tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64607744980011667782026-01-14T08:41:23.627-07:00News, advice, tips, and facts for do-it-yourself marketers and small business or microbusiness owners interested in B-to-B or B-to-C marketing and business development topics, including promotion, product development, packaging, advertising, collateral and proposal development, marketing and product strategy, public relations, employee and customer relations, branding and culture, etc.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06712572547493058120noreply@blogger.comBlogger67125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460774498001166778.post-61570138324218732822010-09-03T16:06:00.002-07:002010-09-03T16:10:36.176-07:00

If so, you can also (these days, more often) connect with me here or on twitter. Newer casual content is on the site mymarketingperson.com. The more buttoned-up stuff of course is at tracydiziere.com. TTYL

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06712572547493058120noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460774498001166778.post-4429901245229114242010-04-14T16:52:00.001-07:002010-04-14T16:52:31.072-07:00

Just a quick post announcing there’s a short presentation* available now for any small or micro business owners/executives asking: Why should my company be concerned with process? How should we develop processes for our business? *A version of this can also be presented to your organization’s leadership upon request. Comments, questions, and feedback welcomed here!

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06712572547493058120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460774498001166778.post-23514270049073181682010-04-09T14:57:00.001-07:002010-04-09T14:57:51.827-07:00

To some, it might be utterly shameful to have someone call your writing boring.  It happened to me twice in the last six months.  Am I completely ashamed to admit it? Not really.  (Warning: I can be feisty as evidenced by #tracysfeistytweets and this previous post.  Not scared? Read on about why I wrote boring content.) Scenario #1: “I want to do an e-newsletter article on X,

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06712572547493058120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460774498001166778.post-44659752238508414982010-03-24T10:26:00.001-07:002010-03-24T10:26:31.295-07:00

(NOTE: This is a series of occasional posts clarifying the things I don’t do, business-wise, marketing-wise, or social-media-wise.  Same format each time.) What: After approving a recommendation from someone, LinkedIn prompts you to “return the favor” by recommending the sender.  I don’t make it standard practice to automatically recommend everyone back—especially clients—but am happy

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06712572547493058120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460774498001166778.post-56745227947548102432010-03-05T09:59:00.001-07:002010-03-05T09:59:51.994-07:00

(NOTE: This is a series of occasional posts clarifying the things I don’t do, business-wise, marketing-wise, or social-media-wise.  Same format each time.) What: Follow Friday or #FF on Twitter (or other microblogging platform).  Essentially, someone tweets a list of Twitter handles/names (I’m @tracydiziere for example) as a blanket recommendation of people to follow.  Why I

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06712572547493058120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460774498001166778.post-75377444795527499632010-03-03T09:35:00.001-07:002010-03-03T09:35:29.442-07:00

It’s only Wednesday but—Stop the Presses!—I have found it. The best subject line (aka title) from my email inbox comes from Fastcompany.com’s newsletter and article by Ariel Schwartz: Would You Live in an Abandoned Mental Hospital? You’d have to be crazy not to open that email.  Of course, I expected the article to be about micro-businesses or small businesses who allow their “houses” to

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06712572547493058120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460774498001166778.post-55817005365158658552010-03-02T10:57:00.001-07:002010-03-02T11:04:47.759-07:00

In my earlier post Firing Customers: Why and How,  I referenced Collapse of Distinction: Stand Out and Move Up While Your Competition Fails. This is a book by Scott McKain and although I haven’t read it yet, he has published an informative article on MarketingProfs.com: Why You Should Fire (Some of) Your Customers.  Herein, he recommends who to keep and who to discard by category (very

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06712572547493058120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460774498001166778.post-12454611425482656132010-02-26T12:02:00.002-07:002010-02-26T12:19:38.694-07:00

In 1996, I worked at a large international accounting firm’s Atlanta office in the Marketing Department, where we produced the internal communications newsletter.   We developed some pretty original and impressive content in those days.  One of my favorites was this co-authored article about all employees who had participated in the Olympics—or were training to do so.  My

