Don’t Speak Jargon to Your Buyers- Use Plain English

John Hyman — Fri, 26 Apr 2026 03:00:00 GMT

If you want to get your point across and make a friend, use plain English. Industry jargon may be fine for working around your coworkers, industry friends and associates, but it should not be used in sales presentations. Jargon is one of the greatest frustrations for a buyer. The inability to grasp what is being said when speaking to a sales person will kill a sale every time. Your job as sales pro is to close the deal, but your success rate depends on building rapport and a relationship with your prospect. If they cannot “get it” you are wasting your time. Your presentation should be easily explained in layman’s terms so that even a high school student can understand clearly. The same holds true for your written communications.

One of my closest friends, a District Attorney, used to tell me that when he would compose his closing argument to the jury he would try to write it at the eighth grade level. That way he felt that he wouldn’t be speaking above or below anyone on the jury and that his argument would be perfectly understood.

In the inbound marketing world, we refer to this concept as communicating by “persona”.
By speaking to an audience, or writing for that matter, communicate in a language they can understand and relate. Your message will be received without delay or suspicion if they can clearly correlate the information. This is nothing new; the concept has been around for as long as story telling. It is a skill however, that must be practiced and mastered to be effective.

The great author Oscar Wilde is known to have stated,

"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth."

Persona is Latin word for the word Mask, when in ancient Greek dramas the actor would change a mask for whomever he played. Although the actor was the same person, the change of mask, and the change of voice and inflections got their point across without difficulty. When someone speaks about a particular topic and is well versed but fails to reach the audience, said person is referred to as an unreliable narrator. Trust does not ensue nor does belief. This can be on the stage of performance or the stage of the sales presentation. Your message must resonate and not repel. The term a writer’s voice (metaphor) is a clear example of speaking to the audience for maximum effect and acceptance of the message. It may be turn of phrase, tone, tempo or language. Jargon is part of the language that should be avoided when your audience is the general public.

A great example of persona is when a friend calls on the phone, and within a word or two, you know exactly who is on the other end of the line. The sound of their voice, tone and language are clear and defined, making them instantly accepted and acknowledged.

When speaking to an audience either in person or in writing, you should do so from a perspective other than your own. That said, this is not to deceive but to relate. Enter the mind of your audience, and create a being that mirrors the tone, tempo and language of them so that your message will be instantly received. From a selling standpoint, your prospect has certain expectations and a particular perspective, so speak to them rather than merely regurgitating facts and figures and canned jargon.

If your marketing is at the point where developing the message through the use of persona and you can’t seem to make headway, contact Zen Marketing Inc. for some assistance. We’ll get you started on the road to successful communications that appeal to your prospects, or we can handle the entirety of your persona writing needs.

Deceptive Sales 101 (A great plug for Inbound marketing)

John Hyman — Wed, 24 Apr 2026 21:04:00 GMT

Or why pretending to be someone’s Grandmother isn’t going to help you get that order.

My latest favorite term is Sales Prevention Officer… borrowed from Jonathan Farrington on the Eyes on Sales blog. Professional, effective sales processes are a combination of art and science. A great sales person is trained in acting, engineering, politics, relationship building and strategic planning.

The best salespeople understand personal improvement is a never ending process. They study constantly and follow a process or systematic approach. They invest for the long term. But some people feel the need to cheat the system. They seek a faster and less arduous path to making fast money rather than a long term process.

That is why I admire some of the “schemes” the Sales Prevention Officers invent. The lengths that some people will go- believing that there is a way to shortcut success- are incredible. And the latest one my wife received was a total deception that fizzled for one simple reason. But more about that in a minute.

If people make their buy decisions based on the “know, like and trust” factor (and this is an immutable law of sales) then how can anyone expect to circumvent one of these three tenants with false or misleading messages or tactics? Human behavior is largely predictable and a good understanding of how people’s preference of behavior affects their decision making process can be an invaluable tool in sales.

So if being deceptive, if trying to be clever to get an appointment or if using tricks to get in touch with a decision maker are a violation of trust why do people believe they are a faster track for quick success? Perhaps they think the general public are sheep?

Here is my wife’s story

A letter arrived in the mail last week. It looked odd to her so she gave it to me. It was a plain white No.10 envelope with no return address, using an ordinary stamp and addressed using a Courier font (like anyone still uses a typewriter today!)

Now the clever part… inside was a carefully folded newspaper article featuring a “story” relevant only to married woman. The newsprint was light and dry (ink on real newsprint takes days to fully dry which is why it easily rubs off on your fingers when you read your daily) and the left edge had a pretty realistic “tear” to it- but a little too consistent and straight a pattern to have been real. But all told, it was a terrific fabrication, a close facsimile of a real torn newspaper article at first glance.

Someone should get points for style and originality.

But when was the last time you read a three column by full height article in any newspaper? That is a lot of space! And the copy just screamed sales pitch, with separators speaking about one pain point after another. And of course it closed with the guaranteed solution, along with something else that was included for free. Buried in some very fine print at the end was an admission that the piece was actually an advertisement.

But what tied it all together was the yellow sticky-note at the top, immediately greeting you when you opened the envelope. In big blue handwriting it said “Sally, Thought you’d be interested, - K”.

It’s shown here in the image.

Nice! Make it appear to be from someone you know and maybe they’ll act on the offer, although the recipient has no clue who actually sent it to them. Ah! The root of the deception is complete.

But it fizzled with my wife, an incredibly intelligent and risk-averse individual who saw through the deception beginning with the envelope! Her behavioral preference immediately made her suspicious of the article, and was profoundly insulted that someone might pretend to be an acquaintance.

Nope. No way. No how. She was never going to act on this offer, even if it had been a good one (*it was not).

There is a better way

We have amazing information and data gathering resources available to us today.

Consider the inbound marketing tools we now have at our fingertips, systems that allow us to easily build credibility in our product or services and support it with automated lead generation (we use and recommend Hubspot)
Look at all of the social media tools we have to research the decision makers in our target audience (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, along with aggregators like Nimble)
Access to portals for content creation (E-Lance, Zerys)
Grab hold of proven and relevant sales training processes (Sandler, TripleWin Sales)

With today’s sophisticated marketing environment no one who is serious about his/her craft should have to resort to deception or overpromising in order to be successful over the long term. And with training and strategic management the odds are heavily weighted in our favor… and we must succeed because of all those who shortcut the process and make a bad name for everyone else!

Hosting an Event? Use a Hashtag for Marketing It.

John Hyman — Mon, 22 Apr 2026 11:27:00 GMT

If your business regularly uses events such as workshops or public speaking engagements, whether for promotional purposes, or actual revenue generation, then you'll know how difficult it can be to generate a buzz around your event. But without genuine excitement in your target audience, how can you be sure that enough people will attend to make your event worthwhile?

The good news is that social media offers new avenues for engaging with your potential audience. For rapid-fire engagement with today’s time-poor consumers, nothing beats Twitter. But updates on Twitter are limited to a maximum of 140 characters, meaning your message could flash past in an instant. And how can you track whether people are talking about your event, and make it easy for them to join in the conversation?

Enter the hashtag. This is a single word or phrase, that starts with the hash or pound sign, like this: #myhashtag. Simply by including this hashtag in a tweet, the tweeter can make sure that the tweet forms part of the conversation around the hashtag. This conversation can be found by searching for the hashtag, or in most Twitter clients, including the Twitter webpage, just by clicking on the hashtag itself.

To set up a hashtag that people can use to talk about your event, pick a short word or phrase that describes it. The hashtag needs to be short, so that it’s easy to type, and doesn’t use up too many of the 140 allowed characters. Check that the hashtag is not already in use by searching for it on a search engine. If you want to use a phrase as opposed to a word, leave out the spaces between the words, and make sure the phrase still makes sense without spaces: sometimes taking out the spaces can lead to a quite different meaning!

Let people know about your hashtag by including it in every tweet that you make about the event. Begin this process with some event teasers a week or two before the actual event. You can also encourage people to use the hashtag by referring to it in other media, such as web pages, email communications, and even print ads and flyers. Although experienced Twitter users will recognise a hashtag right away, including brief explanations or instructions may be appropriate.

And once your event is underway, you can use the hashtag in audience participation via Twitter, which will make it easy for you to track and collate audience responses and feedback. Or you can be extra clever and make a list of triggers or hot topics from your content, and cut/paste them into your Twitter, Facebook or Google+ feeds at the appropriate time... or arrange for someone, somewhere to do this for you. It's usually easy to add a time stamp to the items on the list so someone back in the office can perform this.

Finally, when your event has concluded, don’t forget to tweet your thanks to all the attendees, using your hashtag, to build interest in your next event.

Pay Per Click is Probably Not the Answer to Better Lead Generation

John Hyman — Fri, 19 Apr 2026 18:52:00 GMT

For many a small business, especially those that rely on generating as many leads as possible online, pay per click is an easy answer, but it may not be the answer to your marketing dilemma. Your lead generation is what drives your business, and your marketing budget must yield as large an ROI as possible, which PPC can sometimes deliver quickly. Sure, people will tell you all of the great things about pay per click, (otherwise known as PPC) but PPC has some downsides that need to be understood as well.

When depending on your website to attract new clients and prospects to your business, there are a host of tools to consider. Pay Per Click is just one of them, yet many businesses have come to rely on PPC only to see diminishing returns in this form of advertising. You probably have heard about all the great things about PPC, but frankly, not all of it pertains to every business model; some models definitely work better with PPC than others.

Before we get into the negatives about pay per click, let’s discuss the advantages of PPC, because there are many. The problem is with the deployment of a PPC campaign to solve your marketing dilemmas is that there are often more negatives than positives. If you are new to this discussion, you’ll be wise to consider all sides in the use of this tactic.

Some Pay Per Click Advantages

Targeted Traffic – PPC advertising is a tool that can target specific niche markets due to the design and placement of the ads. People clicking on your ads should have a pre-conceived interest in your product or service.
Quick Results – PPC ads bring quick results, so if you are in need of a quick ramp up in leads, this is a great tool. Because it takes only a few hours to set up, your site can be receiving new traffic in no time. And if you are utilizing A/B testing to validate a marketing message or design PPC can help accelerate the results, make a choice faster and help minimize risks before rolling it out.
Easy to Implement and Use – Once the ad is designed and contact is made with the search engine (be it Google, Bing, Yahoo or any other), you are off to the races.
Controllable Costs – Because you will bid on the cost of your ads, you know in advance how much a particular campaign will cost. Your costs are only incurred when someone actually clicks on your ad. If no clicks, no expense.
Ad Rankings – If your ad is popular and the click through rate is high, your ad can be on the first page of Google Search. Mind you, your site may still be on page 10, but your ad visibility can be on the first page.

At this point PPC must sound like a magic carpet ride to success. And for some businesses it might be. But very little is written about the downside of PPC, mainly because this tactic is so easy to get involved and doesn’t require a highly technical skill set. It is easy for someone to become very enchanted if good results are achieved quickly or one a first time campaign, leading to over-rely on this method of lead generation. In a sense they get lazy and don’t implement other useful tactics.

Here are some of the easily overlooked disadvantages of Pay Per Click, and why it may not be the answer to your marketing and lead generation strategies.

