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Aligned Marketing Blog

Marketing executive, Steve Hartkopf shares all in this informative yet personable blog.

Selling in the 21st Century: David Ogilvy Style

Steve Hartkopf - Monday, June 21, 2010
The great David Ogilvy was a genius at understanding customer behavior and communication. In the presentation below we see how we can apply Ogilvy style thinking to today's selling.

Steve 800-707-9150

Why Your Website May Not Be Driving Sales

Steve Hartkopf - Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Having great content and a solid design are critically important for your website. However, if you’re trying to build a business, at some point you need to sell something to someone.

Web entrepreneurs consider this the point where the rubber meets the road but, too often, it’s where the runner meets the pothole. Here are four of the most common mistakes and what you can do to correct them:

1) You’re not asking for the order:

This seems so obvious but the truth of the matter is many sites never really ask for the order. For the purpose of this conversation I consider an order any call-to-action that a visitor completes.

Every page of your site should have a clear focal point, a place where the eye is naturally drawn to, and a clear call-to-action.

That call-to-action can be to actually buy something from you but it can also be a request to have your visitors register (call, click here, etc.) to receive more information, such as a free whitepaper. Different pages may have different calls-to-action.

The good news about this problem is it’s the easiest to fix. You may be able to do this yourself but contact me (800-707-9150 or shartkopf@aligned-marketing.com) if you need help.

(Yes, that was a call-to-action in my blog)

2) Your visitors are confused

One of the first laws of selling is a confused mind says “No.”

If your website has lots of motion graphics, four or more fonts, poorly contrasted or unappealing colors, clutter, too many choices, unclear copy or 100 other things that distract and confuse the mind, you’re not going to sell anything.

The KISS (keep it simple stupid) approach works best. Again, a clear focal point, call-to-action and lots of whitespace are all that’s needed.

Video and customer testimonials are great for SEO and to help build credibility, see next bullet, but they are more icing than cake.

3) Companyspeak

Your copy, call-to-action and value proposition, your business message, needs to be clear, concise, compelling and written in simple language. It also needs to be believable.

Talk to your visitors in terms of benefits to them, which are usually very different than the way your internal team talks about your product. Internal audiences tend to get wrapped up in features and function. Customers care about benefits. How will your product make them money, healthier, more attractive, save them time, etc.

Similarly, people are skeptical. They know advertising lies, marketing manipulates and even Tiger can’t be trusted anymore. No one can afford to waste money and no one wants to feel foolish.

Talk to your audience in simple believable words.

4) Ouch!

This one hurts a bit so brace yourself; they just don’t want what you’re selling.

A lot of webpreneurs are so passionate about their product or service they just can’t understand why people aren’t beating a path to their door. Well, I’m sorry, but if you’ve done everything else right, or mostly right, then the market has spoken and you lose.

As one prominent Democrat recently said when they were struggling to sell the Healthcare Bill to the American people, “The problem is the dog doesn’t like the dogfood.” You can fix the message, the packaging, but if the dog won’t eat the dogfood you’re not going to be selling any.

The fix here isn’t redesigning your website or more creative copy, the fix is transitioning your product from something you think people need into something people actually want.

Steve

800-707-9150

Is it Time to Consider Consulting?

Steve Hartkopf - Monday, March 22, 2010
A CEO of a major company recently said to me, “Your timing may be perfect.”

He was referring to me being a consultant and, indeed, there’s evidence to support his statement. The industrial market is heating up. The Industrial Supply Association’s (ISA) most recent Economic Indicator Report was up for the second month in a row. Their Manufacturer Index was 66.42% in February while the January index was 60.63%. The Distributor Index saw similar gains (61.1% and 65.72%, respectively). Anything above 50% indicates those surveyed expect economic expansion.

The subjective evidence is equally strong. I talk with frustrated marketing people every week. Their complaint is with management and goes like this: “They laid off half my staff so we’ve been struggling to keep up for over a year. Every month we fall further behind and are getting our butts chewed out. Now, because business is getting better, they want us to do a bunch of new stuff. We can’t complete our work now! I have no idea how we’re going to get any new projects completed.” Maybe you can help them?

