Welcome to my website! As an experienced marketing and product management professional, I'm exploring the latest in business development techniques, technology and design. And I'm always looking for something new in The Arts. Please enjoy and I hope you find a spark that inspires you!
Product Management. Marketing. Branding. Project Management. Social Media. Digital Marketing. Advertising. Market Research.
In a Harvard Business Review article last week, author Sinan Aral points out What Digital Ads Get Wrong and talks about the “Conversion Fallacy” by explaining the difference between ‘lift’ and ‘conversion.’ Click to read if you are looking to target people who are not already your most loyal customers. Thank you Sinan!
The Marketing Sherpa this weeks brings us Lead Generation Confessions with 17 B2B and B2C marketers in different industries. As they point out, normally you might get this info over drinks at a marketing conference, hard to do these days. Thanks to the team for some interesting thought starters.
In this great article in Marketing Daily, Dave Edelman defines consumer journey as “the sequences of touchpoints people have throughout their purchase, usage, and service experiences.” He makes a great case for journey analytics to become integral to building a competitive advantage. You Can’t be Customer Centric if You Can’t See!
Great <5 minute read on the importance of content in eCommerce strategy from James Bourne, editor in chief of TechForge Media. The focus on “everything you do needs to drive conversions” is spot-on from my experience.
Topping off one of the craziest year in our lifetimes is the holiday shopping season. Retailers are no doubt holding their breath hoping that decisions they made 6-9 months ago will pay-off. As Tiffany K. Schreane, a marketing professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and Borough Manhattan Community College, notes in this great article it really …
After reading Chrissy Teigen’s heartfelt post on Medium this week, I took a breath and paused, thinking about that old saying, “be nice to the person (standing next to you, serving you lunch, scanning your groceries, etc.) because you never know what they are going through.” Then, as a marketer, I went on to explore more on Medium and sought …
Kudos to Anna Bredava who posts a monthly round-up on what’s happening in social media. You may have seen some of what she includes in a headline sometime during the month, but she always has a good “put it in perspective” statement. And, honestly, many of her topics are things I missed. All around, worth checking every month. Here’s a …
Despite the increasing politicizing of masks, some businesses are not shying away from the branding opportunity they present. But I’m with Jeremy Parker, co-founder of Swag.com, quoted in the article, “It is frankly a weird product to sell — masks. You go to swag for fun,” while masks are for safety. Swag.com is donating 10 masks for every 100 it …
For all the uncertainty in the market right now due to the pandemic, companies would be smart to focus on using this as an opportunity to strengthen their brand. We’ll see companies that thrive, and some that unfortunately may flounder, in their attempts to maintain relevance and market share. I’m sharing this post by Kathryn Spitzberg Johnson, a partner at …
Here’s the latest from Google on their plan to supply credits to small and medium-sized businesses beginning in July. Your business is eligible if you spent with a Google Ads account in ten out of twelve months of 2019, and in January and/or February of this year. The credit could be as much as $1,000 and the good news is that …
As we hunker down here in Florida hoping for the best, it’s a great time to look for new opportunities, new ways of thinking because, frankly the old ways may not work as good anymore. I’m sharing this article by the Forbes Agency Council as some great thought starters. My Fav is #11 “Cannabis Outdoor Advertising Nationwide” for the reinforcement …
Twitter has been test driving new ways to fight tweets both misinformative (inaccurate, but not necessarily ill-intended) and disinformative (intentionally misleading.). One possible method, is flagging tweets with Snopes-style badges if they’re deemed “harmfully misleading.” A a 2019 Gallup poll shows that only 41% of Americans trust mass media. “On one hand, I love that when something’s false, we’re finding a …
Michael Brenner from Marketing Insider Group posts a great list of upcoming events. As he notes, “Attending a marketing conference is a great opportunity to learn about up-and-coming trends and new technology in the industry, network with peers, brands, and vendors, and just stir up a bit of new inspiration and enthusiasm for your work.” Check out the list here
The Slack blog is great at looking at the many facets of teamwork and how it impacts the business. In this post BCG’s Nadjia Yousif talks about how to create a better relationship between your people and your tech. bit.ly/32XAB0a
Thanks to Armnando Roggio for some great ideas. My favorite is Look-ahead posts. Going to try and implement that with my B2C marketing in Q1
The American economy slowed at the end of 2018 — and there could be a further slowdown to come. Gross domestic product — the broadest measure of goods and services produced in the United States — grew at a 2.6 percent annual rate in the final three months of last year, the Commerce Department said Thursday. The White House expects the roughly 3 …
Great Blog post by Cantos Cory Schmidt includes one that I think many marketers overlook, “Develop Your Brand Internally” bit.ly/2PP0Twc
Not only does this post get many of the techniques right, it also has a couple of interesting case studies as examples. I always enjoy reading posts by Kellie Wong, Senior Content Marketing Manager at Achievers bit.ly/3ate65C
This month I completed my online coursework and passed the certification test to become a Professional Certified Marketer PCM.® From the American Marketing Association, “When you have the letters PCM behind your name, you’re showing the world you’re serious about making a difference in marketing. With the American Marketing Association Professional Certified Marketer (PCM®) program, you’ll not only gain the knowledge you need …
I’ll admit I’m a sucker for lists, but as a consumer it’s a great way to learn things fast and as a marketer it’s a great way to get your message across to a busy audience. Thank you Engage2Excel’s Melissa Meunier for indulging my love of lists. http://bit.ly/38t6LSd
This is one of those articles that starts right up front with a list of what’s included in the article. This is helpful because when you start talking about Adwords, you don’t always know your audiences’ level of expertise. I’m a believer that there’s always something new to learn. For me it was “Smart Bidding.” Hope you find something interesting …
This covers a lot of ground in understanding the largest group of consumers today. Just one highlight from this article: marketing to this cohort will increasingly focus on promotions through apps and texting. Article by David Roe from CMS Wire bit.ly/2vGL8jZ
Thanks Nathan Ellering for a solid post with lot’s of references. But I think the best part is at the end, “four methods you could try to find the perfect social media posting frequency for your following.” #3 is the best advice on this and anything else frankly; Test, Test, Test, and Test.
