cartoon by @gapingvoid

In my examination of what makes for intrepid marketers, it is clear to me that they are simply master storytellers. They can take complex issues, and make them simple. They can take ordinary people, and make them legends. They can take boring things, and make them scintillating.

In other words, they are master storytellers. They talk about things that matter. They keep you riveted. They make you believe. They are master marketers. They are intrepid marketers.

There are many tools at their disposal. But what most intrepid marketers utilize in their quest to do something remarkable, is a blog. It is amazing to me how many individuals and small business people still do not blog. But the list of people who are achieving big things and living big dreams because of their blog is a steadily growing list.

But just why is that happening to that select and intrepid group? Here are a few reasons…

The free form of a blog is liberating, and conducive to storytelling. There are relatively few constraints on a blog, and spirited, creative thinkers thrive in this medium.

But ordinary people can make something happen too. I mean, look at me for chrissakes…

Blogs . ... read more >>

Wouldn’t it make sense that if you spent more money on email marketing than pay-per-click marketing, you’d have a reasonable explanation for that choice?

Well, according to the data discovered in Econsultancy’s 2010 Email Marketing Census, companies are spending more on email marketing (17% of online budgets) than PPC (16%) despite not fully understanding the return on investment (ROI) achieved or taking advantage of one of the most important benefits of email marketing: segmentation.

When you run PPC campaign, you attempt to segment your target audience by using different ad creative and targeted landing pages. You wouldn’t bring a “window shopper” to a landing page that displayed only one product, would you? So it’s a shock that many companies are still not using segmentation to target their email campaigns and deliver messages, or offers, that are tailored to their customers’ known interests and buying habits. Think about that. When you email your existing customers, you already know at least a little about their buying preferences, so why would you not segment them so that they receive tailored email messages?

With this ...

If social media is about levelling the playing field between businesses and consumers, then you would think that the largest businesses – the Fortune 100 – would be steering well clear. However, this infographic from Flowtown, based on a recent Burson-Martseller report shows that social media uptake and engagement is well and truly on the agenda of the world’s largest corporations.

Having said that, the uptake figures are quite low. These companies would obviously have more employees than they have subscribers to their YouTube channels. So perhaps there is some work to do around employee engagement/activation. It is good to see, however, that a certain level of experimentation is taking place.

How does these figures tally with your own experience? How engaged is your company with social media? Are you better/worse than the Fortune 100?

This is week three for me of a four-week road trip. I’m getting a little loopy, but am collecting some wonderful client experiences, lessons and stories. Here’s one from a British account executive.

“I was going to see a potential client for what could have been an important piece of business for us. Unfortunately for me, I missed the scheduled plane by minutes, and thus was delayed by an hour. I called, and they agreed to reschedule the meeting to accommodate me.

“When I arrived, a bit flustered, the team of a half-dozen clients execs had gathered downstairs, and we all then went to the lift to go upstairs to the designated conference room.

“Unfortunately the lift was made for about four people. We all crammed into the lift, and it slowly began to climb. At that point someone—how shall I put this—well, as we English say—passed gas. The lift continued its crawling pace upward. No one, of course, said a word, nor even altered their expression. There was dead silence.

“As the doors finally opened, we all rushed to get out—all at once. And all 7 of us thereby tumbled onto each other on the floor. We all picked ourselves up, even more embarrassed, and again without ... read more >>

I had a great time at the Sales 2.0 Conference in San Francisco earlier this week.  In a lot of ways it reminded me of my high school friend’s father, he was a nice enough guy, but he had a thing for the song from Casablanca “As time goes by”.  He would collect as many different renditions as possible; he had the original, the Frank Sinatra version, Tony Bennett, all the instrumentals, even the Tom Jones cover.  While I had no particular favourite, at the end they were all pretty much rooted in the original, some were more adventurous, some were straight up, but at the end they were all “As Time Goes By”, and left you wanting to heat the original by “Sam” Dooley Wilson.

There were some great ideas, great products, and in many ways a return to basics: execution.  Much of the focus on execution was aimed at lead origination, nurturing and conversion.  While some of this pointed to automation, and integration of marketing and sales, at the end the discussion always came back to execution. 

There is no denying that technology has enabled companies to think bigger and wider and achieve bigger and wider.  There is no arguing with the data ... read more >>