If you’re an unemployed or underemployed marketing professional consider becoming a consultant. As my CEO friend said, the timing may be perfect.

The client benefits because they can rent the expertise they need (from you). You simply augment their staff as a variable cost solution. A competent resource they can eliminate quickly without a long HR process.

Do a great job and maybe you get hired full-time, if that’s what you want. Here are a few things you need to be prepared for before accepting your first consulting job.

  • Be prepared to add value immediately. One good way is to do more than you’re asked. In other words, take tasks off your new employer’s task list. Most marketing managers have presentations to create, reports to format, blogs to write and other nuisance tasks that they’d love to delegate but are beyond the skill level of most support personnel. Don’t wait for them to ask you to help. Be proactive and add value.
  • Understand that there will be politics and much of it will be invisible to you. You represent a variable cost option and, as such, threaten everyone in your area of expertise that is an employee, a fixed cost. The best way to combat this is to recognize the politics exist and find a few key alliances within the client’s organization that will help you navigate through the terrain.
  • You must be taken seriously so don’t walk in meekly. State your positions and your recommendations clearly and directly. Not everyone will agree but if you focus on pleasing everyone, finding the maximum in common ground and playing politician, you’ll lose. Understand your pre-designed role is to get in, complete your assignment, and get out. You are not part of the long-term extended corporate family (not yet, anyway).
  • There’s nothing unethical about selling more services while you’re completing your project. Be polite and professional but keep your eyes and ears open for pain points, new projects and things the company would like to have if they had the resources. There’s truth in the old saying: “The best source of new business is old customers.” In my experience the big firms spend up to 30% of their time onsite looking for a new project while they’re completing the current project. I find that objectionable (selling while I’m on the client’s clock) so I never charge by the hour and I only spend about 10% of my time prospecting for new projects. You’ll need to find your own balance.

If you have skills and are either unemployed or underemployed I encourage you to think about consulting. The market is getting stronger, it’s a great way to leverage your strengths, and may get you the inside track on a full-time job if that’s your ultimate goal.

Feel free to call me if you want to discuss further.

Steve

800-707-9150

Storytising

Steve Hartkopf - Monday, March 01, 2010
Getting someone to read your online advertising is not easy. Beyond being memorable, online advertising should create interest in your value proposition and, in its best form, overcome sales objections. That's asking a lot, but it is possible.

Online advertising is different than offline (print) advertising because it is more intimate. Done well, you can get people to read your copy. That's why I believe the long-form (more than 150 words) sales message is not dead.

In fact using well written copy in story form that conveys your value such as a customer testimony, case study or white-paper is a terrific way to deliver your sales message.


The challenge we all face and the reason we usually use short copy, which includes tag-lines, elevator speeches, and anything less than 150 words, is we assume the average reader's attention span is short to the point of being miniscule. Collectively, we've made Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) a national treasure. That's silly, it's an excuse many people use to explain away their lack of seriousness. But no matter, that perception has consequences for those of us who write copy that sells for a living.

Too many of us believe that only the bored or the most desperate buyer will take the time to read the traditional long sales letters we  associate with internet marketing. The problem is not the length of the copy. The problem is most of what we read online is tacky, heavy-handed and just plain uninteresting.

A good way around this dilemma is to use stories. But not just any stories. I'm talking about stories that are interesting and fun to read. Stories that, at the same time, communicate each step of your sales sequence over time without ever being tacky or heavy-handed, “salesy.” Stories spread out over time in a series of emails and blog postings.

The first few emails entice the reader, your prospect, to investigate your services further. Once you get a click through the next series of emails describes your service benefits in more detail and, through stories and testimonials, are designed to overcome objections and encourage a purchase.

You can use a series of interesting stories to attract attention, describe benefits, create desire for your product or service, demonstrate the product in action, overcome objections, promote a strong call to action, and convey every other copywriting purpose just as effectively, perhaps more so, in a story (your content) as you would in a traditional sales message.

The goal is to make your content so interesting, entertaining and valuable that the underlying "advertising" will be read, retained, shared and, ultimately, result in a purchase.

When you combine the best aspects of advertising with quality storytelling, that's what I call Storytising.

