Know-How Exchange : Copywriting

In all of the companies for which I have worked in the past, we always used the same rule: use the 'tm' or 'R' every time the logo appears is in its graphical form. In text, use the 'R' or 'tm' in just the first instance.

Your small bandwidth, especially with overseas customers means that you need local distribution (and probably support) partners in the overseas markets.

The problem with distribution partners is that most of the good ones, who can move real volume, are not very interested in taking on products from an unknown small company.

The key to getting started and getting the attention of the key distribution partners is to sign up a number of reference accounts via the direct sales channel, ideally opinion leaders in the industry sector that you are targeting.

Regards
Pat Divilly
www.marketware.biz

No Way! Color is an important part of your brand imagery. What do you think about when you think '' big blue'' or what color do you associate with Coke?

Your logo is an important brand asset and it is through clarity and consistency of use that it will become recognizable. You should create and distribute very strict guidelines for the use your logo, and all other brand materials by your partners.

I don''t know of any particular studies in this area, but they are fundamentally different beasts, and therefore difficult to campare.

In my opinion the most critical thing you should be concentrating on is retention, then growthin existing customers, then new acquisition.

RETENTION STRATEGY:
If you know your customer to be profitable then you should be trying to retain them, using the usual reassurance pieces, regular communications and hospitality (if appropriate).

WALLET GROWTH STRATEGY:
In addition, simple analysis on your existing customers, should be able to uncover a) how much they have to spend on financial services and b) how much of this "wallet" they spend with you. From this simple analysis you should be able to determine if you are able to get more from them, more of their "wallet".

I would suggest that customers that spend >80% with you is saturation point and you can''t get much more out of them, whereas customers who spend <15% need to be grown. Customers inbetween also need to be grown for more of their wallet spend, but you may need to do more analysis on why they are only spending a reletively small amount with you.

ACQUISITION STRATEGY:
If from the above, you still will not generate the required sales, then you will need to look at acquisition obviously.

Good luck

Remember what branding is and never forget it ... "its the promise of the delivery".
If you buy into a good brand you expect a good delivery of that branded product or service (this delivery includes, pre-sales, sales, and post sales interactions with the company).

Everyone inside the organisation should "buy in" to the brands values (what it stands for), whether that be high (or low) cost, great (or average) customer service etc etc.

All brands should be based on something, and this something is the brand promise.

EXAMPLE: I buy a particular make of Mobile phone, because the brand promise is that it has the features and functionality I need, its highly reliable and great support is provided (should I need it). If all these brand values are in place, I will buy this brand again. If any of these brand values fail (i.e. the features in the literature are not delivered, it arrives faulty or the support from the organisation never sort out my problems) i will probably be turned off that brand.

Brands should also provide an emotional exchange, so in my mobile phone example above, if a new phone its the market which better suits my lifestyle or aspirations, I may be persuaded to try that brand next time.

FINAL POINT: Brands take years to build, do not expect overnight success.

Good luck

15 top branding tips (can''t remeber where I got these from, but thanks, they are useful):

 Brands are personifications of organisations, products, services and experiences and they are the source of relationships.
 Top management support is crucial to a brand’s success.
 Profound customer knowledge is essential to building winning brands.
 The brand and its products and services must exceed customer expectations.
 Brand building begins with awareness.
 Relevant differentiation drives customer brand insistence.
 A brand should strive to evoke emotions and create sensory experiences.
 A brand should exhibit admirable human qualities.
 A brand must stand for something.
 Constant product and service innovation build strong brands.
 A brand should strive to create a sense of community.
 The corporate culture must reinforce the brand essence, promise and personality.
 Internal brand building is essential to external brand building.
 Front line employees are key to a brand’s success.
 Co-creating a brand with its customers will help the brand continue to thrive.

Good article from MarketingProfs right here on ROI and e-Newsletters:

https://www.marketingprofs.com/preview_dp.asp?file=/Tutorials/newsroirealst...

I hope it helps.

Depending on the circumstance - you don''t give much data-here is a suggestion:
Name the exact promotion, then give you boss a full list of your products/contributions to the company up to now.
Then ask for the promotion and if he is somewhat hesitant or tries to talk around it, suggest him to take this new position on a risk free trial. Offer him to try it for a period of, say 3 month, on same salary and if he thinks you don''t perform satisfactory; you will go back to you old position. The idea is to offer him to make a risk free decision. Give it a try.

Lars Hørl

What can I say? Everyone has touched most of the bases.

Any major award is worthy of display, but I wouldn''t "bank" on it or put to much promotion behind it other than perhaps a plaque on your office wall and mentioning it in presentations, letters, etc.

An award won''t win you success and if you obcess over it by shoving it down client''s throats, it may have the opposite effect your wish to achieve.

Congrats on your award and I wish you more in the future!

I would say you cannot expect anything.

Of course you may DESIRE a return on an advertising investment. But to "expect" or "demand" a return is fictitious.

Study your advertising carefully, pinpointing your demographics etc...then roll the dice!1 If you get too much into expectations, you set yourself up for failure and not to mention shoot the stress levels through the roof! It also creates a "robotic" atmosphere within your company.

There are never guarantees with advertising.

Good Luck!

Branding is more complex than just looking at a checklist of items and ensure you have them. Most brands exhibit similar external factors (brand name, marketing, price, presentation (how the solution/good are shown)). For service and B2B you MUST add people to this list.

But internally (where the real branding takes place), things are much different. Consumer products are interested in category management, low cost operations, differentiation, where B2B are more interested in the client relationship, NPD, internal training etc.

That said, here is a very generic checklist that you will need to add to and develop for your individual company:

EXTERNAL:

Can you/do you charge a brand premium
Do you have excellent customer satisfaction/loyalty or have excellent customer relationships.
Are you perceived to be a quality supplier
Are you perceived to have good market leadership / or are you popular
Can you brands personality be easily recognised
Do you have good brand awareness in the market
Do you have one of the best market shares
Do your products shout “buy me” from the shelves!

INTERNAL:
Do you have brand values
Do you have internal communications
Do you regularly reinforce the brand values to your staff
Do you have great supplier relationships
Do you truly understand your customers/prospects and why they buy from you.
Do you innovate in product development
Are you front line employees fully behind your brand values

BRAND:
Are the top management supporting of the brand and its values
Does your brand generate an emotion response (A brand should strive to evoke emotions and create sensory experiences)
Does your brand exhibit admirable human qualities.
Does your brand actually stand for something.

I hope that this helps a little!

There really isn''t any difference between branding on the internet or else where for that matter.

80% of branding is about what you do inside the organisation, only a small percentage is about communicating this to your market.

Branding is all about delivering a promise, when anyoen buys your branded prodiuct or solution they pretty much know the quality of the good and the support they will get when they interact with you.
Your brand values are known and supported by all inside your business, what you do now is communicate that to the marketplace.

Branding on the net is no different to using trade magazines, flyers or 48 sheet poster sites! The important questions are still the same.

Does your target market visit the internet, what sites will they use (useful to know where to put your ads), what click through do you expect, what is the cost per click!
Then evaluate this against traditional marketing communications that you use.

I hope that this helps!

Having been faced with this problem MANY a time, the one sure way to get a quality person with special skills is to offer them a % share.

For a salesman, I wouldn''t offer more than 1-3%. Now if he is some sort of phenomenon with multiple "high level contacts" and has a lot of relative experience, then and ONLY then should you condier offering a higher %.

I would caution you about using the term "partner". No matter if he turns out to be a ding-dong or a hero, you don''t want to have him arguing with your requests and going around telling people it is "HIS COMPANY" since he owns stock!

Instead, I would use a high profile TITLE such as "Executive Sales Director" or "VP of Sales". Doing so will establish a perceived chain of command.

When I bring "partners" on board in this manner I am VERY careful to relay the parameters and the extent of their executive privilege. Most of the time, I make the employ/percent offer contingent on performance within a 30-90 window, depending on how much time we have to start developing a sales revenue, which usually depends on current company strategy and available capital.

Although this approach makes choosing a salesman much more complicated, at a start-up phase, it is an excellent incentive and a "cheap" way to aquire a quality person.

Good Luck!

Internet radio sites are not near as effectie as "live" radio.

