RSS feeds of Tips + Ideas http://www.eci-design.com/tips-and-ideas.html 2012 eu-us That means for each business doing nothing, there is a competitor who plans on improving their marketing efforts in 2012. The article continued, “…as an entrepreneur, you can't just ‘hold steady’―you've got to keep growing and making big plans, even in tough times.” http://www.eci-design.com/tips-and-ideas.html#tip105 http://www.eci-design.com/tips-and-ideas.html#tip105 Have you ever done a renovation or addition to your home or built a home from scratch—only to say “hasta la vista” to your budget while you’re in the thick of it? Things easily get out of control if you don’t have a tight reign on the process, don’t they? At ECI, we’ve found the BEST ways for you to get out of control and blow your design budget:* http://www.eci-design.com/tips-and-ideas.html#tip104 http://www.eci-design.com/tips-and-ideas.html#tip104 Your website is NOT for your company; it’s for your audience. What are the first questions they have when they’re looking for your products or services? Do you answer that right on your home page, or on a page that is easy to get to with an obvious button name? If they have to take 3 or 4 steps to hunt for the answers, you’ve probably already lost them as a prospect. http://www.eci-design.com/tips-and-ideas.html#tip103 http://www.eci-design.com/tips-and-ideas.html#tip103 This little piggy went to market. Was it an open air market? A supermarket? Perhaps the author of this nursery rhyme from the 1700’s meant: “This little piggy went to market his business.” (Who knows??) In reciting this to your children, though, did you ever notice that the burly piggy isn’t the one who ate roast beef? The biggest and most robust piggy of the five is the one who went to market! http://www.eci-design.com/tips-and-ideas.html#tip102 http://www.eci-design.com/tips-and-ideas.html#tip102 Creating confusion is easy. If the way you promote your business is inconsistent across different media, you can be heading for trouble. For instance, say you have a professional-looking logo and business card, and even though your website might have outdated technology, it still works for the moment. Yet when you place an ad in the local magazine or newspaper, you give control of your brand over to their desktop publishers, who get paid to knock out ads as quickly as possible. They ask you for an electronic file of your logo, which you scrounge up and hastily email to them. http://www.eci-design.com/tips-and-ideas.html#tip101 http://www.eci-design.com/tips-and-ideas.html#tip101