We're here to give you the most help, and a chance to be helpful, too.

chief branding officer of nakedpizza, a small new orleans-based pizza franchise, discusses why twitter is the best social media outlet for the business.

refining product choices to meet consumer wants

using direct mail to increase email marketing results

gaining new customers from your neighborhood

the owner of snack krackle pop tells us why

6 page action guide with step-by-step step suggestions to beat your newest competitor

it's wonderful to have so many customers in your location that they may have to wait. do you and your staff do "the right things" to keep them happy while they wait? this 4-page action guide contains over 25 tried-and-true "right things" to keep your customers waiting contentedly.

"half the money i spend on advertising is wasted. i just don't know which half." do you know which of your advertising tactics are working to drive sales? this 6-page action guide will help you: *understand how different campaigns work * track and monitor which campaigns are working..and which are not. * decide how to improve your advertising results * know what response you are getting compared to industry averages

this 5 page action guide provides proven techniques to successfully increase customer loyalty

it is easier to keep your customers than trying to get new ones. so, stop losing customers! this 7-page guide will help you learn ...and most importantly how to win them back.

so, how do you, the small retailer, make sure your customers continue shopping at your store during tough economic times? here are 12 ideas to consider:

how one 'big boy' eschews traditional tv advertising and relies on web and facebook

“i never really cared for the painted signs on the front of stores i felt like it cheapened your image. however, business has been so bad that i decided to try it. we put a sign on the window that said special weekend sale. free restretto with any best seller. it worked we did 35% more sales of ny times best seller list than we had done on any weekend in the past 6 months.mandy c, san francisco, book store & coffee boutique

“at our store we ask the customer for their phone number when we are taking their order. our pos system allows us to collect that piece of data which we can later reverse append to get a land address. this is somewhat effective but can become expensive. more recently we are working on building our list of email addresses so we can communicate with our customers that way. we run different promotions to incent people to sign up (a contest where one person will win a $25 gc or 5 free lunches or something), but mostly we just try to have a consistent presence in our store letting people know about the online program and also tagging everything we do with our web address.”jackson t, miami, fl café owner

we've started to give away bookmarks with the name, address, web and phone number for the store, and we drop several in a bag so people can share with their friends. we're trying to think of other low-cost freebies too, including book club reading lists, for customers.tom t., bookseller, spokane wa.

i’m really focusing on referrals…i make a point to mail a postcard to former clients and ask for referrals, and send a gift certificate to a nice restaurant to every client who gives me a referral.patrick o. rapid city, sd- real estate

“we like to reward our customers by giving them recognition in our store. we have a list in our store where we put the names of any of our customers who recommend/refer another customer to us. we also print up a monthly newsletter and we give credit to our customers that make suggestions to our store by listing the suggestion of the month. our customers say they like being included and they look forward to see what someone new has contributed to our store.”todd h, cedar city, ut fitness center