Hi, An AirDrop is when a startup gives away free tokens at the early stages of their Initial Token Sale (ITO) to demonstrate that there is public interest in their sale. They are often targeted at key opinion leaders and media to encourage coverage and comment. Mark Walmsley mark@markwalmsley.co.uk

You could start with my APELA framework. Awareness: The first consideration is the size of your target audience. If your product or service is only relevant to a small number of people, it will be more effective to reach them directly by LinkedIn or email. If on the other hand, they are numerous then indirect will be more effective (E.g. paid search and social, partnership marketing and targetted advertising) If the buying cycle for your product or service is long (e.g a car) then you must create awareness and maintain recall. This is best achieved by capturing contact details via inbound content-based marketing (automated ideally) and sending out a regular newsletter. If on the other hand your product or service has a short sales cycle (e.g. coffee)then you need constant visibility. Either way, you need awareness and recall. For more about APELA and the next 5 stages of the customer engagement chorology: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/meet-apela-chronology-customer-engagement-mark-walmsley/ God luck Mark Walmsley mark@markwalmsley.co.uk

Yes. There is no such thing as a full-service agency. No agency could afford to employ all of the skills they may need when serving a client. I once hired an animation studio to create a 3D stereoscopic mode of action video for a healthcare client. Never used them since but they were essential at the time and the best in the world at doing it.

The core difference is that a manager receives a percentage of all revenue regardless of its source. An agent typically receives a commission only on the revenue they introduce. Management fees can be 25% or more as work is required that is not directly correlated with revenue. Agencies tend to take a 15% commission. I hope this helps. Mark

Probably a bit late now, but this is a very risky business with all your eggs in one basket. I would not consider promoting such an event unless and until your costs are covered regardless of the number of tickets you sell. That can be achieved better by sponsorship than investment in my view. However, a safer option is to crowdsource subscription. Describe the event, find or create a community to get behind it. Set a target amount, after wish you will confirm the event. Allow people to pay for tickets in advance at discounted rates. Put the funds in Escrow. Tell people that, if you fail to reach the "Go" target, they will have their money returned. Good luck if it's not too late. Mark

Hi. I've been in a similar situation in the past and the single biggest challenge I found was that reselling a 3rd party service was not a core business development priority for the partner agency. To overcome this I'd advise that you find the no-brainer proposition that makes it one. A few years back a British insurance company wanted to offer to offer a new policy to insure your set of golf clubs for £35 per annum. On the face of it, this was a non-starter. Few sets of golf clubs are worth more than £35 and those that are, are typically covered or itemised on existing home contents insurance policies. The project was a huge success because the no-brainer proposition was identified and a partnership marketing approach adopted. In return for the £35, the policyholder received the following free benefits: 6 Nike golf balls A Calloway cap A free round of golf at any DeVere club 4x two for one vouchers to use at most courses The perceived value of these free benefits was over £200. The benefits were all obtained free of charge. Nike and Calloway were happy to do a sampling exercise to their target market. very few people play gold lone, so the vouchers were, at worse, cost neutral. So, find partners who also want to reach the agencies you are targetting woth non-competing products or services. (e.g. trade magazine subscriptions) and create a "welcome bundle" of benefits that cost you little or nothing. Find a remuneration model that is tied to usage. If you don't show this confidence then a prospective partner won't either. I have my own a framework called APELA (Awareness, Perception, Engagement, Loyalty and Advocacy). I'd be happy to provide you with more over a call and follow up with a summary of our call with recommendations. Good luck. Mark Walmsley mark@markwalmsley.co.uk

Experience, experience and experience. I hire junior marketers and I'd always favour practical experience with demonstrable real-world results over an academic qualification. So, if I was looking for an entry level marketing job, I'd set up my own micro business, apply what I had learned in college and create a case study. If you are as good as you think you are, you might not need the job after all ;-) I hope this helps. Happy to advise on a call. Mark

With over 1m businesses using Pinterest, I think that's a great idea and don't be afraid to be focused. In my experience, your prospects will have 3 pain points you can address: 1. Creating and posting great photos in the best size and with the best tags to support findability. (+2bn searches per month at Pinterest) 2. Sustaining this (most businesses struggle to maintain their posting schedule) 3. providing lead generation reports. And I'd also focus on businesses whose product or service offering is best communicated visually. (e.g. avoid law firms) Good luck. happy to advise. Mark

Hi. with respect, I'd start with your first paragraph above. It's not clear whether you are an outsource company that supports others as they run their own IT projects ... or a mobile application developer. Both are great, but together I think you might risk preventing prospects from quickly understanding what you offer so that they can match that with their pain points. Either way, it's a crowded marketplace and as Seth Godin tells us "if you are not different you are invisible". 1 strong point of focused differentiation and remarkability is worth 10 in BD. Happy to support this if required. Mark

Hi. Businesses are traditionally valued at 3 - 5 times their annual net profit or 1x their annual turnover. If they have not been achieving those profits levels for 3 years and/or there are reasons why that wouldn't be sustained for a further 3 years, the valuation comes down. When I sold my own agency, our retained monthly income exceeded our costs and these were annual contracts. I hope this helps. Mark Mark Walmsley mark@markwalmsley.co.uk https://lnkd.in/db6tqkE