Four States Small Business Blog

Avoiding Cliches: How Your "Friendly Staff" and "Great Customer Service" are Killing Your Creative

Posted by Mark Zimmer on October 12, 2017 at 8:00 AM

You’re all geared up and excited to finally be putting together your new marketing campaign. You’re full of great ideas—words, phrases, and slogans that you’ve heard others use, so you know they’re attention-grabbers. But is using the tried and true the best choice? Or could it be getting a little (or a lot) tried and true…and tired?

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Topics: Consumer Behavior, Advertising Creative

3 Reasons Why Local Politicians Need Great Websites

Posted by Pam Larimore on October 5, 2017 at 8:00 AM

A big challenge for any local politician is staying in touch with the community. You gained their support to get elected, but now that you’re in office, it’s not possible for you to go out and shake each and every hand like when you were on the campaign trail.

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Topics: Integrated Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Consumer Behavior, Government

How to Get New Visitors to Your Casino, and Keep Them Coming Back

Posted by Mark Zimmer on September 13, 2017 at 8:00 AM

There’s something fun and exhilarating about visiting a casino for Americans. In fact, Americans spend much more on casino visits than they do on movie visits, and an annual $59 billion dollars are spent at casinos across the country.

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Topics: Integrated Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Consumer Behavior, Casinos

How to Effectively Use Interactive Quizzes to Increase Your Marketing ROI

Posted by Mark Zimmer on August 17, 2017 at 8:00 AM

Thanks to ever-evolving technology, the path to purchase has changed, and the advertising world is always adapting to keep up with it. New channels, platforms, and tools are constantly being developed, giving marketers a truly vast array of options, including some unique ones, like interactive quizzes. These quizzes may not be new, per se, but they’re vastly underrated by most brands as a legitimate way to build engagement and develop leads.

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Topics: Integrated Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Joplin Market, Consumer Behavior, Advertising Creative

Why Summer Can Lead to Unexpected Boosts in Radio Listening

Posted by Mark Zimmer on July 25, 2017 at 10:00 AM

When warm weather hits and people’s activities change, radio listening habits change, too. Overall, this change manifests itself by boosting listening share for certain formats. For example, the summer of 2016 saw an increase of more than 5% for the classic rock format, while the two previous summers saw increases of approximately 10% for the classic hits format. However, increases in particular formats vary by audience segment. For the 25 to 54 age group, country is a summer preference.

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Topics: Radio Advertising, Marketing Strategy, Consumer Behavior

How Hot Weather Impacts Dining

Posted by Chad Elliot on July 10, 2017 at 8:00 AM

Weather can have a big impact on our behavior. Not only does it affect our choice of activities, but it can also affect our mood and have an influence on the kind of food we want, as well as the type of place or atmosphere in which we prefer to dine. In this article, we take a look at the effects of warm weather on consumer behavior, the types of foods consumers prefer, what kind of restaurants they want to dine in, and how best to reach customers during the summer months.

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Topics: Marketing Strategy, Consumer Behavior, Restaurants

5 Consumer Trends that Pop Up During the Summer Months

Posted by Kylie Davis on June 19, 2017 at 8:00 AM

It’s summer! You know what that means. Warm weather, vacations, and family activities — in other words, changes in consumer trends. Businesses need to respond to these changing trends to stay focused on what their target audience is doing during the summer. To help you do that, we’ve made a list of 5 consumer trends to consider for your summer marketing strategy.

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Topics: Consumer Behavior

Trending Marketing Tips for Your Law Firm: Don't Get Left Behind

Posted by Mark Zimmer on May 30, 2017 at 8:05 AM

Marketing has evolved, and law firm marketing is no exception. Branding is critical to distinguish your firm from your competition and increase the likelihood that when someone needs your services, they will turn to you. Here are some marketing tips for law firms to guide you in developing a marketing strategy that works.

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Topics: Marketing Strategy, Consumer Behavior, Legal

How Summer Can Negatively Impact Your Marketing, and How to Prevent It

Posted by Pam Larimore on May 25, 2017 at 8:00 AM

Summer is all but upon us, bringing sunny, warm weather, barbecue, and beach vacations. This might mean you don’t think you need to bother with summer marketing. Maybe it’s because you’ll see plenty of traffic and don’t need the extra exposure, or maybe it’s because you’re a winter-focused business that you think no one wants to hear about in summer. However, either way, you may want to rethink. In today’s post, we’ll take a brief look at summer’s impact and ways that marketing in the off season or peak season can still have an impact.

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Topics: Radio Advertising, Marketing Strategy, Consumer Behavior

A Deep Dive into the Evolving Roofing Customer: Who They Are and What You Need to Know

Posted by Mark Zimmer on May 23, 2017 at 9:00 AM

The digital world is constantly evolving, and customers are evolving right along with it. Devices are getting smarter and helping customers make smarter decisions. For brands to compete, their marketing strategies must reflect the evolving ways in which customers receive information and make purchasing decisions. Here we take a look at how this evolution affects roofing company advertising.

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Topics: Marketing Strategy, Consumer Behavior, Home Improvement