Happy Holidays!

Just a few working days before the end of the year and we are in the midst of another busy holiday season.

We wish everyone safe travels and best wishes.

Need a break from the holiday bustle, grab a coffee and read these five marketing articles:

1. Your 2019 Content Strategy: 5 Trends You Can’t Ignore, Convince and Convert
2. 101 Lead Magnet Ideas to Skyrocket Your Email List, Entice
3. 100 Case Study Interview Questions, HubSpot
4. HubSpot Wants to Stoke Innovation With $30M Corporate Venture Fund, Xconomy
5. The Surprising Power of The Long Game, Farnham Street

Fall Marketing Stories. Product Launches and New Clients.

Fall in DC is my favorite time of year.

Football.

Lower humidity. Normal, comfortable temperatures.

Product launches and new clients.

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” — Albert Camus

All good things.

As per usual, take a quick break from your busy fall schedule and check out these articles:

1. Why big companies squander brilliant ideas, Tim Hartford
2. The Long Goodbye (To Facebook), Om Malik
3. Pivot to traditional: Direct-to-consumer brands sour on Facebook ads, DigiDay
4. LinkedIn Lead Generation: Definitive Guide (Updated 2018), Angelo Sorbello
5. Sunk Cost Sinks Ships, Medium

If you need help reaching your sales and marketing goals, email me and we'll schedule a free consultation.

Worldly Marketing Wisdom- What is the One Key to Marketing Success?

So why am I sending you this newsletter? 

My goal every day is to try and live up to the advice of Warren Buffet's business partner. 

“Go to bed smarter than when you woke up.”
— Charlie Munger

I try to read as much as I can. About marketing. Sales. Design. Startups. Software. Business. Economics. Personal improvement. 

Some of the things I read are crap and not worth sharing. Some, however are pretty good.

With that in mind, take a quick break and check out these articles:

What caught my eye in the past month?

1. Tesla, software and disruption, Benedict Evans
2. How the Blog Broke the Web, Amy Hoy
3. Building a Storybrand: The 7 Prospect Desires Your Business Depends On, MarTech
4. 50 Split Testing Ideas (You Can Run Today!), Neil Patel
5. The Websites Of 35 Unicorn Startups Before They Became Billion-Dollar Companies, CB Insights

If your marketing plan isn't functioning as well as you'd like, email me and we'll schedule a free consultation.

Marketing Links for August

This post will be short, as I'm sure most of you want skip over this part and click on links to five awesome marketing articles. 

What caught my eye in the past month?

1. 100+ Blog Post Title Templates That Grab Attention, TwelveSkip
2. How Long Should Your SaaS Software Trial Period Be?, Tomasz Tunguz
3. The Hyperfragmentation of Retail and Why the Biggest Winners are Digital Ad Platforms, not Microbrands, Namrata Patel
4. 15 Mind-Blowing Stats About GDPR, CMO.com
5. Ultimate Cognitive Bias Survival Guide, Geek Wrapped

If your marketing plan isn't functioning as well as you'd like, email me and we'll schedule a free consultation.

World Cup Fever?

The World Cup is the most watched sporting event in the world. 

3.2 billion people (almost half of the world’s population) tuned in to watch four years ago in 2014.

The semi-finals are this Tuesday and Wednesday, so I'm sure that some of you will be sneaking out to watch or keeping track of the games on your phones or computers.

• Before you run out of the office, read this month's top marketing articles:
• The Compounding Returns of Content Marketing[100% Must Read], Tomasz Tunguz
• Casper Marketing: How a Mattress Company Went from Zero to $750 Million in 4 Years (Case Study), SleekNote
• The Amazing Psychology of Japanese Train Stations, City Lab
• ClassPass’ Founder on How Marketplace Startups Can Achieve Product/Market Fit), First Round
• You See What You Want To See, Of Dollars and Data

If your marketing plan isn't functioning as well as you'd like, email me and we'll schedule a quick call for a free consultation.

Spring has Sprung...Finally.

After the winter we have had, I'm heading outside to rebuild my Vitamin D stores.In the meantime, here are this month's five must-read marketing articles:

• The Law of Shitty Clickthroughs, Andrew Chen
• Why Winners Keep Winning. (hint: cumulative advantage), Nick Maggiulli
• This Is The Most Valuable Commodity of the 21st Century, Inc.
• Six Important Points About the State of B2B Content Marketing [Infographic], MarketingProfs
• Divine Discontent: Disruption’s Antidote [100% Must Read], Strategery

If you have a few marketing priorities that aren't getting enough attention, email me and we'll schedule a quick call to review Honeycomb's capabilities.

Dog Days of Marketing?

This month's Straight to the Point post will be short, as I'm sure most of you want skip over this part and click on links to five awesome marketing articles.

What caught my eye in the past month? 

• Flywheel Effect: Why Positive Feedback Loops are a Meta-Competitive Advantage, Medium 
• Study: Thursdays are best for email engagement, FierceCMO 
• 10 Brilliant Examples of How to Open Your Blog Post With a Bang, Pollock 
• Hooks: An Intro on How to Manufacture Desire, Nir and Far 
• The Daily Routines of Famous Artists and Scholars, The Big Picture 

If you have a question about marketing, the clients we work with, or the services that Honeycomb Consulting provides, just contact me here.

