Marketing Strategy
Remember the good old days when we were talking about the web ushering in the “age of information?” We even called it the “information superhighway.” Now, it’s becoming much more of a social structure all its own, but the information certainly has not decreased. There’s still a ton of it! A century ago, you could barely keep up because of a lack of information sources. Now we have a hard time keeping up because of a plethora of them. So how do you get my attention in the midst of it all? Inspire me! Read the rest of this article »
Here’s a quick tip – be human. One thing I’ve learned from Twitter is that people follow people and they “unfollow” spam. In fact, spam is detested in the twittersphere about as badly as it is in the email world. When advising companies about the use of Twitter, I always recommend letting one of the heads of the company tweet personally rather than just giving “company news.” This allows you to offer something back to the community rather than just be a taker. Read the rest of this article »
Truth doesn’t change, but how truth is communicated changes and fluctuates with culture. Many organizations no longer communicate with the surrounding culture not because their message is outdated, but because their communication is out of style and out of sync. But the goal of marketing, sales, evangelism, etc. is still to persuade people to listen, to tell a story that compels people to take notice. What style works best largely depends on the age and the culture. Read the rest of this article »
I see sites popping up all the time that offer logos for $99 or so, and they all promise to deliver a “brand.” They don’t know your company, they don’t understand your vision, but they are great with vector art. Their popularity reflects a terrible misunderstanding about branding and it is that a logo is not a brand and a brand is not a logo. Read the rest of this article »
Education is great – I recommend it. Money is helpful, especially if you want to start anything. Insight grants an edge. Experience is probably better than all three, but passion tops the list of most valuable commodities! Passion changes the game completely. Read the rest of this article »
I just finished reading a great article on GetEntrepreneurial.com written by Terri Zwierynski about marketing yourself honestly. She asserts that putting lipstick on a pig doesn’t necessarily help as much as honesty and self-disclosure, and I must surely agree. Read the rest of this article »
The internet is all abuzz with fervent opinions about the “death of blogging” article in last month’s Wired magazine. Whether you feel blogging is alive and well or yesterday’s news, the Republican party is taking notice! John over at Human 3rror has written a pretty cool blog post about the different approaches of Democrats and Republicans to the use of the internet in political campaigns.
Everybody can see that social networking made an enormous difference in the outcome of this election, and every business, church, marketer, or potential blogger must sit up and take notice. What I learned is that you almost can’t NOT have a blog and survive it today’s economy.
Seth’s blog today mentions something that I try to articulate to clients all the time – there are web subcultures and you can’t sell to one if your site fits in another. I recently saw the site of a web design agency. The front page promoted them as a highly professional firm who wished to work only with highly professional people. It stated this on a little sign held up by a cartoonish guy! Clients choose service agencies that seem to match their own personality to at least some degree. So watch your site’s subculture. Read the rest of this article »
In my last article, I said that being a small business is not a weakness, it’s a weapon. Actually Seth Godin said it first, but you hopefully get the point. Well, my point was proven yesterday. I dropped my laptop a couple of weeks ago and my entire life flashed before my eyes along with the instant thought… “why haven’t I backed up in the last six months???” So I had to fix the situation, and in doing so, I experienced a scenario in which big business has a weakness. Read the rest of this article »
I appreciate reading the blog of Seth Godin (along with half the world, apparently). Today, he blogged about the fact that “small is a weapon, not an excuse” and spoke of the power of the web to level the playing field between small and large businesses. I couldn’t agree more. Read the rest of this article »
