>Weekend Marketing Reading July 12

Here are some of the week’s best small business marketing blog posts. They are categorized by the four spots of The Marketing Circle of Life. Enjoy and be educated.

Hammock Reading Flickr photo by phunkstarr

Photo credit: Flickr photo by phunkstarr

Promotion: Mobile Search Capability a Critical Issue for Business Web Sites on the Sesimi local search engine marketing blog. Is the mobile internet revolution coming? Seems to be. Maybe it’s time you started thinking about a mobile-friendly website. In two weeks I’m heading out to SMX Local/Mobile in San Francisco to learn more. Also, coming soon on The Marketing Spot, the coming mobile revolution and how you should prepare for it.

Branding: Economy Changes Customer Value Perception by Leigh Duncan-Durst on Marketing Profs Daily Fix. Gas prices are rising and cutting into consumer disposable income. How will that affect consumer value perception? It’s time to start thinking about your brand’s value proposition.

Conversation: Permission Marketing Revisted by Valeria Maltoni on Conversation Agent. Word of mouth is a beautiful thing. But it’s not new. Given the people place more trust in their friends and peers rather than traditional advertising, how should you adjust your marketing. Valeria offers some advice on permission marketing.

Experience: Customer Disservice: Policies That Repel Customers by George Krueger and Mary-Lynn Foster on Bigg Success. Can your bathroom make, or cost you money? More importantly, are you creating policies for the 3% exceptions to the rule, while punishing the other 97% of your customer base. Listen to this podcast to find out how to stop flushing money down the toilet.

Bonus Link: This week I also contributed a guest post to Drew McLellan’s Marketing Minute. You may want to check out The Case for Frequency. Are we sacrificing effective old-school marketing techniques at the altar of new media? You may want to hear what your brain says about that.

Coming This Week on The Marketing Spot
We continue Build Your Marketing Plan month with Experience. On Tuesday, July 15, we’ll cover how to map the customer experience. On Thursday, July 17, you’ll learn how to add magic spots to the customer experience.

Let future articles from The Marketing Spot come to you: Receive by Email or Get The Marketing Spot in a blog reader

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Here are some of the week’s best small business marketing blog posts. They are categorized by the four spots of The Marketing Circle of Life. Enjoy and be educated.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Promotion: The direct mail envelope quandary: plain or bold by Dean Rieck on Direct Creative Blog. The envelope determines whether or not people will open or trash your direct mail package. What should you do with it?

Conversation: There’s nothing like the real thing by David Reich at my 2 cents. Offline word of mouth is more credible than online word of mouth. Duh! But what does that mean for you?

Experience: Staff incentives can impact retail customer experience by Ali Carmichael on Experience Solutions. Are you training employees to benefit the company or to benefit the customer? It has an effect on the customer experience.

Branding: People – ya gotta love ’em by Ed Roach on Small Business Branding. “Our people make the difference.” Really? Where are they?

June in Review – Most Popular Posts
In case you missed them, the top three June posts from The Marketing Spot

Are You Breaking The Law of Focus? Learn From My Mistake – How I tried to run two businesses and almost killed them both. Entrepreneurial ego can get in the way of success.

reExperience Starbucks 9: The Perfect Frappuccino – Part of the reExperience Starbucks project with Becky Carroll at Customers Rock! Austin is the test market for a new way of ordering Frappuccinos. Take a peek.

You Cannot Pop Popcorn With A Cell Phone: Viral Gone Wrong – This viral video was making quite a stir on YouTube. But it was a fake. Did it hurt or help the cause of Cardo Systems?

Build Your Marketing Plan
And don’t forget, July is build your marketing plan month on The Marketing Spot. Beginning Tuesday, July 8, a series of 8 lessons on constructing your own marketing plan.

Don’t miss your regular dose of small business marketing advice. Let The Marketing Spot come to you: Receive by Email or Get The Marketing Spot in a blog reader

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