Steve
800-707-9150

Defining the End

Steve Hartkopf - Wednesday, February 24, 2010
How will you know the recession is over? What is your definition of recovery? Is it financial: Two consecutive quarters of growth or a month or two of sales that are equal to 2008 (pre-recession) levels? Are you even listening for signals that the worst has passed?


I don't know what your definition is but I do think it's a good idea to have one. Why? Because once you declare the recession over it changes the way you manage your business. That may not make sense at first blush but I declared the recession over last week (more on that in a moment) and it's has changed my thinking in one very important way: I am more willing to spend money, to invest in my future.

Here's a quick recap of the events that led me to a post-recession mindset.

First, I started getting calls from recruiters again. I was getting very few calls between January 2009 and January 2010.  I've been in this business a long time so that's a very low numbers and, frankly, a few of them were just people complaining about the lack of activity, "No one is hiring..." The emails and calls from friends and industry contacts was about 3-to-1 from people losing their jobs as compared to people landing new jobs. And most of the calls from people who landed new jobs came in just the last 3-4 months.

Second, during the same time period generating sales leads for Aligned Marketing was difficult. I might make 20-30 calls and send out an equal number of emails before anything "hot" surfaced. In the last two weeks we've received 10 new leads from companies ranging in size from $100M to several billion in sales needing help. Companies are not only looking to reposition their brand, revamp websites, and build online catalogs for commerce, they are in a hurry to get started.

The final domino fell last weekend. My wife and I were celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary in downtown Charlotte and decided to have dinner at The Capital Grill. In case you're not familiar with The Capital Grill there are several around the country and they're comparable to Morton's, Sullivan's and Ruth Chris' steakhouses, they are upscale, at least $100 per person. During cocktails the bartender said, "It's like someone opened a floodgate after the first week of February..." Their lunch-crowds since then have been larger than they've seen in over a year and, sure enough, when we exited the dining room after dinner, the bar and lounge area was elbow-to-elbow with people. We had to fight our way out the place. Since then I've asked two other local restaurateurs and they say the same thing, "business has really picked up..."

My tiny slice of the world is sending me buy-signals and they're exciting to hear. What is your world telling you or, more importantly, are you even listening?

Steve
800-707-9150

Making Numbers Come to Life

Steve Hartkopf - Monday, February 22, 2010
Many people are more comfortable with ideas than they are with data. That's too bad because without good data it's hard to get the funding you'll need to implement your good ideas. The business world is driven by facts, sales projections and generating a return on the investment.

Granted many of the projections are nothing more than educated guesses tied up in your ability to sell and gain a consensus. That doesn't make them useless or wrong, it just makes them, as stated, a guess.

As a creative type person, as a marketer, I had to acquire my taste for numbers. What I found was that the "what-if" scenarios appealed to my imagination. Where as a numbers geek would embroil themselves in the data looking for the one, single, truth, I knew no such single truth existed but found joy in exploring what was possible.

I knew that we could make a reasonable projection based on a certain set of variables and that work would exhaust our capabilities. Working beyond that point is wasted energy but, at times, the politically-wise thing to do.

Ours was a search for excellence, not truth. If you don't believe me review your last ten-years January sales projections. More than likely you'll find half of them are significantly wrong, missed guesses.

If you struggle with data, with facts, then try framing the process in terms your imagination can embrace. Try searching for "possible outcomes" instead of "the number."

Thought of and shared the right way numbers can be fun. If you don't believe me then watch Hans Rosling's amazing presentation about myths and predispositions surrounding the third world.


Steve

How to Request a Meeting in Writing

Steve Hartkopf - Wednesday, December 09, 2009
A lot has been written about making written requests, such as for a meeting. Based on my inbox, a lot of good advice is being ignored. So, here's my two-cents on the subject:

Good work often starts with research. I recommend that you save the meeting requests and general sales letters you like in a dedicated folder and, before writing your next request letter, review them for tips and inspiration. Pay particular attention to what you like about the wording, layout, flow and tone of your favorite letters.

Staying with research, investigate the companies and people your soliciting. There's an amazing amount of information available today. Google and LinkedIn are two of my primary sources of client research. In 15 minutes you can typically learn a person's professional history, job title, interests, status in their industry  and many even identify some mutual friends. This will help with the style, tone and personalization of your letter.

