3 Tech and Web Design Trends 2013

3 Tech Trends Article at FameFoundry.com

Screenshot courtesy of Fame Foundry

My friends at Fame Foundry asked me to share thoughts on what 2013 holds for marketing. A broad topic indeed.

You can’t really predict what lies ahead without reflecting on what’s behind. Since 2012 was the year we consumed more web content via mobile devices than PCs, it seems fitting that we consider the changing media landscape’s impact on how we share content and build relationships with customers and prospects. Three tech and web design trends 2013 are worth considering as we plan for the year ahead. How will a divergence of mobile devices, the rise of HTML5, and the app-ification of user experience impact your marketing plans?

Read the full article.

 

Episode 477: Wash, Rinse, Refresh Stale Marketing Strategy

Marketing Minute - A Fame Foundry marketing podcast.

It’s easy to let your marketing strategy and activities become routine and uninspired, but a few reflective questions can help you keep it fresh.

iTunes
Marketing Minute RSS
Original Source

Episode 476: Calendar-Driven Content

Marketing Minute - A Fame Foundry marketing podcast.

In this new age of publishing and content marketing, the editorial calendar is a time-honored tool with an important role to play.

iTunes
Marketing Minute RSS
Original Source

Episode 475: The Art of Being Well Read

Marketing Minute - A Fame Foundry marketing podcast.

In the hustle and bustle of growing a business, it’s easy to focus on the messages we’re sending out and neglect to take in those of others in our market space. But being well read is an important part of communicating effectively with your prospects, your customers and your peers.

iTunes
Marketing Minute RSS
Original Source

Making Marketing Multi-Purpose: A Lesson in Efficiency From Survivalists

I love survival skills TV shows—as I believe many other 30-something white american males do, judging by the unending YouTube videos of caucasian arms wearing paracord bracelets and detailing the contents of “bug-out bags.” For the uninitiated, here’s a sampling.

On several episodes of my favorite show, Discovery Channel’s Dual Survival, co-host and survival skills instructor Dave Canterbury has emphasized that if a piece of gear cannot be used for at least three things, he doesn’t waste energy carrying it. I tucked this nugget of wisdom into my mind’s survival file for later use during the apocalypse.  I didn’t realize I’d recall it while thinking about marketing.

Survival Marketing

I was brainstorming recently about the marketing challenges entrepreneurs and small businesses face, trying to find fodder for a new batch of Fame Foundry podcasts. As I often do, I looked at my own experiences as a small business marketer and realized that my greatest challenge is usually how to get more marketing done with limited resources.

I wrote “efficiencies” on my dry-erase board and soon remembered Dave’s sage advice. Both the survivor and the small business marketer have in common the need for efficiency. For every unit of effort exerted, you want to maximize the benefits toward achieving your objective, be it rescue or revenue.

Multi-Purpose Tools

For Dave, being multi-purpose focused means prioritizing items like rope, which can be used for making shelters, making snares or making a million other things that could help keep him alive in the bush.

For the marketer with limited time, staff and/or money, it means constantly thinking about how resources like content and collateral can be reused, repackaged or repurposed.

For example, writing this post required time (the most valuable asset anyone has), concept exploration, writing, editing and fine-tuning things like keywords, headers and links. That’s a good bit of effort for a reasonably short post. To maximize the impact of this work, I’ll very likely write a podcast episode focused on the core concept of marketing efficiency. The wording will be different, of course, as will the style, so there is some additional effort required. But the concept is ready and the thoughts have been thunk. (I know thunk is not a real word.) And that is a big energy savings.

Future-Purposed 

On Dual Survival, when Dave and his partner Cody Lundin find trash or other “resources” in the wilderness, they often hang on to items with a future use in mind, like finding a plastic bag and saving it for a canteen when they find water later.

In like fashion, I’ll probably also tuck away this idea in an Evernote notebook dedicated to ebook writing. When the time comes to create my magnum opus of marketing, this remnant will be ready for a new life with other leftover bits like it.

Writer’s Block Be Gone! 9 Sources for Endless Blogging Ideas

“Content is king!” as we say. And many businesses have begun blogging in the king’s service only to have their efforts languish just weeks or months later. The novelty often wears off before the long-term benefits kick in.

The challenges facing any business blogger are not only producing top-quality content that people will love and share but also establishing a regular rhythm of publishing new content over time in order to build a following and develop a community around your brand.

The good news is that content ideas are all around you; you just have to know where to find them. This article explores some of these content mines that hold hidden gems.

Read the full article on FameFoundry.com …

9 Sources to Min for Blogging Ideas

Episode 403: Writer’s Block Busters

Marketing Minute - A Fame Foundry marketing podcast.Whether you consider yourself a scribe or a scribbler, these three tricks can help harness your inner muse and conquer writer’s block.

iTunes
Marketing Minute RSS
Original Source