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Marketing

January 2010

  • Godin’s extremist take on marketing

    Thu 21st

    There are those who hold a very narrow definition of it. Marketing comprises a known and limited set of functions and activities: brand creation, selling proposition, logo, slogan, advertising, collateral, website, and so forth. Each of these discrete components has its owner; the component are interdependent and mutually reinforcing. Though there is room for dynamism, in this view marketing is fully the sum of its parts. This is the traditional, and likely still majority, view, though one much derided by commentators.

  • On pitching and seduction

    Tue 19th

    But, sometimes, if you’re a bit good and a bit lucky, a funny thing happens in the middle of the seduction ritual. The masks fall off and people suddenly start sounding like people. That’s when the fun begins. Seduction meets persuasion when the bullshit is dropped. It’s a shame that it takes so long to get there, and it’s a shame that the path is often so diabolically convoluted.

  • The computer, the Internet and Social Media are not the downfall of man

    Tue 12th

    Over the last 10 years, we’ve seen social media galvanize thousands over politics, create as many industries as it has destroyed, and offer an abundance of visual and audio entertainment. But has all this incredible change actually changed us, or just the world we live in?

  • How To Write a Winning Value Proposition

    Mon 11th

    Blunt works with a lot of start-up companies on go to market strategies. One of the most important, yet most frequently overlooked, hurdles for a young company to clear is the articulation of a winning value proposition. Just how do you write a winning value proposition? Based on our experience, we’ve outlined five steps that every start-up owner should have in mind when crafting their company’s value proposition.

  • How to pick a great website survey tool

    Thu 7th

    No matter how big your company is, real voice of customer data can be an immensely powerful source of business intelligence for your marketing team. If you’re looking to take the plunge into voice of customer research, running a website survey is usually the first place to start. To help you in your decision making process, Blunt has outlined 5 points to consider. Follow these, and you’ll be on the right track to picking a great website survey tool.

  • 2010: Defining the Digital Marketer

    Tue 5th

    The resulting integration of sales and marketing highlights a holistic full duplex conversation and the birth of the digital marketer. Digital marketers are in the trenches, working and collaborating with clients and team members alike. Being clear and core with the offering, yet malleable and flexible with solution. The digital marketer is integrated into the entire corporate experience. Every touch point from receptionist to product development and deliverables. The digital marketer is the embodiment of the brand; developing an ecosystem of micro celebrities whose collaboration leads to innovation and legitimate thought leadership.

  • On Social Media Noise Reduction

    Mon 4th

    Social media cleansing doesn’t have to mean a complete tune-out. With apologies to John Mayer and Matt Cutts and their Lent-like digital cleanses, a little noise reduction can be just as effective.

November 2009

  • How much is enough when it comes to Voice of Customer?

    Tue 3rd

    Voice of customer research can be a wonderfully responsive early warning system for a small website owner. Don’t get caught up in obsessing over respondent counts. If you’ve got 25 or so pieces of real visitor feedback at hand, you can go a long way in constructing a visitor-centric website experience that will help your website to grow and flourish.

  • We all work on Commission

    Mon 2nd

    As never before, all of us who are vendors in this space–consultants, optimiziation specialists, marketing pros–are being challenged to substantiate our value, to empirically demonstrate the real returns that we can furnish. We don’t believe in history or in laurels. Judge us according to our ability to deliver value in the here and now.

October 2009

  • Conversation is the new Marketing

    Tue 27th

    Old paradigms shattered. In the formative years of the web economy, marketers tried to impose the old order on us. They used their websites as display channels, whereby they could talk AT their consumers. But something else was percolating: the emergence of the trust economy. The idea that people could talk amongst themselves online, that they could share stories, reviews, advice, conversation threads. In the coming together of the people on the social web, corporate websites became secondary channels for brand chatter. Facebook absorbs 8 billion minutes of total usage time per day. That’s just under 1% of total human attention. What chunk of total human attention do you think corporate websites have?