Posts Tagged ‘marketing communications’

13 Branding Skills From the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC)

Thursday, January 4th, 2018

20846299 - typography illustration poster of brand management wordsAn Entrepreneur.com slideshow discusses the 13 skills that will help improve branding efforts. This is a subject area we are particularly focused on, so we wanted to take a look. The list was compiled by members of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC). The 13 skills they recommend are: (more…)

Should You Be Adding Messaging Apps to Your Marketing Mix?

Tuesday, November 21st, 2017

For the last several years, companies have become increasingly aware of the importance of social media in their marketing efforts. For many business owners and marketers, social media marketing largely supplanted directed marketing using traditional mail or email. Interestingly, the trend may be coming full circle as many marketers are now looking at using direct messaging apps in conjunction with their other social media marketing.

In an article for Entrepreneur, Alfred Lua discusses the growing popularity of messaging apps, advocates for incorporating these apps into online marketing mixes and looks at strategies to maximize their effectiveness. We’ve picked out a couple of his tips that might be most useful for small businesses. (more…)

6 Steps and 6 Days to an Effective Content Strategy

Tuesday, July 12th, 2016

 There is no shortage of content marketing experts these days, and there’s no shortage of ideas on the best ways for companies to leverage their content to achieve desired results. The problem is that these ideas are often without context–not grounded in real-world examples that can help would-be content marketers get their arms around what content strategy is all about.

Here, through a fictional example of a company that’s interested in gaining clients and driving business through content marketing, we apply the advice of content marketing experts to demonstrate how it can be used in concrete ways. (more…)

Sometimes You Really Shouldn’t Connect With Your Audience

Thursday, June 9th, 2016

Most of the time I exhort the audiences I speak to—students, clients, conference attendees–to identify, analyze and work hard to connect with their various audiences. It’s Marketing 101 and, generally, it makes good sense. But, I recently came across an example of when connecting with your audience might be at cross-purposes with an organization’s mission or brand. (more…)

Putting the “Strategic” Into Strategic Content Marketing

Thursday, April 14th, 2016

The Content Marketing Institute’s (CMI) 2015 reports on B2B and B2C (business-to-consumer) content marketing trends reveal some important disconnects among demand, effectiveness, and satisfaction with results. For instance, while 86% of B2B respondents indicate that they are using content marketing, only 38% say that their efforts are effective. While 83% say they have a content marketing strategy, only 35% have a documented strategy. That’s a problem. (more…)

To Engage Your Audience, Provide Real Value

Tuesday, September 8th, 2015

Savvy business owners and marketing professionals are always looking for ways to deepen their connection with existing customers and attract new clientele. In the age of content, newsletters and e-letters are great ways to connect with an audience and good tools for small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to use for customer engagement.

The key—as with any kind of online communication—is to (more…)

Using Social Media to Build Your Business

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2015

by Linda Pophal

 

“Does social media really work?” I get this question a lot and, as for most marketing communication-related questions, my answer is generally, “It depends.” It depends on what is being offered, who the audience is and what the goals/objectives are. Social media can certainly work to drive business results, but it is still not the answer in all cases.

Everything New Is Old Again: In Communication, Basic Rules Still Apply

Tuesday, May 21st, 2013

There’s much talk these days about how social media has changed the communication landscape and, indeed, it has. But, despite the fact that social media has created new opportunities and challenges for communicators, there are really (IMO) only two ways in which it really represents anything “different”: (more…)