Especially in the manufacturing world — but even in areas as diverse as financial services and healthcare — companies continue to promote the features they offer.  In almost every case, this is because people inside the company have worked hard to develop those features, and they want to see them front and center in marketing. …

Are you bold enough to call out your competition?  Recently, one of the stock photo services sent out a chart comparing their offerings with their main rival.  Of course, they chose carefully, but in each case, they pointed out where the other company came up short when compared with their own plans.  If you have…

On the Food Network show “Chopped,” chefs are given a basket of ingredients and a set amount of time to turn them into an appetizer, entrée or dessert. In each round, one chef is “chopped,” until only one remains. The judges look for presentation, use of all ingredients, creativity and flavor. When you’re competing for…

If you take applications or make sales online, where customers are required to complete forms, keep in mind that a high percentage of such transactions are abandoned and never completed. The big reasons? Making the process unclear, making it too involved and making it too long. Keep it simple, move visitors quickly from one step…

Want a humbling experience? Try this one. Go to one of your competitors’ websites and read what it says about them on their home page. Now go to another competitor’s site and do the same. Repeat this a couple more times. Is there anything their sites say that sounds different than what you’d say about…

Are your customers truly faithful to you? Or are they seeing other people? It’s easy to assume that your clients bring you all their business. But how do you know for sure? It matters for at least two reasons. First, if they’re doing a little bit of their business somewhere else, that somewhere else is…

Most companies, especially small to mid-size ones, will tell you that carving out a unique position in the marketplace is their biggest challenge.  But what if you flipped that on its head?  Instead of working so hard on positioning your own brand, you reposition all of the competition.  It’s been done successfully many times, and…

A client was recently talking about the options available to most businesses when it comes to marketing, and narrowed it down to three that always work.  You can outspend the other guys.  You can make sure that your message is so memorable — edgy, funny, emotional — that it leapfrogs the rest.  Or you can…

Want to open the door for your competitors to poach customers from you.  Start small.  Take your eye off the little things.  The lack of a smile or a “thank you.”  A delay in getting a callback.  The kinds of things that, by themselves, aren’t fatal — but taken together, open a door for your…

Lately, there’s an epidemic of new dentists specializing in care for children.  You can tell by all the primary colors, cartoonish fonts, backward letters and other cute touches in their logos and signage.  Except that dentistry is supposed to be serious stuff, and it’s parents, not kids, who choose the dentist.  The use of all…