Some Pay Per Click Disadvantages

Typically “Deal” Oriented – Some of the most successful PPC ads revolve around discount offers. If someone is looking for a “deal” on say, hotel reservations, then an ad on the first page of Google Search for hotel deals will display PPC ads offering such a service. If yours is one of them, great. However, if you are merely offering an opportunity to drive traffic, your PPC ad will not generate as much traffic as you might have hoped.
Abuse & Fraudulent Clicks – This is a topic that receives far too little attention when speaking about Pay Per Click. A PPC ad costs you nothing until someone clicks on it, but you get charged against your budget even if no one leaves their email address. There are a lot of nefarious characters behaving badly on the Internet, and the PPC arena is a fiercely competitive landscape. Have you accidently clicked on an ad and regretted it? What if someone was actually seeking out your ads and clicking on them merely for the sake of exhausting your PPC budget? Do you think that can happen? Would you believe that there are companies willing to pay spies to burn through competitor’s PPC ads just for the sake of maliciously hurting them? It shouldn’t be assumed that online business is more honest than any other- abuse and fraud are competitive tools many businesses utilize.
Price Escalation – Like everything in business, there is a process that must be followed to attain top ranked keyword PPC ad costs. The top keywords are used to price ad placement and therefore cost is based on this and other factors. If your ad is bid at a price and performs well, the next purchase you make will more than likely require a higher rate than before.
Diminishing Law of Returns – When the PPC ad is fresh, your click through rate will be much higher than after it has been visible for a length of time. Naturally, the return on such an ad will diminish, especially when you consider the price inflation you will experience when you re-negotiate another campaign contract. Adding additional keywords to the campaign will drive up the individual click cost, but may not generate any increase in leads. Costs rise, return falls; one of the greatest laws of business.
Competitive Bidding Wars - The search engines are in the business of making large profits, and it has to come from somewhere. The bidding process drives the price per click, and the two highest bidders will share the spotlight, whereas the lower bids will pick up the lesser performing placements. PPC ads can cost as little as a few cents to $50 per click. The old adage “It costs money to make money” remains as true in Pay Per Click as anywhere else. But keep an eye on the trends, as your budget will only go so far.
Ads Go Stale Quickly – If you plan on using PPC as the primary driver of leads to your site, you will need to spend a great deal of time refreshing your ads. Once viewed by the public, they quite literally become invisible in short time. To be in the pursuit of targeted leads, you must have fresh appeal to draw the attention away from the fierce competition PPC creates.
Requires Micro-Management – Based on everything mentioned here, you probably have already deduced that PPC marketing requires a great deal of management time. If you have the resources to utilize PPC as your primary marketing lead generation vehicle, you had better have sufficient financial resources to manage the great many tasks in oversight of the program. Constant ad refreshment, placement contracts, pricing wars, and a plethora of other management duties involved with driving the leads through nothing but Pay Per Click.
Only a Short-Term Strategy – When marketing online, PPC is a great tool to gain visibility, grow some leads quickly, and is a means that controls your budget expenditure by each campaign. You will know what it will cost at the onset, regardless of how long (or quickly) it takes to exhaust your pre-paid arrangement. Pay Per Click advertising is piece of a strategic marketing plan that any company should utilize, but it should not be looked at as the panacea. PPC while a part of the plan, is not a long-term strategy. PPC costs can be turned on and off as leads are needed, but to generate a constant flow of leads, there are other alternatives that are less costly in both time and money.

Conclusion

Pay Per Click is another method of advertising and when used tactically can be a good addition to a marketing plan, but it is just that- a subset of the overall plan. It is a terrific way to accelerate test results but when expanded beyond short term, tactal use can require significant time and financial assets.

At Zen Marketing, we will provide a no-cost assessment of your current web marketing and advertising strategies, and highlight where you may want to adjust or tweak it. Visit our website to discover new ways to drive and manage lead generation using the web.

Facebook Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

John Hyman — Mon, 15 Apr 2026 11:45:00 GMT

Even if you don't use it you already know Facebook is one of the most powerful social network platforms. You have probably come to realize that it’s not just for teenagers and socialites, but also for the small private business as well. Why? Because Facebook gives every business owner an effective and affordable marketing tool. But we will agree to one thing: Facebook marketing can be intimidating.

When it comes to marketing your small business, social media should be part of your game plan. If you do not yet have a Facebook page for your business, stop what you are doing and call a marketing agency! Okay, it's so simple you really can do it yourself and in under half an hour but the point is DO IT!

Once you have your Facebook page up and ready to go, you will need to know how to use it to increase brand recognition, customer response and user activity. Here are a few simple first steps:

The first thing you will need to do is to gain followers, or friends, for your page. You can do this by promoting your Facebook page via email marketing or in your physical location. Create a special offer (perhaps a percentage off the customer's next purchase) if they sign up to be your friend on Facebook and remind them of that while they are at your location doing business. Restaurants can use tent cards on the tables. Retail stores can have signs at the registers. Place the special offer on all of your print advertising.

Once you have your first few followers, you can begin your first Facebook marketing campaign.

Posting the occasional discount or reminder to come into your store is not enough and will quickly put your audience to sleep. You will need to engage clients and share posts that are worthy of re-sharing. For example, if your business is a car wash, you might want to post a cartoon about how much pollen is in the air and then remind folks that it's time to wash their car.

And use photos! It has been proven that readers react significantly greater to image-driven posts, a major difference between Facebook and Twitter. Photo's in posts draw more attention. And phot's can elicit a humorous response!

A tip about pictures: crop them. Facebook shows tiny versions of pictures so you need to focus on the most important area.

Getting your readers engaged in answering questions on your Facebook page is another way to have them become more involved in sharing your business with others. For instance, you could ask a question such as, "What is your favorite car wash memory from childhood?" Readers love to share nostalgic answers to questions such as these and every time they post an answer, it not only shows up on your Facebook page, but it also shows up on theirs. Then, their friends can see the question and response as well and you have just introduced your brand to an entirely new set of potential clients.

Use the Facebook search feature for the keywords that relate to your business. The search for car washes in central NJ delivered someone looking for an affordable auto detailer and someone just back from Florida looking to get the bucks off the front of her car.

Think your car wash can help? Tell them you can! And now you are a solution provider instead of just an advertiser! :-)

Here are a few things to keep in mind regarding posts:

You can write about any current event that is related to your industry or brand.
If you find any fun or interesting video (hosted on Vimeo or YouTube) that is related to your brand or procuct/service, share it on your page.
Encourage your audience to post pictures, stories, or questions that relate to your industry.
From whatever the fans post, repost the content that you find the most interesting and credit that audience member.

When it comes to marketing your small business on Facebook, remember to be engaging and fun. If you only post boring business posts, your readers will not share them, nor will they be impressed. Keep it light and social and success will follow.

After all, it is called social media for a reason!

The Cold Calling Conundrum

John Hyman — Fri, 12 Apr 2026 22:21:00 GMT

While the world has “gone digital,” cold calling is out of date to say the least. However, there are cold calling statistics that make me wonder; well sort of; it’s a bit of a conundrum actually.

In the past I posted articles relating to the cold calling marketing strategy. One article alluded to the fact that cold calling has definitely had its day; another stated that the marketing shift caused by technology has left even the best cold calling sales people wanting, and another still that bashed the “training systems” still being marketed on the net.

In my training workshops, I speak to professionals and discuss cold calling and their reluctance, if not abhorrence of the concept, you can read more here.

There are competing sides to the story, so to speak.

I have found that most traditional sales managers cling to cold calling, despite its decline, for the frank reason that it’s all they have ever known. When they were the sales person, they were forced to cold call, and eventually got good enough to be promoted to sales manager. I spoke about so-called training systems that are still to be found online in an article last year, which can be found in the blog archives.

Today’s consumer has all of the disruptive marketing shields; caller id, voicemail, Tivo or the DVR, Serius Radio, ad free digital news media. I wrote about this before. Every person I know hates telemarketing pitchmen. You as an executive shield yourself from unsolicited calls too. Knowing all that, why do business owners still choose to use cold calling despite all of the negatives associated with it?

The truly candid rationale I come up with is “I don’t have to learn any new strategies or tactics to get what I am after.” It’s true, inbound marketing takes time and a bit of education. Sure you will need to know how to effectively create email marketing campaigns, online lead generation and nurturing and a host of other methodologies. It is also true that cold calling is the most challenging of marketing tactics, and very few are actually good at it; that is why the stats are what they are; a whole lot of efforts for 1-3% return at best.

In the Zen Blog Archive, there are a host of articles regarding inbound marketing, and the proven fact that it costs less than traditional marketing by as much as 60%. The fact that inbound marketing is growing at such a drastic rate is because it works. But you decide.

Here are the pros and cons I was able to come up with to attempt to offer both sides of what I see is an issue facing a lot of businesses, especially this close to tax season.

PRO
On one side of the debate as to its worthiness, cold calling is a revered, yet out-dated sales generation methodology. The Direct Marketing Association study in June, 2010, noted an average of their constituents yielded a 6.1 customer to cold call ratio. With the nation’s average shrinking annually from the 1-3% average return, this is surprising. Remember though, these are a minimum of two year old statistics.

CON
The other side on this cold calling issue, which comes to us from Kenan Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina:

Cold Calling Is Dead- "Over 80% of decision makers absolutely will not buy from a cold call."

PRO
May 2011 – B2B Marketing Zone – More than 70% of all US employees are not engaged, so it is important to keep inbound sales people active through innovative games, contests and ongoing training. This article earned 7 Tweets

CON
On the same page of the B2B blog report, a Hubspot article stating, “So, why do we take our expensive salespeople and insist they must be good at "cold-calling" when the buyer doesn't want anything to do with this?”
Jan 2011 – This article earned 299 Tweets

PRO
The afore mentioned Houston Chronicle article, written by Miranda Brookins of Demand Media gives a complete explanation of cold calling, how it is done, and boasts the statistics from sources in favor of it.

CON
That same article was sponsored by an online public relations firm. Additionally, when looking up exactly what Demand Media does, the very first words on their site are “At Demand Media, we live up to our name by first listening to what our more than one hundred million monthly visitors want and then delivering the content and rich online experiences they crave.” You discern the true meaning of all this.

QUESTIONS

Now if it is true that more than 80% of company executives want nothing to do with a cold call, why would they invest valuable resources using a method they despise?
When was the last time you accepted an unsolicited phone call from a stranger?
If the national average success rate for cold calling is between 1.3 and 3%, the Direct Marketing Association claims their members (who happen to be the best trained cold callers in the world) reach 6.1%, what can you expect in terms of results?
What amount of resources are you willing to invest for your expected return?

In the past I have done a pretty good job of bashing cold calling, but the aforementioned facts and suppositions speak otherwise to a degree. It is up to the individual executive to determine the marketing path they will pursue. Cold calling may have one time been the preferred choice of marketing tactics, but is it in this digital world today?

Inbound Marketing is Cold Callings Best Friend

John Hyman — Wed, 10 Apr 2026 21:08:00 GMT

What inbound marketing does really, really well is eliminate the cold call. After all, when you have scores of interested people taking the time to visit your landing page or blog and then leaving you their contact information the odds are pretty good your call will be taken.

This behavioral bridge is amplified when they have taken advantage of a download (white paper, case study or some other relevant piece of information) and have something really tangible... and it has your brand on it!

What we are actually describing is an effort to create a warmer environment and avoid a cold one. To accomplish this a good sales professional will usually "prime the pump" with an introductory letter (print or e-mail) to make his/her reason for contact known, introduce his/her product or service, present his/her company's value proposition, and set up the real objective... getting an appointment.

Landing pages can play a large role in this, and a good letter is designed to trigger a visit to a dedicated landing page. The landing page can provide a lot more information (testimonials, images, product reviews) than a single letter can (or should!). And the right marketing platform (we use and recommend Hubspot©) makes creating and deploying landing pages quick and painless.

However, this article is intended to remind us of some best practices from the past. I would like you to consider one important but often overlooked aspect with the introductory letter tactic...

The quality of the paper that you use, the design of the letterhead that you use, the ink on the page... all of these come into play and can separate the wheat from the chaff! Want some proof?

We were retained to redesign an existing corporate identity package for a prospective client, and to prove the best efficacy we ran a test. 400 introductory letters were crafted and distributed to a totally cold list, a B-to-B list which we purchased. All of the companies played in the professional services arena and all were privately held companies. All of the letters were identically messaged, with the call to action being a visit to one of four landing pages for a complimentary report download (which, thanks to our Hubspot© platform, we can easily build effective landing pages and track them back to the respective letter).

