Posts Tagged ‘strategic marketing’

Are You Making Your Customers Work Too Hard? They May Just Give Up.

Thursday, August 25th, 2022

Sometimes I think the most simple thing that we can do as businesspeople and marketers is “put ourselves in the shoes” of our prospects and customers. Are we making it easy to buy? Or are we setting up unintentional barriers, however slight, that may interfere with—or obliterate—the purchasing process?

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“More” is Not a Good Marketing Goal. Why Specificity Matters.

Tuesday, August 16th, 2022

Many of you have probably been at goal-setting seminars or workshops where the leader will pose a question like: “Would you like to make more money?,” and, of course, everybody nods or raises their hand. Then the leader will approach a workshop participant and  (more…)

Should You Be Upfront About Your Pricing?

Thursday, May 26th, 2022

A recent LinkedIn question resonated with me—”Why don’t people like to talk about pricing UPFRONT?” Why indeed?

Have you ever been frustrated when trying to make a purchase decision because you can’t get pricing information from coy salespeople or cryptic web sites? In my opinion, (more…)

Strategy Matters – Here’s Why

Tuesday, January 18th, 2022
content marketing, content management, content strategy, strategic marketing, marketing strategically, strategic communicationsOur company is named Strategic Communications to emphasize our belief that to be effective, communication must be strategic. Too often, marketing initiatives are focused more on tactics (let’s get on TikTok! let’s put up a billboard!), rather than strategy. That’s probably one of the biggest mistakes that marketers can make. Why? Because unless you just “get lucky,” and you might, simply picking tactics may result in doing the wrong things, wasting time, effort, and money.

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Creating Customer Journey Maps

Saturday, August 29th, 2020

Marketers often speak of the “customer journey.” It’s a concept that describes the various decisions customer make and the interactions they have with a company from the point where they’ve identified a need until the point when they make a purchase—and beyond. A customer journey map is important because it helps marketers visually depict the customer journey and identify areas that may represent barriers or risks of loss. It provides a documented, explicit vision of how customers will interact with your company and is a good tool for sharing with employees to help them understand the journey and the role that they play in engaging and retaining customers. (more…)

The Promise and Perils of Performance Marketing

Tuesday, July 23rd, 2019

market research, marketing researchOne of the challenges for — and criticisms of — the marketing function is that it’s often difficult to calculate an ROI on a company’s marketing efforts. For example, how does a soft drink or beer company determine whether or not their multi-million-dollar Super Bowl ad was worth the investment? How can they tell whether a customer made a purchase based on that ad as opposed to a purchase they were going to make anyway? Not an easy task.

And yet both employers and clients want (and deserve) to know if their marketing investments are paying off for them. Fortunately the measurement game these days is often much more straightforward than in the past.  (more…)

Content Marketing Strategy Revisited: Taking a Journey With Jazz Jones

Tuesday, April 9th, 2019

content marketing, content management, content strategy, strategic marketing, marketing strategically, strategic communications(This was a very popular series for us a few years ago so we thought we’d take a look back and revisit.)

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…)

Just Because You Can, Doesn’t Mean You Should!

Tuesday, May 8th, 2018

There’s an old saying that has been used to describe exceptional salespeople: “They’re so good that they could sell ice cubes to Eskimos.” The point being that Eskimos, living in a cold climate, really don’t need ice cubes, and are likely an audience that is going to be tough to crack. But, great salespeople could crack them.

Our perspective: Why? (more…)

Best Practices for Social Media Marketing

Tuesday, May 16th, 2017

It’s hard to succeed at anything if you’re not focused. Whether you’re golfing, driving, taking an exam or giving a presentation, losing focus on your objective can be disastrous. The same is true of your social media activity. Granted social media marketing is a longer-term activity than golfing or giving a presentation, but the importance of focus is no less important. In particular, we’ve selected three key elements marketers should keep their focus on when engaging in social media. (more…)

6 Steps and 6 Days to an Effective Content Strategy: Day 6

Wednesday, July 20th, 2016

content marketing, content management, content strategy, strategic marketing, marketing strategically, strategic communicationsJazz is almost ready to implement her content marketing strategy. Just one more important step before she’s ready to go. (more…)