Monthly Archives: August 2014

12 key success factors for SME’s

Small businesses make up the vast majority of business numbers, make a huge contribution to economic activity and health, but most do not last 5 years. Over  20 years of observing small businesses as a contractor and consultant, I have … Continue reading

Posted in Customers, Governance, Leadership, Management, Small business | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Marketing recidivism

The word recidivism is usually heard in the context of those convicted and punished, going on to re-offend. The objective is to reduce the rate, ideally to zero. Not in the context of marketing and sales, where the objective is … Continue reading

Posted in Customers, Marketing, Sales | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

9 tips to crafting effective headlines

David Ogilvy said many things that have gone into the marketing lexicon, one that is particularly relevant to the ways we are communicating today: “On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. … Continue reading

Posted in Branding, Communication, Marketing, Small business, Social Media | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

6 Really simple steps to increase the effectiveness of your website.

The blokes I saw as a youngster who had outrageous success with the girls were not always the best looking, or the most interesting, or had the best cars (although all these assets did seem to help) they were the … Continue reading

Posted in Branding, Communication, Marketing, Small business, Social Media | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

6 vital elements of a marketing story that sells.

  As everyone will tell you, (including me here) marketing is about stories, stories that resonate, are remembered, that generate empathy, and lead to an action, and hopefully if your effort is to be rewarded, a transaction. So what are … Continue reading

Posted in Communication, Innovation, Marketing, Small business | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Intersection of sales, marketing and technology

  18 years ago running an ingredient supplier to the food industry as a contractor, I sponsored a project of quantifying a range of ingredient specifications against a matrix of  organoleptic, and cost outcomes given a range of processing parameters. … Continue reading

Posted in Customers, Innovation, Marketing, Sales | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

7 tips to improve your marketing.

Marketing has changed very rapidly from the mass outbound marketing upon which all the marketing theory and practice until about 2000, to what is often called “inbound” marketing, or in other words, finding ways to attract customers to you. There … Continue reading

Posted in Branding, Customers, Marketing, Small business | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

5 ways small retailers avoid failure

Small retailers see themselves as under siege, and many just hunker down and work harder to survive, for many, it is too hard. For those that survive, some are doing really well, and there seems to be a few common … Continue reading

Posted in Customers, Marketing, Sales, Small business | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

2 tools SME’s have to have

  Most SME’s I see are run by a single person, without the benefit of any sort of advisory board beyond those with whom he/she has dinner sometimes, when they get the time. The hats they wear  make Josephs coat … Continue reading

Posted in Management, Small business | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How can you do it to yourself???

  I just had another of those really, really annoying phone calls from a call centre, and being a marketer, I cringed with shame and frustration. After I answered, it took probably 5 seconds for the person on the other … Continue reading

Posted in Branding, Customers | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

7 parameters of a C21 marketing scorecard

Developing metrics to measure the impact and ROI of marketing is becoming a game of choice around competent boardroom tables. Given the level of marketing engagement around many of those tables, it seems sensible for marketers to take the initiative. … Continue reading

Posted in Governance, Management, Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“Design” is a verb

Design is often used as a noun, “I will do a design for you” is common. However, when you think about it, design is not just a thing, an end product, it is a process of moving from an idea, … Continue reading

Posted in Branding, Collaboration, Marketing, Strategy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Design doing

Steve Blank is one of the real thinkers in the innovation space who gets out there into the weeds and gets stuff done. The illustration at the top of this post is one from a recent post on his blog … Continue reading

Posted in Customers, Innovation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment