Know-How News by MarketingProfs.com

Issue 71 | October 6, 2006

Dear Small Business Marketers,

Welcome to the latest issue of Know-How News. We're brimming with good stuff this week -- lots of action-oriented information.

In our Premium article, Marsha Keefer recaps her suggestions for hiring consulting help for your marketing projects. She covers project scope, expectations and reaching a successful conclusion.

Then read Part 2 of Eric Frenchman's RSS article, continuing from last week. And refresh your understanding of branding with an article by one of our senior contributors and branding gurus, William Arruda.

Also, be sure to catch up on the latest happenings in the forum. Read member advice about optimizing sales performance. Listen to one of our most popular seminars about Google and natural search. And link over to a couple of funny forum posts from Last Laugh.

I hope you enjoy the newsletter. Have a great weekend!

:: Valerie Frazee
:: Know-How News Editor
:: MarketingProfs.com
:: Where 190,000 marketers connect, learn, succeed.

P.S. Need to know more about online surveys or voicemail marketing? Please ask our advertisers for more information. Their support makes this newsletter possible.

Three Steps to Hiring the Best Consultant for Your Project

RSS: What's in It for Marketers? (Part 2)

The 10 Cs of Branding

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Three Steps to Hiring the Best Consultant for Your Project

By Marsha Keeffer

You've decided to hire a consultant to take on a large marketing project. Maybe you've had dozens of successful consulting relationships—maybe you've never had one. In either case, you're about to open your cell phone and call a consultant when you stop dead in your tracks, wondering how you can improve the results.

What are the right questions to ask to make sure you make the best choice and get the best performance from a consultant? We asked several top executives to share the questions they ask consultants during the search process.

Get the full story.

Note: This article is available to our Premium Members only.

RSS: What's in It for Marketers? (Part 2)

By Eric Frenchman

RSS may not ever replace email as a delivery tool. But nonetheless, it will move Web site traffic, because people can use RSS readers to receive content without having to visit a site. Here's part two of a primer on RSS, and why marketers should care about it.

Get the full story.

The 10 Cs of Branding

By William Arruda

Whether you are working on a personal branding campaign or you're focused on differentiating your company's brand from its competitors, you need to constantly ask yourself if your brand is demonstrating the 10 Cs of branding.

Get the full story.

Launch a Zoomerang Survey today - make confident decisions tomorrow!

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Here are this week's hottest topics. These have been the most active discussions in KHE over the last seven days.

These are this week’s superstars! The Most Stimulating started the hottest discussions. The Most Active contributed the most posts (questions + answers). And the Most Expert earned the most points.

Most Stimulating	Most Active	Most Expert
kross stevea deni418 aparrish jampap tq6 scott.zagurski tq6 Getamerchantaccount Rick	Frank Hurtte kathysmithcasting jaaustin W.M.M.A. kannanveeraiah Harry Hallman stevea tq6 jpoyer margec	margec kannanveeraiah gryffinhot kathysmithcasting jaaustin MANSING W.M.M.A. Frank Hurtte mgoodman dan.harris

A few days ago stevea launched one of our most popular discussions this week. It's a thoughtful exploration of sales and marketing alignment. Anyone grappling with how to maximize revenue in an environment with many conflicting objectives and responsibilities will learn a lot from this discussion thread. We highly recommend it.

Discussion: Optimizing Sales Team Performance

Have something to add? Please do! You could earn points.

No spotlight...

Emma, email marketing
in style.

Emma helps small businesses, non-profits & agencies create stylish email campaigns & track the response in real time.

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Check out this week's perk for opening our newsletter. This freebie for KHN subscribers is our seminar: Getting Google to Love Your Website... Again. Click here to read the description. Then use the link below to replay the seminar before next Friday. (The time limit is just for non-Premium Plus members. Premium Plus members may replay the seminar any time.)

Here's a comment from someone who attended the live event: "Valuable information. You will walk away with numerous tactics you can employ immediately to improve your site's organic ranking." Don't pass up the opportunity to replay a great seminar. (Normally $99.)

Resource: Getting Google to Love Your Website... Again

Or browse 381 resources posted by members in our Resource Library.

It was a good guess that when theerrandboy posed a question comparing Donald Trump with Philip Kotler that some funny answers would show up in the discussion. We especially enjoyed Deremiah's wheat bread vs. cake analogy.

See our selection for an illustration of "Trump as cake" to the right. (It seems graphic artists aren't much inspired by wheat bread. We couldn't find any relevant graphics on our favorite stock images site.)

You're welcome to add your own (funny or not) comparisons.

Discussion: Kotler Or Trump?

Have something to add? Please do! You could earn points.

Want to share the news? Invite your colleagues to participate in our online discussion forum, Know-How Exchange.

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