Rick Thompson

Rick Thompson

Brand Periscope
Rick’s passion for building brands and innovative marketing programs makes him an ideal partner for companies that want to build a strong brand that engages customers and drives revenue and profit. His experience in owning the P&L as a line manager help him appreciate that the goal of all branding and marketing is to drive the bottom line.
  • 0 comments 1,523 reads
    Posted on 2011-06-10

    Everyone wants to attract more traffic to their website.  But to win business you need to get the right type of traffic and engage them once they arrive.  To do this you need high quality, relevant content.  Information that interests your target prospects, adds value, and makes them want to read it and come back for more later.  After you create great content, you need to promote it by publishing it online so it gets in front of your desired target audience.

    To really grow your audience and drive traffic, you want your content to spread virally across the community by having readers re-tweet, post experts, add comments, and publish to other blogs and social media.

    Here are 5 Keys to creating content that drives traffic, engages prospects and has the potential to spread virally:

  • 0 comments 1,290 reads
    Posted on 2011-06-06

    LinkedIn has many B2B marketing benefits. It may not be as trendy as Facebook, but when it comes to reaching an interested community of business professionals with common interests, LinkedIn can be an excellent tool if you understand it and know how to effectively use it.

    Here are 5 quick tips on LinkedIn by Fast Company.

    1. Use “Signal” to discover relevant news and information – let’s you easily “monitor” your network
    2. Export your connections – easily export your LinkedIn connections contact info to Outlook
    3. Create a resume – easily convert your profile to a good looking resume
    4. Start and use groups – great way to tap into like minded, relevant groups, ask questions, and share information
    5. Customize your URL – create a more relevant URL to improve search, SEO, and “personal branding”

    Read the full article at...

  • 0 comments 1,057 reads
    Posted on 2011-05-18

    Handling ObjectionsLet me know if you find this “Objection Handling Technique” as compelling as I did.

    Every now and then you come across a really great sales tip.  This happened to me yesterday.  I saw a post on a LinkedIn Sales Group. Someone asked a question that peaked my interest — How do you handle the objection, “We’re already working with another supplier.”?

    I read through a series of fine, but predictable responses, and then I found a real gem of an answer posted by Aaron Pollack.  I tracked down Aaron through his profile and found that he is President of Capital Promotions,...

  • 0 comments 1,568 reads
    Posted on 2011-04-21

    Stop Selling, Start Engaging!

    Selling is the fuel that drives the business.  We are all eager to sell more.  But the funny thing is…sometimes the best way to sell more is to stop “Selling” and start “Engaging”.  Why?

    Selling is a process, not an event.  When we think of selling as an “event”, or a one time transaction, we feel an urgency to close the deal right away, often by using “hard selling” and closing techniques that push the prospect to take action right away.  While this can be effective some of the time, there are several shortcomings that can lead to less sales instead of more.  The “hard sales” approach needs some rethinking in today’s Internet economy for several key reasons:

  • 0 comments 1,409 reads
    Posted on 2011-04-21

    Heading tags (H1, H2, H3, etc) are an important contributing factor to search engine optimization because they place emphasis on keywords that are in the headlines of your website pages.

    One of the questions that often gets asked is “How many H1 Tags should I have on a page?”

    heading-tag

    Heading Tags

    While there are many opinions on this, and no “hard and fast rules”, here is the best post I’ve seen on this topic and it is from the ...

  • 0 comments 1,148 reads
    Posted on 2011-04-18

    I am every company’s best sales agent.  Who am I?

    Here’s some clues:

    • Most companies have a number of excellent and well paid sales professionals, but I don’t get any compensation at all.
    • Many companies invest a great deal of time and money training their sales team, but I don’t get any training myself.
    • Most sales people have a great deal of knowledge about their product or service, but I don’t really know a lot of details.
    • In fact, while I help produce results, I don’t really work for the company.
    • I have something in common with referrals which are a Marketing Riddle we recently talked about.

    I am directly related to your best customers who are so happy...

  • 0 comments 1,294 reads
    Posted on 2011-04-12

    Here is a marketing riddle for you.

    I am proven to be the most effective type of marketing, yet some people say I am the Rodney Dangerfield of marketing because “I Don’t Get No Respect” — Who am I?

    I am not TV or Radio advertising.  I am not product placements in movies. I am not direct mail.  Neither am I promotions, coupons, or discounts.  I am not athletic or celebrity endorsements.  I am not frequent buyer programs or sponsorships for NASCAR tennis, golf or the Olympics.  Neither am I event sponsorships, trade shows, catalogs, websites, or webinars.  If you suspect I might be the new marketing such as Internet marketing, emails campaigns and e-newsletters, that’s a clever guess, but you would also be wrong.

    All of those types of marketing can be effective if they are well conceived, targeted and executed, but that is not who I am.

    Even amongst these “...

  • 0 comments 1,387 reads
    Posted on 2011-02-23

    What does choosing a brand have to do with a wife and an ear of corn?  I invite you to share your comments on this story.

    As I have worked through important branding decisions with companies, it has often reminded me of a story a friend told me many years ago.   My friend and I were single while most of our friends were married.  We each had dated nice girls, but neither of us had made the big decision.  As we pondered the reasons why, he told me an interesting story about a farmer, his son, an ear of corn, and making life decisions.

    At the end of a day in the field, a farmer called to his son and said he had something important to discuss.  The son was growing into a young man and soon he would be considering getting married and starting a family of his own.  Naturally, the son thought his father would be offering some important advice about growing...

  • 0 comments 835 reads
    Posted on 2011-02-08

    Re-branding and restaging your brand

    Rebranding

    A colleague of mine is on the board of a company that is considering a “rebranding” effort.  He was not sure if it would be a worthwhile exercise and asked me to share with him: a) what is “rebranding” and b) when is it appropriate?

    Here are my thoughts:

    1)     What is rebranding? Simply put, re-branding is changing or updating your image in the marketplace.  This can include a straight forward re-freshing of the brand or a complete brand overhaul.  Here are some of the elements of a rebranding effort:

  • 0 comments 654 reads
    Posted on 2011-02-07

    Not all clients get the same creative results, even when working with same agencies and same creative teams.  In fact, even the same company can get differing results when working with the same agency.  Why is this?  Because the creativity is the result of many inputs including vital participation from the client.  Clients need to appreciate the creative process and no matter whom they engage, knowledgeable clients understand that being a great client is a vital ingredient in producing great creative.

    Creativity exists in part in the mind of the creative person, or the “inventor”.  But consistent high quality creative output also requires understanding the creative process and the important role of the client.  In this post, we will consider why some clients are “Great Clients” and why they tend to be higher quality “Great Creative”.