ONe alternative you may consider, and I don''t know this to be a fact, but satellite radio may be an affordable alternative.

Does a community strategy have a future?
Yes, it does.
Why - because the web is a conversation (see Cluetrain.com, thesis #1). A conversation is about making an enquiry and exchanging information... sales is about making an enquiry to find out more, and make the next sale. The two are natural online companions.

Community has the added benefit of being user-led. The web works best when it''s informing users, rather than delivering a sales pitch.

*How* companies use community - how they find the right community strategy for their marketplace and customers... now that''s the real challenge.

I was pleased to see a number of people mention PR, its of critical importance and unfortunately underestimated by most of them.

I''d think you''''ll find good benchmark data from the Royal Mail here:
https://www.dm-online.co.uk/whyusedm.asp
(they say it''s 5 times more expensive to acquire than to retain customers)

If you have a budget, then this may help:
< https://www.researchandmarkets.com/reportinfo.asp?cat_id=10&report_id=1757 >

For confirmation I agree with both of the above.

The inportant factors is to:

1. Ensure that the approval process doesn''t last for ever!
2. You definately get their signature on the form or an email from them.

We all know acquisition is more expensive that, all you need to do is prove ROI!

Sounds easy I know, but a pain to actually do :-)

I wish marketing was that easy ....

Business x Marketing Activity = More Profit

But it isn''t, you have to work at the tactics and ensure that you have the right message to the right market using the right media, and if all goes well you should see sales leads which shoudl equate to sales revenues.

And the bonus is if the sales process and products are profitable, then you should make a profit ... which is all anyone in business asks marketing to do :-)

There may not be a ROI!

What may be of help is areas that the mascot could be used that traditional media may have problems getting into and capitalising on.

For example, if your client deals with the healthcare sector, then a Mascot that can be seen around hospitals etc cheering up the kids can a) help your client get closer to the healthcare customer and b) give them valuable PR

A mascot can either be used as additional media channel (as above) or as a frontline man (person, thing, it) for the brand (as you can see above, this sometimes works and sometimes doesn''t).

I would be interested to hear more about your clients business to help more on this.

You definately need to worry more about geting to market rather than trying to rate.

Unless, of course, you already have a successful series of brands that warrant the time involved in a score sheet!

Good Luck!

Try going to GOTOAST.COM

Thaey may be able to answer all your questions!

Having been faced with this problem MANY a time, the one sure way to get a quality person with special skills is to offer them a % share.

For a maketeer, I wouldn''''t offer more than 1-3%. Now if he is some sort of phenomenon with multiple "high level contacts" and has a lot of relative experience, then and ONLY then should you condier offering a higher %.

I would caution you about using the term "partner". No matter if he turns out to be a ding-dong or a hero, you don''''t want to have him arguing with your requests and going around telling people it is "HIS COMPANY" since he owns stock!

Instead, I would use a high profile TITLE such as "Executive Marketing Director" or "VP of Marketing". Doing so will establish a perceived chain of command.

When I bring "partners" on board in this manner I am VERY careful to relay the parameters and the extent of their executive privilege. Most of the time, I make the employ/percent offer contingent on performance within a 30-90 window, depending on how much time we have to start developing a sales revenue, which usually depends on current company strategy and available capital.

Although this approach makes choosing a marketer much more complicated, at a start-up phase, it is an excellent incentive and a "cheap" way to aquire a quality person.

Good Luck!

Here are som good sourcs of invigorating marketing wizards.:)
Jay Abraham www.abraham.com
Gary Halbert www.thegaryhalbertnewsletter.com
John Carlton https://www.marketingrebelrant.com/
These are people with hands on experience with no BS

I would have to say a combination of all.

Thanks!

Here''s my list. They have proven to be the most useful resources for my marketing success/strategies.

1. The Wall Street Journal

2. The Busines and Market section of your local newspaper.

3. Inc. Magazine

4. www.WDFM.com ( Larry Chase''s newsleter website).

5. Popoular Science (or any other field related magazine with new info on your demographic)

6. My gut.

Most people overlook the these tools, spending hundreds of dollars on books, courses, etc. You will find current, REAL TIME marketing information and ideas in the papers, up to date informative articles and products in the mags, a plethora of articles similar to this site from Larry Chases'' network newsletter (free), and my most trustworthy resource...my gut! It never fails me!

