Recent Articles
The Importance of Celebrating Milestones
When was the last time you celebrated a milestone? Do you realize the importance of celebrating them? What is so important about achievements? What should you celebrate? Is a new logo an opportunity to celebrate? Is a new contract an opportunity to throw ...read the full article
Comparing Marketing and Sales
Do you notice how sales and marketing often get used interchangeably? Are these really the same function; or are they two separate and distinction functions? Why is there all this confusion between these two disciplines? We often say sales and marketing ...read the full article
The Value of Online Customer Testimonials
When was the last time you bought something without first checking out, either the product or the company? We call this doing our due diligence, research, or any other of a dozen names. What are your customers saying about your business? Have you ...read the full article
Reputation Management
Have you heard the term reputation management? Do you know what it is? When was the last time you checked online to see what people are saying about you and your company? What happens if you check online and you don’t like what people wrote about ...read the full article
Marketing Planning Do’s and Don’ts
Have you thought about next year? You might have read that the HVAC manufacturers think 2012 is going to be an “up” year – that’s good news. That means manufacturers are counting on you to have a good year. How are you going to pull that off? Have you ...read the full article
The Art of the Take Away
I’ve been thinking a lot about reverse psychology and how it can apply to marketing. We all know what reverse psychology is, we have all used it on our kids when they were little to get them to do something that we wanted them to do, when they didn’t want to ...read the full article
Building a Good Company Brochure
Have you thought about creating a nice company brochure? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a piece that you could hand out at a home show, or use as a mailer? Do you use envelope stuffers when you send out your monthly invoices? Recently we discussed who your ...read the full article
Writing Your Mission Statement
In my last article I discussed how to develop your unique value proposition (UVP). That prompted a question from a reader asking what the difference was between a UVP and a mission statement. That’s a good starting point for this article. What is a mission ...read the full article
What is Your Unique Value Proposition?
Marketers always talk about unique value propositions. What exactly is a unique value proposition? Is it important? Do you need one? Do you have one and don’t know it? If you don’t know what your unique value proposition is, you run the risk of having ...read the full article
Managing Change in a Marketing World
The world around us is constantly changing and those changes affect us in ways we may not realize. When somebody invents a new gizmo and people begin to adopt it, the world changes. Last week we noted the passing of Steve Jobs with sadness. Steve ...read the full article
Knowing Your Customer
Before you can sell anything, you need to know your customer. First, are they out there? For the HVAC industry, it’s a safe bet that we can find customers for our product or service. Who are they? What are their needs and wants? What are their ...read the full article
The Purple Cow
What’s different about your business? What makes you standout? What makes people remember your company? Is it an unusual name? Is it an unusual truck paint scheme? Is it the way your employees dress? ...read the full article
Creating a Buzz - Part 3
Creating a buzz, I hope you are thinking about trying these techniques in your own business. It’s so hard to find uncluttered advertising mediums these days. However, if you follow along and take this information to heart, I believe that you ...read the full article
Creating a Buzz - Part 2
One of the best ways to save money in marketing is by creating a buzz. Buzz marketing gets people talking about you. The more people talk about you, the more they learn about you. However, you have to have control over what people say about ...read the full article
Creating a Buzz - Part 1
Does your marketing attract attention? Do people talk about your company? Do you enjoy being the topic of conversation around the water cooler and at the park? Did you know that word of mouth advertising is the most powerful form of ...read the full article
Can Advertising In Season Benefit You?
