Up and Running Blog

About Cidnee Stephen

Cidnee Stephen

Cidnee Stephen is the owner of Strategies for Success - a marketing company that focuses on the needs of budget minded small businesses and professional services. She has helped hundreds of small businesses get out of their peak and valley ruts to finally achieve that next vital level of success. Cidnee is also a sought after speaker, writer and blogger on marketing topics that affect small businesses and B2B service based operations. Subscribe for Free to her bi-weekly marketing tips for small businesses and also receive a special report on the 7 Steps of Marketing Success.

Cidnee Stephen

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Where to focus in 2012

by Cidnee Stephen on December 16, 2011

The common tone going into 2012 is cautious optimism. Economies remain very fragile and so lavish spending on your marketing would be a high risk activity. Instead, focus in 2012 on your high payoff activities and leverage the abundance of low cost, no cost marketing tools available to you. From a budget standpoint, try to [...]

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Thinking Outside The Box

by Cidnee Stephen on December 8, 2011

Do you ever find yourself lacking creativity in your marketing? Let’s face it, it’s always easier to follow the leader, or the masses rather than come up with some form of originality. The great thing about mavericks such as Steve Jobs or Richard Branson, is that they show us what the power of creative thinking [...]

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I was having lunch with a peer the other day and we were talking about how incredibly different today’s marketing tactics are from even 5 years ago. Quite frankly all these new shiny objects seem to be overwhelming small businesses instead of helping them grow their client base. This isn’t because they are in ineffective, [...]

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winning

It’s funny.  When we start a business most of us have dreams of becoming #1 in our industry and taking the world by storm. Then as the months and years go by our focus becomes first on survival and then on sustainable growth. As we grow, we might add some different service or product offerings, [...]

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todo_courtneyriancom

This article is meant to be a hands-on exercise. Why? Chances are you already know that you need to be submitting more content into the marketplace to grow your business, but you find this thought overwhelming. So I have a challenge for you, here today.  Take one piece of content you have already created (this [...]

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Upping Your PR

by Cidnee Stephen on August 25, 2011

Have you ever opened up the paper or turned on the TV only to see your competitor being quoted as an expert?   Are there times when they are up there speaking to your target audience, when you think, “I know more than this person.  I should be up on that stage!” Well you’re right.  If [...]

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google

Early adopters are showing enough cautious optimism that it’s time you become aware of what all the hype is about with Google+, that’s if you aren’t already “building circles” and “hanging out.” If you think “Why? It’s less than a month old. How big can it be?” You need to know that in its tiny [...]

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I remember two years ago listening to a Web expert predict that eventually websites would be all video instead of print. While it hasn’t quite reached that extreme, it’s hard to ignore the impact videos and YouTube are having as a marketing tool. As a small business owner, you may want to take a close [...]

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Sometimes we get so caught up in following the rules with marketing that we forget its entertainment value. However, with marketing becoming more community based than ever (thanks to the onslaught of social media channels), you ‘gotta’ inject some personality or you are going to have a much tougher time engaging your prospects. Without some [...]

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What are your prospects looking for online?

I had to laugh at my 18 year old son the other day when he couldn’t connect with a friend because his cell phone was down and he wasn’t on Facebook. This friend might as well not exist, in my son’s world. I suggested he look up the family phone number in the phonebook which [...]

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