resources
Remember the old saying, “curiosity killed the cat”? Well, the lack of curiosity has done-in more than a few businesses and leadership teams. Strong questions make a big impact.
We get it. It’s a big commitment. You don’t want to invest all your time just to get hurt again. You want someone who listens and communicates, someone who supports your growth and grows with you, and most importantly, someone you can trust.
Mister Starr was my 10th grade geometry teacher. I didn’t do so well in his class. I do, however, remember him clearly reminding our class to “check your work”.
Some of the best ideas are stolen (may I more politely say borrowed).
Over 30 years ago I was a TV sales manager who called on business and ad agencies in Michigan. One agency founder had a fun title on his card, and I remembered that. Fifteen years or so later, when I started my company, I decided I wanted to have some fun with our titles, as well. Internally we all know what we do, but externally, we like to poke a little fun at the formal titles and let our experience and sunny outlook shape the language that distinguishes us.
So often in business a great deal of time is spent focusing on what we’re writing and that’s important. At the same time, it’s important to evaluate the appearance of what is written. Taking a closer look quietly makes a difference in the way copy is presented.
Recently I learned of a fellow business owner who wanted to start doing some advertising. His company had been busy for years, but recently his business had slowed down significantly. The phones weren’t ringing. The orders for work had stopped. Enter the “famine” phase of the feast-famine cycle in commerce.
And just like that, the holidays are already here! As you frantically hang the stockings with care or try to meet those 2022 goals before the new year, it's important to slow down this holiday season both in and out of the office. With these simple tips on how to unplug from work during the holidays, you'll be ready to enjoy the full experience of this season.
What’s Content Marketing? Simply put, Content Marketing is the foundation for an entire marketing and communication strategy. Content Marketing can help your website rank on search engines, position you as a subject matter expert, build your stakeholder list and engagement level, and nurture...
Some people must learn the hard way. Sometimes I’m some people.
I recently estimated that I had written over 160 of these monthly B2Seeds. Early on I emailed them from my Outlook. For well over a decade, I used the tool Constant Contact, which was fine and got the job done. Then about two years ago our company started utilizing a Marketing Automation solution called Constant Contact's Lead Gen & CRM.
The headlines are ever-present. Every day you see a story about how hard it is to find employees. For a while many thought it was the fault of the stimulus checks or people not wanting to work. Some leaders in certain industries, point to the slow downs in immigration and access to those who work in professions which are woefully short-handed.
What is happening in the sports world that applies to those of us in business and industry?
Each of us have discovered that people are fascinating. We simply need to take a little time to get to know them and then listen to what they have to say. That’s a big part of the challenge. As leaders we run from a tasks to meetings to challenges to solutions mindset. Unfortunately, it’s all too rare when we sit and just listen to people.
So often in business a great deal of time is spent focusing on what we’re writing and that’s important. At the same time, it’s important to evaluate the appearance of what is written. Taking a closer look quietly makes a difference in the way copy is presented.
Recently I learned of a fellow business owner who wanted to start doing some advertising. His company had been busy for years, but recently his business had slowed down significantly. The phones weren’t ringing. The orders for work had stopped. Enter the “famine” phase of the feast-famine cycle in commerce.
And just like that, the holidays are already here! As you frantically hang the stockings with care or try to meet those 2022 goals before the new year, it's important to slow down this holiday season both in and out of the office. With these simple tips on how to unplug from work during the holidays, you'll be ready to enjoy the full experience of this season.
The headlines are ever-present. Every day you see a story about how hard it is to find employees. For a while many thought it was the fault of the stimulus checks or people not wanting to work. Some leaders in certain industries, point to the slow downs in immigration and access to those who work in professions which are woefully short-handed.
We read about providing great customer service, but when you’re on the receiving end, man does it feel good.
Over the past five years we’ve built nearly 70 websites. Some have been from scratch, but many are conversions of sites that needed updating, a more modern look and feel, or to better reflect the shifting work our client is now doing.
I remember one in particular where our client insisted over and over that the information on their current (dated) website would simply transfer over to the new design we were doing. No matter how often we asked, we got the same answer. They would not need new copy. When we showed them...
About twenty years ago, in a city far from where my agency is located, I learned a valuable life lesson.
Gathered with me in an old room with dated furniture on a cloudy fall day were 12 people who I’d never met prior to that week. A few days before, we went through a tryout of sorts, and that was also a strange experience. I always wanted to...
Business routines are backwards these days. It used to be I’d build a relationship with someone, then they would become a client. Now, clients decide to trust us to help them and then at some point afterward we begin...
How to be a room shifter.
Where did the curiosity of our youth go?
“We’re actively recruiting for…..”
This is a phrase, or even a buzzword, that c-levelers and human resources management types often toss around without a lot of thought.
