How Refilling a Printer Ink Cartridge is Like Trying to Do Marketing Yourself

One of my biggest pet peeves is the razor/razor cartridge business model that drives the ink printer industry.
As most people know, printer companies don’t make anything off the actual printer itself. That’s why they are usually given away free or at a substantial discount. Where they get you is in the re-purchasing of the ink [...]

The Law of Time-Decay for Leads

There is an unscientific law that applies to leads you gather, regardless of where they come from. This law applies to leads from Google AdWords, a form on your web site, a message left on your answering machine or a form filled out at a tradeshow.
The law is this: as time goes on, the interest [...]

To Spend or Not to Spend on Marketing During a Recession

Having worked in the tech industry for over a decade and lived through the infamous bubble bursting in 2000-2001, I’ve seen firsthand how companies reach for the ax to lay off marketing personnel first and foremost when times get tough. In fact, it’s almost become an unspoken best practice: cut marketing first, finance last.
I’d like [...]

When Marketing is a Waste of Money

This is likely one of the few times that you’ll hear this coming from the mouth of a PR/marketing agency such as Firecracker, but there are instances when marketing spend is a true waste of money.
The first example is the recent color scheme change to Bank of America. At least in Southern California, I’ve noticed [...]

The Dreaded Form, and why it can be disastrous to your marketing efforts

While it’s considered best practice to use a form to generate leads from marketing efforts, be they landing pages from search engine marketing or simply from your contact page, be very careful in how you treat the leads coming in or it could end up doing more harm than good.
What’s the first thing you think [...]