Another should-be-obvious-but-for-some-reason-isn’t moment (coincidentally it is also an unnecessarily-over-hyphenated-article-to-emphasize- many-points moment) –  over-promising and under-delivering.  I don’t just mean claiming something that you are not (see I Get The Last Word ), but I mean something equally fundamental. To illustrate: I place...

Make me need you. Make me rely on you. Most importantly make me trust you. I’m happy you sell watches. Why shouldn’t I just go to Amazon and buy it there – possibly even cheaper than what you sell it for? Why do I go to your site? Because you don’t only sell watches, you also fascinate me. You explain the relative merits of self-winding vs. battery. Why Patek...

Know Thyself Sound simple? Well it is – in theory. In practice however it seems that many companies fail to see who they really are and to whom they are directing their marketing. To illustrate (with a fictitious company): Israeli Flags and Pins Inc. decide to market their website selling pro-Israel paraphernalia including Israeli flags, pins and bumper...

Uch. A disgusting title – and a cliché at that. But that is still an appropriate metaphor for marketing your site. There are text ads and banner ads; pop-up ads and print ads; contextual ads and more. There is pay per month, pay per click and pay per action. There is SEO and AdWords, YidSense and WebAds. And there is word of mouth marketing – your fan...

“We serve the best steak” “We have the best service around” How do I know? Because you said so. That used to be enough for me. Advertising/marketing was a one-way street. You told me what you do –  you told me why you’re the best. As long as you told it to me often enough, and loud enough to drown out your competitors, that was...