It’s not ready for prime time — but we’re all friends here, so this is a sneak peek at my new consulting website: As I’ve worked with my website guru to develop this new way to present my consulting services, here are a few thoughts about the process: Most of the consulting work I’ve gotten so far has been from…
Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday … remember when it used to be just plain ol’ Thanksgiving? It seems there’s been more buzz this year around Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday, making this a long weekend devoted to conversations of shopping and discounts. Should your business participate? Obviously too late to join in for this year,…
When technology companies use their own products, it’s commonly called eating your own dog food. Why dog food? I don’t know. But pour me a big bowl of Gravy Train. A few days ago, I posted to my Newvine Growing Facebook page looking for people to help me beta test a new service: I am testing a new service offering…
Last week I wrote about some of my strategies for making the most of conferences. But once you’re done thinking big thoughts like “Which conferences are the best fit for me?” and “What message do I want to convey?” there’s practical matter of executing well. A few pointers I’ve picked up over the years: 1. Keep your business cards in…
I’ve just come back from a conference where I had more good conversations than I could count, got good ideas and business leads, and came away reinvigorated. That wasn’t an accident. I’ve been to enough conferences that I’ve developed some strategies about how to make them work for me: 1. Choose conferences carefully — I’m not a highly sought after…
Entrepreneur magazine hosted a half-day workshop on selling professional services last week, anchored by Michael Port, author of “Book Yourself Solid.” I took away several helpful ideas and pointers so today’s Marketing Monday is some highlights: 1. There are certain people you are meant to serve. Your job is to find them and push away the people you are not…
I have a confession. In this marketing series, I write about integrated marketing and aligning all your marketing channels — your website, blog, social media, email newsletter and brochures, for example — to help tell your story. I believe in the importance of using all available methods to talk with your current and potential clients, and the data show consumers…
A friend recently asked a good question: Is there such a thing as too much marketing? You probably know if you’re doing too little. You haven’t updated your website in years, you never carry business cards, you don’t have an email marketing list. But too much? Isn’t that a matter of taste? I’m loathe to order anything from Victoria’s Secret,…
When you hear about social media marketing, maybe you translate that as Facebook and Twitter. In some circles, it’s all about video, so you might think of YouTube, Vine or Vimeo. Or maybe you’re wondering how your business could use Pinterest, Quora or Reddit better. But many of us joined LinkedIn long before we’d even heard of Facebook. It’s 10…
This year at SXSW Interactive, I heard a speaker say something that made me want to leap up, throw my hands in the air and yell, “Amen!” He suggested that many new technologies, whether that’s smartphones, social media or the Internet itself, have been around long enough that we should no longer be infatuated with their gee-whiz factor and instead…
The goal of marketing is, at its most basic, to encourage people to buy. Reach the right audience in the right place with the right product at the right price, tell them the right things about you and your product, and boom, sales. A few weeks back, I wrote about making sure your marketing is in sync with your sales…
I’ve worked with three different clients in the last week where at some point we talked about who they are — and who they are not. While we worked on social media planning, one set of clients were very direct in saying they don’t think their target customer is using Vine and they don’t think Pinterest makes sense for them.…
Marketing means many things to many people, but the traditional definition generally includes what products you’re selling at what price, in what place and with what promotions. Depending on your business, you might translate that to anything from what your slogan and logo are to what kinds of brochure or website you use to communicate with customers and prospects. However…
Lately I’ve heard several variations on this question: I know I should use Facebook to promote myself, but I’m a private person. Should I just skip Facebook completely if I don’t want to share my personal life? The good news is that you control how much you share on Facebook. If you don’t want to tell the world every time…
With Memorial Day coming up, the summer vacation season is approaching. Why WHY do you bother with an autoresponder email that says something like, “I will be away April 12-19.” ? OK. That’s good to know. But what do I do now? Especially if I have an issue that can’t wait? Here are my thoughts on a good out-of-office message…
