All Marketing Articles
  • Making the ‘Snap’ decision to double down on authenticity

    Brie Ragland Marketing

    Authentic. Transparent. Real. Those are three words we’re not really accustomed to seeing these days, what with fake news, secret backgrounds and hidden motives. Yet, for the savvy businessperson, these same three words could be the ace in the hole when it comes to successful marketing. In a world where everyone is hedging their bets and playing it safe until the odds are more promising, now is the time to double down on authenticity.

  • The best ways to refocus your online healthcare content

    Lisa Mulcahy Medical & Allied Healthcare

    Does the website for your healthcare organization really do you justice? The website instantly informs your existing and potential patient bases about the way your facility operates, so you want to make sure the impression it's making is accurate, current and as user-friendly as possible. You should continually monitor and update your site regarding medical information, services, and marketing. Here are some science-based points to put into practice as you review and refresh your content.

  • How to role model good choices for your employees

    Anne Rose Business Management, Services & Risk Management

    I am not advocating parenting your employees. But some of your employees may not have had the best role models in their life, so they have undeveloped critical judgment skills and poor decision-making with an inability to predict the consequences of their behavior. I worked with a young lady once who had barely been on the job for one week before asking for a day off to go shopping with her mother. That judgment is bad enough, but she confided to me that her mother had advised her to simply call in sick and not risk asking for the day off!

  • The real cost of settling for average when you can be the best

    Roberta Matuson Business Management, Services & Risk Management

    I met with a prospect recently who asked me what the industry average was for employee turnover in high-growth companies. I responded by saying, "You want to be average? You can do much better than this. You can set the standard that others aspire to!" Think about it. When we compare ourselves to the industry average, whether it be for sales, cost per hire, or employee turnover, we do ourselves a disservice.

  • Avoid these 5 mistakes with your LinkedIn profile

    Sheilamary Koch Marketing

    Any professional can benefit from having a profile on LinkedIn. Beyond being the place to be for job seekers and recruiters, happily employed people are taking advantage of the platform to gain recognition and to network. Statistics back up claims that LinkedIn is a B2B gold mine — and is where most Fortune 500 decision-makers and executives like to spend their spare time. Over 80% of lead generation from social media comes from LinkedIn, according to Hootsuite. In 2018, 93% of B2B marketers called it the most effective social media site.

  • How family businesses get retail right — and what everyone can learn…

    Catherine Iste Retail

    Jokes about family businesses and the problems associated with the obligations to hire, promote or otherwise put the bloodline before the bottom line are common. However, there are a few principles of successful family retail operations that nonfamily organizations can incorporate effectively. For example, when leadership is forced to create succession planning to preserve owner intent, a couple of things happen.

  • Are we witnessing the death of Main Street, or its rebirth?

    Lucy Wallwork Retail

    The decline of America’s downtown "Main Streets" is nothing new. First, the rise of the automobile meant they were displaced as the nexus of community and commercial life by out-of-town malls. More recently, even the malls have fallen victim to the rise of online shopping, with 1 in 4 expected to be closed by 2022. The outlook for Main Street doesn’t look good, as the headlines tracking empty frontages keep telling us. But are we giving in to nostalgia too much? Perhaps the rebirth of Main Street might not look to the past at all, but to the future.

  • For well-being, natural is almost as good as nature

    Michael J. Berens Interior Design, Furnishings & Fixtures

    Numerous research studies have shown that people experiencing stress, fatigue, trauma, and recovery from illness respond positively to natural settings, natural elements (such as indoor plants and water features), and views of nature. But what of nature imagery or patterns similar to those found in nature? Does exposure to sensory stimuli that remind us of being in a natural setting produce a similar effect? Several recent studies indicate that they do.

  • By any other name: Beyond Meat grows beyond belief

    Linda Popky Food & Beverage

    In 2016, a Los Angeles-based company called Beyond Meat introduced the first plant-based burger to be sold in the meat section of a grocery store. Not only do these products look like a real hamburger, but they taste almost meat-like, too. The company’s revenue is expected to more than double this year, and the total market for plant-based, meat-like products is expected to shoot up to $5.2 billion by 2020. There's a lesson here for your business: Rather than continue to make incremental changes in a crowded or constricted category, try taking a leap forward with innovations so dramatic they change the category itself.

  • McDonald’s eliminates CMO, forms new partnership with DoorDash: Is…

    Linchi Kwok Marketing

    McDonald’s recently announced a new organizational structure in its marketing division and formed a new partnership with DoorDash. According to CNBC, other companies such as Uber and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) also took a similar approach to restructure their marketing division. Additionally, besides restaurants and food-delivery startups, major retailers are also getting into the delivery competitions. Walmart and Nordstrom, for example, are building physical stores that surprisingly do not sell anything.