Marketing wasn’t supposed to be a zero-sum game. Your competitor bought a TV commercial, you bought a TV commercial. They bought radio time, you bought radio time. Even if they bought every available second of radio time on one station, you could buy time on another, or go to a completely different medium. That promoted [...]

We’ve all seen it happen. An employee is doing killer work, initiating great ideas, and displaying a willingness to take on larger projects. The employee is quickly promoted to a manager position. But while this top employee has excelled at the tactical parts of the job, he or she has never managed a team before. [...]

Conventional wisdom dictates that working in teams is often the best way to accomplish a task. Many hands make light work, a bundle of sticks cannot be broken, etc. Particularly with large, complex projects, there is just no way one person can accomplish everything on their own. We can’t possibly know everything, or be experts [...]

The University of Washington Web Council invited me to talk about search and internet marketing yesterday. This was my presentation. It steals liberally from lots of great marketers, like Seth Godin, David Ogilvy and John Caples. Oh, and Gary Gygax. I gotta give credit where credit is due. But who can do marketing these days [...]

Great marketing should be mouthwatering, scrumptious, and satisfying. Don’t you want customers pining for your next email, devouring every bit of information, and anxiously awaiting more? We don’t always think about marketing in terms of a delicious meal, but restaurants and marketers ultimately have the same goals. Give customers a taste of something yummy, satisfy [...]

100% pure ranty Monday goodness: 1: Some of us know what we’re doing It’s true! You can find internet marketers who know what they’re doing with a simple question: “Do you guarantee your work?” If they say yes, flee immediately. If they say no, follow with “Can you do link building for me?” If they [...]

We live in a culture of YES. Positive reinforcement abounds. Grade school kids get awards simply for participating. Everyone is special. Encouragement is great, don’t get me wrong. Accolades are a big part of what motivates us in life. In the business world, however, this can translate into dangerous decision making. Fear of killing creativity, [...]

When he’s not streaking through the Danger Zone on an Impossible Mission, the world’s biggest movie star (yes, still arguably) veers Far and Away from his core competency, occasionally taking a mega-risk with his Eyes Wide Shut. Corniness of that opening sentence aside, Tom Cruise makes for a compelling model of how to run a [...]

We all know that the Super Bowl is the Super Bowl of, well, Super Bowls.  It’s even MORE super for mega-brands with colossal marketing budgets, fancy Hollywood contacts and burping frogs.  But not everyone is a Coke… Or even a Pepsi.  Consequently, if you’re a mid-sized business looking to maximize your advertising dollars this Sunday, [...]

“I want this to go viral.” If you are a client, you’ve said it. If you’re a marketer, you’ve heard it and (most likely) cringed. We want your content to go viral as badly as you do, but the public can be fickle and there are no guarantees. Or are there? The Viral Video Manifesto [...]