The three C’s of controlling scope creep

Projects rarely go perfectly according to plan. Results of a 2010 industry-wide survey show that almost 70% of projects failed due to scope creep; and 47% failed due to misunderstanding what the customer wants.

Scope creep is what happens when a project is allowed to grow bigger than the original anticipated size, without corresponding increase in resources, schedule and budget, due to a lack of project control. Here are three ways you can avoid falling in to this lethal trap. [Read more...]

Five reasons why you should “like” your competitors on social media

Are you following your competitors on Facebook or Twitter?

Researching marketing performance and strategies includes keeping an eye on competition, and social media has made that a bit easier for you by simply liking or following your competitor’s pages or accounts. Their efforts into social media are also part of their overall inbound marketing efforts, pulling in traffic and potential leads from a highly engaged audience already leaning towards a purchase.


Here are five reasons why it’s important to “like” your competitors: [Read more...]

Five website mistakes that drive your customers away

Websites are an integral part of business today. However, a poorly planned website can actually do more harm than good for your brand. A website that is an exercise in frustration to go through is likely to discourage visits, disillusion customers with your brand, and of course, hurt your bottom line.

But these pitfalls can easily be avoided.


Here are five of the most common website mistakes that create poor user experience and drive your customers away. [Read more...]

Using Facebook hashtags to bring new eyes to your business

Hashtags: they’ve been a staple of the Twitter user experience for years. Now Facebook has jumped on the bandwagon, joining other social media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest, allowing users to attach hashtags to updates.

Hashtags 101

So what are hastags, exactly?

They are words used as a form of metadata, prefixed with a hash sign (#).Generally embedded into Twitter and other social media posts, they are used to group messages on a common theme. Content associated with hashtags appears in searches on the keyword.

You may already use hashtags as a way to join in on event- or news-driven conversations, but have you thought about how hashtags can bring your brand into more of these conversations? Read on. [Read more...]

3 Ways to Make People Fall in Love with Your Blog

Photo by Steve Hankins (Flickr)


The purpose of this blog post isn’t to persuade you to start a “blog.”

If you’ve read this far, I’m going to assume that you already have a blog for your business and inherently understand the benefits of content marketing.

That being said, my goal is to simply provide the “blogging CEO and Business Owner” with a few tips that will help them get more visits to their blog (and website) and - ultimately - make people fall in love with it (translation: get more leads).

[Read more...]

Why Traffic Is Not That Important

What some companies do on a monthly basis with their online advertising budget.

Despite the fact this headline will likely infuriate some industry folk, it must be said.

When people think about online marketing, some still see traffic as the all important success metric. In fact, some still call it “hits.” (As in they want to get more hits to their site, which is not the same as unique visits or traffic).  The logic seemed simple - as long as we get plenty of traffic, we’ll get business.

Yes, traffic is great, but more importantly, your website must have an effective mechanism (or strategy) for capturing and tracking leads and/or sales.  Otherwise, traffic is useless.

For example…

[Read more...]