Create an outline for your letter as follows:
  1. Grab your reader's attention. Begin with an interesting fact, important question, comment on a current event or something personal, such as congratulations for being named Person of the Year.
  2. Then transition your reader into the purpose of your letter - introduce your company, request an appointment, or a free offer, for example. Be sure to connect your request with your grabber from (what will be) paragraph one. Your transition is key, it must be both smooth and brief, people are busy. See next bullet.
  3. In today's hurry-up, get-to-the-point world, many people switch the first two bullets of their outline. they begin letters by coming right out and stating, "The purpose of this letter is to request a 30-minute appointment to..." and then write their grabber. I prefer a subtler approach but will use the direct approach if I know the reader well.
  4. Insert numbers or testimonials that back up your claims next. A list of indented bullets works well for either. People like reading lists of tightly written facts - summaries.
  5. Your fourth section/paragraph is your call-to-action. Tie your attention grabber or your reader's self-interest into the benefits of responding to your solicitation. I don't sell actual products so I often use mutual gain as my call-to-action: "I propose a 30-minute meeting to better understand your business objectives, review our capabilities and determine if we can help one another achieve our  goals..."
  6. Your final outline point let's your reader know that your letter is one of a series of contacts, that there are more to come. Explain that you will be following up by voicemail, email or both. Basically, you're telling them "you're not going away, so let's have our conversation and see where it leads."

Now it's time to fill in the blanks and edit. Go back to each section of your outline and write 2-4 complete sentences. Often this is as easy as writing a topic sentence, inserting your outline copy and, then, writing a closing sentence that introduces your next point (paragraph) and compels the reader to keep reading.

With my writing completed I move onto the editing process. I complete three rounds of edits. My first edit is for grammar, my second is for flow and my third is for appeal. The final edit, for appeal, answers the question, "Would I respond to this letter?" If I would, then I'm done. If, however, there are awkward transitions, facts that don't seem to fit, or anything else that makes my letter weak, then I keep writing and editing until they are corrected.

The person receiving your letter is busy. They are looking for reasons to throw your letter away. It's your job to give them reasons to keep it and respond.

Mail your letter and begin following up within a week.

Final thought:
Some may argue that Bullet #6 above is aggressive. I'll concede that point. However, if you've done your homework and are only contacting people you honestly believe you can help, then why be shy? You're trying to earn a living and help others along the way; what's wrong with that? I'm not looking to waste my time or anyone else's on silly meetings nor am I looking to sell anyone something they don't need or want. I have pride in what I do and so should you.

In summary, this comes down to professionalism and character, use a strong doze of both in everything you do and trust that positive results will follow.

Steve

Is Link Building for You? Part 2

Steve Hartkopf - Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Part 2 of 3:



Now that you've spend a good bit of time and energy getting your site linked on a couple hundred directories, it's time to roll up your sleeves and really get to work. You're excited, I can tell.

2. Intermediate Tactics
Intermediate tactics require more time and typically a financial investment. The effort is worth it since this is when the multiplier effect (viral marketing) can take place and take you to unexpected heights.

Intermediate Tactics are (1) article and press release writing and marketing and (2) advanced networking. Both of these tactics require you to create relevant content that will appeal to your market and, potentially, be worthy of being shared, of going viral and the ability to create meaningful relationships. Viral, in marketing terms, means it spreads, like a virus. In other words you send me an article or a press release that is so compelling and so interesting that I take the time out of my busy schedule to forward it to someone else. I spread it, they spread it, and so on and so on.

Creating that kind of content is not easy but here's the key: After you write your article or press release ask yourself this question, "Will this be shared?" If the answer is "Yes" then you completed the most difficult step. If the answer is "No" then you still have work to do. At first you may not be able to tell if your content is spread-worthy or not but, as with anything, you should get better over time and with effort, with practice. Writing content that is worthy of being shared is tough but, after that, things get easier since you can hire/rent the additional expertise you need.

