Nothing is more true than this headline. Inditex is great example of this. Inditex is one of the largest and most sophisticated fashion retailers. It is based in Spain, but has a worldwide presence. You may be more familiar with the store Zara, which is owned by Inditex. Zara stores are found in select upscale, metropolitan cities (unfortunately not in Phoenix yet). In 2004, Inditex had a total of 2,244 stores. In 2010 the Inditex store count rose to 4,870—with stores in more than 77 countries. And the company continues to grow. Check out its financial data and see for yourself how well it is doing.

So how is Inditex doing so well in this economy? In my opinion, its unique business model is what makes the company so successful:

1. Innovation/creativity: fashion design and retail stores
2. Quality design, affordable prices
3. Flexibility: Rapid turnaround to adjust to changing market demands and fashion trends. New lines of clothing are being dropped into stores twice a week with the latest fashions. This is, by definition, termed ‘fast fashion.’ H&M, another fast-fashion retailer is doing the same thing.
4. Customer focus: Inditex listens to its customers and stays “in tune with its customers, who help it give shape to the ideas, trends and tastes developing in the world.”

I should note that marketing classes at state universities across the country are using Inditex as a real-world example of an ultra-successful business model.

We can all benefit from learning more about Inditex’s business model and we can begin to understand the value of being customer-centric and flexible with your products/services.

One of the first questions I ask fellow B2B marketers today is if they are using social media for business. Most frequently the answer—if given honestly—is a sheepish no or even a question as to if social media has business application. It’s always fun to be among the first to share the power and promise of social media’s evolution and development into a promising business marketing tool. If you’ve been nose-to-the-grindstone focused on growing your business that you’ve not been tweeting, have no fear. You are not alone, a reported 66.5% of companies have adopted social media within the past 18 months. But now is the time to look at the maturing value of social B2B media and consider adding it to your 2011 marketing mix.

As with most new skills we learn—as people and marketers—recognize it may be better to start small. If you are taking first steps in social media, a smart place to begin is LinkedIn. LinkedIn is an international professional network with 85 million members in more than 200 countries. LinkedIn has been around since 2002 and is built on the very human principal that relationships matter. Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members and new members join every second. Will you be the next? Take those first social media steps and join today.  Then follow along as we share proven tips on how your professional network can drive revenue for your business. You’ll see, it’s not just for job hunters and recruiters, and you can’t afford to be left behind.

Already LinkedIn? Let’s connect today and take the next steps of optimizing your LinkedIn profiles—personal and corporate—to expand your social media footprint and ROI.

In my last two posts, I focused on the messaging aspect of SEO copywriting that included the following: consider your competition and current trends, write down your company’s strengths and weaknesses and think about how you can build the perfect customer.

Now, it’s time to think about the most important element of your SEO copywriting process—developing key phrases. I learned from Canyon’s insightful, new digital strategy manager, Dara, that SEO campaigns should revolve around the right key phrases rather than single keywords.  I completely agree with her. When I look for a particular product or service on the Internet, 90 percent of the time, I type in a key phrase rather than a single word. A key phrase gives you fewer results, pinpointing exactly what you are looking for.

So, when working on SEO, focus on researching key phrases that coincide with your messaging. This will instantly improve your SEO. There are many key phrase research tools out there that can help you pick and choose the right key phrases for each web page on your site. The most popular include wordtracker.com, KeywordDiscovery and GoogleAd Words. Use these services to make the key phrase selection step in the SEO copywriting process much easier.

Have you taken advantage of these services to help you develop highly targeted key phrases? What other services do you suggest?

Stay tuned for my last and final SEO copywriting post on how to structure your web pages with key phrases and other SEO-rich content so that you appear high in the search engine rankings.

It’s been nearly one year since I blogged about Tiger Woods and his car crash, which was followed by his immediate silence and refusal to talk with media (and local police, among others). Those events eventually ended up costing Tiger the thing he values most—his reputation.

Now, one year later, Tiger can’t get enough of the media spotlight. He has embarked on a PR campaign in an attempt to save his reputation, and over the past few weeks he’s done numerous radio and print interviews and even sent out a couple of Tweets to his 255,000 followers—including one thanking his fans for the love.

So what gives? Has Tiger really changed? Is he truly trying to reconnect with his fans or is this PR stunt designed to clean up his tarnished image?

There’s a bigger question here—is Tiger’s reputation even salvageable? Is there anything Tiger can do to fix his tarnished reputation, or will he forever be looked at differently?

My advice to Tiger is quit trying to force a PR campaign; people can see through the phony (come on, that’s PR 101). Be genuine and get back to winning golf tournaments. I’m certainly not a fan of Tiger but, in my opinion, if Michael Vick can make a comeback, so can Tiger.