Rocket Watcher by April Dunford

In the last post I talked about some reasons why you should run an advisory council. Customer advisory councils are more work than they look. Here are some tips on running a better customer advisory board that have worked for me.

I’ve run a few customer advisory councils and I’ve found them to be really useful both from marketing and a sales perspective. Product feedback is just the beginning. A well-run customer advisory council can be a great source of sales leads, can increase your marketing ROI and improve your operations.

You’re pitching your startup to a lot of people including investors, business partners, customers, prospects, media and analysts. It might be tempting to build one pitch and re-use it. Don’t do it! Recycling is good for the environment but it’s very dangerous for your startup.

Lean startups and hands-on angel investors are changing the startup landscape in Toronto. An article (plus video) I did for CityNews and The Mark News.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Just because you aren’t ready to talk about your product or service, doesn’t mean that you can’t start engaging with your market. Pre-launch is the perfect time to spread the word about your point of view on the market you intend to serve.

Android is often thought of as a Google brand – it isn’t – and there are interesting signs that it will become very distinct from the Google brand in the future.