If you were to know me, you would understand my extreme affinity for using a whiteboard to express ideas and concepts. Sitting in a room of professionals and sketching out thoughts for others to examine, tear apart and rework is a great process for developing exceptional marketing campaigns and business processes. With a team in the room, each expert brings their data and shares it with the group. This simple communication allows everyone to collect their thoughts about each

Many marketing teams sit around tables and suggest their customers look a particular way or show certain behaviors. You have likely heard from call center representatives that tell you they “know” the customer. Or, is it the CEO, CMO or another leader that understands the way the customer acts and thinks? The best is when others around the table say they talked to a customer the other day and want to change a strategy or message based on that single interaction. Admittedly,

Pepsi recently released an advertising campaign that completely flopped. Maybe you heard of it…the ad featured a protest scene where one woman crosses over to the police line and shares a Pepsi and a smile with a hard working officer. According to the company, the ad was trying to promote “a global message of unity, peace and understanding.” But instead of this message, people reacted poorly saying it trivialized the real issues of protests and violence happening around the w

For years large brand companies have utilized the powers of database marketing to reach and impress their brands upon millions of consumers. Today, the resources available for database marketing have grown exponentially. Marketing databases are no longer just for the big guys – small and medium business marketers are quickly learning that having and properly utilizing a marketing database can be a game changer. Here are 7 benefits to having a database in your marketing arse

Be a data storyteller If you’re an analyst, you may not think of yourself as a storyteller, but you really are. After you’ve spent days or weeks (or longer) pouring over the data, it is up to you to tell the data story. Executives in your organization should not be asking to see the raw data. Instead, the good ones will wait for the story, the insights and learnings that can be used to drive key business decisions in your organization. How you decide to deliver the data stor