​Despite recent social media entrants such as Snapchat or Pinterest, Facebook continues to be the platform of choice for engaging with users. Its ability to captivate users' attention is what makes it so effective for businesses to reach new customers. Statistics reveal that people use Facebook (and its related properties) every single day.
With such broad reach, any entrepreneur or small business owner looking to grow their online presence should not overlook Facebook.
Creating a business page is a great first step, but this action alone is not enough to stand out. You should be up to date on all the latest strategies to captivate your audience, turn them into leads and convert them into customers.
Here are 25 effective, yet easy-to-follow Facebook marketing tips and tricks that will help you generate sales for your business. And best of all, these are tips you can implement for free today. All you need is to put in some time and dedication. 
How to get started1. Create a business page, not a personal profile.This is something a lot of entrepreneurs starting out on Facebook often get confused about. If you create a regular (personal) Facebook page with your business name and details, it is not  a business page as per Facebook's rules and regulations. Facebook recognizes personal and business pages as different.  You should have a dedicated business page.
To create your business page on Facebook, you can simply click on the Pages section on Facebook.com, followed by the Create Page button. The advantages of business page differ from those of a personal page. With a business page:

• You can enjoy unique tools and features that Facebook designed to help manage your business needs.
• Your fans can subscribe to automatically receive your updates to your page.
• A business page will add to the brand profile of your business, thus establishing trust with your customers.

2. Create a username or custom short URL.When you create a Facebook business page, Facebook assigns a random URL to your page. Instead, you can obtain a username or vanity URL (as it is often called). This makes it easier for users to search for and recognize your business page. A vanity URL also helps with:

• Increasing brand awareness and trust among customers
• Enhancing SEO search results for your business
• Integrating with link retargeting and UTM tools

As a bonus tip, you can optimize your vanity URL to include targeted keywords in order to further boost your SEO. 
Perfect your profile3. Capture attention with a cover photo.A picture speaks a thousand words. Convey the essence of your business with a well-thought-out cover photo. In general, it is recommended to use an 851x315-pixel photo as the cover of your Facebook business page.
Keep the following points in mind while uploading a cover photo for your Facebook business page:

• Focus on the mobile-first appearance of your cover image.
• Preferably, use right alignment for your cover photo.
• Pin a related post below your cover photo .

4. Optimize your profile picture.Use your company logo or title to create a well-designed profile picture. If you are a proud solopreneur, consider putting your own photo as the profile picture. Here are some tips to keep in mind when selecting your profile picture:

• Preferably, select a profile picture that is 180x180 pixels or larger.
• Ensure that your profile picture shows your passion for your business or product.
• Check that your picture resonates with your core customer audience.
• Make sure that your profile picture helps you stand out from your competitors. 

