You know as well as I do that it is way too easy to spend a lot of money on marketing activities. At the same time, marketing is necessary to drive sales.  The key to cost-effective marketing is finding the right activities that reach and convert the right customers.  Marketing activities must be tailored to where you are as a business: your customers, their problem you are addressing, and the solution you’re providing them.

I will work with you to develop and implement the specific marketing you need to get traction.

I offer flexible compensation plans and terms tailored to the stage of your organization.  I work throughout California and am experienced working remotely as well. If you are interested in how customer development applies to marketing, please read here. To get started with Customer Development driven marketing, please see here.

To learn more, please contact me.

• Market strategy, product strategy, marketing plans, segmentation, marketing analytics;
• Social media services, including blogging, blog promotion, twitter, facebook, etc.
• Demand creation, lead generation activities, email campaigns, webinars, seminars, trade shows
• Web site creation, funnels, e-commerce, SEO, SEM, SFA integration
• Messaging, positioning, web content, white papers, sales decks
• Marketing vendor management, including PR, Design, marketing automation, etc.
• Marketing team management, sales-marketing alignment, product management

Do you have a “how to” marketing question?  Ask Me.

Here are some recent marketing articles that might interest you:

A new way of looking at sales and marketing

Have you ever viewed a world map where South is up? It’s a useful frame of reference, since our Eurocentric view of North as “up” and South as “down” is really just an arbitrary one (a sphere has no top or bottom – nor left or right for that matter). Perspective affects our perceptions…

But what if we turn the funnel upside down?

For most entrepreneurs, the top of the [sales] funnel represents the world-at-large. It’s unfiltered; it’s not segmented. In a traditional funnel, the mouth at the top is wide open for attracting both suspecting and unsuspecting potential customers (aka suspects) into the sales process. Marketing’s job is to find and lure live bodies into the top, while sales is responsible for to pushing ‘em through. Continue Reading

How to avoid being blinded by the idea aura

The glow of a new, sure-fire idea is a wonderful feeling. You feel you’ve discovered something (or some angle) that no one has ever imagined before. As you expose that idea to the light of the day and begin vetting it and taking it to market, though, that enthusiasm can dim…Your product or solution fights more than just competitors. It also battles all of the other problems your prospective customer faces. While your awareness of the problem and the weight you grant it is relevant, that doesn’t accurately predict how important it is to others – even if they ‘fit your profile.’

you must conquer the “status quo coefficient”

In fact, one of the most difficult dilemmas entrepreneurs face is determining whether fading excitement is part of the natural decay of the creation process or because the idea – ultimately – is a bad one. Continue Reading

The hidden secrets of market research

The last time I checked, the world’s population was around 6.8 billion. If only 0.1 percent were to visit your website… and if you were to convert only 1 percent of those to paying customers… and they each paid $2 for a Thneed, for example, then revenues would be over $135M. (And everyone knows you could get way more than 2 bucks for a Thneed, which everyone needs!)

I can prove anything by statistics except the truth.

To some, market research only goes as far as finding a really big revenue number to put on the TAM (Total Available Market) slide of their business plan or investment pitch… Continue Reading

Is social media worth your marketing dollars?

As social media has reached mainstream consciousness this year, businesses have been inundated with the message that they must immediately get on board or risk doom and calamity. The hyperbole (and the frenzied buzz it creates) is confusing and many businesses could use a practical guide on how to evaluate social media and how to engage – if it’s appropriate.

It’s amusing to hear that “Word of Mouth” is new.

So the first benefit of using social media in your marketing efforts (and the first thing to keep in mind) is that social media systems are designed to facilitate person-to-person communication, as opposed to traditional media and most first generation web efforts, which are predominately one-way communication. Continue Reading

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