Here is how we constructed the mailing:

25% were printed using a solid toner Xerox Phaser printer with 32-lb HP Premium Choice paper (great hand-feel and very bright). We used a full color letterhead design (which we designed and were striving to get client adoption of) - variation A
25% were printed using an HP Officejet Pro Inkjet with 24-lb Hammermill paper (still better than almost anything else), using the same full color letterhead design - variation B
25% were printed using a monochrome Dell laser, with a store brand 24-lb laser paper on the identical but preprinted full color letterhead - variation C
25% were printed using a monochrome Dell laser, with a store brand 24-lb laser paper on the client's existing one-color letterhead - variation D

Here are the results:

Variation's A and B more than doubled the response rates of C, and had far better response rates than D. Variation A was slightly better than B but the difference in the paper quality is mostly in weight and unless compared side by side the difference isn't really appreciated. But I do enjoy watching people run their hands over a report I've brought to a meeting having used the combinations found in variation A.

So when you are using a introductory letter campaign to support a call-based sales tactic consider the design, the printing, and the paper because it does have an effect on the behavior you wish to drive in the recipient.

By the way, 69 recipients downloaded the report, 18% overall (net of the bounces, but that is a matter for another post all together, isn't it?).

Rising Annual Revenues? Disaster May Be Near...

John Hyman — Wed, 10 Apr 2026 15:36:00 GMT

The aphorism "a rising tide lifts all boats" is associated with the idea that improvements in the general economy will benefit all participants in that economy. Many businesses see changes in their top line revenue in this same fashion.

Everyone on the planet is aware of the economic storm wreaking havoc on the bond market, shrinking retail demand, the rise in gold prices and the somewhat-stagnant unemployment rate. It has been reported that the U.S. is experiencing a “softening” in the rebound from the “great recession”. European economists cannot seem to accurately assess the future of some of the member EU countries. Yet these same soothsayers press upon others involved to “stay the course” rather than depart the Union.

If your firm is experiencing annual growth in revenues through “organic market activity”, you may just be heading for trouble. In fact, unless you are strategically creating increasing revenues rather than benefiting from the overall market demand, then you are near disaster if and/or when the market demand weakens and dries up. For those lulled into believing you have been “just plain fortunate”, you are in a serious situation that won’t change in any circumstantial fashion. You, my friend, are in a “quagmire.”

Experience tells me that there are telltale signals to be mindful of to qualify for the quagmire distinction:

Key decision makers don’t understand marketing in the “new age”.
Lack of specific, growth oriented goals throughout the organization.
Lack of analytics, metrics and regular measurement against goals and previous efforts pertaining to ROI of sales and marketing efforts.
Absence of a sophisticated, strategic marketing plan; one with definable objectives and multi-faceted, cross-channel actions,
Lack of marketing-focused logic in the mindset of all; executives and staff alike. It is everyone’s job toward growth initiatives.
Missing forms of pay-for-performance programs for non-sales staff.

Quagmire firms are those that have no strategic plan, no marketing plan, and exist thinking that the gods of commerce have favored them. Their year over year growth is remarkable, I would agree, but it is no measure of how the business is doing. In fact, once the markets dry up further, disaster plans will be too late to intervene in the free fall of revenues and profits. Unless there is an active, sustainable strategic marketing plan to drive revenues (as opposed to let the free market dictate), businesses relying on the status quo are merely fooling themselves. Once the rose-colored glasses come off, the severance agreements and bankruptcy settlements will not support any type of comfortable future.

There are things that can be done to avoid becoming a “failed business” statistic. Rather than relying on luck and good fortune, begin to think proactively and strategically. Develop a professional marketing plan that works in today’s environment. While centered in the digital space, inbound marketing can become the linchpin of an overall marketing plan, regardless of industry. A professional inbound marketing agency can review not only your marketing activities, but analyze your competitors’ actions, and help with goals and what it will take to get you there.

There is no time like the present, to coin a phrase. There are notable inbound marketing agencies with the wherewithal to assess and address your needs, hopefully in time for the next market adjustment.

Unfortunately for some, the time may have passed for salvation. I met with a PA-based printing company, looking to us to help create a succession plan. After completing my assessment of the business I sat in my car and nearly cried, realizing that this seventy year old owner had worked hard for many years and believed his business would one day represent his retirement plan. But in actuality his business was nearly worthless and his ideas for succession were simply not going to be a reality. It broke my heart.

As for your firm, it may not be too late to react and turn the situation to your advantage.

Strategic Marketing Crucial During Stagnant Economies for CPA's

John Hyman — Tue, 19 Mar 2026 14:16:00 GMT

Regardless of this time of year, the current economic storm we find ourselves in does not seem to be relinquishing its grip on the market. It is tax time, and everyone in the financial services field is busy taking care of clients. Let us not forget the importance of the client; we need them now more than ever.

Even though the last two quarters of 2012 began to push busineswees a bit more towards recovery, we know now that this was a little spark not a substantial blaze. Our economy has been trying to maintain a growth curve, with a few areas of the country actually sliding back toward the abyss the U.S. economy barely avoided. As a person that handles their tax returns, it isn’t just about that; you must provide leadership and integrity as well.

When looking at the CFNAI (Chicago Federal National Activity Index), things don’t appear to be all that rosy.

The CFNAI is a weighted average of 85 existing monthly indicators of national economic activity. It is constructed to have an average value of zero and a standard deviation of one. Since economic activity tends toward trend growth rate over time, a positive index reading corresponds to growth above trend and a negative index reading corresponds to growth below trend.

What does this mean when it comes to growing your business? Quite a lot actually. This is a great time to market; tax season is at full speed, but this likely won’t last. The realization that the market is rather soft presents everyone with a need to strengthen and reinforce relationships with current and past customers. Connect with your most influential customers, those that you haven’t seen in a while and those new prospects as well. Offer them some specialized services that you don’t presently advertise, and push hard toward cementing a deeper relationship through their use. Make the services highly innovative, strategic and oriented toward the customer with value in mind. Doing so will not only strengthen your current customer base, but should be setting up for a referral program. Ask for referrals once you have improved loyalty and retention; you’d be surprised at the outcome.

The most effectiove referral methods of marketing are rooted in loyalty, perceived value and integrity. If you win all three from your clients, you can win the battle for sustainability. Insuring that your marketing includes your existing customer base as well as former and new clientele, and providing excellent services while "touting" (a marketing term, by the way) your appreciation of them, you can begin to grow organically by working with the best clients instead of always on the hunt for new clients. The new clients that join your firm will be excited with the new relationship at first, so keep the excitement going. Through innovative and value added services that are new and unique (setting you apart from your competitors), your new customers will happily provide referrals once they trust, rely on and admire your company.

Most professionally designed websites for financial services firms offer some capabilities that other industries don’t. In a previous posting we spoke of the client portals as a noteworthy service offering, include appointment setting functions and reminder systems for clients to access themselves. Another value added feature might be an auto-updated news feed from the markets, as well as other financial information. By communicating with your clientele the importance of timely information, security of data transfer and how a diminished economy affects asset planning, succession planning and the like.

As a CPA firm or other financial services organization, it isn’t always about money. Certainly cash flow management and asset protection is important, but in an uncertain economy with which we currently face, the trust factor is paramount. By enhancing your trust factor with your clients and providing new, innovative services that make your relationship more valuable, you can sustain your firm and the protection of your client’s relationship with you. Displaying a strong sense of leadership will help cement your relationship, but more so it will provide the necessary hope and someone to lean on to handle the stresses of the marketplace. If you are a firm that assists in the management of stock portfolios, your clients are under a tremendous amount of stress that ebbs and flows several times a day. Providing that solid leadership is the buoy they are looking for.

Getting out into the local community and offering tax planning sessions is another great way to generate new leads, and can allow you to be seen as an expert in your field. Plus it is a natural extension for blogging. It is an automatic assumption that when a speaker is presenting their expertise, they are the local expert in their field. Unless you blow it, your audience will respect your opinions and automatically buy-in to of what you speak. With appropriate information and a lead follow up system in place, you might find some new clients you didn’t know existed.

Leadership, specialized and innovative services and a strong dose of hope delivered to your client and prospect bases will sustain you through this difficult time.

If you are unsure of how to begin a strategy into the uncharted part of the market, a call to Zen Marketing Inc. can provide the necessary analysis, review and tactical discussions to get you on your way.

Reverse Cold-Calling, or How to Lose a Customer in 10 Seconds or Less

John Hyman — Wed, 13 Mar 2026 18:44:00 GMT

We know it as Cold Calling 2.0 (in our office we refer to it as interruptive sales) but there is a tactic in telemarketing and phone sales that is guaranteed NOT win the hearts and minds of your potential customers. Don’t know to what I am referring? Reverse – cold calling is the act of trickery in getting someone to phone you. Here’s an example:

“Hello, is Mr. Jones in?” “Will you please leave him a very urgent message about a significant purchase we would like to make?”

Obviously, when Mr. Jones returns to his office and is told by his secretary that a very important call may mean a big sale. Of course Mr. Jones will call you back immediately. In this tumultuous economy, every chance at a sale is a big deal.

“Mr. Jones, thank you for calling me back. I really don’t need to purchase anything from you; I just wanted you to hear me out, blah, blah, blah.”

Can you hear the irritation in Mr. Jones’ voice? The angry breathing? The sudden slam of the receiver hitting the base of the phone? Without a doubt, that is the last time you will ever hear his voice again, unless you face him in court.

There are a lot of ways to trick someone into calling you back, or, even better, to ask for a fraudulent name you know won’t work, and when the response is that there is no person by that name; you ask for the person that does. This manipulation is the types of “cons” that have been used by swindlers and “magic beans” sales people have used for centuries, only now it can be performed on the telephone or the internet.

There are business owners trying reverse cold calling every day in this country, and the chances of this working are even less than actual cold calling itself. Cold calling 2.0, or what ever you wish to call it is not only unethical, it borders on fraudulently conducting a business enterprise, which by the way is illegal. Wikipedia doesn’t even have a definition for either of these “new and improved” methods of telemarketing.

It has been my experience that this type of deception is typically used when sales people are pressured for a certain number of call backs or appointments set; results only responses. These people are “smilin’ and dialin’” as quickly as they possibly can, so any technique can be rationalized and a perfectly acceptable business practice in their minds.

I sincerely hope my readers do not participate in these sorts of shenanigans, and I’ll leave it at that. There are other ways of growing your customer base without the need to stoop as low as trickery and manipulation.

The Art of Persuasion……Building a Relationship

The best sales people, or the folks responsible for sales are best served using the age old art of persuasion: Win Friends and Influence People. Despite the methodology of marketing; traditional or digital, the highest success will come to those that practice ethical, customer centric relationship building tactics.

The economic storm we continue to live within shows little signs of recovery, and therefore every penny a company invests in growing their enterprise must produce ROI in one form or other. Telephone sales no longer works, unless the prospect is calling you from some other form of marketing has captured your attention. It should never be the result of some form of trickery or deception.

Your marketing efforts to generate leads may comprise of a variety of “offline” methods, which is fine if they’re ethical. They can be augmented with online “inbound marketing’ strategies, which are performed via the internet and email. It may be in the form of a blog, or series of articles, eBooks, White Papers or other digital products. These content pieces should be designed to impart sincere, relationship building information that will help people. That is the way marketing is performed today. The slash and burn methods of the past are no longer effective.

Here at Zen Marketing we utilize relationship building as our foundation for all things marketing. As an inbound marketing agency, it is our job to not only develop comprehensive marketing plans, but in many cases, implement them as well. Some of our clients use us for everything, while others perform much of it themselves, and we fill in the gaps with which they are not comfortable with, or lack the resources to fulfill the task at hand.

I have mentioned this in the past, but it bears repeating. At Zen Marketing, we offer a no obligation marketing analysis of your present marketing methodologies, and offer you a solution based strategy to help you make an informed decision on how to proceed. While inbound marketing may rival traditional marketing methods in termns of investment, it offers measurability and processes that might replace everything you are presently doing. Traditional and inbound marketing integrate cohesively to increase your leads, improving your chances for sustainability and growth.