5. Craft the About section so it speaks for your business.The About section is a great way to let your customers know about your business and what you offer. For business pages on Facebook, the About tab is located on the left-hand side of your business page. 
Here, visitors can learn more about your product offering, website URLs, Instagram pages, and other relevant information about how they can reach you. Be smart; make good use of these sections.
Maintain your brand6. Respond quickly to messages. While the intention behind a Facebook business page is to better connect with customers, why not prove it? The more responsive you are to customers' requests and private messages, the more responsive "stamp" you are likely to get on your page. 
You might have seen badges for businesses indicating how quickly they respond to messages, such as "very responsive," "typically replies within a day," etc. Though responding is not mandatory as per Facebook rules, it serves as social proof that you care about your customers by answering their questions or concerns.
7. Share your achievements.Your business has come a long way to reach where you are at today. You have had several achievements along the way. Share such milestones with your followers and let them join in too. For example, share a post when you reach your first 1,000 likes, first 100 customers or second anniversary. When creating a page post, simply select a Milestone to add and share your achievement. 
8. Create call-to-action buttons with a purpose.Business pages on Facebook have a unique advantage. As a business owner, you can add a call-to-action button to your business page.
For example, you can add a Sign Up, Contact Us, or Book Now button, along with the corresponding details.  These buttons can link to your Registration page, Contact Us page, or Order page accordingly. Thus, when a user clicks on a button, the corresponding actions happen instantly, making it easier for customers to complete their desired objective. 
9. Customize your tabs.If you have many sections, such as Contact Us, Careers, Products, About Us, on your website, you can showcase them as tabs on your business page. Visitors will find it convenient to select what they want and be redirected to the corresponding pages of your website. 
You can do this by signing in to your Facebook business page, selecting the More tab and then Manage Tabs from the dropdown list. 
10. Focus on creating quality posts.Gone are the days when bloggers posted average content on their websites and social media accounts just so they continued showing up in the newsfeed. Social media algorithms have changed. Quality matters now.
Produce high-quality posts rather than quickly publishing posts that have less-valuable content. Learn how to write better posts by following and learning from top accounts in your niche. Add compelling videos, images, infographics and other facts to make your content lively and informational. 
11. Learn when to post.Though there are no hard-and-fast rules for posting on your page, statistics reveal some interesting facts about the best day and time to post on Facebook to garner the most engagement.
Every Wednesday at 3 p.m. (in your local or primary target audience's time zone) is a good starting point. You can also try posting on weekends and between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays. Fridays are generally the highest engagement days. If you want to share good news or a milestone, do it on a Friday.
Avoid posting on weekends before 8 a.m. and after 8 p.m. People are busy on the weekend and tend to be less attentive during these times. 
12. Be innovative and interesting.Resist the temptation to share basic updates. Readers should enjoy viewing your posts and content. Whenever you post, try to make it interesting, important and informative. You can improve engagement by adding captivating images, videos, polls and other interactive content. 
13. Offer value and freebies.Promoting only your products will quickly turn off your followers. Consider sharing some  interesting facts or news that is in line with your product. For example, if you sell handmade beauty products through your Facebook page, talk about the benefits of organic ingredients, or homemade DIY recipes. Readers are more likely to be interested in your posts and may consider buying your products along the way. 
14. Make sure your meta descriptions are complete.Understand that when you share a link from your website to your business page, Facebook pulls the description text based on metadata. As a result, it's important to make sure that your website page has a detailed meta description. The same applies to images on your pages.
15. Do not include long URLs.When sharing a post, the corresponding URL innately gets attached with the post. When your page followers click on the post, they are automatically redirected to that URL.  You do not need to add a link again. If you wanted to add a separate link, try Bitly to improve the appearance of your URL. 
16. Include eye-catching images with your posts.Studies found that posts with compelling images are more attractive to readers and will draw followers in versus posts that do not have images. Boost your user engagement by adding images to your content, and get more readership and views to your website. 
17. Touch up your images.Before posting on your Facebook page, make sure that your images are visible and appealing. If not, you can edit your images using formatting tools. However, don't over edit so that your image looks too artificial or inauthentic. It's best to adhere to Facebook's recommended dimensions image posting guidelines and dimensions. 
18. Boost engagement by including videos.Posting videos on Facebook pages garners increased engagement. Post videos and, preferably, live videos to boost audience views for your page. 
Measure your performance19. Improve your posts with Facebook Insights.Using Facebook Page Insights, the analytics tool from Facebook, you can understand how your posts are doing. This tool provides reports like the number of visitors, views, likes and other details for your page. Facebook Page Insights is helpful in analyzing the effectiveness of your posts and measuring how your website is benefiting from a Facebook business page. Insights can be found in the top navigation bar of your business page. 
20. Plan ahead.Plan out all important calendar events that may be relevant to your audience and potentially on a global scale too. Holidays such as Mother's Day or Thanksgiving are great opportunities to share relevant related content. For this, you may want to plan ahead and schedule your posts accordingly. 
21. Keep learning.To stay in touch with new trends, as well as new tips and tricks to attract customers, it is important that you always keep learning. For this, where better to get new information than Facebook itself? You can subscribe to Facebook's official blog and read their posts periodically. This valuable resource lets you do more with your business page. 
22. Install Facebook's social media button on your website.Once your page is set up, do not forget to add Facebook's widget and social share buttons to your website. This way, visitors can like and follow your business page directly from your website. Another advantage is the social proof this provides as your visitors can see how many followers you have and that you are active on social media.
23. Test your posts.Suppose you share a video or image post and analyze the metrics of that post. For your next post, try changing the content a bit, shortening the video length or using a different meta description to see if there are any notable differences in views, likes and shares. This optimization method serves well in improving your posts and seeing what resonates with your followers.
24. Gain from advertising tools of Facebook.You have done your part in promoting your website through your Facebook page. Congrats! Why not reap more benefits by making use of Facebook's advertising tools? You can try boosting your posts or running purchase conversion ads using Facebook Ads Manager. With some experimentation, you can improve your results and expand your audience.
25. Better understand your audience.Facebook Audience Insights is a tool that lets you better understand insights about your audience. This can help in building better personas and determining what messaging resonates the best. This is one of Facebook's most underutilized free tools, and it will definitely make a difference for your business. 
With these 25 tips, you are ready to master social media on Facebook and reap the rewards for your business. As a bonus, consider applying these Facebook marketing strategies. All the best! 

