influencer marketing

Influencer Marketing: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Influencer Marketing: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Influencer marketing has experienced explosive growth during the last five years. It peaked during the Pandemic, but it’s still going strong. So much so that experts project marketers worldwide will spend a whopping $4.5 billion in 2023 on hiring influencers to promote and endorse their products.  In a world dominated by …

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marketing metrics

3 Marketing Metrics Small Businesses Should be Tracking

3 Marketing Metrics Small Businesses Should Be Tracking What is your reaction when I say the word “metrics?” Do your eyes glaze over? Do you feel uneasy? Do you sit up a little straighter in your chair, excited to sharpen your pencil and get down to work? If you fall into the third category, you have my utmost respect, and …

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digital transformation - pink retro typewriter

3 Solutions for Companies Struggling with Digital Transformation

3 Solutions for Companies Struggling with Digital Transformation I joke sometimes that I wanted to be my own boss but ended up with Google as my boss. An enormous part of generating new leads for your business happens online. If the internet is the ocean, Google is the boat, the fishing line and increasingly, the fish. However, while we’re all …

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Canadian small businesses

13 Canadian Small Businesses Grants and Loans

13 Canadian Small Businesses Grants and Loans Small businesses drive the Canadian economy forward. For context, by 2021, small businesses were employing 63.8% of the country’s total labour force (a whopping 10.3 million people), whereas big companies were employing 2.4 million people (15.1% of the active labour force.)  Small businesses’ role in the economic recovery post-pandemic and beyond doesn’t go …

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These 3 things are non-negotiable to make social media work in 2023

These 3 things are non-negotiable to make social media work in 2023 I’ve had lots of good discussion this week about the merits of social media for small business after last week’s blog. Some people feel strongly that social media can work for small business. I’d agree with that. It can work. So can hiring a skywriter. I’m looking for …

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branded promotional items

25 Fresh Branded Swag Ideas Your Audience Will Love

25 Fresh Branded Swag Ideas Your Audience Will Love Branded promotional items are a great way to build brand awareness and loyalty. The challenge for businesses is to create swag that people will actually use and value, rather than giving it to their kid or stashing it in the junk drawer. To achieve this, swag needs to meet three criteria: …

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how to choose a stock photo

How To Pick Stock Photos Part 2

How to Pick Stock Photos, Part 2 How to pick stock photos is an issue every small business will come up against eventually, whether planning a website, a brochure, a PowerPoint presentation or a social media post. Visuals make a big difference in how our buyers receive our content. Many marketers cite statistics that say our brain remembers 65% more …

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google ads

Are Google Ads Worth It for Small Businesses in 2023?

Are Google Ads Worth It for Small Businesses in 2023? If you use Google regularly, chances are you’ve seen ads at the top of the search results page. The Google Ads platform is the leading pay-per-click (PPC) digital advertiser and the source of most of Google’s annual revenue. Millions of companies of all sizes use Google Ads to appear among …

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