Next week is the annual Florida Film Festival presented by the Enzian and sponsored by Full Sail University, Orange County Government. I always look forward to the short films and documentaries, as those are hard to see any other time of the year in Central Florida. Check out their schedule
I think most of us who are proud of where they work and want to promote their brand want to share the successes of our employer in social media. But for many, clear guidelines have never been provided on what should be shared or even, whether it should be shared at all. A recent study of global corporations caught my …
Thanks to David Zinger, employee engagement speaker for sharing John Junson’s funny take on employee engagement.
Lynn McCreery of the The Ken Blanchard Companies gives four tips for managers to help people develop and move forward in this post.
Southwest Airlines is incorporating employees into the creative decision making process to create a culture that truly reflects the personality of the company’s employees. An article from Jaia Thomas in Entrepreneur magazine explains.
Since the introduction of banner ads in 1994 on HotWired.com their effectiveness has been hotly debated by consumers who complain how they slow down page loads and advertisers who count on the high volume model to book a positive ROI. In an article in today’s print NYTimes, Farhad Manjoo posits the banner ad is in decline simply because the medium …
If you’ve ever experienced a sudden downturn in your web traffic and can’t pinpoint a specific reason make sure to ask your SEO manager whether a Google algorithm update may be the culprit. Although Google hasn’t confirmed changes to their updates or algorithm refreshes in the past, savvy marketers spot them when they occur. In theory if you are following …
Actually, I have two twitter accounts, @LauraSpear and @StartingSparks. One day, @StartingSparks received a tweet from @LauraSpear about a fairly interesting topic. Problem was, I had not posted a tweet that day. When I went in to check, sure enough, the link it took me to was a not very reputable promotion. I deleted the tweet, changed my password for …
Thank you to Robin Carey and the team at Social Media Today for today’s webinar, “Allocating Resources Across The Marketing Mix: Where to Spend Socially.” Don Bulmer at Shell and Monica Peterson at Toyota made compelling cases for how social media is changing as part of the media mix. My favorite slide was Ms Peterson’s clear, concise summary of the the roles social …
Camps have always been a good place to take a break from your day-to-day commitments to explore something new and make new friends. Leave it to Google to sponsor a camp on steroids in Sicily with elite guests from the finance and tech world to have, as William Alden describes in today’s New York Times, “high-minded discussions of global issues.” He …
More news on medical monitoring using technology. Google[x], a team within Google, today announced it has licensed it’s “smart lens” technology to Alcon (Novartis). On January 16 of this year, Google introduced it’s Smart Contact Lens Project in a blog post noting they were in the “early days of this technology” and “in discussions with the FDA.” Now Novartis is ready …
If you’re like me, looking for ways to engage current customers and expand your reach, this note from Travis Bernard on LinkedIn might spark a new idea for you. He lists a few polling tools and provides a little info about each at the end of his piece. If you are researching polling tools, I would also add Polldaddy, Poutsch and Ranker …
As a follow-up to my June 3 post about Apple’s HealthKit I thought I would share a somewhat pessimistic (although hopeful) view of the market by researcher and author Aaron E. Carroll published today in the NYTimes “Apple’s HealthKit Probably Won’t Bring a New Age” He ID’s the barriers he sees as long-term obstacles: Lack of communication between information systems Patient Behavior Physician …
The Accelerators, a feature in the Wall Street Journal online, brings together a team of 24 mentors who discuss strategies and the challenges of creating a new business. More about them in a minute. According to the US Gov’t ‘s latest figures, in 2010 99.7% of US business are classified as small business with less than 500 employees. And of that 52% …
Apple kicked-off it’s Worldwide Developers Conference yesterday in San Francisco and the sessions focus on a wide variety of topics including App Frameworks, Location and Motion, Graphics and Games, Media and whole lot more. You can watch the session videos if you are on a Mac or if you download the WWDC app What brought my attention to the conference …
It’s the first week of my latest MOOC from Coursera Understanding Media by Understanding Google taught by Owen R. Youngman of Northwestern University. As a 6 week course the content necessarily moves quickly but it doesn’t feel like a typical class at all because the topics are so relevant to my everyday projects. Enrollment is still open but if you can’t get …