Remember the old saying, “curiosity killed the cat”? Well, the lack of curiosity has done-in more than a few businesses and leadership teams. Strong questions make a big impact.
Mister Starr was my 10th grade geometry teacher. I didn’t do so well in his class. I do, however, remember him clearly reminding our class to “check your work”.
We enjoy giving it as a gift to our clients at the holidays. I also love to meet with clients, and prospects, and potential employees as they drink it. While I feel like I should enjoy a cuppa joe, the reality is: “I do not drink coffee!”
About twenty years ago, in a city far from where my agency is located, I learned a valuable life lesson.
Gathered with me in an old room with dated furniture on a cloudy fall day were 12 people who I’d never met prior to that week. A few days before, we went through a tryout of sorts, and that was also a strange experience. I always wanted to...
People want to improve. Well, most people do anyway. They’ll talk the improvement game. They’ll go to conferences. They’ll read those books. Most will target a...
On the first night of November (which did seem weird), the Houston Astros captured their first-ever baseball World Series Championship. Just four years ago they were the laughingstock of the baseball world and had lost over 100 games – a near record for futility.
In the marketing world, we tend to be heavily focused on the next month, quarter, or year.
I will often judge how much we’ll enjoy an act at The Spot based on one natural interaction: I watch how the artist treats our magical, kind, and helpful sound engineer, Travis. If they care for him and treat him well, their performances are almost always extra enjoyable.
B2C Enterprises invests over a million dollars in media most years, while at the same time, interacting with salespeople from at least seven states. That’s a lot of business transactions and a lot of sales appointments.
Use someone else’s informative and entertaining story until you create your own to share. I did this when I was younger and I also did it seven years ago when I started my advertising agency.
They’ve ruined the process for many. Certainly they’ve made a lot of work for those who genuinely do put their prospects' best interests first. Typically when a salesperson walks through the door, the potential client leans to the position of distrust. It may be unfortunate, but it’s generally the case.
You get in and settle into your job and before you know it, the realization hits there are lots of other things that need to get done.
Every market has one of these types. Here in the Roanoke-Lynchburg television market, where our marketing firm is based, we are lucky enough to have two.
I’m talking about car dealers with terrible commercial campaigns.
No, it isn’t limited to just automotive marketing, but these guys are the...
For the past decade, I’ve noticed something that seemed kind of odd to me initially. Over time, I continued seeing this pattern and I figured it was time I identified it.
Some of the smartest people I know own companies, invent products, or find a better way to accomplish a goal. They are brilliant at what they do and have built a product or service based on some sort of genius technological solution. The work they do takes...
Years ago, I wrote about the value of “going where the eyeballs are” when it comes to advertising. It’s an age-old axiom, but as you evaluate your place in the business community, it’s one that deserves a little closer examination. If you have...
Over the years people have asked me how I decide what to write about in our monthly columns. Often it is noticing something basic and then pondering how it fits into marketing or business operations.
I have a teenager, which means I have to deal with the constant cycle of updating, repairing, and replacing of mobile phones. My normally sure-handed young man occasionally drops his...
My friend Bill from Toledo told me a story once and it has stayed with me for more than twenty years.
At the time, he was in broadcast television commercial production and, as a Black man living in America, he had a very different perspective than I did. He recalled being a kid in the early 70’s watching television and seeing...
In real estate there’s an old saying: only three things matter – location, location, location. It’s funny how that same adage has an application in the...
Football teams have evolved their rosters through the years – just like baseball teams did years before. You have short yardage runners, nickel backs, receivers who only play on third downs, and kickers who are especially talented at...
I’ve said it so many times lately – mostly as a sort of a preparation for what is to come for our prospective new clients. The more marketing you do, the more there is...
It’s an observation and it isn’t the case in every circumstance. For more than two decades I managed sales departments in the...
I’m convinced some ads are invisible. Well, they certainly take up space or air, but they get skipped or ignored more than...
Way back in the olden days, the proverbial shot of the storekeeper with a broom at his front step, apron tied around his waist, seemed to be...
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Galaxys, iPhones, Google Pixels, and the sort produce so many great memories. After all, without them, how would...
My Dad calls them “destructions”. You know – the printed papers that come with most electronic items or things that need to be put together. Detailed explanations of...
There’s a new brewery in downtown Roanoke. In fact, there are like six new breweries in our hip, small city. We’re the up-and-coming craft brewing mecca of the east coast with...
For years now, my creative team has been inserting clever images or photographs into...
About a year and a half ago we hired a business development person at our marketing and advertising firm. It was a big step for me since prior to that time...
There are patterns in every part of commerce. It’s easier to be robotically repetitive and as businesspeople, shoppers, or office workers, we tend to continue doing what we’re most comfortable with.
It’s so easy in the sales process to nod your head, agree with the prospect, and work to keep the peace. After all, it feels better and what kind of position are you in to object or share strong opinions when you’re trying to start a business relationship with someone? The answer is the best position.
Early on I was going to be a reporter – a television sports reporter, actually. I think someone told me I had a face for radio and, eventually, economics and life caused me to shift from journalism to capitalism.
At a recent meeting, I was both listening and minding my own business when the word came drifting across the table. One of my favorite clients told a co-worker I was a “blob”.
Last year we started an advertising campaign in a local newspaper for our advertising agency. Not many businesses in our area of specialty actually advertise very much so it was a significant move.
When certain people hear the word salesperson, or seller, or account representative, they get kind of a yucky feeling or feel their stomach turn. Perhaps it’s because I spent most of my adult life observing, training, and coaching sellers, I have a general warmth or kindness for those in that profession.
Sales blames Marketing and Marketing blames Sales. Either the leads or prospects the sales people are getting from marketing aren't any good, or the leads are great, but those danged sellers can't seem to close any business.
A few years ago, I realized I had started a company without having a full understanding of the best systems to put in place. As the firm grew, things were done in ways that seemed to make the most sense.
For the past few years we've been doing work for Boxley Materials Company. This isn't a piece about one of our clients, rather an interesting study in how business development, building a network of referring partners, and the power of the internet has made our really big world incredibly small.
You can scurry from task to task - even cross off the plentiful items on your "To Do" list - but that doesn't mean you are successfully navigating your day or the priorities that come with genuine business.
Generally speaking, as we go about our days trying to pay it forward, we are greeted with appreciation and sometimes even acknowledgement. That feels good and it's one of the reasons (if we are honest) many of us help others. Helping others just feels good.
When you connect people to others you help both parties. Yes, that's a simple concept. If you want to grow your business, one of the best first steps you can take is selflessly and purposefully linking others.
Have you ever been at a party, or perhaps the coffee shop, when you run across someone you know and you just cannot remember their name? Of course you have - it happens to all of us.
When I arrived in Toledo, Ohio in 1997 as a sales manager at an ABC owned TV station, the top local advertisers in the market were primarily established, well-known retailers.
Where did the curiosity of our youth go?
You’re always marketing. There’s no rest. It doesn’t matter if you are a start-up, a tech company, a retailer, a home services expert, or anything else. Whatever you do in business or industry, you’re always marketing yourself.
It’s been well documented in past B2Seeds that I wasn’t the best math pupil. In fact, I never even made it to high school calculus. It certainly didn’t help that we weren’t allowed to use calculators on tests. I do remember wondering why I had to work out those problems by hand when my calculator could do it for me!
When I started this company 14 years ago, Public Relations wasn’t a focal point of our new firm. Back in those days, we farmed out press releases, press conferences, and even media training. My background was in the television media business, so I was more focused on the advertising side of things in our industry.
Some of the best ideas are stolen (may I more politely say borrowed).
Over 30 years ago I was a TV sales manager who called on business and ad agencies in Michigan. One agency founder had a fun title on his card, and I remembered that. Fifteen years or so later, when I started my company, I decided I wanted to have some fun with our titles, as well. Internally we all know what we do, but externally, we like to poke a little fun at the formal titles and let our experience and sunny outlook shape the language that distinguishes us.
Over the past five years we’ve built nearly 70 websites. Some have been from scratch, but many are conversions of sites that needed updating, a more modern look and feel, or to better reflect the shifting work our client is now doing.
I remember one in particular where our client insisted over and over that the information on their current (dated) website would simply transfer over to the new design we were doing. No matter how often we asked, we got the same answer. They would not need new copy. When we showed them...
A budget is a plan.
That’s all it should be.
Let’s be honest at the start of 2020 people were not calculating how to incorporate the adjustment that would come from a worldwide pandemic. No matter what type of industry in which you operate, there were far-reaching ramifications and everyone had to adjust. The budget situates you for success, growth, and should allow you to figure...
From all accounts, Zoom calls are going to remain a part of the business day.
For years companies ran WebEx, Teams, and other video conference meetings, but it wasn’t until 2020 that we all started playing in that arena on a regular (read: daily, or even hourly) basis. That shift was startling to many...
Late last year something happened in my business’ sales cycle and it got me thinking.
To support another organization, I placed a call to a friend of mine whom I had known for about a dozen years. In the course of the conversation about this other topic, he asked me about marketing and advertising. He wondered how we help clients...
The year was 2003 and sequels were all the rage – The Lord of the Rings, Matrix, and Terminator movie series were topping the box office. Speaking of Terminators, it was that year that Arnold Schwarzenegger became California’s Governor too. The government was...
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