Some choices seem obvious, while others demand care and insight. And some offerings are simple, while others have depth and multiple variables. As you’ve probably guessed, the choices that are simple and obvious tend to do best in the mass market. Where did you get your cup of coffee this morning? Did you visit a…

When I saw a LinkedIn post from today’s master declaring, “Marketing’s job is not to drive revenue,” I did a little shimmy and thought, “She gets it!” We struck up a conversation, and I discovered an entire pharmacopeia of tough pills to swallow. “I love talking smack about marketing!” she grinned. I asked for three…

Sports cars have a tachometer, a gauge showing how close the motor is to melting down. When the revs enter the red zone, performance is enhanced–for a while. Do it too much or for too long, and you’ll burn out. In our work, there are two sorts of red zones. Athletes know that the last…

Our expert this week has a few hot takes.  Here’s one: “Any marketer that says they’ve never felt the ick from marketing isn’t a true marketer. You do feel the ick.” While that doesn’t sound like the best lesson to open a marketing newsletter, stay with me. I swear this isn’t a I’m-quitting-my-job-to-work-on-a-goat-farm hail mary. …

Two different ways to consider this: First, in the marketplace, where most people, most of the time, want the thing that most people want. The average one. Exceptional is the exception. Second, in the committee meeting, where the easiest way forward is to sand off interesting edges, eliminate unknowns and challenge as little as possible….

If you walk into the Parthenon or paddle at dawn on Joe Lake, it’s easy to feel a sense of wonder. And waiting in a long line for an important flight can trigger frustration. But much of the time, our state is automatic. What’s your default? Satisfied, bitter, anxious, sad, curious, grateful, energized, disappointed, exhausted,…

When a new technology arrives, it appears unpolished, ill-formed and a bit wonky. As it gains traction, existing industries and processes begin to be threatened, often before their replacements in the new technology are fully ready. This is how Napster showed up for the music business, or email for faxes, or television for radio. Same…

About thirty years ago, Jerry Shereshewsky invented “Cyber Monday” as an alternative to Black Friday. The idea was that you’d wait until you got to work on Monday after the Thanksgiving break (where there was high speed internet and you wanted to avoid doing drudge work) to do your shopping from your desk. After all,…

Professionals use specs to invite others to participate in the work. One kind of spec outlines the solution. In clear language, it defines the work to be done. A good solution spec defines an outcome with no room for error or variety. “It’s this. Not that, not that, but this. If it’s this, we’re done.”…

But here’s what matters more: in our case, the mentions that do include links appear on high-volume queries. This means your actual visibility—measured in impressions rather than raw citation counts—can be far higher than your link percentage suggests. In this… Read more ›