6 ingredients for SME success
The post on the 2 tools SME's need in early August led to a comment that, whilst the headlines of focus and discipline made sense, the challenge is in implementation. Fair comment. So, how do you build the needed focus and discipline in the face of increasing...
Native advertising or news fraud
Last night Media Watch on the ABC did a piece on the "news report" done on one of the 6.30 current affairs programs on a commercial station. The "report" was a 15 minute advertising free expose on the sourcing of the fresh produce the retailer sells. It was a prime...
Emotion is the path to your brain.
Think of the average presentation you sit through. If I can summarise: Boring, potentially useful information quickly forgotten. Am I right? Now think of the best presentation you have ever sat through. You remember not just the occasion, and the presenter, and...
12 key success factors for SME’s
Small businesses make up the vast majority of business numbers, make a huge contribution to economic activity and health, but most do not last 5 years. Over 20 years of observing small businesses as a contractor and consultant, I have seen a modest number of factors...
Marketing recidivism
The word recidivism is usually heard in the context of those convicted and punished, going on to re-offend. The objective is to reduce the rate, ideally to zero. Not in the context of marketing and sales, where the objective is to raise the rate. Think about your own...
9 tips to crafting effective headlines
David Ogilvy said many things that have gone into the marketing lexicon, one that is particularly relevant to the ways we are communicating today: "On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline,...
6 Really simple steps to increase the effectiveness of your website.
The blokes I saw as a youngster who had outrageous success with the girls were not always the best looking, or the most interesting, or had the best cars (although all these assets did seem to help) they were the ones who were genuinely interested in whoever it was...
6 vital elements of a marketing story that sells.
As everyone will tell you, (including me here) marketing is about stories, stories that resonate, are remembered, that generate empathy, and lead to an action, and hopefully if your effort is to be rewarded, a transaction. So what are the elements that make a...
Intersection of sales, marketing and technology
18 years ago running an ingredient supplier to the food industry as a contractor, I sponsored a project of quantifying a range of ingredient specifications against a matrix of organoleptic, and cost outcomes given a range of processing parameters. Our...
7 tips to improve your marketing.
Marketing has changed very rapidly from the mass outbound marketing upon which all the marketing theory and practice until about 2000, to what is often called "inbound" marketing, or in other words, finding ways to attract customers to you. There is now a...