By Maggie Sutherland
The days of using door-to-door sales and snail mail newsletters for marketing are permanently futile. Considering that the majority of people in the United States are now plugged in to the Internet, companies and individuals hoping to promote their business interests must now turn to it simply as a chief means for keeping up with competitors. However, to truly succeed in this vast and unknown cyber world, you cannot stop at the bare minimum of Internet use.
By Ken Lizotte CMC
Lately, the age-old business development dilemma of how to stand out from the crowd has been haunting professional service firms more than ever before. Too many firms nowadays look alike, with marketing strategies seemingly unable to distinguish them from the competition.
By Kate Victory Hannisian
“Books are no longer simply books, they are branding devices and credibility signals — not to mention the reason their authors command large speaking or consulting fees.” So says Ryan Holiday, in a recent column on the Fast Company website.
By Dan Cassidy
Americans love choice. We want the freedom to choose everything—what car to buy, where to live, what color to paint our houses. In retirement plans, 401(k) plans tapped into this desire by offering investment choice. Now, many defined benefit (DB) plans offer participants choice as a normal part of their plan provisions: Elect a lump-sum payment or begin an annuity payment.
By Steve Markman
Marketing and PR efforts should be in the forefront of your organization, given today’s competitive climate and the uncertain economy. Standing out from the crowd, regardless of your organization’s industry, is a huge challenge. How can you meet this challenge? Become a speaker!
By Lauren Fleming
There’s a secret about being a speaker—anyone can do it. You don’t have to be Oprah or Warren Buffet to stand in front of an audience and have a message. Anyone with something to say can be a speaker, and with that, gain the publicity, credibility and buzz that comes with it.
By Ken Lizotte
To the un-initiated, the concept of transforming oneself into the leading thinker in your field might seem rather overwhelming. Others worry that they may have too few “original” thoughts. Yet creative thinking can be catalyzed and nurtured.
By Elena Petricone
Typically consisting of a PowerPoint presentation with synchronized audio, slidecasts don’t consume much time or energy, yet can be an appealing alternative if you’re intimidated or overwhelmed by the prospect of creating a video or other daunting technological creation.
By Ken Lizotte
Have you ever thought about or noticed a competitor utilizing “thoughtleading” as a business development strategy? Positioning yourself and your firm as leading-edge thinkers in your field involves publishing articles and books, speaking regularly to professional groups, getting yourself noticed by the media and surveying your target market in order to produce research data that only you possess.
By Henry Stimpson
Writing articles for magazines, newspapers and Web sites is one of the best ways you can promote your services and products in a B2B context. Articles highlight you and your company as experts and thoughtleaders.