I hope that helps!

Try www.GoToast.com

They may be able to help.

Good Luck!

Every art form is a combination of talent, skills and luck. Talent is as important in marketing as it is in painting..

But talent without skills will whither. So it''s important to learn and hone basic skills like crafting an attention-getting press release, putting together a response-generating direct mail project and measuring web site success. There are good marketing processes and best practices and knowing and following these are part of a good skill set.

And then, of course it''s really important to be lucky. Having a good product, a growing marketplace, and a clear differentiator for positioning is lucky. Having a reasonable budget is also *very* lucky!

No discipline can work without some basic restrictions and since it involves people also hence it is required to tackle them carefully. In my view there is nothing "best practices" as otherwise everybody would have followed it and applied it and got the success but since it is not like that hence it is a complicate process where the involvement at 360 degree is needed and that certainly is an art.
Atlast it is a process where relationship matters a lot and that too with the customers.

A highly competitive area where the strategic moves are as important and predicted as eating food when you are hungry. A strategically important issue may grab the attention but it is not necessary that it gets the immidiate response, the same is the case with the market where it needs various aspects to be considered and the customer remains the focal point whereas the other important issues surrounds it.

BOOKS/MAGAZINES:
Elements of Marketing (AR Morden)
CIM Study Series of Books
Marketing Business (CIM publication)
Marketing Week

WEBSITES:
Chartered Institute of Marketing (www.cim.co.uk)

Marketing IS Business, and therefore shares much in common with all business functions.

Marketing is the management process that ensures that customer needs and satisfied, AND you make a profit on the interaction.

Well, for #5, I would have to say "conversion data on INACTION!!!"

The others on your list mention vistors, sessions, referrals ,and sales....but what about all those visitors and unique sessions that "dead-end"?

One of the most important things I look at for my web metrics is how many unique visitors dropped off and on what page.

For example, one of my clients was having problems with web sales. He asked me to help figure out what he was doing wrong. He had tons of visitors but few bites. We looked into his web stats and found that over 80% of visitors left the site at the pricing page. He adjusted his pricing and sales went up!

It''s great to know how many people have been to your site, and how many made an "action". But chances are the number of inactive visitors is much greater. You need to know why.

Another aspect that ties into inaction is who these visitors are and where they came from (referral). This could help tell you what demographic and/or referral service (search engine, banner and link exchanges, paper ads, etc.) needs to be modified or rather, catered to in order to turn them from browsers to buyers.

Hope that helps!

Good Luck!

For grabing the attention "- award winner" is one of the great and quick method and then getting the position in the mind of the customer. As far as the impact is concerned it is most of the time positive as it forces the customer to think logically a bou t you, your company, your products, you as a brand,you as a social entity, and that all in very different but positive perspective. Moreover, a PR is much worthy for a cutom e r than the marketing efforts made by the company for p r o m otio n. Customer''s mind slipes the names very easily and to re t a i n that the award is one of the great help for the compan y and industry to o.

Here are a few sites that offer some awards:

https://www.webaward.org/

https://www.maaw.org/awards.html

https://www.majon.com/select.html


And here are a couple of sites that list almost 100 different awards they have won that you can use as a reference to find out how to enter.

https://www.browncommunications.com/hype/awards.pdf

https://www.hamiltonbond.com/awardlist.html

I hope those help and Good Luck!

Not exactly sure you need a calendar, I think you just need to get the process fixed in mind then the rest with naturally evolve.
Not sure if you are talking about a small number of renters or large amounts!

PROCESS:

1. Plan - understand your objectives and goals (you seem to have this understood), but understand from your objectives and goals how you would expect to measure your success.

2. Create - If you aleady have a website, utiise the creatives from this, retain consistancy (this is important), you email is your primary way of retaining your brand image ... use it. Look at building a different ''landing page'' for your emailed clients rather than forcing them to go back to your homepage (this will make them feel a little more special).

