A newspaper headline is written in large letters, and is supposed to indicate the content of the article. Front page headlines are the most important, as they need to be eye catching enough to snare the interest of passers-by. You can probably see where I’m going with this. Our own company sells services to help (mainly) software developers increase their … Read More
Why won’t website visitors do what I want?
Pulling-in targeted visitors to your website is relatively easy. There’s Google AdWords, AdCenter, press releases, twitter, blogs and hundreds of other opportunities for jumping in front of the right people and waving your arms around so they don’t forget you. Getting them to stay, however, is more difficult. Many small and medium-sized companies make the mistake of too many assumptions. … Read More
Embrace the disposable customer
In days gone by, it was considered good business practice to treat your customers well. They were handled promptly, courteously and with genuine respect. Thank goodness those days over. Today’s customers are disposable. As soon as their credit card details have been processed we can cut them off, forget about them, and ignore them when they need our help. Why? … Read More
Clarity: -=+
We’re all busy and we’re all overloaded. So get to the point. What can you do for me? What solution do you sell? I know what my company sells. We sell money at a lower price. You pay me $1,000 and I generate $1,500 in sales. I sell expertise that generates cash. I sell sales. What do you have for … Read More
The only four letter word that improves sales
I can’t think of a single product or service that isn’t improved by easy. Easy doesn’t mean simple, doesn’t mean basic and doesn’t mean less. It means that whatever you want to achieve can be accomplished with minimal effort. Easy doesn’t threaten quality, power, efficiency, functionality or speed. It’s one of the most effective four letter words that you can … Read More
M is for Mac, Marketing and Madness
At this year’s Software Industry Conference in Boston, USA, I gave a presentation on The A to Z of Online Marketing. Letter M dealt with the Mac. Chances are that you don’t have or use a Mac, and aside from seeing them in a store, you probably only know one or two people who have one. I’m guessing they’ve already … Read More
Make your website work for you – CNN vs. BBC
The new CNN website is scheduled to go live next Monday, and a TechCrunch article gives us some details and screenshots of what’s to come. The New CNN.com (First Screenshots) I don’t really visit CNN for news, but have always found the similarities (and differences) between their main navigation and that of the BBC News website oddly interesting. CNN’s is … Read More
Google vs. Yahoo – the pyramid of realism
Google recently announced a year-on-year 7% increase in revenue, with profits up $25 million. Not bad for a recession. Yahoo, meanwhile, just announced (or tried not to) a 12% decline in quarterly revenue, with a 19% decline in search-ad revenue year-on-year. Paid search appears to have three contenders, in theory. Yet the charts speak for themselves: Google: Microsoft: Yahoo: At … Read More
Marketing Q & A plus free exposure
In 24 days I’ll be speaking once again at the European Software Conference in Berlin, this time on Google AdWords and also the subject of online marketing. I’ve been working in online marketing since 1997, and have spoken at conferences in the United States, Russia, Germany, France, Belgium and the United Kingdom. As I’ve had the pleasure of working with … Read More
Cybercrime opportunity and lessons learnt from Norton
The anti-virus companies are the unsung heroes of the modern PC. Back in the day when “normal, everyday people” were only starting to think about buying a PC for home use, the anti-virus companies were ramping up their marketing efforts. And by the time PCs for the home had become a norm, anti-virus software had been transformed from a paranoid-geek’s … Read More
