Monthly Archives: July 2014

Flying pigs and the carbon tax.

Last night (July 29) I watched Rod Simms (ACCC chairman) interviewed on the ABC about the price reductions consumers can expect from the removal of the carbon tax. He was assuring us that consumers will receive these benefits because in … Continue reading

Posted in Change, Governance | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

7 essential sales tips for SME’s

Most of us recognise that the best sales lead you have is a satisfied existing customer, so why do SME’s so often fail to capitalise on them?. It seems to me that there are a number of reasons, usually they … Continue reading

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6 challenges (and 3 rules) of content creation

The single biggest stumbling block I see to successful digital marketing is not the technology, or the money, desire, or need, it is simply the unwillingness or inability to create relevant, engaging content of value that suits the context in … Continue reading

Posted in Change, Communication, Marketing, Small business, Social Media | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Sales funnel revisited as a purchase funnel

  The “sales funnel” is a pretty familiar diagram, it has been around for a long time, simply because it makes sense, at least it did to sales people. To their customer prospects, there is a level of antipathy to … Continue reading

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Heston Vs Jamie, a retail bunfight.

  It is fascinating to watch the evolution of the marketing of the two retail gorillas, Coles and Woolworths. It is clear what they are doing, setting out to engage consumers with the freshness, range and provenance of their produce, … Continue reading

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The value curve

As a young marketing graduate in the 70’s I was given a scholarship to attend  an intensive marketing management program in Boston, run by Harvard professor Jim Hagler. He changed my life. One of the many things he rumbled to … Continue reading

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Digital body language

  Prospecting, lead qualification and nurturing, prospect management and the transaction itself have all changed forever. The salesman with a bag has been relegated, at best,  to the transaction end of the prospect to transaction continuum. In the process, we … Continue reading

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Contrarian strategy

The complexity of the world these days demands an approach to strategy that is counter intuitive, perhaps even a contrarian approach to the accepted best practice. For decades managers have sweated and planned, and set out to execute, just to … Continue reading

Posted in Leadership, Small business, Strategy | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Content marketing story

    “Content marketing ” is no more than a new buzzword to try and build interest in the stuff we marketers have always been doing, telling stories, and creating a context in which the stories we tell will be … Continue reading

Posted in Communication, Marketing, Small business | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Conferences are for marketing.

  Few things are more important than how we feed ourselves, and get access to clean water. Without these, our species will not survive,  our numbers are increasing rapidly, as the resources of the planet, particularly available water, are being … Continue reading

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3 Marketing observations from the club-house

  Last weekend the local tennis club of which I am a member had an open day. We marketed the day pretty heavily to the local community over the course of a couple of weeks, and got a great turnout. … Continue reading

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The 7 common features of successful websites

  Success does not happen by accident, it comes from hard work, knowledge, insight and experimentation. In the case of websites there are almost a billion websites live (866k) in July 2014, the billion mark will probably be reached by … Continue reading

Posted in Branding, Customers, Marketing, Small business, Social Media | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Future of Urban Agriculture

  How we deliver good quality food and water to an urbanised and growing population around the world is the challenge of the 21st century. We have gone from a largely subsistence existence to a highly urbanised one in 200 … Continue reading

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Content marketing, and marketing content

  Have you created the best content you can, original, insightful, and engaging, that demonstrates your domain knowledge, but it goes nowhere? No impact, no interest, even your friends do not read it. It is a bit like throwing a … Continue reading

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Why B2B websites do not work

Have you ever been in a conversation where despite the language being clear, the subject of the conversation is absolutely muddled? I have, many times, and it occurs particularly where there is an individual in the conversation who has a … Continue reading

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SME Marketing capability gap

  Marketing technology is rapidly taking over from the hit and miss, ad hoc research, customer and prospect management, and  performance measurement practices that  have dominated to date. This is a particularly critical evolution for  small businesses who are generally … Continue reading

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