
7 Influencer Marketing Insights You Need to Know Today
BrandingIt was an invitation. Written with a spelling mistake or two and from someone I didn’t know. I went close to ignoring it. “I think you are doing a great job with your blog and hope that you can share that with businesses here in New…

Cut through the hype about brand storytelling
BrandingEvery time I see the words “brand storytelling” and read about its importance, I get butterflies in my stomach—not the good kind. And I’m a professional writer, so I can only imagine what it’s doing to marketers out there who don’t…

Starbucks Race Campaign – A Bad Idea From the Start
BrandingLook, I have to say first that I like the idea of the program; I just don’t like how it was done, whom it was done by or why they did it. Make sense? More discussion about racial equality is a huge hot button right now, and it needs to be…

Brand Maker or Brand Keeper?
BrandingWhat type of marketer are you really? Are you a brand maker or a brand keeper? Is there a difference? Before going any further, I would like to point out that there is no shame in being one or the other – Brand and business need both. In…

What’s Your Emotional Brand?
BrandingI’m reading The Dream Society, the 1999 futurist essay by Rolf Jensen of the Copenhagen Institute of Futures Studies. It bears the subtitle “How the Coming Shift from Information to Imagination Will Transform Your Business," and it’s…

Are you news or noise? Be relevant – it matters!
BrandingNews is when you have something original to say. Noise is when you don’t. Be relevant in 140 characters or less! The 140 characters or less is simply a reminder to be relevant and stay focused when creating content. Visualize yourself…

The Best Way to Effectively Build Your Expert Brand
BrandingIn late 2009 I tried to make money online and quickly found I had no idea what I was doing. Like most people when you first want to break into the online world, you hear stories about everyone easily making money using the internet. This of…

Copywriting Resources for the Busy Business Owner
Branding Content & StrategyCopywriting is a combination of art and science that takes years to master – and even then, good copywriters are always learning. But sometimes there isn’t time to have a copywriter create your words, or even review what you’ve written. …

From Socratic Dialogue to Communication Brief
Advertising BrandingAs many of you who’ve done Copywriting in Action will know from experience, the Communication Brief is a remarkably effective and reliable vehicle for getting the mind focused and the thinking clear. But harvesting knowledge and insight from…

WHY EXCLAMATION MARKS ARE NOT YOUR FRIEND
Advertising BrandingI’ll let you in on a little secret. One of the biggest giveaways that a client has written their own copy, without hiring a copywriter, is the over-use of exclamation marks. The world’s most over-used punctuation mark has a lot to answer…

Public perception – How General Mills Shot Itself in the Foot Over and Over
BrandingThe New York Times broke the news about new General Mills legal terms on April 16. Here’s a portion of the “announcement” from the General Mills website: We’ve updated our privacy policy. Please note we also have new legal terms which…

Branding terms made simple
BrandingBrand When you say ‘brand’ most people think immediately of a logo: Ferrari, Gucci, Levi’s, Mars or whatever. But in reality a brand is much more than its logo. A brand is what you feel about a company and its products: speed, luxury,…
