How to make cold emails 90% effective
Almost everybody I know hates cold phone calling, there is something in the psychology that prevents us putting ourselves in a position where absolute strangers can reject us 99% of the time. "Cold email calling" is the less confronting and can be a hugely...
Are FMCG marketers failing with digital?
It seems to me that in the tsunami of digital marketing going on, FMCG is being left behind. For brands largely dependent on consumer sales via supermarkets, you would think that they would be at the forefront of finding ways to engage with consumers as a means to...
The water-bucket method of networking.
Networking has always been a great way to build a business, and nothing will ever change that. Most small business owners go to networking meetings, register on linkedin and all the rest for a simple reason: they want to find more business. Why is it than that when...
6 foundations of digital marketing for beginners
I am constantly surprised at the lack of understanding that many small businesses have of the greatest boon to small business in 100 years, digital marketing. Last week I had the opportunity to do a short presentation to a network group, and took it by outlining the...
10 lead generating tactics for small business.
Small businesses selling B2B always struggle to generate sales leads. Survey after survey confirms it as one of the biggest challenges they have. There are plenty of tools out there that supposedly make it easy, and certainly they do make it easier than it has been in...
7 basic measures of email marketing success.
Email marketing is the stuff of small business dreams. For the first time they can communicate with their markets, being able to measure the effectiveness of their efforts. Unlike the days of broadcast media where the return on any set of marketing activies was...
8 Myths of social media marketing that trap small business
Myth 1. Fans, followers, and likes are valuable. Reality. What you need to attract to your site is people who for one reason or another are willing to part with their money in exchange for what you have, or at least move towards that decision point. There are only...
How do you describe your brand?
People in market research always describe brands in human terms, they are tough, or easy to live with, or friendly, cold, and so on. It is the easiest way to describe them. It follows then that when thinking about the dimensions of your brand, you would do it ...
Self-induced brand catastrophe
Every now and again I see something so stupid, so irrational, and so destructive of a valuable brand, that I think that perhaps the loonies really do have the keys to the asylum. One of them happened yesterday. There was a radio news report that Akubra...
Why create value before you make a sale?
It happened again last week. A client asked why I advocated giving away a lot of information on their products and supporting technology, seemingly for free off their website. For them it is a challenging idea, one that runs against everything they have ever thought...