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06712572547493058120noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460774498001166778.post-61968462281310339812010-02-19T11:06:00.001-07:002010-02-19T11:06:29.765-07:00

Just a quick post here for small businesses in B-to-B services.  Regardless of your knowledge of (or initial interest in) Lean, you can use some key questions to tighten up your service delivery. Why is this important? On-target marketing and delivery of services translates to less costs, increased revenue via more focus on the customer, and more fulfilled employees.  That’s what I’ll

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06712572547493058120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460774498001166778.post-19808021885885029722010-02-18T19:41:00.001-07:002010-02-18T19:41:14.615-07:00

I’m just curious.  In all seriousness, Peter Shankman has a post tonight about Tiger and his pseudo-press conference tomorrow.  It says all the things about Tiger that I’ve been hearing from other, albeit less famous people, all week.  And the post does a great job of getting a helluva lot of “Tigers” into one, er, den.  What I really like about the post is the comments—to

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06712572547493058120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460774498001166778.post-184832430310737342010-02-16T13:05:00.003-07:002010-03-01T10:57:44.024-07:00

Those of us in professional services or B-to-B services have no doubt encountered less-than-desirable customers.  Many articles and books have been written about firing those clients. (I came up with 1,540,000 results for Google with the keywords “firing clients.”)  Here is just a sampling of results worth mentioning: 1. Inside CRM: Top 10 Ways to Fire the Client From Hell. 

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06712572547493058120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460774498001166778.post-76801816205391322122010-02-08T14:11:00.003-07:002010-02-15T11:50:16.505-07:00

Once again, the Superbowl ads were not (overall) as effective and entertaining as they have been historically.  (See last year’s post.)Therefore, many of my picks are really just the best of the mediocre.  Caveat: I’m only considering ones I saw and could hear well  for products and services we buy directly (not TV shows, movie trailers, nonprofit organizations, causes, public

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06712572547493058120noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460774498001166778.post-46697878953615029852010-02-04T11:34:00.002-07:002010-02-14T17:03:15.231-07:00

Occasionally I meet the small business owner who wants to hire an industry expert, or someone who specializes in their industry, to do their marketing.   While I won’t go into all the strongly held positions on both sides here, I heard this program on NPR yesterday that seemed to make a good case for “fresh perspective.”  The program is called Guns, Tumors And The Limits Of The

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06712572547493058120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460774498001166778.post-24975044079261144042010-01-26T11:08:00.002-07:002010-01-26T19:21:57.845-07:00

Here is a quick guide to help the small business owner determine whether to outsource specific marketing tasks and how to decide what his/her marketing efforts are worth.Should I Outsource? Try the classic litmus test for delegating: “If someone else can perform this task at least 75% as well as you can, delegate it.” Do I have the necessary expertise to get it done at the desired level of

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06712572547493058120noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460774498001166778.post-49047652783170939762010-01-22T12:17:00.003-07:002010-12-18T11:53:38.414-07:00

In thinking about who uses Facebook (and why), I’ve developed this short list of the likely and usual suspects. 1. Gamers. They rarely post updates and news about themselves or reply to others’ wall posts. Instead, they play Farmville, Sorority Life, etc. and answer quizzes. They may join groups, but really Facebook is just another platform for games, albeit perhaps a bit more social. Although

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06712572547493058120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460774498001166778.post-75838362099209212932009-12-31T10:47:00.002-07:002010-12-18T12:02:27.748-07:00

I’ve noticed with a few searches related to small business website services, there are a number of “website analyzers” or “website report cards” (as in grades? euw!) promising free analysis and reports. They’re free, but I suspect the offering companies will then try to sell you on using their services for the website improvements they found. In other words, with their writers, designers, etc. (

