A summary of things that caught my interest the past week: Bald Barbie and the myth that social media is frivolous. Mattel blows it. One of the things that struck me when I went to see Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – is that I have more technology in my purse than master spy George Smiley…
In my fifth decade on this earth, when it comes to my finances and assets, I do not look back over the years and think, “Man, I wish I would have bought more lottery tickets!” I have thought, “Man, I wish I would have gotten into a savings regimen earlier.” Get rich quick doesn’t work…
LinkedIn has replaced the Rolodex as the hub of your business connections. Because each of us is responsible for keeping our own contact information up to date, even if you are a passive user, LinkedIn is a powerful tool. Of all the Social Media platforms, I’ve been using LinkedIn the longest. I love the way…
If you could buy only one tool for your small business marketing toolkit that single tool should be Google Alerts. The good news is – Google Alerts is free. You will need to set up a gmail account, but that is also free. On a macro level, you should have Google Alerts set up for…
An orchestra brings together a variety of instruments to create a symphony – a singular experience. It’s in the integration of the strings, horns, percussion, reeds, etc. through which the listener experiences the power of the performance. Your marketing needs to be conducted like an orchestra where a variety of marketing tactics at your disposal…
After 25 years of doing this, there is still mystery in marketing for me. The thrill isn’t gone. In fact, it rolls in unexpectedly like a fog and mystifies me. The last few days, I have seen a spike in hits to my website. While not a power user of Google Analytics, it’s like crack…
You’ve seen it all too often – cobbled together web sites that have no balance, a mish mash of disparate graphics, and an ugly mob of diverse fonts. Add an outdated or amateur logo and an assault of colors that scream decades of neglect – and you’ve got a big problem. The latest numbers show…
I am a big fan of logo’d items. Over the course of the years, I had built up a closet full of logo’d items for MIP. At the MIP Customer Conference, we used to print “MIP Money” which the customers could use at the MIP Store – stocked with all my logo’d items. We’d dole…
I want you to think back over the last 30 days, when speaking with customers, what percentage of those interactions was proactive? What percentage was reactive? These are two questions I ask business owners and senior management when I speak or consult on creating a better customer experience. Typically reactive interaction is at 70% or…
For most of my career, I have worked with consultants, VARs and software publishers. The post Y2K era saw a spike in consolidation for both the publishers and the channels of consultants and VARs representing those publishers. As a rule the consultants and VARs relied on the publisher to fill their pipeline. Ten plus years…
