1. Network with your community. Making your store a local institution goes beyond providing awesome service and goods. Position yourself as a supporter of the community by establishing connections with local influencers, writes Young Entrepreneurs Council member Manpreet Singh. "While most people you meet will have their own needs and agendas in mind," he writes, "make it yours to discover everyone’s else's needs, build rapport and nurture new connections beyond the meet and greet."  (From "6 Steps to Turn Your Local Business Into a Local Institution," by Manpreet Singh)

2. Use active verbs. Passive writing makes for boring copy, an absolute sin when it comes to marketing. "Strong verbs show action," writes OPEN Forum contributor Vivian Wagner, "and action sells." (From "10 Tricks for Creating Catchy Content," by Vivian Wagner) 

3. Develop different landing pages for your site. Audience segmentation—grouping your audience into like groups—is a tool often used in marketing, but it also has a place in your website design. "It’s best to focus your efforts on developing two or three high-quality landing pages and optimizing your ads and inbound links to feed into them," writes OPEN Forum contributor Jayson DeMers. "By creating top-notch landing pages, you can lower bounce rates and keep traffic moving through your site." (From "10 Smart Strategies to Create a Website That Wows," by Jayson DeMers)

4. Triple check your spelling. Don't let anything leave your office without having multiple people check for spelling errors. A misspelled word in your marketing collateral isn't just mildly embarrassing: It can send a message to potential clients and customers that your business isn't professional and shouldn't be taken seriously. (From "3 Minor Marketing Mistakes That Could Cost You Big Bucks," by Geoff Williams)

5. Over communicate with your team. Reduce the likelihood of requests and assignments slipping through the cracks by creating a clear communication plan for your next project. Employees should know who they can talk to, what types of messages should be addressed to whom, and anything else that opens the door for more communication. (From "5 Easy Tips for Successfully Managing Your Projects," by Denise O'Berry) 

6. Determine whether or not a potential hire has vision. In order for your business to grow, you need to have people on staff who can bring fresh ideas to the table, not "box-checkers," writes OPEN Forum's Erika Napoletano. To find the former, you have to ask the right questions that "help you figure out their vision acumen (and work ethic)," questions like: "What’s one area in our current brand where you see that we have room for improvement?" and "What inspires you about our company’s brand?" (From "One Easy Way to Hire Better Employees," by Erika Napoletano)

7. Host a regular party series when people least expect it. “What we found out last year is that summer is a bad time to have parties," advises Nicholas Cassadine, the owner of Royal Razor Barbershop in Baltimore. "People are traveling, out and about. It’s better to wait until fall and winter.” (From "Royal Razor Barbershop: Using Small Business Saturday to Attract New Customers," by Phaedra Hise)

8. Keep a close eye on what's happening abroad. If you have business ties to any one of the various parts of the world that are becoming increasingly unstable (take your pick: a civil war in Syria and ISIS spreading in the Middle East), it's good to have a contingency plan in place. Andrey Akselrod, co-founder of the New York-based translation technology firm Smartling, has two offices in the Ukraine. He's already working with those employees to make sure his company can be there for them in case violence flares up. (From "Can Global Instability Damage Your Business?" by Mark Henricks)

9. Develop real relationships with those you network with. "Whether it's through content creation, sharing, direct interactions or ideally all three, your focus should always be on building and maintaining a true connection with individuals," writes marketing expert Ted Rubin. "Make it a learn-learn proposition, and stop focusing only on win-win, which is more about negotiation than growing relationships. Use the content you share and create as a tool to connect, not as the endgame of social interaction." (From "Why Learn-Learn Is Better Than Win-Win in a Social Media Plan," by Ted Rubin)

10. Have fun with marketing. Take a page from the wildly successful and equally outlandish Richard Branson. While others may think of putting out a creative ad in a print publication or a sponsored Instagram post, Branson's hopping onto air balloons and dressing up as a bride to bring attention to his companies. (From "13 Brilliant and Outlandish Marketing Stunts Used by Richard Branson," by Glen Stansberry)

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