We're pleased to announce a new round of marketing workshops designed for small to medium sized local businesses. Topics include:

• Building Your Brand
  Branding: what is it, why does it matter, and how do you develop your company's brand?
• Creating a Wow! Customer Experience
  How do you ensure your customers keep coming back for more?
• Big Mouth Marketing
  Referral marketing is 3,500 times more effective than print advertising alone. Learn how to get others to talk about your business to their friends. 

As a local business owner, one of the biggest challenges you'll face is how to effectively reach your customers. You wear many hats - but if you can't get people in your door, you can't stay in business.

We're excited to launch our next series of workshops to help you understand important aspects of marketing your business and to develop effective and simple strategies for building your business revenue.

Our marketing workshop series will focus on three topics:

Building Your Brand

From this small business blog:

Everybody makes mistakes and entrepreneurs are no exception. But for an entrepreneur with a limited budget, committing mistakes too often can be very costly. It is an open secret in the business world that most of the mistakes that can be committed in business have been committed; so why not just learn from them, saving you the agony of committing them yourself.

With that said, here are 7 costly small business marketing mistakes every entrepreneur must avoid:

As local business owner, we think you'd like to know about the Creative Space Agent, a new Web site that the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs (DOCA) is creating. The Creative Space Agent will be a free Web portal designed to advertise space to Denver’s creative community.  When fully operational, the site will allow creative businesses, artists and arts organizations to search for and promote available performance, rehearsal, studio, business and housing space that meet their unique needs.

As an independent store owner, your competition is fierce and getting fiercer.

The 21st century is bringing with it many new challenges for small businesses. The Internet has changed the way your customers shop, and that means you must change the way you market your store. The Internet Age is a tough place to do business if you don't know what to do!

That's why we are so excited to present our bestselling book,

Marketing Your Retail Store in the Internet Age
The Ultimate Marketing Resource for Today's Independent Store Owner

Easy to use and inexpensive email marketing solution, with lots of great online resources for creating professional, effective email campaigns.

A MHBA member, EmailDiva.net provides marketing and internet solutions for fashion-oriented businesses

A great article about how to write a blog that draws readership and participation.

I recently visited a retail store that features women's clothing and household accessories for the first time. I walked into the store and ... (sigh) it was beautiful. There were hundreds of items that I wanted to take home with me, and it wasn't simply because they were hanging on a rack. The store takes the time to arrange their goods as if each thing was a work of art. As I was strolling through the store picking up my favorite pieces, a sales person offered to "set up" a dressing room for me. Usually that means that your clothes are taken away, possibly never  to be found again. But when I finally made it to the dressing room,  I was amazed. The dressing room was the most beautiful part of the store.

When it comes time to do some advertising, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. You're faced with questions such as: What information to include? What picture to put on it? What font to use? What message to send?

Thinking of everything they offer, a lot of small businesses try to squeeze all of their information into every available inch of their flier, post-card, sign, website, or newspaper ad. Unfortunately, the message gets cluttered and doesn't communicate effectively.