BASEMENT TO BOARDROOM  

Janine Popick is the CEO and founder of VerticalResponse, a leading provider of self-service e-mail marketing, event marketing, online surveys, social media, and direct mail solutions empowering small businesses to create, manage, and analyze their own direct marketing campaigns. The company has more than 100,000 customers and was ranked No. 2,802 on the 2012 Inc. 5000 list. Janine also blogs for the VerticalResponse Marketing Blog for Small Business. @janinepopick


4 Reasons Your Employees Should Attend Conferences

Attending a conference isn't all about personal and career development. Here's what else employees should be doing.  Read story

Office Etiquette Fail: Things to Stop Doing Today

From personal phone calls to clipping nails at your desk, here's a slew of things you shouldn't do in the office.  Read story

Test the Performance of Your Homepage: 3 Tips

Your homepage may be the hardest working page on your website, so make sure you know what's working and what's not.  Read story

Why Employees Stay (and Why They Go)

What makes employees stay for the long haul when they can get higher pay by jumping around? The answer may surprise you.  Read story

F@#%! Is Swearing in the Office Okay?

Use these three tips to determine when swearing in the workplace is okay and when it is a no way.  Read story

Do You Make It Too Hard to Get a Job At Your Company?

Your job application process may be scaring excellent candidates away.  Read story

How Your Energy Affects Your Team

When you're the boss, there are going to many times when you've gotta put on your "game face" because your energy affects everyone and everything.  Read story

3 Reasons I Lead From the Weeds

You can still keep your company moving forward while keeping your feet firmly planted in the day-to-day details. Here are three reasons to do so.  Read story

Can Your Employees Push Back?

Are your employees afraid to disagree with you? Here's how to help them stand up for their opinions.  Read story

Should You Use Guilt as a Sales Tactic?

As a last-ditch effort, giving a potential client the guilt-trip might work. But it also might not.  Read story

Is Your Business Going to the Dogs?

Studies show that having dogs in the workplace reduce stress and increase satisfaction. Here are three things that workplaces that allow dogs do well.  Read story

Why You Should Hate This W-Word

The word 'wait' can be destructive to a growing business. Here's why.  Read story

Got Bullies? Here's How to Deal With Them

Bullies are not one size fits all. What kind of bully do you have in your office?  Read story

Nail Your Company About Us Page: 5 Tips

Create an About Us page that is the customer seeking powerhouse that it should be. Here are five things you can do now.  Read story

Don't Aim to Be Popular, Be Effective

Managing your employees is not a popularity contest. When you remain focused on real goals so will they.  Read story

You Promised! Now Kick Unsubscribes to the Curb

How do you keep customers loving your business and engaged in your content? Deliver on your promises--or else.  Read story

3 Content Tools Every Business Needs

These three content marketing tools allow you to be timely, efficient, and effective with your content.  Read story

How Virgin Atlantic's Marketing Nails It

Virgin Atlantic is a small airline with a big personality. This is how it lures customers from the big guys.  Read story

Why Give Away Free Service? Because It's Worth It

Sometimes it makes good business sense to give away a product or service. Here's how it worked out for Zane's Cycles.  Read story

Tiger's New Nike Ad...Too Soon?

The new Nike ad proclaims "Winning Takes Care of Everything." But does it? Is this ad too much, too soon?  Read story

Make Your Website Rock: 3 Tools

These three tools will help you get more more subscribers, better engagement, more useful content on your website.  Read story

Just Say No to Micromanaging

Micromanagement could have a huge long- and short-term negative impact on your ability to be effective as a manager.  Read story

Customer Inertia: How to Get Past It

Getting customers to try a new product or service can be a challenge. Here's how to get them on board.  Read story

The 30 Minute Meeting

Here are six ways to keep meetings short and sweet.  Read story

How to Be Best in Show at SXSW

With so many companies clawing for attention at conferences, here's how some managed to stand out from the crowd at SXSW.  Read story

The Deadly Cost of a B-Player

Here's how mediocre employees can take down a business. Don't let it happen to you.  Read story

Rewrite That Boring Job Description

Want to attract the A-players to work for your business? Here's what needs to be in the job description.  Read story

Help Your Employees Get More Done

If you want happy employees, then help them do their jobs faster and better. Here's how.  Read story

The Case for More Office Parties

Take a day each month to show your employees the appreciation they deserve.  Read story

Stellar Customer Experience: 4 Tips

Take a cue from other businesses that have excellent customer service and learn to incorporate those strategies into your business.  Read story

4 Reasons You'll Fail at Entrepreneurship

If you're starting your own business for these four reasons don't do it.  Read story

Content Your Customers Actually Care About

Offer expertise and knowledge to help customers--don't just sell to them.  Read story

Photos Are Social Media Gold

Here are five ways to use images to grow your follower base on social media.  Read story

Help Your Business Get Social: 3 Free Tools

Get a lot of bang for no bucks with these free business-oriented platforms.  Read story

5 Easy Steps to Get Started on LinkedIn

If your customers are other businesses or have specific industry interests, you might want to give LinkedIn a second look.  Read story

3 Types of Poison Employees

Here are three types of employees that drag your company down, and how you can stop their bad behavior.  Read story

Create an Awesome Welcome Email: 7 Tips

That first email is like the all-important first impression on a hot date. Here's how to pique your customers' interest.  Read story

Someone Is Taking Credit For Your Idea! Now What?

Giving credit where credit's due is essential to business success. Unfortunately, it doesn't always happen.  Read story

Why Your Shipping Policy is Losing You Business

If you're a small retailer, you've got it hard enough; don't lose a potential customer because of bad customer service and annoying store policies.  Read story

First-time Managers: Don't Micromanage

If your company culture is all about empowering employees, your managers need to know how to step back and just listen.  Read story