Amy Myrda -- Marketing Blog

Research is key to understanding your customers according to Guerrilla Marketing . It can either be free or paid, but the payoff is usually much bigger than the initial investment. There should not be a substitute for inspiration, but research can help spark breakthrough thinking from listening to customers. Ignorance is more expensive than paid research -- without knowledge of your customers, it can lead to a small business failure. To market something successfully, there must be tests and surveys done prior to launching. Use search engines, the library, and customer information to learn more about the market, the competition, and the customers.  The number of questions on a given survey may impact the number of responses turned back in. Questionnaires with five to six questions, had a less than 50% return rate. However, a fifteen-question survey had a return rate of 78%. If the person can remain anonymous, they will more likely fill out the survey. Trends can be spotted within th...

Surfing the Tsunami is all about beginning the journey of learning and exploring artificial intelligence (AI). For AI learning in general, there are some classes such as Coursera, Udacity, Khan Academy, or DataCamp. To be honest, I am a bit of a laggard in this area. Like a turtle, slowly but surely, I will get to where I am going. I use the technology advancements at work for the most part, and willingly learn when it is presented to me. However, I have not necessarily gone out of my way to learn about AI in the past. The three levels of learning are presented in detail: adapt, adopt, and adept. I am trying to be more comfortable with the adopt phase. The hands-on portion of making a website, a blog, Google Ads, Canvas, and looking into other AI platforms and companies was interesting. Most of it was slightly less intimidating once I sat down to figure it out. For work purposes, AI can be helpful, but if the system goes down, it is a nightmare and can be unsafe for patients.  AI ...

 Marketing can quickly become expensive, but according to Guerrilla Marketing , it is important to save marketing money by not wasting money. Minimize changes to the marketing campaign originally designed. Changing all the time costs more money. The best way to save money is to maintain the same marketing program. In addition, bartering may be especially useful when working with radio stations, newspapers, or TV stations. Provide something that the other needs in exchange for paying full price for their ad space. More than half of media is obtained through bartering. Cooperative advertising funds may also be helpful to reduce marketing costs. Larger advertisers may pay cash to smaller advertisers who will mention their name or include their logo on their ads. For the smaller company, it also shows credibility for themselves by naming a nationally recognized company in their ad. Lastly, as a guerrilla, set up per inquiry or per order arrangements with the advertising medium – share ...

To achieve goals, you must learn to trust other people and utilize cultural collaboration, according to Helen Yu in Ascend Your Start-Up . A simple set of shared beliefs can be used to align the day-to-day strategies. Help one another, show gratitude, be transparent, and learn to understand one another. People make up the 80% of change management while technology makes up about 20% of overall success. 'Growth thrives at the intersection of humanity and technology.' As a leader, it is imperative that people feel valued, have a voice, and champion those who are underrepresented. when working with investors, determine if they align with your core values as well. Compare their track record, determine the amount of control they have over you, and determine if they are the right fit or not. Encourage honesty and positive change with real conversations and expression of ideas and opinions to inspire innovation. Be grateful for your team to focus on relationship building.  Empathy is l...

Learning from others who are experts in a field of interest is usually the best option, according to Surfing the Tsunami . Artificial intelligence (AI) is no different, with many leaders who have provided insight and opinions on what the future holds in relation to AI advancements and the impact on society. Some of these leaders are Andrew Ng, Geoffrey Hinton, Pedro Domingos, Fei Fei Li, Jim Spohrer, and Irving Wladawsky-Berger. Andrew Ng makes AI easily accessible to others by providing free online lecture videos and co-founded Coursera . Geoffrey Hinton focused more on deep learning, advancing technology to function more like the human brain instead of simply data input and output. Pedro Domingos focuses his work on machine learning classes, TEDx talks, and is the author of Master Algorithm . Fei Fei Li focused mostly on visual learning of computer advancements. This can be seen as self-driving or auto-correcting cars. Growing up, I built a robot with my dad and brother at a robotics...

Using the Blogger Site and setting it up was fairly simple. However, to change the design and formatting can be more challenging. One layout design I do not think is the greatest is the archives section. It is more difficult to find previous blog posts as more and more are posted each week. The archives section is set up by month or weekly. However, to find the topic in question, I would assume that alphabetical order would be easier to utilize. I used the frequently asked questions section and ended up in a forums section. The forum allows users to ask questions and other users can provide answers.  The forum had someone who previously had a similar question about how to better organize the archives in alphabetical order. Another user created an HTML java script. The user posted the script link in the forum. After an update was made on Blogger, the user updated the script a second time for use by others. The script was complicated and reminded me of my computer science days in hig...