Brands mostly look alike. I wrote last week on how industry standards are a commodity trap, but there is another more-common commodity culprit: the customer. Image courtesy of nickfarr Die Crowdsourcing, Die! Would you let the crowd choose your spouse? Why not? You will spend as much, or more, time with your business as with
Author Archives: Jay Ehret
Industry Trappings: How not to be different.
If our main goal as a business is to be different, then how come we all end up looking pretty much the same? Because really we spend more time trying to be better, rather than different. True differentiation is not about better service, more features, longer hours. It’s about creating something unexpected that changes the
Local SEO Clinic: Improving Traffic, Improving Business
The Internet show about small business marketing. Podcast Episode #54 – Local Search Engine Optimization Case Study Can a website really bring you more business and improve your bottom line? And what about this SEO you keep hearing about? Is it really possible for you to affect the traffic you get from search engines? You
Customer Experience Manifesto
Deliver the Brand, Create Memories After you have completed work building an awesome brand, the customer experience is your most important marketing function. So as we begin our customer experience project during the 2nd quarter here on The Marketing Spot Blog, let’s lay the foundation. Here’s why this important, and here’s what we want to
>It’s Time to Build a Remarkable Customer Experience
> 2010: The Year of Marketing Awesomeness I’m structuring the free content of The Marketing Spot blog in 2010 to help you create a year of marketing awesomeness for your business. During the first quarter the focus was on branding. If you’re new to this series, before building your customer experience, I recommend you catch
>Sunday Conversation Starter: Small Business Conferences
> You can always find a conference, but it seems most conferences are industry focused. I’m participating in a couple of non-industry specific conferences this year that have a lot to offer entrepreneurs who own small businesses. But I think there should be more, and there probably are more. I just don’t know about them.
No, foursquare will not be the next Facebook.
Here we go again. Marketers have decided that foursquare is the next big thing. Some have even said that foursquare is the next Facebook. What we have here is a case of Marketer Over Hype or MOH (I apologize for not having a more clever acronym). So before you get sucked in to the hype
Marketers Roundtable 5: Current Marketing Issues
The Internet show about small business marketing. Podcast Episode #53 – Integration, Messaging In Social Media, Brand Leverage, Listening to the Customers Hear ye, Hear ye! Interested citizens of The Internet, you are invited to the fifth gathering of the Marketers Roundtable. Whereas marketers like to congregate and discuss marketing, Therefore, let them gather at
Opportunity Cost and the Danger of the Good Idea
FourSquare might be a good idea, GoWalla too. But is it the best idea for you at this time? That’s what opportunity cost is all about. What opportunity are you giving up, to do what you’re doing right now? And that’s the danger of good ideas. Danger! Good Idea Danger! Photo Credit: Pop Vultures Limited
Removing the Risk From Employee Brand Delivery
Can you imagine how difficult it is for new employees to start interacting with customers? Every exchange, every decision is a new experience for them. They have to make split-second decisions while processing information they’ve never encountered before. Can you imagine what that’s doing to your brand? All the hard thinking you’ve done to create
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