Jun 27, 2019 by Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead In Marketing Tips
​
The average email open rate for all industries in the United States equals 18%. And the average click-through rates on emails amounts to 2.69.% But the average click-to-open rate stands at 14.10%.
The percentages appeared in the findings of Campaign Monitor’s latest research on Email Marketing Benchmarks by industries.
Campaign Monitor specializes in helping businesses gain loyal customers through personalized email campaigns. The company analyzed millions of email campaigns to compile the final report.


2019 Email Marketing Statistics
The research demonstrates the importance of email marketing for small business owners. And shows why it deserves attention. Email helps small businesses attract new customers and remain competitive.
And the research also explored the industries with the biggest successes in email marketing.
The sectors with the highest open rates include non-profits, agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting and government.
Meanwhile, industries like media, entertainment and publishing enjoy some of the highest kick through rates. Average click through rate for these industries comes to 3.02%.

What Days Do Emails Offer the Highest Impact
The analysis also explored the specific days email recipients might likely open emails. Highest open rates fall on Thursdays and average 18.6%.
But Wednesday comes in second for email open rates, with an average of 18.3% of messages being read. Sunday fairs worst for email open rates, with an average 17.1% across all industries.
The data looks at other key email marketing related metrics across the days of the week.
In summary, the research found that the best day for email email open rates is a Thursday.  The best day for highest click-through rates is Tuesday. The best day for lowest unsubscribe rates is Sunday or Monday. And the best day for the highest click-to-open rates in Saturday and the best day for lowest bounce rates is Monday.

Suggestions to Improve Email Success
To help small businesses improve email open rates and the success of their email marketing efforts, Campaign Monitor recommends improving email subject lines, testing subject line length, tone and content, optimizing for previews with preheader text and ensuring relevant content is sent to recipients through personalization and segmentation.
Campaign Monitor also notes the importance of using benchmarking for improving email marketing.
“Benchmarks are useful to see how your own email program compares to industry standards. They can help establish a baseline for figuring out how and where you can improve. But we also recommend using your own past results as the benchmark. It’s one of the easiest ways to determine what success looks like for your brand,” writes Campaign Monitor in a summary of its latest Email Benchmarking Report.
​
Email Marketing Statistics for Click Through
The analysis also explores email click-through rates, which is the number of subscribers who click on a link or image in the email regardless of whether the recipient opened the campaign. And research found that the industries with the highest click-to-open rates are agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, media, entertainment and publishing and real estate, design and construction,
To improve the click-through rates of your email marketing campaigns, Campaign Monitor recommends small businesses create stronger segments. So you always send the most relevant content. But also maintain your brand voice throughout your messaging. And improving your call-to-actions through clear copy and better design.
The overall message of the report involves the importance of email marketing. And it examines the importance of benchmarking for more success. But sending the right content out to the right people also remains critical.