Give us a call to find out more.

Does Your Marketing Strategy Include Data?

John Hyman — Fri, 08 Mar 2026 12:50:00 GMT

Professional services firms (PSF’s) rely on many things to accomplish their revenue goals, and marketing strategy certainly plays a big part. But do CPA’s, Lawyers, Architects and other PSF’s incorporate data into their marketing efforts? Whether traditional advertising methodologies or the use of digital, inbound marketing, or even a combination of the two, the data collected from the marketing activities should drive your marketing strategy. Data-driven content marketing (also called inbound and/or digital) can change the entire outcome, especially when it is automated.

There is no denying that CPA’s and accountants are involved with numerical data all day long; how much of it is intended for their marketing efforts? Not as near as much as it could or should be. Architects and structural engineers work with several forms of data, but their marketing efforts probably don’t reflect the use of data-driven marketing. Professional services firms, like any other businesses, use various marketing tactics to generate leads and drive revenues. PSF’s on a global basis are well behind other business sectors in the use of content marketing, but little is known as to why? Marketing data or what may be referred to as “open-rates, click-throughs, pay per click or other numerical equations to judge a marketing tactic successful or a failure is now necessary for improved results. These types of data offer less than a clear picture of the “ideal prospect” and may be ambiguous at best.

The proper use of data-content identifies the behaviors of the responders’ demographics and psychographics allows us to better tailor our message and “relate” more to our audiences. No longer do we have to rely on “cold calling” tactics, or outdated direct mail (although there seems to be a rise in certain print advertising lately) as we can position ourselves in closer alignment with those whom we wish to serve. PSF’s are not utilizing data for its best purposes, however.

Whether your firm operates in the B2B realm or B2C arena, the use of data-driven lead generation is equally effective. It is the correct data and the understanding of the story it tells that will better direct the potential customer’s focus. You can then reach the center of the audience, where the chances for success are their greatest. With the current state of the economy, this makes tremendous sense, as every dollar spent must result in a positive return on investment. It is time to put the “marketing shotgun” down and start using a “marketing rifle,” through automated, data-driven marketing.

Ask Yourself These Questions

Do your current marketing efforts tell you in what content your prospects are interested?
Can you discern which is more relevant to your ideal prospect; blog articles, print advertising, direct mail, email blasts?
If you answered yes, what style of any of the aforementioned works best within that segment?
What page(s) on your website attract the most visitors?
What percentages of response to you receive from every type of marketing effort?
How many viewed the free content download versus how many actually downloaded?
Who opened the email and who didn’t, separated by which sample of email to which they responded?
What works – and to what degree?
Can you tell the difference between a successful campaign and a loser, and why?

These are merely samples of data collection that goes into today’s marketing. It is all about analysis of the information, and understanding what actions must be necessary for the tactic to be tweaked, increased or eliminated.

Marketing Automation Software (MAS) is the tool that can reveal the necessary data to better home in on your ideal prospect. Trial and error is a mindset that is a thing of the past. Marketing communications of any sort must be dissected, analyzed and reviewed over time to understand what works and what doesn’t, offering insights into what style of communications your target audience finds most appealing. Is it emails, blogs, tweets or webinars/webcasts that they resonate with? Utilizing a well-rounded marketing approach will generate a clear view of which direction your marketing should take.

Gain Lead Insight Through Data

The message which you send out must no longer be about your product or services features and benefits, the function or perceived value. It must relate to what the audience is looking for, and is fully dependent upon the buyer’s persona (purchasing manager, chief decision maker, 2nd level scout) as well as the phase they might be in; awareness, considering, justifying the purchase, or ready to purchase now. An analysis of the data in its granular form will reveal all of that information through the use of the marketing automated software. It is known in the industry as “digital body language” and fully understanding is a skill in its own right.

Once the “suspect” converts to a prospect or “lead,” the sales funnel has many levels, all requiring a different type of information share. Early leads may need nurturing just to stay in the sales process, and other early leads may rush through to the final stage of the sales funnel. Those somewhere in the middle of the sales funnel will require a different type of content to help them move toward the goal of selling them. Data analysis helps understand where leads are in the process, and knowing what type of content or messaging they are seeking will allow them to grow their relationship with your firm, and whether or not they will eventually become “buyer ready.” It makes little sense for your sales department to go after leads that are not ready to make a buying decision, and is more or less a waste of their time. Sales should be ready for the handoff from marketing at the right time to maximize ROI, and minimize lead fallout.

Lead segmentation is part of the process, and is an invaluable step in crafting the exact type of message your content needs to foster growth within your market. By understanding where in the sales process your leads are, you are better armed to focus relevant messages pertinent to that level. You would not produce buyer-ready content if your qualified lead was merely in the awareness stage. On the same note, those in the justification stage will require some content that reinforces their position in the sales funnel, and nurtures them to continue on the path to sales. Such is the value of lead segmentation. By understanding each email that is opened, each registration, every web page visitation, each social media referral all tells you what you need to do to move your target leads through to the “buyer ready” stage with the right content at the right time.

Learning to read the data takes time, but through the use of a marketing agency for such purposes makes the transition from “do-it-for-me to “do-it-yourself.” It makes little sense to jump off the high dive into the shallow end of the pool. A professional marketing agency such as Zen Marketing Inc. can assist with the marketing review, design and creation of content to eventually master your own skill set.

Lead Scoring Eliminates Guesswork

Marketing automation software is an invaluable resource for crafting data-driven marketing content (full disclosure: we use and recommend Hubspot). Through the ability to understand exactly where each lead is in the buying process, it makes delivery of pertinent information easy, taking the guesswork out of the work. By optimizing the communication cycle, your targets get the right message at the right time, improving the closing process dramatically. It becomes the rifle method rather than the shotgun approach to marketing.

We at Zen Marketing Inc. can supply a no cost review of your current marketing efforts, and provide the insight necessary to make an informed decision as to the need for an automated marketing software approach to business.

Maximizing Your Direct Mail Campaign in the Digital Marketing Era

John Hyman — Sat, 02 Mar 2026 13:33:00 GMT

You rarely hit a home run in small business marketing; small ball works best. A well defined marketing plan around a realistic number of differing tactics will run up the score nicely. But because of restrictive budgets (or sometimes attitudes) many small businesses try a tactic and when the home run doesn’t happen abandon it and move on to the next “idea of the week”.

This is certainly the case with direct mail. Before the onslaught of the internet, websites, e-mail marketing and social media the war was between newspaper advertising and direct mail. The savvy business person who was unafraid to invest the time and money to secure a well defined mailing list and manage it properly had a tool to better engage his intended audience. He/she controlled the message, the delivery and the timing.

There weren’t many home runs but when done well, following the best practices of design, message, offer and USPS regulations, and repeated regularly it could provide a business with a following.

But in my regular interviews with prospective small business clients, while reviewing their past marketing examples, I often hear “direct mail doesn’t work” or “direct mail is too expensive”. Is this because the execution was poor, the budget to scarce, or the campaign was lacking in repetition? Almost always one of these three tenants of direct mail marketing was not addressed properly.

But why bother with direct mail, because today we have digital marketing! We have digital brochures we call websites, we have e-mail marketing and we regularly share what we have done lately with our 97 subscribers, and we have social media like Facebook and Twitter, whatever that means.

And how exactly does that lead to new customers or clients? [insert the business owners best deer in the headlights stare here].

The genesis for this article is simple:

Direct mail is perceived as old, tired, and ineffective
Social media and e-mail marketing are all the buzz but people often don’t realize how much time it takes to reach critical mass
Through their e-mail lists and largely through their social media efforts small business owners are speaking to their existing audiences. This is great for engagement, and can assist with referrals, but it provides very slow growth in regards to new business development.

Stop and consider the how an integrated approach to outbound marketing can generate new customers or clients. Blending the traditional direct mail tactic with the information and processes of digital marketing and you can stop hitting singles and begin hitting doubles and triples.

The Process is very straight forward:

Use targeted direct mail – the data is the most crucial part so take the time to find a good source (be it a marketing firm or a list provider). Break it down to saliency and budget but have a really good plan for who you wish to speak to and build the list around it.
Design a compelling piece – clearly define your offer or value proposition and drive the reader to a specific landing page. Good layout and visual is important to make it stand out amongst the other mail and to support you are credible. So don’t skimp on the design and (please!) don’t design it using a word processor. Clip art does not make your business look professional or credible. The right layout can and should be used over and over again, so your initial investment is extended and the repetition helps develop your brand top of mind awareness.
Let the direct mail be your driver not your sales force – far too often we see postcards crammed full of verbiage. It is as though the post card is intended to be the sales force! Instead be clever with your copy, create interest rather than try to create demand, but always point the reader to a website landing page.
A vanity URL is great but mobile use is growing exponentially so add a QR code. Make it easy for those of us on the run to visit your landing page and learn more.
What is your call to action? Stop talking about you and give me a reason for me to act now.
And how about a little risk reversal?
Build unique landing pages – adding a landing page to an existing website is inexpensive. You should restate your direct mail message or value proposition and strong call to action. Here you have the room to add more content, like testimonials and images. There is that pesky risk reversal opportunity again. If we structured your landing page can be a complete source of information, offer risk aversion, and drive the intended action.
Require something for your offer: get the reader to share their contact information, answer a question, fill out a survey or poll, etc.
Be aware of best SEO practices when selecting a title tag and page name.
Use a good analytic package to study traffic and keywords… or better yet just ask your marketing firm to provide this to you and focus on running your business.

Now comes the really fun part!

Adopt a well organized lead nurturing process. This is where you utilize an email marketing process to routinely drip relevant information to your new list of prospective clients.
Share your blog. The impact on SEO and organic search is crucial so blog often, make it real, and then share it through your e-mail database and social media. And forget the newsletter- none of your prospects have the time to read all that anyway! Newsletters are for existing customers to reinforce the relationship.
You can now stay connected, build top of mind awareness and continue to share content while developing credibility. Along the way you can also drum up interest in your social media outlets to get more followers, fans, etc.

When executed properly your direct mail investment will drive awareness in your business and allow you to shift your marketing to less costly e-mail and social media.

And if you reinvest the difference in investment into purchasing additional data, and then repeat the process, you can quickly develop your small business into a World Series winning team. And you are no longer relying on only one tactic to extend your business’s marketing reach!

Lead Your Competition with Content Marketing

John Hyman — Fri, 22 Feb 2026 14:44:00 GMT

We have covered the value of creating content marketing to allow prospects to find your website (and find you!) for quite a while now. One way to lead your competition and establish yourself as an industry expert is by creating engaging content in a variety of media. You not only bring valuable attention to your brand, but also gain recognition as you rise above the competition.

Content marketing is not really all that new. Neither is the concept of being a market or industry leader. Leading your competition may not be your goal, but driving new business should be. Content marketing IS the way today to build credibility and drive new business creation.

Actually, content marketing gets its humble beginning by way of the earliest of human beings; telling stories around a campfire to get a point across. Storytelling is the way people relate information to themselves, remember important things and develop deeper relationships with those telling the tales. Content marketing is the same, except for the age of storytelling, and the delivery.

Companies across the globe are taking content marketing seriously, and the concept is gaining worldwide traction. Don’t take my word for it, take a look at reports featured on the Internet from CMI, the Content Marketing Institute. Their recent report on Business to Business (B2B) marketers states that more than 90 percent of them are invested and utilizing content marketing to drive their brands and draw prospective clientele. Also, when it comes to content, more than 86 percent of Business to Customer (B2C) share the same enthusiasm for the practice of providing engaging content to drive leads and their brands.

If that doesn’t convince you check out MarketingProfs, another industry leading organization, wherein their recent reporting reflects similar data. Additionally, these reports indicate that more than fifty-four percent of each type of marketing focus expects to increase spending next year.

