May
05
2008
What’s Your Market Specialization?
Marketing is the same everywhere. Um, well, ok, I take that back. Marketing is different everywhere. Well, no, that’s not right either. Marketing means different things to different people–some companies are Direct Mail machines, others are strictly digital marketing companies, creating banner ads and performing Search Engine Marketing (SEM) for their clients. There’s about as many strategies out there as there are marketers, and even more marketing tactics employed by those marketers following the strategy they have decided on as a company. But no matter how many different ways marketers will try to skin a cat, there are definitely a few things that need to remain relatively consistent, no matter what product or service the marketer is trying to market.
One of the most important–if not the most important–thing a marketer must do is have a target market. A target market, loosely defined, is the set of folks plucked or ‘targeted’ out of the full set of people that could or would likely purchase a product or service. Dividing the larger group into these ’segments’ is called market segmentation, and it is a process that is based on demographics (age, gender, socio-economic groupings, geography, etc.).
Breaking down the larger population down into workable segments helps target marketing activities so that you get the best bang for your marketing buck. If you know who you’re going after, you know what their needs and wants are, and you’ll know how to cater your marketing messages towards meeting those needs.
Here are some Target Marketing Resources:
- AllBusiness
- Target Market News (The Black Consumer Market Authority)
- Net MBA
- eSmall Office
- Michel Fortin’s Blog
Apr
25
2008
Marketing Technology Blogs
If you’re a marketer, you understand the importance of keeping abreast of marketing technologies that help the bottom line. While you can’t (because I know I certainly can’t) stay on top of every single little innovation in marketing technology that pops up out of the woodwork daily AND get your regular job done, you can definitely glance at a few blogs and news sites to at least get a glance at what’s sprouting in marketing technology, even if you don’t get a full, comprehensive examination of it under your belt.
Below are a few blogs that deal with marketing technology–some more insightful than others, some more technical than a lot of marketing folks are comfortable with. It’s your call–cut and paste the ones you like into your favorites.
http://www.douglaskarr.com/
http://www.technologymarketing.com/bw/index.jsp
http://blogs.hillandknowlton.com/blogs/niallcook/
http://www.itsma.com/
http://www.threadwatch.org/
http://buzzmarketingfortech.blogspot.com/
http://blog.ericgoldman.org/
While there are plenty more blogs and websites out there, the above should provide just a taste of some good marketing and technology sites for you to home your skills on the subject. Happy Marketing (using technology)!
Apr
21
2008
Should You Have Images on Your Blog?
I think the resounding answer, for the most part, is yes. Images on blogs not only help in terms of aesthetics for the user/reader of your blog, but they can also help optimize the blog through the labels/titles of the images. While I haven’t put any images on Level2wo’s blog, I really should. It helps, but right now I just simply don’t have the time.
See, writing for blogs takes a great deal of time, in particular coming up with new, relevant content that will be interesting to your readers. Finding pictures and images to post on your blog isn’t all that difficult, but if you want consistency, it does take time if you aren’t familiar with the different ways you can format the pictures/images to the correct size. If, for instance, you’re using Wordpress or Blogger, or a similar blogging tool, it’s relatively simple to get the pictures and images to the right size–but if you’re like me, who is more of a writer than someone like, say, a designer who is used to cropping, and shrinking, and sizing, and other ‘ing’s’, then you know how difficult and time consuming making a pretty blog can be. I leave that to others, unless i’m feeling lazy.
But there are plenty of sites to get inexpensive or even free stock photo to post on your blog. Images and pictures help get the message across, especially when you consider that there are plenty of people out there who are more visual than textual. My advice is try it. If you have a blog already and don’t post images, give it a go. Label the images appropriately, as they can help build traffic to your site. Not overnight, but keep at it for the long haul. Images, my friends, are added help. And we all know the value in that.
