I recently had the pleasure of attending the Google Analytics Summit, an event hosted for Certified Partners (my employer, SHIFT Communications, is one) to gain insight into the latest advancements in marketing measurement. What’s novel and unique about this conference for me is that it’s under NDA, a non-disclosure agreement. Every session, every talk, every…
One of the best things to come out of the 2015 WWDC keynote from a marketing perspective wasn’t Apple’s streaming music service. It wasn’t new Apple Watch functionality, or any of the dozens of other features. What caught my eye was Apple’s announcement of an Android app… to help you switch to an iPhone: “Just…
Let’s take a walk down your memory lane. Take a moment to recall the last new restaurant you’ve walked past. Not went inside, not dined at, but the last time you walked by a restaurant you hadn’t been to before. Was there a menu posted outside the restaurant? Now open a browser or another tab…
If you can’t do it, you shouldn’t sell it. This is a challenge that an incredible number of organizations face in their sales and marketing processes. Marketers go out and make wild promises about capabilities that don’t exist in the product. Sales professionals convince people to sign on the dotted line for something that won’t…
One of my favorite “secret” measurement tools is the Google Analytics Add-on for Google Sheets. This powerful tool lets you extract up to 10,000 records from your Google Analytics account in spreadsheet format. Your data becomes available to you in many rows and columns which you can slice and dice to find the insights you…
What is strategy? Strategy is the plan to achieve your goals. The plan is a blueprint. It’s a menu. It’s a map. By extension, the blueprint is not the hammer. The menu is not the cookbook. The map is not the land. Here’s a simple trick to determine if your strategy is coherent. If you…
Suppose you wanted to represent yourself in the best possible truthful light? How would you set yourself up so you could appear as credible as possible? More than mere puffery, this task is eminently practical. If you’re applying for a job, representing yourself strongly but truthfully is essential. If you’re building up your public speaking…
Hashtagging is often cited by marketers as a way to build grassroots attention towards a particular theme, type of content, or movement. In reality, most hashtags created by marketers tend to be ignored. Consumers and audiences use their own when sharing content, or in many cases simply use none at all, especially on Facebook. So,…