Leading your competition will take some doing, but if you never start, you will never know if and how it works. Here are three tips to seriously consider.

Lead the Field – CEO’s must become the champions for change. If your company is not currently utilizing content marketing as the primary marketing strategy, yet you have a website, you are missing the boat. Change is difficult under any banner, from redirecting a team project or changing the way your business operates. Big or small, change is tough, but in this world, change is the only constant in business. Simply put it is grow or die.

Candidly speaking, professional service firms such as lawyers, accountants and CPA’s, the medical profession and others are not known for their poetic prose or compelling storytelling. In fact, these professions are filled with industry jargon, or even the use of Latin to avoid the average person from understanding them. Doctors and lawyers have very specific language that sets themselves apart from the rest of the world, and that is just fine for conducting business. If you are using the same terms in your marketing, it is no wonder why most do not have much success with lead generation from the public. If people cannot understand what it is you are saying, how can they develop a relationship with you?

Content marketing is only picking up speed, and the technologies to provide multi-media content is growing by the day. If your competition is not on the cutting edge along with you, why not get out ahead of them. After all, articulating what makes your firm different and stands out from the crowd is how we succeed.

Tell Great Stories - Put a team of content experts together from your internal staff. If you don’t know marketing, you had better learn. Marketing is everyone’s job, from the front desk attendant to the CEO. Your customer service area is a great place to start, due to its natural interaction with your customer base.

What are some of the comments and stories they hear that can be used as a basis for a victory over a problem they faced that only your business made successful?

How did someone on the staff go out of their way to make the customer happy? An interesting bit of history about the early days of FedEx reflects just a tale, as made legendary by Tom Peters: FedEx and the Helicopter

It seems a blizzard in the California Sierras took the telephone lines down, leaving the local FedEx office without phone service -- or any way of connecting with customers.

So a junior FedEx staffer decided to rent a helicopter to fix the problem. Without asking permission from his managers, he put the helicopter on his personal American Express card and instructed the pilot to fly to the top of the mountain where the failed equipment was located. There, the employee jumped onto the snow-covered mountaintop, trudged three-quarters of a mile in chest-deep snow and fixed the line to get FedEx back in business. An excerpt from: HOW YOU CAN UNLEASH THE POWER OF STORYTELLING by Ann Wylie

FedEx was perhaps one of the earliest corporations to utilize storytelling as a way to grow their brand and gain new customers. They have become famous, and infamous for their ability to take customer or company actions that affected customers and turn it into compelling, engaging content. Every business across the globe has these type of stories to share, they must unearth them and begin to use them for the sake of marketing.

Evaluate, Analyze, Rinse and Repeat – In order to know what affect your content is making on your business, it is critical to develop a set of metrics and evaluate routinely. By analyzing your content inventory by type (video, white papers, multi-media, articles, blog posts, etc) or topic (customer success story, improvements to make people’s lives better etc), you will understand what aspects of the individual pieces have on your business marketing. Does your audience prefer articles to multi-media? Do particular topics resonate better than do others?

Doing so will not only keep you abreast of your marketing efforts, it can lead to re-developing existing content into a different or expanded version in another medium. Perhaps you have a series of articles from six months ago that can easily be updated and converted into a white paper or eBook.

If all of this sounds overwhelming and too much to consider, you may be right. What you have to do is evaluate the above and then evaluate your goals and your competition. Is this going to get you where you want to be financially, and will this separate you from your competitors, only you can answer those questions.

The team at Zen Marketing has the expertise, the talent and the tools to conduct a marketing assessment, develop an affordable plan and set you on your way to leading the field. Or, if you do not have the time to invest, we serve as the outsourced marketing department for a number of clients. Feel free to contact us at your earliest convenience and insure 2013 will be your best year ever.

2012 ROI – Marketing Goals: Fact or Fiction?

John Hyman — Fri, 15 Feb 2026 12:50:00 GMT

“Setting goals is a normal part of business, and what is achieved from the marketing department is a critical part of that equation. Almost every small business sets goals for the week, month and/or year, but few actually measure their efforts against their results. Why is that? I cannot answer this question.”

This past year was challenging for many small and medium sized businesses (SMB’s), and not a single industry was immune to the increased challenge. If your business fell into the red ink chasm yet is still afloat, isn’t it time to consider a change in your strategies? Or for most SMB’s, isn’t it time to develop a more strategic approach in the first place?

There is a saying about the definition of insanity: doing the same thing repetitively and expecting different results. I do not intend to be rude, but merely attempting to point out a poignant bit of information. Sometimes we know what is true, but delude ourselves into believing otherwise, that we are actually innovative, that we are actually managing our businesses, or because once upon a time we were successful we will be again.

There is a funny thing about truth that my grandfather taught me as a boy. “If the truth hurts, it is supposed to.” If you didn’t set goals last year and prayed for a positive result, you have no one to blame but yourself for what you achieved; again, I mean no disrespect.

A set of written goals and an action plan to fulfill them is better business management 101. If 2012 wasn’t very good, shouldn’t you do everything you can in 2013 to better your business? If you didn’t have written goals and a firm grasp of marketing, frankly speaking, your business is managing you and not the reverse. One of the best things you can do is to evaluate your marketing strategies and tactics from last year and comprise a marketing plan that you can actually manage.

Or retain the services of a professional marketing firm to help you craft a plan that supports you goals and fits your budget.

Of course we would like you to consult us! Zen Marketing Inc. has built a niche with small to medium sized clients in many industries, but there are many good agencies locally you might retain. We know we are not the only game in town, but we do help businesses achieve sustainability and growth as a matter of course. But enough about us…

Here are some pertinent questions to ask yourself about last year’s marketing:

Did you have written goals and a marketing strategy?
What worked?
What didn’t work?
What was your total marketing investment?
How do you measure your tactical results?
What is your Return on your Marketing Investment?

For some of my readers these are scary questions, while my clients have a complete, positive perspective to these queries. While every person that contacted our marketing agency last year didn’t become clients, the advice they received improved their business and their outlook on a formal marketing plan.

The Year Ahead

If you have yet to formalize a marketing plan for 2013, consider these facts before you get too far along.

By the end of 2011, 50% of Americans will own a smartphone (2012 was well beyond that statistic.
86% of C-level executives use a smartphone.
Did you know that 93% of US adult internet users are on Facebook? Unless you only sell to that laggy little 7% of all internet users, think again!
79% of US Twitter users are more likely to recommend the brands that they follow.
February 11, 2011 GOOGLE introduced PANDA which successfully filtered out low quality websites- perhaps yours? When did you last have a website assessment?

And don’t forget, the email list of which most SMB’s place such a high regard.…all email databases expire at a rate of 25% per year! Have you considered this as you develop your plans?

Your first priority is a measurable set of goals, with a clearly understandable method of measurement. In the trade we refer to this as marketing analytics. Unless you know what is working in “real time” you cannot adjust as needed.

This isn’t a once-and-done process, so know that it takes concerted effort. Your dedication to your plan will enable you to maintain a sharp focus on what you expect and what you are achieving, with ample time to adjust before you get into trouble.

As mentioned earlier, you should strongly consider contacting a competent marketing professional (Zen Marketing or another reputable agency) to truly grasp the efficacy of your tactics from last year, and what you intend to accomplish in 2013. You will need to learn to cross market, social network marketing, how to create a measurable marketing plan, understand the critical need to have your website mobile optimized, and the integration of marketing and the sales functions for sustainable results. If your website has not been updated in the past two years, you sorely need an upgrade. Social media and mobile are beginning to dominate marketing importance.

Email marketing campaigns are not as difficult as you might imagine and there are ways to automate the process. A professional marketing agent can help with an inbox full of marketing tactics to help you grow and prosper.

As you can see, without measurable ROI for marketing, it is nothing less than the business managing you, and not you managing your business. We like to call that “Asleep at the Wheel.” I sincerely hope those reading these articles are not offended with these truths, but like my grandfather said………

Here’s to better marketing!

Footnote: While every person that contacted our marketing agency last year didn’t become clients, the advice they received improved their business and their outlook on a formal marketing plan. Perhaps we should talk?

Top Three Great Reasons to Hire an Inbound Marketing Agency

John Hyman — Thu, 07 Feb 2026 14:09:00 GMT

While there is a plethora (love using that word!) of good reasons to utilize the services of an inbound marketing firm, it is our belief that they all boil down to the three most important, as outlined below. We at Zen Marketing Inc., a fully digital inbound marketing agency believe that we can build your business using the latest methodologies and tactics.

Over the past five years Harvard Business Review (aka HBR) studied how patterns of business has changed to the point that instead of solution sales professionals pushing products and services, companies are already 60% involved in the acquisition process for the needs of their particular business processes or concerns. It is in that light that the conversion from push advertising to pull methods grows businesses today. Zen Marketing Inc. is a boutique marketing agency that helps businesses “get found affordably.”

Rather than attempt to conquer the Internet alone, we suggest the following considerations why you should consider working with us.

Broader Perspective – This is what we do for a living. Our staff of professionals works with a variety of industries utilizing inbound marketing strategies and tactics on a daily basis. We have in-depth knowledge of the constantly changing marketing landscape, and how to best utilize best practices of the marketing opportunities available today.

Your Team is Already Working Full-time( or more) – With budgets under constant scrutiny and margins shrinking, do you have the necessary staffing to conduct an effective marketing program? Your team is working at capacity, and if not, you have already initiated steps to get the most out of available resources. Through the use of a dedicated marketing team, you can let your staff do what they do best, and leave the lead generation to the professionals.
Certified Marketing Executives – At Zen Marketing, we only hire certified inbound marketing executives, from web developers and copywriters to graphic artisans and beyond. Our in-house and external teams provide on-time and on-budget performance on which you can count.
Access to Industry Specific Marketing Data – Today’s marketing information is growing at a pace that few can keep up with, but a Zen Marketing, our research team is on the job to not only understand what works, but knows where to find the answers to complex marketing challenges.

Availability of Quality Content – Content is the core of the inbound marketing process, and at Zen Marketing, we have a dedicated staff of copywriters that are unmatched in the industry. Our writers craft compelling and engaging content full-time, and when we have everyone generating content for our clientele, we have a bank of content writers of more than 2000 certified copywriters. There is no shortage of compelling content crafts persons at Zen Marketing.

Generates More Leads – It is a proven method of generating more leads than your present marketing efforts. Our strategies work because we utilize the most up to date methodologies. Content creation, repurposing, curation and multiplicity of use, specifically targeted to your buyer personas will build your leads quickly and effectively. White Papers, eBooks, Videos, Webinars, Special Reports, Articles and Blog Entries, all supporting a comprehensive content strategy, as well as well-crafted email marketing campaigns will boost your lead generation activity beyond present production standards.
Landing Pages for Calls to Action – Through the use of Calls to Action landing pages, our content marketing strategies will not only improve your brand positioning, your lead generation efforts too will quickly pay off. By capturing leads at the point of content review, you can invest more time in lead nurturing and sales preparation than ever before.

More Robust ROI – Business is about dollars and cents, so it makes good sense to maximize revenues while minimizing overhead and expense. Through the use of an inbound marketing strategy, your return on investment will improve dramatically.

Less Expensive - It has been quantified by industry leaders that inbound marketing is 62% less expensive than traditional marketing efforts. Digital marketing is far less expensive than print, television or other mediums. By hiring an inbound marketing firm like Zen Marketing Inc., you control the budget. We will craft a comprehensive marketing campaign designed around your goals and budget constraints. As an external agency, you avoid all of the health and welfare costs typically encountered with employees.
Better SEO – Search engine optimization has become a complex process since Google decided to change their algorithms. Companies that once held front page positioning on the search results have fallen into obscurity overnight as a result. Yesterday’s SEO is sorely outdated and no longer effective. It is imperative that the responsible party be Internet and Search Engine savvy to produce the proper results. As such experts, our team specializes in companies “getting found.”
Marketing Tools – With inbound marketing solutions such as HubSpot software, lead generation and brand positioning is easy. As a Certified HubSpot Partner, we are fully knowledgeable in all of its uses, from landing pages and social media interactivity to deep analytics and reporting, so you know what is working and what isn’t. There are a number of ways to take advantage of HubSpot’s capabilities, from Do it Yourself (DIY) to Shared Participation, to Do it For Me (DIFM). A no obligation review of your current marketing efforts to a custom designed program is available at the asking.
Integrated Marketing Efforts – We utilize the latest in solutions that are fully integrated into the marketing software. Everything from email campaign solutions to tracking and reporting software, your marketing can be automated and streamlined to perform with little oversight.

