Market Strategy Articles

Startup Mistakes: Avoid the Common Sense Ones

By No Responses

There are a few startup mistakes that are more obvious than others. While we can identify them, as startups, it may be more difficult to anticipate them. One of the most obvious mistakes startups can make relates to having a competitive advantage. JetBlue was used as an example in this video. All of their executives must fly on the competitor’s airlines and when they do, they need to ask themselves three questions: What do we do better than the competition? What do they do better than us? And how can we fix this? These three questions keep a close watch…

Do You Have an Extended Marketing Department?

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Tom Johansmeyer is the group marketing director at The Cross Border Group, which publishes IR magazine and Corporate Secretary. He has written about social media for SocialTimes, Business Insider and The Huffington Post. Should anyone else be marketing for your company? As a marketing pro, it’s clearly your job to take the reins in increasing visibility, managing your brand and generating sales opportunities. You may get a bit of help from your sales team and product managers, but marketing is marketing – and that’s your job. Well, sometimes it’s nice to have a little extra help. Over the past few…

The Value of Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Via Marketing Experiments Blog on No Responses

Image provided by: Master of Felix

If you’re using pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements as a marketing strategy, you may be wondering what the value proposition is—namely: “Why should your ideal prospect buy from you rather than any of your competitors?” If you’re not using PPC ads, you may be wondering if they have any value at all! Will they boost sales? Can they help your company messaging? Austin McCraw thinks so: “PPC advertisements provide a testing environment uniquely suitable for Value Propositions. It is almost as if search marketing was designed as a custom-fit workout for Value…

How to Fix a Messy Landing Page

Via KISSmetrics on No Responses

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There’s nothing worse than a messy landing page. Not only will customers get lost and irritated, but ugly, confusing landing pages can wreak havoc on conversion rates. They’re huge marketing fails. Fear not: KISSmetrics has a thorough Beginner’s Guide to Landing Pages. The full post is a must-read, but here’s a taste of what you’ll need: Clear call-to-action Concise copy Ask for only the vitals (don’t ask for name, address, phone number, e-mail, birth date, etc., all on the first page—this kind of over-prying will destroy marketing channels) Strip navigation elements as…

Which Factors Contribute to an Advertising Campaign’s Success?

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We’re analog people living in a digital world, many say. As such, algorithms play a particular role in our society. Equations have their pertinence, but it has a cutoff. What’s the point of all of this? People that use mathematics to predict how an advertising campaign will play out are misguided. There is no way to accurately predict how humans will take to advertising. Again, every marketing strategy should aim to incorporate hard data into each campaign in order to supplement the process. The numbers shouldn’t be dismissed. There is a lot of value in metrics. But it’s vital to keep your expectations…

Got 15 Minutes? Get Brand Stewardship!

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Brand Stewardship In 15 Minutes: How To Get Inside Your User’s Head Without Losing Yours - Andrea Mallard from HackFwd on Vimeo.

Andrea Mallard has already taught you about building a brand in 15 minutes … but what about building brand stewardship? Brand stewardship—often reffered to as a variable of the brand management definition—is a willingness to use the broadest array of tools and techniques to understand, develop and enhance the relationship between a consumer and a brand. Building brand stewardship is a sterling marketing technique, making Andrea’s video a must-watch—that takes no time at all!

Intimate Customer Understanding, Part 9

By No Responses

A business should always move ahead with one eye on their customers. Gaining an intimate understanding of your customers is a necessary step for every entrepreneur to take. They’ll need to have a mastery of the nuanced personalities customers in their particular field possess. This will allow them to offer better customer support, among other things. Customer retention rates will also see a rise because more attention is being placed on customers. You won’t need to be able to perform heart surgery to have an understanding of what heart surgeons do in their line of work. And if given the…

Got Presence?

Via Content for Coaches and Consultants on No Responses

Image provided by: h.koppdelaney

So you’ve got presence. You’re considered a thought leader. Your management teams respect you and your strategic solutions. But do you have executive presence? Patsi Krakoff writes: “An Internet search on executive presence reveals definitions and advice on everything from dressing for success and patterns of speech to more fundamental issues of emotional and social intelligence. As it turns out, everyone’s definition of the term seems to differ. But planning your career and determining your leadership development needs shouldn’t be left to guesswork.” Executive presence isn’t something you’re born with, contends Krakoff—it’s…

Idiot-Proof Suggestions to Help Name Your Company

Via VentureBeat on No Responses

One of the first creative steps every startup will undoubtedly take is the naming of the company.

Image provided by: CJ Sorg

But there isn’t a process to naming; every name is fair game. But not all names are created equal. Some names may be able to give you a competitive advantage. Others may give outsiders a glimpse into your company strategy or mantra. But there are some guidelines to names. Here are a few: Ensure that your name doesn’t infringe on any legal boundaries. There are all sorts of things to consider in technology and…

So what is the Difference Between Advertising and Connecting?

Via Chris Brogan on No Responses

Social media is an outlet for marketing departments to broadcast their marketing strategies in diverse ways.

Image provided by: Matt Hamm

And of course each option will bring its own challenges and prerequisites. As such, they will deliver differing results. The choice you make will need to be made with these considerations in mind. When you’re enacting your online marketing strategy through social media, you will have the option of either attempting to connect directly to your audience or generally speaking to it. When you attempt to directly connect with your audience, you can offer up a newsletter as an incentive.…