Recommended Reading for Marketers – Week of 11/26/12 – 11/30/12

This week I’ve been sinking my teeth into product marketing with a high concentration on the balance of tactics, leveraging of details, and methods for execution. Here are a few good reads on entrepreneurship and effective, long-lasting product marketing. Enjoy!

What I Wish Entrepreneurs Talked About More Often – I saw this post pop up on my LinkedIn feed and boy did it hit home. After writing my somewhat gritty piece on startup failure it was refreshing to see a great example of an entrepreneur who looked the challenge in the eye and faced it with courage. We do doubt ourselves, far too often, and this read may just help you get that in check.

Product Marketing Done Right: AT&T Grabs An Extra $10/Month

Having held marketing roles for the better part of my life, I can certainly appreciate a good campaign. I appreciate it even more when I buy into it knowing it’s a ploy for more of my business. This past weekend I discovered what may be one of the best product marketing tactics I’ve ever been sucked into and believe it or not, it was for AT&T.

Recommended Reading for Marketers – Week of 11/19/12 – 11/21/12

Turkey week!! Despite being distracted with thoughts of mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and turkey with gravy, I managed to pull together a list of good reads this short week. Have a great thanksgiving and enjoy!

Entrepreneur’s Don’t Think Enough – This has by far been one of my favorite pieces to read these last few weeks. Mark Suster did an amazing job outlining the importance to entrepreneurs of taking some quiet time to think through things. He dives into several interesting topics within this including an excellent list of differences between key individuals founders should surround themselves with. I highly recommend you read this if you’re an entrepreneur.

Black Thursday: Win/Loss for National Brands

For the past five years I’ve participated in Black Friday in one form or another. Typically I don’t spend money on the doorbusters like TV’s or computers but I usually go with friends who do. We go to have a great time staying out all night, meeting new people in line, and talking about last year’s antics. We’ll set up chairs, bring blankets (It’s usually cold that night despite being in Florida), stream Netflix from an iPad, and discuss our strategy (if that’s what you can call it) extensively. The point is, we have a good time together and we’re usually not in a rush for anything particular. Unfortunately, this year the big box stores have pushed store openings back so far into Thursday that an enjoyable Thanksgiving dinner with family has been replaced with a mad dash to the store for most American’s – the buyers and the employees who work for the sellers. Walmart opens at 8pm, Target at 9pm, and Best Buy at midnight.

Recommended Reading for Marketers – Week of 11/12/12 – 11/16/12

Few quality reads this week you may also enjoy. I was particularly concentrated on reevaluating our email marketing strategy and found myself doing more task-based research vs. general study. Have a great weekend and get ready for some turkey next week!

Improve Your Email Click-Through Rates by Farming Out Your Social Media Content - Email newsletters have been on my mind the last few weeks as I’ve struggled to pull enough meaningful content together for my employer’s next issue. I’m on the fence when it comes to frequency and messaging for email newsletters but this article does a great job helping you think through what content to include in every issue by gauging it’s initial response on your social channels.

Here’s How to Split Equity With Your Cofounders

A number of people have asked me to expand on a subject I wrote about in my piece “7 Things I Learned from Failing That You Can Avoid” regarding startup founder equity split. It’s important for me to address this correctly because it is such a sensitive issue depending on your role at a pre-money startup. For reference, here’s what I wrote:

When it does come time to put something down on paper for equity share (you had better at least have an MVP), split it even. It was my idea, it was my money being spent, it was my contacts, it was my experience, it was my design and marketing, and it was my team. Despite all of that, I couldn’t have built the product without my cofounders.

Unfortunately, I spent too much time justifying my contributions and not enough time considering how that affected my team. Assuming you’ve built your team right, you each share a significant amount of responsibility and complement one another’s skills. If you’re pre-money, look at the people around you and ask yourself if you can get to where you need to be without them. If you can’t, split the unicorns and rainbows evenly.

Recommended Reading for Marketers – Week of 11/5/12 – 11/9/12

Who else is thankful to be free of political ads finally? Now that we can stop spending the majority of our time sifting through that crap it shouldn’t be hard to pick up on the best reads fast. Here are a few I dug up this week I thought you might also enjoy.

Do Native Ads Work? – This is an important piece for publishers and advertisers both. While I agree with some of the findings MediaBrix brought to light from the survey they commissioned, I believe it may partially be because people have yet to find something they enjoy engaging with when it comes to native ads. The important thing to consider here is how publishers can utilize this data to continue generating revenue for their businesses/advertisers. I really like what LinkSmart is doing when it comes to helping publishers discover new ways to monetize content – this is the kind of advertising I could buy into if I were a publisher or advertiser who partnered with a publisher.