Have you ever received proposals from several vendors for the same web project, only to see a significant difference in their fees? While a tightly specified RFP is supposed to guard against this, when it happens, there should be no real surprise. Here's why: Every respondent will go (or should [More]
Have you ever purchased a new house, only to later discover that the contractor cut some corners? And that buck or two savings for the contractor now translates into thousands of dollars of extra cost for you? Unfortunately, many website developers have taken a page from the building trade, and [More]
Yes, we do market research. In fact, for many years I have published industry benchmarking and best practices research in the area of Social Media. So it might be surprising to read a post about when - and why - market research should not be done. At its core, the [More]
Have you ever spent time staring at your blank screen, wondering what your next blog post should be about, then staring at the clock, stressing about the looming deadline. While it's tempting to think of this problem as writer's block, it is really a question of process gone wrong. (Or [More]
After participating in a recent panel discussion, I was approached by David Shlagbaum, a senior partner in a downtown law firm. He reminded me of a lunch we shared, where he had asked me how often he should tweet. I responded "David, do you see that bus outside?" He did. [More]
For those who aren't familiar with the McDonald's menu, there is something for everyone: burgers, fish, chicken (in a bun or nugget-style), salads, fries, gourmet coffee and desert. If you arrive for breakfast, you can choose from yogurt parfaits, oatmeal, eggs, muffins, egg McMuffins, juices and coffee. In other words, [More]
If you read anything, anywhere about marketing, sales, customer service, recruiting, IT, or executive leadership, you can't help but notice that Social Media seems to have become mandatory – full stop. But are there circumstances where it makes sense NOT to use Social Media? Where turning down the volume on [More]
Are you involved in your professional association? Or do you run one - either as a director, staff, or volunteer? If so, you're probably concerned with one aspect of today's digital world, and particularly social media: How do you compete with free? (Or perhaps, you're concerned with a more existential [More]
If you are ahead of the curve in your digital strategy, you know there is no magic bullet: your days are spent making minor changes to improve SEO, more minor changes to improve on-page conversion, and A-B testing to improve email response rates. Once each year, however, it makes sense [More]
The Trust Curve is one of the most important Marketing 2.0 concepts around. It states that as trust builds over time, the relationship strengthens and the target person (prospective client, prospective member, prospective employee, etc) moves through the stages of awareness, preference, trial, and commitment. The job of marketing is [More]
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