By Alexandra Reid
As a regular feature, we provide our readers with a roundup of the best articles we have read in the past week. On the podium this week are Read Write Web, The Globe and Mail, All Things D, Small Business Trends, Social Media Examiner and ClickZ.
Why venture capital no longer defines innovation
Today’s venture capital deal flow to innovative new companies looks a lot like a fat man trying to squeeze into a slim Italian suit — it just doesn’t fit. The new shape of innovation is a lot more inclusive of new approaches and sources of startup funding. Author Michael Tchong explains what that might look like.
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This is the eighth article in a continuing monthly series chronicling the growth path of Screach, a startup based in Newcastle upon Tyne in England’s North East. Screach is an interactive digital media platform that allows users to create real-time, two-way interactive experiences between a smart device (through the Screach app) and any content, on any screen or just within the mobile device itself. We invite your feedback.
By Alexandra Reid
When we last caught up with Screach, then called Screenreach Interactive, the startup was in the process of hiring a PR firm to promote its existing platform and to give the world an idea of the diverse projects that it was helping to create.
But just two months after beginning its relationship with a London-based firm, Screach decided to try a different approach to garner the attention of media, the general public and prospective customers.
“We couldn’t have been happier with the overall support we got from (the PR firm), and we’re definitely open to working with them in the future,” said chief strategy officer David Weinfeld. “However, the decision came down to the whole idea of how we were going to promote ourselves as a startup in a crowded market.”
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By Alexandra Reid
Hubspot’s Brian Halligan coined the term “inbound marketing” to distinguish marketing activities that focus on the consumer experience from traditional outbound marketing tactics.
Inbound marketing is about earning the attention of prospective customers, media and other market influencers. This approach is different from traditional outbound marketing tactics which push messaging on target audiences.
While outbound marketing tactics still hold an important place in a company’s marketing mix, inbound marketing is gaining steam because of a fundamental shift in consumer behaviour. With new technology at their fingertips, people are more in control of what information they receive and how they receive it. As reported by Hubspot, people are skipping over TV advertisements, unsubscribing from company emails, and leaving websites because they aren’t providing them with information they value. Businesses are realizing that they have to communicate on their interest groups’ terms to earn their attention, trust and loyalty.
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By Alexandra Reid
As a regular feature, we provide our readers with a roundup of the best articles we have read in the past week. On the podium this week are the Financial Post, Harvard Business Review, MarketingProfs, Business2Community, and Fast Company.
To effectively measure ROI, think strategically
SMBs face some unique challenges on the marketing front. Most lack the resources or budget to effectively promote their product or service. Even when they do set money aside to market, their initiatives tend to be short-lived. To ensure marketing dollars are spent wisely, decide on your objective, draft a concise plan outlining how it can be executed, who’s responsible for each step and what success will look like at each stage.
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By Leo Valiquette
Quality writing, whether it is for journalistic, marketing or public relations purposes, is too often considered a commodity service. For those of us who have experience with the community newspaper business, where editorial content (to quote a colleague of mine) has often been viewed by publishers as “the shit that keeps the ads from bumping together,” this was painfully evident long before the advent of the Internet content mill.
The question is whether our present-day age of real-time, on-demand news and information is driving this to an extreme and leading many writers to, either accidentally or intentionally, break those tenets of ethical writing most often talked about in the context of journalism.
To be frank, some forms of content are a commodity and can be pumped out far more quickly than others. Nor are all writers created equal. I have worked with no shortage of wordsmiths who, despite the fact that this is their profession, still agonize for hours to produce something on a deadline that will still read much better if they are granted a second crack at it the next day.
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By Alexandra Reid
