Marketing Blog

Look at any list of the top 10 fears of people and the fear of public speaking will undoubtedly be at the top of any list.  In a world where content marketing is becoming ever more important, the need to not only write the content, but present it, is now even more critical for people looking to develop new business leads and position themselves and their companies as leaders in their respective industry.  In this week’s Marketing Blog, I’ll share some additional tips to giving a presentation. (Cl...

Look at any list of the top 10 fears of people and the fear of public speaking will undoubtedly be at the top of any list.  In a world where content marketing is becoming ever more important, the need to not only write the content, but present it, is now even more critical for people looking to develop new business leads and position themselves and their companies as leaders in their respective industry.  In this week’s Marketing Blog, I thought I would hit on some of the foundational tips to...

On April Fool's Day, 1976, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs released the Apple I computer and Apple Inc. was born.  They had one product they manufactured and sold and they were successful enough that they eventually came out with the Apple II a year later.   The rest of Apple’s history as a tech visionary developing groundbreaking products is well documented, but not the intended focus of my blog. What I do want to focus on is the ease at which they were able to leverage their brand in an effort to...

If business owners were asked on a marketing exam: Who is the target audience of your branding efforts? My guess is 9 out of 10 would answer “Our customers.”

That answer would garner only one-third partial credit. 

While it’s a given that brands are developed with the customer in mind, you would be selling yourself short (by about 66%) if your branding efforts stopped there. Your brand does more than just attract customers. It also attracts valuable employees and business partners.

Think about...

Remember the old fable about the ant and the grasshopper? The ant labors all summer long storing up food for the long winter ahead, while the grasshopper spends the warm summer months singing, dancing and playing. Then when the winter arrives, the grasshopper finds itself dying of hunger while the ant is taking inventory of all the food it had stored. The story concludes with the grasshopper, ill prepared for the hardships of winter, struggling for survival and ultimately starving to death.  

Sur...

I have a confession to make. I’m not an order taker. If a client or prospective client instructs me to design an ad, a website, a direct mail piece, et al.,  I’m not going whip out my notepad, or iPad for that matter, and start taking orders like a waiter in a restaurant…I won’t be asking “Do you want a side of SEO with that website”?

I’m a branding guy. I believe that before you can expect to get meaningful results from any kind of marketing tactic (i.e., website, brochure, tradeshow display or...

SEO is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page through its structuring so that search engines, such as Google or Bing, can find, read and index them in the most effective manner. When done properly, SEO makes your website and its content attractive, relevant and visible to search engines and web searchers.  In short, it will help folks find your company.  A good way to think about it would be if you decided to build your dream home out in some rural part of the...

As you are probably aware, there is no shortage of individual website developers and web design agencies. They come in all sizes, areas of expertise and price points.  They typically arrive armed with great looking portfolios, making it even more difficult to identify who’s the right fit for you. 

So how do you evaluate a good web developer from a bad one?  For my money, it’s all in the strategic approach.  Great looking websites that are easy to navigate are a given.  Hiring someone based on...

Right off the bat, I’d say if you are asking that question, then the answer is probably yes.  But in the interest of posting a blog that is longer than one sentence and that provides some actual value, I’ll elaborate further. 

Think, for a moment, about how you prepare for a first meeting with a prospective customer.  If you’re serious about getting someone’s business, you’ll probably log some prep time researching your prospect’s company in an effort to appear knowledgeable about their business....

Whether it is through acquisition or organic growth, more and more of today’s companies have the ability to offer numerous services and/or products to multiple target audiences across vastly different industries.

However, according to Jonathan Ebenstein, the managing director of Skoda Minotti’s marketing services group, all too often companies are using a shotgun approach to marketing, when a rifle-based solution is needed.

“In other words, you can’t use the same broad-based, one-size-fits-all...

This is the fifth and final installment of our five part series on niche marketing.

Clearly it is imperative that you put some kind of system in place to monitor and evaluate your efforts. Without a tracking mechanism it is difficult to know what strategies work best and those that should be either revised or not carried forward in the future. My advice would be to design or invest in some kind of CRM system that will track new and repeat customers and allow you to determine how they learned...

This is the fourth part of a five part series where we have been elaborating on why niche marketing is a vi­tal concept to consider when developing a marketing plan, while addressing some of the key elements to developing a niche marketing plan.

The basics start with a description of your target market, competitors and products or services. Additionally, you’ll need to put together a marketing plan and budget, which will contain your advertis­ing and promotional plan along with a detailed account...

This is part three of a five part series where we have been elaborating on why niche marketing is a vi­tal concept to consider when developing a marketing plan, while addressing some of the key elements to developing a niche marketing plan.

No surprise here, your target audience is the primary group of people you want as customers. But you need to think be­yond just the corporate decision makers (i.e., C-level executives or business own­ers). That’s too broad. Think about the hot buttons of...

This is the second part of a five part series in which will be elaborating on why niche marketing is a vi­tal concept to consider when developing a marketing plan, while addressing some of the key elements to developing a niche marketing plan.

After you have figured out what your niche specialty is and what true opportuni­ties lay ahead, you need to assemble your team and team leadership. This needs to be a dedicated group of people who are committed to growing the business or business unit....

Whether it is through acquisition or organic growth, more and more of today’s companies have the ability to offer numerous services and/or prod­ucts to multiple target audiences across vastly different industries.

However, all too often, companies are using a shot gun ap­proach to marketing, when a rifle-based solution is needed.

In other words, you can’t use the same broad-based, one-size-fits-all marketing approach to go after a construction com­pany as you would for a law firm. These are two...

"Pay-Per-Click," or PPC,” is a method of online advertising that's measurable, flexible and very fast. PPC ads are paid listings that appear above and to the right of the free listings on Google, Yahoo, and other search engines. To be listed in a search engine’s PPC’s results you pay/bid in an auction like manner. With PPC you only pay for the ads that are clicked on, so in addition to being able to quickly, measure the effectiveness of your ad, you can also track and justify your results...

If you’re a businesses looking for ways to cut your marketing budget and thinking of leaping onto the Twitter bandwagon, be sure to look before you tweet.

Twitter, no doubt, is a great low budget, grassroots approach to create awareness, drive business and build your brand, but keep in mind that everything you tweet is searchable on the web. This can be both a curse and a blessing.  The good news is, if you're strategically using key words for which you want to be found Twitter can be a...

If you’re like just about every other business professional these days, sales are down, new business efforts are up and it’s time for you to get out…and start networking.  I know what you’re thinking.  I hate networking.  I’m painfully uncomfortable talking to a bunch of people I don’t know.  I don’t know what events to attend …etc.  I get it.  For most of us networking is as unnatural as a palm tree on the shores of Lake Erie, but the reality of the times is this:  You have to start doing...