JUMP START Blog and Online Community

Have you ever heard of the cocktail rule? 

It basically means that when you go to a cocktail party (remember when we used to do those?), you should spend 80-90% of the time listening to other people or asking questions about them and the remaining 10-20% talking about yourself.

Well, the same thing applies in sales and marketing...

Writing and establishing a successful social media marketing strategy can be tricky. It’s an ongoing process that takes trial and error. But, by setting goals, knowing your customer base and doing a little market research, you can easily create a social media strategy that will help you successfully connect with your audience.

The majority of marketers today will tell you that content marketing is nothing without a plan. That may be a bit of an overstatement, but the underlying concept really hits home.  Creating a solid plan for your marketing initiatives gives you a much better shot at success, and a detailed content marketing strategy should be a part of that plan.

This quote from a German proverb says it all...

I've seen a ton of online marketers and business owners spend countless hours on their marketing efforts, only to throw their hands up in frustration and say, "I don't understand what I'm doing wrong!" Do any of these symptoms sound like you?

• You've spent money on every online marketing tactic out there, but none of them get you the results that you need
• You try to stay up-to-date about the newest online marketing trends and best practices, but you barely have time to do your real job or actually implement anything due to all of that time spent learning
• You spend a lot of time writing blog posts, social media posts and other content, but you're never really sure which ones are paying off or which ones are a giant waste of your time
• You've hired a writer, online marketer or freelancer in the past, but they can't seem to connect with your audience or speak their language
• You're attracting a lot of traffic and leads, but they're not the right kinds of leads or they're not converting into paying customers
• You and your team clear your schedules for big marketing campaigns every few months, but they never pay off so you don't make marketing a priority

Well folks, if that's you, then I'm happy to tell you that there IS a better way!

Think of the last time you created or attempted to create a marketing strategy.

Chances are, you spent a lot of time thinking about what your boss wanted, talking to other stakeholders within your organization and perhaps even looking at your competitors' online marketing tactics to see how you could compete. But the key to creating a really solid strategy is simple and is frequently overlooked by the majority of online marketers: understand your users and deliver what they need!

Tired of all of the emails, blog posts and social posts you've been seeing about what will be hot, new and big in the marketing world in 2015?

Check out this hilarious 2015 Marketing Predictions interactive tool from our friends at Hubspot:

2015 Marketing Predictions Generator

This online tool allows you to randomly generate hilarious predictions for what will be "in" during 2015 using the latest buzz words, hot topics and trends that we've seen in 2014.

Now, we here at Flair stay up-to-date about the latest trends and best practices, because we're a Hubspot partner agency and we follow all of the latest news, industry publications and sites, and marketing events. And our clients pay us to pass those insights on to them!

Before you begin adding customization tools to SharePoint to create a solution for your business, you must understand your company’s business problem. In this article, I cover a few important areas you need to address before you look at technology...

via www.cmswire.com

Hear, hear! I couldn't have said it better myself!

In this CMS Wire article, author Jennifer Mason is really just providing a gentle reminder that "You have to know where you're going in order to figure out how you're going to get there" or "Don't put the cart before the horse."

This is a problem that I see businesses struggling with all the time. I've had dozens and dozens of conversations with clients who really want to select a technology language or tool before they've really determined what they're trying to do.

Study this article carefully if you're planning to customize SharePoint or any CMS. You'll save yourself lots of time and frustration, and your end result will be better because you've taken the time to think through your business goals carefully.

Lisa Kirschner
Managing Director, Flair Interactive Services Inc.
Managing Editor, Content 911 Blog

It's always great to have lots of fresh content on your Web site and you want to be sure you give users as much information as they need, but it's also important not to go overboard.  How can you tell when you have just enough content or when it's too much?  Here are a few tips to help you decide: