And, quite honestly, it may not even really matter to them.
A lot of businesses worry unnecessarily about market share. It’s understandable because we read a lot about market share in the media. It’s something that big companies worry about a lot and, to a large degree, they need to. Smaller companies, though, really don’t need to be worried about market share. In fact, Continue reading “Unless You’re Starbucks, Target or Another Big Brand Player, Market Share Doesn’t Really Matter”
I’m a big fan of conducting SWOT analyses, not only for strategic planning but really for any situation where you’re faced with an important business decision. A SWOT can help you gain clarity around the strengths and opportunities you can leverage and the weaknesses and threats you need to overcome. Pretty basic, but very powerful when done well.
Though common in large organizations, many small businesses and solopreneurs may not be familiar with the tool. Continue reading “SWOT, Done Right, Can Provide Important Insights”
As the New Year approaches it’s time to begin thinking about New Year’s resolutions. I’m pretty goal oriented and actually love this time of year–it’s always fun to look forward to new possibilities and make new plans for growth and achievement. I also believe that thinking about and committing our goals to some formal form (whether hard copy or online) serves to formally mark them in our minds and increases the odds that we will actually move forward to achieve them. Following are our top three marketing communications resolutions for 2019.Continue reading “Our Top 3 Marketing Communications Resolutions for 2019”
What’s more important: a great idea or great execution? There’s certainly an argument to be made for the importance of ideas for entrepreneurs, and it’s easy to point to famous examples of huge fortunes and successful businesses that sprung from a great idea — Facebook, the automobile, the PC, etc.; but the idea is just the beginning. Continue reading “Planning is Overrated: Execution is Where It’s At”
There is no shortage of content marketing experts these days, and there’s no shortage of ideas on the best ways for companies to leverage their content to achieve desired results. The problem is that these ideas are often without context–not grounded in real-world examples that can help would-be content marketers get their arms around what content strategy is all about.
Here, through a fictional example of a company that’s interested in gaining clients and driving business through content marketing, we apply the advice of content marketing experts to demonstrate how it can be used in concrete ways. Continue reading “6 Steps and 6 Days to an Effective Content Strategy”
What do your Facebook page, your primary business website, your Twitter feed and your direct mailing materials have in common? Hopefully it’s a lot of things, and not just the fact that they are part of your content marketing and branding strategies. Although these are all different media, it’s important to make sure that your branding standards are both consistent across all social channels, and in alignment with your corporate website and overall branding guidelines. Continue reading “In Marketing—Of Any Kind—It Pays to Be Consistent!”
The Content Marketing Institute’s (CMI) 2015 reports on B2B and B2C (business-to-consumer) content marketing trends reveal some important disconnects among demand, effectiveness, and satisfaction with results. For instance, while 86% of B2B respondents indicate that they are using content marketing, only 38% say that their efforts are effective. While 83% say they have a content marketing strategy, only 35% have a documented strategy. That’s a problem. Continue reading “Putting the “Strategic” Into Strategic Content Marketing”
With the new year approaching, the thoughts of many turn to New Year’s resolutions. It’s an annual tradition of setting goals for the coming year that dates back millennia, according to Oklahoma State University’s “Newsline.” However, while a 2013 article from Forbes estimates that roughly forty percent of American’s make a New Year’s resolution, only eight percent end up keeping that resolution! We think we can beat that number. Continue reading “Looking Ahead to a Successful New Year!”
by Linda Pophal
So, you’re in the market for a strategic marketing professional. You’ve screened hundreds of applicants, and it’s down to the handful you’ve picked to invite in for interviews. But this is an inherently creative position, and cookie-cutter interview questions about an applicant’s past experience or about their evaluation of their own qualifications might not give you enough insight to pick the right man or woman for the job. Continue reading “Don’t Create Strategies or Tactics Without These Critical Insights”
A SWOT analysis – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats – is a critical element of a strategic plan, if done correctly. Far from being a “silly exercise” (and I’ll admit in the early days of my career I sometimes felt that it was…) the SWOT is an important input that leads to the development of strategies. It can be a determinant of whether or not you will be able to successfully achieve your goals and objectives. But, it has to be done correctly to deliver that value. Continue reading “What’s in a SWOT? Exploring an Important Input to the Strategic Planning Process”
