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Archive for the ‘Content’ Category

Why you need to diversify your media marketing mix (hint: Internet making big gains over TV as Americans' main news source)

It used to be political campaigns and brand marketers could go to the well for a simple broadcast ad formula to plan their media buys. Not anymore. Media continues to fragment, as consumers rely and new and different ways to get their news and content. The Internet

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Where can you get the most bang for your online video buck?

When it comes to getting people to watch online videos from media sites, Google is still the largest source of outside traffic.So, you’ve heeded our advice and you’re filming videos to put online to help tell your organization’s story. Good job. But how, exactly, are you delivering

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Stop marketing. Start communicating.

“Instead of marketing, we’re just going to communicate. We’re going to talk to your customers and explain who you are, how your thing will make their life better, and then we’ll spell out exactly what they should do next.” — Great advice from Sonia Simone, writing at

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Groupon's Strength Lies in Its … Writers? Yep.

Here at Merc, our basic philosophy is that the growing number of online communications tools still aren’t as important as producing compelling, engaging content. Of course, that’s been true throughout history.  Any communications tool — be it Twitter, Facebook, a typewriter, a phone — is only as

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How one national advocacy organization uses online video to tell stories and make a difference

As we’ve written before, online video is the ultimate storytelling tool, and some organizations are utilizing it as the basis of their strategic communications program. Take, for example, our client, the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (ILR). ILR is the nation’s leading lawsuit reform advocacy organization,

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Sorry, snail mail follow up doesn't cut it. You missed the sale.

This is a quick follow-up to last week’s post about my car-shopping experience, and how the various dealers we visited could have used basic online tools to build better relationships, follow up and maybe even score a sale. As an update to that post, I noted that

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Just how many Americans are watching online video and online video ads? A lot.

As we’ve preached for some time, online video should be one of the primary tools in your communication’s tool belt. In our humble opinion, it’s the most valuable storytelling tool out there. The most recent comScore U.S. Online Video Rankings shows why — namely, the sheer, massive

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The Content is What Matters

Last week, I had the pleasure of reading Rework, a great book by the guys at 37signals. It’s a must-read for anyone who owns their own business, runs an organization, is thinking of starting their own enterprise, or just wants to get better at managing their life.

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Simple Online Tactics for Car Dealers (Or Any Retail Business) to Find New Customers and Keep Current Ones Coming Back

UPDATE: I’m happy to disclose that today (a few hours after posting the original post below) we did receive a personal email from the customer relations manager at our Toyota dealership, and I believe it was totally unrelated to the post below.  Score one for Toyota! My

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Online Video: An Illinois Case Study in Progress

We just got some tracking data on one of our online rich media ads — and I thought I’d share the data with you. This ad is up and geo-targeted into a Congressional District here in Illinois.  We’re halfway through the ad campaign, and so far we

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