Rocket Watcher by April Dunford

Smaller companies I work with are often reluctant to try to influence customer buying criteria. The thinking usually goes that the customer knows what they want and doesn’t want to be actively “sold.” I don’t believe that’s the right way to look at it.

When your marketing budget is microscopic, every marketing tactic you run needs to be optimized. Cheap and easy to run, almost every company I work with does webinars but they are often run on autopilot. Here are 13 ideas for getting more out of your webinars.

What do John Mayer and Google Buzz product managers have in common? They’re both having a rough couple of weeks. It struck me that there were some common themes between the two incidents and business lessons to be learned. Not really but it’s my blog OK, and I always wanted to write a post about John Mayer and Google.

Attaching your startup brand to a movement involves figuring out what your brand stands for. Here’s a hint – the movement isn’t called “Making me Rich.”

Ah Valentine’s day. There’s nothing like a made-up holiday to remind us that we should be nice to people at least once a year. When was the last time you showed your customers a little love? And I’m not talking heart-shaped box of Godiva love here either, I mean when was the last time you lavished carat-sized love on the people that pay your salary?

Research shows that there are a set of factors that effect the rate of adoption of a new innovation. Clearly product characteristics are a critical factor each of these but there isn’t a single one where marketing can’t have at least some impact. Here are a set of things to consider when marketing to early adopters.

Google launched their first ever major TV ad last night at the Superbowl and thinking about it I had a moment where I thought – “Oh dear, this is the end of them.” Why would Google want to do a TV ad now?

Nearly every startup I have worked with has been nervous about writing press releases. Lack of experience is one reason but people also think there are a set of secret rules to writing one “properly.” I’m also hearing startups say they believe press releases are irrelevant in an age of social media. I disagree. The majority of press releases really suck, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

LinkedIn changed it’s email subject line from “Join my Network on LinkedIn” to “John Smith wants to stay in touch on LinkedIn.” Is this a big change? I think it is.

Startups often try to cram too many features into their messages and include benefits that aren’t differentiated or are irrelevant to their target market. This post covers a method for getting to a more streamlined value proposition.