Do you use the power of personas in your marketing? If not, you are missing out on one of the most powerful means of segmenting your customers and creating content that connects with them. Personas are composites of the vital attributes of your customer. They represent specific demographics of your key customers and these fictitious […]

Mark Willoughby and Jennifer Faherty of Modera recently invited me to speak on their inaugural episode Hard Work and Personal Responsibility of Decision Dialogues, a podcast series featuring stories from successful business owners. It was a different spin from my typical talks around marketing and branding advice. In this podcast, I get pretty personal. I talk about my varied […]

I had the pleasure of being a podcast guest on Stephan Spencer’s MARKETING SPEAK to talk about creative B2B marketing insights for developing a competitive advantage. It was great fun! thank you @StephanSpencer #marketingspeak # #b2b#contentmarketing#brand#podcast#sales. Here are a few excerpts from our conversation… When you are selling B2C, it’s a shorter sales cycle. It’s a lot more […]

How many times have you visited a website in hopes of communicating with a company directly to ask a specific question, only to be stymied by continued redirection to a FAQ page or a where’s-Waldo search for the “Contact Us” button? These kinds of experiences are all too common, and they don’t encourage consumer trust or […]

Part of my quest for better personal and personal performance, and the diagnosis that I had a very severe intolerance to wheat (and gluten) almost 20 years ago, led me on a research quest for more information, and what I could do to reverse the weight gain, and the feelings I had of being bloated, […]

Customers crave sales, but they also crave stories. How you frame your commodity, brand, and business is just as important as its price points. But, no matter how compelling, is there such a thing as too much content? Content is king, and today there are myriad channels on which you can share your company’s story […]

Many of our clients are seriously thinking about video. It seems that folks are wondering how to add video as a regular part of their marketing activities. The first thing you should know about incorporating video is that it can be an expensive endeavor. There is a large upfront investment required in terms of time, […]

No matter whether you are living through a pandemic, or not, or what your industry is—if there are human beings on any end of the transaction—you will always, always, always need to nail your customer service to succeed. I follow a set of three rules religiously to take question marks completely out of the equation so […]

How Investing in Marketing Now Makes for a Stronger Re-Opening Tomorrow Economics has always been full of give and takes, ebbs and flows, supply and demand. COVID-19 has had a shattering effect on the global economy, and now — three months and counting into this pandemic — small businesses around the world are slowly opening […]

This unprecedented time has presented many business leaders, especially small business owners, with an impossible question: how do you market services when your nonessential business has shut down? Unless your business is in the food, healthcare, or banking industries, chances are you, like millions of Americans, have been forced to just wait this out. The […]

New Jersey is rich in small businesses and big personalities — sometimes, those elements can work hand in hand. Such is the case with a beloved leader, colleague, and friend Tommy Hilcken, an entrepreneur and comedian who noticed skills that could use sharpening and a business that could flourish in the B2B world and beyond: […]

Ever since Black Friday, your inbox has been inundated with holiday deals, end-of-year sales, and unbeatable discounts. But how do you make your brand, and product, stand out when so many voices are competing for your time and dime? The holidays are an exciting and hectic time for small businesses, and it’s never been more […]