Marketing Strategy

If the economic news has you holding your head in your hands, you’re not alone. For some businesses, the gloom and doom headlines of the past two weeks are translating into cancelled projects, uncertain contracts, slower consumer spending, clients getting gun-shy about their expansion plans, you name it. It may even mean real cutbacks in your business as a result of what’s happening in your key markets.

What happens all too often, though, is that marketing efforts are the first area sent to the chopping block. This can be a colossal mistake.

I was interested this week to participate in a B-2-B webinar with David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of PR & Marketing. And, as usual, David said something interesting.

This time, it was the idea that an e-book is essentially a glorified white paper. 

Article marketing may be a hot topic among Internet marketers, but it's really just an old idea. One of the best ways to showcase your expertise in an authentic way is to write articles and place them where your clients and your peers are likely to read them.

This is one area where everything old is new again.

I was talking with a friend the other day about a topic that's important to him personally. At one point in our discussion -- in the middle of a sentence -- he suddenly stopped and switched gears.

"What I'm really trying to say is,..." And then he made a clear, eloquent statement. Immediately, I understood. Somehow, though, it had taken us 30 minutes to get to this point.

Now, let's admit it. We all do this on occasion. Sometimes important personal matters can be hard to articulate.

Marketing independence, you say? What does that mean? I'm talking about letting go of the ideas that keep you stuck in the same unsatisfying definitions of what your marketing message "has to be".

In honor of the July 4th holiday, this week I want to share four tips for leaving your old rules behind and freeing yourself to think differently about your business' marketing message.