Articles by John Carroll:
A simple trick for finding your business’ tone of voice
Think for a second about how your favorite brands make you feel when they speak to you. Now imagine how you want your customers to feel when you speak to them. The way you achieve that is by finding the right tone of voice for your brand. Are you confused about what tone of voice… Read more
How to optimize your tone of voice to connect with your audience
So you’ve arrived at the three words to identify your brand in the first part of our tone of voice guide for small businesses. You’ve graduated to part two! This time around, we’re diving a little deeper and sharing our best practices for incorporating tone of voice into all the communication channels out there. Remember… Read more
6 Ways To Market Your Landscaping and Lawn Care Business
Few people are as busy as service business owners. And few fields move as fast, or seem as complicated, as small business marketing. But you don’t have to be an expert to know who will want to work with you, and why they should bother. And finding the who, and showing them the why, and… Read more
6 Simple Marketing Tricks for Electricians and Electrical Contractors
When you first decided to go into business yourself—marketing probably wasn’t your biggest “top of mind” priority. And if you’re like most of us—with hundreds of things you jungle in a week—we doubt it’ll ever be your number one concern. Too often, when we ask for advice on how to market our electrical contracting business,… Read more
Can You DIY Your Small Business’ Financial Analysis?
Let’s Walk Through the Basics When you first started dreaming about opening a small business—you probably weren’t fantasizing about spreadsheets. Or really any financial analysis for that matter. But behind every feasible, profitable, full-of-potential new enterprise, there are a lot of numbers to crunch. Luckily, the equations that make up the backbone of your small… Read more
How To Celebrate Pride Respectfully As A Small Business Owner
Celebrate LGBTQ+ rights without the risk of co-opting Pride. June is the most wonderful time of the year. It’s the month that marks the start of summer. The sun is shining, the flowers blooming, and corporate logos start to emerge from their chrysalises reborn as beautiful rainbows. This year, there have been a number of… Read more
The no-brainer guide to small business SEO
A few concrete, easy-to-follow steps for making your business discoverable online. When you’re a small business owner, figuring out how to build your SEO can be tricky. If you ask around, you’re sure to get a two types of “expert advice” on small business SEO: It’s simple! Just change some text in your headlines,… Read more
Logo and web design for small businesses
Branding options for every budget It takes consumers 10 seconds to form a first impression of a brand’s logo. Visual appeal can be assessed within about 50 milliseconds. Nearly half of consumers feel a website’s design is the number factor in determining a business’s credibility. Meaning: if you want your business to be trustworthy, and… Read more
Study: Customers Often Talk To The Manager Before Writing a 1-star Review
When all other attempts to serve a customer fails, bring in the manager. He or she will pull satisfaction out of a hat. Or at least that’s the hope. The data tells us a different story, however. By looking at the reviews that mentioned talking to a manager, we found that 80% resulted in a… Read more
Faster Service Leads To Better Reviews And Happier Customers
These days, it seems like nearly any impulse can be fulfilled as fast as we have them. Can’t remember a fact you learned in elementary school? Ask Siri. Need a ride? A driver will pick you up in 2 minutes. Looking for a rare book? Sit tight! You’ll have a copy in 2 days—it just… Read more