Archive for the ‘Marketing and Branding’ Category
Do You Have What It Takes to Be an Influencer?
Tuesday, November 7th, 2023The Top Marketing Trends for 2023: AI Captures the Most Mindshare, but Marketers Have More on Their Plates
Tuesday, October 3rd, 2023When it comes to trend spotting in the marketing space, there’s a bright, shiny thing in the room: artificial intelligence.
AI is clearly top of mind for marketers. But it can also be a distraction that keeps marketing pros focused raptly on it and turning their attention away from other compelling technologies and trends that should be on their radar screens. Nonetheless, its current and potential impact cannot be ignored. (more…)
Customer Intent: Elusive, but Not Impossible to Obtain
Wednesday, September 27th, 2023Customer or buyer intent refers to the motivations that drive consumer behaviors—not simply what they want, but why they want it. The ability to discern the whys behind the whats is obviously important to marketers. The more they can understand the motivations of their customers, the better they will be able to produce the goods and services that best meet their needs and effectively communicate the right points to compel the desired action—a sale. (more…)
Direct Mail — The “Snail Mail” Kind — Never Goes Out of Style
Friday, September 1st, 2023A 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, 2023Developing 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, 202310 Specific Tips for Writing Compelling Email Subject Lines
Thursday, August 17th, 2023Despite 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, 2023Chris 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…)
Events and Event Planning in a Post-Pandemic World
Tuesday, July 25th, 2023COVID-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…)