Blog

November

Instagram Stories: 7 tricks and 7 ideas to market your business

November 2, 2016

This functionality may be new to the Instagram platform but it has been out there on Snapchat for quite a while. Instagram stories are similar to Snapchat stories in every possible way: you can post both photos and videos, customize them with text and color doodles, add filters (though not as elaborate as on Snapchat), only your followers can see them and they just last for 24 hours. I've had a Snapchat account for some time now but I have never posted a public story. The amount of work that goes into growing an audience on a new platform has been keeping me from adding it to my business strategy. That's why I got really excited when I heard Instagram was launching their stories. We now have the...

October

How to schedule Twitter and Facebook posts for a more efficient social media strategy

October 5, 2016

In Business, Marketing, Social Media

By Cris CM

Right now, we want to be present on all the available platforms to promote our business and connect with our audience. We all learn pretty early in the journey that social media is one of the most powerful marketing tools we have. But managing all the social media accounts of a business can be a very time consuming task. Additionaly, if you want to post daily and at different times depending on the platform, it can lead you straight into multitasking, which is the shortest road to the land of lost concentration. This is a quick tutorial on a super simple strategy that will save you a lot of time and it can be summarized in 3 words: schedule your posts. This is...

September

How to set up an image-based email signature on Gmail – Step by step tutorial with images

September 6, 2016

In Branding, Tutorials

By Cris CM

Whenever I create an image-based email signature for any of my clients, the next natural question is always "How do I set it up on my email account?". After a pretty long time offering this service, I can say most small business owners I've worked with manage their emails through Gmail. That's why I have decided to create this quick tutorial in 5 easy steps including images for reference. Other email services may have a different interface but I'm sure the process is very similar. I hope you find it useful! Step 1. Prepare your images The first thing you need is obviously your signature images. Your email signature can include one or several images. What you need to keep in mind is you can...

August

Free printable monthly calendar

August 31, 2016

In Business, Freebies

By Cris CM

A new free printable ready to be downloaded! It is a simple monthly calendar this time. You can print as many as you want and customize it for each month. If you are like me and you like to have a broader vision of your month side by side with your daily planner, this can definitely come in handy. Go ahead and download it from the Resource Library now. And don't forget to check the free weekly planner for small business owners as well!...

July

7 websites full of inspiration to keep your creative juices flowing

July 7, 2016

In Inspiration

By Cris CM

If you work creating original products or services, you probably have noticed inspiration and creativity are more like a rollercoaster than an easy hike. One day you are at the highest heights and the next you can’t even… you can’t. When I find myself on one of those creativity deserts, I head over to my “Inspiration” newsfeed folder and I breathe everything in. What I have there is simply a list of art, design and technology websites that regularly publish amazing projects by talented people. Even when they are completely unrelated to what I do, browsing through the latest posts puts my brain to work, sometimes at an unconscious level that starts sending new ideas to the surface later on....

April

My Small Business Toolbox – 13 online resources that will make your digital life easier

April 28, 2016

In Branding, Business, Marketing, Social Media, Web design

By Cris CM

In this day and age, the majority of small business owners have an online presence either on social media, a website or both. This means most of us have a computer around and need to use it for many different tasks during the day: creating digital content, planning a marketing campaign, keeping track of statistics, etc. There are a ton of tools and tutorials out there that can help us with all these processes but it is difficult to keep track of all the new possibilities as they come up. Today I want to share with you some of the things I have on my toolbox. I hope you find them useful! If you regularly use other handy resources, please,...