The process of getting your articles syndicated, spread across the net, and your press releases submitted to online outlets is something I suggest you outsource. Article syndicating services and press release service providers are two of the fastest growing services you'll find online and, as such, the providers are improving the quality of their services and lowering their costs. I'll leave it to you to find find the best firm to meet your specific needs but feel free to contact me directly if you want a recommendation. Most of the press release services charge a fee, which can range from $50.00 to several hundred dollars, monthly subscription packages are also popular. Free services exist but the results may be less than you desire.

Hiring an expert to help you fine-tune your content, coordinate an online PR firm and develop a structured SEO program is wise if you're serious about being successful because all these tasks require a relatively high level of specialized talent to be effective. Here's what I used to say to my bosses when I was in Corporate America and they told me to do something outside our department's area of expertise, "Sure, we can do it ourselves but I'm concerned because amateur work usually produces amateur results." Or, "part-time work produces part-time results." They loved getting that kind of feedback. Yeah, right! But it's true, hire a pro if you want professional results, the benefits outweigh the expense. Besides, even if you hire a pro there's still so much that you can and should do on your own.

Link building is like cold calling in sales. Persistence alone will produce some results. But networking to secure referrals and giving value before asking for value are the best ways to secure new opportunities and, eventually, new clients. To maximize effectiveness, build personal relationships with webmasters, bloggers and other people who you want posting a link to your website on their website. The way to do this is to make yourself valuable and, therefore, visible to the right people. It's self promotion through added value, a win-win.

A good way to start is by reading other people's blogs and leaving (valuable) comments. Typically what will happen is they will start reading your blog (you must have one!) and leaving comments in return. Social media sites such as Twitter, StumbleUpon and Digg are also great relationship tools. You simply point (ReTweet, for example) people to content you think they'll find interesting or useful. Again, you're adding value and as your relationships grows the opportunity, or mutual self-interest, in providing each other an inbound link will surface.  Depending on the strength of your relationship this might take days, weeks or months.

From a link building perspective, if the relationship is solid enough and based on mutual respect and appropriate self-interest, you may even be asked to post a guest blog on their site. If that happens, jump on it and ask permission to link your guest post to relevant links as well as your website and blog. Those links will open you up to a whole new audience and will also improve your keyword rankings on the search engines.

If done correctly these Intermediate Tactics - writing great content, outsourcing submissions and building new meaningful relationships - will significantly increase the links to your site and move you up in search engine rankings. In addition, if your articles and press releases are linked tightly to a sound keyword strategy, the increase in search engine rankings for specific keywords and phrases will skyrocket. As Stephen Covey says, begin with the end in mind.

We're not done yet but now have a blueprint so get going. Monday we'll discuss some really Advanced Tactics.

Steve

More Great Advice from Chris Brogan

Steve Hartkopf - Wednesday, October 21, 2009

How to Market a Real Time Event

by Chris Brogan

Always a URL. Always

If you’re going to wire up people and connect them to an event in the real world, you need a web page of some kind or another. People need all the details. They need some kind of intangible tangible that they can pass around to point out what’s what. Give them a web page.

If it’s just a one-off, use an event system like Eventbrite. If you’re going to do this over and over, consider setting up pages on your own website of choice, and then maybe double-up with an Eventbrite to manage the signup.

Extend onto Event Sites

Here’s where you can really get things moving. If you want this event to really spread, use sites like Upcoming.org and Eventful, to name a few. If you’ve got a Facebook group, put up an event notification there. If you’ve got a LinkedIn group, and the event matches, put it up there, too.

Status, Status, Status

Without being “that guy” (and never forget, I mean this for either gender), mentioning your event is easy across your Twitter, your Facebook, your LinkedIn status, and all the other social sites that make sense to promote. A word of caution: this gets close to what feels like carpet-bombing, so go gently. In fact, out in front of such a promotional effort, make sure you’re doing your good deeds and promoting others, and sharing other good information. People don’t like a tireless self-promoter, but they don’t mind someone who shares the good stuff, even when some of it’s their own.

Email Marketing

Do you maintain an email list? Don’t forget to drop a gentle note of your event into there, too. Again, the goal is subtlety and just a gentle pointer to your URL.