How about Zen Marketing? We enjoy working with clients in the architectural, finance, accounting financial services sectors, and many others... but we aren't working with you? Why not? Feel free to inquire as to how we might serve you by contacting us today.

How to Join in the Social Media Conversation

John Hyman — Fri, 01 Feb 2026 21:17:00 GMT

Social media is the new word of mouth, so when the conversation online with customers or prospects begins, the friends and contacts that like what they see and react, and are going to join the conversation as well. Perhaps you aren’t monitoring your social media feeds; in that case you are missing out on information.

One of the best ways to spark a conversation online is to write about questions or comments your customers may have mentioned, and reply to them in your content. By incorporating your social media connections into the dialogue, you are enabling a discussion specifically about your brand.

How you handle (or do not) questions and requests through social media will either polish or tarnish your company brand. Responding to public style questions deserve public answers, but don’t air your dirty laundry. Weigh your responses, and teach your social marketing staff to do the same.

The main thing to remember

When considering or maintaining a social marketing strategy you must realize that it needs to be based on contact. Contact is the foundation of today’s marketing, so it not only must engage the reader, it must answer some concern or question of your targeted audience. Without the correct keyword strategy, publishing calendar, timely topics chosen or injection into your social media, nothing is a bigger concern. Engaging, compelling content in any of its forms must attract and capture the reader, or it isn’t worth the time invested in producing it.

If you are one of those companies that have set up a social media business page and then abandoned it need a crash course in what is happening through the mechanisms of social sites. While Facebook uses an open format, with image, video and/or multi-media postings at your avail, Twitter limits the entries to 140 characters, including spaces and punctuation. It takes a bit of education to master either site, so just don’t jump right in without learning a few things. LinkedIn is yet another social media site that has grown dramatically in the past couple of years, and it has its own protocols. What works on one will certainly not work on the other. There are strategies that can meld them and other sites into a cohesive marketing methodology, however.

Your website and offline communications vehicles should carry your points of contact; Facebook page, Twitter handle, Pinterest page, LinkedIn profile and business page should be readily accessible to click through or to navigate with. QR codes are another tool for use to incorporate into print media, like Coke creatively accomplished. It’s just another way for their consumers to interact with their brand.

Here's A Great Demonstration

If you haven’t viewed the Coca-Cola 2020 two-part project, you owe it to yourself to see the future in full view today. Their ambitious plan has gone through numerous iterations, and will certainly change the marketing scene globally.

The Coca-Cola2020 video series is an excellent use of multi-media, as it is built on a new platform called Prezi. If you are interested in the future of marketing, these two organizations are driving marketing innovation like no one else.

When your prospects and customers interact with you as a result of your content, you must be active in the conversation. As content is the vehicle for driving the social media conversation, joining in is critical.

Zen Marketing can deliver marketing campaign development, consulting and content creation, curation and marketing analysis. We’re confident in our capabilities to ensure yours.

Email Marketing for Accounting Firms

John Hyman — Tue, 29 Jan 2026 15:55:00 GMT

Email marketing is a great way for you to attract or shore up some of the client base, and accounting firms know that once the rush begins, there will be no rest until it is all put aside in late April. It won’t be long until tax filing season comes into focus; often this is no sooner than the holiday decorations are returned to their resting place.

Hopefully you got some rest over the long period between holidays, and didn’t suffer too much post-bubbly on New Year’s Eve. You are going to need your strength once the pressure builds and the back and forth of communications starts with your clients and your staff.
Marketing is probably not even on your mind, especially email marketing. If it isn’t in your wheel house, you just may be in deep water. Not to worry, we at Zen Marketing have life safety devices nearby to bring you back on dry land.

We all know that competition is stiff under normal standards, and this year will be no exception. Competition combined with the ever-changing regulations in the Tax Code, expiring incentives and the rush to get it all done can make your head spin off your shoulders. Add marketing to that mix and some may be considering moving to a desert island.

Utilizing email marketing can streamline the process of getting or staying in contact with your client base, as well as nurturing existing leads that have yet to commit. Getting some of that work done early can put your firm in good stead once the filing season is over. Normally, clients rush in, and then rush away just as quickly. Generating some leads and nurturing them with an automated email marketing campaign is a great way to smooth out the bumps and dips in clientele once the madness of April is behind you.

Email marketing is one of the most affordable methods of lead generation, so why not exploit it. Scheduled content delivery builds reputations, relations and keeps your potential client in the loop. Utilizing a pre-planned and coordinated email marketing campaign can be automated, so you can focus on matters at hand.

The affordability is one of the most attractive aspects of lead generation through email marketing. Still considered a formidable part of the lead nurturing process, when you blend it with direct mail and advertising email provides cost-effective sustainability and expanded marketing reach. With the postage rates and paper costs in a constant upward motion, it has become cost prohibitive for most accounting firms and other small businesses to rely solely on direct mail. Email provides a bridge.

As for other forms of marketing, the costs for television and radio ads have skyrocketed, mainly because of lagging viewership, DVR, satellite radio, and streaming web usage. Revenue targets must remain so even though usage has declined, the average cost per ad has gone skyward, and will remain in an upward climb. Another compelling reason for email marketing.

Inbound marketing (aka content marketing) also relies heavily on email marketing, especially where there is a need for diverse methods in developing engagement and especially with lead nurturing campaigns.

You can cross-sell targeted batches of your overall database by segmenting them into their position in the sales process. Sending get acquainted email content to seasoned prospects is not productive, and may even offend or disenchant prospects. Using data culled by what we call “lead score” will allow for targeted messaging to the right group of prospective clientele. The same holds true for selling buying decision email messaging too soon in the process may cause you to lose that prospect all together. Targeted lead nurturing is a tactic that works well, if implemented correctly.

Another worthwhile benfit that email marketing provides is the ability to personalize the email marketing messages so that the information is deemed “just for me,” which builds your brand and the relationship. Using the prospects name in the salutation and in the body of the content makes you get noticed, and it can be done through technology rather than individually creating each message.

Email marketing is a great tool for accounting firms of all sizes. You know the big boys use it, and you can as well. All it takes is a bit of knowledge, effort and someone to help guide you toward a successful campaign.

Have a profitable tax filing season.

The USPS Changes More Than Just Direct Mail Stamp Prices

John Hyman — Mon, 28 Jan 2026 21:34:00 GMT

In a meeting today, with seven business people, a comment was made that direct mail was "making a comeback", and "all that social media and e-mail is just confusing". Like many marketing tactics there are right and wrong ways to use the a proven tactic. There are some tactics better suited for a specific business persona than another. The best tactic can be misused and later thrown aside as ineffective or out of touch.

As you are no doubt aware, the postal rates were increased Monday, January 28, 2013. The straight First Class Letter rate rose by $.01 from $.45 to $.46 per piece and a Postcard (the postal definition of a postcard) also rose $.01 from $.32 to $.33 per piece.

However, the actual “sorted” rates did not change very much. Our estimation: the implementation of the new Intelligent Mail Bar Code (IMB) contributed to that, but that is only an estimation.

According to Chris Halligan, President of Associated Mailing & Printing in Branchburg, New Jersey: "when we propose the use of direct mail we suggest using the highest automated rate and then round it up to determine an “estimated” postage rates. This usually ensures that the "estimated" postage is on the high side. You should know, you can not determine “actual” postage without the list and at least specifications of the piece. Often when we are asked to provide a quote we do not have that information, hence this formulation". This is a very sound approach.

Here is a list of the “estimated” rates that Associated Mailing & Printing is providing for general information.

Estimated Postage (Per Piece)
New Previous

First Class Presort $.41 $.41
Standard $.29 $.28
Non-profit $.17 $.17
Postcard** $.26 $.26
EDDM (Actual) $.16 $.145

**This is for cards that are sized between 5 X 3.5 and 6 X 4.25.

We were not surprised that EDDM increased 10%. The USPS has likely realized that they needed to protect mailers more than they were previouwsly. Plus the individual post offices were not prepared to accomodate the popularity of the program.

Also, with the letter-size “Carrier Route” rates not raised, it makes the option of a “normal” occupant mailing much more attractive than the EDDM mailing. EDDM mailing becomes attractive if the sender wants to do the sorting work themselves, or if the sender really wants to mail a “flat” size piece. Otherwise, the more traditional “occupant” mailings could actually cost less overall.

Besides the Intelligent Mail Bar Code (IMB), the postal service announced a number of changes affecting folded self-mailers (FSB) that also went into effect on January 5th. Most of the changes affect mailers and are really just an enforcement of regulations already on the books. The biggest change: tri-folded pieces, where the mailing panel MUST be in the center panel. In addition, the “closed” (or folded) end of the pieces must be on the bottom and on the right.

If more information is needed regarding the changes to the regulations for folded self-mailers, please share your questions below.

Five Reasons Why Accountants Should Do Their Own Marketing

John Hyman — Fri, 25 Jan 2026 13:08:00 GMT

(...and other misnomers for professional service firms)

There are five really great reasons why architects, Lawyers, CPA’s, financial planners, consultants, and other professional services providers should be responsible for their own marketing. You are intelligent beings, after all. The list below makes all the sense in the world, right. Let’s see if you feel this way.

I learned to write reports and essays in school. How hard could blogging, article writing, email campaigns and web content be?
Search Engine Optimization is just a fancy word for “getting found” on the search engines. I can buy an ad and be at the top of the page.
I don’t need analysis; I know how much my leads cost and where they come from.
I send my sales people to trade shows all year long, and spending that much is a huge impact on my budget. We check on our competitors there, so why spend even more hiring an inbound marketing agency to tell me what I already know.
The younger people on staff already know how to surf the Internet. I can rely on them to do this stuff.

There is a challenge for all businesses today. Whether you operate in the Business-to-Customer arena (B2C) or the Business-to-Business sector (B2B), the ability to "stand out in the crowd" is more and more difficult, regardless of which sector you might play in. And the old mentalities simply will not get your brand the attention it will need to thrive. Heck, even just to survive!

I’m not sure how you feel about the above statements, but if you are still reading, I think there are things to discuss. Let’s address them in order.

Article, blogs, email campaigns and more

Marketing today is a lot different than it was even just a few years ago. Traditional marketing methods are not performing at the same level they were in the first decade of this millennium, and even more so than the 1990’s. Inbound marketing is about content; engaging, relevant, compelling content. Writing to the personas of your target customer is a bit of an art, and is much different from report or essay writing. Now that consumers are utilizing the Internet to perform their research, content is extremely important. The distribution of original and curated content in multiple forms is now part-and-parcel of the marketing strategy. Consumers are making up their minds what they want and from whom before you even hear from them.

An effective blogging campaign (where the majority of new leads now emanate) requires a dedicated effort of blogging five times per week. Add to that commitment the creation of content such as video, audio, webinars, white papers and eBooks can be a full time effort.

Search Engine Optimization

While it is true that a PPC campaign may place you in the top tier of the ads on Google, Yahoo and Bing, there are hundreds of search engines. PPC, or pay per click can be an important aspect of an overall inbound marketing campaign, but it can be very expensive, and results may not yield much in the way of qualified leads. Remember also, that each time someone accidently clicks on your ad, you are paying anywhere from $.50 to $4.00. A PPC campaign is merely one of the tools that can be implemented to drive traffic. Doesn’t organic traffic make more sense? Look at this chart from Marketing Sherpa, which identifies the business-to-business answers to the survey conducted at year-end 2011. There is more to inbound marketing than SEO and PPC.

