JUMP START Blog and Online Community

These days, if you aren’t marketing your brand, you’re going nowhere, fast.

There’s a saying: if you fail to plan, you plan to fail, and we think nowhere is this more applicable than in marketing.

So what’s the latest in the world of digital marketing? Don’t worry if you haven’t had time to keep up on your marketing news this week (we get it, holiday week and all…).

We’ve got you covered with our weekly roundup of the top news in digital marketing. 

Can your brand benefit from influencer marketing? (Forbes)

Wondering if all the influencer-hype is worth your time? All signs point to yes, according to this Forbes recap. Check out what SocialPublic CEO and co-founder Ismael El-Qudsi thinks about this latest trend in marketing your brand. (Hint: he’s into it).

Good marketing makes the company look smart.

Great marketing makes the customer feel smart"

~ Joe Chernov

Which is more important to you? How your brand LOOKS? Or how you make your customers feel?

It's an interesting question, and one that Joe Chernov sums up nicely - because while good marketing isn't actually all that hard to do, GREAT marketing isn't something you can just wing. There's a sort of formula you can follow, a recipe to create and implement a great marketing strategy - whether you're launching a website, rebranding, creating packaging, blogging, email marketing, or really, anything else, you simply need to:

• Research
• Write/create
• Post
• Promote
• Rinse
• Repeat

It is no longer enough to satisfy your customers. You must delight them.- Philip Kotler

I mean. Philip Kotler. Really I could just stop there...but I won't. Because if you're a marketer in any facet, and you don't know the "Father of Modern Marketing Philip Kotler," then I owe it to you to introduce you to him.

There are a number of reasons I love and follow Kotler, so many, in fact, that it's probably just easier to bullet point some of my top highlights for you:

• he was born, lives, got his Master's at and teaches (at Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern) in my beloved Chicago-land (best place in the U.S.)
• he has a PhD from MIT and did post-doctoral at Harvard and University of Chicago (so smart)
• he has written more than SIXTY books (again. so. smart.)
• he's bridged the concepts of economics and marketing (two things I am wildly fascinated with)
• he won American Marketing Association's (AMA's) Marketing for a Better World award (love it)
• I have a secret-almost-crush on him (like in a grandfatherly way...he's smart, funny, charismatic, and totally adorbs)