In today’s smart marketing blog, I will continue an earlier discussion on data mining. The smart marketing blog is a blog dedicated to marketing professionals regardless if they run their own business or if they work for a corporation. We offer tips and advice on a host of marketing issues that you might be interested [...]

Social networking is now meshing with business networking and marketing. Smart marketing means that you use the latest marketing strategies and tools available, and one of those marketing tools happens to be social networking Web sites. Instead of setting up a completely personal profile on social networking sites like MySpace and YouTube, you can set [...]

Because more and more people are considered about the environment, it is a good idea to design marketing strategies to appeal to the "green" crowd as well as other market segments. These are people who range from being mildly concerned about things like pollution and healthy living through some organic foods, to people who are [...]

In order to more effectively use your marketing resources, integrated marketing is in order. This is basically when you coordinate your marketing efforts in different areas so that they complement each other. This results in a more efficient use of your marketing resources, and a more effective marketing campaign.

Integrated marketing

It is a good idea to [...]

Developing a marketing focus requires discipline.  There is nothing more in this world that is going to really work except being disciplined to stick to your guns and keep focused on your main objective in marketing.
Business owners will typically shoot from one idea to the next hoping to get the ‘perfect’ marketing campaign that will [...]

When focusing on promotion and marketing to a primary audience or target be sure you don’t forget a secondary target group.
There may be options that could allow you to successfully give attention to your primary audience but could effect your secondary audience in a negative way.
An example of this is if you were marketing a [...]

 
In the world of marketing and PR nothing is more satisfying than when a campaign and strategy comes together and creates momentum that results in profits.
The issue arises when you spend a grand amount of time and money on a grand idea that just fizzles out.  Here are some pointers to help prevent that ‘fizz’.

Direct.  [...]

I’m not talking solicitation or spam, perish the thought.  I mean getting your name in front of your customers.
Studies suggest a person may have to hear or see a name 8 times before they recognize it or act upon it.  That means a one time ad will get you nowhere.  Don’t even consider advertising unless [...]

Looking at all the commercials and print marketing over the last few months has sparked a realization on the current trends.
Most of the advertising done today is geared around emotional buying motives which is good, however, I’ve seen more and more the trends in marketing moving to felt needs that are irrelative to the product.
Cheerios [...]

Traveling the marketing world can be an overwhelming place without a clear direction and vision.
As we’ve discussed before, your vision is where you want to be; today, mission is how you really want to get there.
A mission is simple:  stick to the task at all costs.  This may not be the ‘best’ definition, but for [...]