Remember your first date with your current partner? Maybe it was a great experience that makes you wistfully smile when you think back on it. Maybe it was an epic disaster straight out of a sitcom. However it worked out, it was interesting and fun (or at least memorable enough for a second try.) With that in mind, how long has it been since you had that sort of excitement? If you’re like many of us, you can probably think of a long list of work projects that are more recent than your last date. If we’re going to keep our lives balanced, it’s important to remember the excitement of that first date and try to recapture it once in a while. And what better way than a date night? 

According to a study by Asurion, Americans check their phones 96 times per day—or at least once every 10 minutes. So, it’s no surprise that text message open rates are at 98 percent. 

That’s right, 98 percent!

Compare that to email marketing’s 20 percent open rate…

If you’re not already using text message marketing, you’re considering it now, right?

There aren’t many advantages to a long commute to and from work. It’s the price you pay for living in the country and working in the city. Sure, you may be able to catch up on some podcasts and use your vehicle as a mobile office to some extent, but it doesn’t make the rush hour traffic any more entertaining. A long commute does have one advantage, however. That long trek enables you to shift gears from work to home and from home to work every day. That type of separation can be a key step to helping your work life balance.

Kentucky Fried Chicken has been around for a long time. The company got its start during the great depression and opened its first franchise restaurant in Utah in 1952. A lot has changed since then. Its original founder, Colonel Harland Sanders, sold his interest in 1964. Along the way, the company recognized emerging health trends and officially changed its name to KFC. It has added spicy chicken, chicken poppers and even chicken bowls to its repertoire. One thing that hasn’t changed is that it still makes fried chicken. The new offerings aren’t really new. They’re a new twist on an old product. 

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If you’re a football fan, you watch the Super Bowl for the game. Everyone else watches for the commercials. The ads are expensive. For this year’s game, a thirty-second spot could cost as much as $10 million. Do these high-dollar advertisers get a good return on their investment? It depends on who you ask. Like ads everywhere else, there are some Super Bowl commercials that blandly blend into the woodwork and others that are talked about for years. One of the best ways these little bits of marketing legerdemain can stand out is through the use of humor. Whether it’s Bud Light’s Bud Knight, singing frogs or a colorful Pepsi extravaganza, it’s the funny ones that everyone remembers.

Have you ever seen a college professor give a lecture? Some of them are riveting, but many others turn out to be dry and boring. The professor is probably highly qualified. They wouldn’t be lecturing otherwise. They’re probably passionate about the subject matter, too. Yet despite your best intentions, you end up tuning them out. A chance to gain knowledge from an expert in his or her field turns into an exercise in trying to stay awake. 

Why? Maybe it’s not the message, but how it’s being delivered. Business is ultimately about communication and how effectively you communicate will go a long way in determining how effective your business is. The most basic communication model looks like this:

Contrary to popular belief, marketing involves much more than setting up a Facebook page, renting a billboard and running a few ads. Another valuable marketing tool that you can employ in your business is the sales letter. If you’re not familiar with the idea, think of it as a paper salesman. The purpose is to convince your audience to purchase a good or service.

We live in a world of technological marvels that would have astounded our ancestors. It’s pretty amazing when you think about. We have access to more information on our phones that the ancients of Alexandria had in their entire library. Videos, news, sports and more are just a click away. We’re connected to our world in more ways than we ever thought possible. 

As nonessential businesses close down across the world, more and more small business owners are left with significantly more time on their hands. However, just because your business isn’t open and running as usual, doesn’t mean you can’t use this time to set it up for success once the current health crisis has resolved.

We’ve compiled a list of things that you can do right now to stay productive and accelerate growth once life goes back to normal:

We’ve all heard the expression about all work and no play making us a dull boy or girl. Sure, work is important, but it shouldn’t be the only thing we have going on in our lives. Like everything, there should be a comfortable equilibrium, and that’s what we’re going to talk about in our upcoming series on work-life balance.

The first part of the series is a fun topic— vacation! Everyone needs to get away now and again. Chances are you’ll remember those two weeks in Cancun a lot longer than you’ll recall the latest work project team you were on. Of course, if you are going to ‘go on holiday’ as the Brits say, you’ll want to start planning. While spontaneity is great sometimes, the general rule is that the more you plan something the more smoothly it will go. In other words, book your vacation NOW.

Advertisements are great, but it’s very difficult to hide their intent. As soon as we see an ad come up on our television screen, computer monitor, phone or tablet, we already know the ad creator is trying to sell us something. With that knowledge comes a certain cynicism. People don’t want to be advertised to, so there’s already a built-in resistance to the message before the message even starts. 

One of the best ways to combat that inherent distrust is by being authentic. Customers want to deal with people, not faceless corporate entities. They want someone to have a conversation with them about their needs, not to be the subject of a slick advertising campaign. People want to see you. The more genuine you are, the more they’ll come to trust that you’re trying to help them instead of parting them from their money.

Holidays are tailor-made for great marketing. A lot of the work is already done. Every holiday already has its own history, theme, tone and often color scheme. Valentine’s Day is about romance, and its color is deep red. Halloween is about scary things, and its colors are orange and black. Red and green together practically scream Christmas. The list goes on. 

It all sounds great, but what do you do if there isn’t a handy holiday that coincides with your upcoming marketing campaign? Not to worry. There are plenty of holidays. You just have to find them.

Recently I called the billing office of my healthcare provider about a bill I should not have received. They quickly tossed me to the Billing Investigation department where the woman I spoke with was condescending and repeatedly insisted it was all my fault. 

The fact that the charges had been coded incorrectly (by their office) was somehow my fault because I didn’t call my insurance company prior to my routine doctor’s visit to verify coverage. Really??

Somewhere along the line we’ve all had the experience of being uncomfortably near someone who’s, shall we say… not so fresh. Whether that person is coming from a long day at a dirty, sweaty job or simply hasn’t bothered to invest in even the barest level of soap technology, the effect is the same. The last thing you want is for your email list to resemble these unfortunate souls. No, you want it showered and fresh and ready to face the day. 

So how do you keep your email list smelling like a rose? In practical terms, email list hygiene means making sure that every address on your list is active and deliverable. If they’re not, you’ll need to purge them in order to reduce your risk of spam traps and other digital maladies.