The Death of SEO?

According to one CEO out of the UK, yes!  Reading over his position, I do have to say, he does have a point.  This could be one more direct marketing tool that came fast and burned just as fast.  Having played around with SEO myself, I know over the years has become, more and more [...]

The Storm of the Century, a Lesson in Buzz

I’m alive, I made it!  Yes it wasn’t really that hard, the so called storm of the century here in
Minnesota turned out to be the hype of the season.  Expected to get 16 inches of snow in a day, we really only ended up with 8 inches over the entire weekend.  I do have to [...]

Reversing the 80/20 Rule

Once, a long time ago, I had a really interesting opportunity.  I was working on a project where I was actually analyzing the marketing and sales of various competitors who let me look at their books.  This doesn’t happen everyday so it was rather unique.  They did like most companies, followed the idea that 80% [...]

Making Recruiting a Competitive Advantage Part 2

Second, how you interact with candidates is an area of branding.  Some companies use recruiters, check them out, see if their methods are candidate friendly.  I’ve had recruiters tell me a salary on the phone, only to find out it’s $25k less when we got serious.  Or the ever fun, they call you all excited [...]

Marketing Metrics Part 2

Today marketing metrics have evolved from various schools of thought.  There are four big ones out there that essentially operate as independent islands.  Consumer marketing metrics, product marketing metrics, direct/database marketing metrics and Internet marketing metrics.  Each area has their own set of tools used to define how they see the world via quantified data.  [...]

Making Recruiting A Competitive Advantage Part 1

Companies spend millions cultivating the right image they see as ideal for them.  They spend millions on branding, promotions, R&D and training.  They spend millions on training sales reps and customer service reps.  They spend millions on consultants to help them have the best service so that customers are happy and come back for more [...]

Passion For the Art of Business

Passion, it makes the world go round.  People have passion for the things they do, the people they love, the places they go.  So much of the world today exists because of passion.  Much of what is admired in the world was created by passion.  So why do so many in business work so hard [...]

Changing the Hiring Process – Making it Better

In 2005, Fast Company published an article called Why We Hate HR.  It received a lot of attention, both for and against what the article was saying.  I think what a lot of people were really saying is, it’s not HR we don’t like, it’s the process of hiring that we know is fundamentally broken [...]

The Evolution of Marketing Metrics, Part 1

In marketing we love to use military terms to talk about what we do.  We launch campaigns and use tactical and strategic planning; we talk of deploying our resources.  So in keeping with the military theme, I thought I’d talk about the evolution of the latest weaponry to hit the marketing arsenal and how it [...]