Archives for advice
We Want a Traffic Jam
Everyone wants more site traffic. More traffic means happy client, and happy client means happy agency. Marketers invest huge amounts of money to pay for methods of generating traffic to their microsites and applications like SEO, social media and the all-encompassing category: viral. Even though all these methods exist, several sites fall by the wayside never to be [...]
Trust, but Verify
Greg Hughes, one of the rock stars I had the pleasure of working with on a gig has a nice phrase that he likes to whip out from time to time: trust, but verify. Greg didn’t coin the term. Wikipedia says Ronald Regan used it and others before him. The term indicates you should trust what [...]
How to Do Something You’ve Never Done Before
As a technologist, I’m often asked to do something that I’ve never done before and have no specific competency in performing; tasks which I’m completely unqualified to execute. The more palatable way of saying the same thing is: As a consultant, technical lead, solutions engineer or a business analyst, I’m given challenges that require me to identify [...]
Making Amazon More Actionable
I’m an Amazon junkie. I’ve bought everything from books to power tools on Amazon. I’m a prime member, meaning I pay $70/year for the ability to get items shipped to me in 2 days or less, every time, rather than paying for express shipping every purchase. Suffice to say, I use the site a lot. [...]
Interactive Shopping: Nordstrom’s 2: Macy’s 2
Interactive Shopping, Social Media and Customer Service — these topics are closely related, because the most critical elements of success for a brand are: Relevance: Do you matter to your customers? Can your product or service create superior value for them? Engagement: Do you reach out to your customer? Do you have methods and platforms for marketing, [...]
Use Loyalty Programs to improve your Net Promoter Score
The Net Promoter score is very popular in business and marketing circles these days. Proponents of the Net Promoter scores claim that it is a better metric than customer satisfaction. The thesis is that satisfied customers aren’t good enough. In an increasingly networked world, you need customers who are brand evangelists – customers who refer their [...]
First, Light a Fire
The best advice my father ever gave me was to start a fire. My family owns a cabin out in the middle of nowhere. For nine months a year, it sits empty, and during the summer, various branches of the family take turns vacationing there. It’s beautiful, but the first family in has the responsibility of [...]
CMO Leadership: Putting your agencies to work for you!
As an interactive agency, Pop Art works with many other agencies. Sometimes we are agency-of-record for a client, but most often, our clients employ 2, 3 or sometimes dozens of marketing agencies and consultants, and we are just some of the actors on the stage. Having multiple agencies can be very expensive because of the necessary [...]
What can we learn from Marine Officers? Here’s one thing.
Know yourself, know your people, know your job. Although I wasn’t in the Marines (Army), I’m familiar with this maxim they teach their officers. But it isn’t just applicable to Marine Core officers. It can make any individual more effective within any people-driven organization. 1. Know Yourself Self-awareness is as valuable as it is rare (in abundance, at least). [...]
Every Blog has a Beginning
I run an interactive marketing consultancy. I have advised our clients on their blog strategies – finally, I am heeding my own advice and doing the blog thing. This blog will house some of my thoughts on business, society, information design and the interactive marketing industry. Recently, we had some great conversations at Pop Art about what [...]
