Time 14:09

You have to love a good headline, one that makes you curious enough to read further. Let’s hope this one worked. In this podcast, we’ll look at nine lessons I’ve learned by running my own business for six years and consulting with dozens of others on their marketing and communication strategies. I learned by keeping my eyes and ears open to the following:

1) what is working and not working in marketing tactics
2) what the Web rewards in terms of search results and attention (like in the blogosphere)
3) what business leaders value and how that affects a marketer’s day

We are grateful to our listeners and the bloggers that have recognized the Marketing Edge among the top business podcasts. Jeremiah Owyang of the Web Strategy by Jeremiah blog, for example, recently included us on an impressive list of marketing podcasts. Thanks. And our listeners have kept us in the top podcasts on iTunes Business, Management and Marketing — last time I looked, #1 when you search for “marketing” in the podcast directory.

The Marketing Edge also made Small Business Trends Radio’s list of the top 100 small-business podcasts. Small Business Trends Radio is a comprehensive program that covers the spectrum of business issues from finance to marketing, hiring to sales.

Here’s a summary of the lessons learned:

1) Be mindful of cash flow, regardless of the size of your company. Whether it is a large corporation’s line item on a marketing budget or the cash on hand for a small business, cash is king, and everyone wants to spend their money as effectively as they can.

2) Document all of the information your company or clients — and all of their audiences — value. Customers, prospects, investors, media, analysts, and social-network communities are all potential audiences that can affect the company’s brand perception, sales and exposure. Once you know what they value, you can deliver it with frequency. I know you know what it is, but have you written it down, placed it where you can see it everyday?

3) Speed, relevance and change are what Web 2.0 values and rewards. Produce content that meets at least two of these criteria and you’ll do well. When things change that are part of your audience’s world, you should be a part of it somehow.

4) We are a transmedia species –- translation: people learn differently. We like to convert what we take in and reprocess what we put out. We like to share things we learn or contribute our own individual ingredients to what we learn. This all means that you need to use every medium that helps you tell a powerful story. Video, if you are showing the complexities of a new product or the emotional impact of a wonder drug for patients and their families. Audio, if you want to engage someone usually while they are doing something else. Print, if they need to scan, review or analyze.

All comments will results in a food item to be donated to a local charity.

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