the link.

The Magic of Entrepreneurship - Great Resources for Starting and Running Your Business

Companies, Entrepreneurship, Marketing


Plan to attend the 7th Entrepreneurship Extravaganza at Kent State University on October 25

Community entrepreneurs from Northeast Ohio are invited to the seventh annual free entrepreneurship event at Kent State University. Hosted by the CEBI, the Center for Excellence and Business Innovation, the event features the founder of Priceline Jeff Hoffman and motivating leadership speaker Nobby Lewandosk among the many speakers and workshop sessions.

College and high school students are the focus of the first day of the event on Wednesday, but community entrepreneurs and college students who are interested in starting and growing a business are invited to participate in the programs.

The program is open to the public and there is no fee, but registration is required. To register, go to the Kent State University CEBI website page.

Co-Marketing Cuts the Cost of your Marketing Budget

Companies, Marketing, Marketing - General

Wondering how to do more marketing with your budget?  Perhaps you may want to consider co-marketing.  Two companies with the same target market and non-competing products can work together to promote their products and services.

Even if you are a business to business marketer, you can pick up some tips from the business to consumer marketing category where the budgets are much higher. Here are a few examples:

Chevy Silverado commercial features Hasbro toys  Three quarters of the video focuses on Hasbro toys, but only the last 15 seconds feature the product that the commercial is actually about.

Volvo and Twilight New Dawn commerical and promotion Taking advantage of the Twilight craze, Volvo offers a promotion tie in with the upcoming New Dawn movie

Friskies Cat Food and Puss n Boots Movie A recent commerical with animation from the Puss n Boots movie with a live action cat advertises Friskies cat food in a light-hearted commercial that draws in the “awwwww, isn’t that cute” factor.

What other co marketing programs have you noticed?  What company offers a product to the same target market as yours but is not a direct competitor?  Could you both benefit from a tie in marketing program?  They only work when it is “win-win.” Leave your comment below. Thanks!

New Dot Brand Option Now Available for Marketing Brands

Brand, Branding, Companies, Marketing

A new option is available for branding your products and services. Instead of the 22 traditional endings to a domain address like .com, .net or .org, there will now be an option of selecting .ANYTHING for your product or service!

Anything — for instance .BMW or .McDonalds or .Nike.

Will this historic change to the internet’s domain system from ICANN change the way we market domains?

Application may be submitted for a unique domain extension from January 2012 to April 2012 and the process appears to be both expensive and time consuming.

Will it be worth it? What’s the ROI for a brand to have it’s own extension?

What do you think will happen? Please leave your answer in the comment section below! Thanks!