When Personalized Marketing Goes Bad

Does it annoy you as much as me when companies with which you have no relationship speak to you like you are old buddies? I was hanging out on linkedin just the other day and saw this intriguing ad from Geico. Intriguing, that is, until it started to try to "know me". In this example, Geico had me at funny, but lost me at chummy.

The Daily Deal Myth: Why it Doesn’t Pan Out for Most Small Businesses

If you own or run a small business, acquiring customers can be one of your biggest ongoing challenges. Word of mouth is great, but it is slow. Advertising often requires a big commitment with no real guarantee of success. And there are a thousand agencies with a "secret formula" who want to lock you in to service contracts. So what about Groupon and other daily deal sites? 

How Much Should Small Businesses Spend On Marketing?

Setting an arbitrary budget and then going out and finding a way to spend it is decidedly non-strategic.

The better approach is to first develop a sound strategy, and then figure out how to fund and implement it. In the corporate world, good plans find money, whether budget "exists" or not. Likewise, you have more options than you might think...