Business development and sales
Client/customer profitability
Sort through your clients and determine which ones are the “keepers.”
When is it okay to fire a client?
Customer service and retention
You can either keep in touch or wave “goodbye.”
How to lose your customer (in one simple step).
Project management and project design development
Why “design by committee” is a sure-fire path to disaster.
How to steer your project into a ditch…every damn time.
Outbound marketing B2B sales tools
Our fire-starter idea helps you deliver more value (while scrubbing out that nasty five-letter word c-h-e-a-p).
What’s it REALLY worth to ya?
Do events or processes rule at your place?
Without the right processes in place, no amount (or size) of events can save your business.
What’s driving your company’s bus…events or processes?
Web redesign and project management
Why playing it safe can turn you into something boring and watered down.
How our earlier website redesign went webbishly wrong (and how you can learn from it).
What makes creative people creative in the first place.
You can’t play to win if you’re playing it safe.
Creative cultures and combovers.
Sometimes your brain just needs a wacky workout.
There’s big creative payoff for doing goofy stuff around the office.
How crappy is your workplace?
Do you know how (in)effective your company’s website actually is?
Without running the numbers, you’re swinging at the ball with your eyes closed.
Content marketing results (cipherin’) from the B2B real world.
Web development
Successful website overhaul
More about how we redesigned our website and radically upped our game.
Part deux: A tale of two websites.
Smart B2B web development
Do your web programmers focus on what your customers need?
Five functional web development lessons we’ve learned from Cosmo Kramer.
Painless web development for your business
How trying to save a few bucks can cost you plenty.
Persuaded by a Pied Piper programmer’s pretty promises.
Successful web design and usability
Developing your navigation from the users’ perspective makes it painless for everybody.
Web design usability tip – discovery by failure means frustration.
How to make the most of using a WordPress theme for your business website
Unless you customize your WordPress theme, your website won’t stand out from the competition.
Buying a WordPress theme for your company’s website: quick fix or quicksand?
How well does your business website perform?
You need a top-notch web development team to finish ahead of the competition.
Does your website run like a race car or a clunker?
Why you need to pre-plan for maintaining your website.
Like death and taxes, website changes are inevitable…so make sure you’re prepared.
The true cost of all website maintenance.
Why hiring cowboy coders and maverick programmers is like herding cats.
Bypassing a good programming methodology is a sure-fire path to disaster.
NOT WANTED: Cowboy Coders. (Cowgirl Coders neither.)
How lengthy is your list of desired web application features?
Adding more features into your web app also increases your potential problems.
When it comes to web application development, remember: Simple is deliverable.
Why are you making it so difficult for people to visit your website?
Trust is a two-way street, so stop demanding that prospects give you their info up front.
How to defeat your own e-commerce biz in 3 simple steps.
Branding and identity
Your logo vs. your brand
“Logo” and “brand” are not interchangeable.
You can buy a logo, but you can’t buy a brand.
Cut through the clutter of “me too”
You can either be interesting or be ignored.
Still think you can “build it and they’ll come?”
Choosing a web domain name
Naming your new website is serious business, so make sure you think it through.
What’s in a domain name?
What’s the deal with the placebo effect in marketing?
Why it’s NOT all about the power of positive expectations influencing customers’ perceptions.
Placebo marketing: Myth or magic pill?
Are you paying attention to how your phones are answered?
Everything your company does, including answering the phone, speaks volumes about your brand.
“Thanks for calling The Fowler Group…”
Why you need to focus on unique, meaningful and memorable messaging.
Being indistinguishable from your competition is not who you want to be.
Want to be the top dog? Stop blending in. Now.
Are you communicating with your customers or at them?
Never forget that you’re speaking with the one person who’s reading your business messaging at that moment.
Why you don’t want to speak about your business in the 3rd person.
How well does your logo fit your brand?
While a terrible logo can hurt your business, a kickass logo can’t sell it.
Does logo design matter? Does logo design not matter?
Is your company’s marketing language merely a boastful monologue?
All your customers really want to hear is what you can do for them.
In successful marketing, it’s not me…it’s you.
Email marketing
Email (un)subscriber lists
Don’t annoy users by making ’em jump through hoops just to opt out of email.
Email marketing for businesses (unsubscribe). It shouldn’t be that hard to say “goodbye.”
If you think that email split testing is splitting hairs, think again.
Not split testing (A/B testing) your marketing emails means you’re leaving dollars on the table.
How one 9-second tweak yielded a 400% boost in email open rate.
Just how successful are your e-mail marketing campaigns?
Do you really know what you’re doing – or just sending stuff out and hoping it makes sense?
Shawn’s magnificent 7 tips for kickass e-mail campaigns.
Make sure your marketing e-mail efforts don’t get flagged as spam.
