If you ever hire a PR firm (well, a good one), getting a story in the press feels a lot like an interrogation. Who should this story appeal to? Why should they care? Do you have evidence to back this up? It can feel a bit invasive if all you want [...]

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I actually really miss selling. Sometimes marketing feels so distant from the actual product and customer itself. It shouldn’t, but it often does, particularly in larger organizations.
I have been blessed in career to have sold to some really great customers. I don’t look at sales as something “slimy”. There is nothing [...]

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Hugh MacLeod’s delivery is a little more um, to the point than mine would be. Some people need the message spelled out in black and white.
When a company first starts using social media, it’s like watching someone’s dad play with his first video camera. They seem to share everything in an attempt to [...]

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Marketing is like a chess game. You need to set things up first before you can get your big wins.
That’s why I genuinely don’t focus on numbers until numbers are needed. I focus on what the late and great Elvis would say, “Taking Care of Business.”
The question we as marketers should not always [...]

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I used to work for BMW. As a company, BMW is obsessed with getting your feedback. They don’t send you a survey in the mail or via email–they have someone call you who asks you five questions about your buying experience. This isn’t the passive survey email you ignore in your inbox–this [...]

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It’s very frustrating to know a company’s website or web presence doesn’t convey benefits to customers. Anyone can write, but saying you are a competent copywriter without practice or training is like thinking you can be in the NBA because you can dribble a basketball and you are standing on a court. If [...]

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I don’t watch the Oprah. Maybe this makes me callous because I’m a woman and therefore am supposed to, but I can live with that.
As a marketer, I LOVE the Oprah. Oprah is a landmark. She is the only person who can legitimately be afraid of beef and then gets sued for [...]

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I’m always amazed by how many non-techies at software companies discount an API. I worked at one company where the Marketing Director saw it more of a novelty we could show off to our customers than something we could leverage to our advantage.

What is an API, Michelle?
If you aren’t a techie, an API is [...]

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“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”
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Gary Vaynerchuk’s winelibrary.tv is brilliant. If you sell something that people are intimidated to buy, create a TV show about it. Educate people. Let them know that you personally want them to be happy with their purchase. He’s basically taking the sales methodology of old (trust, passion) and applying it to [...]

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