At its core, marketing is a numbers oriented profession. We segment the market and size it. We worry about demographics and demographic trends. We do statistically significant market research (or, at least, we should). Marketers are given to counting the number of hits, likes, connects, and follows. We are constantly looking for new and more…
What is your Web site’s ROI? When was the last time you heard anyone ask that question? CFOs are demanding (and marketers are scrambling for) a clear definition of social media return on investment. But Web sites have become so much an assumed part of doing business today that the question never seems to come…
Marketing seems to be getting more and more complicated. There is an ever-expanding universe of ways to try to reach out to prospects. Segmenting the marketplace now includes categorization by means of communication on top of the traditional demographic profiles. Marketing specialties are multiplying. What’s an entrepreneur or small- to medium-sized business to do? There…
The Bureaucratization of Marketing It’s getting ridiculous. Everyone wants to be a chief. First we had Chief Executive Officers and Chief Financial Officers. Then we got Chief Information Officers. Now we have Chief Marketing Officers. But clearly that is not enough. Now I hear calls for Chief Customer Engagement Officers. I’ve even seen a discussion…
4 Common Barriers to Marketing Success Successful companies generally become successful by finding their own unique way of approaching the marketplace, interacting with and satisfying customers, and providing goods and services that fill a need. They become successful by breaking the rules, not by following them. Then their methods become fodder for pundits and academics…
Are We Asking the Right Questions? For all the discussions, Webinars, articles, and blogs on social media, we always seem to come back to traditional marketing questions. ♦ How can we engage our followers and visitors? ♦ How can we increase our conversion rates, i.e. turn visitors and followers…
Marketing In a Crowded Marketplace This article originally appeared on March 5, 2012 under the title of “Marketing a Commodity.” At the time, a number of people got caught up in mind-numbing discussions of what the word “commodity” means, and the point of the article got lost. This time around, I’ve eliminated the source of…
Marketing’s Social Media Sin of Omission The Internet is filled with articles, discussions, and blogs on how managers should “market” to employees. We are told the best ways to motivate them. We discuss the best ways to communicate with them. We blog on how to “engage” them. What is fascinating to me is that, for…
The Future of Social Media Marketing? A friend recently sent me Evan Bailyn’s Outsmarting Social Media with the instructions to “Read it!” It’s an interesting book, well worth the time to look at. Bailyn has some thoughtful and practical suggestions and insights on marketing through Facebook and Twitter (although I think Facebook’s new Timeline has…
The Wizard of Oz and B2B Technology Marketing We don’t think about it much, but most people don’t care about how something works as long as it does what they want and works when it is supposed to. Very few people actually understand the internal combustion engine, but we drive daily. The modern world lives…