What do July 4th and small businesses have in combo? Freedom. That’s right – MarketingProfs just completed their survey of 1,100 small business owners and found quite a few interesting opinions about technology, the future, and why they love being small business owners. Included in that infographic is the statistic that 72% of small business owners say having their own company gives them more freedom.

We hope you all enjoy your July 4th weekend and celebrations!

I’ve just partaken in a drug before writing this blog post. Trust me, you’ll be glad I did. Otherwise it would be B-O-R-I-N-G. Instead, I did a little (a Grande to be exact), just to boost my creativity. Don’t gasp – I bet you have a little of this on your desk right now too. It’s called Caffeine and no one things about it as a performance enhancing drug – but it is. HubSpot did a nice little piece about a few types of these and how they can help, or hurt our creativity process.

Twitter still has lots of people stumped. What’s a hashtag? How do I retweet? Who should I follow and how do I cut through the clutter? Well, we could spend an entire week trying to answer all of those questions. So, let’s start more simple. First things first – are you on Twitter? If not, get an account. If so, start tweeting. It can be as easy as saying where you are, telling a joke, or talking about your lunch (because seriously there are a lot of people who just talk food out there). If you are still stumped on what to say, HubSpot had a great little article with 8 formulas to set up a tweet. It’s a great starter for those of you out there still getting your Tweetfeet wet.

It’s the last day of school for many kids in my area, and yet I’m already thinking towards back to school. It’s the marketers curse… always thinking and planning for what’s next. According to Twitter data, Back to School marketing starts in July. Amazing isn’t it? Kids aren’t even bored of summer and yet we will begin to see the first ads for backpacks, school supplies, and clothes. So, if you are one of the retailers who have back to school items to sell; start your copywriting, media buys, and planning now so that are you ready to debut your ads in a month. And if not, then get outside and enjoy some sunshine!

A survey of Canadian women aged 18 to 64 sought to find out which brands they love, what turns them off, and what they wish advertisers knew about crafting messages aimed at them.

What women hate
1) Don’t underestimate women’s intelligence. Ads that assume they know nothing about cars, sports, or finances are marketing poison.
2) Stop patronizing. Wake up and realize that women don’t enjoy being talked down to. No more pictures of women laughing while eating salad, dancing while talking about menstrual products, or getting irrationally excited about yogurt.
3) Show you care. Your products may be good, but if you are not a good corporate citizen female consumers will take note.
4) Women as sex objects. They see your beer ads and your cologne ads. Don’t think they don’t see them.
5) Make it funny. Stop assuming men are the only ones with a sense of humor.
6) Show moms as real people. Not all mothers drive minivans, and not all of them want the picture of sunny perfection that seems to be in every ad targeted to moms. Show the mess and imperfections. Show working moms balancing their lives.
7) And speaking of moms, when it comes to their daughters, stop painting everything pink.
8) Health matters. Don’t sugarcoat your health claims. Women are trying to lead healthier lives, not only for themselves, but their families as well. Make it easier to get the information that they need.

MarketingProfs recently published an article about the new internet domains and it’s a must read for anyone with an online presence. If you didn’t already know, 2014 will mark the launch of new internet domains. Instead of simply using the ones from the inception of the internet (.com, .org, etc), companies will now have the option of using a wide variety of new domains. So the big questions for marketers is – how do you control your brand when all of these new domains launch?Which domains should you be adding to your company’s online brand? And how do you go about doing this? Read through to find out the answers to all of these questions.

Do you have a plan in place to deal with negative social media posts? eMarketer reports that only 45% of marketers have a formal plan in place for dealing with these comments. People are using social media more than ever as a way to vent their frustration when a company lets them down. It’s an easy way for consumers to assert their criticism via word of mouth to all of their friends. This is why it is extra important that you not only have a plan in place for how to respond to these messages, but that you also respond as quickly as possible. 52% of respondents say they respond within 24 hours, but that number should be much higher. It should be your goal to respond to 100% of messages (both positive and negative) online within 24 hours. In your customized plan, make sure you bring in other departments to help solve the problem. Too often, customer service or marketing is left alone to answer questions. It’s always good to have someone in each department that you can tap if you need their help.

It’s time for another short little Q&A with our consumer and event marketing guru, Steve Stagnaro.

• What did you want to be when you grew up?  I wanted to be on the radio.
• When did you first get interested in Marketing?   In college.  The idea that the clever use of words could help a business prosper was exciting.
• What was your first marketing job?  KUHL radio while still attending Cal Poly.
• What part of marketing do you find most interesting?  I like trying to stay ahead of what the market finds compelling and then choosing the best method of reaching that market.
• Which area of marketing do you want to learn more about in 2014?  I want to continue my education in all things digital media.
• What advice do you have for someone who wants to start their own Marketing Agency?  Learn something about how a good business operates.  Work for someone who does marketing well.  And finally, forget about taking every weekend off.  Owning a marketing agency means you will never work harder, but if you are a true entrepreneur, you will never be happier.

For more about Steve and his background, head here.

Google has become so prevalent in society that is has become it’s own verb. How often have you said, “Just Google it”?  And what happens when people try to google you? Do you show up on the first page of rankings? Try it. It’s a good test to see how many adjustments you need to make to your website.

There are two ways to get traffic to your site through Google. The first is via paid traffic – this is when your website would show up at the top of the search page for certain keywords. The other way is via organic traffic. This means your site shows up on search engine results pages because of its relevance to the search terms. If you own  a dry cleaning business, and your website simply says “cleaning” versus “dry cleaning”, or your website never says the word “clothes” you could be missing valuable organic search traffic when someone Googles “clothes dry cleaning”. Instead, you’ll get people looking for carpet or house cleaning. You are probably laughing to yourself about this type of mistake – but you would be surprised what businesses leave off their website in text because it is conveyed in a picture, graphic, or logo.

Buying keywords is a great way to market your business. But why buy the keywords when you get it for free? A little work on your website – called Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – and you can gain that organic search traffic with no budget. Want to know more? Hubspot has a great little On-Page SEO Template that you can download.