There’s a great post by Ardath Albee on the Marketing Interactions blog entitled "Quit using email to train your leads to ignore you" which makes some great points on how most email campaigns don’t work and what to do about it. In the article, Ardath points specific steps on how to build an engaging, successful… Continue reading A strategy for email marketing success
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Email Authentication: A growing response to spammers and scammers
In response to the tremendous amount of spam and scamming email messages, there is a growing trend towards the use of email authentication. Marketing Profs Daily Fix Blog reports: "MarketingVOX: Authentication for email marketing messages is being used by an increasing number of marketers, reports ClickZ. The report on usage comes from Microsoft, who presented… Continue reading Email Authentication: A growing response to spammers and scammers
More on narrowing your focus and being specific
I wrote a couple of days ago about the importance of narrowing your marketing focus and being very specific in your marketing message. Today, I ran across a post by Ben McConnell on the Church of the Customer blog, speaking about Twelve, a book publisher who’s taking the specifics of it’s focus really seriously: It… Continue reading More on narrowing your focus and being specific
Marketing, sales and ethics: The consultants conundrum
Vicky is a relatively new marketing consultant in the software industry and has been slowly building a solid practice over the past year or so. She spends a good deal of time working on-site with her customers and their prospective customers. In the process of doing her work, opportunities often come up to work for… Continue reading Marketing, sales and ethics: The consultants conundrum
Is Your Marketing Working?
Recently, a computer consultant I’ll call Gary called me. He had spent all kinds of money on advertising and promotion with little to show for it. He had 1000’s of pens imprinted with his company name and number. He had a gizzillion magnetic calendars done. He had sent out postcards, letters, and even developed a… Continue reading Is Your Marketing Working?
How do you explain tragedy to a kid?
A post on the WSJ Juggle blog brought up an issue that’s been troubling me since 9/11, and even more since I found out about Virginia Tech. I try to keep my child away from the news, especially the TV news. It’s getting harder since she’s 11 now, but I’m still glad I’m doing it.… Continue reading How do you explain tragedy to a kid?
The desire to be “all things to all people” a common marketing blunder
Nothing slows down the process of getting the word out about your business than trying to be “all things to all people”. Unfortunately, many business owners and professionals either don’t understand the importance of it, or have a hard time letting go enough to take advantage of it. You’ve heard it before: “don’t dilute the… Continue reading The desire to be “all things to all people” a common marketing blunder
Cancelled appointments, boundaries and billing
John, a local nutritionist used to cringe when he checked his voicemail, and the day he initially contacted me was no different. For when John checked his voicemail that Tuesday morning around 8:30 he found 4 messages, all from clients wanting to change, reschedule or cancel their appointments… One had to reschedule that afternoon’s 3pm… Continue reading Cancelled appointments, boundaries and billing
When clients micro manage
You’ve encountered them before, the meddlers: clients who hire you to do a project for them, and then proceed to constantly second guess what you’re doing to the point of frustration. You’d think they’d have better things to do than continually look over your shoulder and want to know what’s happening on every front. Perhaps… Continue reading When clients micro manage
Blogging: a great cheap way for very small businesses to market online
There’s been a lot of talk about blog marketing, the importance of blogs now, and how important they will be in the future of marketing. It’s easier, faster and less expensive to get traffic to a blog than to a website between tags, pinging, trackbacking and commenting; and hopefully it will stay that way. You… Continue reading Blogging: a great cheap way for very small businesses to market online