New direction for martinagency.com

The Martin Agency has redesigned its website to look like… a blog. A source at Martin says they wanted to force themselves to update the site more often. Isn’t that something a client might have said?

From here to there: Communication strategy

Working with a variety of smaller clients these days, I’m reminded that most business communication strategy problems boil down to three simple questions.

Knowing your competition

Strong branding can preempt or even eliminate competitors. So you have to study your competition — whether you’re building a brand from scratch or reformulating; whether you’re a CEO, marketing executive or an agency creative team.

Going to school: Learning online marketing

Can an old copywriter learn new tricks? One way or another, I’m going to apply what I know about traditional marketing to the fast-changing world of online marketing.

How to know your customer — on a budget

As a young copywriter, I didn’t understand the importance of research. As an agency partner, I learned to love the research — provided I could do it myself. Creative teams exist to make an emotional connection. We must understand the customer’s emotional needs as well as their practical needs. How else can we frame the communication?