Executive coach and public speaker Gerry Valentine’s piece for Forbes on the importance of an inspiring mission...
Marketing Communications Articles
Sugar and Spice: Nice Brands Finish Ahead
Valentine’s Day is around the corner. It's a day for love, thank goodness! Spend too much time online reading news...
Delicious, Nutritious & Fun: The Bento Box Approach to Content Marketing
Let’s be honest: Content marketing can feel like a chore. Generating deep and meaningful branded content on an ongoing...
Social Media for Manufacturers: 5 Practical Marketing Tips
When a high profile B2C brand like Nike or Red Bull posts online, it might get thousands—sometimes even millions—of social media likes. That’s impressive until you realize that the Kardashians get the same response when they share their latest “news.” As a B2B...
Use Selfies to Build Your Company Brand
Like many Americans, I visited a National Park this summer. And like many Americans, the crowds overwhelmed me. (Read “Record Crowds Make America’s National Parks Hard to Bear.”) On the one hand, it is heartening to see so many families enjoying our country’s natural...
Every Brand Story Needs a Hero
In content marketing, the brand story is everything. While content marketing is relatively new, storytelling has been around for ages. Stories have always been the key to convincing people to do something, buy something, or tell their family and friends about...
What Would Prince Say? A Brand’s Misguided Tweet Offers Social Media Lessons for All
With Prince’s death, the world has lost another musical legend. An ambitious artist with unbelievable talent and style, Prince's legacy as a songwriter, singer, producer and showman will live forever. Not surprisingly, social media has been flooded with tributes and...
Mine Your Own Business for Smart, Original Content
Digital marketing specialists have plenty of opinions about how often a company should post on social media to get the maximum mileage out of their content. According to a few different “experts,” the recommended frequencies are: Pinterest: 5 times per day Twitter:...
How to Get Yourself Some Brand Love
Valentine’s Day is around the corner. If you make gourmet chocolates or sell long-stemmed roses, you’re pretty comfortable with the language of love. If you are the marketing manager for an industrial manufacturer…well, “love” may not be part of your everyday business...
Why Sincerity Beats Self-Promotion as a Social Media Strategy
A business owner I know insists on using Facebook as his only marketing tool. However, instead of engaging in meaningful conversation with his followers, he uses every opportunity to push, promote and sell his company’s services. As you might imagine, the results (or...
Galvanize Your Business and Brand in the New Year
Happy New Year! If you are like me, you started January 1st with personal resolutions for the year ahead. One of mine is to spend more time with my family outside and to revel in the fact that Oregon has been blessed with some of the best snowfall in years. What about...
Newsletters That Resonate: How to Keep Your Business Top of Mind
Thanks to social media, companies now have a mind-boggling set of communications tools at their disposal. The old-fashioned newsletter is just that: old-fashioned. Or is it? High-Quality Newsletter Content is Key For many businesses, newsletters work better than ever...