Effective b2b Marketing Follows Branding

Why Marketing Strategy Must Grow Out of Branding Strategy

My client Suzanne Tulien of The Brand Ascension Group and I violently agree about something - effective marketing comes after a firm establishes its brand identity. Suzanne talks about “Brand DNA”, which is a fabulous metaphor, because truly, the brand has to be in an organization’s bones before it can mean anything to customers.

So much of b2b marketing, alas, is a brand-less recital of features and benefits. A marketer can only do so much with that kind of raw material. Let’s take the hypothetical ABC Company that sells…

Use Hyphens, Not Underscores, in URLs

Content Optimization Details

Hyphens versus Underscores in URLs

Google recognizes a hyphen as a word separator, but does not recognize an underscore as a word separator. That being the case, dashes should always be used in URLs so that Google and other search engines can read each word separately.

For instance, if you are trying to optimize for the keyphrase chicago financial planner,

Google reads www.xyz/chicago_financial_planner as chicagofinancialplanner.
Google reads www.xyz/chicago-financial-planner as chicago financial planner.

Although there is debate about whether underscores in URLs affect search results, I think the evidence in favor of using hyphens in URLs is very strong. And while some SEO specialists assert…

Blogs and the Fear of Going Naked in Front of Competitors

Why Revealing Content and Comments Shouldn’t Worry Business Bloggers

A popular reason companies put off the inevitable blogging is fear that competitors will read their material and customer comments. Of all the reasons not to launch a business blog, I think this is the weakest. Here’s my argument.

Your business skills won’t desert you when you start a business blog. Most business leaders I know fancy themselves as quite astute. Most of them are right. If your firm is putting out high quality sales collateral, public relations stories, and a strong website, those communication skills will carry over into social…

The Branding Power of Search Engine Optimization

When people think of search engine optimization (SEO) - the art and science of making your web pages rank highly on search engines - they usually think of precise, tactical activities aimed at specific sets of keyword phrases. SEO is all that, but it can serve another purpose, one that may be more significant than driving traffic to a web page to sell a particular product or service.

I’m talking about branding.

What is the cumulative effect of having customers in your niche see your company’s name over and over again when they search for anything…

How to Design a Leaflet

Can a Leaflet Design Be So Bad, It’s Good?

Here’s a little case study you may find helpful for designing and writing leaflets and other one-page promotional materials.

A few days ago, I found a leaflet under my windshield that was so cluttered and confusing, I spent about half an hour studying it. Maybe that’s what the creators wanted - a leaflet that was so difficult to read, readers would not be able to resist the challenge of reading it.

Let’s start with the content. I’ll show you the raw content first, then show you how they styled it.

Raw Content

Invitation
Blessing…

Teaching and Learning at JJL

Today you can find me at Joyful Jubilant Learning, where I posted on Learning to Teach, Teaching to Learn.

JJL is a group blog where we write about all things related to learning. JJL is personal, educational, sometimes amusing, often times quite serious. If you’ve never checked it out, please take a look.

Match Your Motif to Your Message

Marshall McLuhan famously said, The medium is the message.” In terms of website design and message strategy, we could also say, “The motif is the message.”

To illustrate, here’s a story a friend of mine from the world of advertising told me. Apparently this is a famous story in advertising circles.

Imagine you are driving down a tree lined country road. You see a dirt road leading up to an old, somewhat run down farmhouse. On a weathered, old piece of wood, you see a sign nailed to a tree - SWEET CORN.

Now, if you had…

5000 Comments for Word Sell

Earlier this week my blog racked up its 5000th comment.

Thank you, one and all, for making Word Sell a place for lively conversation. Many times, your conversation is far more helpful and interesting than my post, which is A-OK as far as I’m concerned. Over the last year or so, the Word Sell community has begun to feel like a real family. I miss you when you’re away, and I can’t wait to read your comment when it pops up in my email box. Getting to know you has made me a better writer, a better marketer, and a…

9 Important Parts of a Business Blog

In terms of design and functionality, certain business blogs are so bare bones, they look like a ghost town. Others are so loaded up with bells and whistles they look like a carnival. Somewhere in between is where you want to be. Whatever else you do, include these 9 features on your business blog.

1. Subscribe to comments. If you want conversation, you have to make it easy for people to converse. Comment subscription allows readers to get email updates of new comments made on individual blog posts. Result? More repeat comments, real conversations, deeper conversations.

2. Full RSS feeds. Partial RSS feeds provide…

Different Audience Temperaments Require Different Presentation Styles

Have you experienced the following?

• You’re at a non-interactive presentation where the audience is bored stiff
• You’re at a non-interactive presentation where the audience is mesmerized
• You’re at an interactive presentation where nobody wants to talk or knows what to say
• You’re at an interactive presentation where everybody talks and amazing ideas pop up everywhere

Certainly, these various outcomes are largely dependent on the presenter. That’s why scads of books and blogs are dedicated to creating and delivering highly effective presentations.

But these outcomes also depend on the temperament of the audience. Some people are interacters - they like conversation, a back and forth exchange of ideas…

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