THIS ISSUE INCLUDES: •  What's New? •  Going, Going Gone! •  Resource Referral •  Lessons Learned •  Tips & Tricks •  Community Leaders •  Member Spotlight •  Community Stats •  Your Account Summary •  Success Story •  Special Thanks •  Last Laugh

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WHAT'S NEW?

Dear Askers & Answerers,

It's here! Our new Premium Library is online! We launched it on Sunday. We're still publishing a few things, but most of our Premium and Premium Plus content is available there now - in a much easier-to-use format than the old days.

Now everyone (whether you're a Premium subscriber, or not) can browse what's available to folks with these two subscription levels. Non-subscribers may find an article well worth the low monthly membership fee (US$4.95). And subscribers: You can use the Library as an index page, to click to all your premium content. The orange tab in the top right corner of the site will take you there directly, any time you want to return.

Down the left side of the page, you'll find our Premium articles. Down the right side, you'll find our Premium Plus seminars. New articles and seminars are produced every month. But sometimes our members join to access our archives of earlier content.

Soon, we'll automate the ability for members to purchase a past seminar recording. In the meantime, feel free to contact me. I can put the transaction through manually, if there's a seminar you want to view. Also, I'd love to hear your feedback on the Library.

Next up: KHE's Hire an Expert projects board. I hope to bring it to you next week. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Happy exchanging,

Val Frazee
Moderator, Know-How Exchange
MarketingProfs.com

GOING, GOING, GONE!

Here are KHE's 10 oldest questions. They're likely to close soon. Have an idea to offer? Better do it now!

1. Why is Marketing Different than Sales?? (PLEASE!)
2. Measuring the marketing function & its importance
3. Spending The Dough
4. Promoting webinars for financial software company
5. Integrated marketing between offline and online...
6. Frequency versus Size
7. Marketing expense ratios for institutional banking
8. International Sales and Marketing
9. Positioning On Google?
10. Marketing spend allocation - automotive accessories

RESOURCE REFERRAL: BUSINESS TIPS FOR SUCCESS

KHE member (Praf) shares this week's resource. He writes:

"I am a Business Coach. I write an eZine two times a month called Business Tips for Success. It is intended to provide my clients and prospects with free helpful business information. This may be a good resource for the members of KHE. They can read the latest issue at www.re-sco.com."

Resource: Business Tips for Success

Browse 114 resources recommended by our members in KHE's Resource Library. Just hit the "Search" button to see them all. Reminder: We're awarding 100 Q points for each listing entered by the end of the year (max of 1000). So please, add your favorites!

LESSONS LEARNED: SHORT-TERM SALES

Earlier this week, sandip2065 asked a question about discounting prices with a short-term sale. He wondered whether this could negatively impact future revenue by diminishing his brand value and causing customers to expect discounted prices every day. Here are some highlights from the discussion. (Be sure to click over to read the full thread, if you're interested in knowing more.)

• Sharon (Researcher): It really depends on your brand and the strength of that brand. Controlled sales I think happen with almost every brand without hurting it. I know that AllClad, a high-end cookware brand, carefully controls its retailers and pricing. If a retailer independently reduces the price on an AllClad product, AllClad will cut them off their distributor list. But the company authorizes sales regularly, depending on corporate goals, mostly in the entry-level and set product lines.
• W.M.M.A.: Buyers accept and welcome sales, as long as you do not continually have weekly sales, such as constant weekend sale, or Wild on Wednesday sales. This gets old. The consumer becomes educated and will not believe you, in the end. Christmas sales ... absolutely.
• tjh: Harm future purchases? Only if you ignore some lessons learned by those in some other industries that discounted heavily, but now discount more judiciously - meaning: Always state a rational reason for the sale. ... And be very clear about the time span of the offer. ... This type of sale should be very rare in your planning. ... Successful sales are the heroin of cash-flow hungry businesses. ... As to your resellers, yes, some will squawk. One approach may be to discount their wholesale price during this period also. And, depending on your product and inventory, maybe ration how many each will be allowed to sell.
• jillc: Having an occasional seasonal sale won't hurt your brand image. If you have sales too frequently, however, people will begin to take the sales for granted. For example, a major retailer in my area has been having "time limited" or "one day only" sales recently - every weekend - which has taken the urgency out of getting to the store for the sale, as we know that there will be one again next weekend.
• D4Demand: To avoid the sale expectation for next year, take a tip from the cosmetics industry. Use your creative brain to come up with a companion gift for the holidays next year. Tie it purely to the brand and include it with every purchase as a bonus gift to the giver of the gift.
• Peter (henna gaijin): Sales are good for motivating someone to purchase. They are not good for getting initial information of the product out (except in low-cost products, where you are trying to get them to try it in the hopes of repeat business). You want your sale to take someone who is looking and motivate them to buy. So, you should do it when they are looking. Retailers in the States have sales right after Thanksgiving because that is the traditional start of the Christmas buying season. They are motivating that sale, but also trying to get people in to their stores to buy other (hopefully less-discounted) items.
• mbarber: Take a leaf from the tactics used by top-class negotiators: If you make a concession you MUST give a reason. So if you do a 20% sale you run an ad with a mea culpa (my fault/we stuffed up) message and say something like - "Hey there, customers. We made a huge mistake. We ordered too many of the X, Y & Z products and now we need the space for our new stock about to hit the floors. AND THAT'S GREAT NEWS FOR YOU!" ... The "reason" needs to be legitimate. Be open and humble about it, and make the offer a VERY good one (in the mind of the customer). You'll be able to shift your stock without discounting the perception of your brand value.

