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123 eGuides. 3 Proven Steps, Just 3 Bucks.

123 eGuides are authoritative guides published exclusively in electronic format to provide maximum value at minimum cost. Every 123 eGuide is just 3 bucks or less ($2.99 to be exact).

123 eGuides are designed for today’s reader who wants information in a quick, convenient, easily readable format. Each 123 eGuide is intended to provide a functional overview rather than a detailed roadmap. Every 123 eGuide always includes additional resources if the reader wants to learn more.

Check the "Available 123 eGuides" link above to see what's available. 123 eGuides are available wherever eBooks are sold, including the Amazon Kindle store and in any eBook format at Smashwords.com.

1 Minute Advice: Brand Strategies for a New Economy

A new post-pandemic economy is ripe for new strategies, according to Paul Earle writing in Forbes. He says three of the "new dynamics" are:

1. Explosion of "phygital." This is representative of the ecommerce boom, but specifically, the merging of the physical and digital presence of retail. One prime example is "BOPIS" (Buy Online, Pickup In Store).
2. Radical Transparency. Earle writes that "consumers are demanding transparency from their brands. Honesty will reign."
3. The Escape Economy. Having just about come through the pandemic, brands need to get to the other side. According to Earle: "Today, people are pining for brands to bring us a spoonful of joy, a bit of wonder, a dash of levity, a dollop of warmth. Even some downright fortuitous camp."

Earle concludes, "In times of transition, many fortunes are lost. But even more are won. Think through the opportunities above, and you’ll be primed to win when things begin to soar."

Read his full article here:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulearle/2021/04/14/how-brands-can-win-in-the-emerging-new-economy/?

This post is brought to you by 123 eGuides, publisher of authoritative, affordable guides to help small businesses get the most from your marketing. Now available: The updated, revised Third Edition of the popular eGuide, Branding 123, that details a 3-part system for how small marketers can build a breakthrough brand. Included in the Third Edition are profiles of 5 small brands that grew up using techniques similar to those outlined in Branding 123. Read more about this eGuide here.

1 Minute Advice: What Marketers Need to Know About Changing Consumer Behavior

Recent research suggests that consumer behavior is evolving when it comes to consumption. Two of the study's authors, Deborah Small (marketing professor at Wharton/University of Pennsylvania) and Carey Morewedge (marketing professor at Questrom School of Business/Boston University) were interviewed in a podcast for Knowledge@Wharton. They identify two important changes in consumer behavior: the change from legal ownership to legal access of goods, and material possession is being replaced with experiences. According to Professor Small:

"[Access-based consumption is cheaper for consumers.] It’s less of a commitment, they can try out different things without the big expensive purchase. There’s a lot of freedom there for consumers, but they also lose a lot of control over the good because it’s not just theirs anymore. It’s also very temporary and short-lived, so they are less prone to develop psychological attachments and feel connections to their goods. These are critical aspects of psychological ownership — the ability to control things, the development of a relationship over time.

"The feeling that something is mine is a function of believing I am in control and expect to maintain something for a long time. That’s the first dimension — legal ownership to legal access. The second is this shift from more material consumption to more experiential consumption. We’re moving away from physical goods in many categories, to things that we merely experience, or that are digital or ephemeral in some way. The key threat to psychological ownership here is the lack of tangibility. Tangibility is a signature marker of a possession. Consider the case of purchasing a DVD for your movie collection. We don’t do that anymore. We purchase access to consume music."

For more, listen to the podcast or read the transcript here:
https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/whats-mine-consumption-changing/

This post is brought to you by 123 eGuides, publisher of authoritative, affordable guides to help small businesses get the most from your marketing. Now available: The updated, revised Third Edition of the popular eGuide, Branding 123, that details a 3-part system for how small marketers can build a breakthrough brand. Included in the Third Edition are profiles of 5 small brands that grew up using techniques similar to those outlined in Branding 123. Read more about this eGuide here.