By Jennifer Martinez, FOX 10
June 24, 2019
PHOENIX (FOX 10) -- When people look for restaurants to visit, some may use social media to help. 
Oftentimes, a picture of the aesthetics makes the restaurant a little more desirable to the eye. Now, restaurants have moved into the direction of free marketing to get more people to dine-in.
It's a trend that has been seen around the world, with people visiting a restaurant and soon enough, a photo pops up on Instagram, and maybe even Facebook and Twitter. 
"To people coming, take a picture with the mural, and have a little piece of the restaurant with them wherever they go, Instagram or Facebook," said artist Gennaro Garcia.
When social media first started picking up, photos ate the food first, in a sense, as people take photos of their food.
"I think everyone's timeline got full of food," said Forbes Shannon with Tempe Public Market. "We take a lot of care on how we plate our food, because people love to Instagram their food. So, the next renovation step, we want to make sure that the restaurant was beautiful as well."
Now, it's all about the ambiance. At Tempe Public Market, they are doing a total renovation of their space, which started with built-in marketing: murals and aesthetics, offering a place where people can take a photo.
"Everywhere they go in the restaurant, to have a place where they can take a picture," said Garcia.
"What we wanted to do was build a restaurant, an actual building that had different or unique places that you can see, 'oh hey, I've been there, I've seen that wall, mural, and by the way, the food was so good," said Shannon.
It's a marketing tool that has worked for many restaurants, including Brat Haus in Downtown Scottsdale. 
"In the restaurant industry, we have to do more than just provide good food and service, and we have to step in with the atmosphere," said Chad Black with Brat Haus.
Painting a ginormous mural has been a hit, with the restaurant getting tagged on social media.
"I've seen it tagged from Facebook to all over the world," said Black. "Introducing the dog and pet aspect -- we're pet-friendly -- dog birthday parties and the pet theme has really blown us and helped us."
"It's way more exciting and fun to walk into this beer garden, and see a really bright painting instead of a brick wall," said artist Geoffrey Gersten.
According to a study, more than 78% of business is attracted by social media. Depending on how often people post, what hashtags are used and how fast businesses reach out to customers that have asked questions, it's all about interaction.
So, whether a business is in the palm of the next customer's hand, one thing is for sure:
"It's built-in marketing," said Shannon. "Build a network of people that support your brand, and they reshare and repost it. That's how you can attract business organically from the ground up."
As for the Tempe Public Market, the renovations are all done, and it is now open to the public.

 Pam Moore — June 26, 2019

​Content marketing is the new yet not new buzzword. The truth is content marketing has been around for decades, since conversations and business has existed. Content marketing is not a new shiny object invented via social media.
Yet, content is at the core of everything brands and people do online. Without content and humans, social media and digital marketing wouldn’t exist.
The big question is… how do you actually use content marketing to grow your business. Keep reading and I’ll help you understand the exact qualities of amazing content marketing.


Is everyone really a content expert?Every agency, marketer and consultant seems to be talking about content marketing. Unfortunately, very few of them have ever done it themselves or really know how to help others produce, integrate or distribute content to drive real results.
If you are working with a digital marketing or social media marketing consultant or agency be sure to look behind the magic curtain.
Do they have a blog, podcast or video channel of their own? When is the last time they wrote or recorded really good content? Is anyone reading the content? Is the content getting shared? Is it integrated with the rest of their business or is it an add-on band-aid?
When is the last time they sent an email to the list of names they have been collecting via their blog the past year? What were the open rates? How is their content converting to real business?
Do they have an editorial calendar or any rhyme or reason to why and how they are using content marketing, if at all?
It’s similar to the concept of the Facebook page pushers of a few years ago who were bashing “strategy” telling customers all you need to do is tweet and get a Facebook page for $1k with a side of a website that tweets for another $2k. Those same people are now often slingin’ Facebook groups or some random other shiny object telling you it is going to save your business.
It’s crazy how now overnight they are all “strategy experts” yet in checking their career profile you’ll find they have spent little time to none actually ever doing strategy for any real business, including their own.
You get what you pay for with any service or product. The best thing you can do is educate yourself the best you can and do your research. It doesn’t have to be more expensive or take more time to do it right. Chances are finding a resource with the right experience to help your business will save you money and bring a higher return than many of the fly by night social media operations.
Becoming a social business is not the same thing as doing social media or being social. Social business requires integration of processes, mindset changes and direct investment in specific goals and objectives.
What is content marketing?Content marketing is an umbrella term encompassing all marketing formats that involve the creation and sharing of content in order to engage current and potential consumer bases. Content marketing subscribes to the notion that delivering high-quality, relevant and valuable information to prospects and customers drives profitable consumer action. Content marketing has benefits in terms of retaining reader attention and improving brand loyalty.
*Source: Wikipedia
Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.
*Source: Content Marketing Institute
I know what it is, now what?I like to simplify where many want to complicate. Below are what I believe to be the top attributes for content marketing that will drive results.
If you have spent any time working in marketing then this should seem like common sense to you.
Bottom line you want to develop content that inspires and connects with your audience with a goal of bringing them closer to you and your brand. You want them to click, double click, share, and come back for more.
28 Qualities of Content Marketing that Rocks!1. Goal Driven – Set goals and objectives for each piece. Is the goal to inspire, educate, establish authority, generate leads? Should support higher-level business and marketing goals and objectives.
2. Audience-focused – Content must be focused on the reader more so than your own self-promotion. Know your audience. Know what they want, need, desire. Get in their head and connect with them via content that helps them in business and/or life.
3. Findable – If your target audience can’t find it, it’s all for nothin’!
4. Shareable – Make it easy for people to share with their friends on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, email, etc.
Recommended for YouWebcast, June 27th: Process Over Hacks: A Step-by-Step Process for Identifying Your Best Growth Channels and Scaling Them Up
5. Simple – Shouldn’t require a Ph.D. in rocket science to understand.
6. Authoritative – Author speaks and writes from knowledge, experience, and authority.
7. Engages – People are inspired to click, double click, comment and become part of the community.
8. Actionable – Should be clear what action the reader should take to learn more, join the community, contact you for further information, hire you, request proposal etc.
9. Real – Should have a healthy balance of transparency, authenticity, and professionalism.
10. Believable – There should be no doubt that they can trust you and believe what you say. Many factors play a role with this including design & layout of site, source of content, grammar, quality of information, authority and more.
11. Validated – If facts, data, or stats are used the source is clearly provided and all can be validated as truth. This will also help establish authority and ensure content is believable.
12. Valuable – Provides reader with valuable content to help them learn, grow or be inspired.
13. Relevant – Should be relevant to where the reader is in business or life.
14. Resonates – Should invoke a feeling of shared emotion or belief with the reader. They should understand and be able to relate to the content, context and meaning.
15. Compelling – Grabs attention, unique enough to read, understand, persuade, change thinking and remember.
16. Integrated – Not stand-alone information. Your brand, expertise, experience, services offered should support the content to best establish authority, believability etc.
17. Educational – Provides value in regard to knowledge and teaching of a topic reader is interested in.
18. Passionate – Should be obvious the writer is passionate about the topic and is not just writing to drive blog traffic or other objectives.
19. Positive – Who wants to read a blog that does nothing but complains? Not many people. Content should be positive and make the person feel better, know more and be inspired to do more whenever possible.
20. Forward-thinking – Should not dwell in the past, old technology but should at minimum be present day and preferably forward thinking. Take people along with where you are going if you are a visionary person.
21. Inspires – Inspire readers to learn more, do more, be more and become one with you and your brand.
22. Connects – Inspires the reader to connect with you and your brand. Your goal is to build and nurture a relationship with them.
23. Achieves – Helps the reader, viewer or listener achieve their goals. If you focus first on helping the reader achieve their goals, you will achieve yours by default.


24. Purposeful – The content has a purpose, is not rambling, meaningless mumbo jumbo.

25. Brand loyalty – Content should help drive brand loyalty with the reader. The content should be a good representation of your brand, personality and not a glossy piece of corporate collateral from the 1990’s that describes what you wish you would be when you grow up.
26. Quality – Content is of high quality. Should not be written in a hurry, have grammatical errors or read like it was written by a 5th grader.
27. Open – Author is open to other ideas, willing to enter into a healthy debate and genuinely listen to differing opinions.
28. Conclusive – It has an end. It doesn’t just ramble and ramble but it is clear when the content piece starts and ends.
Avoid the following:

1. Focusing too much on sales. You don’t want to sound like a used car salesperson.
2. Overly opinionated.
3. Closed minded.
4. Argumentative. Don’t bite the fingers off of your readers who may comment with a differing opinion. Be open to new ideas and opinions.
5. Egotistical.
6. Self-promotion.
7. Random Acts of Marketing – If it’s not in the budget, not in the plan and not integrated then chances are it’s a RAM. RAMs will eat every last dollar of your ROI for lunch, breakfast & dinner. Avoid them at all cost!

