Some of you may have missed the news last week but I think it’s really important and indicates a sea change in online marketing. If you’ve been ignoring social media for your business, it’s more than time to stop. Last week, Bing announced that it was tightly integrating Facebook, yes Facebook, likes into its search… More »
AMA’s “Cracking the Code”: Social Media Trends
In our previous entry, we discussed the recent American Marketing Association virtual event, Cracking the Code: Advanced Social Media Strategies. It is more apparent than ever that social media has become essential to any company that wants to remain on the cutting edge of marketing. The event’s presenters delved deep into the issues surrounding the… More »
How to Get the Most from Your Agency (con’t)
Last week, I talked about the importance of making your relationship with your marketing agency as productive as possible. I shared the first two rules that I’ve learned over the years of being on both the client and the agency side (1. Be respectful and 2. Share). Here are the other two simple rules: 3. Expect… More »
How to Get the Most from Your Agency
Whether you’re just starting out working with an agency or have been doing so for a while, it’s important to know how to make this relationship as productive as possible. There are four simple rules that I’ve learned over the years of being on both the client and the agency side: 1. Be respectful: Respect your… More »
What to Expect from an Agency?
Now that you’ve hired that great agency, you need to understand what you can expect from them as your partner for success. You should expect great performance. Every agency person wants to be able to do a great job. If you share relevant information and give them reasonable deadlines, they should be able to produce… More »
How to Choose an Agency
So you’re thinking about hiring an agency. Good for you! That means you’re ready to expand and are taking the next step of securing help so you can get there. Whether you’re looking for a marketing agency, a PR agency, or an integrated agency, there are some important guidelines to help choose: 1. Learn the agency’s… More »
The Power of Branded Events
A branded executive event can do wonders for your sales cycle. I recently attended an executive forum hosted by a large payroll company and it was a great experience for many of the attendees. The company was seeking to have the attendees sign on as customers, but they provided solid value in the form of information and netwroking opportunities. The… More »
Choosing Your Baby (Company)’s Name – Part IV
Over the last three weeks, I’ve shared some common rules I’ve used in naming new companies/products/services over the years. Hopefully these guidelines will be helpful to you. Another big decision in the naming process is deciding whether you really want a real word name (or a close approximation) like Apple or Google, or are willing… More »
Choosing Your Baby (Company)’s Name – Part III
Over the last two weeks, I shared some important rules about naming a company/product/service including making short, memorable, easy to say, with a good URL and being sure it won’t translate into something awful in another language. The final two rules include that the new name should be: 6. Available in your category – you will… More »
Choosing Your Baby (Company)’s Name – Part II
Last week, I talked about the importance of keeping the new company/product/service name short and memorable. Those two rules are a great start, and here are a few others to consider. The new name should be: 3. Easy to Pronounce – if people can’t figure out how to pronounce it, that will make it harder to… More »
Flaunting It: Why Being Bold Matters
Have you seen the ads for LifeLock? If you have, you know they are very difficult ignore. They feature the CEO, Todd Davis, SSN 457-55-5462, standing there boldly holding out his social security card. And offering you a million dollars if his service doesn’t protect your name and SSN from identity theft. Now if there’s… More »
Choosing Your Baby (Company)’s Name
So you’ve decided to have a … company. One of the first (of many) decisions is what to name it, right? This is an important, and often emotional, decision that is no less crucial than naming a baby. Except there can be more than one Brittany or Jennifer (trust me on that one … there… More »
Zen and the Art of Speaking
Sometimes less really IS more. I just returned from a weekend at a Buddhist/Zen meditation center (those who know me found it amusing that I chose to be (or even could be!) silent for a full day … but that’s a different story). As always, I was (subconsciously) on the lookout for good marketing ideas. I’m an… More »
A Powerful Tagline Can Make An Entire Ad Campaign
I recently returned from a great weekend getaway with my husband to Las Vegas. Although I was on vacation, I just can’t stop myself when it comes to looking for great ideas — even when I think I’m just relaxing. We stayed at the Bellagio, and the in room magazine had a GREAT ad on… More »
Measuring the Value and Cost Effectiveness of Events
Last week, we discussed how to calculate the Impact, a very important metric that measures how many people you impacted at a certain show, versus just the number of attendees. Once you have your Impact number calculated, you can use it to determine some additional valuable metrics, including your response rate for that show and… More »
Measuring the Impact of Your Events
Generally, most marketers use the number of attendees as a metric to measure the success of an event. Part of the problem with using attendees as a metric is it’s generally an overestimation of your ability to impact your audience unless you are a very large company, such as IBM or Cisco, or you are… More »
Measuring the Success of Events
I recently taught a workshop for marketers about metrics and using them to inform your marketing programs. The topic that seemed to most pique their interest was the section on event metrics. Not a huge surprise, given those events (tradeshows, conferences, customer events, etc.) is typically a huge line item in any brand marketing budget…. More »
Email metrics: Conversion Rates
Now that you know when to send your email messages, and how to read your delivery rates, open rates, read rates and click-through rates, let’s turn to the final and most important metric: the conversion rate. This is the one metric that is most commonly NOT measured, simply because it’s a little harder to do… More »