“Mum, can I have it?” I was in Tesco’s with my 7-year-old daughter, D, when she spotted her new object of desire: A Darth Vader toothbrush, with a lightsabre-shaped handle that lights up. “No.” “But can I have it?” “No.” ….And so on and so forth, ad nauseam, until I exited the supermarket with…
“What do you need to hear from us, in order to get you over the line?” I was sitting in a business lounge last week, quietly typing away, when the employee of another company sat down and started making phone calls. Michael’s a recruiter, and – not that I was eavesdropping or anything,…
For about a decade, I was a journalist. I covered every imaginable area, from business and health to education, politics and literature. I wrote news stories, features and opinion pieces, and for several years edited other people too. Online stats showed I was pretty well read. So when I finally decided to make a career…
You’re standing in front of a full-length mirror, umming and aahing. The suit you’re trying on looks fabulous – the cut is perfect. Part of you is longing to buy it. But as you turn this way and that, the doubts niggle. It’s more than you intended to spend. It’s bolder than your usual…
So, you’ve written a great email. You upload it to your marketing automation system…. Press “send”… And what percentage of your audience open and read it? 20%? 30%? 40%, if you’ve really struck gold? Somehow we’ve all convinced ourselves that if a third of our audience reads what we say, we’ve done incredibly well….
“How much of my knowledge should I give away?” If your company is publishing content online, on blogs, email and as part of a sales funnel, this is probably something you worry about. You and your team have worked for years to build up your processes, expertise and experience. But recently, it’s become expected…
I know you’re not supposed to say it, but I’ve always been pretty good at every job I’ve ever taken on…… …..Except one. A few years ago I came back from a job interview certain that the boss was going to be difficult to work with. But the job itself sounded fabulous. I accepted it…
Everyone knows the story of the Wizard of Oz. Carried in a tornado to the land of the Munchkins, Dorothy is desperate to find her way home. She sets off down the Yellow Brick Road, hoping that the great Wizard of Oz will be able to magic her back to Kansas. Following a lifetime’s worth…
Looking for a cool way to get more traffic to your website? Not just any traffic – but relevant traffic? Well, last week I came across an idea that I loved. It came via a marketer I’d never heard of, called Grant Baldwin. And what he suggested was so obvious…. So simple…. It was genius….
The word “guru” is so overused that nowadays it’s practically an insult, but in the case of David Ogilvy, it’s true. His thinking about what makes good advertising in the 1950s and 1960s was so influential, that he is today widely acknowledged as “the Father of Advertising”. Here is his central insight on marketing: “Big…
