Over a Decade's Worth of Small Business Marketing Tips From Mike Capuzzi

The January 2013 issue of the SMART Ideas newsletter is available for all subscribers to access (print editions are being mailed this week).  But before I show what’s included in this issue of SMART Ideas, I want to give a shout out to SMART Ideas subscriber, Marty Marsh. Marty took my coffee spill template from the December SMART Ideas issue…

Anybody who has read any of my past articles, read my books or attended any of my webinars knows I’m a big fan of creating personalized, “me to you” marketing. I would be hard-pressed to come up with a better strategy to improve your next marketing campaign than making sure it feels as personalized as possible.  I would challenge you…

  “Brains are like batteries… the more smart ones you have around you… the greater the power!” Or more simply put… two brains are better than one. Better yet, when you bring several smart entrepreneurial minds together and they are working on a common goal, a synergy happens within the group that could not happen with one person by his…

Recently I received what I thought was a great look marketing piece from one of my mastermind members and elder law attorney, Julie Steinbacher of Steinbacher & Stahl. What caught my attention immediately was the size of the marketing piece, in this case a 5.5 inch wide mini pocket folder.  I had never seen a pocket folder this size and…

Earlier this week, I posted an article that shows two advertising examples that use a specific marketing design strategy quite well. If you have not seen this marketing design strategy article, you can check it out here: https://mikecapuzzi.com/big-green-egg/ So what’s the big, important strategy both ads are using? Hopefully the first answer was rather obvious.  Both ads are making excellent…

Marketing design and layout can have a huge impact on the effectiveness and response of your marketing promotions and advertisements.  In this article, I want to show two good examples of marketing design and see if you can find the ONE, BIG smart thing the first ad does really well. The other day I was on a flight and is…

My friend Bill, who is an SEO consultant, emailed me over the weekend after he received my first email about a Google+ Local training webinar I’m hosting on October 30. He was trying to be a wise-guy when he asked me, “Since when are you a Google+ Local marketing expert? LOL.” In typical Philly-fashion, my response was a bit more…

If you have not yet seen Part 1 of this article, please check out: https://mikecapuzzi.com/disney-does-doodles/ I want to thank everybody who took the time to study and come up with what they thought the fundamental flaw was.  There were several good and suitable answers to specific marketing flaws in the Disney piece, but the one that really stuck out for…

Got a neat little multi-panel self-mailer in the mail the other day from Disney, but what really caught my eye was their use of doodles and handwriting in the piece. A few of them looked so similar to CopyDoodles®, I actually checked to see if they some of our hand-drawn doodles (they weren’t, but it’s still neat to see a…

During a recent mastermind meeting, one of my members, Karen Campbell (http://www.campbellscotties.com), shared the idea of using the Mayan calendar end as a potential marketing idea for business owners. As you probably have heard, the Mayan calendar ends on December 21, 2012. What “ends” means is debatable and regardless of the actual specifics (and whether or not the Mayans actually…

“Rudeness is the weak man’s imitation of strength.” – Eric Hoffer, social writer and philosopher Is it me or does it seem people, in general, are becoming ruder and more ill-mannered than ever before?  And I’m not referring to strangers on the highway or at a ball-game. I’m talking about customers and prospects and business interactions. A recent email we…

I want to thank everybody who took the time to post their suggestions as to what they thought was the “fundamental flaw” in Ron Sheetz’s response form.  In case you missed this article, you can check it here: https://mikecapuzzi.com/fundamental-flaw-contest-1/ It’s refreshing to see so many smart marketers reading my articles.  There was a lot of good feedback regarding ways to…