Doing your own marketing may not be as hard as you think
It's good to see you.
Uncle Bob: It's nice to see you too, Ben. Say, I've been wondering how things are going with your business.
Ben: They're going pretty well. Business is still OK, but our growth seems to have leveled off.
Uncle Bob: Do you know why?
Ben: Not really. Actually, Sandy and I were just talking about doing some marketing research to help figure that off.
Uncle Bob: That sounds expensive!
Ben: I suppose it would be if we hired a marketing firm to do the work. But these days marketing research has never been easier.
Uncle Bob: Do tell.
Ben: Well, the internet has really changed marketing in a lot of ways, especially for small businesses.
Uncle Bob: How has it done that?
Ben: I guess the main thing is that the Internet makes it easier to find and connect with potential customers. We don't want to pay for advertising that nobody reads. The Internet also makes it easier to communicate about your business and collect feedback.
Uncle Bob: So you're planning to do all of your marketing by yourselves?
Ben: That's right. And, honestly, it isn't as strange as it might sound.
Grammar Gym
Say, I've been wondering how things are going with your business.
當你在問問題或提出建議前，想要引起別人的注意，就可以用Say來起頭，它也可以表達驚訝，是非常口語的用法
Hello, friends. Welcome to the Grammar Gym. My name is Liz. In today’s Business Start-up article, we see this sentence: Say, I've been wondering how things are going with your business.
Our focus today is on the first word “say.” Normally we use “say” to mean to tell or to speak, like: Please don’t say anything. But in today’s sentence, Uncle Bob is not telling Ben to speak. Instead, he uses “say” to get Ben’s closer attention.
“Say” is an expression that native speakers use to let their listeners know that there’s something important that’s about to be said. So let’s pretend you run into someone, and you start out with some simple greetings like “How are you? How’s work?” But then you want to talk about something more serious like: Say, I heard your grandmother was in the hospital last week – how is she doing?
Now let’s suppose you and a friend have been talking about weekend plans, and you suddenly want to find out what time it is. So you can use “say” to show you want to change the subject quickly like: Say, what time is it right now?
If you turn to today’s Grammar Tip section in your magazine, you’ll find more example sentences there.
And that’s it for today. This is Liz from the Grammar Gym. See you next time.
- Say, I've been meaning to ask you how your parents are doing.
Info Cloud
Let’s take a look at a very simple but versatile expression today, OK?
OK. What’s that?
“OK.” That’s the expression. OK can be used as an adverb, as in “The air conditioner is working OK.” It can be used as an adjective. "Are you OK?" It can also be used as a noun. "He got his supervisor’s OK." It can even be used as a verb. "Let’s hope she’ll OK their request."
Very versatile indeed. Now let’s take a closer look at the adjective usage. When a friend asks, “What do you think of my new haircut?” to answer “OK” is bordering on impolite.
I agree. Instead of “OK,” you’d better use a value word like beautiful or perfect. Even “terrible” shows more emotional involvement than just “OK”.
Right, because OK… simply means passable or acceptable. Well, it’s affirmative, it’s lukewarm.
Good point. Now how should you write it? You can either write it as an abbreviation with capital O and capital K with no periods, or you can spell it out like a word: O-K-A-Y.
OK. Now let’s also look at a variant of “OK.” And that’s very colloquial – okey-dokey.
Yes. “Okey-dokey” is not only very colloquial, it’s a lot more playful than plain OK. Even though both OK and okey-dokey are used for communicating agreement, okey-dokey would likely bring a smile to the listener’s face.
Language Lab
DIY [do it yourself] n abbr.
the activity of making or repairing things yourself instead of buying them or paying someone else to do it
- I really enjoy DIY arats and crafts.
- I'm not good at DIY, I can't understand the instructions if they are complicated.
DIY adj.
of or relating to work (such as fixing or building something) that you do yourself instead of hiring someone to do it
- a do-it-yourself [=DIY] home improvement project ▪ do-it-yourself home repair ▪ do-it-yourself stores [=stores where you buy materials to fix or build things]
level off phr v. 變得平坦 (引申為平平) 把...弄平
to stop going up or down;
level (something) off or level off (something): to make (something) flat or even
- We were earning a lot of money, but now that has leveled off.
- The sales figures for the new product leveled off after a few months.
- The plane leveled off after a sudden drop.
advertising n.
1 [noncount] published or broadcast advertisements
- The company spends a lot of money on advertising.- Chloe works in a top advertising agency.
- The advertising campaign successfully promoted our sales.
advertisement =ad.the business of creating advertisements
- The ad in the newspaper worked quite well.
feedback n. (回饋) 意見
helpful information or criticism that is given to someone to say what can be done to improve a performance, product, etc.
- We value our customers' feedback very much.
- There's been a lot of positive feedback from our program users.
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