A big rap on Groupon is that it brings in one-time customers that most retail businesses have no idea how to convert. If it led to a steady uptick in business, companies would be cheering. Right? But can you have too much business? Chef Geoff's uptown location used to...
I love billboards, and not just because dozens of South of the Border ads have given me and millions of other drivers cheesy entertainment while driving up and down I-95. Billboards work. In an era when we're constantly on the edge of sensory overload, very little...
When I moved into my condo, it took me a couple of months to find a tile guy to replace my kitchen floor. The job was "too small," one contractor flat out said to me. When I was writing articles for an insurance company, two brokers and one attorney (the company's...
I heard Linda Ireland speak last week about how to strengthen the customer experience on social media platforms. A key point she made during the MarketingProfs Webinar is that customers are demanding--to be heard, authenticity, speed, support, interaction,...
My target audience isn't marketers. It's businesses. There's nothing wrong with marketing blogs. Or PR blogs. Or blogs about kittens. But too many business bloggers are really just writing for themselves. What challenges do your clients, customers, and/or prospects...
Technology makes it too easy for stupid people. Too cheap and easy to find you. To reach out to you. To spam you with their junk. Take this pitch that I received yesterday (illogical sentence flow and poor punctuation included): Daria, What makes an association truly...
Guy Kawasaki is a born marketer. But he's also an entrepreneur who's smart, personable, answers his own mail (and his tweets too), and is at times utterly enchanting. Kawasaki came through Washington last week on his Enchantment book tour, dropping off books for...
When you think of the PGA Tour, what comes to mind? (Bear with me here--this post is not about sports.) Here's my short list: Really ugly clothing Country clubs Boring men (see bullet 1) flying around in private planes What's on yours? Here's what should be top of...
I once heard a guy with a software product he was trying to sell tell a gathering of entrepreneurs that his audience was "anyone who has a computer." Huh? Everyone is not a strategy. It's a bad business idea in desperate need of a plan. Everywhere isn't a strategy...
Should business schools teach the arts? Consider this, from an article in The Economist: "Studying the arts can help business people communicate more eloquently. Most bosses spend a huge amount of time "messaging" and "reaching out." yet few are good at it... Many of...