My name is Hamilton Wallace. I am a small business marketing consultant. I help small business owners increase sales with fresh ideas and better, more consistent implementation. This includes everything from developing marketing campaigns and marketing plans to giving hourly marketing advice. Wondering if you need a marketing consultant, or, something? Good question. The video (below, right) gives you a good sense of what I do in just under a minute. If you connect with something I say in the video or anywhere on my site, send me an email or leave a comment. Not sure? Follow me on FriendFeed (below the video window) or Twitter @hamiltonwallace.

My 2 cents in BusinessWeek SMALL BIZ

Some of my thoughts on email in a 6-5-09 online article by Louise Lee, titled E-mail: Low-cost Ads, Rich Results. And I promise you, I did NOT use the word "bombastic."

Hire a Virtual Director of Marketing

Just because you can't afford a Director of Marketing doesn't mean you can't have one. Go virtual, save and start improving your marketing immediately. As a marketing consultant I "own" the marketing planning, execution and results for a handful of small business owners. And it's working...

Hiring a Marketing Consultant -- Simplified

You need answers, but aren't sure you want full-blown relationship with a marketing consultant. I understand. Hire me for one hour and use me as you need me. If you're happy, hire me for another hour, and so on. Simple. Inexpensive. And surprisingly effective. We can start immediately.

Is Your Marketing Built on Piano Tops?

Is your marketing intentional or accidental? The answer may surprise you...There's a great quote by Buckminster Fuller that inspired this question and my thoughts on how Bucky's brilliance relates to your marketing.

Friendfeed "Marketing" real-time stream

Blame Canada!? No, blame the internet!...
James Chartrand has a great post  today on Copyblogger where he blames Canada for the new level of niceness and politeness that has overtaken the internet.  It’s a fun read with a worthwhile message. Actually, the new level of civility–think the opposite of Billy May yelling at you on television–is a result of the democratization of information the internet has introduced.  The...
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Everybody just take a breath...
Every time something big comes along and starts to change things, like social media, the internet, television, radio all the way back to that trouble-maker Gutenberg and his press, people announce the death of the thing that it replaces.  Or more accurately, the thing they believe it will replace. With social media, everybody needs to just take a breath.  And remember: social media is important;...
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Your Mother Was Right...
Remember your mother nagging you to spend more time around smarter people?  “Why do you spend time around __________?  He isn’t going anywhere!.”  And “Why don’t you ever play with little ________, he/she is so smart?” As a marketing consultant I have a similar message for clients: Follow the smartest people in your field, and use social media to do it. And that’s...
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Murphy-Goode gets it...
If I wore a hat I’d take it off to Murphy-Goode winery for the innovative, no, actually, the obvious approach they’re taking to hire a director of social media.  Basically: create a 60-video telling them why they should hire you to launch their social media effort.   In addition to people like me knowing about it and telling other people about it and what I imagine to be a fair amount...
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Story, Voice–Whatever You Call it, You N...
I always enjoy Seth Godin’s blog posts.  Today’s, Find your voice, struck a chord with me.  Godin calls it voice; find your voice, that thing that makes you different, not simply “those things” that seem to be hot right now, and communicate that. I call it story.  Find your story–the thing or things you can say no one else can–and communicate that.  Whatever...
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8 Lessons Learned from my 1st Million Emails...
I contributed to an online article this June for BusinessWeek on email!   The reporter used bits and pieces of an intense 30-minute interview.  So, it got me thinking: I haven’t blogged about email marketing for a long time.  I manage a handful of email campaigns for clients, sending roughly 75,000 emails per month to prospects and customers.  So, here goes. Always be building your list. Don’t...
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Smart Viral Campaign by Blue Man Group and fun...
First, the disclaimer: I’m a huge Blue Man Group fan.  That said, as a small business marketing consultant I’m curious about all things marketing.  So, when I received an email from BMG with a link to their new video on funnyordie.com, I clicked through to watch. Funny video.  Then I noticed an ad on the page to “Trick your pals with the ultimate online gag” by the BMG. I...
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New Marketing Reality: The Death of Convenienc...
Remember the first sentence in the book Good to Great?  “Good is the enemy of great.”  The idea was you had to push past good to get to great; getting past the old “if it ain’t broke. . .don’t fix it. . .” In today’s economy it might be said this way: convenience is the enemy of getting results from your marketing.  Okay, not nearly as catchy, but true. The...
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Finding a Happy Medium in Relationship Marketi...
Just read a good post by Naomi Dunford on Copyblogger.com not so delicately titled “7 ways you’re screwing up relationship marketing.”  Good blog, by the way.  I follow it, you should too. Naomi’s point is well taken.  We can make a mistake in the practice of relationship marketing with too much relationship and not enough marketing.  To paraphrase: don’t forget the...
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Small Business Marketing Lessons from GM...
I’m rooting for GM.  I hope and expect that they’ll be fine.  There are lessons for us, however, in watching them respond to their situation.  Lessons on what NOT to do. I’m a small business marketing consultant who’s called into every conceivable situation, good and bad.  GM has many issues I don’t know about or probably wouldn’t understand if I did that have...
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Interactive Nirvana by Pigtail Pundits