It can happen to the best of businesses: you wake up one morning to a scathingly bad review on Yelp or some other review site. Your business is your baby, so it doesn't matter whether the review is justified or not -- your first instinct is to defend the baby.

Resist that temptation.

If you own a business you should read this blog post that talks about a great customer experience in a hair salon. Pretty mundane stuff, but it's an excellent example of the value of a great customer experience and a reminder of 5 broad concepts:

Even if they don't use the word "brand" smart business owners instinctively know that they need to control their message to customers — and potential customers.

Over the past couple of weeks we've seen a valiant branding effort by both political parties via the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. A recent post speaks to their degree of success (or not) but what I'd like to share with you are the two truths of message control

"You've gotta have a blog" seems to be a standard refrain when you talk to anyone about marketing your business online. Generally speaking, it's sound advice. But has your marketing consultant ever explained WHY it's a good idea?

In today's economy the online marketing solution goals most businesses should have at the top of their list are: