Recently I’ve become very conscious of images as part of the brand mix online and offline.  There are brands who create visual icons – take a look at my ‘Marmite’ Pinterest board created for a client celebrating the fact that New Zealand has run out of Marmite(!)- true story. And so I think we’ve changed [...]








What’s the first step in understanding someone? Speaking their language. When it comes to hooking a customer and encouraging them to speed down the marketing funnel by way of a website landing page, your greatest tool is your wording, your language, how you communicate. How to get started planning your landing page A client of [...]








When driving profile for your business you may want to consider groups on Twitter.  We first saw it in use tby a PR agency who had this neat link off their “Team” web page – where there’s a link ‘Team Twitter List – follow everyone with one click‘. A neat way of promoting the whole [...]








We have set up several auto-responders for clients recently.  We like them because they encourage prospects to trust you with their email address, you can build communication ‘trust’ with the reader over time by delivering value in every message and it is acceptable to include some marketing messages within your series. If you have a [...]








Do relationships matter more than marketing or advertising for B2B? There is some truth in this but it is often over-stated. Many web experts talk about the glorious ‘free’ things that come to them  just because of their relationship and web presence – but we believe that without a proven track record in the area of [...]








Peter Bregman writes on the HBR blog about the importance of correct interpretation of communications – the message versus the “package” [or medium IMV]. Helpfully he gives four steps to follow which will help you to make the best of poor communication situations: 1. Notice. Anytime you feel a negative emotion about something said or [...]








  The Clutrain Manifesto was a significant moment in future-gazing for a world that is now very clearly with us. The authors have re-published the book with some additional chapters by themselves and another luminary, JP .  Which will be great and some added thought-provoking chapters to digest. What was so great about Cluetrain?  It [...]








I was invited down to Maidenhead to meet Melanie Vala and the Quickbooks marketing team following my rant and their subsequent work on improved customer communications. Melanie is a marketing manager in charge of acquiring new customers. She explained how the company is very US-centric with a lot of personal taxation management products which are [...]








Image by Carlo Nicora via Flickr Building on traditional views of Britain as a country that grinds inexorably to a halt when any adverse or strange weather event occurs (snow, leaves falling) I want to reflect on yesterday.  In our village it was gloriously chilly and we had a good East Anglian snowfall straight from [...]








Nice sub-title on the ICA website promoting Clay Shirky'sspeech on4 February  The use of camera phones and recording equipment during talks and events in the Feedback series is encouraged. Snap it, video it, blog it and then share it wit h us. I like the use of a specific email address feedback@ica.org.uk to collect everything [...]