(Side note: It was a beautiful summer in Seattle (and my consulting business has been exploding). That dual dynamic has meant that my interview rate has slowed a lot and not many of the interviews I actually did this summer have been put up here on the site. But the days are getting shorter, the rain has a hint of fall in it and it’s time to get back on the horse.)

Without further ado, let me introduce you to one of the most interesting podcasts I’ve done in a long time. August Jackson is an expert on the subject of competitive intelligence (not to be confused with corporate espionage). He was nice enough to fit me in between his day job at Verizon, his MBA classes and his own (very good) podcast on CI.

August and I chatted about the definition of competitive intelligence, where it came from, the qualities of a good analyst, tools and tactics that even bootstrapped entrepreneurs can use and more.

Check it out:

Download audio file (AugustJackson.mp3)

Tags: Competitive Intelligence Verizon Competitive Research August Jackson

Attached Media: audio/mpeg (22 102 ko)

Occasionally I’m lucky enough to connect to someone who shares a lot of similar interests (marketing, podcasting, entrepreneurship) for one of my interviews. For this podcast, I found just such a kindred soul in Marcus Couch, the Director of Online Marketing for Entrepreneur Media, the publishing company behind Entrepreneur.com, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Entrepreneur Press.

Marcus’s responsibilities at the company are broad and interesting. What’s even neater is that he earned the opportunity at Entrepreneur at least partly through his podcasting efforts. If you’ve ever wondered whether social media can open cool doors for you, Marcus is living proof.

I hope you enjoy learning from Marcus’s experiences, knowledge and challenges as much as I did:

Download audio file (MarcusCouch.mp3)

Tags: Marcus Couch Entrepreneur Media Online Marketing

Attached Media: audio/mpeg (8 632 ko)

One of the fascinating challenges of facing marketers today is how to use technology to enable true personalized/1to1 communications. But in order to reach that advertising nirvana marketers are going to need customers and prospects to give up a lot of information repeatedly with only a vague promise of a better experience. Not exactly a great sales pitch!

For this podcast, I chatted with Robert Carlton of Zimini, an interesting startup that tackles this challenge in the B2C space. Zimini is a free software application that helps merchants and marketers create and deliver targeted digital coupons, promotions and special offers to consumers without those consumers having to give up lots of personal information over and over again. Definitely a better pitch than the vague one I laid out above!

You can watch Zimini’s DEMO here and then listen to the podcast.

Enjoy:

Download audio file (RobertCarlton.mp3)

Tags: Zimini Robert Carlton Marketing Advertising Offers Coupons

Attached Media: audio/mpeg (9 263 ko)

I love new technologies as much as the next geek marketer but only if they improve the customer experience.

Recently, I chatted with Scott Madlener of the Performance Communications Group about their new ISAT technology. (It stands for Internet Secured Application Technology).

ISAT seems to have innovated on basic website technology and improved the customer experience at the same time by using an integrated approach. Perhaps it’s not applicable in every instance but still worth exploring.

Check it out:

Download audio file (ScottMadlener.mp3)

Tags: Scott Madlener PCG ISAT

Attached Media: audio/mpeg (11 384 ko)

As the web becomes more and more important to business and marketing, understanding the ways that we measure it also rise on a marketer’s list of priorities. For this podcast I connected with Aurélie Pols of OX2, a leading European web analytics firm to further my and hopefully your understanding.
Aurélie and I chatted about her company, the current state of web analytics, and a lot more. I really enjoyed this chat and must thank my friend Lars in Sweden for connecting us.
Enjoy:

Download audio file (AureliePols.mp3)

Tags: Aurelie Pols OX2 Web Analytics

Attached Media: audio/mpeg (8 422 ko)

As social media and word of mouth marketing slowly mature as disciplines, I’m glad that more and more people are writing books on the subject. Because as much as I love the stream of consciousness info flood that I get through my blog reader every morning, it’s also nice to explore a subject in a more deliberate way.

For this podcast, I chatted with Lois Kelly of Foghound Communication, a forward thinker on the subject of word of mouth marketing, about her new book, Beyond Buzz: The Next Generation of Word of Mouth Marketing.

The book (4.5 stars on Amazon) explores two fundamental and important questions:

1. Why is finding interesting ways to talk about our companies, products and issues so difficult?
2. If marketing is a conversation, what new approaches, skills and tools do marketers need?

In this interview, Lois gives a great overview of the book, her answers to these questions and some concrete examples that any marketer can learn from.

Check it out:

Download audio file (LoisKelly.mp3)

Tags: Lois Kelly Foghound Beyond Buzz Word of Mouth Marketing

Attached Media: audio/mpeg (9 678 ko)

John Cass of IMO Wireless, my 12th interview and one of the first people to believe in my 1,000 podcast project enough to spend some time with me, has recently written a great book (Strategies and Tools for Corporate Blogging) on the subject of corporate blogging. The book is a natural extension of his own blogging on pr & new media and his ground-breaking research on corporate blogs.

John was nice enough to reconnect and chat with me about the book, some tips for corporate blogging, the biggest mistakes corporate bloggers can make and more.

Check it out:

Download audio file (JohnCass2.mp3)

Tags: John Cass IMO Wireless Corporate Blogging Social Media Public Relations

Attached Media: audio/mpeg (10 364 ko)

Recently I’ve been spending a lot of time talking with local entrepreneurs in Seattle. One of the new friends I’ve made is Chris Airola, founder of Red Llama Inc., serial entrepreneur and a “multi-modal interactive artist” with Stronghold Productions.

Chris shared his lessons from Red Llama, his feelings about the entrepreneurial environment in Seattle, his thoughts on interface design (a field he worked in for 5 years at the UW’s Human Interface Technology Lab) and more.

Check it out:

Download audio file (ChrisAirola.mp3)

Tags: Chris Airola Red Llama Interface Design Entrepreneurship Seattle

Attached Media: audio/mpeg (7 931 ko)

It seems to me that the only thing better than being a toy maker might be being a toy marketer. For this podcast, I decided to test this theory by chatting with an expert in toy marketing, Ted Mininni, the President of Design Force Inc, a branding and design agency that specializes in the toy/entertainment industry.

Ted shared his thoughts on the biggest mistakes marketers make today, where he turns to for inspiration, the biggest trends in toy & entertainment marketing and more.

Check it out:

Download audio file (TedMininni.mp3)

Tags: Ted Mininni Design Force Inc. Marketing Branding Design Entertainment

Attached Media: audio/mpeg (8 489 ko)

Most blogs have a fairly small readership, usually a handful of friends, peers or family members. But there are the occasional standouts that achieve 1,000s of readers through some combination of hard work, luck and the right niche. TechCrunch’s 300,000 plus is the common example. Recently, I was lucky enough to interview a sharp entrepreneur named Collis Ta’eed who took his new blog/community (FreelanceSwitch) from 0 to 4,000 RSS subscribers in under 30 days.

Collis was nice enough to share his company’s story plus the secret sauce he used to make his subscriber list explode so quickly.

Check it out:

Download audio file (CollisTaeed.mp3)

Tags: Collis Ta’eed Eden Creative Communities Australia FreelanceSwitch RSS Blogging

Attached Media: audio/mpeg (8 183 ko)