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. (C...

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...

Writing web copy that is search engine optimized is an important piece to your website’s overall SEO. Creatively written copy, that uses the right keywords, is no daunting task. But, when done correctly, it can become one of the most important pieces to your online marketing plan.

Creating a search optimized website with separate and specific service pages gives you the opportunity to optimize each individual page for very specific and targeted keywords.

For example, if you had one page for “Market...

In Parts 1 and 2 of our trade show marketing blog we touched on the importance of pre-show planning and at-show strategies that can make or break trade show success. In Part 3 we will cover some post-show activities that are imperative to meeting the show objectives spelled out in your Pre-Show planning. If you missed Parts 1 and 2, click here to review pre-trade show planning and at-trade show strategies.

The show is over, your display is packed and shipped, and your sales team is at the...

In Part 1 of our Trade Show Marketing Strategy blog, we highlighted the importance of quality pre-show planning to maximize return and objectives for show attendance. In Part 2 we will discuss some things you can do while at the show to meet your objectives and improve your visibility. If you missed Part 1, click here to learn more about pre-trade show planning.

While a big part of pre-show marketing strategy is to develop a meaningful show message and outreach program to drive traffic to your...

Trade shows are a unique form of marketing that generally gets sales teams licking their chops at the thought of hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of pre-qualified prospects in the same room for three solid days. And to a large degree this is true. Trade show marketing presents an extremely targeted venue in which to further your marketing strategy - be it to drive sales, generate leads, increase brand awareness, or all of the above.

However, it is important to note a few caveats to this banquet...

Pay-Per-Click Advertising Tips #2: Keyword Traffic Estimation

Don’t forget to check out part one of this series, Pay-Per-Click Advertising Keyword Selection.

Now that you have selected your pay-per-click keywords, you need to get an idea of how many clicks you can plan on receiving to help set your pay-per-click (PPC) budget on a typical day.

For example, let’s say that by using the Google Keyword Tool, you chose the following five keywords (hooded sweatshirts, zip hooded sweatshirts, hooded...

Click here if you missed part one of “Developing a Marketing Budget for 2012.”

How much should I budget for marketing?

This is the big question and one we get a lot. Typically marketing budgets are measured as a percentage of sales. The percentage will vary by industry. Both the Counselors to America's Small Business (SCORE) and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) define the variable for a proper marketing budget to be between 2% and 10% of sales, noting that for B2C, retail and...

Have you put together your 2012 marketing plan? There is still time.

The Coming Year

Moody’s, Goldman Sachs, the Economist and other sources point to 2012 as another year of stagnate growth for the U.S. economy. Most of these sources point to less than 2% growth in GDP. As you know, anything can happen but it appears to be another tough year to grow your business. You need to plan for more of the same and hope for better. 

Part of this planning should include developing your marketing programs and...

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...

Over the next several weeks and months, we’ll be running a series of pay-per-click advertising tips to help you get your first pay-per-click campaign up and running or make modifications to improve an existing campaign.

After getting your pay-per-click advertising account setup, the first step to a successful campaign is proper keyword selection. So, how can you find information on the keywords that are going to be the focus of your advertising campaign? Google, of course!

Google provides a...

Organic search (or natural search) is one of the two ways that Internet users find online search results. I’ve written about it before, when I’ve talked about search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is a process of customizing your website so that search engines can find and index it organically. Although you can pay for SEO services, the expenditure does not have a direct effect on individual search results. Click here for more information on the basics of SEO.

In contrast, there is another way...

August 30, 2011 – CLEVELAND – The Marketing Services Group at Skoda Minotti is pleased to announce that online marketing manager, Robert C. Goricki has successfully fulfilled the requirements needed to become a Certified Search Engine Marketer (SEM), as presented by the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO).

Achieving Certified SEM status validates that Goricki understands and adheres to the search marketing industry’s resources, best practices and standards. The certification...

In my 20+ years of assisting companies with marketing, I am continually surprised by the general misconception of what defines marketing.  I also don’t think managers truly see what marketing can do for their business. 

In the purest sense, marketing is the mix of activities required to get a product or service from conception to the end user.  These activities are typically described by marketers as the four P’s of marketing:  Product, Price, Physical distribution and Promotion.  Unfortunately...

July 5, 2011 – CLEVELAND – Skoda Minotti has acquired Cleveland marketing firm Hilty Moore & Associates, Inc. (HM&A) along with the company’s visual marketing division, BrandEyeD. The acquisition enhances the expertise and depth of marketing resources available to serve Skoda Minotti Marketing Services’ growing client base.

In addition to bringing enhanced marketing research expertise, the acquisition of HM&A will complement Skoda Minotti Marketing Services’ ability to provide marketing services,...

CLEVELAND – Skoda Minotti Strategic Marketing Group was recently recognized by the Association for Accounting Marketing for outstanding achievements in the areas of accounting marketing and communications. At the Association for Accounting Marketing – Marketing Achievement Awards (AAM-MAA) ceremony in Chicago, Ill., the Cleveland-based marketing services group was honored for its 2010 holiday greeting e-card entry.

Skoda Minotti’s holiday greeting e-card allowed the firm to significantly decrease...

Before I can explain to you how to get your site to the top of the rankings, I think it’s important for you to understand how any site gets to the top of the rankings. Knowing how search engines find websites is crucial to understanding how you can make your website more visible to search engines and, more importantly, to your potential clients.

Let’s say that you type into a search engine the search term, “Cleveland SEO Services”. Almost immediately, that search engine pulls up the web...

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, SEOmakes 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 country,...