Email: The most important channel for B2B marketing

As a data driven marketer, I get really excited when I see the comparison of how different channels perform. For me email is by far the most important channel. Rather than talk too many words on the topic, I found this infographic from Visually which says why it is important.

Tax: Expense or liability?

I filed my tax returns for the previous financial year yesterday. Finally! It's one of those tasks that is boring, manually tedious (even with a Mac compatible software this time) and low value creation in terms of intellect and wealth.
This pie chart from IBISworld (www.ibisworld.com) got me thinking on the fact that a tax is an expense. If each one of us, was a business, I would've viewed it as an expense. But, as an employee, I have always treated it as a liability. By liability, I mean, what is left after tax is where I start from as a revenue to the household! I now work in the salary packaging industry - and as a marketing guy. And still I realised this fact only when prompted by the chart. Food for thought - to be smarter about taxes. Not avoidance, just being smart about reducing expenses. $500 saved is as good as $500 earned!

Social media checklist for brands

This was a really good guideline for social media managers of brands that was posted on my Google+ feed by Fatemeh Fakhraie. Simple yet very useful!

Re-building trust one step at a time

The last few weeks have been good for me and trust. I am generally a naive kind of guy anyway - very trusting in the good of the world.Let me straight get into.

Last month, I lost my wallet in the train in Sydney. I didn't know I'd lost it either. I thought I'd left my wallet at home. Then I got a call from Pooja saying that she'd received a call from my insurance company saying they'd got a call from Wynyard station in Sydney CBD - they had found my wallet. Not knowing my wallet was lost was a relief, but having found it and picking it up from the train station manager - a nice lady - who had accounted for every cent in the wallet - was uplifting!

Fast forward to a couple weeks ago. A guy's car was in front of our house a for while and he looked like he was trying to do something to the tyres. He knocked on our doors and said he wanted to borrow $50 - he had lost his credit card and he needed NRMA to come fix his tyre. Again, with a lot of trust, I gave 50 bucks - giving him the benefit of the doubt. What if he was saying the trust - would be rude - someday I'll need help or someone I love and care about will need help. More than anything else, he looked like he was telling the truth. He gave me his driver's license to take a photo of. Again, on the very next day, he had dropped the $50 note in a little envelope and saying thanks for helping him out.

These 2 incidents have reinforced that trust is alive and well. We all need more such incidents to bolster our trust in trust!

There's never a right time

It's too hot, it's too windy! Or my boss is not in right mood. These are all common excuses I come up with for not doing something. I wish to change but translating to action is a bit weak. I'm sure I have company from many people.
Yesterday was Mahatma Gandhi's birthday. One of key message of his was "Be the change you wish the world would have!".
Got me thinking about the multiple excuses I have for not making that last effort.
Change is not easy. The older we get the more ingrained our assumptions are. Our assumptions are based on our reality. Being an agent of change is hard work. Gandhi saw non violence as a means to win a battle of minds and wits. He was successful in so many ways!
How can we implement some basic philosophies of change? A small commercial phrase "Just do it!".