If you run a small business, branding is going to be your best friend. It allows you to build a great reputation without spending huge advertising dollars and will stand you in good stead, far longer than a glossy one page in a magazine.

So, what are the characteristics of a successful brand? Let`s take a look:

• Gives back to the client. People remember when you do something extra for them or provide exceptional value.
• Represents a solid fact. Rather than basing your brand on something that changes frequently, base it on something solid, a quality you can uphold long term.
• Is positioned to always be on the customer`s mind. When done right, branding will be positioned so that people think of it when they need your type of product or service.
• Is consistent. Don`t constantly change your angle or your tag line . . . it will confuse people and water the brand down.

Branding your business is the best thing you can do, but you do need to make sure that you take the time to do it right, or you`ll only have a lot of wasted time and money on your hands.

In short, the answer is yes. However, for many small businesses, a blog seems like a time consuming way to promote your business. That doesn`t have to be the case, though.

Blogging for business is something that every business can do with virtually no budget and it will bring in potential clients. And it really isn`t as hard as you might think!

Blog posts don`t have to be long. In fact, many blogs get away with just 100 -200 words. You can say a lot in that little bit, if you word it right. No time to write? Then you can hire a ghostwriter who will not only write the posts for you, making them search engine friendly, but will even post them for you for a nominal fee.

By making good use of the articles that are written on your blog, you can catch the attention of the search engines, which will help boost traffic. Also, you can do article marketing, which is completely free, to gain more attention for your blog, and comment on other blogs. It works very well and there`s really no reason why a business shouldn`t try blogging.

Most business owners consider article marketing to be for online businesses only, but that`s actually not the case. While you should certainly have a business website even for an offline business, article marketing can be an effective way of boosting recognition of your brand and product online and off.

Online
Article marketing an online business is a great way to get lots of backlinks and to boost your SEO. You can link to specific pages in your bio at the end of the articles and this offers even more benefits.

Offline
While you may not need links to your offline business, you can still offer up location or phone number and email. Let people contact you. You might be surprised at how many actually come in to your offline business because of these articles.

Don`t discount article marketing as being a very valuable promo method, no matter where your business is based.

With all the other things you have to worry about as you run a business, data storage is probably one of the last things on your list of things to do. However, it should definitely be a priority, since you`ll find that your business is in serious trouble should you lose your information!

Sadly, too many people have discovered the importance of data storage the hard way, by losing it all. This is one of the most difficult things to deal with when running a small business, particularly if you have all your information on your computer.

Imagine if you lost all your client information? Your invoices and bills? It`s a big deal. And it can cause a major setback that most businesses will spend weeks, if not month struggling to overcome. You`re far better off just taking a little bit of time to actually backup your data and make sure that your data storage solution is secure so you can keep going even if your main system fails.

Most people don`t really worry too much about data loss until it`s too late. Don`t be one of them!

Taking business too seriously could be your downfall. If you`re a small business owner, branding is a big deal and should be a priority in building your business. However, too many small business owners forget to enjoy themselves and have a little fun with branding.

Branding your business is basically getting your name and concept out there. You want people to remember you and while handing out business cards and placing ads will certain move you toward that goal, sometimes it`s the not-so-serious things that catch people`s attention.

For example, I once knew a man who had a software company. When the company released a new beta version of their software, rather than simply send it out with the standard paperwork, each box had a chocolate ladybug attached to it and a little note that read “This is a beta version, please let us know if you find any bugs.” A very simple concept, but you can bet the recipients of those cute chocolate bugs remembered him!

There are many ways to get your message out there while having fun. Whether you do something big, like offer a free circus or keep it small with something like a mime who hands out pop-out business cards, the idea is to get people to remember you. Make them chuckle or even laugh out loud and you`ll have them hooked on your brand for life.

Copywriting is one of those things that should definitely be hired out if you can`t do an excellent job yourself. The fact is, this isn`t an area to mess around with. If you aren`t going to be able to turn out amazing copy for your business, get someone who can.

When it comes to sales copy for your business, you need writing that works. Professional copywriters know just how to phrase things to get people in the right mindset to buy.

