HeatherStone commented on the following stories on BizSugar
What You Need to Know About Branding For Success
"Hi Amelia, Thanks for the post! There's an awful lot involved in branding, some of it, like "positioning" can be hard to directly control. Still, all these points are important to think about when considering your brand since they provide a starting point to help you consider how you want your business to communicate to customers. "Marketing Essentials: Influence Your Market With Branding
"Amelia, Though I know the traditional wisdom is that small businesses worried less about branding before the coming of the Internet, but I think the practice of branding has been with small business far longer than the Internet even if it might rarely have been called this. I can recall one local entrepreneur who never advertised in the local papers always relying on word of mouth to market a small family restaurant he operated for years with a couple of family members. The restaurant itself had been created as an outlet for another family product. Though in this small community many similar products existed, the family name brand won out and the restaurant became such a local landmark that the same papers who had never been paid to advertise it, ran front page stories when the restaurant closed after decades of overwhelming success. I'd argue that this kind of local branding has been the secret to small business success for years and goes far beyond a clever blog and effective social marketing. We must always focus on what we do and the impression it makes upon our customers. That's the key to branding and to eventual success. "What to Look for in Good Sales Copy
"Hi Amelia, Credibility is definitely a big issue and I think, in some cases, it is built over time. Every post and everything you put in your copy either builds or detracts from that credibility. And, of course, the other thing to remember is that, after spending a long time trying to built credibility, it's very easy to loose it with just one wrong move."New Technology Makes Small the New Big in Business
"The key is that small business can take advantage of so many tools now without having to reinvent the wheel. I suspect we will soon see a time, if we are not seeing it already, when large business custom technology will become a liability rather than an asset making it harder to match the agility of a small business using ready-made tech tools."Common Mistakes New Online Store Owners Make That Prevent Them From Ever Being Profitable
"Steve, I'm sure if there's anyone knowledgeable about making an online store successful, it's you. I'm also sure most online stores take a bit of tweaking to gain real profitability. Thanks for starting us on the right road here."How to Beat Your Competition: Lessons from "Eclipse the Wonder Horse"
"Hi Robert, A key theme here seems to be essentially competing by refusing to compete, essentially finding a market you can dominate rather than compete in another market where someone else already has the lead. It's probably also worth noting that the best way to wow your customers is in a market where essentially you are the first on the scene. Good advice for any business, definitely. "Subscribe
6 Ways To Increase Your Solo Small Business Sales
"Great ideas here, Thomas. Especially like the distinction between finding more customers and converting more. Thanks for sharing it here at BizSugar.com "