Tag Archives: Marketing

My 11 Favorite Online Marketing Tools

My Six ELEVEN Favorite Online Marketing Tools Last updated: August 10, 2020Originally published: March 4, 2014 Read time: 11 minutes, 2 seconds Westchester Marketing Cafe has been working remotely – using online tools – for, well, forever really. With so many people now finding themselves also working remotely, we figured it was time to update our list of favorite productivity tools. The following are my favorite online marketing tools and some tips and tricks for using them effectively. These are all products that I know and love and use myself. (There has been no compensation exchanged for any of these recommendations.) Communication Gmail Like most people, I have a business email address and a personal email address; and I know many people who have multiples of each. I prefer to have everything come into one place so I don’t have to log in and out or toggle between accounts. It…
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image of a chocolate cookie

10 Things You Must Know About Working With A Web Designer

Last updated: October 7, 2024Updated: May 8, 2019Originally published: January 3, 2008 Read time: 8 minutes, 39 seconds There are a few different ways to create a website for your organization. One option is to do it yourself. There are certainly a lot of DIY website solutions available. Technology has gotten to the point where a drag and drop interface is available on most content management systems including WordPress, Wix, Squarespace. These platforms allow you to easily edit your website and keep your content up-to-date. The easier it is to edit content, the more likely it is to get done. And fresh content is good marketing and helps with search engine optimization. The drawback of building your own website, however, is it leaves you open to creating a website based on what you can figure out and not based on your marketing goals. So while homemade is great for cookies,…
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marketing silos

Marketing Silos: Targeted Marketing Strategy Vs. Shotgun Approach

I see it all the time; folks implementing some whiz-bang trick for marketing their business. You know who you are. You’re at a networking event and talking to an SEO guru who told you something about optimizing your website. You’re having lunch with a social media expert who talked about leveraging YouTube for your business. It all sounds so good…and so easy. And they do you a favor because they are nice and set up your this or that for you so you can get started. And it’s all good. Except that now you have silos where you should have a field. Not that these techniques are bad; you should have an understanding of search engine optimization for your website, and social media is a given to help get the word out about your business. Rather than taking a shotgun approach, however, you will be better served by a targeted…
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piggy bank

When Is A Bargain Not A Bargain? Qualifying your marketing budget.

Budgets are tight and marketing is often the first line item that gets cut. Marketing budgets need to earn their keep but how do you know if they are doing so? Let me share with you some real-world scenarios and the lessons that can be drawn from them. A bargain isn’t a bargain if you don’t need the service. I got a call recently from a prospect. He is in a very competitive industry and knows he needs to be “out there” with respect to online marketing. To that end he began working with a vendor who specializes in his industry. They were going to take care of everything for him; hosting his website, content creation, analytics, etc. He contracted with them for their complete package. But that vendor only focused on one aspect of his business, so he contracted with another vendor to flesh out  his sub-specialty. They were…
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Westchester Marketing Cafe lunchbox

Unlocking Your Online Marketing Potential (video)

Welcome to our Summer Lunchbox Series on online marketing webinars. Here is the first webinar in the series: “Unlocking Your Online Marketing Potential” This webinar was prerecorded so live questions are not possible. Feel free, however to contact us if you’d like any additional information about anything discussed during the webinar.

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Jann Mirchandani On “Westchester Means Business” [podcast]

It was my pleasure to talk to Dr. Marsha Gordon, President and CEO of Business Council of Westchester on her radio show “Westchester Means Business.” I headed down to New Rochelle, to the WVOX studios, to talk about how businesses can use online marketing to grow. We talked about how online marketing might work with traditional marketing, social media marketing and email marketing. We covered a lot of ground in 30 minutes! In case you missed it you can listen to it right here! Listen to interview on “Westchester Means Business”.

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Using Coupons To Improve Sales

There was a feature by Carolyn M. Brown in a recent issue of Black Enterprise magazine that offered some good advice on using coupons to improve sales. I thought I’d share her list and add some insights based on our clients’ experiences. 1. Offer a percentage or dollar amount off each purchase. This is a great suggestion. It rewards more spending with greater savings. It also discourages “customers” that come in and spend up to your coupon value and no more. 2. Offer online discounts We have one client who offers free shipping for orders over $30. It’s right there in the sidebar! Another client, SoundEarth, includes coupons in their newsletter providing subscribers with a “thank you” for being loyal readers. These are both easy to implement and again, reward spending with savings. 3. Tweet discounts and daily deals Carolyn offers some great suggestions here: offer one-day-only or just-for-the-next-3-hours deals…
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Elevator Speeches That Work

Elevator Speeches That WORK

(Podcast by Guest Blogger, Karen Graves of Your Sales Fix) Good marketing often requires networking. It also requires having a clear message about who you are and what you do. But that’s easier said than done. Often small business owners dread or avoid networking. When they meet someone for the first time they may struggle with how to respond to the question, “What do you do?” They might wonder if the people they’re meeting “get” what they do. If this describes you, this is a must listen to podcast with Karen Graves, Sales Success Mentor of Your Sales Fix.

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The Boldness Of Your Brand

The Boldness of Your Brand

Many of you may already know that Marketing Cafe is the remake of Mirchandani Consulting. We spent the better part of a year focusing on rebranding; working with brand experts, business coaches, and designers to help us hone in on our essential essence – helping small businesses take control of their online marketing. It was a challenging process. It was very tempting to hang on to all sorts of stuff that we could do; we can do design, we can do logos, we can do business cards. After all, we had done all of those things.But it was time to be bold. It was time to draw a line in the sand and say we could do those things – but we do not. We focus solely on online marketing. And you know what? It worked. Here are some of the lessons we learned and how you might apply them to your own…
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