3rd Grade Marketing for the 2020 Election

Lost my attempt to stay away from politics, as we approach the US elections, when I picked my son up from school this week. I’m a big L Libertarian who believes the best government is a small government, so I follow elections with the hope that one or another of the candidates will actually deliver […]

Content is (still) king

Quickly… what’s the most important component of Search Engine Optimization. <Jeopardy music and annoying ticking sound> psst. look in the post title while Alex Trebek isn’t looking! Answer… content! I just wrote a 9 page detailed site analysis report only to throw it away and draw up a one page recommendation. In fact it only […]

Quickie Tip #7 – Choose your (SEO) words carefully

Checking my referrer logs I found a Google referral from a somewhat strange (to me) search term. “paint a vivid word picture disney ads” The power of Google is that you can be found even if there’s no apparent relevance, at least initially – the listing has since dropped from Google’s #1 SERP (Search Engine […]

What I did Before the Internet – A Story to My Son

“Daddy?” Big 8-year old brown eyes accompany an innocent question, “What did you do before the Internet?” How do you answer such a straight forward question? Personally I lived, breathed, worked and generally did most of what I do now, with one big difference… far more of my day 15 years ago was spent in […]

Building the Perfect Community

I’d like to apologize in advance for the deception in the title. Even though Plymouth, MN comes close (it just won best place to live in America)  there is no ‘perfect’ community either on or offline. But there are certain similarities in *almost* perfect communities that contribute to their success that we can look at as components to include […]

The Six C’s of eCommerce Clarity

First, apologies to diamond lovers everywhere. A recent engagement as VP of Global eCommerce at a company with ‘diamond’ in it’s name had me looking for an easy way to describe the roles and goals of the department whilst tying into the name and brand of the company. For those in the know, the traditional […]

Common Brand Promise = Common Brand?

I was talking to a successful friend of mine today who was inferring that to be successful in business all one has to do is deliver perfection, (or better than anyone else) on time. I agree to an extent, this is, after all a brand promise – “We deliver great product, within your timeframe” – […]

What does business have to do with choosing a boat?

I was at a birthday party today (yes, Im on *that* circuit), and another dad and I were chatting about sailing (one of my passions) and boats. He was a ‘stink pot‘ afficianado, and I prefer the thrill of the wind in my hair and the wind in the sails. So after some friendly ribbing […]

Apple does it right. Apple does it wrong.

As far as marketing, few companies do more and / or do it better than Apple. I have an iPod. I have 3 iPods, but who’s counting 🙂 When Apple launches products, they do it with flair and showmanship, they produce products that people *desire* not necessarily need. So when an Apple Store opened nearby, […]

Perception – unreal or realized?

There is no way that I can’t mention perception in any online marketing blog. (There’s a double negative there, for those English majors out there). Bottom line is perception drives consumers. Marketing influences perception. Word of mouth influences perception. Advertising influences perception. Perception, above anything else, drives people to buy one product or service over […]