The Question: Impact of Discount Prices (Sales)

TIPS & TRICKS: BUILD YOUR REPUTATION

Have you noticed how some questions generate 15 or more answers - while others languish with 2 or 3 posts? Often this can be attributed to the quality of the question. And sometimes it's just the topic. But not always. I believe sometimes it has to do with the reputation of the Asker. And this makes sense, since we have a busy forum with lots of quetions to choose from. Why wouldn't visitors be drawn to questions posted by members they recognize?

In fact, there's also a big difference between someone who has posted zero answers and someone who posted four or five. I know some Answerers like to view the Profile Page of a Question Asker before responding. If you're an Answerer and you see one Asker with zero participation vs. another with five answers on her Profile Page, I can see why you might choose to invest your limited time helping the person who is more actively engaged with KHE.

So even if primarily you are an Asker, this is a good argument for participating occasionally as an Answerer. Being well-known (or at least a little known) as an Answerer is likely to draw attention to your questions when you're ready to switch roles. Of course, this is not required! It's just an approach to consider, if your goal is to market your next question as effectively as possible.

Have a question? Ask the experts.

Post a brief synopsis below, and invite other members to offer their feedback.

My Question Title

COMMUNITY LEADERS

As of this week, these are our superstars! The Most Resourceful are those who have contributed the most entries to the Resource Library. The Most Expert are those with the highest number of Expert Points (earned by answering questions).

NOTE: These are our top members as of midday December 9, 2004

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: MEET INBOX_INTERACTIVE

Most of us know Paul Broni as Inbox_Interactive. This KHEr has been with us since July. He has answered more than 130 questions - on a variety of subjects, but with an emphasis on e-marketing. This makes sense since his consulting firm specializes in email marketing services. Read on to learn more.

Where are you based?
Rockville, Maryland, USA

What do you do in real-life?
Assuming that we're talking about 9-to-5, I'm primarily responsible for business development for Inbox Interactive. However, we're a small business, so I also play the parts of attorney, accountant and IT manager.

Tell us about your company.
Inbox Interactive provides email marketing services to clients of all sizes in many industries. We offer consulting, creative, and campaign management services. Most of our clients had already been using email as a marketing channel when they came to us. They just wanted to take their efforts to the next level.

How did you find KHE?
I've known Ann Handley (Chief Content Officer) since her pre-MarketingProfs days.

What kinds of KHE questions do you enjoy most?
I enjoy the e-marketing questions because that's where I can give and get the most useful information. I particularly like anything dealing with best practices because there are still so many people who don't feel comfortable with their e-marketing efforts. We're all striving to do "the right thing."

Describe a KHE discussion you learned something from.
It is difficult to pinpoint any one discussion. I get at least one nugget of great information from just about every thread. And sometimes it's nice just to have other professionals agree with you on a subject just so you know you're not missing something altogether.

What is your favorite marketing book? Why?
Permission-Based E-Mail Marketing That Works! published by Dearborn Trade. Why? My wife wrote it.

