Why Your SaaS Keeps Losing Deals to Inferior Products
The buyer can't articulate why you're different — and that's your fault, not theirs.
Insights
Marketing ideas with a bias toward action.
Practical product marketing, positioning, demand generation, and growth notes for teams that need sharper revenue execution.
What You Actually Get When You Hire a Fractional CMO (And What You Don't)
The fractional CMO market is full of people who are really good at looking like fractional CMOs. Here's how to tell the difference before you sign anything.
Your Best Prospects Are Asking AI About You Right Now. Here's What It's Saying.
B2B buyers are using ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude as their first research stop. Most SaaS brands are invisible in those answers.
Product Marketing Principles To Stand Out in Seas of Gray
The "gray" market isn't just a challenge; it's where the real marketing magic begins. Think of it not as a sea of sameness, but as your canvas, waiting for that stroke of genius...
2008 Redux
The 2008 Year in Review.
Entrepreneurship Marketing Social Media Strategy
Eight Steps to Creating Viral Content
Creating content that goes viral is the holy grail for marketers. But why do some ideas flop and others spread like wild fire? Follow these steps and improve your ability to mak...
Addressing Change
There are few constants in this world. However, change is one constant you can count on. How you perceive and address change impacts many things in your life. From a business pe...
April Fools Day Marketing
April Fools Day marketing poses challenges and opportunities.
Avoid Enemies of Change
Companies that spot trends early on and transform their business focus at the right time are in the minority. Why do some companies have blinders on when assessing trends? A com...
Bobby Bowden Management
As a native of Tallahassee, FL, I am of course a huge Florida State football fan. With Bobby Bowden coaching his last game this week I've been thinking about what made him so su...
Branding With Reputation Management
In some organizations, branding is a bad word. If your company needs marketing to prove their branding efforts and you find yourself fighting the view that marketing is only syn...
Coming Soon...Updates
For more than a year now, my posting schedule has been three to four posts a month. However, it's been a busy couple of months so posting has been light recently. But fear not,...
Creating Buzz
The best way to get your company and product to grow is having evangelistic users spreading the word on your behalf. However, don't underestimate the effort it takes to get an i...
Entrepreneurship Marketing Strategy
Curse of Knowledge
As an entrepreneur, you live, breath, eat, and dream your business. You know your industry better than anyone else and are an expert in your field. Knowledge is power, but it ca...
Customizing Sales Calls to Fit Regional Culture
Cold calling can be a very effective marketing tactic. However, because of differences in cultural expectations in various geographic regions, your call requires a customized ap...
Marketing Sales Social Media Strategy
Delicious Bookmarks of the Week
10 Small Business Lead Nurturing Tools 10 reviews of some old and new lead nurturing tools geared for small business. Dilbert on Flirting in a Recession For some, the recession...
Entrepreneurship Marketing Strategy
Differentiating With Customer Service
As more products essentially become commodities, service has become a viable means for increasing revenue and profit margins for companies in these industries. Use a service str...
Business Entrepreneurship Marketing Strategy
Dream Big, Narrow Your Focus
Narrow your focus, deliver a solution that meet paying customer needs and parlay your success to expand your offerings into complimentary solutions.
Effective Marketing Email From AwayFind
Image by Frank Gruber via Flickr From time to time there are interesting SaaS marketing efforts that I land in my inbox. One such example comes from AwayFind . In case you aren'...
Emotional Marketing
As more companies go down the road of emphasizing the bottom line, emotional marketing is often discounted as a viable strategy for marketing spend. However, for those intereste...
Entrepreneurs Solve Problems
Entrepreneurs change the world by solving problems. Inspire your community. Make a difference. Be an entrepreneur. If you need some additional entrepreneurial fodder to start up...
Analytics Marketing Technology
Five Nuggets from the Internet Summit
Five nuggets from the Internet Summit in Raleigh, NC.
Five SMART Goal Setting Tips
"Think Smart, think S-Mart! (this is an Asian Market Store in my area) Many of us know and practice SMART goals. I really like SMART goals. For one, they provide structure...
Five Ways to Recycle Marketing
In these economic times, marketing can and should be recycled when possible. There are many way to "recycle" marketing. Here are five ways to recycle marketing: Copy proven mark...
