Will Davis

Just as a doctor must follow the Hippocratic Oath, strategic marketing consultants like us must First Do No Harm. All too often we see the unfortunate results of a new, well-intentioned VP of Marketing or CMO coming in bursting with energy and anxious to make an impact try to do everything – and doing more harm than good.  Marketers in a new role, just like doctors with a new patient, first need to take a step back and assess the situation.  Before you change the design and structure of the website, re-engineer an existing pay-per-click search campaign, or make a 180 degree change in the tone and focus of the company blog and social media presences, take the time to evaluate everything. Start By Asking Questions Your doctor does this all the time.  Marketers should understand what has been tried previously, what has been successful and what may need adjustment. The... (more)

SEO for Professional Services Firms

About two months ago, I put together a post on the five ways professional services firms should use Twitter.  From a readership standpoint, that post represents one of the all-time top five posts on Marketing Trenches.  More importantly, we received a number of emails from professional services types praising the content and asking for more. If it’s more you want, it’s more we’ll give.  This time, we’ll address search engine optimization, also known as SEO, and the common mistakes that professional services firms make in an attempt to address this area. One quick note: While th... (more)

Startup Marketing: 10 Things To Do In Your First 90 Days

So you got yourself involved with a startup company.  It may have happened by circumstance or by choice.  You’re either a founder or one of the first employees.  You either envision your concept as a potential single to be flipped in 3-4 years, or a grand slam that will allow you to socialize with the likes of Brin, Bezos and Cuban. Awesome.  We all love a good startup story.  Unless you’ve got an inherently viral concept on your hands (and by the way, keep in mind that there have only been about 5 inherently viral products introduced over the past 5-7 years), you’re going to ne... (more)

Social Media and Search - One Good Turn Deserves Another

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B2B Lead Generation Tip #1: Start With the Right Mindset

This is the first in a series of posts that will address the creation and execution of a B2B lead generation program in a step-by-step manner.  We’ll post another tip each week, and when the series is complete we’ll compile all the tips into one document and distribute. The first step to creating and executing a B2B lead generation program is to establish the right mindset.  Regardless of your level of expertise, it goes without saying that you need a positive attitude about what you’re about to create, or else the program will fail on the runway or earlier.   Assuming you’ve e... (more)