Most small business owners are heavily focused on their core skillset. They are bakers, event planners, lawyers – insert job – first, and accountants and marketers second. As Pamela Slim writes for Entrepreneur, “Most small business owners aren’t marketers by trade, but almost all (95 percent) do some form of marketing for themselves, and many need to master what can feel like a very steep learning curve quickly. Most entrepreneurs and small business owners (64 percent) are self-taught and less than half (46 percent) consider themselves ‘marketing savvy.’” (more…)
Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category
Thought Leadership Through Content Marketing for Business Professionals
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2018
Advertising Isn’t About Entertaining Unless it Also Drives Sales!
Tuesday, March 6th, 2018
“Dilly, dilly!” It was the marketing catchphrase of the year, according to the Wall Street Journal. And it’s definitely catchy. I love the commercials and the catchphrase and smile every time I hear it. I’m not alone.
Unfortunately, despite the popularity of the company’s new ad campaign, sales are slumping. (more…)
All It Takes is a Little Nudge
Tuesday, January 16th, 2018
People may sometimes think about marketing as the process of convincing someone to buy something they may not be initially inclined to purchase. Maybe it’s luring a customer away from a competitor or convincing someone to buy something they don’t really need.
From a more marketing-friendly perspective, though, the process could be seen as (more…)
Avoiding the Top 3 Networking Blunders
Thursday, December 7th, 2017Networking is an important activity in any industry. The term has many definitions depending on who you talk to, but in a broad sense you can think of it as just getting to know people in your industry. It’s surprising how many employment, mentorship, sales and partnership opportunities come about just by tapping into who you know and who you’ve met through networking activities.
Unfortunately, we don’t always leverage those relationships to best advantage. (more…)
Captivating Consumers With Top-Notch Product Images
Tuesday, December 5th, 2017
How important are product images in your online marketing activities? If you effectively describe the product specifications, give some detailed reviews and have an in-depth description, is that enough? It seems like it isn’t. In fact, Lumina Datamatics cites a survey by the National Retail Federation showing that 67 percent of customers consider images more important than product-specific information, long descriptions and product reviews.
Think about that for a second. (more…)
Guiding Consumers to the Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU)
Thursday, November 30th, 2017
The word “sales” often conjures up some very specific images. A man in a suit holding a briefcase going door-to-door selling encyclopedias or vacuums, for example. Or a guy hustling in a car lot. But as we know, sales is, in reality, a process. A process that ends with a pitch. The direct pitch to the customer or the final sales touchpoint is the last step in the sales process and is often referred to as “the bottom of the funnel” (BOFU). It follows TOFU (top of the funnel) and MOFU (middle of the funnel) activities that are designed to move the consumer down a pathway to a purchase. (more…)
Focusing on Value Over Features in B2B Sales
Tuesday, November 14th, 2017
To a large extent, the sales and marketing world can be divided along two broad lines: business-to-business (B2B) versus business-to-consumer (B2C) and products versus services. Sales strategies for B2C services will differ from B2B services, which differ from B2B products, etc. There are best practices and pitfalls for each quadrant of possible scenarios created by this way of looking at sales and marketing. (more…)
Best Practices in Defining Your Value Proposition
Tuesday, November 7th, 2017
The value proposition for a product or service is a foundational element in any sales and marketing activity. The value proposition responds to consumers’ question of “why” related to your products and services. “Why should I buy your product?” “Why should I subscribe to this service?”
A value proposition isn’t an off-the-top-of-your-head pitch to potential customers. It has to be carefully crafted, based on a solid understanding of your audience’s needs and values. Writing for Forbes, Rebecca O. Bagley recommends a three-step process for developing a value proposition: (more…)
How to Market to People Who Hate Marketing
Thursday, November 2nd, 2017
Millennials have changed the face of the world in so many ways: culture, technology and business to name just a few. As this group grows to represent an ever-larger share of the consumer market, one characteristic of this cohort, in particular, can be extremely vexing for marketing professionals: they—even more than previous generations—dislike and distrust marketing and advertising. So what can you do about that? (more…)
Sponsorships Can be a Slippery Slope
Tuesday, October 24th, 2017
Sports fans and students of media and advertising are no doubt aware of the perceived sexist comments recently made by Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton toward a female sports reporter. When asked by Charlotte Observer reporter Jourdan Rodrigue about the route-running of Panthers receiver Devin Funchess during an October 4 press conference, Newtown stunned the gathered reporters. (more…)
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