Archive for July, 2011

The Simple Secret of Good Marketing Content

Thursday, July 28th, 2011

“Write every day, line by line, page by page, hour by hour. Do this despite fear. For above all else, beyond imagination and skill, what the world asks of you is courage, courage to risk rejection, ridicule and failure. As you follow the quest for stories told with meaning and beauty, study thoughtfully but write boldly. Then, like the hero of the fable, your dance will dazzle the world.
— Robert McKee

Robert McKee is right, no pun intended.  If you want to be a writer it’s simple: write.  It must be a daily effort that’s filled with consistency.  For example, when I wrote my book on small business marketing, my goal was one to two pages per day.  Some days I met that and some days I wrote more, which made up for days of less discipline.  Bit by bit.  Line by line.  Thought by thought.  I just kept plugging away.

Fear not, as McKee notes.

So what’s the secret.  It’s simple: write.

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How Metaphor Marketing Can Help Your Small Business

Wednesday, July 20th, 2011

Metaphor rocks.  Metaphor tells your story.  It turns imagination into image; picture into purpose; complex into simple; and memories into meaning.

Below is the famous painting, “American Progress,” by John Gast.  In one simple 1872 painting, Gast tells the story of America’s move West.  It’s the metaphor from the familiar to the frontier.

 

Gast, American Progress

My Great Grandfather, Elias Atkins, was a leading industrialist and entrepreneur in both Indianapolis and Montana.  In 1855, Elias started a saw apprenticeship that later became a global manufacturing company called Atkins Saw.  By 1945, Atkins was the world’s largest manufacturer of hand saws.  Gast finished this painting just before Elias moved to Glendale Montana in 1875 to start the Hecla Mining Company.  Elias later moved back to Indianapolis, but not until his Montana metaphor became reality.

Some metaphor questions to ask yourself:

  • What’s your story?
  • How is the progress of your business?
  • Are you seeking new frontiers?
  • Is metaphor foundational to your marketing?
  • Regardless of recession, are you turning risk into reward?

I enhanced my frontier in May of 2008 when I started Atkins Marketing Solutions.  It’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.  I love this new metaphor of marketing consulting and university teaching.

Let metaphor work for you.  Find your canvas.  Paint your progress.  Then, tell your prospects & customers.  Your story is far more powerful than you may realize…

Your metaphorical thoughts?

 

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Steve Jobs On Post-PC Thinking: The Marriage Of The Liberal Arts & Humanities

Tuesday, July 12th, 2011

“It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough — it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our heart sing and nowhere is that more true than in these post-PC devices.”

Steve Jobs

Jobs had it right.  Technology alone is functional and cold.  However, blend the liberal arts with the humanities and you have one powerful combination.  It’s Leonardo daVinci using an iPad versus an engineer on a PC.  Philosophy, music, history, language, and art blended with technology.  Form working with function.

I wrote this on a PC and am both a big Dell and Apple fan.  As some of the Harvard case studies I teach about note, Apple breaks the commodity barrier with innovation and Dell with efficiency.  Once the competition catches up, both companies have to innovate and streamline to start the cycle again.

All my years of studying the humanities, liberal arts, technology, and business, blended with real-life business experience have paid off.  My humanities foundation has helped to generate creativity, innovation, and efficiency.

Well said, Steve Jobs…you will be missed.

 

 

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Gnats, Life, and Petty Marketing Decisions

Wednesday, July 6th, 2011

 “The gnat-like cloud of petty anxieties and decisions about the conduct of the next hour…”

I love the above quote from C.S. Lewis.  He has a way of making the mundane magical.  The phrase, “gnat-like cloud,” describes so well how often we allow the trees to cloud the forest of our marketing and business decisions.  You understand-we get sidetracked about details rather than decisions.  We focus on the petty rather than measurable performance.

So today, as you set your objectives and determine your marketing course, look at the forest first and the trees second.  Swipe the gnats away.  Sure, we can’t always control the bugs that bug us in life and work.  However, we can often control these gnats more than we realize.  It’s minute by minute and hour by hour.  Plan your day or it will plan you.

This was the start of a great hour…

Your thoughts?

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