Summer is in full swing and companies are often working round the clock to keep up with the stress of the season. As the mercury passes 95F and the humidity soars, customers begin to worry their air conditioning systems won’t make it through ...read the full article
Marketing vs. Advertising
What’s the difference between marketing and advertising? These days people seem to use them interchangeably, but are they the same or are they different disciplines? Let’s discuss the differences. ...read the full article
Eco-Marketing
We hear a lot of talk these days about green or eco-marketing. What is eco-marketing? Can you use it to benefit your business? Does your company have to be “green” to use it? Does each of your service techs have to drive a Prius or some other ...read the full article
Using Direct Mail Marketing
You might think that direct mail marketing is an old approach to marketing. Back in the day, you would buy a list of names and street addresses based on ZIP Code and you would mail out thousands of cards to those recipients. Back in those days ...read the full article
Perception
I’m fond of saying that marketing is all about perception. Perception is what you attempt to create in the minds of your customers. What’s your customer’s perception of your company? Is their perception positive or negative? How can you ...read the full article
Putting it all Together
How to you put all of this marketing stuff together and make it work for you? Many companies go with the, “I’ll try it” approach. Meaning somebody comes to the owner of the company with a marketing program that sounds like it has merit ...read the full article
Building Your Brand
What is a brand? What does a brand do for you? Why do you need a brand; or do you need a brand? How can a brand help drive business your way? Is all of this talk of brand overblown? Think of your company, what is its brand, how do customers ...read the full article
Writing your Strategic Marketing Plan
Last time we talked about why you need a strategic marketing plan. Now we we’ll to cover the basics of writing your marketing plan. The thing to remember is that you don’t have to write it in one sitting, in fact it would be better if you took at least ...read the full article
Don't Waste Your Time with a Marketing Plan
You don’t need no stinkin’ marketing plan! You don’t need a financial plan and you don’t need a business plan either. What good are plans? General Eisenhower once said, “In battle, plans are nothing; planning is everything.” Therefore, it’s the act ...read the full article
Effective Use of Advertising Dollars
Ever wonder how to get the biggest bang for your buck? Where’s the best place to spend your hard-earned dollars? With all of the claims out there, to whom should you listen? What really works? What will work for me? How can I measure the success ...read the full article
The Do's of Lead Generation
Leads are the lifeblood of any sales organization and you just cannot get enough of them. Are you receiving good quality leads? Do you know the source of these leads? Do your sales people receive their leads in a timely manner or are they ...read the full article
Email Marketing
What do you think of when you hear the term email marketing? Do you think of those “spammy” emails that litter your inbox trying to sell you everything from supplements to iPads? Or do you think of the Nigerian barrister that needs your help to get $300 ...read the full article
Email Newsletters
Happy New Year! I hope you all had a happy holiday season and now that the festivities are behind us it’s time to turn our attention back to business. With the New Year here, have you thought about how you intend to remain top of mind with your customers? ...read the full article
Customer Retention
There have been many articles written on customer retention, but this one is going to take a little different direction than what you might expect. Customers, you can’t live with them and you can’t kill them. Did I just say that? You may want to cause ...read the full article
Promotion on a Budget
Usually promotion is a term used by marketers and it is part of the four “P’s” of marketing, product, price, place, and promotion. Most promotions involve products but promotion can also involve promoting a business or promoting ...read the full article
Advertising Season
Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas! It’s advertising season! It sure seems like every year holiday advertising, oh heck let’s not be politically correct, Christmas advertising starts earlier and earlier. This year it started right after Halloween, ...read the full article
Social Media – Can it Work for My Business?
We have been hearing a lot of talk about social media. Some say you don’t need it, some say you can’t live without it, and yet others say it’s just a fad. What the heck is social media anyway? Do you need social media? Can it work for ...read the full article
Positioning is King
How you position your business determines where it lives in the hearts and minds of your customers. Is positioning king? You be the judge. I am fond of saying marketing is all about perception. Positioning is the process of creating ...read the full article
Breaking Through the Clutter
Do you want to learn how to get your message heard by your audience so you don't waste your advertising money? In this article, we will discuss ideas on how to break through the clutter to make sure your audience hears ...read the full article
Making the Most out of Manufacturer's Dollars
Do you want to supercharge your marketing efforts? Do you know how to do more with less? Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a way to multiply the money you have and then use it to stretch your advertising budget? How would like to ...read the full article
How to Increase Consumer Awareness and Cut through the Clutter Using PR
The key to seeing your release in print is to make it news worthy. Does it have impact; is it a major announcement that affects the community or the company? Is it an unusual occurrence, a major milestone like 25 years in business, or ...read the full article
Public Relations: How to Use it Effectively
You may have heard the term public relations, or PR; you may even know that many of the "stars" have publicists that control their PR. It has been said that any PR is good PR, but what exactly is PR and how can you use it to your advantage? ...read the full article
