Would you invest in a stock that wasn't able to tell you what the return on your investment was across the last "X" quarters? Hopefully not. The same principle should apply to the way you manage your advertising campaigns. You run the same radio spots, during the same time period, on three different local stations. How do you know whic...

When I was looking to buy my first car, I vividly remember taking the truck out for a test drive. As we pulled out of the parking lot, the salesman made sure to point out the credit card holder on the back of the visor. And that caught me off guard. Was that really the one thing he believed would sell me on that model? Would I jump at ...

I had the privilege of sitting on a jury with 11 of my closest (as you can get in 3 days) peers. As Juror #2, sitting in the back row of the jury box, it was an interesting case for who your market really is. As marketers, when we integrate "target marketing" into our campaigns, we're attempting to leverage our marketing dollars as muc...

I was in a meeting last week where the presenter commented, "We hope this campaign goes viral." It wasn't a misdirected objective, but it caught me off-guard. We create advertising to be heard. We want the guy on the couch to hear the ad, and take action. When people talk of going viral, it's the assumption that the ad we created "infe...

I understand why companies do it. They're desperate to increase business, they want more foot traffic, they want new customers, they want to grow. I found a sign taped to the front door of a dedicated children's salon. It reads: “"Gumball Alley is now a full family salon. We cut adult hair now."” It's one thing if the Gumball Alley fol...

After spending 4 hours driving up the armpit of California that is Highway 99, my Account Manager and I walked into a local diner just outside the town of Merced. We had our storyboards, we had our presentation, the printed and bound slides, we had prepped responses to expected questions... And we were sharply dressed. Here, over burnt...

In 1947's classic film, "Miracle on 34th Street," character actress, Thelma Ritter, utters three sentences businesses around the world could learn a great deal from. She was at Macy's, Christmas shopping. Her son asked for a firetruck that Macy's didn't have. After hearing Macy's Santa Clause recommend she buy her son's new fire truck ...

Walking through the office halls last week, it suddenly dawned on me. Even though the sign hanging from the ceiling reads "Marketing Department," every person I walked past wasn't marketing. They were enhancing. My revelation was more than dissecting the difference between the definitions of marketing and sales. In this department, the...

What many business owners don't understand is that pressure selling -- just to meet a date-based goal -- does more harm than good. There's a difference between being assertive, being in control, and closing the sale -- and being a pressure seller. Here's why: 1. NO LONGER THEIR DECISION When you've identified a prospect, it's normal to...

As marketers, it's our burden to take a problem and conquer it. But marketing isn't a product on a shelf; it cannot be bought. By the time we're called-on by clients, chances are, sales are declining and rent is already past due. Now the client finds value in marketing. And now they need new business, new faces, new numbers. And as mar...

I hate flying out of LAX. Not because I hate flying, I don't. But because it scares the bejesus out of the marketing guy in me. How will you market to all those people? I recalled a plane trip up through California's Central Valley. In a plane climbing to 35,000 feet, looking down on sprawling Los Angeles, you can't help but gasp at ho...

A few weeks ago, I left a voice mail for my optometrist requesting a call-back to schedule an appointment. Last week, I left a voice mail and sent an email to an ad agency asking for their new business rep to give me a shout back. Just yesterday, I sent a couple emails to local lenders requesting info on refinancing my home. In each ca...

You see this a lot in paid search campaigns, and more recently with Facebook and Twitter's ad platforms. You're presented with ways to target your audience (great!) -- geotargeting, demographics, keywords, etc.. But once you've done so, they'll likely recommend ways to broaden your reach (which means you ultimately end up paying more i...

Just because your competition does 'it,' doesn't mean it's worth it, warranted, or necessary for you to do 'it,' too. Blindly copying competitive marketing tactics means you're assuming they have the same budget restraints, performance indicators, checks, measures, and analytics in place that will indicate there's a beneficial return. ...

Anywhere and anytime. Yesterday, it happened at my nephews' flag football game. It happened spontaneously and without warning. My sister asked about my experience at a local restaurant, and I gave an honest answer -- great beers, poor food. The restaurant wasn't given advance notice of her question, but word of mouth happened regardles...

In my most basic of marketing classes at university we explored the 'what is marketing' conversation. Like most intro classes, the answer was broad and short. “Marketing is delivering a product that solves a customer's problem. ” But across the last decade, that answer has evolved from identifying a problem, to highlighting a customer'...

In Japan, exchanging business cards is nearly a ceremony itself. According to rank, introduce yourself, bow, remove your card from a formal cardholder, offer your card with both hands to demonstrate respect, take time to read the card, receive the other card in the same way, don't bend or damage the card, don't write on it, don't stuff...

This is a screenshot of my email inbox. Numerically, the number of promotional emails isn't significant. But when you realize that's the number of promotional emails I received in just six hours, it makes you consider your own email campaigns. If you're like me -- or any other consumer -- you likely don't have the time to open each ema...

Nobody likes the "friend zone" -- especially when it's a business relationship. Unfortunately, for many small businesses the "friend zone" is a pitfall of close customer relationships. The business sees its regular customer as a friend, and the regular customer sees a friend in the business she frequents. There's a deceiving familiarit...

Captured between June 15, 5:03PM and June 16 7:53AM (originally published in 2013) 5:03PM Metal hammer against metal nail. My wife’s wanted to redesign our upstairs hallway into a storytelling photo gallery. “This probably isn’t what you wanted to do your first Father’s Day weekend, was it?” she asks, not really looking for an answer. ...