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

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WHAT'S NEW?

Dear Askers & Answerers,

I spent Independence Day with Libby, Brett and Jonah, three good friends from b-school. From a hilltop, we watched fireworks all up and down the coastline. What a spectacular view! I wish towns celebrated more holidays with fireworks. Then on Monday - in the middle of America's BBQs and picnics - I logged into KHE.

At first I was surprised to see so many new messages posted during the festivities. But of course I shouldn't have been. KHE's membership base is much broader than the U.S. In fact, our cultural diversity is one of our greatest assets. To make that clearer, we're thinking of adding a "Country" data field to our profile pages. This would help give context to members' postings. Plus, it just would be interesting to see where everybody is located. Don't you agree?

Speaking of valued contributors in faraway lands, it's time to congratulate The Consultant for crossing the 10,000 Expert Points marker! (He logs in from India.) You can learn more about him two weeks from now when he will be featured in this newsletter.

That's it for now. Have a great July, 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. MBA for Quantitative Marketing?
2. How do I market my small web development company?
3. LSM
4. Service marketing or product marketing for the indian market?
5. banner advertising
6. consumers' attitudes and preference
7. swot analysis
8. Where do you suppose Bill Gates got his marketing genius from?
9. Have any business slogan ideas?
10. structure of the research center

RESOURCE REFERRAL: THUMBSHOTS RANKING

Our fearless leader, Allen, sent me this link to share with you, and BOY am I hooked! If you are interested in Web site optimization, you should check it out. Thumbshots Ranking allows you to put in a search term and compare how two search engines rank the sites associated with that term. For example, put in "marketing" and you'll get back the Top 100 sites for your two favorite search engines. The interesting thing is how little crossover there is.

Click the link below to see what I mean. MarketingProfs (highlighted in red) is in the No. 11 spot for Yahoo and No. 26 for Google (well, they move around; those are the numbers at the time of this writing). Be sure to hover over the dots in both lists to see the thumbshot images of the sites and their ranks. And notice the 29% crossover rate in the search results.

Thumbshots Ranking: Results for "marketing"

Now here's another interesting lesson. Take a look at the results you get for "car" and "cars" on the SAME search engine. There's only an 18% crossover rate! Much smaller than I expected.

Thumbshots Ranking: Results for "car" vs. "cars"

I'm always looking for resources to share with our readers. If you know of one, send me a blurb. I'll send you 250 Question Points.

LESSONS LEARNED: SITE IDEAS

Last week Jett asked a question that is probably on the minds of most of our members who are consultants. And, in fact, anyone with a Web site would benefit from studying this discussion. His question: How do you like to see a marketing site designed, and what content should it include? Here are a few highlights from the discussion. There were 35 responses posted. Be sure to click over to read the full thread if you're interested in this topic.

• alexis: 1) Case studies: An option to click to see detailed (and I mean detailed) case studies, including testimonies from the clients themselves, samples, photos and other related info. 2) Design: Offer the chance to click on say three links maximum at the beginning. 3) Instant quotes, info or referrals without waiting for an email or a telephone call.



• DavidatHaley: IMHO, a marketing consultant's website has position the consultant as an expert ... ideally for a very specific niche. With regard to content, I'd suggest: free information and lots of it, most of it written by you. Also, I'd suggest including articles that have offers for follow-up articles. And of course, the ubiquitous e-newsletter.



• Den EV: Consulting is a tough thing to quantify. Acknowledge this fact and provide an ROI calculator that your clients can turn to as an objective source of decision-making criteria.



• mbarber: [On the front page, ask your visitors:] When looking for information on this website I would prefer - 1) A complete explanation of content; 2) Just the facts, no bells and whistles; 3) Make it fun, make it dance; 4) Give me a summary of the good stuff; 5) Examples of others how have used your services; 6) Any way you would like to present the material. ... If you do this you will be targeting people not by what you are pushing to them but HOW they think. Your presentation merely matches their model of the world.



• SRyan: For your graphics talent, it would be cool to have a "Before & After" feature. Old logo vs. new logo. Drab PowerPoint vs. fab flash presentation. That kind of thing!



• virago: The language used keeps people reading. I checked out the Psychotactics site and really liked the language. I subscribe to a number of newsletters because of the writing, no nonsense and not full of jargon.



• cal: I find sites that appear to be simply telling it like it is to be more attractive than sites I believe are pushing the limits of what I think is more likely the real truth.



• Michele: Do not create expectations you cannot deliver on, time and time again. If you post case studies and testimonials, then the expectation is that you will update these regularly. If you create a newsletter, you must make sure you can write it each month.



• ConversionChronicles: Measure and test everything. Headlines, graphics, links, layout, usability, the lot, test it all continuously. Get a good measurement system, one which gives accurate numbers of visitors and repeat visitors as well as record conversion.



