In “The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding,” Al and Laura Ries tell us that to differentiate your business, you should create a new category and then own it in the mind of the customer. Don’t allow the market to clump your offering in with everyone else, they say. Instead, define a category that’s entirely new,…Read More
Karl Long wrote this great post (11/24/2008 – no longer available) on the MarketingProfs blog today and I had to pass it along. The topic: Forms on your website – or as he calls them, the “red-headed stepchild of touchpoints.” As he points out, “it’s probably one of the first points at which the customer…Read More
I received several emails about my recent post on how to improve your copywriting. Rebecca Kalajian sent me a link to the UK-based Plain English Campaign, “an independent pressure group fighting for public information to be written in plain English. We have more than 10,000 registered supporters in 80 countries.” What a great idea! We’re all…Read More
A reader emailed me yesterday to ask for good resources to improve her writing. Excellent request. If you want to improve your copywriting, here’s my advice! 1. Focus! What’s your point? Stay with it! 2. Show, don’t tell. Provide examples. Your readers want proof. 3. Be ruthless. Cut any word that you don’t need. Your…Read More
We often talk about the importance of branding in B to B marketing. Every time you communicate with prospects and clients – on the phone, the web, in a campaign or a meeting – you have a chance to reinforce your value proposition and differentiate from your competitors. But it’s difficult to create a brand…Read More
If your business were a color, what would it be? Red? Blue? Brown? Green? Many entrepreneurs and established companies have trouble choosing colors. A designer may present a series of logos in a variety of colors. And all too often the team will choose the colors that they like best. But choosing a color isn’t…Read More
Could an extra spark of creativity help your business today? This week? This month? If you don’t think your team is at its creative peak, there are plenty of simple, fun exercises that will stretch their thinking, juice up their ideas, and generate more big ideas for your business. Barbara Reinhold provides 10 quick tips…Read More
Many small to midsize B2B companies don’t consciously think about branding – they think it’s a concept for consumer marketers, not business-to-business marketers. Branding IS important in B2B. A brand is an expectation that you create and fulfill for your market. For your prospects and customers, it’s the entire experience that they have with your…Read More
I’ve always been an article clipper: newspapers, magazines, blog posts, websites (favorite online tools: Netvibes & Del-icio.us) … I even have 20 colored clipboards hanging in my office with hot articles & ideas. Russ Wiles at the Arizona Republic wrote one of those articles on January 22 (but AZCentral has since taken it down). Here’s…Read More
I’ve had a lot of people ask me about the Word & Excel documents we display in specific areas of our website. They look like they’re embedded in the page, and we’re able to share documents and spice up a page that has a lot of text. It’s actually very easy and inexpensive to create these files. The…Read More
One of my favorite blogs is Snark Hunting, published by the corporate naming gurus at Igor. If you ever need convincing about how a name can help your company stand out, set aside some time and read their stuff. Or just read this single post. It’s about two naming companies and their Google paid search…Read More
Naming your new product, service or company is tough enough. It’s even tougher to find a name that’s protectable, memorable and supports your value proposition. So once you’ve narrowed your list down to a handful of names, how do you choose? Everyone wants feedback on a name, and it’s tempting to start quizzing family & friends: “Do you…Read More