Direct Mail Gone Wild
You’ve got mail… Are you ready for a quick test of direct marketing best practices? How many “issues”, problems, or concerns (call them what you want) can you spot in this direct mail postcard? I’ll give you the first two since they are not visually obvious (and IMO probably the most problematic).1) The person this […]
Hiring a Senior-Level Marketing Professional, Part Two…
How to Hire a Senior-Level Marketer Who Can Position Your Business Strategically As I wrote last week, there are only a few valid reasons to hire a senior-level marketing professional for your business. Today, let’s explore another reason . . . You Need a Marketer to Think about Your Business, Position It Effectively, and Solve Marketing […]
Hiring a Senior-Level Marketing Professional, Part One . . .
How to Hire a Senior-Level Marketer for Specific Products or Offerings Over the years I have spoken to a fair number of people about filling senior-level marketing positions. Those conversations have happened at companies I worked for, at companies that were potential clients for me, and at companies that have asked me for marketing […]
Marketing Lever or Marketing Crutch?
Building a Marketing Lever People often ask me about marketing levers and how to create them. A marketing lever is basically a marketing program that works so well that you can keep funding the effort and it will continue to help your business grow. Do you want more leads? Feed the machine. Want to increase sales? […]
How the Lowes Twitter Team Closed the Sale – A Social Media Case Study
You’re probably not interested in the details of our home improvement nightmare. Before getting to the marketing point some background will help showcase how the @Lowes Twitter team truly believes in their corporate mission and that they understand how to use social media to grow their business. What Happens When Every Door is a Custom […]
12 CyberMonday Ecommerce and Marketing Failures at Teavana
Let’s get right to the point. Teavana messed up big time on a big promotion and ecommerce day. This post is all based on my personal experience placing an order during a CyberMonday sale. I would love to hear from any marketer who can change my mind on this topic. Clearly some issues are not […]
Direct Marketing Tip – Inspired by Nordstrom – Part 2
This is part 2 of a direct marketing tip inspired by Nordstrom. As mentioned last time Nordstrom typically has great marketing (I have no idea how successful it is but let’s focus on what we know.) Postcards in direct marketing serve a great purpose and when used strategically they can help drive sales (or any […]
Direct Marketing Tip – Courtesy of Nordstrom – Part 1
This post was inspired by a recent postcard mailing I received from Nordstrom a few weeks ago. See image below. Nordstrom is a very large marketer. Most of what I have seen would be considered good marketing which is why getting this postcard ruined my expectations and caused me to stop and evaluate the mailing. […]
Hope is Not a Marketing Strategy
All too often someone in marketing will say: “I hope this marketing effort works.” STOP right there! I suggest you pause all your marketing efforts and take a step back. If your team is using” hope” to describe their marketing efforts it is time for a deeper dive into how they think about marketing. Hope […]
Thinking Outside The Box
If a marketing services company tells me one more time that their company will “think outside of the box” about our business I might have to slap someone silly. How cliché is the phrase “think outside the box”? Just the other day a sales person called to pitch their services. There were a number of […]