What professional organizations do you belong to?
American Marketing Association (AMA), Direct Marketing Association of Washington (DMAW), and Newsletter & Electronic Publishers Association (NEPA).

How many years have you been in marketing?
I've been with Inbox Interactive since 1999. My wife, Kim MacPherson, started the business about a year before that, and when things started to take off, I came aboard to help grow the company.

Did you study marketing in college?
I took a few marketing courses here and there as part of a business degree, but I never majored in marketing or anything like that. I've mostly learned on the job. My wife tells me I'm a "natural marketer," which I assume I'm supposed to take as a compliment.

Do you have (or have you had) a mentor?
No, no mentor. I'm one of those people who has to make his own mistakes, and lots of 'em.

Do you have a favorite tool that helps you do your job?
I don't know if coffee is a "tool," but I do know that without it I could not function.

Describe one of your non-marketing hobbies or interests.
Right now my greatest interest is my son, Ian Keller. He's almost a year old, so he's at an age where things are really getting interesting. Aside from family, though, I thoroughly enjoy classic "muscle cars" and SCUBA.

Do you have any advice for new members of KHE?
I do, actually. If you're going to ask a question, be as specific as possible, and monitor your question in case there are requests for additional information. Sometimes there is great advice to be had, but if you abandon your thread for two or three days, the advice-givers will assume you're not engaged. And to the lurkers out there who are perhaps afraid to answer a question or two: Get in the game! Your input is welcome — and needed!

Do you have a favorite quote you want to share?
"You make a living by what you get, but you make a life by what you give."

Is there anything else you would like to say?
In the words of Forrest Gump, "That's all I have to say 'bout that."

COMMUNITY STATS

Active Unique Participants (to date): 3,664
Closed Questions (to date): 4,064
Currently Open Questions: 220
Total Responses (to date): 30,884
Subscribers to this newsletter: 12,203

YOUR ACCOUNT SUMMARY

These numbers come directly from YOUR profile. Question Points tells you how many points you have available for asking questions in the forum. Expert Points indicates your standing in the community based on answers you have posted. Visit this FAQ, if you want to know more.

Question Points: %%PointsBalance%%
Expert Points: %%PointsCum%%

Click here to buy more Question Points

SUCCESS STORY

This week's Success Story comes to us from Ricky, who is working on a project that will produce new products and services for the psychiatric field in Italy. She writes:

"I've been a KHE regular since its inception, and I participate too, answering a few questions here and there each day. But the questions I've asked have all been eye-openers. I'm especially happy with the response on these two:

• Building My Copywriting Business
  
• Your Comments On This Website, Please!

I'm a one-woman-show, so I don't have any co-workers to bounce ideas off of. KHE has proven to be an asset, giving me the opportunity to get feedback from other professionals. The experts are always so insightful, offering not only validation and praise, but positive criticism and ideas for the future as well."

SPECIAL THANKS

Thank you, Ricky, Praf and Inbox_Interactive for providing content for this newsletter. And thanks to all the following community members who have emailed or posted suggestions, technical reports or questions in the last week. Your energy drives this community's development. We couldn't do it without you!

John, crichmond, davidson, Jim Deveau/Catalyst, Richard B, bborthayre, valhallaessences, mail2kannika, ASVP/ChrisB, JBtron, jose04, km2000, Michele, Peter (henna gaijin), W.M.M.A., Sweetasman01, tjh, SteveB, na-sutton, Deremiah, *CPE and SRyan ;].

Finally, thanks to my MP colleagues for making my job easy: Aaron, Sharon, Megan, Ann, Roy and Allen.

LAST LAUGH

I like to end with a smile. So this space is dedicated to something amusing I find posted in our forum. This quote from newcomer diastematic is the funniest statement about what a brand is NOT that I've ever heard. (Hope you don't mind if I borrow it? In fact, I can't wait for the first opportunity!):

"The colors on your website? That's just lipstick on a pig, honey. At the end of a day, meat eaters know the difference between real bacon and the veggie stuff."

Open Question: Is Global Brand Harmonization Necessary?

Forum Feedback: The Know-How Exchange is still young. So we're constantly refining how things work. We have a gigantic list of action items, and your feedback helps us prioritize it. So please feel free to reply to this email with any suggestions. Thanks, in advance, for your time!

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