Blog

In Part One of Blogging About Blogging, we gave you a summary of good reasons to start a corporate blog. Now we’re going to give you some practical tips on actually starting one based on our own recent experience. If you’ve decided that blogging is right for you, read on… (more…)

Customers

One morning I was sitting with a client when his phone rang. He picked up the phone and had a heated conversation with the caller. He then said goodbye and slammed the phone down saying, “Customers!” Haven’t we all had that feeling? But you can’t beat listening to the customer. We recommend not only surveys, which are an excellent tool for gathering intelligence, but also face-to-face meetings where you really get to hear the good, the bad, and the ugly. You need to listen hard to your customers to improve your value proposition and avoid the commodity trap, or worse, the irrelevance trap! (more…)

According to Technorati‘s last State of the Blogosphere report, there were over 70 million blogs on the web as of April 2007. In addition, there are over 70 million blog posts about what blogs are and why you should have one. Alright, we made up that last statistic, but there really are a vast number of such posts. (Try this Google blog search: “What is a blog?“)

We wanted to write about why you or your company might want to start a blog, but because so many people have already written about the topic, we’re going to give you a short list of references to explore instead. The following sum up the pro blog argument pretty nicely. We suggest taking a look at them. But if you’re busy and want the lowdown quick and easy, just skip over the list to our summary. (more…)

A colleague once said that the derivation of the word brand came from the ownership mark on the rump of cattle. Maybe so, but today a brand is much more about what your customers and potential customers think of you. And if they like what they think, then maybe they’ll wear your tattoo.

The starting point for a brand strategy is to think about what the single most important value the company presents to the world. Does the marketplace see you in the same way? People rarely think about a brand. They think about what they need. Then they think about who can fulfill that need. It’s your responsibility to be at the top of mindshare. It’s not just about awareness, it’s about fulfillment. Build from your strengths. Articulate your unique selling proposition. (more…)

Gathering market, industry, and customer intelligence is vital for staying abreast of the latest trends and identifying new opportunities for future growth. Increasingly, companies are turning to online surveys to capture this intelligence. Benefits gained through online market research surveys include:

• assessing the effectiveness of current marketing initiatives
• identifying new market opportunities
• gaining competitive insights

Specifically, surveys give an organization the feedback to help define, create and shape its strategies. (more…)