Reading Time: 2 minAfter my recent post “experts don’t cold call“, I had an interesting comment from a friend. He defended cold calling to a degree, and ended with “you have to start somewhere when you’re new“. I agree with that, but you have a choice when you’re new: you can choose to give of yourself, or you […]
Marketing
Personas are specific, but not precise
Reading Time: 2 minWhen working on defining your target audience, building a persona can be a great exercise. It’s something I do with some of my writing, where I occasionally write for a specific vision of a person. Having a person in mind when writing content can be a huge benefit, and it can ensure that you’re using […]
Experts don’t cold call
Reading Time: 2 minSome of the funniest emails I get are from “SEO experts”, and I’m sure you get many of the same. My initial thought is “if they’re so good at SEO, why do they need to resort to spam?”. Of course, they’re not any good at it, which is why spam becomes their tactic. In a […]
Strategy or tactic?
Reading Time: < 1 minWhile recently reading “The 1-Page Marketing Plan“, author Allan Dib frequently came back to the same concept of explaining the difference between a strategy and a tactic. In his words: Understanding the difference between strategy and tactics is absolutely key to marketing success. Strategy without tactics leads to paralysis by analysis. Tactics without strategy leads […]
“Somebody” is somebody else
Reading Time: < 1 minIn an emergency, the phenomenon of “diffusion of responsibility” can be a huge problem. The short definition is that when an accident occurs and many people are around, everyone assumes someone else will take care of it. When a person yells “somebody call 911”, everyone often assumes that “somebody” means “somebody else”. The same can […]
Keep it simple: Sonder to Empathy, or Experience to Work
Reading Time: 2 minI’ve written a few times on here about the goal of keeping things simple, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t fall prey to overly-exotic words sometimes. Two examples showcase that. Sonder First is the idea of sonder, which I wrote about a few years ago. While many people may not know the word, reading […]
Distinction is good. Clarity is better.
Reading Time: < 1 minWhen marketing your product, you always want to stand out and be memorable. In an effort to be memorable, though, you can run dangerously close to simply being unclear. I talked about this a few months ago with the death of Google Stadia. Their main commercial for the service was bonkers, and simply being clear […]
Watch the seeds more than the harvest
Reading Time: < 1 minIt’s good to watch the harvest come in. For your business, that likely means seeing new clients sign up and your revenue head in the right direction. This can be a dangerous time, though, as it can cause companies to ease off on sales efforts while they enjoy the fruit of their labor. In many […]
Who wants to hear your message?
Reading Time: < 1 minAs time goes on, I’m becoming increasingly annoyed with unexpected interruption-based marketing. I’ve mentioned before that I’m fine with ads during TV shows, podcasts, and other areas where I expect it. I don’t like them, but I recognize that it’s part of the deal and it’s my “payment” for the content. Fair enough. However, as […]
What is your phone number?
Reading Time: < 1 minWe’re getting to a point where phone numbers matter less and less. Names are saved in my phone so I don’t have to remember them, but a phone call or text is just one of a dozen ways I can contact someone. As we head toward an essentially number-less future, some relics from the past […]