Do your ads, intended to sizzle, fizzle? Does it cost more, year against year, to get through to your market? When we pose this question to CEOs and CMOs, the answer is a uniform and melancholy Yes. Marketing ROI is declining for companies who are not evolving fast enough. Outbound marketing is less cost-effective this year compared to last year, …
How can you double sales? Triple? Ten-tuple?
Looking for a “ten-bagger” where sales increase 1000%? Double sales growth starts with understanding the collective perception of your prospects. Let’s put customers aside for this thought experiment. Re-purchasing comes from actual experience. Surely you already know what to do to keep customers happy. We can’t all be Zappo’s, but we can try. Understanding prospects is the most leveraged path …
Exclude the never-gonnas
You can bleed a budget dry talking to the never-gonnas. Marketing fundamental #1 is know your target. (Duh.) After that, aggressively exclude segments who waste your resources chasing them. It’s a survival skill. What got us thinking about this was someone who had seen our Darwinian video, asking if we were “concerned” with losing prospects who deny natural selection. It’s a reasonable question, since polling …
The art and science of Schvitz Time
Every once in a while in the creative business, a Big Idea seems to come suddenly. A client may detail a thorny, complex marketing problem, for example, and – yahtzee! – a big shiny solution appears, on the ride back to the office if not in the meeting itself. We learned long ago to take a crucial step at this …
Mobile websites are obsolete. R.I.P.
Do you believe you need a mobile website? Well, you don’t. You may have been justified three years ago, but .mobi sites are now old technology. Yes, a large and growing number of people will connect with you on a small screen. Your best strategy, however, is not a second site, but one responsive website that behaves appropriately depending on …
Good to the last drop
“Good to the last drop” was first used in 1907. Maxwell House coffee made it “Good to the last drop®” in 1926 when they finally protected the trademark. So, for everyone who questions the cost of good branding/marketing/advertising – often the investment in intellectual property returns value for years, decades, or even centuries. Want more about taglines?
Nobody wants to buy what you’re selling
They don’t want your product/service/brand. They don’t want what it is. They want what it does. They want what it does for them. They want what it does for them with an emotional (serotonin/dopamine/other brain chemical) reward. For many marketing professionals, this is (or should be) obvious. A big Duh. And yet … there are examples all around us of …
Startup Success Step #15
It’s a team sport. You’re not in this alone. At least, you shouldn’t be. A business startup requires a whole support structure, including vendors, advisors, mentors, support staff, cheerleaders (both family and friends), lenders, investors, accountants, lawyers, pinch-hitters, utility infielders, objective outsider truth-tellers, technology jedi and/or the occasional bartender. You don’t do all those things well, so choose help wisely, …
Funnel, schmunnel: how buyers really decide
Buyer decision-making has evolved, so we must adapt. Sources of information have multiplied while willingness to listen to your sales pitch has disappeared. Which brings us to that tired old metaphor, the sales funnel. It was always misleading: everything that enters a funnel goes through, given enough time. But prospects for your brand detour out of the process at many …
Why do CEOs hate branding?
Actually, only a few CEOs hate branding. Many more distrust it. And for good reason. Finance and Operations, the career paths of most CEOs, involves stuff you can control within your four walls. You can lead; people will follow. You can establish procedures; they’ll be in place. Hire, fire, budget, steer the ship. You have control, to one degree or …
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