Your business blog should be the hub of a strong social media and content marketing strategy. As such, it’s vital that you get it right. Unless you know how to strategically plug a blog into the big picture of your overall marketing plan, it could suck an incredible amount of time and energy without directly […]
Direct Response: 3 Elements that Make a Package Sing
In direct response, we’ve been taught that copy is king. These days, visuals and layout make a big difference as well. Yes, people will read long copy if they’re interested in buying. But we’re bombarded with about 500,000 marketing messages a day. As a result, we filter messages with little more than a 3-second quick-scan. […]
Direct Response: What’s the Big Idea?
Direct response marketers understand the need for a Big Idea. But do other marketers? These days, it’s so easy to be distracted by new channels and media, some of the foundational principles get overlooked. The Big Idea is one such principle. As David Ogilvie said, “It takes a big idea to attract the attention of […]
Content Marketing: Re-purpose and Re-imagine your Ideas
One of the greatest challenges with content marketing is coming up with enough ideas to provide a steady stream of useful, relevant content. The problem isn’t one of idea generation, though. It’s in not understanding how to approach content marketing. In reality, content marketing is publishing. To make it work, you must think like a […]
What’s Your Story? Build Business Success on a Foundation of Values
We live in an age of skepticism. You might say people don’t take candy from strangers any more. They don’t take advice from people with an agenda. They skip commercials and throw away junk mail. And they don’t trust a marketing message. They trust the stories their best friend tells. By corollary, people want to […]
9 Headlines That Can Hook Your Reader
More than three-fourths of your message’s success depends on one thing: the headline. And it has no more than three seconds to do the job. Either your reader will be intrigued and keep on reading, or your message will fall flat on its face, never to be picked up again. Needless to say, it’s important […]
Content Marketing: Marketers Adopt a Publishers’ Mindset
Marketers might easily dub this “The Year of Content Marketing.” According to B2B Content Marketing: 2010 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends, nine out of 10 B2B marketers use content marketing to grow their business. Their most popular platforms?
Customer Service in a Recession: More Important, Not Less
I get it. In an economic slump, costs must be cut. But honestly, how do you expect to survive if you slash customer service? I was at an electronics store last night making a return. Keep in mind, this is no fly-by-night store. It’s located in nine states across the nation. They’ve branded themselves as […]
The BEST Way to Develop a Content Marketing Strategy?
We agree your prospects need to know, like and trust you. And your customers should become advocates, sending you hot prospects who are predisposed to like you. We agree the best way to achieve this is through relevant information that positions you as a knowledgeable, customer-oriented resource. And we agree you’ll attract high-quality, pre-qualified prospects […]
This Retailer Gets a Hand-slap by Google for Black-Hat SEO
Somehow I never imagined JCPenney wearing the black hat. In my mind, the Plano retailer would be riding alongside John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart, not hiding out with Black Bart. So the hand-slap doled out by Google, while appropriate, comes as a shock. The offense was a links-trading practice that drove them into the number […]
