Four States Small Business Blog

Advertising jingles are short pieces of music that are associated with a specific brand, product, or company. The best ones are as memorable as good logos, and people can recall them for years - or even decades - after a campaign that features them. Coming up with a good one, however, can be hard for those who don't have the skills or practice to do it. To help with this challenge, we offer Jingle Workshops.

Attracting top talent can be challenging, and with today's low unemployment rate, the competition is high. Fortunately, employer branding can help your company stand out as a good place to work and improve your chances of attracting the best candidates.

There's an exciting event headed your way this fall - BrandsFormation 2018! After a successful event in March, we’re bringing the free educational workshop back to help even more Four State business owners develop their brand and improve their bottom lines. Scheduled for Wednesday, November 7 at 8:00 am., BrandsFormation 2018 is designed to help you transform your business from good to great.

If you’re used to relying on discounts to drum up business and customer interest, we’ve got good news — you don’t have to use discounts! While discounts can be useful, there are different tactics that you can build into your strategy that are effective at building sales and loyalty. Even better, these methods don’t force you to cut profit margins in order to make the sale.

Creating a stellar website is only the first step in getting people to find your business online -- your site must also be discoverable. The process of creating a website that's appealing to search engines is called SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. In its simplest form, SEO is defined by industry-leader Moz as "the process of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results". This sounds fascinating, but what does it really mean? The rules around SEO can be complex and are changing on a regular basis. Here are the top five ways that search optimization practices have changed in the last decade.

When it comes to four state area radio, there really is only one clear choice . . . and you don't have to take it from us! We love it when marketers from around the area share their success stories. It really reminds us why we do what we do every day -- to not only provide quality programming to our listeners but also to help area businesses reach their core audiences and business goals, too. See how the elements of radio advertising work together to supercharge the reach for our advertisers.

We could share countless stats around the power of radio — 93% of American adults reached weekly, $17 payback per $1 spent on radio by department stores, two-thirds of time spent listening happens outside the home… But we know stories are more powerful than numbers, and we love shining a light on the success of local businesses.

Rush Limbaugh recently made a point to remind everyone of the true impact and power of radio, quoting a Washington Times article from this past April that highlighted new findings from Nielsen. In a half-hour audio clip you can find below, the pioneer of AM radio shared why he prefers radio to TV, compelling stats from Nielsen’s second-quarter 2017 Comparable Metrics Report, and a healthy dose of Rush political talk on listenership and stories from around the nation.

If you think someone in their twilight years isn’t looking online for an assisted living center… well, you might be partly right, but they aren’t your primary online audience. Their children are often the ones doing research and looking for the best option for their parents, and both groups want to feel confident and happy in their choice.

This time of year in Joplin can bring to mind images of storms and tornadoes that wreak havoc on our communities. In the not so distant past, storms have been utterly devastating. As a local business, you need to stay prepared, but you can also play a role in helping your community and your customers be better informed and stay safe.