Jobs-to-be-Done Branding to Find Your Positioning

“People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want to buy a quarter-inch hole!” -Theodore Levitt This quote has become something of a rallying cry for marketers. We don’t want to just push our features; we want to market to our customers’ results. However, Levitt’s quote is from the 1960s and companies are still…

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The Most Successful Way to Market to Millennials

We read headlines about millennials daily, but it’s not every day that brand strategists are able to hear directly from the largest generational group in the U.S. Brands succeed when they start a conversation that someone wants to join. That’s part of what we do at my company, and that’s what Nielsen did in The Millennials…

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How to Write Marketing Text Messages That Will Drive Sales

How to Write Marketing Text Messages Marketing text messages have become over 4 times as effective as marketing emails. Research shows that customers are 8 times more likely to redeem text coupons than email coupons. Your customers are almost 400% LESS likely to even open their emails: compare marketing texts open rate of 98% to marketing emails’ meager 22%.…

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10 Free Marketing Tools You’ll Want to Try

Who doesn’t like FREE stuff? I’m always on the lookout for free marketing tools to share with small business and nonprofit readers and clients. These ten below encompass content marketing, SEO (search engine optimization), music, writing, marketing research, direct mail marketing, animation, videos, and CRM (customer relationship management)! 1. Portent’s Content Idea Generator When you need…

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The What and Why of Brand Positioning Statements

In theory, the brand positioning statement is something an entire company can get behind. However, in practice, there’s so much confusion around the term that leads marketers and executives to end up with ineffective statements. When done correctly, brand positioning statements can be powerful tools in businesses of all sizes. But that means going deeper…

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Texting Parties with Kayla McGee

Kayla McGee is an Independent Consultant and Senior Manager with Pink Zebra. She shared with us on the Cash Flow Show – Direct Sales Radio about how she uses texting parties as one more type of party to offer to her clients. Kayla McGee On Texting Parties Everyone texts so why not do texting parties!? Usually these types of parties are…

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Virtual Reality: See the 360-Degree Opportunities

How many of you or your kids have received a virtual reality headset lately as a gift? I’m here to tell you that virtual reality headsets are THE thing lately. If you’re not familiar with how they work, virtual reality (VR) is an immersive experience where your head movements are tracked in a three-dimensional world,…

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Infographic: Branding for Small Business and Startups

My thanks to customlabels.net for this useful infographic on brand identity for small business. Earlier in my career I consulted for Apple Computer. I watched how zealously they guarded all the details of the big brand identity. It’s refreshing to see in this infographic some useful tips for minding branding for small business and startups.

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