blog category

Marketing

Looking Back to Look Ahead

January 17, 2024

In the spirit of the new year, it's natural to close the door on the past and plan for what’s ahead. But what about those not-so-pleasant experiences, like looking back on some of the marketing mistakes we’ve all made over the past year? (Let’s be honest, nobody’s perfect!)

Read More >>

On Track: Driving Marketing Accountability and Results

December 12, 2023

Let's explore how integrating EOS insights helps keep our marketing efforts (and those of our clients) on track and driving toward tangible results.

Read More >>

Building Brand Authenticity Through Storytelling

October 18, 2023

Let’s explore how to use brand storytelling to foster greater belief and engagement with your customers.

Read More >>

Your Customers Are On A Journey: Here’s How You Can Reach Them Every Step of the Way

September 27, 2023

In the world of business, this means understanding where your customers begin interacting with your brand – and creating a rewarding path with messaging touchpoints to help them along the way.

Read More >>

Two Of A Kind: Aligning Marketing Strategies with Entrepreneurial Vision

September 20, 2023

In today’s pivotal world of business, aligning marketing strategies with your entrepreneurial vision is the key to bringing more stability and productivity to your brand.

Read More >>

Balancing Marketing’s Future: AI, Creativity, and the Human Touch

August 30, 2023

AI is here to stay – and from a marketing perspective, that’s probably a good thing.

Read More >>

Competing with the Big Guys (on a Small Budget)

July 7, 2023

Your organization can effectively compete with the big guys, enhance your brand recognition and market positioning, and attract the customers you are focused on.

Read More >>

Content Clarity: How to Make Your Messaging Meaningful

May 8, 2023

If you find yourself struggling to develop effective content for your business, you are not alone.

Read More >>

Applying the “Four Ms” of Marketing

March 21, 2023

The Four Ms can help you set a productive course for marketing success with plenty of checkpoints along the way.

Read More >>

Stepping Stones: Put Your Rocks in Meaningful Motion

January 26, 2023

If your marketing Rocks are beginning to feel like a heavy burden instead of inspiration, here are a few things you can do to lighten your load and move ahead.

Read More >>

All About Backlinking

December 14, 2022

So what is backlinking, and why is it important to your online brand awareness and, ultimately, your bottom line? Let’s take a closer look.

Read More >>

Going Up: Leveraging expertise to elevate leads.

October 12, 2022

When ATIS, a leading elevator and escalator inspection company, wanted to spread the word about their consulting services and generate more qualified leads, they looked to Spoke for marketing assistance.

Read More >>

The Spoke Approach to Life, Love, and Marketing

September 20, 2022

Most companies have a defined and written vision for their business. We have that too, but we also developed a list of core values that help us to make sure everyone is on the same page and consistently stays the course.

Read More >>

The Multiple Benefits of Multi-Channel Marketing

August 23, 2022

At Spoke, we’ve found the best way to stay in touch with your ideal market.

Read More >>

How Spoke helped a strategic planning resource harmoniously connect with a wider audience.

June 17, 2022

When a strategic planning platform provider wanted to rebrand its image, create a new website, attract a wider audience, and generate more qualified leads, they looked to Spoke for direction.

Read More >>

The Perils and Rewards of Thought Leadership Content

February 21, 2022

How to Create Honest and Impactful Conversations with Your Audience

Read More >>

Do you believe in ghosts?

January 6, 2022

Now you see them. Now you don’t. It’s called job applicant ghosting. This disturbing trend is impacting businesses nationwide as ghosters bail on scheduled job interviews and even the first day of work.

Read More >>

Markruiting: A Better Path to Employee Recruitment and Retention

July 27, 2021

Over the past few months as I’ve spoken with local business owners and corporate decision makers, one common topic and challenge has surfaced: the need for more qualified candidates to fill roles in the workforce.

Read More >>

Customer Success: The Golden Rule of Treating Customers the Way They Want to be Treated

July 9, 2021

It’s a simple concept but it’s surprising how many companies fall short of developing a brand that delivers the best possible customer experience. How can you take these words of wisdom and put them into action? Here’s how customer success strategies can make it happen.

Read More >>

We All Know That Content is King. (Now How Will You Make It Serve You and Your Audience?)

October 14, 2020

Speak directly to customers, brand followers and prospects in a way that initiates a productive dialogue and builds brand relationships.

Read More >>

Before Heading to a Trade Show, Pack Some PR Essentials

January 8, 2020

Heading to a trade show to network with current customers and meet new prospects? That’s great. Even in a hyper-connected world, trade shows and conferences remain a valuable and necessary staple for businesses and organizations looking to connect with key stakeholders.

Read More >>

Marketing Tools Are No Match for Customer Power

December 5, 2019

Consumers have more power than ever before. When they’re upset, they can do incredible harm to your brand (through things such as online reviews and even your social media), and they have access to more information (mostly true) about your products and services at their fingertips.

