What do you think would happen if the president of a bank set aside five minutes every day and called a random customer just to thank them for their business and ask if there’s anything the bank can do better?  Now what would happen if every member of the senior team, and every member of…

If some dramatic change took place that placed a competitor at a disadvantage, how quickly could you react to take advantage of the opportunity?  A day?  A week?  A month?  Six months?  Just as important, are you bold enough to seize the moment?  Let’s say you’re both fast enough and bold enough (most companies aren’t,…

There are three things that are absolute limits on marketing: time, money and creativity.  The first two are always finite limits; there are only so many hours in a day, and only so much money in the budget.  And with most marketing, you have to spend one or the other.  Social media and web content…

Whether it’s a digital ad, a billboard, a direct mail piece or a magazine ad, here’s a guaranteed way to make it more effective.  Think of the headline and the image / graphic element as a unit.  Ideally, the headline should turn the image upside down, or vice versa.  If you don’t surprise your prospect,…

If your business depends on people finding your website, you know SEO matters.  But you might not realize how much.  Consider this: according to Google, 91% of searchers don’t go past the first page of search results.  And most people skip the paid search results.  That gives you a very narrow window.  And that means…

True story.  A guy opens an app on his phone to order his favorite pizza.  The app isn’t working.  Does he call in his order?  He does not.  He orders from another pizza chain whose app is working.  Surprised?  Get this: he’s not even a millennial.  Technology is like any other aspect of your marketing. …

Everybody talks about the need for content — for your website, social media, whitepapers, etc.  And content really is crucial to inbound marketing.  But here’s the catch.  If you’re saying what everyone else is saying, and posting the same kind of content they are, there is nothing that will make your content become the traffic…

How often are you in a meeting and someone (is it you?) set their phone on the table?  Probably a lot.  And if you’re in a sales presentation or meeting with clients, it becomes a marketing issue.  That device is sending out a signal for the duration of the meeting and beyond — but not…

Marketers are often asked by their bosses to create something that will go viral.  The problem?  Viral is rarely the result of careful planning. Most of what goes viral is pure luck of the draw.  And here’s the real issue: for a video or other content to go viral, it has to be dramatically different…

If you’re spending money on SEO or SEM to drive traffic to your website, have you given visitors something to do once they arrive?  Can they watch a video, download a whitepaper, use a tool or get an estimate?  Actions make website traffic much more trackable — and more likely to result in a sale. …