10 No-No Words You Should Never Use in Marketing

Posted by admin on May 2nd, 2013

Consider what turns you off when it comes to sales or marketing. Probably you have certain types of people that drive you crazy when they try to sell to you. For me, it’s that salesperson who is pushy, slick, and doesn’t listen. But what about words? Have you ever realized that there are certain words that are overdone and ineffective when it comes to marketing?

Here’s the “what NOT to say” list of words for your marketing campaign.

1. Guru

If you work on personally branding yourself, please avoid the word “guru” at all costs. There are simply too many gurus out there for anyone to believe that you are one. Even if in fact, you are one. There are other words to express that you’re an expert and well-informed in your field.

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Combining Creativity with Marketing

Posted by admin on April 30th, 2013

This is a guest post by Sarah Oxley.

The Wizard

Content marketing is the buzz phrase of the year (and the one before that, too), and while focusing on content is great, not all content is great.

The reason behind a piece of content not working out is usually one of the following:

1. It was too brand focused and un-engaging for the audience.

2. It was very engaging and out there, but completely out of touch with your brand and your marketing communications.

I’d like to point out that some big brands, such as Apple, can get away with very brand focused content as they have their audience completely hooked. It is the brand they love, but to get there, Apple had to communicate its brand in an engaging manner.

In order to have great content, you’ll want it to be creative, so that people love to talk about and share it; but you’ll also want it to be in-line with the rest of your marketing communications and represent your brand. The integrated approach is key once again, but it can be very difficult to combine creativity and marketing.

Difficult, however, does not mean impossible.

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Giving Yourself a Break

Posted by admin on April 25th, 2013

My eight-year-old is in year ’round school, so he gets all of April for Spring Break. Yea. A month. I know.

The first few years, I struggled to retain my status as Cool Mom and take him to every museum and theme park in San Diego,  while struggling to get all my business work done. It was hard. But since then, I’ve learned to relax, shift around my schedule, and — gasp — have a little time off.

Why Are We So Hard on Ourselves?

I realized recently that we — or at least I — are our biggest critics as entrepreneurs. We think we have to work harder than we sometimes need to. We’re reluctant to take off an hour or day in case some catastrophe happens. But usually it doesn’t. That’s why I have a light schedule all of April each year. And guess what? There are never any marketing emergencies when I’m at the beach enjoying family time!

Find the Space  You Need

My husband, on the other hand, never takes off. Even on vacation, he’s right there with his laptop, like CorpNet writer Howard Greenstein. But when he needs to be fully present for us, he is.

For me, my light month of work happens because I do a lot of blogging in March to cover what I’d normally be writing in April. It means doubling up on work for a few weeks, but the reward is that I hardly have to do any work this month. It feels a little like cheating!

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How to Hire Smarter

Posted by admin on April 23rd, 2013

f you’re going through growing pains in your business, it may be time to hire your first employees. If you’ve been running your business on your own, it may be hard to imagine bringing others on to help you, and you may not have a clue about how to hire great employees that will grow with your company. Never fear: here’s your guide to better hiring.

 

1. Decide on What You’re Looking For

You know you need help, but what specific  tasks are you hiring for? Start by listing out each item you need to assign to your new hire, as well as the skills and experience you want. This will help you build out your job description. If you have someone in the position currently, talk to her about her daily duties and any others she thinks should be added on for the new employee.

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