I recently read an article highlighting problems some companies using Groupon, a group buying site, have been experiencing http://bit.ly/bLrg89 . While the story documents their tribulations very well, what surprises me is that there is no mention of why each of the companies mentioned in the article decided to use a Groupon in the first [...]
Small Businesses Need Local Online Marketing
A new doorstop was delivered to my home last month. It replaced the one I received around the same time last year. Every June, a new phone directory arrives, and I dutifully replace the weathered one stored in the corner used to prop open my front gate with my shiny clean new one.
While I remember [...]
Distributed Marketing Network Challenges – Q&A
Q: We’re launching a new fall line and I want to get my retailers to send out our special offers to their customers. We shipped a bunch of postcards to our retailers last time, but our sales people noticed many went unused or sat in the stores. How can we make sure all of our [...]
What is Your Plan B?
A recent Business Week article suggests Apple may be struggling to meet global demand for iPads because of difficulties its vendors face in producing the touch screen displays. When companies with as many resources as Apple face such challenges, the problem serves as a beacon for other businesses because success is tied to your company’s [...]
Keeping Control of Your Information Online
This past month has been chock full of headlines about collecting and managing information, especially from companies with large user bases. Congress is pressing Google on privacy issues; Facebook is making privacy settings more complicated; MySpace is simplifying privacy settings; Facebook is simplifying the settings, wait, what day is it again? The bottom line is [...]
Surveys Support Channel Marketing Efforts
In today’s economy, retention of customers is the foremost goal among businesses. And building customer loyalty has become the top priority – especially when a five percent increase in customer retention can potentially augment revenue by more than 100 percent. So what makes your customer’s happy and loyal?
When selling your product/service locally through a distributed [...]
Maximizing Your Marketing Department
One of the key benefits people receive from practicing yoga is core development, the muscles and support structure that help us remain stable and upright. The same principle also applies to work. Staying focused on core marketing strengths keeps your company strong too. With the rapid increase and evolution of marketing channels and media opportunities [...]
The Value of Self Help Systems
The concept of self help has taken on epic proportions the media, with everything from books to the latest TV talk show host offering insights on how to improve personal relationships, environments, and outlooks. Despite the tired clichés, the concept of self-help is a powerful one, and equally important to businesses.
In its simplest definition, self-help [...]
20% of Opt-In Mail Never Finds Inbox
Just more support of my many year opinions that make integrating multiple methods of message distribution is even more essential today, and will always trend that way in the future.
The report shows:
Despite more aggressive efforts by companies to ensure their marketing messages are inbox-friendly, more than 20% of permission-based commercial email gets relegated elsewhere, according [...]
Speed Check: Automating Time to Market
How long does it take for marketing resources and materials to filter through your local sales channels? The time to market period varies for most industries, depending on the product or service that is being highlighted. But for most companies, increasing the speed at which their product moves from production to marketing is crucial.
This is [...]
.I am also an example of a customer that makes purchasing...