Spotlight On Lessons Learned From Your Very First Marketing Efforts
You probably don’t think it could possibly be all that fascinating, but I know it will be. Remember all that passion keeping you from doing anything until your slogan was finalized? Remember how painting the entire town with your company colors was doable with just a few thousand fliers and volunteers? Remember the feeling when you got some press? Remember when no one seemed to notice a thing… and then suddenly you were in business? Remember when you just happened to be in the right...
Read MoreFour Things Inspirational Quotes And Marketing Have In Common
I am not a fan of The Sappy. Most of those motivating, inspiring, deep-thinking, worldview-simplifying quotes (or misquotes, depending on who you believe) are among The Sappiest, in my book. I have unfollowed every purveyor of Sap in the form of those quotes that I mistakenly followed. If I see one RTed, I immediately check to be sure those kinds of tweets don’t represent the majority of their timeline. So you can imagine the degree of grudge in my grudging acceptance when something...
Read MoreHow To Stop Marketing To People-Like Substances
Everything you’ve ever learned about marketing your business sets you up for it. Research your customer, you’re taught. Get the stats. Are they male or female? How many are there? Where do they live? Where do they work? How much do they make? You gather all that data and you have… a silhouette. A crowd of silhouettes. Friendly silhouettes, all of a similar shape and size. They fit neatly into any of your carefully tailored contexts. They’re perfect. And with that...
Read MoreShould Everyone Learn Marketing Skills?
Marketing is everywhere–no seriously! Learning to use LinkedIn, I realized you can either a) learn to draw positive attention to yourself to make connections that help you land a job or grow your business or b) draw negative attention or (worst of all, it seems) no attention at all to yourself, and thus remain jobless and connectionless (unless you’re a recruiter). In other words, you can either market yourself wisely or market yourself poorly. Either way, you’re...
Read MoreBeyond Fear: A Closer Look At Why You’re Writing
Dedicated creative writers tend to write because they feel compelled to. They “hear voices” in their heads. They have “too much built up inside.” They feel ”something needs to be said.” Often, the need to express themselves with words is as necessary as breathing. But we business writers–who write things like email campaigns, summaries of scientific findings, or monthly reports–are usually writing because a) it’s our job to write these...
Read MoreSelling Without Writing To “You”
Your customer’s reaction to what he reads is the only one that matters. The easiest way to get that reaction is to write directly to him. But easiest isn’t always best. You can sometimes get an even more positive reaction from your reader by making every sentence about him–by telling someone else’s story. People are hardwired to love stories. But the stories they love most are not about them. So it may seem to be a non-sequitur that the storytelling technique works...
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