Do you truly know who your best customers are? Do you know what motivates them to purchase? Most times I ask my clients this there often identify every demographic because they don't want to walk away from any prospect. Let's admit it is difficult to work on your own marketing.

Running your business is more enjoyable than digging through dry facts or looking for data that is asked for by these 5 key questions.

There will be a lot of similarities, common traits for your customers. It is the unique facts we want to uncover, things that will break down your customer list into multiple personas

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It is one of the most powerful tools for advertising small business and won’t take a big investment to get more traffic to your website. Google AdWords gets you first page position immediately. You can target your advertising dollars towards prime customers. A small investment gets you in front of “your target” that you have qualified as ready to purchase. PPC can provide a steady stream of visitors to your site, prospects who are searching for your product or service. Google doesn’t require a minimum spend like newspapers, TV or radio. It all makes sense to market with Google pay-per-click, but beware that you don’t make these mistakes that waste those precious marketing dollars. If you plan to create your Adword campaign yourself you need to ask "How to manage Google Adwords?"

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A conversation with a professional marketing manager and how their company sells new products into big retail stores.

Catalpha:    I'm talking with Tracy today.  She is the Retail Marketing Manager for a large consumer health products company.  Tracy, if you could tell me a little bit about what your responsibilities are?

Tracy:     Sure. My responsibilities are to build out the marketing programs within retail. So that's creating the tools for the stores, whether that's indoor events or signage or it could be coupons. 

I'm driving traffic to the store in the Sunday paper, and driving traffic to the aisles and increase the sales in the stores. As well as working with each individual retailer on their marketing program.

And part of that is supporting our sales team and getting them the tools they need to make sales calls, trade shows and trade ads to sell our products into stores.

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With information technology in the front running as one of Baltimore's top industries, there are a number of firms you could turn to help build your website. In our digital age, having a good website is vital to a strong and successful business; in 2011, Forrester Reports stated that 1 trillion dollars in retail sales were influenced by the web.

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As business owners and brand managers, we all have a vision of what we want our audience to experience and feel about our company and product. Positive impression is always celebrated. Criticism is hard to hear and we want to get past it as quickly as possible. How did you handle the most recent criticism? Did you approach it as a single unique issue or is there a strategy in place to remedy the impact?

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We are not alone in your search for customers. You aren't the only option for consumers and Google makes it easy for your competitors to lure them away. You need a marketing and business plan that includes strategies to increase traffic on website, get the phone ringing and your employees busy. These 8 tips can help with many areas of your business including employee development, evaluating your competition, website design, online marketing, package design and building a customer base of raving fans.

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When’s the last time you bought something from someone you didn’t trust?

If you are in the business of selling your services or products online (and who isn't these days), you know how hard it can be to build trust and relationships with clients. It’s just not the same as meeting someone for coffee and being able to give them a firm handshake. You have less time online to make a good impression, and once you do, you have to make sure you are doing everything to keep it. Building positive, trusting relationships through your website will improve interest and engagement, leading to return visitors and increased lead generation. Here are a few tactics that will not only help people trust you and your services, but will help people connect with you too.

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