Tiny Social Media Marketing Details With Outsized Impact
I’m a huge fan of libraries. I remember complaining that the poems of Ogden Nash were only in the adult section when I was a kid and not allowed to take out adult books. (Do they still do that?) Nerdy kid, or what? I also have many fond memories of hours and hours spent at…
The New Permission Marketing is Content, not E-mail
We used to think of e-mail that people signed up for as “permission marketing” but with overwhelming amounts of it these days, it no longer feels like that any more. Mike Volpe, Hubspot’s Chief Marketing Officer, argues that creating lots of great content that will inspire people to contact you rather than you intruding on…
Want Prospects to Call YOU? Think Like a Publisher
Speaker after speaker at this week’s Dx3 conference stressed that to succeed in marketing today you have to “think like a publisher”. The key, they all believe, is to put out a lot of good, relevant content and your prospects will come to you rather than you having to chase them. One company that is…
Market Research + Niche = Great Product & Profits
FunctionFox got into the software-as-a-service (SAAS) marketplace early, developing a simple time tracking sheet for ad agencies, design firms and other small, creative teams. Starting early meant that they didn’t have any web-based competition when they started, but it also meant they had to overcome some initial resistance to the idea of web-based time tracking. Combining a…
Inexpensive Video Tricks to Boost Your Online Marketing
When I recorded this interview with Dave Phillips, founder of Ubervideo in Victoria, Canada, I was still stalling on recording my first video. As you know, I’ve now done so (you can watch it here) and I’m preparing several others. Why is Video Important for Online Marketing? People like watching video. We are getting lazier…
What the Heck IS Cloud Computing? And How Big is Big Data?
Internet Jargon The first article I sold as a freelance writer was an article demystifying marketing jargon for businesspeople. I had just finished an MBA, and it bothered me that smart entrepreneurs were being intimidated by MBAs and their jargon. (I’ll have to see if I can find a copy of that article!) The Internet…
Your 1st Video Doesn’t Have to be Great; Just Do It!
I finally forced myself to put up a video. I know (and have been telling you) that online video is now a crucial part of your online content marketing strategy, but taking that first step can be pretty scary, especially for those of us who didn’t grow up in the YouTube generation. Here’s my first…
Customer Support Fail!
Several years ago my friend, Brenda, got a job translating tech-speak to employees inside a bank. She discovered that the geeks and the bankers were very different types of people, who spoke very different languages. Full points to the bank for hiring an “interpreter’. Should your company have an interpreter? I’ve been a GoDaddy customer…
Check Out This Great Gift Opportunity for Businesses
One of the fun things about interviewing entrepreneurs is seeing how many different ways people can approach the same topic. Take gift cards. Frances Ho, of CardSwap, (click to hear my interview with CardSwap), and Leif Baradoy, of Kiind (today’s interviewee) both noticed that a lot of gift cards go unused. CardSwap looked at the problem from…
Keep Content Current!
I’m researching content management tools lately and I came across an offer for a free download of a document comparing content management systems. Great! I signed up right away, and soon after eagerly opened the download. Turns out the paper was from 2009! In Internet technology years, that’s medieval! Unlike most people, who will simply write…