Good Marketing Starts With Good Story Telling

David Lavenda — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 15:44:56 -0500

Your product/service vastly improves your customers’ lives. In today’s world of stimulus saturation, how do you get your message across? Let’s look at two approaches. This example is taken from a company whose product helps organizations manage their IT resources.

Google Ads Is Not A Marketing Plan

David Lavenda — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 12:25:42 -0500

How do you get people to know they need your product or service?

Comment on Node ant

David Lavenda — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:55:54 -0500

Totally agree with John. I have heard the one about communicating with investors more than once. Unbelievable that otherwise intelligent people believe in the sizzle, even when there is clearly no steak.

How To Be Effective at Social Marketing

David Lavenda — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:00:45 -0500

Everyone’s talking about the latest buzz-term de jour – “social marketing.” It started with blogging, then it spread to Facebook and LinkedIn, and now it’s Twitter…

Cutting Through The Noise – Getting Marketing On the Map

David Lavenda — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:54:35 -0500

Based on my last post, I thought it might be helpful to present several ideas about how to get small/young companies to focus on investing in strategic marketing, early in the product/service development cycle.

First, let's look at the sources of the problem.

Comment on Node ant

David Lavenda — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:41:34 -0500

Lisa, unfortunately many young startup CEOs pay lip service to marketing, but as they agonize over every dollar they need to spend, most think that product positioning, messaging, etc. as things that are not that important. "Once the product is finished, we can figure that stuff out," is usually the reply. Until someone has either seen what proper marketing can do, or until they have been burned by a competitor who got it right, I find it impossible to break through.

If You Hear These, RUN, DON'T WALK!

David Lavenda — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 09:22:23 -0400

Startup CEOs Say the Darndest Things....

Small Company Mistake #7 – Hiring the Wrong Kinds of Folks – 7 Do’s and 6 Don’ts

David Lavenda — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 04:48:14 -0400

Your company is only as good its people. An awful cliché, but it is usually true. Hiring the wrong people is the most critical mistake a small company can make, so it makes sense to learn from others. Here are some important hiring don’t and do’s:

Don’ts

Small/Young Company Mistakes - #2 and #3 – Market Validation

David Lavenda — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:07:48 -0400

“We don’t want to let the cat out of the bag too soon.”

“We know what our customers want, for god’s sake, we are average users ourselves”

Comment on Node ant

David Lavenda — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 06:42:30 -0400

Passion is definitely a critical success factor. When you putting in those long hours, taking back-to-back red-eye flights, and getting the door slammed in your face, it is really important to believe in what you are doing. I have yet to meet a successful entrepreneur who wasn't passionate about "the cause." Definitely a "necessary but not sufficient" entrepreneur quality.