Have you ever thought that sharing your mistakes might grow your customer base and increase loyalty?

We often only see the scrubbed and filtered experiences of our favorite companies. They trumpet the success of their finest customers and leave you believing that business is easy if you only knew how to create the endless win-win relationships they have seemingly mastered. This might be why the misuse of case study data for promotional proof has garnered some backlash recently.

The traditional case study typically shows Company X helping Customer Y solve a problem and highlights the resulting benefit to Customer Y. While I am a fan of customer success stories (and not just because I write them), they can often seem far too promotional and not very educational.

Highlighting an educational success story is great. Pretending that your product is the perfect solution for everyone is just dumb. [Read more...]

The folks at Copyblogger put a modern spin on a classic quote from former advertising executive David Ogilvy.

Like this graphic? Get more content marketing tips from Copyblogger.

It’s interesting to think that information precedes persuasion. Particularly in today’s information saturated world, content that informs your prospects is most likely to draw their attention.  [Read more...]

There is a lot of new data flying around regarding the use of social media.

Those of you familiar with data know that its usefulness is often subject to the way it is interpreted.

There is one research company that does some wonderful work.  They provide data and studies that are sorely needed.

The problem is that if you follow some of their advice, you (and therefore, your business) are going to look like an idiot.   [Read more...]