Consumers build brands, not companies. This is a fundamental marketing truth that cannot be denied. Consumers give brands value by developing perceptions and expectations for those brands. Companies enhance the value by delivering consistent brand experiences that consumers can trust. Human psychology and how it affects consumer behavior is the foundation of brand building. What do consumers need? Do they really need those things or do they just think they do? What drives them to actually take action and buy once a real or perceived need is identified? The key words are needs and actions, and the best brand marketers paid attention to their marketing, psychology, and philosophy professors. They have seen through experience that Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Aristotle’s Seven Causes of Human Action can be directly applied to consumer behavior and brand marketing. You’ll never really “get” marketing if you don’t “get” the psychology of needs and…
Is Social Media The Same as PR?
Since the arrival and prominent rise of Social Media, businesses and agencies alike have struggled to fully understand where it should fit into their overall strategy. 52% of Public Relation professionals admit that journalists are less likely to contact them to fact check since the emergence of social media. There is no doubt that it’s has been a game-changer. Traditional PR has always been about creating and maintaining relevant relationships, but should Social Media just be seen as a subset of PR or a completely separate entity?Firstly, let’s ask our search engine overlord of knowledge, Google, what it thinks on the matter: Google’s answer card describes PR as “the way organisations, companies and individuals communicate with the public and the media”. It defines Social Media as “websites or applications that enable users to create or share content or to participate in social networking”. 1 THE DIFFERENCES From these definitions it…
Is technology getting in the way of your marketing
Technology is supposed to simplify things. To make them easier and quicker. But for marketing, technology has made things more complex and distracted businesses from what they need to focus on – the customer. In the pre-internet days a small business would think about where their customers would go to look for their product or service. There weren’t many options: The Yellow Pages or equivalent The local paper The newsagent’s shop window (you know – the little postcards offering cleaning etc.) Add to that leafletting and possibly local radio advertising and that was about it for a small business. Today there is e-mail marketing, Twitter, Facebook, Google search and ads, Instagram, Pinterest, podcasts, webcasts, Periscope – the list grows almost daily. So many business owners have a go at one or more depending on their comfort level with the technology in question. They also hear the mantra that you need…
The 1 Simple Way to Instantly Improve Your Email Marketing
CREDIT: Getty Images Email marketing remains one of the most enduring (and effective) online marketing methods available today. With that in mind, why do so many of us make the same critical blunder over and over again, thus dooming our campaigns before they start and ensuring people avoid our emails like the plague? I’ll explain why I think this happens in a moment, but first, let’s identity this massive email marketing mistake and how to ensure you avoid it. The Big Email Marketing Mistake It happens inside my inbox several times a week. Someone reaches out to me on a network like LinkedIn, where I spend almost all my time, and we connect. Within a day or two, and without being asked, I’m suddenly getting marketing emails from this person and his or her business. This is the huge mistake far too many professionals continue to make – adding someone…
3 Must-Know Facts About Legal Content Marketing
BY DAVE KERPEN CEO, Likeable Local As we all know, the digital and online landscape is transforming at an exponential pace. As a lawyer, your online presence and marketing efforts have a significant impact on your ability to reach your prospective clients. The legal content marketing space is unique in many ways, and lawyers who choose to ignore new developments in the area do so at their own risk. I recently spoke with Innovative Attorney Marketing’s General Manager, Shane Kondo, who explained how the legal content marketing landscape is set to change this year. Here’s what I learned: When it comes to content marketing in the legal space, there are specialized concerns that attorneys and law firms need to be aware of. The fact that attorney websites and blogs are considered advertisements by state attorney licensing authorities and are subject to the applicable state bar’s marketing rules remains one of the…
3 Reasons Why Your LinkedIn Invitations Get Ignored
For a while now there has been some debate over how to use LinkedIn. Some suggest connecting with only people you know and work with, while others encourage inviting people to your network. The same way you would with Twitter, in other words, adding anyone and everyone. It doesn’t matter if I am delivering a key-note, conducting a workshop or presenting a webinar, a question that seems to always be asked is: “When building my LinkedIn network, is quality better than quantity?” But first lets look at some LinkedIn facts that show the quantity piece. Some cool Linkedin facts. The LinkedIn facts The global web produces some big numbers and the Linkedin facts are hard to ignore. Here is a snapshot of an infographic created by Linkedprofilewriter.org, that reveals some of those Linkedin stats. Over 300 million people are on LinkedIn. In fact at the time of publishing this post there…
This Is How You Get Your Mojo Back After You Lost It
We need our mojo–our magic, our very best energy–to run our business, to lead our teams, to talk to our clients, and to be the best leader we know we can be. Our mojo is our source of confidence–the thing that lets us know we can be successful. When we question ourselves, when we doubt ourselves, it helps us do the things we need to do to achieve, succeed and have impact. But a setback or crisis can leave your mojo shattered just when you need it the most. So how can you go about restoring it? Here are six simple options: 1. Start with one small win. When you let yourself think you’ll never be able to win again, you’re setting yourself up for the very failure you fear. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when you’re trying to reverse your mindset, so try focusing on doing small things well.…
11 Tools for the Modern Sales Rep
Sales is a people business, but that doesn’t mean that tools can’t help you work more efficiently. Data, automation and integrations can make your work easier, your customers happier and your business more profitable. If you haven’t already embraced the flood of great software in the sales market, it’s time to start. Here are some of the best tools out there for modern sales reps. Clearbit Connect Clearbit’s Gmail extension is already used by more than 40,000 people. It sits on top of your Gmail to enrich each of your contacts with contextual information about where they work, their role, the company size, fundraising updates and much more. That alone is worth the free install, but there’s more to it. You can use Connect to find email addresses from people within a company and search for people by job title. This is the easiest tool we’ve ever used to find…
3 Habits You Need to Crush to Be Successful
There are habits that make us successful and there are habits that sabotage our success. PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images When the success we want remains out of reach, it’s natural human nature to want toblame something. The opportunity wasn’t right. The timing was bad. Someone or something got in the way. It was an unlucky day. More often than not, though, we hinder our own success. That statement is not meant to be victim-blaming or judgmental, but a simple statement that you can improve the odds of your success by looking at your own actions and asking yourself whether they undermine you or give you confidence. Here are the three particularly bad habits that others aren’t even able to see, that will hinder or even prevent your success if left unchecked. 1. Not believing in yourself. Every successful person–man, woman, or child–is a big dreamer. They’re constantly imagining what their…
Intelligence is Important but Integrity Matters More
By lollydaskal When you think of leadership, you want a wise leader who is quick on their feet and sharp in their vision and intelligent in their decisions. But there is something that triumphs intelligence when it comes to leadership. Because even for the quickest, smartest, best leader, if they don’t have integrity all the intelligence is for naught. As we have learned in history and in current events, high intelligence is no guarantee of good judgment, and good judgment is closer to wisdom than high intelligence is. When we lead with integrity, our leadership is asking us to meet reality with the core of who we are—and frankly that takes courage. Integrity trumps intelligence when the leader knows … Brains are good but character is better. Our work environments are designed for us to be nimble and smart, but intelligence doesn’t get people to connect with you or follow…