As I was scratching my head, committed to writing a blog post, but not committed to a topic, I ran across a great article by a Twitter friend of mine, Adam Baker, called “How NOT to Suck at Blogging…” Well, I definitely don’t want to suck at blogging, and I don’t want my customers and blog readers to suck at blogging, so I was intrigued. Now the article itself is more about blogging for monetization (whereas most of my readers and clients are blogging for busines... Read Full Story

This video is proof that B2B company videos don’t have to be boring!  Companies can create something that people want to share — and they can get their core message across at the same time. By the way, thanks to Robert Lesser for sharing his Direct Impact Now blog on LinkedIn, which linked to the Bnet Sales Machine blog that posted this YouTube video.  I bet Kadient gets more mileage and more customers from this video than from 1000 hours of telemarketing. But social media market... Read Full Story

Later this month, I’ll be speaking at The Partner Event, an annual Microsoft Dynamics partner sales and marketing conference held in Fargo, ND.  One of my presentations is called Irresistible ISV Marketing. (It sounds irresistible, doesn’t it?!) Having been on the Microsoft Dynamics partner side of things, I have my own perspective on what makes ISV marketing irresistable OR irritating, but I want to hear your opinions as well.  I started asking my clients and friends about their ... Read Full Story

Thanks to a handful of blogs that were well search engine optimized for the keywords “dog poisoning” and “hop poisoning in dogs”, I was able to quickly figure out that my sweet little dog Roxy was probably poisoned by the hop plants growing in our new backyard.   Who knew?  Not me.  Not even the vet.  There are only a handful of documented cases of hop poisoning in dogs out there. Our dog Roxy was poisoned, and almost killed, by hops plants growing in our backyard. Bu... Read Full Story

Routines make it easy to live your life effortlessly. I would bet that every morning you do pretty much the same thing in the same order. Get up. Shower. Check email. Drive a regular route to work. After time, your routines become so ingrained that you stop thinking about them - until you want to or need to change them.Most of the time when I work with clients, we’re setting up a marketing system. We figure out what they need to do every day, every week, every month and every year to bu... Read Full Story

Public speaking is a phenomenally powerful marketing tool.  I often tell clients to join local and trade associations - which is a good marketing strategy in of itself.  But the power of belonging to a group is multiplied tenfold if you can share your knowledge, get up and speak in front of the groups you belong to.  Public speaking provides a golden opportunity to market your business - but it’s often overlooked as a marketing tool because people fear public speaking.  You have to rem... Read Full Story

The other day I was using Adobe Illustrator to design a logo.  Normally, I pass on this work to one of my go-to graphic designers (always a good call) but this was a special project and I had a strong idea of what I wanted.  I’m not a bad designer, but I’m a slow one.  Seriously, I’d make about $1/hour if I did graphic design myself.   You have to know what you’re good at, right?  I can whip out a press release or a case study in no time, but design - nope, I belabor e... Read Full Story

Looking for a little creative inspiration to spice up your marketing efforts?  The whole Mighty Optical Illusions website is pretty fascinating, but particularly their attention-getting ads and billboards sections. You may not be advertising on billboards, but certainly you can get some good ideas for thinking “out of the box” and getting creative with your marketing.  Optical illusions create memorable marketing!  If you want to see more pictures like this one:             ... Read Full Story

You know I’m a big fan of “systems” - accounting systems, marketing systems - pretty much anything that will make life faster, better and more organized. I feel compelled to share this brilliant marketing / operations strategy Walgreens just deployed.  When I went to pick up my prescriptions this month, I was offered an auto-refill service.  What a idea!  It’s so brilliant and completely obvious that some Walgreens executive is probably knocking his or her own forehead... Read Full Story

VARs, Systems Integrators, Solutions Providers, IT Consultants, and their Channel Partners should enjoy a good laugh watching this video.   It’s Friday.  You deserve it! When I grow up, I want to be a CRN Channel Champion… Read Full Story