You will also need to create the offer (thats if you are having one, people usually pay for retention (10% off etc)

3. Target - target your clients carefully, using eisiting data, use your best prospects first (ones that personally thanked you for example). never over mail to customers, once a quarter for email marketing is enough.

4. Test - Might be worth testing the concept, you will know what works best (one at a time, by demographic or just random etc).

Use the feedback from the test results to change anything of the campaign.

5. Execute - Consider your delivery options for optimal performance. The time that you deliver your email can have a large impact on how well the email performs overall. Are you sending to mostly consumer addresses, such as the free accounts or more to business email addresses? Knowing some basic breakdowns of your list can help you to determine a good time to send.

For instance, if you are sending mostly to business email addresses, a late Sunday delivery would put your email right into the large grouping of spam emails that deliver over the weekends. Come Monday morning, your recipient might accidentally (or intentionally) delete your email along with the spam, in interest of time.
On the reverse, personal email addresses are more likely to be checked on the weekends than during the work day.

6. Measure
Keeping tabs on your stats will give you immediate benefits in gathering your metrics, as well as learning information about the timing of how people respond as your stats update.
You really need to know:

1. Who you sent the email to
2. Was it delivered
3. Was it opened
4. Did they click through to your page/offer
5. Did they accept the offer

7. Learn - Back at step one you decided on your objective and goals and your measures, how did you do ? What could you improve ?
After every campaign I like to improve at least one aspect :-)

btw, this is a little bit naughty but I am sure you have thought of it ... when you know what award you want to go for, email your clients and suppliers and suggest that they vote for you.

Point out the good work that you have done, and what the future has in store for you.

Is that too unethical ?

The most recent studies indicate that the number one reason why CEO''s fund marketing is to increase sales.

Your marketing budget should be tied specifically to your company''s product or service life cycle.

Thus, your marketing budget should be tied directly to its ability to generate direct sales or qualified sales leads for the sales team.

Using standard statistical norms to calculate a marketing budget never works well.

Instead, calculate the increase in sales the firm is seeking and then examine the sale cycle steps and costs to create one sale. (Example: 10 leads, 3 proposals =1 sale...) Then back out the marketing costs needed to create one sale and then just prorate those costs out across your entire marketing budget based on your total revenue increase your are seeking.

Brand is in the eye of the beholder.
Brand is the overall impression of your company and goods and services held by the general market you''re trying to sell to.

You have to come up with what you''d like that image to be, and then figure out how to deliver. Brand values are the image you''d like to project and brand personality is what you actually do. Or, as Kristin Zhivago puts it (www.zhivago.com), your brand is the promises you keep.

I would interpret values to be the "ethical/moral/standards backbone" of a brand and the personality as the way the brand exudes or represents it''s values.

For example, a BMW has the "value" of being a reliable luxury car with optimum performance. It excudes these values in its "personality" by its appearance and actual performance.

Ideally, the value and personality compliment each other. But this isn''t always the case. Sometimes a brand may have a good value but a terrible personality and vice versa.

I hope that helps!

Good Luck!

I think you are on the right track by offering a cash prize. Sure teens like clothes and music, but what do they love more?......MONEY, MONEY, MONEY!!!!!

That is the best "universal" attractant. Not all kids are hip on clothes or care about music. They may have other interests and hobbies that don''t pertain to the gift certificates offered.

Another alternative to cash would be a gift certificate to their local mall. Basically the same as cash to teens, who frequent malls more than any other!

Good Luck!

I suggest he offer the agencies and car rental places a percentage of profit. This is always a motivating factor.

I have used this strategy before with an airport parking company. A client opend a travel website and needed an inexpensive way to promote his business. I arranged a deal with the parking company to put my clients flyer and a pen with his logo in the front seat of every car parked for a percentage of commission from online reservations.

We tracked the sales using a promotional code. In your case, inventory acounting would indicate sales.

I hope that helps!

First of all, I would say that giving away cash as prize would not retain teens but it will surely attract them. Second, I believe that you could do something more innovative with teens. They are always trying to be different, and you could give tickets for a concert, or even create a club of those teens that keep visiting the site and answering the surveys. In addition, you could have them redeem their points for tickets to see xtreme sports and talk with the participants. I hope this will be helpful for you.
Oscar gongora

Hi B.
No you are NOT wasting your time trying to diversify, you need to get more customers to reduce your risk of your one big client jumping ship on you.

