Randall Craig

Randall Craig is the author of seven books, including the recently-released "Everything Guide to Starting an Online Business." He is the president of consulting firm 108 ideaspace, and speaks on digital marketing, social media strategy and risk. More at www.RandallCraig.com.

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Articles by Randall Craig

• Top 20 checklist for sharing news

  Wednesday, March 29, 2017

  How does your organization share important news? In the olden days, a press release did the trick, but in today's age of distraction (and Twitter), this hardly is the most effective approach. While there are literally thousands of ways to share, here is our Top 20 list.

• Big data: Big mess or strategic opportunity?

  Tuesday, January 03, 2017

  What is your organization's greatest asset? Ask your CEO and your board, and they will say it is your people. Ask your head of marketing, and the answer will be your brand. Your CFO will say your value is determined in your financial statements.

• Has digital gutted your communications strategy?

  Tuesday, November 15, 2016

  Not a happy thought, but with so many cheap and easy digital tools have you ever thought traditional communications are effectively ... dead? That your traditional communication tools — and your traditional knowledge — are of fast diminishing value?

• 5 ways to improve creative performance

  Thursday, September 22, 2016

  "Some people are incredibly creative, and others are not. I am more analytical than creative." This rubbish statement does more to limit our creative potential than any other. Creativity can be mastered — it is not an endpoint of a so-called creative-analytical continuum.

• Strategic planning: Testing the trends

  Tuesday, August 30, 2016

  A key part of any strategic-planning process is understanding the underlying trends. Yet how often have you read a prediction, statement or trend, and began to wonder if it were true? Sadly, with so many instant experts, pundits and self-serving gurus, it is sometimes difficult to tell fact from fiction.

• Improving your social media member service

  Thursday, August 04, 2016

  Many organizations struggle with setting up a social media (or email) response strategy. How can you trust front-line staff to answer properly, if they don't know the policies? How can you have a consistent response, no matter who responds, or when? And how do you minimize service costs, while maintaining service quality?

• Building brand values: Reporter or columnist?

  Wednesday, June 29, 2016

  Who would you rather be: a reporter or a columnist? Reporters have a great combination of communication skills, investigative skills, moxy and pluck. Columnists are made from the same raw material, but they get paid far more. Why is this so?

• Tools make it possible, but people make it happen

  Wednesday, June 01, 2016

  If there has been one significant change in the area of marketing and engagement, it is the almost complete ubiquity of "programs." Some of them have names everyone knows like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube. Others have names like Salesforce, Marketo, Dynamics or iMIS.

• 10 questions: Do you really know your members?

  Wednesday, April 13, 2016

  ​You invest in events, send out emails, educate them, certify them and collect their dues. But how well do you really know your members, both potential and existing? Beyond the basic demographics, perhaps not as well as you might think. Test yourself: Do you capture the answers to these 10 questions?

• Building high-performance boards

  Wednesday, March 16, 2016

  Have you ever considered why some boards (or senior management teams) are more effective than others? The usual reasons may include individual skills and knowledge, attitude, strong staff support, infrastructure, etc. However, one of the most powerful drivers of board performance — and also one of the most overlooked — is the onboarding process.

• Heard above the noise: Back to the basics for content marketing

  Thursday, December 10, 2015

  Are you one of the marketers who has recently jumped on the content marketing bandwagon? The theory is that if you put more content out there, prospects (clients, job candidates, members, etc.) will find it, self-identify and then beat a path to your doorstep.

• Marketing mistakes? Fixing the unsexy foundation of data

  Thursday, November 12, 2015

  There is an eerie parallel between marketing automation today and desktop publishing in the mid-to-late 1980s. Back then, the newfound ability to choose between so many fonts/sizes/styles gave the writer incredible power when it came to formatting and layout. Some of what was produced was brilliant, but most was a disaster.

• How to use Facebook as a leadership tool

  Wednesday, October 14, 2015

  ​For many individuals, Facebook is a way to connect with friends and family, and possibly play a few games. For professional marketers, Facebook is a way to grow the brand, nurture a community of interest, and possibly sell. But for senior leaders, Facebook might have an even more important role — and one that is too often neglected.

• Facebook as a leadership tool

  Wednesday, October 14, 2015

  For many individuals, Facebook is a way to connect with friends and family, and possibly play a few games. For professional marketers, Facebook is a way to grow the brand, nurture a community of interest, and possibly sell. But for senior leaders, Facebook might have an even more important role — and one that is too often neglected.

