AvatarCidnee Stephen

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. You can follow her on Facebook.

Recent Articles Published by Cidnee Stephen

managing

Tired of Bland, Boring Facebook Ads? How to Create an Engaging Facebook Ad Campaign

Facebook ads are challenging for marketers. You're not only competing with other ads for attention—you're competing with a user's entire newsfeed. Read more »

managing

Are You Wasting Your Marketing Budget?

Get essential tips on making the most of your marketing budget. You'll learn how to stretch a thin budget and get the marketing results you're looking for. Read more »

managing

7 Reasons Your Website Is Scaring Customers Away

When you are researching products and services online, do you ever notice how quickly you dismiss some websites because you don’t feel they will deliver? Well, what about your website? Will your potential customers run away in fear? What does an untrustworthy website look like? Have a look at this list of website trust factors. If... Read more »

managing

Can a Facebook Contest Help You Grow Your Business?

One of our clients had a great idea for a contest. We decided to use Facebook as the platform for a couple of key reasons: Their page was relatively new and it needed a promotional shove to build the company’s brand on Facebook. We knew it was a very inexpensive promotion to run, thus reducing... Read more »

planning

5 Ways You Can Use CTAs to Convert Customers

Nothing breaks my heart more than visiting a website that is well laid out and has great content, but has missed the mark in converting visitors into customers through an effective call to action (aka a “CTA”) system. This is like investing all your money in a beautiful store front, but keeping the doors locked... Read more »

planning

If I Gave You a $100,000 Marketing Budget, What Would You Do With It?

Let’s face it: developing a marketing budget for a small business is usually not a very big priority. Typically, we just don’t have enough money to warrant having a formal marketing budget. Sometimes we just ignore doing one because it’s depressing. After all, if you don’t have any money to put towards a marketing budget,... Read more »

managing

Does This Street Entertainer Practice Better Marketing Than Your Company?

On a recent trip to Boston, I was enjoying Quincy Market when I came across a delightful street entertainer. I don’t know about you, but I love a good street entertainer—you know, one that engages the audience, is exceptional at what they do, and makes you want to stop and watch. What was of particular... Read more »

managing

Top 5 Online Marketing Tactics to Focus On in 2014

As the New Year approaches, many small business owners will be taking time to reflect on their marketing strategies for the New Year. This year their timing couldn’t be more perfect. Read more »

managing

Can Facebook Really Help Your Business?

It is easy to come up with reasons why Facebook isn't going to help your business. I hear them all the time. My response remains the same: Don’t knock it until you give it a decent try. It will cost you little in time and money to do so, and the payoff could be well worth it! Read more »

managing

How to Differentiate Your Business From the Competition

The other night, I was out at my favorite sushi restaurant. We go there quite regularly because both my son and I are in love with their rolls, especially their Signature Dynamite Roll. Being the marketer I am, I couldn’t help but notice, as the little boats floated around with various dishes, that others must... Read more »

managing

Direct Mail Marketing Isn’t Dead

Does direct mail still work? It can, but Cidnee will share with you a few pointers you need to consider. Read more »

managing

The Secret to Successful Social Media

2013 is definitely the beginning of an Online Renaissance. A time when business owners can finally find their voice and yell their message from the online rooftops. Read more »

managing

The Power of Solution-Based Strategies

As small business owners, we tend to avoid a deep dive into strategy at the best of times. Face it, we are usually too busy fighting the day to day fires, keeping up with communications and managing the finances. Yet the time always comes when we need to put down the fire extinguisher long enough... Read more »

managing

Is Your Website “Soooooo 2008?”

2008 may not even seem that long ago to some of you. But so much has changed in marketing since then that quite frankly a website even developed in 2010 can seem – well – “old school.” According to Pew Internet & American Life Project back around 2008, only about ½ the North American population... Read more »

managing

Are You Stuck in the Mediocrity Trap?

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,... Read more »

managing

Does Your Marketing Lack Personality?

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... Read more »

managing

Creating Your Marketing Routine

Think about the last time you made a big change in the way you run your business or perhaps even in your personal life. It’s hard to adjust your day to day habits. Sometimes we are even at a loss where to start. The same tends to happen with our marketing. Perhaps you have worked... Read more »

managing

5 Fun Ways to Market Your Business on Facebook

If you are using Facebook personally or are still one of those rare people who aren’t part of what compares in size as being the 3rd largest country in the world, you might want to consider “playing” with some fun techniques here to market your business. Of course to start with you will need to... Read more »

managing

Jugular Marketing

[Note: I’m happy to introduce contributor  Cidnee Stephen with her first post on Up and Running, which we assume will be the first of many. We’re including her background at the bottom of the post. Tim] When I sit down with a business owner for the first time, I will always ask them what marketing... Read more »

managing

Converting Online Leads to Offline Sales

If you were to look at the biggest marketing trend in 2010, most would say it was the year of “Social Media.” Small and mid-sized businesses were joining the ranks of large corporations on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter, trying desperately to figure out how to use these tools to market their products and services.... Read more »