Have you been struggling to get your small business out there? Working hard to market, but not really sure what you`re doing? I get a lot of emails asking for advice and though I do try to provide a lot of information on this blog and my website, sometimes you just need a little extra boost. Which is why I`m running a new workshop.

The marketing workshop will be held on Oct. 14th from 6-8:30 pm at Byerlys Community Center Ridgedale, 3081 Ridgedale Drive, Minnetonka, MN 55305. I`ll be covering all the basics to help you get started, including:

• Article marketing
• Social media marketing
• Online press releases
• Using the above for SEO

This is the perfect opportunity if you are in the area (or willing to travel a bit) to learn more about how to effectively market your small business online. The cost is just $50, affordable to all.

To register for this class, just head over to Social Web Training and sign up.

Every small business could use more money, but if you aren`t making a lot right now, then you can “make” more by using frugal blue chip marketing tips! It`s something that can benefit companies of any size, but smaller ones will find it most useful, of course.

Network, network, network. It`s free marketing! Whether you`re at a conference, a community potluck or online in social marketing forums, make sure you put yourself out there and make your business known.

Get a blog. If you don`t already have a business blog, then this should definitely be on the to do list. It`s cost effective and yet a great way to boost your visibility online.

Encourage word of mouth. There are plenty of ways to do this, offer a discount for telling a friend, set up an affiliate program, or offer rewards or 2 for 1 deals for those who bring a friend.

All of these are low cost and yet still very effective. Small businesses can really benefit from implementing these types of marketing techniques into their daily routine.

Should your blog theme and website design match? From a branding perspective the obvious answer is Yes. But that may not always be the best answer. I think it really depends on the purpose for your blog.

I’d say that any blog that exists on the same domain name as your website should have the same design theme. It acts as an extension of your website. But a blog that is on a separate domain name may be something else entirely different. It may or may not have the same design theme depending on its purpose. But when?

Ultimately, only you can answer that question, but here are a few helpful tips that might help you decide:

• If the primary purpose is to promote your website then you can make the design the same as your website’s
• If the content is similar in nature then give them a similar design
• If it is the only blog you have and its purpose is to drive traffic to your website
• If the brand is important enough that you want your blog visitors and your site visitors to see the connection
• If the blog is product-based and you want to ensure that the product is connected with your company name

There may be other reasons to give your blog the same design as your website, but these are the most basic reasons that I can think of. Think long and hard before you start a blog with a different theme than your website. Blue Chip Marketing Tips is its own brand, a separate brand, from Melberg Marketing even though I use this blog to promote the latter. The content is similar to the website and many of my readers know the two are connected, though it isn’t absolutely essential that readers know this. I’m using BCM as a branding tool on its own. That’s an editorial decision and it’s worked well for me. Will it work for you?

When you’re ready to build your website you’ll need to pick a good domain name. There are several ways to do this:

• You can pick a keyword-based domain name
• Go for the branding effect - ie. Small Business Mavericks
• Combine the two approaches and brand a keyword-based domain name

Obviously, the best approach is No. 3, but you can be successful with the other two as well. Choose whether having your keyword in your domain name is important or not. Keep in mind that if you opt for the branding effect over keyword-based then you might have some initial struggles in seeing your website ranked, but it is possible to do it with the branded site name. Still, you shouldn’t do either until you do your keyword research.

The reason you want to do your keyword research first is to outline the possibilities. You want to see what keywords are the most popular and most profitable from a search point of view. After you’ve done and looked at your competition then you can start thinking about your name - but you’ll also want to define your business little bit first. What is your niche? Do you have a niche within a niche? Are you targeting a specific demographic? Know as much about your business as you can before you start.

Next, you’ll want to make a list of potential domain names. After you’ve come up with names, search whois to find out if they are taken. If not, snatch up the one you want as quickly as possible because some people watch to see what is being searched for then buy up the ones with the most potential. You could stand to lose your domain name if it’s sales-worthy.

If any of this seems confusing or you need a little help along the way, just contact Melberg Marketing for the right domain name guidance.

You’ve put together a great marketing brochure. Excellent copywriting. Stunning graphics. Beautiful paper. But you’ve got a tight schedule. Is the deadline really important?

That depends. Do you want your customer to receive your brochure in time to take action on it? If not, then deadlines aren’t important. But if you want your customer to receive the brochure in time to be able to make a decision on attending your event or taking advantage of that special then, yes, deadlines are critical.

Even in this Internet age and the era of digital delivery, print runs still happen every day and the deadline is just as important now as it ever was. Miss one deadline and it could mar your reputation forever. The customer will not wait for your brochure. They’re going to get what they want or need even if they have to shop with the competition. Be sure to plan your work and prepare for enough time to meet all the demands of the print and production process.

As a small business entrepreneur I have had to settle many disputes between specialists who are experts in their area of work knowledge. One area where there seems to be a lot of conflict is in the area of website development.

There are two specialists who tend to give advice in other’s areas and shouldn’t. One gets upset when the other gives bad advice and then all hell breaks loose. This can best be averted by the specialists respecting each other’s strengths and expertise.

