I consider myself a student of life. I always want to be in learning-mode so that I can improve and can continuously add value to those I help: clients, potential clients, and colleagues, to name a few. As Carol Dweck notes, in her amazing book, Mindset, that’s the growth mindset—changing, growing, and stretching oneself through [...]
I have been involved with Win-Loss Analysis from the product and sales sides since the mid–1990’s and have written about the subject since 2009. To this day, I do not understand why more companies aren’t conducting win-loss interviews, analyzing results and implementing lessons learned. When I speak with companies, many think they know the answers [...]
I recently asked a marketing director about customer testimonials on his company website. He openly said, "The testimonials aren't real, I made them up. Everybody else does it, so why can't we?" My second thought, after "Two wrongs don't make a right," was "Aren't you in the business of building trust? What does that say [...]
I remember when Bill Lee's post in Harvard Business Review came out in August 2012. There was outrage in the marketing community. Well, how could there not be outrage? The title of his post was "Marketing Is Dead". He was right - traditional marketing is dead. This is where I diverge. Mr. Lee notes "Traditional [...]
In a previous post entitled Are You Over-Gating Your Content, we wrote that marketers need to be careful with over-gating content. Gating content is perfectly appropriate within reason. However, you need to have an objective for doing so. Otherwise, you could end up fueling the fire by defeating your purpose and driving potential leads away. [...]
Gating your content means that for someone to receive your content, they have to give you their email address and other particulars to obtain the content. But, is over-gating your content a good tactic? If you gate everything and someone registers, do you immediately conclude that individual is a hot lead? Perhaps they are. Perhaps [...]
What side of content do you prefer to play? Are you a content creator or content curator? Content Curation has become hot lately which is probably due to every Tom, Dick and Harry telling you that "content is king" and you must provide "value-added content" for your website visitors to trust you. They are right. [...]
Digiday had a great post about how brands define engagement. Is the definition they provide in theory or practical? And, what if you don't have a top brand? Does the definition change? So, what say you?
If Joan Crawford was alive today, her "no more wire hangers!" might be transformed to "no more online submission forms!" Online submission forms serve their purpose...sometimes. The goal typically is to generate leads. However, a company should strongly consider the implications of having that form. Is it overkill? Is it not enough? This is something [...]
