Written by Kit Falvey

If you market via the web you’ve likely noticed the proliferation of brands generating blogs, articles, e-newsletters, native advertising and other types of custom content. In fact, it’s difficult to avoid such content. There’s a reason for the increase in this type of marketing – it’s effective. In fact, Curata notes that almost 75% of companies who engage in content marketing report that it generates more frequent and higher quality leads than other types of marketing. Who wouldn’t want results like that?

This is the third follow-up to my post Trick question: Are you a marketing planner or a marketing doer?, which touched on the basic requirements of a strategic marketing plan:

• Establishing objectives and goals
• Defining audiences
• Creating strategies and tactics
• Setting priorities 
• Establishing how success will be measured 

This time around, I’ll be looking more closely at strategies and tactics – the core of a marketing plan. This is where the rubber meets the road!

By Ron Joyce, President & CEO, Joyce Farms

When you sell a product, the first thing you have to do is figure out what makes your product different, what makes it unique. My father started our company in 1962, and as I got older and joined the business I saw the need to take us in a direction that would make us stand out from other poultry producers. I saw that the industry was moving toward a race for faster, cheaper, increased production. The result was a uniform type of chicken bred to grow fast (so it consumed less resources) and with a big breast (so it provided more of the meat consumers wanted). But I didn’t want to do what everyone else was doing – I wanted to bring something new and different to the market. That was flavor.

It’s on to part two of my follow up to the post Trick question: Are you a marketing planner or a marketing doer?, which touched on the basic requirements of a strategic marketing plan:

• Establishing objectives and goals
• Defining audiences
• Creating strategies and tactics
• Setting priorities 
• Establishing how success will be measured

As part one in a follow up to my recent post Trick question: Are you a marketing planner or a marketing doer?, I want to take time to delve a little deeper on the qualities that comprise an effective marketing plan. While a plan can take many forms, it should meet some fundamental requirements, including:

Written by Amanda Marshall

It’s a mobile world out there and, in case you haven’t noticed, many of those living in it appear to be tethered to their phones. This is true personally as well as professionally. I’m a Millennial – I’ve never known a world without cell phones, where you could be reached pretty much anywhere at any time. But the accelerated rise of smart phones use has been a game changer. Now phones aren’t just for calls anymore. Instead, communication and information of all kinds is flowing in constantly.