Every time I visit my favorite coffee shop, the barista gives me a smile, nods, and brings my go-to order in a few minutes. It’s a relationship built on trust and loyalty. Imagine if all your customers felt the same about your brand. In crowded markets where buyers are spoilt for choice, gaining consumer confidence can help you become a trusted name....

Research shows that company swag can be a highly effective tool for boosting engagement. In fact, in one recent study, 61% of survey respondents agreed that promotional products help build brand awareness, and 58% reported that they loved getting swag. That being said, through my experience as the head of marketing at two different tech companies,...

As a youngster, way back in 2010, I remember watching a YouTube video that fascinated me. I was learning to play the keyboard at the time and came across an upload by MysteryGuitarMan that lets you play a song by clicking on piano keys displayed on the screen. My song of choice? “Mary had a little lamb,” a classic for beginners. This interaction...

Whether you’re delivering a huge presentation or hosting a webinar, a touch of humor works like a charm to delight your audience. Plus, a joke here and there can convey a fun and creative company culture. I always use marketing jokes as an ice-breaker to start a conversation in a group or keep things breezy in the middle of a serious discussion....

The first time I managed a marketing budget, I was handed a dollar figure and asked to accomplish X, Y, and Z with it. The following year, I was asked to do more with a slightly smaller budget. Sound familiar? While this top-down approach is common, it isn’t the only way to budget. The opposite approach is a bottom-up budget, where each department...

I became a marketer because I love storytelling — a craft that I and many other content strategists treat like an art. Like all art, storytelling requires creativity, vision, skill, and practice. The result of this discipline? Marketing campaigns that really pull your audience in. When I think about storytelling in business, my mind goes to an ad...