Book Learning is a series of installments that goes deep inside an important chapter of a small business marketing book. Book reviews give you an excellent overview of a book and tell you whether or not you should buy it. Book Learning analyzes one particular chapter of a book and fleshes out the important practical
>Weekend Marketing Reading
> Weekend Marketing Reading has been on haitus for several months but we’re bringing it back. Here is a collection of some of the best small business marketing information on the web from the past week. Usually, I’ll choose four articles/blog posts related to the four spots of The Marketing Circle of Life. These are,
Are You Breaking The Law of Focus? Learn From My Mistake
“Man who chases two rabbits, catches neither” – Confucius This is My Story When opportunity comes knocking at your door, sometimes it’s best not to answer. Four years ago I made the decision to lose focus. My business, The Marketing Spot, was a small, growing company less than three years old. But in April of
>The Weekend Marketing Project That Will Open Your Customer’s Mind
> This past week a potential client began describing the concept of her business to me. She was passionate as she painted the portrait of her business, I wondered if this was the picture her customers were seeing. She wondered too. Your business is a like a fine piece of art. You, the artist, know
>Free Media Selection Tool For Local Advertising
> As promised in last week’s post about traditional advertising media, today I am offering a free media selection tool: The Media Spotter Matrix. This PDF download will help you choose the right media for your local advertising campaign. After you download, and before you use this tool, please read these previous posts on local
>Branding Is Easy, Branding Is Hard
>Branding is easy because it’s about truth and passion. Doesn’t matter who you are, you have a brand embedded in your heart. It’s just waiting to be polished and revealed to the world. And… Branding is hard because you are never about anything that’s real. Every day is an improvisation. Your business image is a
Traditional Advertising Is Not Dead, It’s Just Changing
Tuesday’s post, Launch a Brand Campaign Instead of an Ad Campaign needs a little refining on the subject of traditional advertising. First, a definition. Traditional advertising is messages or commercials communicated through historically established media such as television, radio, outdoor (billboards), print, and direct mail. Advertising is the last marketing act, not the first. Do
Launch a Brand Campaign Instead of an Ad Campaign
Tell me something about your long-term relationships. Describe the interactions you have with your friends. Do they mirror the efforts of your advertising? Advertising is courtship. Yet it is not treated that way. It’s treated as a sales pitch, an insult to intelligence, an entertainment venue and a stage on which to tell jokes. So
Enough With The Communities, Already!
I got friended on Plaxo this week. Plaxo! Isn’t that the business contact service that helps you organize everyone’s contact info? Apparently not. Now it’s an online community. Not that I begrudge Plaxo for wanting to be an online community. But enough is enough. Not every single service on the web can be an online
reExperience Starbucks: What’s Up Howard Schultz?
Episode #12 of Power to the Small Business: The internet show about small business marketing. What’s up Howard? Howard Schultz rode in on his white horse in January to reclaim his throne as CEO of Starbucks. It wasn’t just the media anointing Schultz, Howard put himself front and center and promised to return Starbucks to