For businesses of any size, the ability to communicate to prospects and customers about why you’re different, and better, in ways that are meaningful to them is critical. Many fail to do so effectively, however. One key issue we often find with clients is a tendency to be too internally focused — they communicate with their audiences in ways that are meaningful to their business, but that may not be so meaningful to their customers.
For example, (more…)
Marketers are understandably concerned about building and protecting strong brands. An Economist article from last year discusses the power of brands. “Brands account for more than 30% of the stock market value of companies in the S&P 500 index, reckons Millward Brown, a market-research company. Everyone knows that a Ralph Lauren Polo shirt costs more than a polo shirt; Coke without the logo is just cola.”
But, brand-building efforts are sometimes misguided– (more…)
Social media – and particularly LinkedIn – has emerged as THE new method of job search, providing significant benefits to both job seekers and recruiters. I’ve been a long-time LinkedIn proponent and use it extensively for my own professional communication needs. I also highly recommend it to the students I work with each semester as the “go to” resource for job search–whether looking for internships, freelance opportunities or full-time jobs.
In fact, at the beginning of each semester in one of my classes I like to use it as an introduction to “selling something” — in this case themselves. And, truthfully, the steps and process for selling yourself or your business services via LinkedIn are absolutely the same as best practice marketing for any product or service. (more…)
Should small businesses use local advertising? While this is one of those questions that can quickly be responded to with “it depends…,” if the market is a local one I do tend to believe that local advertising makes sense. And I’m not alone. Consider the increase in local online advertising among many marketers. Local online advertising was predicted to surge by 18 percent in 2012 to $18.5 billion
, according to paidContent.
The bigger the world gets, the more opportunities to leverage a small circle of influence I think. Just as when generating followers, friends and fans through social media (more…)
While watching the local news my husband made a comment about the weatherman: “You know – who really needs him anymore? You can just look at the radar yourself any time you want to online.”
True. You can. Wonder if people going to school to be “weather people” have thought about that. Wonder if the schools that teach them have thought about that. And, most pertinent for this blog, wonder if all of us have given (more…)
Speaking of names…sometimes I’m struck by what appear to be brilliant solutions to vexing problems and I came across such an example recently when I heard of a company called ‘Preneur.
What struck me is that I recall, not long ago, a big brouhaha over the magazine Entrepreneur and its successful fight to protect its name through trademark even though most of us would agree that the word “entrepreneur” (more…)
We’re all familiar with the saying: adapt, migrate, mutate or die. Charles Darwin put forth his theory of evolution in 1859 and its relevance to businesses has long been applied by academics and business experts. But, in today’s fast-paced environment, while still applicable it suggests a pace that is much slower than our reality.
Adapting, migrating and mutating takes time–sometimes a long time.
While it may not be relevant from a biological standpoint, businesses today might be well advised to follow a different piece of advice: (more…)
Louis C.K. recently cut out the middleman in the process of selling tickets to one of his performances. His experiment has been quite interesting. He’s not the first to bypass sites like StubHub and TicketMaster, and I’m sure he won’t be the last. Why? Because his experiment demonstrates an interesting concept–disintermediation–the removal of intermediaries in a supply chain.
Disintermediation represents a benefit to consumers and a significant challenge, even fatal challenge, to those in the middle. The lesson to be learned? (more…)
Subcribe to This Blog
Brand Evaluation
We’ll help you assess the gaps between how you’d like to be perceived and how you are perceived. More
CONTENT CREATION
Whether you need web copy, blog posts, whitepapers, ghostwriting--or RFP or report creation, we can help. More
PR/MEDIA RELATIONS
We can provide you with media training and coaching, help you identify relevant media and help you generate media coverage locally, nationally and online. More
SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media isn’t for everyone, but if it’s right for you we’ll help you identify, implement and assess the impact of your online communications. More
STRATEGIC PLANNING
Our name says it all! We’re passionate about strategic planning and work with clients to develop marketing and communication plans, as well as broader business plans designed to provide actionable--and measurable--direction. More