1 Minute Advice: Do You Have a "Responsive" Brand?

Writing for Marketing Profs, Tim Brown says today, brands need to have quick reflexes. While the word "responsive" is most often associated with websites, Brown writes that the term "is better suited to describe a brand that can quickly adapt its marketing to communicate relevant messaging to customers as soon as they need it, in whichever channel they choose." He asks six key questions, the answers to which will guide marketers to determine if their brands are truly responsive:

1. "Can your brand respond to the changing market in hours rather than days?"
2. "Is your brand identity able to be executed compliantly by anyone in the organization?"
3. "Is your brand marketing reliant on any one person to keep the wheels turning?"
4. "Can your brand marketing be executed at scale?"
5. "Can your brand identity address your customers?"
6. "Is your brand marketing dependent on external production workflows?"

To read Brown's authoritative answers to these questions, check out his article here (free subscription required): https://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2021/44387/six-prerequisites-for-a-responsive-brand

This post is brought to you by 123 eGuides, publisher of authoritative, affordable guides to help small businesses get the most from your marketing. Now available: The updated, revised Third Edition of the popular eGuide, Branding 123, that details a 3-part system for how small marketers can build a breakthrough brand. Included in the Third Edition are profiles of 5 small brands that grew up using techniques similar to those outlined in Branding 123. Read more about this eGuide here.

1 Minute Advice: The Year's "Most Relevant" Brands

The latest "Brand Relevance Index" from Prophet measures brands across four characteristics generally shared by the most relevant: customer obsession; ruthlessness; pragmatism; distinct inspiration; and pervasive innovation. As reported by Marketing Charts, the ten most relevant brands for 2021 are:

1. Apple
2. Peloton
3. KitchenAid
4. Mayo Clinic
5. LEGO
6. Costco
7. Honda
8. Johns Hopkins Medicine
9. PlayStation
10. Amazon

This post is brought to you by 123 eGuides, publisher of authoritative, affordable guides to help small businesses get the most from your marketing. Now available: The updated, revised Third Edition of the popular eGuide, Branding 123, that details a 3-part system for how small marketers can build a breakthrough brand. Included in the Third Edition are profiles of 5 small brands that grew up using techniques similar to those outlined in Branding 123. Read more about this eGuide here.

1 Minute Advice: Avoid These "Marketing Dangers"

There are plenty of dangers lurking out there for marketers. MarketingSherpa reports in detail on eight dangers in a highly informative article. Among them are:

• Blindly trusting data - Don't place "blind trust in your tools and platforms to spit out accurate data and recommendations... Track everything!"
• Unnecessary barriers that turn off would-be customers - “Too many brands build sites full of unnecessary barriers that turn off would-be customers from buying and ruin long-term customer relationships. It's tempting, with so much technology – tracking data, CRM tools, loyalty and reward program systems – to glean as much information as possible from your customers during the email signup and/or checkout process."
• Using deceitful practices to make quick gains - Questionable practices intended to increase your own SEO rankings "may seem tempting to marketers that want results fast, and there are even people on the web who will happily teach you these techniques. But the cost can be quite high."

This post is brought to you by 123 eGuides, publisher of authoritative, affordable guides to help small businesses get the most from your marketing. Now available: The updated, revised Third Edition of the popular eGuide, Branding 123, that details a 3-part system for how small marketers can build a breakthrough brand. Included in the Third Edition are profiles of 5 small brands that grew up using techniques similar to those outlined in Branding 123. Read more about this eGuide here.

1 Minute Advice: Yes, Email is Still Effective

Last year may have been generally challenging for marketers due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but one bright spot was the continued resilience of email marketing. Open rates increased even as the volume of email grew, according to the latest report on the state of email marketing, as reported by Marketing Charts. In a survey of both B2C and B2B marketers, 39 percent of respondents said email marketing's effectiveness was "holding steady," while 38 percent said it was improving slightly (30 percent) or improving significantly (8 percent). The top uses of email marketing by companies are communicating with customers (71 percent), building brand awareness (69 percent), communicating with prospects (52 percent) and generating revenue (52 percent).

This post is brought to you by 123 eGuides, publisher of authoritative, affordable guides to help small businesses get the most from your marketing. Now available: The updated, revised Third Edition of the popular eGuide, Branding 123, that details a 3-part system for how small marketers can build a breakthrough brand. Included in the Third Edition are profiles of 5 small brands that grew up using techniques similar to those outlined in Branding 123. Read more about this eGuide here.

All eGuides 50% Off, March 7 - 13, 2021!

To celebrate "Read an eBook Week," 123 eGuides is offering 50% off every eGuide from March 7 - 13, 2021 -- just $1.49 each!

