Small Business Marketing
This kid’s t-shirt declares “People Over Things.” It also costs $42. When I saw it hanging in the window of a chic children’s clothing boutique in Cincinnati, I burst out laughing. Instead of buying an expensive, virtue-signaling shirt that a…
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Create Content Complimentary to Both Your Audience’s Interests and Your Business Needs My client TriState Water Works has two important business seasons for irrigation maintenance: Spring Start-Up and Fall Winterization. Email marketing is an important part of helping our customers…
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Have you ever received a text message stating, “TL;DR” from someone? That’s for, “Too Long; Didn’t Read.” It’s no big deal when your friend doesn’t want to read the 1,000 word story behind your favorite recipe, but it’s a problem…
Read MoreI’m helping a client design a consumer rewards program, with the goal of increasing our competitive advantage and attracting new customers. Because the product mix has excellent margins, we can offer a program that provides high value to the customer. To…
Read MoreA good parody makes the audience somewhat uncomfortable, even as they laugh. The humor has to hit close to home to be truly funny. As you watch “Weird Al” Yankovic’s music video for “Mission Statement,” which buzzwords are a little…
Read MorePrecise language is one of my joys. It’s exhilarating to find exactly the right word that communicates in the best way possible. Which is why it pains me to admit that accuracy isn’t all that important if it’s boring. For marketing communications,…
Read MoreBlogging has been around since the 1990’s, and the practice has been fairly universally panned ever since. In the early days, detractors sneered that no one wants to read what bloggers ate for lunch (before the rise of foodie blogs proved…
Read MoreBing Ads serve the Bing, Yahoo! and MSN search networks. According to most statistics, these networks account for around 36% of web searches. Basic math indicates that to reach a third more potential customers, you should advertise on the network. But…
Read MoreSince I named my small business marketing firm Zoo in a Jungle Marketing, it’s pretty clear that I approve of marketing metaphors. Taken from Peter DeVries’ quote “Life is a zoo in a jungle,” my company name promotes stepping outside…
Read MoreNaming products and services is an incredibly important element to your branding strategy and marketing plan. Ideal product names are clearly descriptive, motivating to customers and memorable. Or, you could take LG’s example and go with the alphabet soup approach: The LG G…
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