Used correctly, I believe commenting on blogs (and leaving a Website link) is a good strategy. Signature links — or links to content supporting or expanding on a point — help the reader learn more about you or find more information and are good strategy. Links plastered on a forum or blog along with a [...]

Listening to the MarketingExperiments Powerful Value Propositions Webinar, it hit me that many marketers do not realize that the tag line and value proposition are two different things. While the tag line is a short phrase — often worded to elicit an emotional response — the value proposition answers the question “Why should I buy [...]

I am way off topic, but hey, it is Halloween. I spent part of Halloween 2008 admiring and inventorying my collection of Anne Rice’s Cuvee Lestat wine. In 1995 and 1996, she — along with her husband Stan Rice and Babcock Vineyards — bottled only a few cases of this “vampire” wine. There was blood-red [...]

Writing and distributing articles can be a high-ROI activity (thanks, Chris Knight, for that post), but the potential marketing uses do not stop there. Any place you use the written word represents an opportunity to “recycle” that content. Here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing: - Convert part of an article to [...]

As marketers and business managers, we always claim to seek the highest ROI, but if you ask me that is not the case. Strategies slip when things are going well. We get lazy when profitable choices abound and go for easy instead of best. We conveniently forget the strategically sound practices of evaluating alternatives [...]

Over the years, I have noticed that different people interpret the term “Internet Marketing” (or the related “Web marketing” and “Website marketing”) differently. There is nothing inherently wrong with multiple definitions, but it can cause logistical and communication-based confusion when working with vendors or consultants. Wikipedia defines Internet marketing as I do: Interchangeable with similar [...]

I’ve seen this phenomenon in various forms throughout my career (and am certainly not immune to it myself) — whether it be an assumption that the customer understands all the industry jargon, or a blindspot because we’re too close to our own products. We forget, or the thought never crosses our minds, that some part [...]

Apparently I’m ready to take the plunge. I’ve signed onto Twitterfeed and TWhirl. Now “all” I have to do is get over my introversion and be more social!

When I first heard about Twitter — the place where you use only 140 characters to tell people what you are doing right now — my first reaction was “huh?!” Sounded like one of those mysterious high school text-messagey things to me. Lo and behold, there are actually many uses for this micro-communication tool and [...]

As promised, I am sending notice of my review of Marketing Plan Pro 11.0 powered by Duct Tape Marketing before deactivating the emailed newsletter list. I found 11.0 to be different — and more effective at producing a viable strategic plan — than 9.0. I especially liked the new options of producing a: (a) quick, [...]