Archive for December, 2014
Wednesday, December 31st, 2014
As smartphones have become increasingly common and many—particularly the millennial generation—have turned to texting as their go-to method of communication, some have questioned the future of email as a means of communication in both personal and professional settings.
I was asked recently by a reporter what I felt the future of email is and, particularly, how we are likely to use email in 2015. Will email go away? Will it remain relevant? These are very much the same questions that have been asked of other forms of communication: Will email replace “snail mail”? Will online chat replace phone calls? “Yes” and “yes” in some cases.
Generally, though, rather than reflecting a potential replacement, these new methodologies create new options and opportunities. (more…)
Tags: Customer Communication, direct mail, Direct Marketing, email marketing, millennials, online marketing
Posted in Business Development, Client Relations, Content Marketing, Internet Marketing, Marketing and Branding | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 30th, 2014
Most of us are familiar with the concept of branding from a marketing perspective. Brands like Nike, Coca-Cola, IBM and Target are well known. Also well known is the time, effort, expense and attention that goes into managing brands. But brand management isn’t just for organizations. Individuals have brands too, and, just as with major companies, those brands need to be carefully managed to achieve desired results.
(more…)
Tags: Brand Management, Business development, elevator speech, personal brand, personal branding
Posted in Business Development, Career Advice, Marketing and Branding | No Comments »
Friday, December 26th, 2014
How many times throughout the week do you see a company logo slapped onto a billboard, incorporated into the name of a sporting event, or even plastered on the back of a boxer? These are classic examples of brand awareness strategy. With brand awareness, companies are simply making the consumer aware that they exist—that’s about it.
While brand awareness is generally of little use on its own, it’s an important first step in a process known in marketing as the purchase funnel. (more…)
Tags: brand awareness, Brand Management, branding, consumer decision-making, marketing process, purchase funnel, Strategy
Posted in Marketing and Branding, Strategic Communications | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2014
This is the time of year when we reach out to friends, family members and business associates to share greetings of the season. But what was once a relatively straightforward practice has become increasingly complex both because of the growing awareness that not everyone celebrates the same holidays and because of the increasingly cluttered nature of both online and offline mailboxes.
How can you send a greeting that will be both received and relevant but will not inadvertently offend some segment of your audience? (more…)
Tags: Christmas cards, client greetings, client relations, Customer Communication, holiday cards, holiday greetings
Posted in Business Development, Client Relations, Marketing and Branding, Marketing Communication | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 9th, 2014
As both a consultant and someone who works with consultants to help them gain “thought leadership” status and new clients, I’ve watched the field of content marketing and content management grow exponentially over the past few years. Content marketing doesn’t show any signs of diminishing soon. Although, I do believe there will be a corresponding resurgence in the need for “gatekeepers” and “curators” to help both B2B and B2C consumers wade through the proliferation of messages that exist today. The field is becoming more and more populated by not-so-useful content, much of low quality and dubious accuracy.
Still, for myself and the clients we work with, we’re finding that a strategic combination of quality communication to key audiences, delivered across a wide range of channels (traditional and digital) can be a very cost effective way to build business. (more…)
Tags: becoming a thought leader, content management, content marketing, generating publicity, online marketing, PR/media relations, publicity, traditional marketing
Posted in Content Marketing, Internet Marketing, Marketing and Branding | No Comments »
Thursday, December 4th, 2014
Top executives at successful manufacturing companies will tell you that even if you have the world’s greatest product, your business will struggle if you don’t have a great distribution strategy. The same is true for online content. Often, content providers and marketers focus too much on the message and not enough on the delivery of the message. It’s like coming up with a great idea, but not sharing that idea with anyone.
Jayson DeMers discusses this common shortcoming in an article for Harvard Business Review called “Why No One’s Reading Your Marketing Content.” As DeMers says, “Having a smart distribution model is just as important as developing good content in the first place – it’s how you bring in more business.” (more…)
Tags: branded publications, content management, content marketing, Harvard Business Review, Strategy
Posted in Business Development, Content Marketing | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2014
Customer surveys are one of the most commonly used arrows in a marketer’s quiver. What better way to get an idea of how your customers think than by asking them directly? While the basic idea is sound, the execution of customer surveys is often lacking. (more…)
Tags: company surveys, Constant Contact, Customer Service, focus groups, Innovation, marketing research, polls, qualitative surveys, quantitative surveys, SurveyMonkey
Posted in Marketing Measurement, Marketing Research | No Comments »
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