@Nicole Verardi @Joé Lloyd 

Thanks @Camila Chavarri - At the end of the day, a good marketer can do a decent job in any field because marketing fundamentals transfer across industries. That's the 'fake it until you make it' approach. The BEST marketers do their homework and learn the industry well enough to have competent and informative conversations on whatever industry they work in. 

My first paid marketing gig was actually at my restaurant job during high school. I was tapped to write a 'newsletter' for customers that promoted new products and spotlighted employees (when I wasn't working the fry line!)

College brought newspaper writing and radio announcing & production. Both gigs morphed into promotions duties. I've done marketing for musicians (including the bands I was in), manufactured homes, digital signage, and a few political campaigns and PACs (the stories I could tell!!)

I landed at AVIXA (where I'm not actually on the Marketing team based on the work I did for a digital signage manufacturer. 

Mark - my wife uses loop.tv in the lobby of her music studio. It's a free ad supported service that allows users to upload their own "digital signage." We stream music videos for students waiting for their lessons.

Upshow.TV is a competitor. 

This is very cool technology for restaurants, bars, gyms, doctor's offices, and small businesses. There are services available - some free and ad supported - that stream multi-channel content to your screens that allow you to upload your own commercials and even sell slots to other businesses. 

All of this is amazing. AV has come a long way in a short time. What's truly mind-boggling is, at this rate, the tech in the video above will be old hat in another 10 years!

White-labeled content delivery applications are always a neat way to produce recurring revenue. Many companies invest in digital signage without ever considering what they will display on them. A plug-and-play device, for example, takes the guesswork of that by giving them various channels to choose from.

Hooking your readers with a relatable story before hitting them with your marketing message is gold! Have you ever heard a real successful politician speak? They use this exact technique.

A tried and true technique is to share a relevant but short experience to grab the readers' attention before tying it in with whatever point you are making. EX: "I once sent an email campaign with a truly bland subject line. I believed people would open it anyway because of the company's reputation and previous open rates. Boy, was I wrong! The open rates on the send tanked our monthly average. Lesson learned! So here's why taking a few extra minutes to write a compelling subject line is imperative."