Cultivating Brand Romance in Today's Always On Distracted World

All start-ups and brands in need have the same marketing challenge. Cost effectively finding, keeping and motivating customers to support your business, in a world where distraction rules and attention spans are just seconds.



Ten Critical Strategies for Getting Heard and Standing Out



Great marketing strategy blends alchemy and intuition with customer expectations Start with a concept map that works on a napkin or your favorite menu. Then, ask a potential customer what resonates and what does not. Move forward accordingly.



Iteration is critical skill for all product and brand marketing tactics. Expect some bumps in the road. Pivot accordingly.



Can't keep the investors or BOD members out of the marketing strategy; i.e. wives, husbands, friends, relatives and maybe somebody at Starbucks, you may be in trouble and need to pull back.



Hiring a PR firm too early and/or letting them drive the strategy when/if no clue about digital media: design, technology, social and/or content marketing.



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Thinking a social buffed "growth hacker" raised on Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat and Tender have everything figured out and then mapping a strategy around their brand positioning. Real perspective is in many cases experience driven.



Copying competitors and thinking this is marketing strategy nirvana. Some of them may be copying you and then where does this leave your business? Or, worse, they have no clue about marketing and your copying them. Not a good idea.



It's a distracted, cluttered world and prosumers are drowning in content smog. Write with your ears and create smart content that informs and engages, coupled with sequential repeat loops.



Moore's Law has bit the dust - marketing is in real time now and sell cycles can be viciously long. Keep some of your marketing powder dry for the long slog.



Hire for balance: you need marketers, sales pros, biz div, finance experts, etc. Not just coders, ignore today's drumbeat of all things geeky and technical.



Ideas are cheap and tactical well thought out marketing still drives your brand awareness. Content in the form of a blog posts with high quality baked in images is in many cases the "voice" of your business.



Recognizing creativity is a fickle attribute and it may take time to develop. Every aspect of business cannot be measured, in spite of all the "growth hacks" we all see around us. Especially creativity.



Product marketing has to mesh smoothly with customer needs and branding. But, the light bulb "ah ha" moment's may take time to emerge. Look for patterns in the data.



Great marketing is really about romance and love. You are selling a product to a customer and good chemistry has to be part of the equation. Not to be trite, but if "romance" ("why we love XX/YY.....") is not part of the equation, success may not occur.



Today's crowded markets are high growth friendly but can be brand killers too. It's a noisy world and precise targeting is much better than trying to attack a broad market.



t's a weed problem: too many execs get lost in the weeds working through the strategy and tactics. See: "lead, follow or get the hell out of the way...." Don't over analyze and go with your gut when it feels right.



Email still delivers significant brand value. Social media is at times like that super model across the room you may want to wine and din. But, email is the partner you want to bring home to meet Mom. Perspective is everything.



"How Content Heroes and Heroines are Made Not Born"



"What I Learned About Social Media from Andy Warhol"







"How to Generate More Revenue and Lower Costs with the Cloud"



"Why Every Marketing Campaign Lives or Dies on this Foundation"



"Four Critical Marketing Strategies to Stand out in Today's Noisy World"



"Why so Many Web Sites are Lipstick on a Pig"



"How to Win Your Darwinian Digital Battles"



"The Ten Second Race to Content Nirvana"



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