Blog

Every business in the world right now is trying to tap into the power of the collective voice of social media. The problem is in order to do that, businesses are first, sending their customers away, and then yelling to try and get them back. How is this a good system?!

Every time someone thinks they’re being a savvy marketer, and puts one of those ‘Follow me on Twitter’ or ‘Check out our Facebook page’ buttons on a website, what they’re doing is telling customers to leave their space – where they control the message – and go into the world of social media.  What are those customers going to do when they get onto Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or LinkedIn? Are they going to remember the message, or will they find a million reasons to be distracted?

These customers are going to do the exact same thing you do when you hop onto a social network – check your messages, catch up on gossip and comment on the latest episode of Game of Thrones… If you go to a social media site, you’ve done more than left a website; you’ve left the marketing message behind. This is not great relationship building. Clicking a ‘Like’ button may mean you get a fan, but it doesn’t mean you’re getting engagement! Marketing like this will not create a valuable customer relationship.

(0) Read More...

Can you think of anything more romantic than meeting your future partner for the first time?

“Hi, I’m Tim. What’s your name?”  They turn to you and your heart melts. You  say  to yourself “this is the person I’ll spend the rest of my life with.”

Then, being the charmer you are, to seal the deal you say, “I’d like to get all of your information so I can manage our relationship better for the future!”

(0) Read More...

Marketing shouldn’t be a verb.  I firmly believe that marketing isn’t something you do to someone, it should be a conversation. I’m not the only one who’s convinced marketing needs to be better, and that’s why you hear so many experts today talking about Conversation Marketing.

The market today is basically a bazaar.  Everyone’s mingling and everyone’s stuff is on display - view any global village market and it’s pretty easy to see the similarity between the internet and a busy street in Dhaka.

The problem with the ‘bazaar’ state of the market is that everybody is yelling. You’ll soon discover what the caliber of the conversation is when you see a business trying to join the market.   Businesses are yelling at potential customers “buy ours, buy ours, no, don’t buy theirs, buy ours!!” and yelling at other businesses, “mine’s better! No my product is better! We have a testimonial!” Blah blah blah.

(0) Read More...

Short answer:

Technology distracts you. Take the Free Zone Quiz and find out how to work smarter.

Long Answer:

(0) Read More...

There is a song that has become absolutely iconic, even if you don’t know its name.

It’s the song that was used in Looney Tunes cartoons every time the characters were around an assembly line or factory. If you ever saw a Looney Tunes cartoon as a kid, it’s probably etched so well into your brain you can probably hum it right now.

The song is called Powerhouse and was composed by Raymond Scott in 1937. It’s still being used today as a kind of audio shorthand for automation and mechanical processes.

(0) Read More...