Why Pay for Mediocre Marketing Advice When Good Advice is Free?
Okay, it’s time for somebody to call BS on a practice I’ve seen for a long time. This will probably get me some negative press, but it needs doing. The practice I’m tired of goes something like this: – Entrepreneur starts up a bootstrapped business. Enjoys modest success and quits Day Job. – Suddenly, they […]

From CIO to CMO, A Data Story
If you came into marketing because you didn’t like numbers, then you don’t have much of a future. Beth Comstock, CMO at GE Much has been written about the shift in spending from the CIO to the CMO, Gartner has been out front on this by forecasting that by 2017 the office of CMO will […]
Is Silicon Valley Worth the Cost for Tech Startups and Bootstrappers?
There’s always some article or other in the blogosphere rambling on about why XYZ will be the next Silicon Valley–they’re quite popular. I just read an interesting piece that has some clues about the true costs of living here (yes, I live at least near SV and have worked most of my career in SV). […]

Why Customers And Prospects Expect Clearer Rules About Content Marketing
Original Mission Improves Engagement Through Relevancy Content marketing re-emerges as a hot topic and trend in improving engagement with existing customers and prospects. Marketers can improve the likelihood of engagement through the creation and sharing of relevant information. Typical delivery formats include advertorials, emails, branded websites, white papers, webinars, podcasts, and field marketing events. Content […]

Is Social Marketing Replacing Content Marketing – or Enhancing It?
Interesting post by David Strom on ReadWriteWeb this past weekend – Blogging Declines Across the Inc. 500. As stated in the UMass Dartmouth study behind the headline: Fifty percent of the 2010 Inc. 500 had a corporate blog, up from 45% in 2009 and 39% in 2008. In this new 2011 study, the use of […]

Content Marketers: Are you a Teacher, a Curator, or a Pundit?
I’m a huge fan of Content Marketing, and as I have said, Content trumps SEO, Links, PPC, and most other ways you can market, especially for budget conscious startups. But what is Content Marketing, and more importantly, what makes for good Content Marketing Content? Wikipedia has a useful definition: Content marketing is an umbrella term […]