Brand Archives - Charles Kollo's Marketing Thoughts

I tried, I’ve learned & bounced back: Post Mortem Analysis of Shelterous, Inc

At the end of 2011, I started Shelterous, Inc. when I was still a student at the Harvard Extension School. Shelterous was an airline review website that allows travelers to give their feedback on previous flights to help future travelers book their next flight. It was a wonderful experience that helped me know myself more personally and professionally.
I drove Shelterous for 2 full years, until early 2014 before finding a “regular job” that brings consistent revenue for my newly growing family.

Evolution of Messaging in the Customer Experience

While growing up, my mom told me that when we first engage in a discussion with someone that we just meet, we listen to the person introducing themselves, we pay attention to what they say, and their body language. Then, we talk using empathy and relate to the person in a meaningful and sincere way.

When it comes to messaging and technology, it’s the same thing, and most of the digital messaging tools have been created with the idea of enabling interaction with a large number of people. Continue reading “Evolution of Messaging in the Customer Experience”

What Fahamu Pecou can teach marketers about branding and culture

I have just bought an art piece by internationally known artist Fahamu Pecou, Atlanta based, and I wanted to let this brilliant artist know what I am thinking of his art. I have written him an open note that I share at the end of this post. While writing this open letter, I realized that Fahamu also has few thing to teach marketers about branding and the weight of culture in the identity of their corporation.

Continue reading “What Fahamu Pecou can teach marketers about branding and culture”

3 Simple Marketing Tips for Amazing And Memorable Small Businesses.

I love small local businesses with a soul and a relatable story. Businesses where you can talk with the owner and hear his/her passion in every sentence. Businesses for which you go to your favorite social network and click “Like”, “Follow”, hoping that it would make a difference. Continue reading

Prepare Q4 and start measuring your Marketing performance

I am all about measuring Marketing performance; We are far from the time where it was enough to show nice pictures and repeat. Marketers are turning into Project Managers, and are taking more and more responsibilities in the prospect journey to ensure that people sail smoothly from awareness to active buyers. In this blog, I will go from the assumption that we all agree that websites are an absolute necessity in the communication tool.

For the new Digital Marketing Manager, engaging in this measuring journey is a question of life and death, when you cannot demonstrate the return on investment, budgets WILL be restricted. Q3 might have been too early for you to work on metrics, but don’t let Q4 pass by, otherwise it will slip until next year same time. To prevent that, here are 5 basic metrics you need to start measuring for Q4 2017 from 3 major business tools:

Continue reading “Prepare Q4 and start measuring your Marketing performance”

Tune Up Your Marketing Team

Not reaching and converting the numbers of people you want? Replacing your marketing team is not the answer. Tune that team up! When you want to reach and convert more people, empowering and training your team to know their limits and identify when to take the car to the mechanic is a good option, and way more cost efficient.

Think about it: Do you buy a new car when something is broken? Continue reading “Tune Up Your Marketing Team”

3 Marketing Questions Every Small Business Owner Needs To Ask Himself

When it comes to running a business, marketing is the the umph that makes your product stand out in a world of commodities.

Understand that your target customer hasn’t been waiting for you to come to market to answer the problem you are hoping to solve. Whether you are selling a book, a service, or a product, you need to go to specific steps to communicate effectively to your target in a language they can understand. Also, let’s cut it to the chase, if you are living anywhere after 2017, there is a good chance that all businesses need a website and other forms of digital marketing. The good thing is that digital marketing is cheaper than brick and mortar, but it shouldn’t be free (unless you don’t believe in yourself).

There are three questions that you absolutely need to ask yourself to measure success as you start your business. Marketing should not be buried under the noise of the daily grind. Continue reading “3 Marketing Questions Every Small Business Owner Needs To Ask Himself”

Christmas Gift! How to Analyze a Website for Busy C-levels

I love tech, and I was born in this era, when it is easier to create and analyze a website in full HTML than building an outdoor shed (even if I can do both now). Allow me to share this short and easy guide to analyzing a website. Below, you can find a small list of things that I do when I check a website.
I am aware that the C-Level crowd may not be as familiar with the web, especially since technology changes every day. The logic behind a website is similar to any marketing media, the good thing (or bad depending on your perspective) with the web is that everything leaves a trace. It is not enough that a website looks good, it also needs to be accessible, clear, and trustworthy. Continue reading

5 Reasons to Stop the Feud Between Marketing and Sales

In B2B, I often hear people talking about the relationship between marketing and sales. This is very disturbing, because the difference is most of the time presented in a type of conflict of resources and activity. When sales are down, sales teams speak negatively about marketing, and the opposite is true as well. Most of the discussions are attempts to dismiss responsibility.

To me, this is a “chicken or the egg” scenario. Both are necessary to any organization and both have an important responsibility to increase the company’s bottom line. However, in many organizations, top leaders can make the decision to cut marketing activity because it does not show direct, measurable revenue that can be attributed to marketing. Most of the time, sales teams are the final touch that closes the sale, except for B2C where e-commerce websites are usually managed by marketing. In the spirit of Socrates, “The only thing that I know is that I know nothing.” I think that it is fair to ask: what does marketing bring to the bottom line? Continue reading “5 Reasons to Stop the Feud Between Marketing and Sales”

The Secret No One Tells You About: Demand and Lead Generation

Demand generation and lead generation are often used interchangeably to represent the idea that someone may be interested in buying the fabulous product you are selling.

As I am reading the Patterson Principles of Selling by Jeffrey Gitomer, I realize that these 2 things are different, and identifying what make them unique would allow each approach to generate better results individually.

My approach is always to try to do the best small task that I can and then move on to the next; for that, I identify small differences between concepts and apply a strategic approach accordingly. Continue reading “The Secret No One Tells You About: Demand and Lead Generation”