Read More >>

Marketing During a Recession

November 12, 2019

Growing share during a booming economy is difficult (everyone is spending). Gaining market share during a recession requires capital, but the eventual ROI can’t be beat.

Read More >>

Preheat Your Data to 450 Degrees

January 7, 2019

Most companies have great data. The problem is that it’s stuck in silos (CRM, Marketing Automation, Web Analytics, Accounting, Social Data, Customer Support, etc.). By combining the data into one Customer Data Platform, marketers obtain a Single View of the Customer…and then your marketing can really start cookin’.

Read More >>

I Know Why You Don’t Have a Digital Strategy in Place.

September 24, 2018

Should you have a defined digital strategy for your business? Absolutely. But you likely aren’t utilizing the digital space to its full potential, and you’re not alone.

Read More >>

Not All Anchors Weigh You Down

August 14, 2018

The speed at which business happens today is crazy fast. And it is only getting faster. Business owners and operators need to make hundreds of decisions each day, and it can be tempting to let decisions about brand and marketing slip through the cracks.

Read More >>

Take Stock of Higher Quality Stock (please).

February 22, 2018

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a lousy stock photo’s thousand words are ‘crap.’ OK, maybe some of them are ‘lazy.’

Read More >>

The guy dancing in the end zone isn’t the only hero.

February 22, 2018

What was once a simple spike (first attributed to Homer Jones of the New York Giants in 1965) has evolved into a choreographed party – so long as it’s not deemed ‘excessive.’

Read More >>

Marketing Myopia Revisited

September 12, 2018

You are defined by your customer. You are not in the business of whatever your product or service you sell, you are actually “a customer-creating and customer-satisfying organism,” as spoken by Theodore Levitt in his classic article “Marketing Myopia,” first published in 1960 by Harvard Business Review and revisited by Levitt in 2004.

Read More >>

Where Brand Happens

February 22, 2018

“Let’s practice what we preach” … that was our mindset before we began the task of rebranding ourselves. The goal was to do exactly what we do for our clients, but this time, do it for ourselves.

Read More >>

The Best Ways to Waste Money at a Trade Show

August 14, 2018

There are a lot of great ways to burn money (we’ve seen ‘em all). Our favorites are the ones where you spend a lot of money, but don’t spend it the right way and get no results. Hilarity ensues.

Read More >>

The cobbler HAS shoes.

August 14, 2018

You know that saying about the ‘cobbler’s kids with no shoes’ (implying he’s too busy with work to take care of himself). Have you ever noticed that it’s the ‘cobbler’s kids’ and not the cobbler himself? I bet the cobbler didn’t just have shoes, he had really nice ones (for the record, my great-grandfather was a cobbler, and legend has it that he always wore nice shoes).

Read More >>

Can you hear and see me now?

August 14, 2018

Advertising should make you visible, not invisible.

Read More >>

Networking is not working…it’s partying.

September 18, 2018

How our intimate get-togethers turned into a networking party.

Read More >>

Words Get On Your Nerves (whether you like it or not)

September 18, 2018

For a company whose primary business is dependent upon communication, it seems obvious that being able to write compelling copy for print ads, brochures, TV and radio ads is a basic requirement. Yet, crafting a compelling message can be challenging. Why?

Read More >>

The Voice of the Customer

September 18, 2018

We all know the central role that the customer has in business. But this doesn’t always translate into listening to the voice of the customer when it comes to product development, improving operations, marketing, and customer service, among other areas.

Read More >>

The brands, they are a changin’

September 18, 2018

First, let’s get one thing clear; a great brand is no guarantee of success (pets.com was fun while it lasted). As marketing pioneer, Bill Bernbach famously quoted, “a great ad campaign will make a bad product fail faster.” In other words, you can only fool people once.

Read More >>

All your base are belong to us

August 14, 2018

No, the alien robots from the 1989 video game Zero Wing aren’t coming to get you.

Read More >>

Don’t hit the play button (I dare you).

September 18, 2018

OK, not everyone can be a trendsetter (wrote the guy wearing tattered Chuck Taylor’s and well-worn Levi 501’s). One of the things I love most about our industry is that it’s constantly changing; it requires an unwavering commitment to learning.

Read More >>

Nobody loves your new product (sorry).

August 14, 2018

You love your new ‘precious’ product, don’t you? It’s okay, admit it. The problem is; nobody knows your product better than you. If you hope to have any chance of selling it, that’s got to change. Like now.

Read More >>

I can’t say ‘squishy ball’ with a straight face.

August 14, 2018

No knock on the promotional products industry, but the sales and marketing effort for your tradeshow shouldn’t revolve around the tchotchke that you give away. I’ve yet to make a purchase decision based on the logo on my squishy ball or pen.

Read More >>

Guide Your Customers Through the Buyer's Journey

September 18, 2018

There’s knowing who your customer is, and then there’s knowing your customer (hint: the second one is better).

