Many marketers treat tactics like a checklist. Social media? Check. SEO? Check. Lead funnel? Check. What they don’t realize is that by focusing on tactics, they’re leaving gaps in the customer journey where it’s too easy for people to exit or engage with your competitor. Every business that’s thriving today is laser focused on their customer: their experience and the path they travel from awareness, to engagement, to acquisition, and beyond. Even more importantly, these businesses are...
over 1 year ago • 1 min read
After the fourth stem cell treatment for my spinal cord injury, I thought I’d finally begin regaining my life. So of course, I got a job in Seattle and traveled there once a quarter. I even decided to attend Social Media Marketing World in San Diego, my first big event since before the injury. I obviously believed I was on the mend. And I did great… Until I didn’t. It was the last day of the event. I had walked the length of the San Diego convention center multiple times over the previous two...
over 1 year ago • 3 min read
In recent years, there’s been a move within companies to consolidate the teams that drive revenue. It makes sense on the surface — get them all on the same page, working together, and revenue should improve, right? But there’s a problem. The focus of this effort is usually on uniting Marketing and Sales. Marketing still has to perform their top-of-funnel activities, but their priority is to drive leads for Sales, making them an ipso facto sales development team. I could talk for an hour about...
over 1 year ago • 1 min read
“You know what really sets us apart? XYZ. But we can’t say that. Our competitors would hate us!” I’ve heard some variation of this from multiple clients over the years. And it always surprises me. So many businesses are struggling to identify the one thing that sets them apart — if you’ve found yours, why wouldn’t you want to shout it from the rooftops? Clearly, my clients are coming from a place of fear. Everyone else’s website looks like this. We can’t say or do something different! This is...
over 1 year ago • 1 min read
Last week, I quit a mastermind group that I was excited to join just a few months ago. There are a handful of reasons I could have cited — all of which I would probably have ignored because I like the people in the group. But ultimately it boiled down to one thing: trust. The mastermind owner and his partner got into a legal dispute, and when I finally got the details, I realized I had been lied to. The details don’t matter. The size or scope of the lies don’t matter. What does matter is that...
almost 2 years ago • 2 min read
When I have a splinter in my finger, my world stops. Nothing else matters except removing that splinter. But let’s say I’m struggling to get it out. I can’t see it, and my tweezers won’t grab it. Now I have a nagging pain in my finger, and I’m still trying to go about my life. Later, when I’m scrolling through Instagram and see a post about a crazy new way to remove a splinter, you can probably guess what I’m going to do. Yep, I’m going to stop and watch the video. I’ll probably even try...
almost 2 years ago • 2 min read
Last week we talked about the dangers of a “yes, and” approach to content marketing. More is not always better. That begs the question, how much content is enough? Believe it or not, you don’t need as much content as you might think to market and grow your business. On your website, you need: A homepage that clearly differentiates you from your competitors Well-written, well-optimized product pages, optimized for search engines A blog with 5-10 blog posts that talk about your philosophy, the...
almost 2 years ago • 1 min read
Comedians follow a rule of thumb called “Yes, and…” In any scene, they must accept the basic premises introduced by other players and build on them. This removes any inhibitions or self-editing that might restrict creativity, and more importantly, it prevents anyone from stopping the flow of the scene. In business, “yes, and” thinking can be freeing as well. When new technologies and consumer behaviors shift, it allows us to go with the flow. We’re able to accept the new situation and build...
almost 2 years ago • 2 min read
For all the talk about differentiation and branding, I'm realizing that many businesses are a little fuzzy on where one begins and the other ends. It's no wonder when you look at their definitions: Branding is the unique identity your product/service has that distinguishes it from competitors. Differentiation is the act of highlighting the things that make your product/service unique in the marketplace. They're essentially two sides of one coin, and that coin is about standing out in a...
almost 2 years ago • 2 min read