Read more at https://www.business2community.com/content-marketing/28-qualities-of-amazing-content-marketing-02213964

By Clifford Jones  – Contributing Writer, June 26, 2019

​If you own or lead a business, you know stress — especially the stress that has accompanied the massive disruption of marketing technology. Change creates stress, and stress creates bad stuff — but I’m here to help you deal with that with a simple, five-minute visualization exercise to defend against the stress of making your marketing work.
As a small-business owner since 1991, I’ve overcome some pretty bad stuff, including losing my mental, physical and spiritual health. A back injury led to a humbling surgery, and I found myself on a walker at only 42. It took a renewed faith and two years to build back my strength, business and finances.
I developed this visualization exercise while in the midst of my past failures. You can use the exercise every day, multiple times a day if you choose. The process is simple, and you don’t have to be a monk or guru to get it.
Dealing with change
Humans resist change because of homeostasis. Just like our bodies, our brains seek consistency, natural harmony, and balance. Anything that threatens to rock our serenity triggers conscious and subconscious reactions, which we experience as stress.
To me, stress first feels like a fast-burning fire in my gut. In the past, it often became a wildfire. Over time, I learned to be more anticipatory when it comes to the business of life and change.
As a business leader, you’ve probably experienced similar feelings when dealing with digital marketing technologies. But these unpleasant emotions can be the drive you need to listen and learn potential lessons.
You can use what is not working to make you just angry enough that you use your fear as a springboard to courage. That’s when you and your team can be ahead of the change curve into a more anticipatory mode; think of any team of professional athletes, aligned, ready in position, on their toes, in tip-top shape. It’s the mindset that aligns every championship team.
The power of process
Sound spiritual, mental, and physical health are vitally important when learning to thrive on stress. Stress is a constant. An active visualization process helps you become more aware of it, so you can get ahead of these negative feelings before they take you down. This is how we preclude serious trauma.
Follow these steps to create your own active visualization. Take what I give you and make it yours until the process becomes a habit in your professional and personal life. Also, you can apply this relaxation and visualization process to anything that’s holding you back.

1. Find a quiet place to sit and relax.
2. Turn off your phone. The next five minutes should be distraction free.
3. Commit to staying still. Even if the dog barks or the Amazon delivery dude rings the doorbell, sit still.
4. Breathe deeply, filling your belly. I suggest breathing in through your nose and exhaling through your mouth. Do what feels best for you.
5. Settle in. Feel yourself relaxing and preparing for the next five minutes.
6. Take 10 deep breaths. If you lose count, start over. Place your mind on the count and off of your marketing problems.
7. Keep breathing and relax. Imagine yourself in your “happy place.” The more relaxed you are, the better.
8. Imagine the satisfaction you will feel when you stop stressing about your marketing plan.
9. Affirm that the stress of the past is gone. It’s time to create a new image and fresh plan of action.
10. Keep breathing with intention and allow the image to become clearer.
11. Make a commitment to face any fears about doing what is right for your business. Commitment leads to clarity. Clarity leads to confidence. Confidence leads to activity, and activity leads to results.
12. Commit to creating a new strategic plan of action that includes the entire team.
13. Envision how your plan of action will align the vision, mission, and goals of your business.
14. Visualize how everything will flow — marketing that meets your sales objectives, sales, and marketing team members on the same bus, and technology that effectively manages all of your new prospects and customers.
15. Continue breathing deeply, as you see yourself sleeping well at night, with a renewed energy in the workplace.
16. As you begin to wrap up your visualization session, affirm that this new plan of action, the new flow of customers and the increased cash actually exist.
17. Close out your visualization session with a moment of praise and reflection. Know that, as soon as you believed in yourself and your highest power from within, progress happened.

Nobody likes the stress of change. Use this simple, five-minute visualization to defend yourself while mastering your marketing action plan. Cash and customers, like water and energy, constantly ebb and flow. But with an effective business planning process and tools to handle the stress, nothing can rock your boat.

How Content Marketing Can Help Your Small Business: Nine Tips From New York-Based Entrepreneurs
Forbes New York Business Council
​CommunityVoice

Content marketing is making a real impact on small businesses looking to reach customers at an affordable price. Creating content that resonates with your customers can help generate interest in your brand while boosting your expertise in your industry at the same time.
When content marketing is done right, it can really help take a business to the next level. Even in a highly competitive market such as New York, the right content marketing efforts can help you stand out from your rivals and become more visible to your target audience.
To help you take advantage of content marketing the smartest way possible, we asked members of Forbes New York Business Council to weigh in with their top content marketing tips for small businesses in New York. Here’s what they had to say:
Forbes New York Business Council members share their best content marketing strategies to help you grow your small business to new heights.