Website designers are highly creative people. They love to use their imaginations create pretty designs that make websites attractive. Find a good one and you’ll want to keep her. But many website designers do not understand search engine optimization and will sometimes try to incorporate elements into a website that are going to hurt your company’s chances at achieving high ranks. That’s not to say they are bad designers. They just have a few things to learn outside of their specialty.

Search engine optimization specialists, on the other hand, range from the highly creative to the highly technical. Their job is to give advice on the best ways to achieve high rankings. While some of what these guys can do rely upon a good web design, many times SEOs can make big deals over little items. While they may be technically correct, there are times when you might want to sacrifice the SEO benefits you would gain by their advice in order to create a positive customer experience. This is where you have to use your head. As CEO of your company, it is your job to make those decisions and to settle those disputes. That means doing a little investigation and educating yourself.

Good search engine optimization specialists try to use webmaster guidelines at the search engines to improve your rankings and studies show that websites that do not show up on the first page of the search engine for their key terms are likely to not get much traffic. So it would behoove you to listen to their advice. But if you get all the traffic in the world and it bounces from your website due to poor design then what difference does it make? It is important to set goals for your website development team early on and to get everyone on your team on the same page and working toward that goal. A good way to do that is to have a website development manager who understands the process well enough to settle the disputes.

You’ve heard all the advice and you’re still stuck with the question, “What does it mean to produce quality content?” It’s a good question.

You might think, by listening to all the SEOs out there, that quality content is content that gets you good rankings. Well, not necessarily. Sure, if you don’t rank well for your key terms then having the best content in the world won’t matter as you likely won’t be getting much traffic. But there is always PPC.

But what about that content? I’m going to try to define what good content is and let’s see if we can nail it down.

Good content is content that appeals to your target customer. In other words, it’s just what they were looking for. For instance, if you are a local shoe store then you’ll want to write content that will invite people into your store to buy shoes. Not fluff. Real, valuable content. That requires understanding the needs of your customers.

You’ll have to ask yourself all the same questions you would ask for any other marketing campaign: What demographic do we serve? How far will people drive? etc. But you’ll also need to ask whether or not you want to sell through your website. If so, then your content needs to sell. If the goal is to motivate your customer to drive to your brick and mortar store then your content needs to be geared that way. But always, always it needs to be about shoes. That’s what you customer is there for, right?

Search engines have nearly ruined customer service. It seems that everyone wants to be No. 1, but few people want to act like No. 1. Here’s a good article that represents what I mean.

Ask yourself if doing business with your company is easy from the customer’s point of view. You can have the best search engine optimization in the world and if your customer service is lousy then it won’t matter. You can have the sleekest web design in your industry, but if customers can’t navigate or have trouble finding what they want then it won’t matter. If they have trouble finding your phone number or reaching someone to answer their questions when they call then it doesn’t matter that you have a pretty website ranked No. 1 on Google for the most valuable key term.

The most important thing in business, even a Web business, is customer service. Make the customer happy and you’ll keep them long term. Frustrate them and they’ll find your competition.

Blame it on Google. They went Chrome.

Yes, Google is introducing its own browser, but that’s not the subject of this blog post. Instead, I’d like to discuss how they are marketing it - through an online comic book. How innovative!

Yes, this is a great concept and it’s the kind of online marketing that companies need to be thinking about doing these days. It’s creative, it’s informative, it creates a buzz. My guess is that Google’s online comic book marketing their new browser, aptly titled “Chrome”, will get a lot of inbound links. Not just because it’s Google, but because it’s good marketing. The comic book is well laid out, well thought out, provides lots of useful information, and breaks down technical jargon into everyday language. If your company isn’t doing this kind of marketing online then you need to study Google’s playbook.

Look, bottom line: If you’re going to succeed on the Web then you need to get creative. Stop doing the same ol’ same ol’. Here are 10 easy things you can do today to help you get more creative in your marketing:

1. Stop listening to negative talk. If anyone says you can’t, just close your ears because I know you can.
2. Subscribe to as many RSS feeds in your niche as you can. And read at least three of them each day.
3. See something someone else is doing? Like it? Doesn’t matter; use what others are doing if it is successful. Adapt it for your own situation.
4. Break a glass. No, not literally. Just do something different. Anything. Surprise yourself. It doesn’t even have to be business related. Eat breakfast at the same coffee shop every morning? Well, tomorrow go somewhere else. Break a window.
5. Keep a journal. Write every day. Even if it’s just two sentences. Reflect on what you are doing.
6. Spend 5-15 minutes a day brainstorming for new ideas. You won’t get to them all and don’t try to. At the end of each week, review your brainstorming lists and highlight the top 5 that show some promise. Make a plan to implement them.
7. Read a book. Hold it in your hands. It’s old-fashioned, but it’s also relaxing.
8. Tell someone you love them. Trust me, it works.
9. Resist an impulse. Any impulse. If it’s something you would normally do then break your routine. It’s better than breaking windows.
10. Take a successful person to lunch and listen to everything they say. Ask questions.

Sometimes all it takes a small and simple thing to give you an idea that will rock the world.