Quality e-mailing lists and smart subject lines keep you out of spam folders.
Wonder why your company’s e-mails just aren’t cutting it?
Inbound and content marketing
Content marketing strategy
How The Fowler Group committed to consistent marketing and radically upped our game.
A tale of two websites.
Drip marketing campaigns
What you need to know (and do) before turning on the faucet.
To drip or not to drip. That is the $64,000 question.
Copywriting and your brand
Make sure your copy speaks well (and accurately) about your business.
Your content is your company’s voice. So what the heck does your copywriting say about you?
Online content development
Why piggybacking on other websites’ stuff is not the way to go.
Does your business really own its web content or are you just “leasing lopsided tacos?”
Why boring content does nothing for your brand
Feed your site’s visitors interesting stuff or they won’t come back for seconds.
Is your online content about as tasty as a rice cake?
Wimpy vs. assertive copywriting
How you say it is just as important as what you’re saying.
Is your content flabby or firm?
Purchasing website content “by the word” is a really bad practice.
You can’t know how long any piece of copy should be before it’s even written.
Why hiring a copywriter isn’t like buying deli ham.
Dropping tons of money on flashy advertising doesn’t guarantee results.
Your valuable marketing dollars should be spent on smart ideas, not cheap stunts.
Why I give VW an A.
The difference between useless and effective content marketing is value.
Unless your content marketing offers something worth having, you’re wasting time and money.
Want to stand out? Make ’em an offer they can’t refuse.
How much attention is paid to proofreading at your place?
Typographical errors in your business communications can damage your brand.
How impotrant is proofreading too your brand?
Do you know what’s missing from your B2B messaging?
How to fill the void between what you know and what your customers know.
Assess your B2B marketing gap with a smart content audit.
Why SEO is not copywriting (and other things you need to know).
Cramming SEO words into your copy only succeeds in making you look bad.
Hiring the wrong crew to cook and serve up your content?
Marketing strategies and tactics for your business
Direct mail campaign strategies
Think it through (and then think some more) before launching any DM effort.
Four “must-dos” for a killer direct mail campaign or “how to keep your direct mail pieces out of their shredder.”
Implementing marketing strategy
Stop yapping about what you’re going to do and just do it already.
Talking about social media, web analytics and eating our own dog food.
Step up your marketing efforts
“Same as it ever was” won’t do squat for your business (or your brand).
Challenging questions for fearless marketing.
Trade show event marketing
There’s a lot more to it than pitching a tent and hoping folks wander in.
10 simple ways to ensure trade show sizzle and oomph.
Why being the best doesn’t mean much
Make sure your messaging doesn’t rely on meaningless terms like “better” or “best.”
Just be yourself (and stop trying to be better than the other guys).
Why successful marketing is like a winning basketball coach’s philosophy.
Your business can’t afford to meander through its marketing moves.
Either focus on your next play or fall behind in the game.
Unlocking the mystery of tasty and successful SEO.
If you want your content to be shared, it must be interesting, fresh and have reader value.
Until robots can buy your stuff, stop catering to them.
Never forget you’re writing for people…not search engine robots.
SEOverload: Why too much of a good thing is a really bad idea for your brand.
Pssssst…wanna know the secret SEO recipe?
Why learning from experts is the smart path to success.
No matter what your job is, great role models help you do it much better.
Everybody could use a wizard. Or two.
This is the time to launch a killer direct mail campaign.
Learn why smart direct mail is vital to your business and your brand.
To do direct mail or not to do direct mail. That is the question.
Why do you want to utilize social media for your business?
Don’t fall into the trap of chasing after social media trends.
Considering social media? Be sure…oh look! SQUIRREL!!!
In marketing, you only get about 10 seconds to grab their attention.
You can’t achieve kickass marketing results without split testing your ideas.
Why marketing is a lot like bull riding. (No BS jokes, please.)
Are your marketing efforts too confusing for your customers to act on?
You can’t get customers to respond without a single and focused call to action.
Tell your customers where to go. They’ll thank you for it.
Outsourcing and hiring a marketing agency
Hooking up with the right marketing agency
Want to cut through the B.S. and get down to the nitty gritty?
Marketing Agency Dating Nitemares
Outsourced business copywriting
Don’t cut corners on your company’s all-important messaging.
When you’re talking copywriting, there’s no place like home.
What The Fowler Group can do to build your brand
It’s not about spending more money…it’s about spending smart money.
Marketing agency advice: questions to ask BEFORE you hire a marketing agency.
Marketing and business consulting
Why outsider viewpoints are critical to growing your business.
Even Michael Jordan needed a coach.
Are you sabotaging your own marketing efforts with unreasonable deadlines?
Don’t force your creative team to work from behind the eight ball.
You can’t create great campaigns from the worst possible position.