How do you price for services.
A common question from all those in consulting, and one I ask myself regularly, as it becomes really easy to under-price in order to get the job. From time to time in the past I have done jobs for various bodies that I believe in, pro bono. I always thought it was my...
How do you calculate a Cost Per Lead?
The smoke and mirrors crowd of "Digital marketing made easy" will tell you that Cost Per Lead (CPL) is a key measure. This is half right, but the half that gets missed most of the time is the half that really counts. First, how do you define a lead? Is it a webform...
What makes successful people successful?
Success is driven by a combination of insight, common sense and hard work, not luck, knowing the right people, or having a rich father, although the last two can be a good start. It is also a given that successful people are usually pretty smart, although pretty smart...
Can the government’s innovation initiative innovate us out of the funk?
Peter Drucker said something like "innovation is the only truly sustainable competitive advantage". Having just re-read his 1985 musings on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, after 20 or so years, the degree of his foresight is truly astonishing. It is great to have a...
Net rule No.1: Own your own space.
Two recent events have put starkly into the spotlight the need to control your own space on the internet. When you use the space of another, you are just one of a huge number of a mass of irrelevant renters, and the landlord is able, indeed likely, to screw you at...
January 26, 2017, and is all well?
It is Australia day today, and it has become my tradition to make some comment on the community in which we live, rather than addressing an issue of commercial sustainability, the main meal for the other 200 odd days on which I post. What a welcome change, if somewhat...
The greatest self-delusion of marketers.
We marketers are great at deluding ourselves, we do it about all sorts of things, often to justify the resources we are consuming in the absence of hard numbers. It is one thing to 'get away' with convincing the corner office that the number of 'Likes' on Facebook is...
What return should I expect?
This is a common question I get from the owners of businesses with whom I interact. There is no right answer, but when you consider that putting your money in a bank term deposit at no risk will currently generate you about 3%, and a diversified share portfolio held...
Will this change finally compel you to build your own digital assets?
Back in June 2016 when Microsoft paid $US26 Billion for LinkedIn, we all expected there to be changes. You do not spend that sort of dosh, even when it is just change as it is for Microsoft, without a plan. The advice from many, including myself was that it had just...
When the cheapest quote is not the best price.
A quote carries the implication of a low price, only price, little room for the value that may be delivered, and that your 'nose' is only just out of the water. What would happen if you called it an offer for service? Perhaps it is just a semantic difference, but it...