I’ve been looking for this number for years. So, I had to make it up. It turns out my number was low.

Small Business Marketing Budget as a Percentage of Gross Revenue

According to Marketing Sherpa, Small organizations, small business, spend 11% of gross revenue on marketing. I said: 5-10%.

Medium organizations of 100-1000 employees spend 9% and larger organizations spend 6%.

From the report. . .

This chart reflects the economies of scale more so than it does aggressive marketing spending …

Take your prospects behind the scenes with client success stories:
all ready and made for marketing.

Google is global. Now that searching for local businesses and services is moving away from the phone book to the search bar on the screen, it’s not too surprising that marketers are rating local search as being a highly effective marketing tool. Check out this chart and then take a look at 10 ways to make your local search marketing more effective by raising your visibility and customizing your offer.

How effective is local search?
MarketingSherpa reports that 39% of …

I love watching and reporting on trends. Trendwatching’s April brief reports on the Brand Butler, “why serving is the new selling” trend.

Interested in trends, too? Here’s the Source: www.trendwatching.com. One of the world’s leading trend firms, trendwatching.com sends out its free, monthly Trend Briefings to more than 160,000 subscribers worldwide.

Being a Brand Butler means becoming a servant to your customers.

For me and my company, that means being there whenever they need us. We might construct marketing plans, potish …

The best way to explain what we are trying to accomplish is to describe what we call the Three C’s: Collaboration, Connectivity, and Community

from Loyola University’s Information Commons Overview

image: Loyola University’s Information Commons by Barbara Rozgonyi for thesociallens.com

On March 4 and 5, I attended and presented at Soho Seminar’s “Using Social Media to Align the Corporate and the Personal Brand Conference” at Loyola University’s Chicago campus. During a lunch break, David Kamerer, who is a Public Relations and …

MarketingSherpa’s chart of the week shows that social media’s share of the online budget is now at 11%.

According to MarketingSherpa’s Social Media Marketing Benchmark Survey, here’s how the budgets break out:
27% Website
21% Pay Per Click [PPC]
19% Email
11% Social Media
10% Search Engine Optimization [SEO]
6% Online Display Ads
6% Other Online Marketing

Based on other trends indicated in this report, social media’s share will continue to increase in the year ahead.

Questions that always come up in my presentations: Where does …

Back in the days when I was in sales, bc – before computers, we relied on a red bound directory to tell us who to call on. While you can get much richer and deeper information faster on the Internet, making a list of target companies focuses your efforts. And, having a set of filters lets you sift out the best matches from the millions of options out there. A site called manta.com lists over 67 million companies. Whether you …

Butterflies used to be my visual brand. Why? Because I like photographing them and with the tagline “Marketing Transformations,” I though they were a natural fit. So I posted a series on my site: one for every page. But, did the images fit the brand? Here’s a replay of an article about branding methods, updated to merge with today’s contemporary takes.

Ten Branding Methods: Butterflies and Rainbows Optional

by Barbara Rozgonyi, founder of CoryWest Media, LLC

To request permission to reproduce or …

Looking for a workshop on how to hone your digital PR and social media skills? I’m teaching one on October 27.
Here’s the event description. Register for DIY Digital PR Social Media Workshop.

“Ingredient X: Top Secret Digital Fuel for Powerful Business Results”

Learn how to propel your reach directly to people who can bring you business using the power of low or no cost digital PR.

PR is the hottest, yet most overlooked, marketing tool in the business world. Why? Most people mistakenly …