Marketing and branding
Small business and startup tips: 5 traps of business branding
Mike | August 15th, 2011Several weeks ago I wrote a post on branding a business in tough competitive environments. I discussed the importance of defining a frame of reference, leveraging points of parity, and articulating your brand’s points of differentiation. Today I want to talk about some of the pitfalls a business can become victim to when establishing a [...]
Tips On Defining The Size of a Market for a Startup Business
Ross | July 19th, 2011It’s important to properly measure the size the market in which you hope to compete. Without this information, it’s very difficult to raise funds, understand how much you can/should spend on product development and marketing, evaluate the success of your marketing efforts, etc. In the following video, I offer five suggestions that can help you [...]
Small business and startup tips: training day!
Mike | July 18th, 2011Just like our larger brethren in the Fortune 100, lots of small businesses have training programs for their workers: lectures, classes, role-playing exercises, and motivational speaker sessions. However, most small businesses and startups ignore training programs altogether, or cobble together ad hoc strategies when on-boarding new hires. These differing approaches are sometimes stylistic, sometimes strategic, [...]
Consumers Prefer Better Looking Websites
Ross | July 13th, 2011Successful businesses know that to develop long-term relationships with their customers, they must find ways to build trust. This is not as easy to do as it sounds. According to the 2011 Edelman Trust Barometer study, U.S. consumer trust of companies dropped 8 points from 2010 to 2011. In fact, this trend seems to be [...]
Marketing 101: Branding your business in a competitive environment
Mike | July 11th, 2011Establishing a brand in a competitive environment can be challenging for any business, particularly small businesses and startups. Not every business represents a “new-to-the-world” idea, and not every company has the luxury of exclusive ownership of a market segment. There are literally thousands of examples this: a new entrant in a market establishes a brand [...]
Creating Your Freelance Brand
Ross | July 6th, 2011Talent, reputation and strong communication skills go a long way to winning clients, but it’s also important to make sure that your freelancing business reflects a strong brand. Remarkably, many freelancers don’t brand their own freelancing business. This is a mistake because your potential clients will form quick impressions about you and your business. Branding [...]
America’s founding entrepreneurs: revolution at work
Mike | July 5th, 2011On this Independence Day, 2011 I have been thinking about the summer of ’76 and America’s Founding Fathers. Their importance to the world has been analyzed every way imaginable; thousands of books have been written about their efforts and accomplishments, and they are held up to generations as examples of great political and military leaders. [...]
Not Everyone Is The Right Customer
Ross | June 29th, 2011A few days ago, Christian Jung, a designer and consultant from Germany wrote an interesting post – Goodbye Basecamp, This Is The End Of A True Love. My Heart Is Broken, explaining why he would no longer use Basecamp, popular project management software created by 37signals. Christian decided that after six years, his needs changed [...]
Website Traffic or Conversions: Which Is More Important?
Ross | June 21st, 2011Most companies, especially small business and startups, obsess about the amount of traffic to their online sites. Site traffic is important – it brings attention, a certain degree of validation, and the opportunity to convert visitors into users or paying customers. But traffic alone isn’t enough and more importantly, we tend to overestimate its impact. A [...]
Lean Marketing 101: Giving good interview, or how to get a reporter to eat from your hand
Mike | June 20th, 2011In the world of startups and small business there are two basic kinds of company: those the media pays attention to, and all the rest. If your company has a compelling story, a unique product , or an interesting personality behind it you may be fortunate to leverage that advantage and convince a reporter to [...]
