More small business marketing articles. Enjoy!
More articles about Marketing, Sales, and Business
Do As I Say, Not As I Do
There has to be buy-in at every company level in order for any marketing initiative to truly work.
Marketing Specialization: The Right Person For The Job
Your in-house marketer is great at social media, but their web design chops aren’t all that? That’s perfectly normal.
Fail To Plan, Plan To Fail
If you don’t have a marketing budget, you don’t have a marketing plan. Which means you’re going to fail.
Are you Persuading, Informing, or Re-affirming?
Customers will resist marketing sales and messages that do not resonate with their own way of thinking.
Blending Into The Crowd: The Problem With Price Comparison Sites
If all you have to go on is your pricing being lower, you’re on a one-way ticket to irrelevance.
Saying No to ‘No’
Dear Middle-Managers: Stop being part of the problem.
The Importance Of A Content Marketing Strategy
Blasting messaging without a clear content marketing strategy is doomed to failure.
What Does Your Company Sell?
Are you selling price, or customer value?
Don’t Blame The Tools For Your Lousy Presentation
The reason your PowerPoint sucks is because you’re expecting the software to do your work for you.
Is Conventional Marketing Dead?
If conventional marketing is dead, it actually died a long time ago.
New Thinking For A New Decade
If you’re marketing this decade like you marketed the last decade, you will most likely be disappointed with your results.
Companies Don’t Control Their Brands: Customers Do. It’s Time To Rebrand Branding
Think you control your brand? Think again.
Has The Term “Outsourcing” Become Obsolete?
Business process outsourcing hasn’t just changed the way companies of all sizes operate and deliver their business value. Its presence can be felt in pretty much every level and department.
Apples To Apples: Comparing Your Business To The Competition
Don’t be afraid, or in denial, about your business competitors. You know they exist, so do your customers. So stop pretending.
The Thrill Of The (Sales) Chase: But Don’t Forget Existing Customers
Selling to new customers is great. But selling to existing customers is easier and cheaper.
Russian Roulette
Marketing without targeting is like a broken pencil: pointless.
Who’s Damaging Your Brand?
Customers are looking at every touchpoint they see of your business – and judging you accordingly.
Now What Do You Do?
Know your market. Existing customers need different collateral to new ones.
Is Your Brand Helping Sales, Or Hurting Them?
Customers like to categorize brands in order to make sense of them. That can restrict your offering.
The Importance Of Re-evaluating Your Business Strategy
Every industry has their unique set of external influences that govern the validity of your business value. Make you that you know the factors that influence your business – and keep an eye on where they’re heading.
Email Becomes “Me-Mail”
Integrating video into your sales and marketing messaging, collateral and customer engagement activities is taking on ever-greater importance. Video captivates audience attention far better than text and/or images alone, and also helps differentiate your company.
Don’t Listen To Your Customers
Customers don’t always know what they want. That’s your job.
The Danger Of The Gilded Cage
Promotion often means rising to the level of incompetence.
What Value Do You Put On Creativity?
Underestimating the value of creativity in your business sets you on the road to becoming seen as a commodity.
The Second Mouse Gets The Cheese
If your business isn’t innovating, it’s going backwards.
Hidden Message
Some thoughts on Microsoft’s latest ad campaign.
Judging A (Note)Book By Its Cover
The birth of a new product segment – and its soon-to-be rapid, untimely death.
How Do Your Customers Find You?
Customers find your business in a variety of ways, via numerous channels. It’s important to be where they expect to find you – as well as not in places where you’re not welcome.
Keeping Your Business Relevant In Your Customer’s Mind
If your company occupies a space that could conceivably be embraced by your current customer base, then why should they continue to buy from you?
Non-Optional Extras: Hiding The True Cost From Your Customers
When you have the gall to charge an extra $500 delivery on a $30,000 automobile purchase, the only thing the customer remembers is the insult of having to pay the hidden extra.
Are Your Marketing Materials Too “Wordy”?
Are you being too extravagant in your textual messaging? Just the facts, ma’am.
Making Lemonade From Lemons
Even once the economy bounces back, we’re not going back to ‘the good old days’. The climate will be different. Customers will be different, so business will need to be different.
Tradeshow Trauma: Are Trade Exhibitions Still Relevant To Your Small Business?
Exhibiting at a tradeshow can be a very effective sales tool. But today, so can many other things.
The Writing’s On The Wall For Blogs
Blogging isn’t dying. But the quality and depth of blog articles must increase, in the light of increased competition for reader attention.
Missing The Point in Sales Copywriting?
Sales and marketing copywriting should be written from the customer’s viewpoint and language – not yours.
Are Your Presentations Letting You Down?
Business Presentations are as much about showbiz, theatre, and acting as they are about message delivery. Which is probably why so many of them suck.
Why Enterprise Software Vendors Must Rethink Their Pricing
“Enterprise” software manufacturers need to provide more relevant pricing models. Their customers demand it.
Website Analytics: You Can’t Improve If You Can’t Measure
The only way you can improve the performance of your website is through measurement. That means using and understanding website analytics software.
Increase Sales Leads From Your Website
Want more website leads? Get a better company website. Your site needs to be more than an online brochure.
Embrace Video – Before Your Competitors Do
Video-based content offers huge opportunities within any startup or small business marketing repertoire.Even more articles!