Graphic Guide To "What You Should Do With Your Life"
Hint: Marry your passion, skill set and what people want. Do you agree?
Hello WordPress!
WordPress came highly recommended by many other bloggers I follow. So I dumped my Blogger account and I'm jumping on the WordPress bandwagon. I hope you enjoy the ne...
Holey Doughnuts!! Free Krispy Kreme of Choice!!
Get a free Krispy Kreme doughnut commemorating Inauguration Day. Krispy Kreme doughnuts has replaced Dunkin' Donuts as the national doughnut shop while Dunkin' Donuts has shifte...
How Sephora's Earth Day Marketing on Facebook Can Work for You
Sephora's Earth Day Marketing Scores with Facebook's Gift Shop.
Analytics Business Entrepreneurship Marketing Sales Strategy
How to Validate Problems Worth Solving
Don’t Jump to Problem Conclusions As a software developer, you want to solve problems. The code you are writing would be meaningless if it didn't. However, if you aren't the tar...
Idea Connecting Between Industry and Function
How do you come up with a winning idea? The most obvious way is to recognize a problem and postulate solutions for it. These type of ideas are great, but often after researching...
Inclement Weather Marketing
Inclement weather offers marketers advertising opportunities to brand your company for free.
Business Entrepreneurship Marketing Sales Social Media Strategy
Influencer Marketing for B2B Sales
When done right, influencer marketing is an effective and economical way to increase sales for your business. Learn the necessary components of influencer marketing and get star...
Business Marketing Strategy Technology
Is Apple Evil? Part Two
Image by Getty Images via Daylife Yes. Apple is evil. That's right I said it. Despite its cult of worshipers, Apple is the new Microsoft, or better yet, the embodiment of the mo...
Is Apple Evil? - Part One
Is Apple Evil? After seeing there battle with Microsoft and others and my recent experience at the Apple Store where I learned Apple has stopped selling it's category-changing i...
Last Minute Tax Tools
Tax tools and services can help ease the stress of tax season . The following are a few tools you might find useful in your tax preparations and the financial management of your...
Looking Back and Looking Forward
In review of 2008, I thought Twitter had already arrived. In reflecting back on 2009, I didn't expect Twitter to continue to grow with such fervor in 2009, but then again I neve...
Market Sizing
Thoughts on how to approach sizing up the market size for your products or services.
Marketing Metrics
Marketing effectiveness relies on metrics for proof and guidance.
Marketing Sync
Marketing messages and branding efforts for your products and services need to be in sync with your business. If you promote the sizzle without serving the steak, no amount of m...
Marketing With Awards
With the Academy Awards last night, I'm reminded of how persuasive awards can be to prospective clients. Winners on Oscar night will forever be referred to as an "Academy award-...
Business Entrepreneurship Marketing Sales
Network to Give in Order to Get
Effectively networking has many benefits. Ostensibly meeting new people, learning something new, marketing your company and potentially earning more business from referrals are...
Business Entrepreneurship Marketing Strategy
Opportunity Abounds in Depressed Economy
Opportunity exists in the economic downturn.
Optimize Corporate Facebook Landing Pages
Facebook Pages have been an effective way for companies to energize their fan base. According to a report published by eMarketer, corporate Facebook fans could be worth an avera...
People and Systems
Understand people and systems to improve your sales process.
Entrepreneurship Marketing Strategy
Political and Religious Marketing
Should marketers consider marketing to customers with strong political or religious viewpoints?
Problem Solving With Monet
Solve problems like you would appreciate a painting by Monet.
Relationship Marketing
Sometimes good marketing can be boiled down to relationships. Build strong relationships and those relationships can effectively market you on your behalf. By seizing opportunit...
Seek Market Fit, Not Branding
For entrepreneurs, successful fit in the marketplace is essential before ramping up your startup. Without the right fit, no amount of branding will make up for a misfitting offe...
SMART Metrics
Image via Wikipedia When dealing with data, be smart. Apply a SMART dashboard to your metrics and data analysis efforts. Much like SMART goals , SMART metrics ensure you measure...
So What?
A simple question yielding powerful results. The question "so what?" can reveal what really matters to your target audience - the benefit. So you have a flashy new web app that...
Social Media Step One - Go Where Your Customers Are
As more companies are embracing social media, instead of hearing "Should we participate in social media," I've been hearing "How do we get started in social media." In regards t...
