Why use social media?  To get attention and build connections that can turn into sales.  If that’s your “why,” then every post needs to pass that test.  And the posts that get liked and shared and create clicks and calls offer insights and ideas that help people do their work better.  Here are six ways…

Go to your local hardware store. Check out the hammers. While there are small differences, they all look and work like a hammer.  No one looks at a hammer and thinks about a radical redesign to make it look cooler. Why? Because the design works. In marketing, there are a lot of things that always work. And a…

Two direct mail campaigns, each comprised of several pieces, scheduled to arrive at regular intervals to a targeted audience. One gets stopped before it’s complete, written off as a failure. The other, with fewer pieces deployed, is such a success that it gets repeated to a new list. So what happened? Why did one work while the other…

People talk about B2B and B2C as if they’re Venus and Mars — two completely different spaces. That leads to the assumption that the messaging for each has to be dramatically different. And that’s a mistake. Certainly, the sales process is different for each. But in every case — without exception — decision makers have…

No one talks about it. But Marketing and Human Resources need each other to succeed. Here are four areas where marketing can assist HR, and vice versa. RecruitingMost companies need talented employees now. But marketing involvement is often limited to ordering the “Now Hiring” signs and making sure positions get posted on the website or social media.  Marketing…

They say “familiarity breeds contempt.” But in marketing, familiarity breeds blindness — brand blindness. You’re simply too close to see your unique position clearly. And you can’t share what you can’t see. Think about it. You know your company inside and out. Your products. Your services. Your people. Your customers. Your competitors. Your industry. But knowing it all so well can make it almost impossible…

Whether for a print ad, a website, a radio spot, a brochure, a TV spot, a digital ad, an email, a video or something else, there are five factors that mark great copy. BrevityOur brains have been retrained. Texts and tweets and TV have shortened our attention spans. So short copy gets read Long copy doesn’t. Trim ruthlessly. Short words. Short…

There are two billboards within a mile or so of one another. Both advertise eye care. Sort of. One company’s billboard uses the headline, “We focus on you.” Cute? Not really. The other company has the word “First” in its name. So their headline? “We put your eye care first.” Get it? Neither headline is very memorable. And neither tells you why they’re…

If you want to keep a prospect’s attention long enough to turn them into customers, there are three important things you have to do — three steps that make the whole process easier. Find Your Prospect’s Pain.What problem does your prospect have? It could be pain they’re well aware of, or pain they’re oblivious to, because…

If you gave your pet the same amount of attention most companies give their websites, there’s a good chance you’d have a dead pet. A lot of businesses go through a website redesign every few years. Then they let the site sit mostly idle until it’s time to do it again a few years later. Rinse and…