Small Business Marketing: Ads, Affiliates and Revenue

Running a small business can be stressful and all-consuming, almost to the point where you might wonder why you bother. Just to put things in perspective, Andrew Lock, our small business marketing expert, has a few visual reminders of jobs that are far worse than anything you have to deal with. Yes, gratitude is a good thing.

Then it’s on to a viewer who asks for help to fix his not-so-successful TV advertising. Do you agree with Andrew’s assessment?

If you’re interested in affiliate marketing, you’ll like this week’s Web tool, and be sure to see how you can leverage existing assets in your business to make even more money. Just click on the video logo below to watch the episode.

There are some jobs that are simply insane, and in this week’s episode, I share a few of them with you, so watch out for that.

Join me in Orlando, November 5-7 in Orlando, Florida, and for just $197 you can hear and interact with 16 experts in various areas of small business, to help you. More details at the Orlando Summit.

This week’s question concerns TV advertising. Viewer Bob Postal has a new TV commercial for a teeth-whitening product, and it’s not working as well as he expected. I’ll dissect it for you and provide some suggestions on how to improve it.

If you don’t have an affiliate program, you should definitely consider it. Affiliates sell for you, and you only pay them for sales made, so it’s a great solution for marketing your products and services to a wider audience, without risk. I receive many questions about how to attract, and manage affiliates, and I highly recommend the affiliate dashboard from Marlon Sanders. There are six step-by-step sections that guide you through the process very simply.

The big marketing lesson comes from PC World magazine, which I really enjoy as a subscriber. Interestingly, the latest issue had an extra cover on the front of the magazine, that’s actually an advertisement. I’ll show why and how they did it to generate more revenue, and how you can adapt this principle for your small business.

Remember as always, everything is marketing, and marketing is everything.

Let me know your opinion about the topics covered in the show to help your small business this week — leave your comment below, it’s really easy to do.

Andrew Lock is a self-described maverick marketer and the creator and host of Help! My Business Sucks, a free, weekly Web TV show full of practical marketing tips, advice and resources to help small businesses “get more done and have more fun.”