The blog.

Products, no matter how great they may be, are commodities. How much your brand is liked is the new barometer of how much advocacy it will generate.

If you’re targeting an audience who uses a mobile device that’s different from the one you personally own, then you owe it to them to (at least) be familiar with that device.

Today’s marketers can’t just simply rely on Big Data for their decisions, any more than they can rely purely on gut feeling. Today’s marketing is about the combination of the two.

There are any number of reasons why your target customer doesn’t think your product is all that.

You can’t really market successfully to your audience until you understand the choices that they are making, and can see the alternatives from their eyes. The more you try to unearth your “stealth competitors”, the better your marketing will be.

Offering too much customer choice in your business, product or services prevents customers making any choice at all.

Conversion Rate Optimization is the combination of the objective with the subjective – making creative content decisions based upon quantitative data.

Having a website that’s optimized for mobile-devices has been growing in importance for some time. With Google’s latest search algorithm changes, it’s become critical.

2004’s “The Art of the Start” ranks as one of the best book around on the subject of startups. Now Guy Kawasaki has updated it. If you are looking to read just one book on start-ups and business development, your journey has ended.

Are your organization’s legacy products, features or services still pulling their weight? If you’re not focused on maintaining and growing them, then you should be focused on replacing them.

There’s an alternative to spewing-out hype and rhetoric. If you choose to tell your story in a way that’s more believable, then you have half a chance of your audience choosing to give you their attention.

Mobile marketing is the same as any other marketing: Give an irresistible and compelling reason for your audience to allow you to contact them and they’ll come – whether it’s iBeacons, QR codes or whatever else is around the corner.

Being “simple” is about being understood quickly and easily by using the right words and phrases. Being “simplistic”, in contrast, assumes that your audience won’t understand what you’re saying unless you dumb it down to death.

The problem with first impressions isn’t that they’re not important – because they are. But that we have no idea when that first impression is going to manifest.

Fear is never far away when starting or running any business. If you want an easy life then find another job. Fear, insecurity, uncertainty, and anxiety are part of what you signed up to.

Customer attention can no longer be held by things they don’t care about. Somehow businesses have come to believe that “standing out” is about “being different”. The truth is that what really moves customers is emotion, not hyperbole.

With the continuing changes that Facebook makes to its algorithm, Facebook Business Pages have essentially become less effective – unless Page owners are prepared to spend significant amounts of money to promote their content. It’s time to evolve your company’s social media tactics.

The demo is there to back-up the claims that your solution will solve the problems that you’ve said it will solve. It’s not about features and benefits.

People buy from companies and individuals that they feel have similar positions, thoughts and ideals to their own. Don’t be afraid to tell your story. Say it in places where your audience congregates, and your customers, fans (and evangelists) will come.

These “thought leaders” go from conference to conference giving presentations but being dead-wrong, and everyone is so terrified of being thought odd or old-fashioned that they refuse to speak up.

Selling has grown-up in the face of information symmetry between buyer and seller. Today’s sales people are advisors and curators as much as persuaders.

Innovation in business has less to do with economic swings, and more with the strength of a company’s passion to avoid knee-jerk reactionary rhetoric and disjointed activities.

There are many marketing automation products available to help reduce the inertia and increase productivity. But using them means one less excuse as to why your marketing’s not working.

Just because you can, doesn’t mean that you should. Ask yourself this one question before you extend (dilute?) your company or product brand.

The way that we consume, interact, and share information and content continues to change, as our media consumption tools evolve at an even faster rate. The challenge for marketers and business owners is to overlay such trends data in the context of their own value message and customer buying experience.

Today’s business success is driven by the ability to adapt to market conditions and customer expectations by finding and communicating in your own, authentic voice.

Customer experiences are becoming ever more concerted and connected every day. Today’s always-on, empowered consumer is out-gunning and out-marketing even the largest corporate heavyweights. What’s your response?

A business doesn’t become successful because of getting its brand in shape. Get your basic business values in place first, and your branding will take care of itself.

If you market today, your business is not going to suddenly be successful tomorrow or next week. But if you market every day, next year your business may be fitter, and healthier, and stronger.

Buyers are more interested about how your product or service addresses their problem, rather than how it works.

Are your customers still the same eager advocates for your business that they were? Today, any business has a realtime barometer that gives them detailed information on customer opinion, sentiment and loyalty.

The distinction between what’s media and what’s marketing is eroding. The inevitable result is a convergence and integration of the two – even if the business models required to support such evolution haven’t emerged in the same way.

Is your company website working for you, or against you? Simplify and optimize both website content and overall design to help increase traffic and lead generation opportunities.

Marketing technologies such as social media and online video are simply a means to an end. It’s not about technology itself, but about imagination, creativity and inspiration.

The companies that get social media interaction right aren’t necessary the ones who’ve been doing it the longest, or the ones with the largest resources – or with the deepest pockets.

Many startups and small businesses fall into the trap of taking on whatever business opportunity comes their way. But could your business do better by saying “no” ?

Do it right, and your company blog can be a massively valuable business asset. Do it wrong and it’ll be a waste of time, money and effort. It’s your choice.

Any business worth its salt gets complaints, but how easy is it do you make it for your customers to complain?

Your company’s marketing sucks big time. Sorry, but it has to be said. So what are you going to do about it?

Rather than focus everything around a solution-driven proposition, try extending your marketing and lead-generation efforts around creating greater awareness to the factors that contribute to the problem.

If you can’t be confident, passionate and enthusiastic about your business value proposition, then how can you reasonably expect your prospective customers to be?