We’re not here to call your baby ugly. But let’s face it, if you’re reading this article, you must think your product or service isn’t the sexiest, easiest to market. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t good potential. Storytelling can help enliven even the most common products. Through these marketing suggestions you can finish the holiday season strong and carry that momentum through next year.

Storytelling Tips for Marketing Boring Products and Services

Find the Hero of The Story

Your product or service—no matter how (traditionally) uninspiring—helps someone. Just figure out who and how. For instance, if you own a 5-minute oil change business, it may not be the sort of thing people get excited about, but you offer a very convenient service.… Read the rest

In their never ending quest to be more relevant to searchers, often to the confusion of business owners, Google has made some massive changes to their Google Business Profile Management.

5 big changes to Google Business Profile Management include:

Add Temporary and Permanent Closures

Google Posts for your search results – featuring updates, offers and events

Insights are now shown Performance Metrics

Suggested Edits – driven by user feedback and not just Business Owners

New Action Icons and Carousel – for more flexibility

You can read all about these changes and how they impact your business here. … Read the rest

Customer loyalty is essential to strong sales.After all, it’s easier to get repeat sales than it is to convince a new consumer to buy from you.But customer loyalty is something grown and nurtured,not bought or ordered. It takes time.

That time investment is worth it because it means more revenue and sticking power. Bill Zinke, Senior Vice President of Marketing at BELFOR Franchise Group said, “One of the key lessons from the pandemic has been [that], in good times, building customer loyalty can help you grow faster and more profitably, and in tough or challenging times, it can be the difference between surviving and going out of business.”

However, just because someone has been buying from you (or donating to you if you’re a non-profit) does not mean they are loyal.… Read the rest

COVID forced many employees to work from home, whether they wanted to or not. As recovery continues employee and employers are deciding between their preferred work location.

Many employees chose to remain at home even when their business called them back. Some employers, on the other hand, decided to trim costs and allow employees to stay home indefinitely.

This battle between home and the office also created a third group — those who are leaving the traditional workforce to “do their own thing.” As we have seen with recent rising costs like skyrocketing property and rent, increasing fuel charges, and groceries, the dollar just isn’t covering what it used to.Salaries aren’t keeping up with costs. The average increase in salaries since 2021 is 3.4%, while the average increase in costs (the inflation rate) is 8.5%.… Read the rest