I was talking to a good friend today looking to redesign his company's web site. He got proposals from three agencies. His director of marketing evaluated them and their proposals. What I didn't see in the evaluation were the GOALS they are trying to reach and OBSTACLES most important to overcome. Matty (my co-founder at Spinach) and I think in terms of Goals, Obstacles and Hypothesis (GOH). An agency is a hypothesis to overcome an obstacle(s)... to reach a goal. This is beca

This morning I got a research brief from Mediapost summarizing the findings from the Marketing Effectiveness Networking Group (MENG) and Anderson Aanlytics study. This study surveyed marketing executives to identify key trends and strategies of effective marketing. The subject line of the email said: "Marketing Execs Say Basics Are Most Important in 2008". By "basics" I thought they meant strategies such as becoming measurement-oriented, shifting ad portfolio, investing in em

Here are some of my favorite snippets from this book: Definition of WOM: Giving people a reason to talk about your stuff and making it easier for that conversation to take place. +++ Earn the respect and recommendation of your customers, and they will do the rest. Treat people well; they will do your marketing for you, for free. Be interesting, or be invisible. +++ Rule #1: Be Interesting Rule #2: Make People Happy Rule #3: Earn Trust and Respect Rule #4: Make It Easy +++ Whe

Bullseye marketing is focused on the fundamentals first. Sure, you can try the half-court shot marketing ideas…but odds are you will hit the outer rings. Why not first execute on activities that will make the most impact. There are only three sources of revenue that flow into an organization: Get more customers Get more from each customer Get customers to frequent more often. Starting with this foundation, formulate strategies and process to execute on these sources of revenu

THIS WAS A RECENT ARTICLE PUBLISHED BY WOMMA… "Customers are exposed to anywhere from 247 to 3000 commercial messages each day," says Sam Decker, vice president of marketing and products for Bazaarvoice. "The growing attention on word of mouth, authenticity, transparency, and social networking is in reaction to customer cynicism, distrust, sensory overload and lack of time." To market with — rather than to — consumers, Sam shares these five tips: Tip #1. Do the waggle dance

Here is Harvey Mackay's formula for a good speech. 1) Start with humorous story or joke. Engage the crowd 2) Present idea / principle 3) Share quips, anecdotes, stories and jokes related to that idea 4) Repeat #2 & #3 several times. 5) Close with great story and thank you. That was it.

What’s wrong with this road sign in Las Vegas? When I saw this from dribbleglass.com it suggested several marketing principles: #1 Less is More It’s possible a driver could attempt to read this eye chart and miss the most important message on this sign…watch out for this giant curb! In marketing, it’s as important to decide what not to say as it is what to say. As a professional speaker, my father always suggested to me that the audience does not know what you didn’t tell the

There are only three sources of revenue that flow into an organization: 1. Get more customers 2. Get more from each customer 3. Get customers to frequent more often. Pretty basic, right? So then, when you formulate your goals and strategies, do you do the following? a. Estimate the headroom/opportunity for each of the above strategies at that point in your company lifecycle (i.e. a new company needs #1 before #2 can be impactful). b. Set goals for each. Set stretch goals for