• LJW: I think the reason that so many websites fail is a lack of clarity of purpose. People come to the web for information and they don't want to sift through multiple messages on a single website to find the one relevant to them.

The Question: What Do You Like To See in a Marketing Website?

TIPS & TRICKS: CITING SOURCES

Have you wanted to jump in at KHE and provide answers, but you don't have much first-hand marketing expertise? Doing some research online to dig up helpful ideas is a great way to get started. But keep in mind, when you do this you're working with other people's intellectual property. Here are our guidelines, to help you stay away from copyright violations.

You are welcome to answer a question by doing Internet research and then expressing the facts or ideas you learn in your own words. But, if you want to copy someone else's writing word-for-word, we have two rules for fair use:

1. Keep it short (100 words)
2. Cite the source (provide a link)

To copy anything longer, you must obtain reprint permission from the copyright holder, and state this in the response you post. For official terms (and legalese), see the link below.

MarketingProfs Terms & Conditions: See KHE Info in Section 4

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 Inquisitive are those who have asked the most questions. (Where there's a tie, we broke it based on number of points they offered for their questions.) The Most Expert are those with the highest number of Cumulative Points (given to them by question authors for offering helpful answers).

NOTE: These are our top members as of midday July 8, 2004

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: MEET SRYAN

A relative newcomer and rising star, SRyan has been with us for three months and 200 responses. If you've seen her in the forum, you know her for her quick wit and easy-to-read style. Read on to find out more about this audacious entrepreneur.

Where are you based?
Houston, Texas. (No, I did not vote for G.W. Bush.)

What do you do in real-life?
I'm CEO of BirdNest Software.

Tell us about your company.
I founded BirdNest after my team helped a corporate client clean up an environmental DATA mess. Even though that company spent big bucks developing sophisticated info management systems, the raw compliance data coming in from the field was in lousy shape, not to mention stale. BirdNest invented a unique "data delivery service" that works easily on a cell phone and distributes better quality data instantly via the Internet.

How did you find KHE?
I subscribed to MarketingProfs almost a year ago. I didn't really pay much attention to the KHE section in the MP newsletter until I noticed a particular question that looked interesting! I clicked, and now I'm hooked.

What kinds of KHE questions do you enjoy most?
I love it when people ask for ideas for promoting a business, product or event. For example, when the dentist wanted his Open House to be successful, I suggested he invite parents and kids to come meet the Tooth Fairy. It's fun to flex my creative muscle when I can.

Did you study marketing in college? Or on the job?
I've been learning by the seat of my pants for the last four years. I think the first time I understood the purpose and importance of marketing was when I listened to Geoffrey Moore's "Inside the Tornado" audiobook while driving to Austin. (I almost wrecked the car taking notes.) Now I read everything I can about marketing.

What is the value KHE provides to you personally?
For the questions I've posted, I believe I've gotten higher quality advice from KHE experts than from most of the firms I've used in the past four years. I also gain truckloads of knowledge by following the Q&A from the community as a whole. And sometimes, I admit, I'm here purely for the fun of it. Can you tell?

Do you have any advice for new members of KHE?
Jump all over the Search Questions feature! There's a treasure trove of ideas and information waiting for you to plunder. Chances are pretty high that your question has been asked AND answered already, so look around before spending your points!

Do you have a favorite quote you want to share?
Lily Tomlin said, "I always wanted to be somebody, but now I see I should have been more specific." My second favorite is from Winston Churchill: "If you're going through hell, keep going."

COMMUNITY STATS

Active Unique Participants (to date): 1,871
Closed Questions (to date): 1,908
Currently Open Questions: 115
Total Responses (to date): 13,993
Avg Responses/Question in 1st 24 hours: 4.63  
Subscribers to this newsletter: 7,596

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

SPECIAL THANKS

Thank you, Allen Weiss and SRyan, 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 feedback and energy drives this community's development. We couldn't do it without you!

Michele, Jim Deveau/Catalyst, Vevolution, Jett, tjh, JBtron, mbarber, SRyan, Peter (helpUhire), Pepper Blue, Jeepers, Steve, caninid , r_leonhart81, SteveB, JRogers, sauk1, ddrilling, sharadgarg2000, ldoucet, falbastaki, tberlo, basis, andyhavens, ebrown, al, tweety, telemoxie, The Consultant, Deremiah, *CPE

LAST LAUGH

I like to end with a smile. So this space is dedicated to something amusing I find posted in our forum.

Since this issue profiles SRyan in our Member Spotlight article, its' fitting that we close with one of her funny quips. Her advice in this response is rock-solid. But the first time I read it, all I could think about was those squirrels! That was a few weeks ago, and it still makes me laugh.

SRyan's Answer: Meet George from Bubba's Builders

Forum Feedback: The Know-How Exchange is awfully young. So we're still 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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