1. Give Them What They Want
As a business owner, it’s really easy to want to push your own agenda as to what you show the customer, but if they love someone that you may not necessarily love, give them more of that! It’s not about you, it’s about what customers want. Give them what they want and they’ll be back for more. Stick to what works. - Hoda Mahmoodzadegan,Molly’s Milk Truck + F'in Delicious Beverages
2. Be Original
One of the worst things I see when I look to patronize or connect with another business is if their social media is full of stock photos or is obviously being run by a third party. To me it shows that they don't take pride in what they actually do in their own small business. Show what you do and what a great job you do at it. Seeing someone else's work doesn't make me want to go to you. - Edward Alvarez, Edward A Alvarez, DDS, PC/NYCLaserDentist
Forbes New York Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners in Greater New York City. Do I qualify?
3. Don't Be Afraid To Share What You Know
I used to think that everything I learned in 15 years designing stores and interiors should not be shared. After all, clients hire me for that knowledge, so why give it away? In the past year I started writing for Forbes or for my blog, giving out all my "secrets", and I got a lot of exposure from it. Clients now come because of these writings. -Sergio Mannino, Sergio Mannino Studio, we design interiors and we create brands
4. Leverage The Power Of Audio
I admit I’m biased, but I think podcasting is one of the greatest ways to get your message out, no matter how big your business. All of your production and distribution needs are right there on your phone. It’s infinitely less costly than video, and it’s a medium that is perfectly catered to niche topics and audiences. - Francesco Baschieri, Voxnest
5. Identify Your Target Audience And Their Needs
Identify exactly who you’re speaking to and what keeps them up at night. Then think about how something you are knowledgeable about can give them a leg up. And don’t be afraid to give away the secret sauce. Some of the most successful business consultancies in the world give their entire process away in book form (StoryBrand, EOS, E-Myth Worldwide, etc.). - Tom Conlon, North Street
6. Create Meaningful, Entertaining Content
Keep your audience engaged, curious and wanting to learn more. Write interesting articles, create entertaining video and share your knowledge as freely as possible. Content allows potential clients to get to know you as a person and your company's brand. - Jill Strickman, GENUINE: The Real People Company
7. Focus On Providing Value
Digital content is often the first impression consumed by your consumer. Offer value, clearly represent your brand and develop a strategy built for your consumer for every platform. Here are a few questions to help develop a content strategy: 1) Does it offer value to the consumer? 2) Does it communicate what, why and how? 3) Is it confusing or clear? 4) Is it consistent with the brand message? - Rob Taormina, TalkIQ Media
8. Highlight Unique Company Endeavors
Highlight unique and authentic company endeavors. Two unique and authentic endeavors we've highlighted include a social campaign for women's month, which highlights both our team members and female clients through various platforms, and an upcoming podcast entitled "The Brick Wall," which stems from a team phrase used to power through even the biggest challenges in the office space. -Warren H. Cohn, HeraldPR
9. Create Solutions For Your Ideal Customers
As a small business, you need to differentiate yourself from competitors. But, when creating content, be careful not to talk about yourself. Once you have identified who your ideal customers are and where they are consuming content, you should create content that is focused on them, not you. Create solutions for them—provide a "what's in it for me" and your content marketing will soar. - Andy Seibert, Imprint

