Category: Strategy
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Zero Party Data And Customer Data Consent
I keep stumbling across this term in discussions around privacy and consumer data: zero-party data. Folks like MarTech Alliance define it as: “First-party data is data collected directly from your audience, as opposed to being acquired and sent to you by a third-party. Zero-party data is data that your customers intentionally share with you. This…
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Why Your Content Marketing Isn’t Working
On any given day, a dozen or more articles pass by in my LinkedIn feed and blog reader, sharing the latest tips and tricks for content marketing success. The more lurid ones promise instant results or deep secrets of some kind that ostensibly will make your content marketing wildly successful. And yet almost none of…
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Marketing Strategy: Exclusive Doesn’t Mean Good
Let’s talk marketing strategy for a second. I received an “exclusive” invitation the other day for a deal with some mastermind group I’d never heard of: Heya Reader! EXCLUSIVECLUB is the fastest way to level-up your marketing strategy. It gives you exclusive access to weekly office hours with SOMECOMPANY experts (including with me!), coaches, marketing…
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Simple Is Not The Same as Easy
Simple is not the same as easy. Many people conflate the two, as though they were synonyms, when they’re really not. Let’s dig into why. Easy is… well, easy. Easy is the minimum amount of effort needed to produce a maximum result. You’re after disproportionate returns on your investment. How to get rich quickly, how…
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Rain Boots, Slides, and Strategy
When it’s raining really hard outside and you need to go walking around, what’s your strategy for dealing with wet feet? Some people put on galoshes or heavy rain boots to keep their feet dry. Some people take off their shoes and socks and just go out in slides. The first strategy is a resistance…
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What Is The Difference Between Analysis and Insight?
I posted a chart in a discussion forum the other day, and someone responded that it was a great insight. That left me scratching my head – the chart was useful, to be sure, a predictive forecast of when a topic was likely to trend in the next few months. But it wasn’t an insight,…
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The Power of Analogy in Marketing Communications
One of the most powerful tools at our disposal for demystifying complex subjects is the analogy. When we work with analogies, from simple comparisons to skeuomorphic design (digital designs that mimic real world objects), we help people learn faster, retain information better and longer, and reduce confusion. So, why don’t we use these tools more…
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Marketing Strategy Lessons from Archery
Suppose you’re like me and not the world’s best archer (or even a good archer). You own a variety of bow shapes and sizes, and you plink away at your target with them. Some bows are a little easier to score well with, others… not so much. But you practice and you get a sense…
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How to Connect with Audiences Through Content Marketing
Leigh asks, “What is your best advice for building connections with audiences through content marketing?” Make content that’s valuable to them. That’s it. Look, nothing makes a connection to someone else like saying, hey, I made you this thing that’s helpful and useful to you, and I made it thinking about what you need. It’s…
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Are Your Public Relations Efforts Customer-Centric?
I was reading through my LinkedIn feed the other day and a post caught my eye, from a public relations professional who was ranting at the state of their industry. Their critique of PR was on point: the old way of spray and pray announcements, completely off-target pitches, and trying to force their way in…
