There’s more to a brand than just a cool design or image. A brand is a symbol of your company’s core values, culture, messaging and target audiences. It’s important to have a deep understanding of what your company is, who your competitors are and how you fit in or stand out in your industry.

A critical element in brand development, is understanding your customers — their wants, needs and beliefs that drive their attitudes and actions. If done well, your brand will convey the company’s benefits that meet those needs.

Once this important information is gathered, it’s time to clearly define your …

We’ve all seen those ads for investment banks - a smiling couple holding hands as they walk on the beach, the waves gently lapping at their feet. What is being advertised? A secure future with no financial worries. The picture implies that if you entrust your finances to them, you won’t have to worry about your future. The picture is telling you the WHY, not the WHAT. The WHY in this case is peace of mind, now and in the future.

Yet when it comes to marketing their products or services, I see so many …

Just one year ago Facebook was still using Business Pages. Now Timelines are the law of the land. If you’re still figuring out your Facebook plan, these 11 tips can get you started on the right foot.
1. Post Regularly
Post at least once a week; more if you are able. Facebook does not share every post with everyone who likes your page. Instead it measures how frequently they interact with you through Facebook and uses that to determine how many of your posts to share.

The less you post, the fewer chances people have to indicate their interest …

You might say we now live in a “Google Economy.” Business is driven by search engines – yet many businesses still don’t understand how to value their search marketing.

Ever wonder what an “organic” (unpaid) search engine click might really be worth to you? For that matter, ever wonder how many clicks you might gain by moving from the #5 spot to the #1 spot on a Google search engine result page (SERP)?
Where Our Numbers Come From
In 2006 AOL released more than 30 million search queries originating from more than 600,000 AOL search users. Because AOL didn’t scrub …

The fact is, consumers are now even more savvy, they can fact-check our products and pricing on the Internet. In most cases they can buy the same products and services elsewhere. Customer service becomes the defining factor.

In a closing keynote I attended at an EMS conference the speaker, Steve Berry, BA, NREMT-P, talked through 3 things needed in the sale of any product or service. Not only do I agree, but also they make for an extraordinary company, one standing out and leading in their sector:

It is widely understood that a content management system allows you to both edit the current content of your site and add new content using the provided templates. One advantage of a CMS that’s not that widely known is personalization. Instead of sending everyone to your homepage and hoping that they connect the dots properly, you can create custom “mini-sites” for each prospect, using hand-picked samples to show how you meet their particular needs.  Using a CMS in this way evolves your website from an informational brochure to a …

Quick Response (QR) Codes are the next step in integrating the physical and digital worlds. With a click and an app anyone can use their smartphone to read one of these matrix style bar codes. We have had good luck with i-nigma 4 on the iPhone and QR Droid on the Android OS.

And generating a bar code for a website, phone number, SMS, or block of text can be just as easy. I use http://qrcode.kaywa.com/, but there are many options available.

The QR codes were originally developed by Denso-Wave in Japan to …

Enchantment and the Economy of Reciprocation

I once heard that a typical audience member will by entranced by 1/3 of a performance. On Thursday, March 24, I discovered it was entirely false.

That’s when I witnessed Guy Kawasaki presenting to the Commonwealth Club of California, and I was captivated from beginning to end.

For those of you unfamiliar with Guy Kawasaki, he was part of the original Macintosh marketing team and is now an author, blogger, venture capitalist, and master of simplicity and charm. Kawasaki was introducing his new book, which …

Some business owners have found that review sites such as Yelp! and Google Maps can be a boon for business, while others have developed a love/hate relationship with them.

Well, love the fact that customers can go online and express their opinion about an experience with your business or hate the fact that prospects and search engines alike are making reviews a key data point when making decisions about your business, they don’t appear to be going away anytime soon.

Read the entire article at www.openforum.com

Are you planning on sending holiday greetings to your clients and colleagues? Here are some thoughts to keep in mind:
Plan ahead. “Ahead” as in right now.
It takes time to prepare and send a holiday greeting, and the deadlines are drawing nigh. You’ve got to:

• Make a list and check it twice (because you might want to differentiate who-gets-what).
• Write a suitable message (or more than one message).
• Choose stationary if your plan to use postal mail.
• Choose a suitable email template if you plan to email.
• Allow time to format your message, including sending yourself a  test message to make sure it looks spruce.

Pick a …