Everybody thinks they can be a marketer. Seeing thousands of marketing messages every day, there is no shortage of opinion about what is good and bad. And no shortage of confidence (often misplaced) in one’s ability to, for example, write a good headline or design a brochure.

Unfortunately, few companies actually track the effectiveness of their marketing decisions so the “good/bad” assessment is often totally subjective. The biggest title in the room will determine if the work is “good.” To make matters worse, you don’t need any formal training to be considered a “marketer,” and actually having a marketing degree (or even experience) is no guarantee that you’re really any good at it.  (more…)

Judson Luke | Post a Comment

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Veronis Suhler Stevenson’s “Communications Industry Forecast 2004-2014” gives us some predictions on where media spending for tradeshows, print and electronic media will end up by 2014.

Let’s start with the good news. Overall, VSS predicted that B2B media will increase by a compound annual gross rate (CAGR) of 3.5 percent through 2014. This would result in $30.2 billion in spending in 2014. (more…)

Karen Enriquez-Wagner | Post a Comment

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Well it’s that time again. After taking so, so much from the community through the years, it’s time to give something back. So I’m off to make my now annual trek to speak to aspiring public relations and marketing students tonight at the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater. Tonight’s topic – writing for web and multimedia outlets. (more…)

Steve Staedler | Post a Comment

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That big open piece of paper is sitting there like dog doo on your desk.  It’s time to talk to your customers about your company, your ideas and your uber widgets.  What’s your message?  What’s your process?  How to start…

 Ah.  You need a message platform.

A message platform is a format that organizes your thoughts about a campaign, program or project into a logical, at-a-glance concept in a document (or on a napkin, if you like).  The idea is to capture the DNA of the campaign and construct it in a way that everyone can follow.

A good message platform is a living document.  It changes with new ideas, new products and a fast-moving marketplace.  And it drives content for everything from advertising and public relations outreach to trade show presence. (more…)

Steve Wilcox | Post a Comment

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