In this increasingly competitive market, it can be difficult to get yourself noticed. Even if you manage to get your product on the shelves of a major retailer, many customers browsing the store may not ever know it’s there.

That’s why we’re starting to see a trend toward the “store within a store” format. In certain Best Buy locations, for instance, you’ll see a section that is dedicated completely to Apple products. It’s not really being shown as a department as much as it is being shown as its own store… which just happens to be inside of a larger store.

The same thing has happened at a Memory Express store in Richmond, BC. Western Digital has set up its own “store within a store” in that Memory Express location, showcasing WD products and giving this line more visibility than its direct competitors.

The concept isn’t new. Many shopping centres in Asia have department stores where the clothing is split up based on brands and each brand effectively has its own “store” within the department store. This kind of marketing adds to the visibility and could help to get you noticed.

The brick and mortar business certainly still exists. From restaurants to clothing stores, people still go to physical locations to buy many things. However, more and more business are looking to cut away the overhead and work exclusively as online-only entities.

Without getting into the pros and cons of such an approach, we must also ask another question. If your business is online-only, do you still need to have physical business cards? If so, would you still put your mailing address on them or is just the web address sufficient?

Realistically, it really depends on the nature of your business. If it’s the type where you are still shipping and receiving physical products, then you will likely still want to put a physical mailing address on there. If you are a web consultant or a graphic designer, on the other hand, a conventional mailing address may not be as necessary and it becomes a matter of personal preference.

To all the web-only business owners in the audience, do you still have business cards printed? What information do you choose to include on these cards? Do you include or omit the physical mailing address?

Social media and social networking have absolutely taken the world by storm. It really has opened up the communication channels for individuals and businesses alike, but are you getting maximum value out of it?

Absolutely, a big part of getting the most out of Twitter is to get active engagement with your customers and fans. However, even if you’re not as active on Twitter as some other companies, that doesn’t mean that you can’t get some value from it. In fact, just make sure your customers know that you are on Twitter and that they know your Twitter username.

This is critical, because it means that when they mention your brand, they are more likely to use your username (@company) rather than just your company name (company name). This lends itself to having their followers click through on the username and learn more about you. It’s much less likely that someone would copy and paste the company name into a search engine to learn more.

This is why, above all else, your Twitter bio, background image, and profile URL be kept up to date. They need to be informative, directing interested parties to your website to get more information about what you have to offer. Get on Twitter, get the mentions, and build your brand presence online.

As you’ve surely heard by now, singer Amy Winehouse passed away this past weekend. There was a significant response (with varying opinions) throughout the social-sphere, including Facebook, Twitter, and other realms online.

Keen eyes would have also noticed that within the same day as the announcement of her death, Apple started to feature Winehouse on the main page of iTunes. This showcasing of the artist could have been seen as paying tribute or commemorating her work. However, it could also be construed in a different way.

It could also be seen as capitalizing on an opportunity. Some people may say that this was mildly unethical or in bad taste, while others see the showcasing as a smart business move on the part of Apple.

What do you think? Was this a strategic move that paid dividends into Apple’s iTunes coffers or was it a move in bad taste that should be frowned upon?

Listen to any number of different Internet marketing experts and they’ll tell you that if you want your business to have a strong brand presence online, it needs to tap into the social networks. However, what if you don’t have the time, expertise, or motivation to do so?

We see this all too often. Catch the trend before it passes you by. If you don’t take advantage now, you’re going to miss a huge opportunity. As such, so many companies set up their Twitter accounts and Facebook pages, only to leave them dormant for months on end.

That’s not social at all and that kind of inactivity simply does not belong in the social media sphere. Yes, it is absolutely true that Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and even Google+ offer huge marketing opportunities that are free to use. However, creating an account and not using it is ultimately worse than not having an account at all.

Before you consider tapping into the various social networks on the Internet, ask yourself if you have either the time to give it the attention it deserves or the funds to outsource the work to a freelancer or contractor.

You have some extra stock that doesn’t seem to be selling particularly well. You’ve tried a few different tactics to get this old stock out the door, but they’ve been met with limited success. What can you do?

For both brick-and-mortar conventional storefronts and online e-tailers, one option to consider is the mystery grab bag. This works on certain types of customers in certain niches, particularly in those where you may find a good number of bargain hunters willing to take a chance.

Instead of selling a single product, you bundle together several items. However, rather than reveal the exact contents, you simply state that this “mystery grab bag” holds a value of $X but that customers can buy it for $Y. This describes explicit savings. It’s important that you don’t load the bags with “junk,” as it is still important for your customers to get a sense of value from their purchase.

Even when it comes to e-tailers like TeeFury, they’ll occasionally have “mystery” sales where a single t-shirt from the grab bag will sell for substantially less than the regular price. The customer won’t know what he or she is getting until it arrives in the mail, but that’s sometimes even more appealing, especially given the reduced price.