Marketing

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.