New Honeycomb Website!

As last, we finally updated and refreshed the Honeycomb Consulting website. Please take a look and share your thoughts and feedback. Greatly appreciated!

My first marketing projects back in the 1990s were hand coding and designing websites. The technologies available today make that process much easier, quicker and cheaper.

Here are a few client websites we've worked on over the last few years, in various capacities:

• RedSeal- https://redseal.net 
• ParkMyCloud- http://www.parkmycloud.com/ 
• Scarab- http://www.wearscarab.com/ 
• Priveo- http://www.priveo.me

After checking out the new corporate site (www.honeycomb-consulting.com), spend a few minutes perusing these must read articles:

1. 20 of the Best Website Homepage Design Examples, HubSpot 
2. 10 Brilliant Examples of How to Open Your Next Blog Post With a Bang, Michael Pollack 
3. CMO audit series, Part 3: Media channels (it’s not what you think), MarTech Today 
4. 263 Self-Driving Car Startups to Watch, Comet Labs 
5. How the Bitcoin protocol actually works, DDI

Drop me a line if you want to hear about our latest marketing projects or discuss your upcoming marketing priorities in the second half of the year.

March Marketing Madness- Got your brackets filled out?

Got your brackets filled out?

Should be an entertaining month of basketball with upsets, Cinderellas and, maybe, Villanova winning it all.

A few years ago, Honeycomb client Ostrato just put out a fun video to celebrate the NCAA Tournament. Click the image to watch...



After that video production, we helped Ostrato execute a "startup pivot" and rebranded the company as ParkMyCloud, which has been super successful, leading to high numbers of new clients and a new round of funding.

In fact, ParkMyCloud is a finalist for DC Inno's DC Tech Madness bracket style startup competition. You can vote for them here and check out all of the other successful DC startups.

While your watching your favorite teams and updating your brackets, take a few seconds and check out these articles:

1. The Four-Letter Code to Selling Just About Anything, The Atlantic (Good background on “Most Advanced Yet Acceptable”)
2. 7 Email Marketing Predictions for 2017, Campaign Monitor
3. 5 Content Marketing Predictions for 2017, Convince and Convert
4. The Best Time to Send Emails (Here’s What Studies Show), Optin Monster
5. 40 Things Every Startup Should Do To Scale Up, Inc42

Must Read Marketing Articles for July

For the past 10-15 years, marketing has been undergoing a series of shifting changes in strategy, tactics, feel and tone. As you know, the basics of human communication are eternal, but the methods  by which we, the professional marketers, reach customers are constantly being tested, improved or discarded.Keeping up to speed on the latest techniques is a challenge for all of us. The whole reason I started this blog nine plus years ago, was to share the articles I felt were important for my fellow marketers and non-marketing business leaders to read.

What caught my eye in past few weeks?

1. The Recursive Product Strategy That Musk Used To Build An Empire, First Round
2. Building Your Content Marketing Workflow Part 1: Identify Content Needs, Kapost
3. Content marketing used to drive leads, customer engagement, brand awareness, FierceCMO
4. 5 lessons for building a scalable SaaS sales machine, TNW
5. AngelList: What is it, who is it for, should you care?, Emerging Prairie

Want to learn more about Honeycomb and how we are helping our clients address their strategic and tactical marketing priorities? Click here.

Almost Summer Reading

I'm not sure if June qualifies as summer or not. I used to think so, but some people classify summer as July and August. Seems a little short.

However you think about it, June is definitely the month to be outside as much as possible enjoying the sunshine and warm weather. 

Are you on the beach working on your tan? Then here are this month's relaxing must-read marketing articles:

1. Unleashing the power of B2B case studies, FierceCMO
2. How to get buyers to respond (even when they’re busy), Jeff Molander
3. Kahuna report: Mobile email trending upwards, messaging improves retention, FierceCMO
4. The Inbound Marketing Effectiveness Report, Act-on
5. Email Marketing Tips: 33 Industry Experts Share Their Best Strategies and Tactics, Drip

Want to learn more about Honeycomb and how we are helping our clients address their strategic and tactical marketing priorities? Feel free to call me anytime.

May Reading

Suffering from vitamin D deficiency due to lack of sun? We should get some sun soon.

In the meantime, here are some interesting articles to check out.

1. Email Marketing Tips: 33 Industry Experts Share Their Best Strategies and Tactics, Drip
2. Study: IT, finance departments most influential in B2B purchases , Fierce CMO
3. The Most Entertaining Guide to Landing Page Optimization You'll Ever Read, Moz
4. 10 of the most effective growth hacks The Next Web
5. Discover the Optimal Ad Copy for Every Keyword and Time of Day, SEM Rush

Want to learn more about Honeycomb and how we are helping our clients address their strategic and tactical marketing priorities? Visit www.honeycomb-consulting.com now.

Can February March? No, but April May.

I'm not usually a fan of puns, but this one slipped into this month's newsletter anyway. For you pun-tastic people out there: you are welcome.

For the rest of us, hear are this month's five must-read marketing articles:

1. Create More Value With Marketing, And Less Frustration, Sales Benchmark Index
2. F8 Update: 10 New Facebook Features Every Marketer Must Know , Buffer
3. Survey: HubSpot is top automation solution in satisfaction, market presence, Fierce CMO
4. 50 Split Testing Ideas (You Can Run Today!) Neil Patel
5. The Platform You Never Planned For, Platform Strategy

Want to learn more about Honeycomb and how we are helping our clients address their strategic and tactical marketing priorities? Feel free to call us anytime.

Spring Reading

I am procrastinating on my annual bout of spring cleaning. It's only March, I know. But I feel like I'm already ready for May! How about you?

While you are daydreaming about summer, take a few minutes and read these five must-read marketing articles:

1. 16 Copywriting Mistakes You’re Probably Making (and How to Fix Them), Shanelle Mullin
2. Report: More than half of app users bail within 30 days of download, Fierce CMO
3. What's hot in B2B website design, Patrick Goreman
4. 50 Split Testing Ideas (You Can Run Today!) Neil Patel
5. What’s Next? 8 Trends I’m Excited About, Medium

Want to learn more about Honeycomb and how we are helping our clients address their strategic and tactical marketing priorities? Feel free to call me anytime.

Busy Weekend Reads

The weekend is a time for rest, right? Maybe that was the case long ago, back in the 20th century. Everyone knows that Saturdays and Sundays can be busier than regular weekdays. Change is only constant.

That rings doubly true when I look back and think about the wide variety of clients that we've worked with recently.

Here are a few examples:

• publicly traded government contractor
• cybersecurity analytics platform
• consumer focused social discovery mobile app startup
• B2B enterprise software developer
• cloud computing cost reduction tool
• video messaging mobile app
• Wireless Distributed Antenna Systems engineering company

Whew. That a bunch of wildly different companies. I guess that's what keeps us passionate and excited each day- so many great teams building cool and interesting technologies.

Take a quick break from your busy weekend and read these five must-read marketing articles:

1. The 8 Players in the Programmatic Ecosystem, Brian Sim
2. Here are the Scripts for Sales Success — Emails, Calls and Demos That Close Deals, First Round Review
3. Product/Market Fit: What it really means, How to Measure it, and Where to find it, Eric Jorgenson
4. CMO Council: Marketers struggling to personalize, create real-time interactionsFierce CMO
5. 15 documentaries on Netflix that will make you smarter about businessr Business Insider

Want to learn more about Honeycomb and how we are helping our clients address their strategic and tactical marketing priorities? Drop me a line.

Snowmageddon Again?

Snowmageddon (Again)!Looks like another decent snow storm is heading to the East Coast and, predictably, everyone is freaking out.

We will see how snowy it actually gets, but a weekend storm shouldn't cause too much disruption.

Socked in this weekend? Grab a coffee (or warm adult beverage) and read these five marketing articles:

1. Grantland and The Surprising Future of Publishing, Stratechery
2. How to Failure-proof your Business with Customer Development, Eric Jorgensonda
3. New Co-Registration Test Data: 7 Lessons to Improve Your Opt-in Rates & Grow Your List, MarketingSherpa
4. Why Buying Email Lists Is Always a Bad Idea Hubspot
5. The Ultimate Cheat Sheet To Becoming A Master Negotiator, James Altucher

Do You Know the Number One Objection in Your Sales Funnel?

What's the one objection that's preventing your leads from turning into clients?

No idea? Then you should probably read this article:

The Number One Objection In The Sales Funnel, Tomasz Tunguz

Technology-enabled Blitzscaling

I came across a series of notes taken by Chris McCann on Medium about a class at Stanford he is taking called Technology-enabled Blitzscaling, by Reid Hoffman, John Lilly, Chris Yeh, and Allen Blue.

This is literally a masters class in technology company marketing and operations.

I highly recommend everyone read every class in the whole course.

 Here is a video of the class.

 

How Much of Your Audience is Fake?

How Much of Your Audience is Fake? from Bloomberg Business is a mandatory read for anyone involved in digital marketing and advertising. When the uncomfortable questions start being asked from your clients or managers, you need to know the answers.

Sign Up for Straight to the Point

Just sent out Honeycomb's latest monthly newsletter- Straight to the Point. I've been sending this email out once a month for 4+ years and I get a lot of positive feedback.

See below for a list of the articles I mention.

Not a subscriber? Sign up here.

1. The Ultimate Database of Growth Hacking Tools, (I'm not sure if this is the "Ulitmate" list, but it's pretty comprehensive)
2. 13 SaaS Marketing Pros Reveal Their Lead Generation Strategies, New Breed
3. How to Turn Bloggers (and Other Influencers) Into Your Brand Champions, MarketingProfs
4. 16 Startup Metrics, Jeff Jordan, et al
5. 5 Startup Landing Page Teardowns, 500 Startups