• Brand-building from the inside-out

  Friday, August 07, 2015

  ​How much does your organization spend on your brand? Usually, this question yields answers in the following categories: logo design, collateral production messaging and ads. For more sophisticated organizations, it also includes elements of social media. But what about the two fundamental delivery mechanisms of the brand itself: people and the online user experience?

• Should instant messaging be your channel of choice?

  Wednesday, July 22, 2015

  When you reach out to your members, suppliers, regulators or other stakeholders, how do you do it? In the olden days it was the telex. Today, we choose between courier, the postal service, fax and email. But what about using social media? How does this fit in? Or does it?

• You won’t believe this shocking fact about clickbait headlines

  Tuesday, June 16, 2015

  Have you ever been tricked into reading an article, blog post or viewing a video because of the headline? Not the descriptive type of headline (such as "Writing Great Headlines"), but the kind that reels you in, like a helpless fish on a line.

• 10 tests to assess influence

  Tuesday, May 05, 2015

  Influencers can recommend you — or they can hurt you. They can bring your name to a completely new audience and provide unique insights because of their relationships. Developing strong relationships with them is important — but how do you know who they are? And more particularly, how might you assess the power of their influence?

• Forget campaigns: Build your marketing stack

  Monday, April 13, 2015

  Most marketers think of themselves as builders. Their work grows the organization, grows market share, grows the portfolio of products and services. A bit more tactically, the marketer builds page views, conversions and social engagement. Underlying all of these activities, the marketer builds relationships.

• Don’t like snooping? Follow these 5 steps to move off the grid

  Tuesday, March 03, 2015

  With so much discussion about privacy, confidentiality and government snooping, is it any wonder that some people have decided to move off the grid, and become "Web invisible"? Others more closely monitor their Web profiles, and either partially or completely remove themselves. And what about those who choose to remove themselves as a matter of principle? They may see their personal information as personal — and view corporate or government use of this information as exploitation.

• Building a website that converts

  Wednesday, February 18, 2015

  Have you ever considered what makes an effective website? You might think that it is great design, easy-to-find information and intuitive functionality. These may have made the list in 2002 (or even 2012), but certainly not today. Many marketers now understand where the website fits into the mix. It is the hub to which every initiative (social media, advertising, media relations, direct mail, etc) drives. When the user arrives at the site, they experience great design, easy-to-find information and intuitive functionality. Then nothing happens.

• The relationship curve: A different approach to marketing and sales

  Tuesday, January 13, 2015

  Have you ever felt that you were being "sold" to? Perhaps an over-the-top marketing campaign, or perhaps a slightly-too-pushy salesperson? If so, then you're not alone. The question, however, is why. And why do organizations so often encourage such off-putting activities?

• Thinking about a mobile website? 3 types exist, but only 1 is worthwhile

  Thursday, December 04, 2014

  If you use the Web on a mobile device, do you ever get frustrated by a site that forces you to pinch-and-zoom to read the content? Or a mobile website that seems to hide what you think is key information — like the street address and phone number?

• Taking advantage of the speed of today’s business world

  Friday, November 14, 2014

  The world is changing. It's getting smaller. Ironically, the smaller it gets, the more choice there seems to be. Entire industries are being collapsed: The music industry, the book publishing industry, and the newspaper industry are just a few that are in complete disarray.

• The real downside of spam

  Tuesday, September 09, 2014

  Consider the following scenario. You get a phone call from a key client or a distraught family member: "Didn't you get my email?" They are clearly upset that you "ignored" them. They see evidence that they are not your priority. You are unresponsive. You don't care. Or maybe, your spam filter was doing just a bit too good a job.

• The importance of momentum in marketing

  Friday, August 15, 2014

  What is the difference between a successful marketing campaign and an unsuccessful one? ROI is certainly the standard answer, but it is also completely insufficient.

• ​It’s not the Web on a phone: 3 principles of mobile marketing

  Tuesday, July 08, 2014

  What have been the most transformational marketing innovations in society? TV and direct mail/database marketing rank up there. Email, the web and social media also do. And so does mobile — but why?

• Money now or money later?

  Tuesday, June 10, 2014

  Too often, leaders agonize over the budgeting process: Where do you spend it? Should it be on communications or on training? Should it be on people or technology? Inside the organization or to partners? While these may all be good questions, consider reframing the question.

• Content strategy: Fee or free?

  Thursday, May 08, 2014

  Many organizations are considering inbound marketing. They are stopped, however, by two simple questions: If the content is so valuable, why should we give it away for free? And if it isn't valuable, then why would anyone be interested?