As the above chart indicates, there is a lot more to SEO than getting on the first page. The full complement of marketing sub-categories all interact cohesively to create the visibility and reach for firms today. More B2C and B2B sales occur through online activity, flipping the sales and marketing process from push to pull.

Analytics Tell a Big Story

I am sure you will agree with me that knowledge is power; it forever will be. Knowing about your competitors’ online positioning and effectiveness, as well as off line activity can identify weaknesses or strengths to be exploited.

Statistics represent the story of what is or is not occurring, if you know how to read them. Some statistics reveal consumer behaviors, while others display the effectiveness of your actions and offerings. Through comparisons of competitive data as well as internal information can aid sales and marketing personnel, thereby arming them with the right weapons to generate revenues. Big data can reveal big opportunities, to refine or to conquer.

According to Hubspot®, the cost per lead through inbound marketing has been proven less expensive than outbound (traditional) marketing by 62%.

Image courtesy of Hubspot®

Off Line Marketing – Trade Shows, Direct Mail, Display Ads, etc.

It’s a fact that trade show traffic is down across all industries. The cost to build out a booth, travel and per diem expenses for sales personnel and printed materials continue to rise, with fewer “qualified” leads from all the expense. Additionally, the burden the office feels resulting from fewer personnel at the office is weighty. Display ads are expensive, and tells you nothing from where your leads came. You have no clear idea where to place your marketing dollars for their best ROI. It is all about risk and return after all. Having a targeted campaign beats the shotgun approach every time.

Direct mail campaigns are at their worst efficacy in the history of marketing. The high cost of postage, print production and stuffing envelopes is tedious and produce a low yield. While television advertising is still a valid source of qualified leads for B2C business, it remains one of the most expensive forms of marketing, even with local cable as the vehicle.

Full Time Staff Already Have Full Time Jobs

Most firms have felt the pinch of the economic storm we are facing today. Staff is working at near capacity or more. The expectation of them taking on the social media, blogging, email campaigning, and article writing, offer creation and developing landing pages and understanding analytics is unfair and unrealistic.

Your job is to get the best from your resources, not wear them down and create dissention through unrealistic expectations and overwork. Besides, these tasks take dedicated focused effort, not some half-hearted attempts at keeping up.

Still Considering Doing it Yourself?

If more qualified leads is your objective, can you honestly believe you can perform the marketing task independently? Can you look your staff in the eye and ask them to take on even more responsibility? Do you plan to maintain the status quo with your current marketing efforts, despite the predictable poor outcome?

An inbound marketing agency can perform all, or some of these time consuming tasks with specialists in their field. From in depth analysis to email marketing campaign design and implementation, the right agency has the experts to help your business evolve.

It might be a good idea to consider looking into an inbound marketing agency. Nearly all of them offer a no cost consultation, and an intensive review of your goals, current efforts, the competition and other facts to determine your needs. The evaluation can be performed on the phone, to minimize the impact of face-to-face meetings.

Zen Marketing is fully qualified to assist in the conversion of your business from the traditional model to inbound marketing. Combining state of the art marketing strategies and traditional tactics can produce the kind of results you are seeking. It may serve you well to contact us today.

Five Reasons Why Architects Should Do Their Own Marketing...

John Hyman — Fri, 25 Jan 2026 12:57:00 GMT

(...and other misnomers for professional service firms)

I learned to write reports and essays in school. How hard could blogging, article writing, email campaigns and web content be?
Search Engine Optimization is just a fancy word for “getting found” on the search engines. I can buy an ad and be at the top of the page.
I don’t need analysis; I know how much my leads cost and where they come from.
I send my sales people to trade shows all year long, and spending that much is a huge impact on my budget. We check on our competitors there, so why spend even more hiring an inbound marketing agency to tell me what I already know.
The younger people on staff already know how to surf the Internet. I can rely on them to do this stuff.

I’m not sure how you feel about the above statements, but if you are still reading, I think there are things to discuss. Let’s address them in order.

Article, blogs, email campaigns and more

Search Engine Optimization

Analytics Tell a Big Story

According to Hubspot®, the cost per lead through inbound marketing has been proven less expensive than outbound (traditional) marketing by 62%.

Image courtesy of Hubspot®

Off Line Marketing – Trade Shows, Direct Mail, Display Ads, etc.

Full Time Staff Already Have Full Time Jobs

Still Considering Doing it Yourself?

Top Three Trends for Marketing in 2013

John Hyman — Mon, 21 Jan 2026 20:14:00 GMT

Marketing trends for the third and fourth quarter of this year show strong indications that the top three for 2013 will continue to be social media, mobile and search. Regardless of what disruptions online search has succumbed to, it remains a critical part of the marketing mix.

Next year, 2013, as noted in the image above, touts strong marketing performance in red, so we can only hope. Thirteen is a very lucky number in Chinese Culture, as is the color red. Imagine the year ahead filled with good things such as good fortune and joy. That is, if you include Social as part of your content marketing strategy.

Social Media at Critical Mass

This graph reflects the magnitude of social media’s impact on business across the board. The steady growth in the past four years is destined to increase, so there is no denying it.

As social media has disrupted online search because of the updates by Google Penguin and Google Panda). Search as we knew it in 2011 are outdated. With no crystal ball, marketing in 2013 must shift its focus and resources to content creation and curation through social media.

Why social media? What is a Facebook Fan really worth? What about measuring ROI?

These are all great questions. There is some analysis involved, so I’ll share what I found in a pair of ComScore.com white papers.

With more than one-seventh of the world’s population on Facebook alone, according to eMarketer. Chances are your customers, prospects and would-be prospects are already there. Can you afford to ignore the conversations happening on social media?

Among Fans of Facebook, we must quantify them using these three factors.

Increasing active engagement
Generating actual purchases
Creating Buzz

Increasing active engagement – How long the visitor spends reviewing content. One must analyze the active brand engagement. Is the product or service you sell impacted by Fans or non-fans.

Generating purchases – Are Fans actually purchasing goods and services on social networks. What is the percentage of Fans purchasing, versus non-Fans.

Creating Buzz – How much activity is your content being discussed on Facebook; every Like or Fan generates that much more exposure than a single person.

A study performed by Socialbakers reflects some interesting data. Finance, which does not include professional service firms, ranks third in socially connected and devoted. As it relates to the remaining seven of the top 10, CPA’s, Lawyers, Architects and other professional service firms do not appear on the list. Could it be that these industries fail to recognize the changing marketing atmosphere?

In research from Primo Fini Content, when it comes to professional service firms on Facebook, the statistics are pretty interesting. With Facebook leading the list of most fans no professional services firms in the USA were in the top 5,000 pages. By the 4,482 professional service firms listed, the first architectural firm to come up is from Mexico, with 281000+ fans at number 8, and surprisingly a State Farm Insurance firm coming in at 208, with a bit more than 21700 fans.

Out of the 427 pages under “Legal/Law,” the Rozen Law firm of North Carolina comes in at 41st on this list, with 3462 fans. Rosen Law specializes in divorce. It seems professional service firms have some catching up to do.

Last time we spoke of the Power of Content. Content is what drives the bus, so to speak. If you do not have a content strategy and mission statement, you are behind the power curve already.

It begins with engaging content that attracts readership. If the content is worth their time, readers will stick with you. Once they move from Facebook to your main site, the conversation is warming up. If you have social media sites and do not actively respond to queries or comments, you are losing not only credibility, but possibly loyalty, leading to customer loss. That is the cost of NOT being social.

Money in Mobile

Remember when the Smartphone hit the market? All this technology and it is in the palm of your hand. Within a few short years, not only have they become the number one type of mobile phone in the world, for the first time sales are actually taking a small hit, as the Tablet grows in popularity. Tablet markets are forecast to grow at 29% year-over-year. This statement from WintergreenResearch.com.

We live in a mobile world, as the “don’t leave home without it” American Express slogan is now the Smartphone owners mantra. Mobile devices come in a variety of sizes, shapes and types. The phone, eReader, laptop and Tablet. Throw in the television, and we have our faces in screens a good amount of the day. All the more reason for engaging content to be available 24/7, and it had better be interactive.

There is a negative in everything, and mobile is no exception. Mobile ads continue to lag behind predictions, but over time, it is believed that things will improve, once innovation takes ads from banner and footer to something else.

Mobile e-Commerce is at rapid fire pace globally, so if you can take revenues on the fly, mobile pay services like Square, Stripe and others are growing in acceptance exponentially. Including a mobile site to the overall strategy, as well as mobile optimizing your desktop site will help your customers better navigate it.

Search Optimization

Still the main ingredient, the recent changes of which I spoke earlier have caused some distress in the market place, but those who continue to produce engaging, value oriented content have little to worry about. Social media and multi-media have influenced the rankings, which is new, however, marketing is focusing and advancing technologies to incorporate them into cutting edge material.

The key to search optimization continues to be keywords and long-tail keywords. By that I mean specific phrases that succinctly get the message across about what the content reveals. Single keywords do not have the impact a long-tail keyword, but they help get the rankings up as long as they relate to the content. Linking to other sites is always valuable, so when discussing a particular topic, try to include either quotations or summations of another viewpoint by placing a link in your piece.

Images, video clips and other media options must also carry keywords or website name as alternative text. The three main search engines; Google, Bing and Yahoo recognize this and treat it positively to aid in the rankings.

Thinking about the year end is two-faceted. While it is great to review the successes and challenges of the previous twelve months, it would do us well to carry that thinking over as we plan for the upcoming year.

If you need any help gearing up your social media, content marketing or optimizing your website, please feel free to contact us.

The Power of Content

John Hyman — Sat, 19 Jan 2026 15:36:00 GMT

It really doesn’t matter in which industry you serve, everyone markets to their prospective consumer. Some call them clients, some call them customers, some even call them members; they are all experiencing the effects of your marketing. That friends, is the power of content. Tailored correctly, content that is “persona-fied,” that is, crafted directly at the type of consumer for which you are aiming.

Marketers have a huge responsibility. Whether you market to the B2B, B2C, B2Gm B2NP or individual entrepreneurs, you have to not only generate interest, but also do it in such a way that they are actually paying attention. That is the power of content.

For those with very tight budgets, content marketing is very affordable. Cost-effective methods for content creation are abundant, and are viewable on a number of platforms. From blogs to video email, article marketing to webinars, today’s devices make it easy to access your clientele, because they are almost always connected. The smartphone, tablet, e-Reader and desktop can easily access your targeted content.

The holdback is the amount of effort involved with supplying a consistent amount and variety of targeted, persona-geared content. It takes a fair amount of strategic planning, specific branding, content creation and promotion. After that, then there is the issue of distribution. The investment in content marketing is both time and financial resources to set your business apart with the power of content.

Recently we spoke of search engine optimization being an extremely important facet of inbound marketing. Making sure that your web site can be found, and easily located by the use of keywords, back links and so forth is part and parcel of SEO.

SEO Aided by Powerful Content – When individuals search the net for a particular string of words, say a product or service description, the search engine returns an assortment of content that is found to match your inquiry. Therefore, by crafting your content piece with the proper keywords, your chances of making it to the front page of the search results improves. The better created content (effective copywriting using keyword strategies) rises to the top like well-made bread dough in the proofing oven.

Diversified content formats also aid in “getting found” easily, as the search engines respect the quality of the content provider that is genuinely attempting to provide “worth-while, engaging content” and not just fluff or word-farm generated spin documents.