Read More >>

Go Down the Rabbit Hole and Follow the Buyer’s Journey.

August 14, 2018

Many companies are living in a fantasy world in which they are not personalizing messaging to provide the right message to the right target at the right time.

Read More >>

A Persona Can’t Drive Your Car (but they can drive your business)

August 14, 2018

As we set up clients’ marketing automation programs, we’ve found that many are confused by creating personas. “How is it different than my target market?” Personas aren’t different; they’re better.

Read More >>

Automate Yourself

August 14, 2018

You’ve realized that you want to feel the ease and freedom that marketing automation brings (plus the extra dough doesn’t hurt). Now, what? There are many choices for marketing automation systems, and you should find what is right for your budget, resources, and goals.

Read More >>

It’s a push-button world

September 18, 2018

It’s the future, and it’s a push-button world. Hovercrafts exist, robots clean our floors (at least until the uprising), and we automate as many tasks as possible in our everyday lives (how dare you suggest that I do manual math like a peasant!). In this world where we consistently choose automation over manual tasks, it amazes me that less than ten percent of companies are utilizing marketing automation.

Read More >>

If you build it (correctly), they will come

September 12, 2018

61% of companies surveyed say that getting leads is their biggest challenge (IDG Study). 

Read More >>

Lead Generation May Not Be Your Problem

September 18, 2018

Prospects often call us because they want more leads; plain-and-simple. Most of the time, the quantity of leads isn’t the problem. After asking a few questions (using our patented client decoder), we find that they really want more ‘qualified’ leads (after all, why waste your time trying to sell people that have no likelihood of buying?).

Read More >>

Getting The Right Leads (with a good ROI)

September 18, 2018

You know who you’re targeting for qualified leads and what you want them to do, right? Oh, and you’re converting those qualified leads into sales at a good rate, and high return on investment? Good.

Read More >>

The Secret Sauce

August 14, 2018

Having a marketing plan is a great first step (really, the only first step) to grow your business employing cost-effective marketing. But, it’s just a first step.

Read More >>

Resolution #2: Follow Your Marketing Plan

September 18, 2018

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat. Sun Tzu – The Art of War

Read More >>

Resolution #1: Have a marketing plan

September 18, 2018

Remember paper calendars? It was always refreshing to start January with a clean slate. The fresh pad always smelled good, too. Like optimism, or something.

Read More >>

You'll Shoot Your Eye Out!

August 14, 2018

Happy Holidays

Read More >>

Hey doc, I need an antibiotic.

September 18, 2018

It’s that time of year; doctors get the call all the time – patients looking for a quick fix to whatever’s ailing them. We get similar calls almost daily (no, not for drugs…not anymore, anyway). Prospective clients call up wanting a solution without knowing the cause of their problem.

Read More >>

The Evolution of Banner Ads

September 12, 2018

Remember in the late 90’s when all anyone talked about was ‘eyeballs’? That was the (really stupid) rationale to invest in dotcoms based solely on the traffic the site would generate (even if the site operated at a loss). It was the reason companies had insane valuations and no real, sustainable revenue model.

Read More >>

Go Big or Go Home

August 14, 2018

What do you think a good direct mail response rate would be? How about 100%? Would that be good enough for you?

Read More >>

This Is Your Last Warning

September 18, 2018

For years marketing experts have been stressing the importance of including social media in the marketing mix of small and large businesses alike. How is it, then, that so many companies are still solely relying on their company website and paid media to enhance their online presence?

Read More >>

EVERYONE ELSE’S BLOG SUCKS (and they torture puppies)

September 18, 2018

This month we’ll be looking at choosing the best medium for your advertising. It’s estimated that consumers are exposed to hundreds (likely thousands) of marketing messages each day. Breaking through the clutter is one of a marketer’s biggest challenges, and finding the right media mix is a key ingredient to success.

Read More >>

Maybe Dental School Isn't The Answer, After All

September 18, 2018

For years, I’ve been suggesting that marketing students go to dental school. Great money, great hours, and nobody (hardly) ever dies in a dentist’s chair.

Read More >>

Why Referrals Work

August 14, 2018

Spoke has been able to grow during the ‘great recession’ and ‘slow rebound’ not just because we do great work and focus on finding our clients’ fastest path to cash™; it’s through referrals. Literally 90% of our business comes in the door that way.

Read More >>

A 'Squeaky Clean' list

September 18, 2018

Garbage in, garbage out. With direct marketing, having a good list is the most important element (more important than creative).

Read More >>

The Fastest Path to Cash™ (or, Spoke's Secret to Success)

September 18, 2018

Yeah, we liked the line so much we trademarked it. But, it really is our key touchstone for every client we work with and something we focus on every day.

Read More >>
back to blog page

In order to get you where you want to be, we need to figure out where you are. Let's talk about creating a fully-integrated sales and marketing program that’s grounded in strategy, and designed for the highest possible return on investment.

Activate Buyer JourneyContact Us