I’ve sat in a lot of rooms lately with small business owners and discussed the imperative nature of syncing all their outbound messages together. And while it sounds good, it’s very often not something happens with great regularity. But doing so will help you to maximize your brand message and get the highest levels of… Read More
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Posts
Let’s face it, marketing can be hard! In each marketing blog post, we hope you’ll find the information you need for your business marketing success.
Blue Sky Marketing (NOT!)
Remember when our marketing lives were easy? Unlimited budgets, no concerns about the economy, fabulous television ads… those days have been gone now for awhile, and I think that as marketers, we’ve gotten better, smarter, and more responsive. We’ve had to think carefully about every dollar we spend, we’ve had to project and hit ROI… Read More
Who are Your Target Market’s Influencers?
Quick – who is your target market? Can you clearly and specifically tell someone, not in your industry, who your target market is? Good! Now, who are the people who influence your target market? Influencers are the ones who help shape opinion and who make recommendations on products and ideas to your target market. They are… Read More
Branding Can Be Easy
A lot of times, we get so hung up on how many different things there are to do with branding, how careful we have to be when presenting our message, and how closely we guard the messages that affect our brand. But at those moments when we’re working so very hard to maintain our brand… Read More
Navigating Social Media Nightmares
The single largest concern I hear voiced when I talk with a business about engaging in social media to grow their message is the “what if…” What if someone uses my social media account to address a concern they have with my business? What if someone says something bad about my brand online? What if…?… Read More
Your Brand is Your Story
An easy way to think of your brand is to understand that it is the story of your business. It’s about the history of your business, it’s about you as a protagonist, it’s about the evils you battle in this world, and it’s about the gang of people you hang out with and why. How you… Read More
Branding Foundations
Every brand needs to be built on a strong foundation. While the materials the blocks are made of change from company to company, their purpose, form, and necessity do not vary. The first foundational block of your brand is the vision you hold for your company. Why does your company exist? Where are you going?… Read More
Does Your Brand Inspire Passion?
We’re here in the middle of football season and we have the opportunity to observe the fans of a favorite team every week. It doesn’t really matter which team takes the field, you can count on one thing – there will be thousands of people waiting to lose their mind, abandon their restraint, and shout… Read More
Your Brand Online
Twenty years ago, those of us in the business world began hearing that we needed to create a website for our business. Frankly this confounded a number of business owners. They asked, “Why would I need a webpage for my business when everyone either calls or comes in now?” And they were right – right… Read More
Your Customers Should be able to Count on You
I recently found a great little store that provided me amazing, thorough, and knowledgeable service. I was so excited about the service I received from this store I told a friend about it, and even offered to go with her to the store to help her. Unfortunately, when i go there with her, there was… Read More
Examining Your Marketing Environment
As you begin to put together your new strategic marketing plan, you should be sure to take into account the internal and external factors playing in your marketing environment that will be affecting you in the upcoming year. In my previous post, How Effective is Your Marketing Plan? I asked you the following you the following… Read More
Struggling to Convert Facebook Likes to Sales Leads?
Let’s face it; social media can be overwhelming. Something that takes your teenager one minute to do takes you hours to figure out. And when you add in the complexity of doing social media for your business, sometimes it’s just too much. Don’t Worry – Hire a Social Media Manager We understand your frustrations. But… Read More
Make a Date to Review Your Plan
For the last several posts, I’ve been expanding on each of the questions I posed in my post “How Effective is Your Marketing Plan?” Did you follow through on the strategies you laid out in your plan to reach your target demographic? (Did you do what you said you were going to do to try to… Read More
Choosing Products for Your Target Audience
Last week, I asked you, “How Effective is Your Marketing Plan?” The second question on the Effectiveness Quiz was: Did your plan address which products fill a need for your target demographic and why? (Choosing to target someone is all well and good, but if you can’t identify what product would fill a need in their… Read More
You Need a Target Audience
A couple of days ago, I asked you, “How Effective is Your Marketing Plan?” The first question on the Effectiveness Quiz was: Did your plan clearly articulate your target audience, including demographic information?(The correct answer would be something on the order of 20-34 yrs old, middle income, attending “X” school and living in “Y” neighborhood…. Read More
How Effective is Your Marketing Plan?
It’s officially fall, and that means many marketers are in the middle of another year of planning. Unless of course, you’re ahead of the game – in which case, congratulations!!! But since that’s probably not the case, as you begin to work through the process of another year’s planning, it is useful to consider how… Read More
So What’s Your Social Media Strategy?
So what’s your social media strategy? I’m sure that when it comes to most marketing endeavors that you attach some strategy to it. Have you done that for social media? No I’m not talking about an ROI, I’m talking strategy. What is the base for your social media, Facebook? Twitter? Is location based social media… Read More
Branding a Local vs National Company
I had the opportunity the other day to chat with a friend who is a brand marketer for a national brand. During the course of our conversation, I was struck (again) by the same-ness and at the same time, the different-ness that comes with branding a national vs. local brand. At its core, branding is… Read More
Are You a Pioneer or a Settler?
There are all sorts of numbers being thrown out there as far as how many companies have implemented social media plans and strategies. Most numbers are probably a little inflated. It’s really going to come down to region and category. There are obviously some catagories that are more suited to social media right now, similar… Read More