Analytics Marketing Social Media Technology
Social Media Tool from StumbleUpon is Su.pr
Su.pr promises to save you time and increase your web traffic. Find out why Su.pr is super and learn how to get an account of your own.
Business Entrepreneurship Marketing Strategy
Startup Marketing Lessons from Cinderellas of March Madness
Winning marketing lessons for entrepreneurs learned from Cinderella teams of March Madness.
Successful Selling
In a recent visit to Tallahassee, FL, I spoke with my Dad about how he's been able to reverse the trend of higher vacancy rates for the rental properties he owns. About 3 years...
Super Bowl Event Marketing
It's Super Bowl Sunday!! A time when advertising comes into focus. This year, however, I'm thinking less about the commercials and more about event marketing around Super Bowl X...
Super Bowl Sunday
Super Bowl offers new advertisers a chance to shine.
Super Bowl XLIII Winners & Losers
The commercial winners & losers of Super Bowl XLIII.
Survey Questions to Determine Market Fit
Market fit must be achieved before scaling up your business. Without it, your company could lose barrels of money on customer acquisition activities with low returns. But once y...
Tax Season Marketing
Taxes stink! Figuring out what to deduct, for how much and when is a real pain. If you are as frustrated as me during tax season, surely many of the clients you serve have the s...
Marketing Sales Social Media Technology
Technology Marketers Should Follow Digg's Lead
Marketers of software and technology products and services should take note of Digg's new advertising platform, Digg Ads. Use what you sell in your own business. Show your tool...
Ten Tips To Get Links
As most internet marketers know by now, inbound links to your website are the key ingredient in ranking well for search engines, particularly Google. But how do you get links to...
The Secret Weapon To Sizing Up Your Target Market
Pivoting your product to better meet the needs of you target customer is key, but before you do this, shouldn't you know whether that target customer's market is the most attrac...
Top Ten Twitter Tips
Twitter is not just a place to share news and update followers on what's happening. The most successful Twitterers use the platform to engage people and carry out other useful t...
Transform Time With Focus
Growing up, my dad would often talk to me about time management. His advice boiled down to making the most of your time and this was expressed in multiple ways, including: Makin...
Transparency in Your Business
P&G's recent backlash for shipping a "new and improved" version of Pampers diapers in old packaging is a lesson proving the value in coporate transparency. Social media has ampl...
Twitterfeed Rocks
There are a slew of Twitter applications out there, but I must proclaim that Twitterfeed is my favorite one so far. I've been using it for some marketing engagements recently an...
Unleash Your Creativity Through Improv
The main principle behind successful Improv fosters creativity. Embrace this principle when brainstorming and unleash your creativity!
Using Social Media for Good
Social media is an ideal platform for creating change and doing good.
Web 2.0 is Friendlier than Web 1.0
I enjoy Web 2.0 sites like Facebook and Twitter because they foster accountability and positive interactions. Sometime ago, people with cryptic usernames like webspider hid behi...
What Type of Market Should You Enter?
Aside from the timing and growth trajectory of the market you enter, defining the type of market you enter may be the most important thing you do to set your company out on the...
Entrepreneurship Marketing Sales
Why Customers Buy
Success awaits startups who's employees are vigilant about visiting their customers. Get out there and get to know your customers and understand why they buy.
Analytics Business Social Media
Why Executives Resist Social Media
There are many trends executives resist while plodding along successfully following the status quo. While it's understandable for some hesitation in jumping in on "next big thin...
Why I Blog and You Should Too
I've been blogging off and on about various subjects ranging from college football to marketing for about 4 years now. I've tried many of the blogging services and recentl...
Business Marketing Sales Social Media Technology
Why Negative Online Reviews are Good
When it comes to Web 2.0 and social media, many organizations hate the idea of losing control over what is said about their brand or products. For many years, companies avoided...
Business Entrepreneurship Strategy
Why Sharing Your Startup Idea Improves Chances for Success
Sharing startup ideas improves your chances of success by giving you valuable feedback, connections, accountablity, and a reality check you need for your concept to succeed.
Business Entrepreneurship Marketing Strategy
Winning Brands in Uncertain Times
As a follow up to my last post about the opportunities that abound in our depressed economy, I was thinking about what type of products and brands do well during these times. In...