Have you taken a close look at your online marketing lately? And by that, I mean:
Does your website answer the questions prospective customers will have?
Do you have a system for collecting online reviews?
Are you collecting email addresses to stay in touch with customers and prospects?
Are you posting consistently on the social media of your choice?
Is your online advertising reaching the right people and producing the results you want?
Do you have any marketing goals?
I might have listed the most important question last. The rest of the questions should be answered in the context of your goals. Without goals, it’s tough to say whether your marketing is doing what you want it to.
The fourth quarter – yes, we’re already in the last quarter of 2024 – is an appropriate time to think about your marketing for 2025. Look at what worked and didn’t work this year. Think about something new you’d like to try. Calculate a marketing budget for next year.
My marketing playbook is an excellent tool for mapping your 2025 marketing strategy. We can look at your marketing foundation, how customers are finding you now, and the potential for new customers to find you.
It only takes a half hour of your time to get started and about an hour to review the playbook. Reply to this email to set an appointment.
Free Marketing Tools: Unsplash
In an imagined, perfect marketing world, we would hire graphic designers and photographers to create images to accompany our well-crafted prose. Sometimes – with apologies to all the great designers and photographers – hiring someone to create images for websites, blogs, social media posts, slide decks, and emails just isn’t practical or affordable.
One of my favorite free tools for acquiring royalty-free images is Unsplash. I’ve been a subscriber and user for years, and although its business model has evolved, there are thousands of images you can use commercially and for free.
International Flavor
Photographers from around the world contribute gorgeous, scenic images to Unsplash. They are especially useful as backgrounds for quotations or other types of memes. Although it is not required, Unsplash and its contributors appreciate credit when you use their images. The site makes it easy to copy and paste a credit line. Attribution is a common courtesy and a good practice.
Unsplash also offers a paid subscription plan, Unsplash +, which provides access to everything. So, be aware of photos that might not be available for free.
Lastly, a stock image seller called iStock "advertises" on Unsplash, and it can be easy to confuse images from iStock with images from Unsplash. You’ll definitely have to pay for iStock images, so double-check the source when you’re choosing images you like.
It would be disappointing to select an appealing photo only to realize it comes with a price tag.
Do you enjoy this newsletter?
The next newsletter arrives Oct. 22. By then we should know the American and National league teams that will face off Major League Baseball’s World Series.
Saturday, Oct. 12, is National Chess Day; Monday, Oct. 14, is Native American Day; and Tuesday, Oct. 15, is National Grouch Day - Harrumph!
Until next time, be grateful. Be generous. Be patient. Love.
Thanks for spending some of your time with me, . I appreciate you.
Mark
P.S. - This newsletter was 100 percent created by me, a human.
P.P.S. - Some links in this email might be affiliate links, which could generate small commissions for me at no extra cost to you.
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