Well, it is only a few days until we inaugurate Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States. I don’t know where you stand, but I think that it going to be great having Mr. Trump as our President. Only time will tell. But let’s not waste it!

However, regardless of your feelings about President-elect Trump, I think that we can all agree that there will some significant changes from the past administration. We should have a much more pro-business atmosphere in this country with less pressure from the government on businesses. The way that this may be felt the most is the promised corporate and personal tax cuts.

Just because your customers may be distracted by the holidays doesn’t mean you, as a business owner, should take the holiday season off. You still have value to offer your customers and prospects that you can easily relate to the holidays.

Our gifts to you are here and ready for you to download but, first, let me finish my thought...

In the spirit of Thanksgiving which is right around the corner, I have 5 cool business resources I’m so thankful for that I really want to share them with you. Most I use all the time, and one is new to my arsenal, but all are amazingly useful.

Here goes…

Wait… STOP! Before you put fingers to keyboard to write an email, design a webpage, send a postcard, or pick up your phone to make a sales call, you should know a few critical things.

You should know why you’re doing what you’re doing, and where it fits in your overall marketing plan.

You’d be surprised about how many people you influence throughout your life, even just your adult life. Just think about it:

• Your spouse
• Your siblings
• Your parents
• Your friends
• Your kids
• Your co-workers
• Your employees

There are so many ways to create and use video, that I’ll never get them all….but what I can do is to give you some examples of how to fit video into your business, and what technologies are used in those examples.

First, is what we did for the documentation of our JoomFuse product. We used screen capture recordings with voice over. We used ScreenFlow to record, edit, and highlight the resulting video and then export the resulting video (Camtasia is another similar product to ScreenFlow).

You can’t focus on a goal that you haven’t set yet or that doesn’t motivate you, so that’s the first step. What are you setting your goal for? Yourself? Your business? A new product or service?

We developed a simple tool to help our clients through the process, which we will share with you today.

My granddaughter and I love to read a wonderfully illustrated children’s book (more on the book later) about a little boy whose grandfather once sewed him a special blanket. Over time, the beloved blanket grew worn and well-used. The disappointed little boy went to his talented grandfather who cut the blanket down and made the child a new coat.

Time went by and the coat became worn so the little boy took it to his grandfather who cut it down into… well, you get the drift. Eventually the grandfather only had enough cloth left to make a button for the boy.

In just a few days, it will be time to watch the ball drop. Will you be in Times Square this year? I’ve heard it’s exciting and chaotic with the crowds. I’m generally a homebody when it comes to New Year’s Eve, preferring to watch the ball drop on TV and eat Chinese food washed down with a glass of champagne.

The next day I’m always inspired to think about the coming year and what it might bring or, rather, what I can make happen. The challenge of the future inspires my creative thinking process and gets my juices flowing.

How do you communicate with your customers and prospects throughout the year?

Do you blog, write an e-newsletter, post on social media, send mail, create audio/video, Facebook Live, create infographics, e-books or white papers, do webinars, or anything else?

You put a lot of time, effort, and creativity into your marketing. From strategy to platform to implementation, every small business owner puts hours of time into marketing their business.

Now that it’s up and running, how do you know it’s working? On the assumption you are getting response, do you know whether or not your marketing is paying off? Yep, that’s the $64,000 question — what’s your MROI, or Marketing Return on Investment.

As of the October update of Infusionsoft, there will be a new default email builder for both broadcasts and campaigns. This new builder has been available for a while now but in a beta version. We’ve been using it since it became available, and it certainly has grown more and more capable over the months. But…

We essentially heard this cry from one of our recent clients. They had a website that was barely being held together with spit & bailing wire and was prone to crashing if looked at sideways. They had at least three different eCommerce solutions that didn’t talk to their website. Add to that two different membership management solutions and as if that was not enough, a completely separate email solution to send out their newsletter and other communications. I’m probably missing something on the list but you get the point.

In business, there are many times when you find yourself answering the same questions over and over. Some businesses put FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) on their website and that helps some.

But what about the people who insist on calling instead of checking your site?

Marketing your business these days is all about the content you produce that’s valuable to your prospects and customers. Some days the content creation flows like an over-the-banks river, other days barely a trickle. I’ve got a free solution for you!