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Indulge us, if you will, with this little scenario: One morning you open your Outlook to find your inbox full of emails from friends, colleagues and clients who are shocked and outraged about a comment one of your employees made on an industry blog.

A strong brand is important if you're selling products or services. It's even more important if you're selling a mission. Every non-profit has a brand. It's the emotional connection you have with your audience. It's your story and how you tell it.

Take a minute and think about all the different ways your brand interacts with your customers, prospects, suppliers and employees. Then, ask yourself, "Am I in control of these interactions?"

The best brands are simple. Simple to articulate. Simple to understand. Simple brand ideas result in powerful and memorable branding that people immediately connect with. Those ideas have to make it clear that the brand is different and relevant to their

A local small-business owner recently asked me, "Do I need to be on Facebook?" Well, it depends. Nearly one out of five small business owners are actively using social media in their business.

If you think about it, Cupid is a pretty powerful little fellow. He can aim his bow and arrow at just about anyone and make them fall deeply in love. Don't you wish you could harness that power in your marketing efforts?

We're feeling a little uninspired by the invariable New Year's resolutions that are popping up these days. Lose weight. Quit smoking. Drink less. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

In honor of Halloween, we've assembled some of the most spine-chilling, hair-raising, blood-curdling marketing tactics we've come across. Bottom line? This kind of marketing is scary. Scary, because of the damage this can do to a companies' brand.

One of the most challenging aspects of landing a new customer is getting their attention. Over the years of helping clients with this challenge, we've learned that one of the most effective ways to tackle this is to send an engaging key account mailing.

We live in a buzz culture, where the best kind of exposure often comes from word of mouth. Word of mouth is the type of publicity that will fire up your sales and ignite brand recognition.

A solid brand can be the difference between business success and failure - especially in this economy. A strong brand helps you stand out from your competitors, adds value to your product or services, and helps you connect with your consumers.

The traditional marketing and branding model is changing. The standard model was a "one-to-many" proposition, where you try to get your message to as many people as possible.