The more content visible on the internet, the better your chances of making to the top of the keyword search. That takes time, as you will need approximately 50 pieces of SEO’ed content to make a real impact, according to The Hubspot report – State of Inbound Marketing (disclosure: we are a Hubspot shop and a value added reseller). Depending on your capabilities, you may have to supplement your in-house content creators with outside copywriters. Each business is unique to itself, so

Content Marketing is Low Cost Advertising – While content marketing is not a panacea, it definitely helps support your advertising budget. Content can replace a great part of it over time, as the library of pertinent, engaging content grows in volume. Rather than pay-per-click, or pay-per-impression ads generate leads, the quality of leads will be better the more the content is viewed by returning site visitors. In that fashion, content can not only aid in reducing your advertising costs, but drive better quality leads through the sales process, allowing for your sales team to bring them to close more quickly.

Remember, once the content is on the internet, it is permanent. Over time, the content may become stale and no longer viewed by current visitors, but no one said that the previously created content couldn’t be re-purposed, rejuvenated and re-published. Turning a series of articles that are perhaps a year old can easily be re-purposed and re-published into an eBook or Special Report(s). Voila! New Content. The cost of generating a new ad or even new content is extremely less through this strategy.

Lead Generation is the Result of Content Marketing – As mentioned earlier, higher quality leads come from those visitors that find value in your content, as opposed to PPC and other paid online ads. With a well-rounded and comprehensive content strategy, leads of varied interest can be further targeted. A visitor that is viewing your site for the first time is not the same as a visitor that has returned with regularity. That is an indicator of being somewhere in the sales funnel, heading toward “buyer ready” status.

The reasons this particular prospect is returning are presently unknown to you other than they find value in your content. Sales should not intervene until said prospect has been judged to be in the final stages of the buyer ready. This is known as lead scoring. An internal system of knowing where the prospects are in the buying cycle. These leads that continually make their way through the process are naturally higher in quality than someone responding to an advertisement, and therefore stand a better chance of being closed.

In closing, what also needs to be considered is identifying the powerful content from what doesn’t perform. Through internal analysis, you can determine that your prospective, target audience may respond to webinars better than online video, or your digital magazine more so than your email campaigns. Defining metrics and routing analysis can help you create better, more power packed content.

Would you like to find out more about the Power of Content? After all, you are seeing how it works firsthand...

Internet Marketing-Will Your Marketing Be Relevant in 2013?

John Hyman — Tue, 15 Jan 2026 22:42:00 GMT

In today's marketplace, traditional advertising and outbound marketing falls on the deaf ears of frustrated buyers who are sick of the cold call, the direct mail and the hard sell. Your marketing needs to be, well, remarkable!

This quote from a story posted on a popular blog sums it up perfectly:

“There's nothing more maddening than having your day interrupted and time wasted by a desperate, cold calling salesperson, but it's even worse when they lie in order to trick you into calling them back.”

Yes, cold calling is frustrating for both ends of the phone call but has its efficacy diminished to the point where the telemarketers and sales guys have to lie in their voicemails to get you to call them back?

Does that sound like the path to customer engagement to you?

But how can a small business owner expect to drive a strong marketing campaign? The answer- your business isn’t a Fortune 500 company and you should stop trying to market like one. But this doesn’t mean you can’t have Fortune 500 results.

There are dynamic inbound strategies that will allow you to differentiate your business and prove to your prospects the value of your products and services. Your sales efforts can be unobtrusive, and provide your sales team people with lead-nurturing tactics that will earn the trust, respect and (most importantly) loyal business of your targets.

And none of them involve manipulation! This concept that lying in a voicemail (or email, postcard, or any other tactic) in order to get a return call is one of the worst forms of manipulation- sure you might get a call back, but you will never close a sale!

I recall several years ago, when consulting for a Wall Street headhunting firm, a popular concept in the sales department involved the idea of calling and asking for a bogus made-up name. When the gate keeper responded not knowing anyone by that name the sales person would provide a "Oh I'm sorry, who handles that department now?"

Is it any wonder “sales people” have a bad rap?

Some New Year’s Resolutions that Are Relevant

What you and your client facing people should be doing from this point forward:

Evaluate all of your tactics and processes- we don’t feel using the telephone is dead, merely that cold calling is destructive to relationships, and is an inefficient method of sales by itself. A diverse marketing campaign creates a warm call environment. It’s more fun for your sales team, much more efficient, and proven to produce better close rates.
Have an honest conversation with everyone involved in sales or customer service about honesty- and make it part of your culture, not just some tag line like the local car repair place uses. Believe it and live up to it. No one should ever fear for their job security because they did what was right in satisfying a client!
Get everyone involved in some form of networking- and coach them on the right way to develop a word of mouth referral process (we have a great workshop/webinar for this). Going to chamber of commerce events, drinking the wine, shaking some hands, passing out some cards isn’t really networking.
Use the expertise and experience in your company to produce great articles, white papers, and case studies. Share these on your website, through social media, and in other online forums. If written and posted properly this marketing approach can positively impact your website traffic and SEO, plus it makes your people experts, not merely sales people. And, guess what- your company becomes a resource instead of a distributor of “stuff”.
Make certain your website reflects all of these sensibilities and is optimized for good organic search engine results. Your posts and articles, if relevant, are like a magnet for new interest in your products or services on your website. So don’t drive your prospects to your site only to have them quickly flee because your website underwhelms their expectation.

Do You Have Two Really Good Plans

You probably have a business plan on the shelf (that’s the one, covered in dust). That’s not one I am referring to. Every small to medium sized business looking to grow needs two plans-

A strategic plan; this is your vision, why you are in the business as well as where you want your business to be. A good strategic plan will detail the critical success factors, goals, strategies, and then flow through the tactics necessary to satisfy your overall vision for the business. It might even include succession and retirement planning. I hate the “idea of the week” style of management that is prevalent in many small businesses.
A marketing plan; a diversified roadmap for taking advantage of the many cross channel and inbound marketing tools available to businesses of any scale today. Make certain it is SMART¹ and actionable. And make certain you have the time, talent, and treasure to begin creating engagement with your intended audience.

If content creation is outside your team’s comfort zone, or it’s been more than a year since you re-evaluated your website, seek out a reputable marketing company to help you. Many are experts at helping you design and execute the plan that is right for your industry, target audience, and budget.

Finally… go out and do all of it!

For a much deeper dive into Internet marketing, download the white paper “"Essential Step-by-Step Guide to Internet Marketing”, available above.

And thanks to Frank Rumbauskas whose blog provided the quote, plus inspired me to consider the ethics sadly missing in many sales domains today.

Inbound Marketing & the False Beliefs in Customer Loyalty

John Hyman — Wed, 09 Jan 2026 16:09:00 GMT

While it is a long-standing tenet of business, “the customer is always right” may not be so, at least in the eyes of the traditional sales professional. Customer loyalty is part and parcel of good business, but when sales professionals insist on their target always having the final say is not the best mindset if they don’t actually know of what they espouse.

Solution sales processes are clearly outdated in their traditional form, yet clung to by nearly all professional sales executives, at least in the B2B arenas. Based on years of research by the Harvard Business Review, with tens of thousands of interviews pertaining to solution sales tactics, today’s best practices in sales and marketing strategies and tactics point to a dramatic shift from traditional thinking. Most business today that focus on the B2B marketplace insist that traditional methods are needed, yet conventional wisdom isn’t what it is expected to be. Solution sales pros that “know what’s best” may not really understand that today’s customer has spent valuable time, talent, and treasure searching out a solution that best suits their problem at hand- and can do so today far better than ever before. In the past, most companies relied on the solution sales pro to know it all, and there was no need to “go it alone.” With technology evolving by the day, there are multiple choices now available that may not have been in the past.

The challenge is not in the use of traditional pipeline management and sales management techniques or even tightly held customer belief systems; it is the current decision maker’s behavioral reality that must be observed. Rather than solving problems through traditional “in your face” solution selling, today’s methodology is to provide the information needed to position products and services in the best light, and make it available for the customer to discover. Driving revenues for the short term successes by creating a false sense of customer dependence (some over-think it is customer loyalty) will never replace addressing the real problems that plague business.

The Customer Today Has More Information, More Choices, and More Tools.

Today’s customer has made their way through more than half the discovery distance before even considering reaching out to a sales organization. Therein lies the rub. For those companies being uninvolved in the “early discovery stages” by providing bountiful, engaging and informative content on the front end, may never allow them to have the opportunity to reach the interview or exploratory stage in the acquisition process. It is no longer about selling inasmuch as it is about educating. Or as I often tell our clients, become a resource not merely a sales outlet. Today’s successful sales and marketing organizations must focus on educating the prospective customer, nurturing them along the sales funnel (selling process) and building the relationship if they intend to create REAL and sustainable customer loyalty.

Whether it be B2B or B2C, the process is quite similar. Today’s customer is looking for the best fit for their issue; product or service. The success will come to those that provide information, education and engaging professionalism rather than a slick sales pitch or a low, low price.

Inbound Marketing – The 2013 Cure for Business Anxiety?

John Hyman — Thu, 03 Jan 2026 13:27:00 GMT

New Year, More Anxiety for Local Business Owners

From a column we produced running in The Hunterdon County Democrat and NJ.com

While 2012 may have been a lackluster year for business, this curative approach could dispel much of the pent up anxiety small business owners may have experienced in 2012. The New Year often brings on strategic planning and tactical reviews to hopefully have a better year ahead. Once the reflective period and resolution setting period is past, the New Year can mean improved revenues, profitability and sustainability as companies learn to embrace inbound marketing.

According to John Hyman, the “Overseer of Order” at Zen Marketing Inc in Flemington, “business owners should take advantage of proven, modern marketing practices such as cross channel marketing and inbound marketing. But because they get so wrapped up in the day to day running of the business they seldom are able to market effectively by themselves. Now is the time every business owner should be assessing his or her marketing plan and critically evaluating every tool in the company’s marketing toolbox.“

For many business owners the start of the New Year brings a lot of anxiety. It means another 365 days of trying to exceed the previous year’s revenue goals and to find that elusive formula to achieve, or at least maintain current profitability levels at a minimum. According to Hyman, combining cross channel marketing and inbound marketing can be the elixir of change that sparks renewed vigor into sagging revenue streams. What may sound like an easy to prescribe remedy, Hyman states the process is more complex than many small business may have the time or expertise to perform without assistance.

“Inbound marketing is a process that drives top of mind awareness to an intended audience, and over time creates a high level of new customers without having to resort to cold calling. While Inbound marketing involves many of the same tactics used in cross channel marketing” says Hyman, “it is simply based on “getting found” and establishing your company’s credibility”.

“Cold calls are annoying and interruptive. At Zen Marketing we coach a measurable approach that brings potential new customers to the business rather than just constantly just pushing out sales messages. In my workshops and consulting sessions I often ask for a show of hands of everyone who took action as a result of a cold call; I seldom see a hand raised. Yet these same companies often use outdated tactics such as these for lead and sales generation.”

“Cross channel marketing involves the coordination of multiple marketing channels such as email and social media marketing with an interactive website as a foundation. Companies come to us because they want to be able to integrate these processes utilizing a multi-channel approach, but don’t have the resources or knowledge to go it alone.”

In the month of January Zen Marketing will be offering 10 Hunterdon County businesses a free inbound marketing evaluation. Local business looking for a better understanding of their inbound marketing effectiveness can enter to win at https://zenmarketinginc.com/free-marketing-assessment

But “a good marketing plan should be diverse and blend different discipline and tactics” states Chris Halligan, owner of Associated Mailing & Printing, in Branchburg NJ and a frequent partner with Zen Marketing. “We work with marketing companies and businesses directly to help them maximize the cross channel marketing opportunity and other print-related tactics.”

“New technologies such as PURLS have added a whole new layer of effectiveness to print marketing. We can now provide our customers with amazing analytics and a level of customer engagement previously unimaginable”.

PURL’s or Personalized URLs invite each mail recipient to their own "private screening" of a product or service. “Imagine not only being able to provide a prospect with a distinct message and but also being able to understand the what, when and where of the interaction between the prospect and your marketing piece”.

“A recent survey I read stated that 1 out of every three people who receive a direct mail piece in the mail prefer to respond online. It's just how we do things today. Our approach integrates the best of both worlds”.