That being said, many small business owners have learned to do copywriting on their own and are quite good at it. It is possible to learn, but you do need to consider the time cost involved. Do you have time to learn a completely new skill set? Is it worth your time to learn? For those who have more time than money, it`s probably a good move to learn copywriting. However, not everyone will find this works for them.

Hiring someone else to do your copywriting for you is a great way to ensure that your website and materials turn out just the way you intended . . . as conversion tools.

Article marketing is a pretty effective method of promoting your business these days, but unfortunately, a lot of business owners don`t realize just how valuable it can be and they either don`t bother or they don`t put a lot of effort into this area of their business.

If you`re looking for super cheap marketing, then article marketing is the way to go. In fact, you`ll find that you are able to draw quite a bit of traffic to your website with just a couple of well-placed articles. If they are well written, it`s quite likely they will even go viral and you`ll not only end up with more traffic and potential buyers, you`ll also get some great back links.

Article marketing is definitely something that businesses of all sizes can use, but most of them won`t ever get around to it and have no idea what they are missing. If you want to start growing your business at a steady rate, you`d do well to try article marketing, even if only on a small scale.

There are quite a few things to consider in article marketing, including if the article is of good enough quality to attract readers. People have short attention spans and will only stick around to read the article if they are comfortable and interested. So, by assuring that your article marketing ventures are full of useful and interesting information, you will attract more readers and therefore more traffic.

A recent article at ArticlesBase claims that its host is the best article directory online. Is that true?

It really depends on what you use as your criteria for judging and what your niche in marketing is. There are several ways that you can judge, but I have my favorite places to publish. Here are three article directories that I highly recommend:

EzineArticles - EzineArticles is clearly the industry leader. Lots of traffic and lots of article categories. If you do any article marketing at all, you should consider using EzineArticles.

HubPages - HubPages not only allows you to publish your articles, but readers can vote on them and you get paid when they read the articles. You can build “hubs” around your articles and earn a little extra income in the process.

Evan Carmichael - Evan Carmichael publishes articles for entrepreneurs. If you write for a B2B audience then this might be an article directory worth considering.

Are these three article directories the best ones out there? It depends on what you mean by best. If you are a business-to-consumer business then you won’t benefit much from publishing at Evan Carmichael, but you might get a lot from publishing at EzineArticles. You have to analyze your goals and offerings and see what will benefit you.

Copywriting isn’t all about putting nouns and verbs together to form an opinion. There’s more to it than simply good grammar and spelling. Online, especially, copywriting is more about conveying information and developing relationships more than simply selling. Selling may be involved, but if you have your mind set on closing the sale with every exchange then your potential customers are going to see through that and eventually seek to avoid you. You have to build their trust before you can ask for their business and to build trust you have to have copy that lets them know who you are, what your values are, and how you conduct business. They want to trust you. It is up to you to give them the reasons to do so.

Website copywriting can come in different forms and tones. Personal writing is usually best because you can let a little bit of your personality shine through. People like that. They want some stuffy marketing copy that a guy in a white suit and black tie wrote for a paycheck. They want to know a little bit about you and your business values.

I’m not talking about adding pictures of your family around the kitchen table or a complete bio of you and your family. I am talking about keeping it real. You don’t have to put on airs. People know you’re human. If you have excellent copy on your website that lets people know who you are and what you can offer then you will go a long way to building the trust necessary to gain their business.

Traditional marketing is great, but email marketing, even if you aren´t using internet for anything else, can really make a huge difference in your offline business. The majority of your clients will be using email in their daily lives, to communicate with their friends and family, so why not offer them the option of receiving updates from you?

While it´s always a good idea to have a website, you can always give online coupons that people can print off and use in your offline business. But the real advantage of email marketing is simply repeated contact with people who have bought or are interested in buying, your products. This keeps you fresh in their minds and the next time they think of your product, you will be the one who comes to mind.

It isn´t difficult to get people to sign up for your email marketing list. You can have a simple card, form or even a guest book for them to fill out for updates and savings. Make sure you ask people to fill it out and let them know they will get all the latest news if they do so. You might even offer a free gift for signing up.

Of course, offering online signups is even easier, but for many business owners, the offline method works just as well and you´ll be personally inviting each person to join your list. Then the email marketing begins!