Flickr and YouTube

Want to amp up your event’s pre-buzz as well as give it some love on the day of the event? Here are two things: use photos and videos for pre-event invites and promos. Then, encourage people to take photos and videos AT the event. If at all possible, make it easy for the folks who might be into making media to have something to take photos and make movies about. (A side note: if you’re bothering to throw an event with a lot of web presence, use a tag – metadata – to denote the event, for people’s blog posts, for Flickr and YouTube, and for Twitter. For instance, we’ll use #trustsummit for our event in NYC.)

Blog Posts Matter

You can do much worse than to find local bloggers and bloggers who care about the subject matter to cover the event, should they find it useful. If you’ve a budget to do so, invite some to attend in exchange for blogging anything that might be of interest to them. Realize that in the new world, bloggers are rarely obligated to do whatever you ask, and yet, if you make it interesting and worthwhile, folks love to tell a story.

Getting a few posts out about the event ahead of time, and/or after give you a lot more traction and appreciation before and after. Again, make sure the event’s worthy of coverage. If it’s just a straight product pitch or the like, that’s tricky to justify.

Twitter on the Day Of the Event

To me, Twitter’s the magic sauce in making your NEXT event really light up. It’s too late for your event by the time folks start tweeting about it, but it’s a great way to really warm up your future events. If people are tweeting that they’re having a fun time, that they’re learning, that there are still a few hours to get down to the event and have fun, magic can happy. That’s why Twitter’s the Serendipity Engine.

Is it OK to Self Promote Once in a While?

Steve Hartkopf - Wednesday, October 07, 2009
This blog has always been about helping others. We report, offer free marketing tips and share best practices. Of course, it's indirect marketing done to promote goodwill. It's also good citizenship, done to improve the community.

I'm going to be selfish today. There's a lot happening at Aligned Marketing. Here's a partial update:

  • We continue to sign up clients for search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) projects. We recommend both because SEO is like farming, it produces results (food) in weeks or months, and PPC is like hunting, Bang!, dinner. A friend of mine used SEO & PPC to grow a distributor’s online sales from $72K/month to an impressive $1.0M+ per month and counting. What recession? Smart companies are getting off the sidelines. There are still markets out there with unmet needs. Someone is going to serve them, why not you?
  • We team up with other companies to enhance our capabilities without adding fixed cost. One of those companies just completed a landmark four year study in collaboration with the University of Michigan. Over 200 companies participated in interviews and surveys that included manufacturer and distributor sales reps as well as industrial buyers. They observed over 1,000 live sales calls. From that research they developed a new approach to selling, an actual best practice process. The field test data is compelling and, I believe, can be a game-changer with the right commitment from senior management.
  • We launched a 10-day social media campaign for Aligned Marketing and increased visits to our website by 343% in the first week. Because of the way we structured the program visits will continue at the new higher level for several weeks and should remain well above our prior level into the future, assuming we don’t do anything stupid...stayed tuned.
  • Gary Vaynerchuk is a top-5 Internet celebrity who has been on Fox News, The Today Show, CNN, Conan O’Brien and several other shows. He reads my blog…surprised me too. Anyway, on October 13 his new book, Crush It!, goes on sale and as part of his promotion tour I’ll be interviewing Gary using video over the Internet. I’m excited to finally communicate with Gary live, not through email, and the technology we’ll be using is very cool. More to come.
  • My wife and I attended a convention for web-geeks in Orlando last week. There were over 400 people in attendance. While I didn’t get to speak one of the presenters put my picture up on a slide and recommended that everyone read my book. I didn’t know he was going to do that so it was a nice surprise, although seeing my face fill up two 20’ screens was weird…frightening, actually.
  • As companies prepare for 2010, and what we all hope is a year of recovery, many are using outside resources to fill gaps created by the recession and gain specialized expertise without adding fixed cost. Our approach is, "Let us help you reach your business goals." It seems to have some appeal so go ahead and borrow it if you think it will help your business.
  • This remains a very challenging time (obviously). The only way the economy is going to turn around is if we all pull together and work our collective butts off. That's what my friends are doing and that's what I'm doing. Sitting on the sidelines and waiting for things to improve will only get you left behind, it's a loser strategy. You get one shot at each day, so make the best of it!

All the best,
Steve

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