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06712572547493058120noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460774498001166778.post-46337701928389357232009-12-18T15:13:00.003-07:002010-07-27T16:43:51.034-07:00

Attention small business owners, entrepreneurs, and startup mavens! If you’re looking for someone to work for you for free, I’m going to tell you who will do it. And by “work” I don’t mean respond to the occasional and casual marketing- or PR-related question. Nor do I mean provide the free resources for small business that are readily available from a marketing professional’s website (such

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06712572547493058120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460774498001166778.post-69711800482408409912009-12-15T09:14:00.002-07:002010-02-14T17:08:03.587-07:00

Here’s a quick list of resources about email marketing for anyone  planning an email campaign: E-dialog: Provides the Relevance Trajectory. Their website (www.e-dialog.com) expands on 6 factors (Segmentation, Lifecycle management, Triggers, Personalization, Interactivity, and Testing and Measurement)  to consider when planning your email communications.  A good starting place.

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06712572547493058120noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460774498001166778.post-87644077533966185912009-10-20T19:43:00.010-07:002010-02-16T13:17:55.928-07:00

This question was posed by my colleague Jen. Before I launch into the answer, a few words about blogging on this subject:1. I’m going to respond within the context of micro and small businesses. My assumptions are that the brand is undefined, formative, or MIA.2. I could write a whole article/white paper on this subject (and I might just do that!) but for today I am going to shoot from the hip

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06712572547493058120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460774498001166778.post-77201619931083515072009-08-23T10:30:00.002-07:002009-08-23T10:34:27.254-07:00

In lieu of a blog post where I address an issue that may or may not apply to lurkers out there, I'm proposing a Q&A. If you have any burning marketing questions, post them in a comment and I'll give you my undivided attention . . . and the best answer that I can.

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06712572547493058120noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460774498001166778.post-13335569011094709822009-07-10T12:16:00.000-07:002009-07-10T12:17:07.560-07:00

"A trusted advisor gives you the best options & advises you which to take based on your needs, not the paycheck he hopes to have at the end." --Tracy Diziere

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06712572547493058120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460774498001166778.post-17460625997846621992009-06-29T19:36:00.003-07:002009-06-29T19:42:00.853-07:00

Tomorrow I am sending out the Q2 newsletter article (yes, on the last day of the quarter!) on how small businesses and start-ups can increase sales. To read it, sign up to be on the distribution list at http://tinyurl.com/tdiziere.

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06712572547493058120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460774498001166778.post-63177879072708558712009-06-04T10:23:00.005-07:002009-06-04T10:41:12.918-07:00

I just saw a very funny--or is it sad?--YouTube video on how client pricing issues would get played out in real-world scenarios. My apologies in advance to those clients who understand the difference between a taco-stand taco and a filet mignon vs. those who believe they are paying for beef.It should be said, these issues are more likely to happen with large agencies and when clients are

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06712572547493058120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460774498001166778.post-74006601798772239452009-05-20T19:39:00.004-07:002009-05-21T12:21:13.311-07:00

Here at iabc phoenix copper quills after peter shankman's keynote so forgive the lowercase etc. It was hard to hear but what I took from the talk was:1. It's a conversation. Freakin listen. It's not just spouting off . . . And talking About irrelevant stuff. 2. The average person has an attention span of 2.7 seconds. Ouch!3. We don't even talk to people in our network on a personal level (guilty)

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06712572547493058120noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6460774498001166778.post-64475034452687289372009-03-08T10:06:00.003-07:002009-03-08T10:14:02.797-07:00

On March 25 from 12-1 p.m. at the Renaissance Hotel & Spa in Glendale, West Valley Child Crisis Center (WVCCC) is hosting its annual Kids at Heart Luncheon to benefit abused, neglected children. WVCCC provides a temporary shelter for these kids in a safe, nuturing, home-like environment staffed by professional caregivers. The luncheon is free and the presentation will hopefully inspire

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06712572547493058120noreply@blogger.com0