Archive for the ‘Marketing and Branding’ Category

Direct Mail — The “Snail Mail” Kind — Never Goes Out of Style

Friday, September 1st, 2023

A number of years ago, a colleague of mine gave me a book on fractals to read and it was fascinating! At least I thought so. It was all about how nature is made up of fractals that operate in a systematic way to create patterns (in clouds, in leaves, in trees—in everything!). It’s all very mathematical (and I didn’t understand much of the really technical content…) but the images were fascinating and the idea that there are patterns—often predictable patterns—in everything around us, was (more…)

The “5th P” in the Marketing Mix: People

Tuesday, August 29th, 2023

Developing and maintaining a strong brand for a service is significantly more challenging than developing and maintaining a strong brand for a product. Why? Because a service is less tangible, more ephemeral—and often involves multiple “touchpoints” that really determine the “brand experience.”

What makes a strong brand? (more…)

Ask Before Acting: Why You Should Seek Input From Target Audiences

Thursday, August 24th, 2023

I was pulled into an interesting online discussion recently in a PR forum that I participate in on LinkedIn. There are currently more than 100 responses to a question that initially asked whether participants hated cold-calling and eventually evolved into a discussion of whether (more…)

10 Specific Tips for Writing Compelling Email Subject Lines

Thursday, August 17th, 2023

Despite sentiments to the contrary, email marketing is still a go-to tool for both B2B and B2C marketers. But, especially in the B2B environment, it can be challenging to break through the gatekeepers. Even if your email message gets through organizations’ firewalls designed to combat spam, you still need to capture the attention of your desired recipient—or land in the circular file! (more…)

Shining a Light on the Dark Funnel

Tuesday, August 1st, 2023

Chris is in the market for a new car. Chris, like most consumers, is broadly aware of the many types of cars on the market and can see them on the road, on car lots, in advertisements, and online. While deciding which car to buy, Chris not only draws on his own awareness that has been created through these channels, he is also likely to become much more proactive in seeking information—asking family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues for their advice; perusing review sites; following hashtags on social media channels; gathering information through Google searches; and, eventually, visiting car manufacturer or dealer websites to help narrow the choices. Then Chris is likely to visit a local car dealership to take a test drive and talk pricing. (more…)

The Marketing Content Continuum

Thursday, July 27th, 2023

Content marketing remains a high priority for organizations of all kinds today as they struggle to stay relevant to customers while keeping ahead of the constantly changing algorithms of search engines like Google. Companies clearly need to generate a constant flow of high-quality, relevant, current content, but continually creating and updating content can take a toll and drive up costs. And finding a qualified staff that can keep up with the demand isn’t so easy these days.

The solution for a lot of companies today is (more…)

Events and Event Planning in a Post-Pandemic World

Tuesday, July 25th, 2023

COVID-19 had a massive impact on many aspects of business life, and events were certainly one of them. SXSW was one of the first events to announce its cancellation at the beginning of the pandemic and, of course, virtually all others followed suit. Live events have been re-emerging, but event planners are approaching the process differently from how they have in the past. Splash’s “2023 Events Outlook Report” (its third annual report) indicates that (more…)

The Power of Ethos, Logos, and Pathos in Writing Promotional Copy

Friday, July 21st, 2023

It’s not uncommon for students in both high school and higher ed to question whether what they’re learning will actually have relevance in the real world of work. There are three concepts, though, from several speech classes I taught at the undergraduate level, that I’ve found to be extremely helpful in creating content designed to resonate with various needs and preferences of the target audience: ethos, logos, and pathos. Before I lose you, trust me, these are really simple concepts that you can use to create and evaluate your promotional content. (more…)

Mastering Hashtags: Unleashing the Power of Social Media Engagement

Friday, June 16th, 2023

In the digital era, social media has become an indispensable tool for marketers, consultants, and business leaders. To maximize the reach and visibility of your content, it’s essential to understand and use hashtags effectively. Here we take a look at the fundamentals of hashtags, how they function on popular social media channels, and provide best practices for using them to enhance your social media strategy. (more…)

Early Applications for Using ChatGPT as a Content Creation Aid

Tuesday, June 13th, 2023

ChatGPT—a popular generative AI tool—is top-of-mind for everyone involved in marketing and content creation these days. And for good reason. Its potential is astonishing. With a short prompt and the tap of the keyboard it spews out content related to virtually anything you present it with in literally seconds.

It’s truly amazing.

Multiple Use Cases

We’ve only experimented with ChatGPT a little bit at this point, but based on this early experience we’ve found some of the most useful applications in our work to be: (more…)