A Day in the Life of Restaurant Food Waste6.20.2019 By Liz Thompson
As a restaurant owner, we are supposed to be thinking about food waste and cutting costs all the time; profit keeps the doors open, losses shut them. Did you know that every day we waste enough food to fill the Rose Bowl in Pasadena two times a day?
Here is a simple example of how to save money by reducing waste from bread service. A 100-seat restaurant open five days a week, 360 days a year could save upwards of $30,000 a year by removing and butter from the table and offering other options. And where could that extra money go? Ask a restaurant owner about their marketing budget and the answer is usually “who has money for marketing?" Don’t throw cash in the trash.
While recently in New York, I took note of blatant food waste in restaurants I patronized. 
BreakfastI ordered two scrambled eggs and one piece of rye toast. I was given two; I wanted one. I ate only one.
Cost: $.06
Waste: $.06 when it went into the trash
CoffeeWhile at a coffee bar, I was asked at the register if I wanted half and half and after saying yes. I was given half a cup and used an eighth of a cup.
Cost: $.50
Waste: $.25 went into the trash.
PizzaI ordered a slice of pepperoni with black olives. I love black olives and as the customer was very happy as I had close to half a cup on my slice. 
Cost of the Olive? $.75
Could the restaurant have served less and made more on them? Yes
Same Italian RestaurantBefore we ordered pizza, we were given a full basket of focaccia and a lovely plate of bruschetta. 
Cost to customer: $0
Cost to restaurant: At least $1.50
More cost to restaurant: $10 for lost dessert and coffee revenue because we were stuffed with free bread and had no room.
Things to Think AboutWhy do so many restaurant owners feed their customers for free and when the point of having a restaurant is to sell food?
Are we still living in the days of restaurant history when customers came to “tavernas” to fill up as much as they could for as cheap as they could because they didn’t know when or where they would find their next meal? And the restaurant owner preferred to fil up their customer with unlimited bread which was less expensive than serving seconds and thirds of the entree?
I have not seen a restaurant lately that only has one item on it so why is the bread still free?
Simple Ways to Reduce Loss/Waste and Increase ProfitsBreadDo individual service. Put it on the menu. It costs money to make it so charge for it.  Think of ways you can elevate the experience such as Grilled House-made Sourdough with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Aged Balsamic Vinegar, House- made Artisan Bread Selection served with Pesto and Marinated Dipping Sauce or Organic Corn Bread served in a Skillet
CondimentsThink portion control. No one needs one half cup of ketchup, horseradish or heavy cream. Set up portion cups before service for commonly served items.
Iced TeaEven though it seems as though there is no real cost for iced tea, stop waitstaff from refilling glasses before asking the customer if they would like more
Cost: extra teabags used if fresh brewed. Even wasting 50 teabags a day at $.10 each = $5 a day times five days a week x 50 weeks a year and that's $1,250 just on teabags!
CoffeeStop your waitstaff from filling up a customer’s cup of coffee just because it is empty.
Cost of an Unwanted Poured Cup of Coffee? An average loss of $.31 per cup. Do that for even one quarter of your customers and even 25 a day at $.31 x 360 days a year, that's a savings of $2,790
By giving customers only what they need, your restaurant will have a better chance of surviving and your customers may even appreciate your concern about food waste. You can even put a note on the menu “In efforts to prevent food waste, we conserve on the extras, but are happy to provide you with what you need. “ Every day we waste enough food to fill the Rose Bowl in Pasadena two times a day.

By: Jonathon Bailey  |  June19, 2019
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When it comes to marketing, you need to take charge of this to ensure that your company is getting the best input and promoting itself as well as possible. You need to have a strong and diverse strategy as much as you can because this is going to help you achieve the best success moving forward.
Business marketing is really important, and you have to ensure you do as much as you can to get it right when you run a company. There are a lot of elements to consider here, and this is something you need to put a lot of time and resources into. Make sure you do what you can to improve the marketing strategy for your business, and here are some of the best ways of being able to do that right now.

Understand Your Audience
The key to successful business marketing is to make sure you know and understand your audience. You have got to be able to do this because you need to know who you are aiming your marketing strategies at. These people play a huge role in your business, and it is important to make sure you factor them in whenever you are promoting the company.

​Focus on Branding
One of the most important parts of the whole process is to focus on your company branding. The branding must be a key part of the marketing process, and it is vital that you do what you can to stay on brand. There are a number of ways in which you can achieve this, and one of the best ones is to use custom product packaging in order to get the best branding for your company.

Mix and Match
Mix and match is the ideal approach to take, and you need to make sure you have the ideal combination of online and offline marketing methods. This is something that you need to make sure you focus on right now, and there are a lot of elements to this that will play a big role in helping take things further. Make sure you have a good selection of marketing methods that you can use to fall back on, and this is something you should keep in mind for the future. You might be surprised by how effective older marketing methods can be, and this is why you need to make sure you combine them with the online marketing you use.

Be Different
It is important in the world of business to be different and to think outside the box as much as possible. This is something that can help you to stand out from the crowd and make a real difference in the future. People like it when companies try to be different and do something that is unusual. This is a good way of making an impression and attracting more people to the brand.


These are some of the best things you need to keep in mind when it comes to marketing your business in the best possible way. Keeping these points in mind will help you to ensure you focus on getting the right outcome, and this is something that plays a big role in achieving this in the future. These are some of the best ideas that you need to keep in mind as a business owner looking for the right marketing approach.