When you're a marketer, you spend a lot of time and money focused on developing your digital assets and getting potential customers to engage with them. You are always looking for ways to increase your digital footprint and grow your traffic. There's some low-hanging fruit that you've missed, though. And it's hanging out right under your nose (or down the hall in a less metaphorical sense). The Hyper-Connected World Makes Everyone a Marketer Instead of looking at marketing as something only the marketers do, what if you considered everyone on your team to be a marketer? With the rise of social media, almost everybody has a … [Read more...]
Free – Chris Anderson
This article was originally published on March 8th, 2010. The power of free continues to be a hot topic in the world of business. Is it a good or bad thing? We're not quite sure yet. Big Thought Free becomes an economically viable price when the marginal costs of transferring digital information moves towards zero; which changes the structure of traditional markets. [Tweet "With a reduction in the costs of transferring digital information, free becomes a viable price"] Ideas, Implications, and Questions How do we support people who are creating and disseminating information? When addressing the downward trend of newspaper … [Read more...]
Get Clients Now – C.J. Hayden
This article was originally published on August 1st, 2008. And I still use a modified version of her 28 day plan on a monthly basis! Some books are great because they make you look at things in a completely new way; others because they reinforce what you already think and do. Get Clients Now! is really powerful because it does both at the same time. I found myself nodding my head repeatedly as C.J. went though ideas and tools that I use already and that I recommend to my clients. At the same time, she was able to challenge some of my preconceived notions and bring some fresh air to my own marketing. Get Clients Now! is essentially a … [Read more...]
Purple Cow – Seth Godin
This article was originally published on June 30th 2010. And Seth keeps pumping out insightful ideas on current marketing! Big Thought Because the modern consumer is overwhelmed by information, the most effective way to market is to create products and services that are remarkable and stand out – leading people to want to talk about them.[Tweet "The most effective way to market is to create products and services that are remarkable"] Ideas, Implications, and Questions It’s interesting that Seth focuses on a “holistic” view of marketing: instead of seeing marketing as something separate from the product development, what the product is … [Read more...]
Endless Referrals – Bob Burg
Ask any salesperson or business owner what their three biggest challenges are, and one of them will be “finding new prospects.” Millions (if not billions) of dollars are spent every year in order to market, advertise, and sell products and services. Much of this is wasted, though, because it doesn’t actually lead to the relationships that create sales. Endless Referrals fills an important role by acting as a sort of almanac for salespeople on different ways to prospect and bring potential clients into their pipeline. In fact, I think the book should be called Endless Prospecting, because it covers way more than just referrals. This … [Read more...]
5 Ways to Add Some Swagger to Your Personal Brand
As far as personal brands go, "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business" is a pretty good one. Everyone knew who James Brown was and why he was so good at what he did. And it helped that he had his own personal hype man, Bobby Byrd, who would tell everyone James's many titles and sterling attributes before, during, and after his songs. Unfortunately for you, though, there's no hype man following you around who will brag about your professional track record. And we don't hype ourselves, either. We don't let our network know about our strengths, experiences, and the successes that we've had. This comes back to haunt us when we reach out … [Read more...]
Entrepreneurs – Stop Waiting for Clients to Come!
"Is this Heaven?" "No, it's Iowa." Every time another baseball postseason ends, I'm reminded of the quiet corn field in Iowa that becomes a baseball diamond in Field of Dreams. In the beginning of the movie, Ray hears the famous line, "If you build it, he (his father) will come". Ignoring mounting debt and the doubt of those around him, Ray builds the baseball field. And at the end of the movie, it switches from "he will come" to "they will come" as cars line the road to pay a few dollars to visit the field... and take care of Ray's money problems. Oh, Hollywood. They Won't Come Just Because You Built It! Too many new … [Read more...]