Being an entrepreneur can be a lonely business. Small business owners need to know a lot about many things – not just producing their product, but marketing, advertising, bookkeeping, financing, customer service, fulfillment, and more. It helps to bounce ideas off other entrepreneurs who have some understanding of your business, but few business owners have that luxury. (Click headline for more…)
Can You Co-Venture?
The October 2008 issue of Catalog Success carried an interesting profile of Peter Cobb, the founder of eBags. (If you’re not familiar with eBags, have a look – it’s an impressive website selling 36,000 handbags, totebags, briefcases, backpacks and more.)
Four years ago, eBags tried expanding into the shoe business, only to find that it took them too far afield from their core competency. After selling the shoe portion of the business, they recognized that they could still take advantage of a synergy with that industry. They teamed up with Shoes.com to produce a joint catalog. Half the book offers eBags products, the other half offers Shoes.com merchandise. Customers of eBags receive a catalog with eBags on the front, Shoes.com on the back. For Shoes.com customers, the covers are reversed. A remarkably clever idea, I thought!
The idea reminded me of Kip Creel’s suggestion mentioned in our July 23 blog post for online nurseries to team up with garden centers.
What companies does your business have a synergy with? Is co-venturing a way to cut your costs and expand your business?
Email Contacts: Use Them or Lose Them
This morning, as I was preoccupied with a problem that had sprung up, an email came in. I didn’t recognize the “from” name. The subject read DON’T FORGET!!! Never mind the fact that it was totally blind and offered no benefit, the caps and exclamation points added to my pre-existing annoyance. I opened the email anyway, and the bold red and black graphics and huge type shouted at me. Not finding an opt-out option, I hit “Reply” and shot back Take me off your mailing list!!
No sooner did I hit “Send”… (Click on headline for more…)
Why Blogs Boost Search Engine Rankings
I was just asked a question about the difference between blogs and enewsletters.
Enewsletters help nurture relationships by give customers and prospects positive reinforcement for opening your emails by giving them something of value. Blogs are more effective as a prospecting tool because of the way they help boost search engine rankings.
Robert Scoble and Shel Israel, authors of Naked Conversations, explain it this way: (Click headline for more…)
What You Can Learn From Blogging
When I launched the Let’s Grow Blog just over 3 months ago, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was anticipating a steady, gradual increase in search engine traffic, and that’s indeed happening. What I didn’t foresee were other benefits, both for Evergreen Marketing and our clients. For instance: (Click on the headline for more)
