Are you getting the results you want from your website? Whether you’re a business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C) marketer, a great website is essential for a smart marketing strategy. Here are 10 ideas to boost the marketing value of your website through higher traffic, better search engine rankings, and more effective engagement with your customers and prospects. ...
View MoreYou’d expect marketing agencies on Madison Avenue and Michigan Avenue to be producing world-class work for big companies. But how about marketing agencies in Cleveland, Ohio? Major marketers can choose agencies anywhere in the world, yet more and more are selecting marketing teams in Northeast Ohio. Top executives from three regional agencies and a large Midwestern bank explained why global brands and other market leaders are “Choosing Cleveland” at a NOCA (Northeast Ohio Communications Advocates) Forum at the Cleveland Plain Dealer on April 27. Here’s how these local firms are landing prestigious accounts...
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Every advertising and marketing agency is in a constant search for new business. But as a marketing agency president, I’ve learned the hard way that not all prospects should become clients. Even if you're a marketing agency looking to grow, sometimes it's smarter to walk away from prospective new business than enter into a bad relationship. How do you know when to stay or go?Here are 7 warning signs that a new prospect could become a bad client for your marketing agency....
View MoreDo you know which of your customers are most profitable to your business? Or even how to measure customer profitability? One of the best ways to gauge the value of a customer is to perform a recency, frequency, and monetary value (RFM) analysis of your customer data. Here’s how RFM analysis works and seven ways you can use insights from RFM for a smart marketing strategy. ...
View MoreA fresh creative concept is crucial for effective advertising and a smart marketing strategy. But too many advertising and marketing campaigns recycle the same, tired creative themes and copy phrases over and over and over. This is more than annoying. It’s a guaranteed audience turn-off and a misuse of the marketer’s resources. Here’s the 2011 edition of my annual list of the most overused creative themes in marketing. How many do you recognize?...
View MoreAre you getting a good return on your investment in marketing? Could it be better? One way to find out is to conduct a top-to-bottom review of your entire marketing plan to determine what’s working and what isn’t. This process is sometimes called a marketing audit. I’m often asked to guide audits as an independent marketing consultant and I recently shared advice on how to do an audit effectively. What specific factors should you assess in a marketing audit? Here are 40 questions I recommend for evaluating the effectiveness of your marketing and...
View MoreBusiness-to-business (B2B) marketers often use such tactics as direct marketing, e-marketing, advertising, trade shows, and web marketing to generate sales leads. But a smart lead generation marketing strategy goes well beyond the creation of the marketing campaign. If your goal is to build a relationship with a business prospect, increase your sales conversion rate, and maximize the value of your sales resources, you need a careful plan for what happens after the lead comes in. Here are the seven steps you should take with a marketing-generated sales lead to achieve success....
View MoreSuper Bowl XLV is history and so is the advertising that generated so much buzz and discussion before, during, and now, after the game. Best and worst ad lists are everywhere after a Super Bowl, and there generally is agreement among marketing experts about the winners and losers. But when you look more closely at Super Bowl ads, a smart marketer has to wonder about their strategic marketing value. According to the Wall Street Journal, marketers spent $2.8 million to $3 million for a 30-second spot during this year's matchup. Did the...
View More“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain,” I heard a marketing consultant say in a recent meeting. I knew he was quoting the scene from The Wizard of Oz when Toto pulls back the curtain to reveal that the Wizard is just an ordinary man. But judging by the puzzled looks on their faces, the twenty-somethings in the meeting had no idea what he was talking about. Situations like this don’t just make you feel your age. They painfully illustrate the fact that cultural points of reference are constantly shifting...
View MoreWhen an advertising campaign is so bad it makes you groan out loud, there’s usually a simple reason: It’s not believable. The worst offenders are campaigns that attempt to portray real-life situations. The dialogue often is so forced or the setup so phony that your only reaction is to roll your eyes and think, “Yeah, right.” But lack of believability in advertising is more than annoying. It’s a waste of the marketer’s money. Here are two ways to achieve believability in your advertising and two examples of smart marketers, including one in Northeast...
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