Rick Clancy Seemed Worried. An excerpt from “Groundswell”

An excerpt from Chapter 1 of Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff We were meeting him for breakfast before an all-day meeting. He was grappling with a force he didn’t understand, one that was growing all the time. Bloggers. Discussion groups. YouTube. Consumers whom he’d never met were rating his company’s products in public [...]

What kind of listener are you? Four types explained.

The Fortune 500 companies executing best practices on Twitter all started with one basic premise: Listen. Ambient listening (a phrase taught to me by Aneta Hall) is harder than it sounds, especially when conversations move from online to offline. Keith Ferrazzi is fond of describing a conversation with his colleague Dr. Mark Goulston. According to [...]

Dear Chief Marketing Officer, It’s time for your January Gut Check.

Today is the last business day of the first month of the year. Sometime in the next week, Chief Marketing Officers throughout the Fortune 500 will be called to the CEO carpet to report on your marketing effectiveness for January. Are you ready for these four questions? 1. “Last year you told me you needed [...]

Ten Steps to Direct Marketing Success….or not?

James Hipkin put together a deck on Direct Marketing 101. (see below) The “Ten Steps to Direct Marketing Success” gave pause for thought. What’s missing from this list in modern direct marketing? (Please leave a reply below.) 1. Develop a master financial plan 2. Select suitable products/services 3. Make your offer irresistible 4. Use lists [...]

I Stole Your Bike and Your Company Profit

Step 1: Engineer the perfect bike lock. Step 2: Build a Website and Optimize Search in Google so it is the top hit. Step 3: Realize that someone posted a YouTube Video showing how to open the perfect bike lock with a bic pen and it regularly hits Google just under you. Step 4: Go [...]

Miss Teen USA – Marketing Expert

Start with a coherent message. Then put makeup on your marketing. Marketing Rule #1:  Clarity is paramount. Do not let anything interfere with it. Any departure from clarity will have a negative impact on response. Uhh..Thank you very much Miss South Carolina. “I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, um, [...]

“I’m Not Dead Yet”

Below you will find copy and content from a recently released Royal Mail Campaign by Proximity London. (Royal Mail is to the UK what the USPS is to the US.) Direct Mail is not dead. As a matter of fact, it still holds a very powerful place in today’s marketing mix. Companies are “zigging” with [...]

Direct Mail Spending Expected to Drop by 8%. And That’s a GOOD Thing…

Direct mail spending fell by 3% in 2008 and the Winterberry Group predicts even more significant cutbacks in mail volume in 2009. (www.winterberry group.com) The macro trend toward lower cost digital communications and the continued growth of social media has directly cannibalized mail activity. The financial sector and the banking crisis has fueled the first [...]