Welcome Back Orlando Fringe Festival! Since 1992, Orlando has hosted what is now the longest running Fringe in the US! According to the Fringe’s own website: Fringe is a festival or, rather, a celebration of the theatrical and performing arts. The Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival takes place in and around Loch Haven Park over the course of the thirteen …
I’ve known about Hubspot, an Inbound Marketing Platform, for a few years now but was taking a closer look at their offerings for a client recently. They offer software to manage all your marketing activities like Blogging, SEO, Email, Lead Management and Analytics all in one place. While I was on their site, I found their Marketing Resources Library, a really cool source …
The U Can Finish 5 miler & 2 miler presented by Florida Hospital date has been set for October 19th this year on the UCF campus. Of all the road races I’ve run, this one is special because it was my first ever race back in 2010. I think the race date was 10/10/10 that year. Anyway, I had just started …
At every company I have worked at I have tried to educate my team on the basic concepts of focus on the features/benefits and value proposition. This article from brandmarketingpsychology.com however, takes the discussion even further in a very articulate way, Branding Psychology Insights: How Consumers REALLY View Your Brand. I especially like the two rules for your brand strategy …
Web Bots have been around for a long time and in some cases have legitimate, practical purposes for the users. Nick Bilton in a April 20 New York Times piece “Friends, and Influence, for Sale Online,” gives an update look at bots being used to pump up statistics and in some cases affect social behavior online. Have you ever chosen …
Everyday promptly at 8:30 am I receive a phone call from Unknown Name, Unknown Number. On the days I’m game for a little conversation I answer and well, one of these days I’m going to know who exactly is calling. But in the 8 or 9 times I’ve tried to find out the name of the company, I’ve been hung up …
New research released last month by the World Federation of Advertisers shows marketers around the world overwhelmingly believe purpose needs to be part of a successful brand building strategy. The survey conducted from Aug 2013 to Feb 2014 questioned 828 respondents from 33 countries. It defined “purpose” for Marketers is about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and ethics. From the presentation of the survey …
Vox Media calls itself “A general interest news site for the 21st century.” And because of their content management system, Chorus, they have a dynamic website that integrates graphics, social media and reader comments in a way traditional media outlets could only dream of. Leslie Kaufman in this April 6, 2014 NYTimes article notes the rich graphic interface and facile reader interaction have helped Vox earn a …
Hello Florida Film Festival! Opening day today at the Enzian theater here in Orlando. Their tagline is — 10 days of awesome. 170 movies. Heck Yeah! I know for sure I want to see the International Shorts. Hoping to catch at least a few more in the next week. Here’s the link to the website with the full schedule: http://www.floridafilmfestival.com/ …
Clicking on your tools icon in your web browser, choosing “Internet Options” and “Delete Search History” will certainly delete your search history on the laptop or tablet you are working on. But it doesn’t erase your history on Google, Bing or other popular search engines. In fact, as Molly Wood writes in the NYTimes Personal Tech section, April 2, 2014, …
I’ve been really enjoying NPR’s Ted Radio Hour Podcast (Loved the Story on the Spoken and Unspoken Ep Dec 13, 2013 in which Mark Forsyth describes how we came to name the position of “President” of the U.S and why it matters.) TED talks have a way of making me look at things with a different perspective. I think it spurs my creative …
From Salon.com April 1, 2014 — A September release is expected for “The Drop” featuring James Gandolfini in his last performance. The trailer reveals moving performances by both Gandolfini and Brit Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises, Lawless and Inception) Check out the trailer here: http://www.salon.com/2014/04/01/the_drop_features_james_gandolfini_in_his_last_performance/
March 25, 2014 — SocialMediaToday.com builds a case for why you DON’T need to use them all! They suggest 3 ways to help you determine which social media networking tools make sense for you. 1) Start with the obvious. Your best customers of course! What do they use most often? 2) Consider your messaging. Which tools are the best fit for …
One of the most nerve-wracking aspects of planning an event is the uncertainty of your guest experience. You can’t be in all places at once so how will you know if the registration table gets backed-up with a long line? Or attendees are getting lost despite what you thought was excellent directional signage? Unless you have a huge staff, you’ll …
March 10, 2014 — As a marketer, you need content quality for your information to stand out because you’ve got less than 10 seconds to capture your visitor’s attention according to usability experts, Nielsen Norman Group. According to Google’s Eric Schmidt, “Every 2 days now we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003.” …
