The Strategic Marketing Blog

In 1911, the publisher, William Randolph Hearst made an offer of $50,000 to the first person who could fly a plane from LA to New York or New York to LA in under 30 days from start to finish. Calbraith “Cal” Perry Rodgers took up the challenge.

As a marketer, you’re constantly adapting to new tools and customer demands. Artificial Intelligence (AI) isn’t just another tech fad—it’s a game-changer for how you target audiences, craft content, and optimize campaigns. The challenge is knowing where to begin without getting overwhelmed.

Want to make your website a go-to resource that search engines love? Topic clusters are the answer. They’re a smart way to organize your content around a central theme, with a main “pillar page” diving deep into a broad topic and smaller “cluster” pages linking back to it, covering specific ...

Web accessibility isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s a must. It’s about fairness, ensuring everyone can use your site, and it’s the law in many places, including the U.S. Over my years, I’ve watched businesses realize that accessibility isn’t just about avoiding lawsuits; it’s about reaching more ...

As you think about web marketing, there are some key considerations for your online presence. Last week I posted about the 10 signs your website is likely underperforming. There were important tips on what to fix there but I think there is much more you should do to improve your website performance.

I’ve been working in some form of marketing or sales for almost 40 years. Yes, I’m getting old, but I’m not that old. I sold newspapers door to door when I was throwing papers for The Press Enterprise in Southern California as a young lad. But when I was 16 years old, I really got my initiation ...

Let me get to the switch on that bait right off the bat. Your sales pitch is probably okay. What really sucks is your sales approach. But, that might not make you feel any better. The sales world is changing. In my opinion, the consumer isn’t really changing but, instead, the options available to ...

In my opinion, the two most perfect food options are hamburgers and pizza. In fact, I’ve worked really hard to learn how to make the best burger and the best pizza I can. I’ve worked for years to come up with the recipe I love for each part of each, from the bread to the sauces and the toppings. It ...

I think that one of the greatest failings in just about every business is forgetting who signs the front of the check. When we are employees, we forget who the employer is. When we are vendors, we forget who the client is. All too often, we fall into the trap of thinking that we certainly know ...

I’ve been in some form of marketing for the better part of my life. Yeah, I’m getting up there in years but I also started young. I sold newspapers door-to-door as a paperboy in the 80s. I ran a printing press when I was 16 in 1990. I worked for a radio station in the mid-90s. I started doing print ...

The first forms of advertising that we are aware of are from ancient China. According to the Classic of Poetry the earliest forms of advertising were auditory—in the form of bamboo flutes advertising candy to sell. Oftentimes in the middle ages, where the majority of the populace was illiterate, ...

I’ve seen plenty of businesses wrestle with turning prospects into clients, especially in the B2B world. Picture a medium-sized logistics firm I worked with—about 80 employees, great service, but their website was a ghost town. Leads came in, then bounced. Sound familiar? After 20 years helping ...

In the fast-paced landscape of 2025, with the constant emergence of new technologies and the shifting dominance of social media, one might question the relevance of blogging. The rise of advanced AI content generation tools, like the latest iterations of ChatGPT, Claude, Grok (not to mention image ...

I was a teenager the first time I talked to someone that had a marketing degree. I asked him what he could do with that marketing degree and he said, “I’m pretty much only qualified for sales.”

I’ve thought about and have implemented change in organizations for over two decades now. If you’ve read my posts before, you’ll know I’m a change agent. I also believe that change for the sake of change is never, ever a good idea. One of the things I talk to clients about all the time is setting ...

Running your business in 2025 requires a bit of understanding of technology. Even the least technical jobs, such as lawn care professionals, are sporting smart phones to check email, talk to their staff and connect to their clients.

Over the years, I've worked with businesses large and small. I've started countless projects (web development, marketing, etc).

Just 30 years ago, the web was new. There were really no standards to speak of. The innovators of the world were quick to try their hand at HTML code.