Simply click on any one of the titles below. The accompanying link will take you to a page where you can read more about each guide and then order it in the digital format you prefer -- PDF, Kindle, EPUB, etc. When you check out, just include the code EBW50 to get the eGuide of your choice at half-price.

Branding 123
Building a Breakthrough Brand in 3 Proven Steps
Newly revised Third Edition

Low Cost / No Cost Marketing 123
3 Steps to Effective Marketing with Little or No Money

B2B Marketing 123
A 3 Step Approach for Marketing to Businesses

Product Launch 123
Launch a Product or Service in 3 Proven Steps

Sales Leads 123
Generating, Qualifying, and Converting Sales Leads in 3 Proven Steps

On Your Own 123
Launch a 1-Person Business in 3 Proven Steps

This offer is good from March 7 through March 13, 2021. Order today!

1 Minute Advice: Are You Keeping Up with the Evolving Marketing Funnel?

It used to be that marketers thought of a traditional, uncomplicated "marketing funnel" when they were involved in lead generation and qualification. Basically, a larger number of prospects were dumped into the top of the funnel; then, through a fairly simple qualification process, prospects moved down the funnel until a smaller number of customers dropped out at the bottom.

Nowadays, marketing is a lot more complex. According to consulting firm McKinsey, the marketing funnel has evolved, and it's time to practice "full-funnel marketing." McKinsey calls full-funnel marketing "an approach that combines the power of both brand building and performance marketing through linked teams, measurement systems, and key performance indicators (KPIs). By adopting full-funnel marketing, companies can become more relevant to their customers, develop a fuller and more accurate picture of marketing’s overall effectiveness, and generate more value without having to spend additional marketing dollars."

Read more about it here:
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/why-every-business-needs-a-full-funnel-marketing-strategy?

This post is brought to you by 123 eGuides, publisher of authoritative, affordable guides to help small businesses get the most from your marketing. Now available: The updated, revised Third Edition of the popular eGuide, Branding 123, that details a 3-part system for how small marketers can build a breakthrough brand. Included in the Third Edition are profiles of 5 small brands that grew up using techniques similar to those outlined in Branding 123. Read more about this eGuide here.

1 Minute Advice: Does the Public Trust Industries?

Brand marketers need to think about a lot of things when it comes to attracting and retaining customers -- not the least of which is trust. Recent data from global communications firm Edelman, reported by Marketing Charts, could be cause for concern. Trust by the global public in industry sectors from 2020 to February 2021 has actually declined across the board. The following question was asked: "Please indicate how much you trust businesses in each of the following industries to do what is right?" In the technology sector, trust declined from 75 percent to 68 percent. In the automotive sector, trust declined from 67 percent to 60 percent. In the entertainment sector, trust declined from 65 percent to 59 percent. Data was based on an online survey of over 31,000 general population respondents from 28 countries.

This post is brought to you by 123 eGuides, publisher of authoritative, affordable guides to help small businesses get the most from your marketing. Now available: The updated, revised Third Edition of the popular eGuide, Branding 123, that details a 3-part system for how small marketers can build a breakthrough brand. Included in the Third Edition are profiles of 5 small brands that grew up using techniques similar to those outlined in Branding 123. Read more about this eGuide here.

1 Minute Advice: Is Your Brand Ready for These Key Trends?

This is a year for brands to be ever more aware of marketing trends driven by consumer desire and demand. A recent Forbes article points to six key marketing trends, among them:

1. "Getting Authentic with a Socially Conscious Audience" - "Companies and influencers have to start engaging with buyers on topics that may still exist outside their comfort zone. ...Marketers are going to have to create a more socially conscious strategy than in the past."
2. "Massive Growth in Social Commerce" - "Companies will have to adapt quickly as more social media platforms devise ways for brands, influencers and creators to sell from within their own content."
3. "The Rise of Voice Tech" - "Voice-centric channels are growing as marketing tools."

Read about these and three more trends here.

This post is brought to you by 123 eGuides, publisher of authoritative, affordable guides to help small businesses get the most from your marketing. Now available: The updated, revised Third Edition of the popular eGuide, Branding 123, that details a 3-part system for how small marketers can build a breakthrough brand. Included in the Third Edition are profiles of 5 small brands that grew up using techniques similar to those outlined in Branding 123. Read more about this eGuide here.