Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category
Tuesday, January 27th, 2015
One of the many things I enjoy about marketing is attempting to generate the most results with the least among of time, money and effort. I want to get more for less. From an advertising standpoint, that means, for instance, that just because the Super Bowl pulls in a large audience each year, it may not make sense to put your message in front of that audience unless a significant percentage of it might represent potential customers for your products or services.
Social media is a lot like that. Just because social media can deliver an international audience doesn’t mean that it makes sense for you to be out there communicating with an international audience. In fact, for many businesses, (more…)
Tags: Advertising, local advertising, Marketing, Social Media, tweeting locally, tweets, twitter
Posted in Business Development, Content Marketing, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Marketing and Branding, Marketing Communication, SEO, Social Media | No Comments »
Thursday, January 22nd, 2015
One of the benefits—and potential downfalls—of the online environment is that it is a great equalizer. The smallest company, including solo operations, can present a “big company” feel, effectively competing against the big players in their industries. This can also present a downside, of course, for those seeking goods and services from online providers; all that glitters is not, necessarily, gold, so caveat emptor certainly applies.
Still, for small companies, and even individual practitioners in service industries like consulting, law, accounting, engineering, etc., it can be relatively easy to establish a strong presence online.
We’ve done that for our own marketing needs, and we work with a variety of other small businesses and independent consultants to help them establish a “big brand” online. In doing this, we have found some very important best practices that really must be adopted to generate results: (more…)
Tags: customer engagement, facebook, Instagram, linkedin, Pinterest, Social Media, twitter
Posted in Advertising, Content Marketing, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Marketing and Branding, Marketing Communication, Social Media | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 17th, 2014
Just returned from the 6th Annual Social Media & Marketing Conference sponsored by the Eau Claire Area Chamber of Commerce and my head is spinning. It seems that no matter how much we may all think we know a lot about social media and/or marketing, there is always so much more to learn. I learned a lot today from both the presenters and other attendees. (more…)
Tags: Eau Claire Area Chamber of Commerce, Google Analytics, marketing conference, online measurement, Social Media
Posted in Analytics, Brand Management, Content Marketing, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Marketing and Branding, Marketing Communication, PR and Media Relations, Social Media | No Comments »
Monday, August 11th, 2014
I worked in a healthcare organization for about 10 years from 1996-2007. Back at that time the transition between referring to patients as “customers” was just emerging and it was fairly controversial. Marketing and administration favored the approach and logically it seemed to make some sense. But I can recall the debates, conflicts and consternation from clinical staff — physicians and nurses — about the use of this terminology.
At the time, I was firmly on the side of using the term “customer.” After all, I had come from the marketing world with a background in the investor-owned utility industry and a private educational firm, in addition to experience growing up in a family-owned business, so the concept of “customer” was one I firmly identified with.
In hindsight, though, (more…)
Tags: Business development, client, customer, identifying customers, target market
Posted in Business Development, Customer Service, Marketing, Strategic Communications, Strategic Planning, Strategy | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, July 1st, 2014
Nielsen recently released a report, commissioned by inPowered which indicated that content marketing (the current, go-to communication tool for many B2B and B2C marketers) is actually 88 percent less effective than public relations (PR).
The news has the communication community abuzz online with conversations taking place in many of the social media groups I follow. Many are expressing shock, some disagreement, over the results.
But, when you think about it, it’s really just common sense.
(more…)
Tags: Advertising, content marketing, influencing the media, Journalism, media, media relations, pr
Posted in Advertising, Content Marketing, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Marketing and Branding, Marketing Communication, Media Relations/PR, PR and Media Relations, Strategic Communications | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 10th, 2014
I’m a copywriter from way back and, although, my life has taken a number of twists and turns since my old copywriting days, writing has been a passion of mine for many, many years and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. The thing is, much of what I learned as a professional copywriter holds true regardless of the type of writing I do: whether I’m writing a brochure, copy for a newspaper ad, a script for a radio announcement or a page or blog for a web site, there are some tried and true techniques that can be used to boost the odds that the copy will get the results I’m looking for.
Following are some tips I’ve gathered and used over the years — can you add to the list? (more…)
Tags: content management, content marketing, copywriting, copywriting tips, writing copy
Posted in Advertising, Content Marketing, Direct Marketing, Marketing, Marketing and Branding, Social Media | No Comments »
Thursday, February 13th, 2014
Web sites have become a “must have” for businesses of any size, in any industry or geographic location. In fact, to a large degree, if you don’t have a web site, you don’t exist. When potential customers are looking for products or services they are very likely these days to turn to the Internet and do a search. If your business doesn’t come up in their search efforts, you’re not likely to be part of their consideration set. (more…)
Tags: content management, content marketing, e-marketing, internet marketing, online marketing, web site, website
Posted in Advertising, Content Marketing, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Marketing and Branding, Marketing Communication, Social Media, Web Sites | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 11th, 2014
The wide proliferation of social media sites–from Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to Pinterest, Google+ and Instagram–provide a myriad of opportunities for businesses of any size to connect with their target audiences. That can be good news and not-so-good news for marketers. Why? Because while the out-of-pocket costs for using most of these tools is low to none, the time investment can be significant. Add to that (more…)
Tags: Advertising, content management, content marketing, facebook, Google+, Instagram, linkedin, Marketing, Pinterest, selling social media, social media advertising, social media and the C-suite, twitter
Posted in Advertising, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »
Thursday, December 5th, 2013
As 2014 rapidly approaches (I can’t believe how rapidly it’s approaching…) businesses are looking ahead to the New Year and thinking of the challenges and opportunities they will face. We recently responded to a reporter’s inquiry about marketing challenges lying ahead in 2014. Here’s our perspective:
There are two key challenges that businesses are likely to face in 2014 from a marketing standpoint: one is evergreen, the other is continuing to emerge: (more…)
Tags: 2014, Advertising, effective marketing, Marketing, marketing measurement, New Year's resolutions
Posted in Advertising, Marketing, Marketing and Branding, Marketing Communication, Promotions, Strategic Communications | No Comments »
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