Blog Insights

I had the opportunity to do three presentations at the eXtremeCRM conference two weeks ago in Las Vegas and I wanted to give a shout out to the folks from The Portal Connector for Dynamics CRM for the way they leveraged social media for B2B marketing during the conference.  (They took the same approach at the Microsoft WPC) 

Once upon a time, there was a technology firm that thought they had it all together. They had a couple of good sales folks and two marketing managers. Their website was based on a modern, up-to-date platform. The year was poised for success and growth from a 4m firm to a 5.25m firm.  Then, in a blink of an eye, it all changed. One salesperson left and one of the marketing staff left, and now the owners were back to working IN the business instead of ON the business. And with two staff members gone, the remaining staff felt overwhelmed and left behind.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a hot topic. How do you get found amid a sea of other websites out there? There are three main ways that you can get found online. The easiest way (please be clear, I did not say best!) is to buy Pay-per-click advertising. The second easiest way (again, not best!) is to hire a firm that specializes in SEO and hope they can get you listed where you want, without getting you blacklisted. The third way is go do good old fashioned content publishing. Let's take a quick look at all three methods.

I love this idea but is there a demand for this new product or service? Will someone buy it? For most small business owners and entrepreneurs, this is the question they ask when presented with an idea – either their own or someone else’s.

Whether to hire or outsource is always a tough decision. Hiring means expense and risk that is not easily redirected if you make a mistake. Outsourcing brings complexity in organization and communication. When you thinking about this for a senior role or leadership position, the challenges multiply. With a strategic role like marketing on the line, making the wrong choice can have long-lasting implications. We obviously think that it's a good idea for a smaller business to outsource their marketing director or VP level role. Here are four reasons why.

Ok, I’m not much of a basketball fan.  But even I’ve been fascinated by how Jeremy Lin both became a basketball and pop-culture phenomenon, as well as an almost ignored player, until suddenly he exploded suddenly on the scene.

And you probably took this advice to heart. You came up with something that actually looks pretty good ... or so you thought.

Half of my marketing is wasted dollars, I just don’t know which half."

Once upon a time, this used to be true. It really was too hard to measure what was working and what was not, but a business owner did need to “get their name out there" some way, some how.