Hustle your marketing with this canvas

Marketing is the process of introducing your target demographic to your product. It’s as simple as that. So how does that happen? Through a lot of different ways, many of them unique to individual products, market places and people.

I’ve been working in this field for close to 10 years now. I have worked with global companies, small startups, punk bands, a skateboarding company, government offices and a dude who I’m 80% sure was in the Russian mafia.

In that time, I've learned that marketing is fucking easy.

In that time, I’ve learned that no matter what you’re marketing or where, you need to define the same information and lessons, or you will not succeed. This applies if you’re a startup, an artist, a WordPress dev house or a gorecore metal band.

• What is your product?
• What are its marketable elements?
• Based on that, what is your key message?
• Who is your target audience?
• Who are their influencers?
• What free channels do you have access to?
• What paid channels do you have access to?
• What are your goals?
• What are your first three phases?

I’ve put this into a canvas that I use regularly.

It’s inspired by the lean startup canvas. I know this isn’t an original idea, I’m certainly not claiming to have invented it. There’s other marketing canvases out there.

But I did make this one, and I’ve found it works every time. It gets the people I work with thinking about the direction of their marketing and establishes a high level plan.

This isn’t a total marketing plan. It’s definitely a bird’s eye view, intended to be used as the starting point, before you further develop and define what you’re doing. For many people, the initial brainstorming around their marketing never happens, or it doesn’t go anywhere. Try this instead.

Guest Post: Handmade Quilts - Warm Quilted Memories

I have a love for handmade quilts that has me out almost every Saturday, searching at yard sales and various other places for them. One of my fondest memories, as a child, is when several of the women in our neighborhood would gather in our home for a 'quilting bee'.

The quilt they would work on would be secured neatly on a wooden quilting frame hanging from the ceiling. The women would work for days sewing every stitch with love and talking a mile a minute while their hands created a beautiful piece of American Art.

The ladies would bring their children and a covered dish. Oh what a wonderful time we would have! We children would play all day while our Mothers quilted and caught up on the latest news from each other. When it was time to come in and enjoy the wonderful food our Mothers had prepared, one of the ladies would go out and ring the dinner bell in the front yard by the well. When we heard the dinner bell ring all of us would be getting quite hungry by then and we would race each other to the house.

Handmade quilts are for sale as they are a symbol of the things we value most in our lives. Many reflect the lives of the people who create them. There is a feeling of accomplishment with anything you make by hand.

Warm quilts are a welcome on a cold winters night. There is a long history behind the art of quilt making. There is a story woven into each one made. I use handmade quilts for sale to decorate my home. Many of the ones I have are old and frayed around the edges, but I treasure each one the same and hope to make a handmade quilt myself in the near future.

Handmade quilts are a wonderful way to express and preserve our love of life and family. They are a great gift to pass down to our loved ones and a way to show the changes in our lives. It is mostly the love and care placed into each handmade quilt that makes them so valuable and desirable to have in our homes.

Small Business Blog, Big Business Results

Small Business Blog, Big Business Results

Businesses of all sizes often struggle to find high impact, low cost methods of attracting and engaging customers.

While some say social media and SEO have leveled the playing field, blogging is by far one of the most effective ways for small businesses to achieve numerous business objectives.

What can you achieve with a blog? As a content management system that can be optimized for search and social shares, blogs with great content can help a company attract new customers, engage existing customers, connect with journalists and connect with potential new hires. There are many business communication goals that can be realized through blogging.

Guest Post: Tag Heuer Luxury Watches - Precision Meets Performance

Have a Tag Heuer around your wrist? Well, then you certainly rule time! But if you don't have one, here are reasons why you must get one. Vouched for their dependability, performance and endurance, Tag Heuer watches spell innovation, precision and perfection. Founded in 1860 by Edouard Heuer, this brand is a celebrated brand, a leading producer of prestigious sports watches and chronographs.

Ever wondered what makes these designer watches so special? Well, it is the only watch brand to offer instruments that are accurate to 1/10th, 1/100th and 1/1000th of a second for wristwatches, and to 1/10,000th of a second for timekeeping. Now that's called commitment to quality. So if you choose to flaunt a Tag Heuer designer watch your passion for precision certainly reflects.

Vintage Tag Heuer watches are icons of design. Every creation mesmerizes you. Be it sports watches for men or the more ornate ones for women. These incredibly stylish luxury watches come in a wide range of collection. It is a preferred choice of the fast and performance-driven.

Let's get to know some of top designer watches from Tag Heuer so that you can choose the one that suits you:

The famous Monaco powered by the Chronomatic Calibre 11, it is the world's first automatic chronograph. This square-cased, water-resistant watch became a rage after it was featured in a 1970 classic car-racing film.

Inspired from the Monaco is the vintage design of Tag Heuer Silverstone series. Square cased with rounded edges in polished stainless steel, colorful dial loaded with all modern chronograph functions- you'll surely fall in love with it. If you've the gentlemen's spirit in you then settle for the Carerra Gents series.

Sober, elegant the Carrera Chronograph combines refinement with the spirit of sport. Breaking all conventions of watch designing, harmonizing sports and prestige is the next creation of Tag Heuer-the Link series, the choice of today's sportsmen.

Closely following is the Golf Watches for professional golfers and the Aquaracer Automatic series- a water resistant watch for providing the accuracy that all water sports demand. Then there is the Formula 1 series which is crafted with great attention to detail. This series of watches blend art with technical precision so well that it has become the hottest selling product in the luxury watch market.

And as all established brands do, Tag Heuer has luxury watches for women. Timepieces that retain the durability of a sports watch but cater to the fashion needs of a woman at the same time. An apt example would be the Diamond Fiction-dazzling with 879 diamonds on the bezel, this one's surely going to make you feel special.

Every luxury timepiece from Tag Heuer watches is an object of desire. Flaunt at a business meeting or wear them to a beach party...admiration is guaranteed.

5 Online Marketing Essentials for Small Business Marketers

Online Marketing Essentials for Small Business Marketers

As new businesses are started every day across the U.S., many of those entrepreneurs are grappling with the realities of how to market their ideas, products and services.

Limited resources and an overabundance of options requires filtering and prioritization when it comes to where marketing investments are made, whether it’s content, blogging, social media, or SEO.

Common questions include: What to measure? What if it fails? What should we outsource?

Here are a few answers to those questions that I was asked as prep for an interview: