For many years the message triangle has been one of the tools I use most often for clients, and for myself. Whenever a major speech, news event or media interview looms, developing a message triangle is my starting point. Here’s why — plus a three-step guide to developing and using a message triangle effectively. The [...]
If you are still skeptical about using digital and social media in business marketing it appears you are not alone. Many small and medium-sized businesses seem to think digital marketing is only good for reaching consumers, and that business customers don't have time for it. Is this assumption a strategic blind spot that's hurting your [...]
When something shiny and new surfaces, how do you decide if you want to be a marketing innovator or an early adopter? Do you know if Google+ is for you? As a small business or nonprofit, you know you can’t waste time and money chasing after every shiny object, yet winning big these days — [...]
Everyone tells you that you need to research your potential customers, but no one tells you much about how to do it. Here are five practical ways to begin.
This cyclical marketing debate frustrates me: Is marketing a science, or an art, or some trendy mix of both? The cycles can suddenly make clients feel pressured to produce data-driven rationales in the midst of a successful multi-year campaign, or conversely, suddenly want to ignore the numbers entirely and focus only on the ‘artistic expression’ [...]
Factors to consider before deciding whether to outsource Whether or not to outsource your marketing, in whole or in part, is certainly not a new question. Traditional management resources such as Harvard Business School and CFO magazine have regularly addressed the classic “in-house or outsource,” “build or buy” questions for years, so perhaps that’s why [...]
No Risk of Satisfaction Paradox Yet I chuckled reading a recent post by Wired founding editor Kevin Kelly, about what is known as The Satisfaction Paradox. I am so far from being at risk of the hypothetical circumstance he described: What if you lived in a world where everything around you was just what you [...]