As long as you are still focusing on web technologies, you can apply your strengths to different customers.

[I don''t recommend trying to add more marketing or advertising activities under your umbrella - a small company of 6 people would die trying to master a different area of expertise]

What have you tried so far that has failed miserably? Why have your prospect said NO?
Analyze those answers and work on improving the results next time around.

You''re starting over in terms of building the business, but you''re lucky enough to have a rich client paying the rent until you get rolling.

And if you have a CEO, you can''t afford to be giving away free hosting or templates, etc. That shit is for beggars, and if you''ve got a F500 client already, you''re above bedroom trash. Keep trying to crack the nut.

Hi AprilGuy,

I think for email campaigns you don''t really need an editorial calendar, you just need to crank out newsletters on time.

An editorial calendar is usually required when the time from creation to distribution is a long period - say months, but the relevancy of email marketing is that it doesn''t (shouldn''t) take a long time to create and distribute the newsletter.

You should already have some topics in mind for the first couple of emails, and then I would use customer survey''s to find out what they want to know about. That way, your newsletter is relevant, it has a better chance of being read, and advertisers who have sync''d their ad with your message should see increased CTRs.

Keep close tabs on your advertisers, and then you should be able to cherry pick the vendors whose products or services fit it best with the article, and pitch them for an ad. If they can''t make a commitment within a week before you publish the newsletter, then god save us all. :-)

You are right, its a brilliant opportunity and I have placed lots of Advertorials in the UK trade press over the years.

Two points strike me:

1. I assume your not including full financial and solutions information
2. Try to use a non customer or partner advertorial in the first instance to get their confidence up (use a senior manager talking about the business in general and how to pick the best company (yours of course) and position it as a consultation piece to prospects.

ADVERTORIALS:
The following may be form a useful arguement for you:

1. Every day, you customers are approached by competitors. Either through direct sales, DM, event invites, exhibitions, PR or advertising/advertorials.

2. Without maintaining a mass presence - particularly in the media - your customers will question whether they have made the right choice in your company. This could lead to concerns such as "maybe they are not as financially secure as they told me, I rarely see their name in the press".

3. You need to keep their share of mind

4. You need to appear to be on a level playing field with your competitors (in terms of awareness)

5. Maintaining a media presence will drive better and easier acquisition.

Jett and Johns advice is spot on, and it should be cost effective as he is only paying for customers that he makes money on anyway (assuming he has a good margin on his product!).

Cost effective medium for converying the message is email (cheapest and the best if used properly), followed by letter (but you need to immediately ensure that DM looks like spam otherwise it will not be read!), can samples be sent out to these agents and car hire people ?

Might be worth contacting the Mexican Tourist Information (is there is such a beast) and see if they will help you promote the product, as its in their best interest to see repeat visitors too.

RATIONALISE - bring all branding/literature into one point. You are usually always best to have one umbrella brand that is instantly recognisable then to develop the individual brand personalities for the different divisions.
In reality suggesting this will fall on deaf ears, so you will probably need to split the branding between the different divisions, but they all need to get together to determine the overall Brand Guidelines that they all stick to.

I will repeat this because its important, the Brand Managers are the custodian of the brand, all branding materials MUST go through them or better still be created by them to maintain consistency, relevance (the messages are better read in the market, better understood and actioned upon) and to reduce costs.

Good luck

I’ll admit that its been a few years since was a teen, but I have consulted companies on teen behaviour and marcom channels, you do not mention the market you are aiming for, but in my experience you can make a sound guess that the teen culture is centred around mobiles and texting! Consider a prize or association around that youth culture!

And just to add my view to the pot!
BRAND VALUE (Brand Promise) is the internal brand values, these can be things like:

We put the customer first
We work as one team
Quality before quantity
etc ... etc ...

BRAND PERSONALITY (Customer Perception) is how part of how the brand is percieved by your customers and prospects, and is generally based on things like:

Quality of products
Support on all customer touchpoints
Feel good with purchase
Trust
etc ... etc ...


The idea is that the VALUES (promise) and PERSONALITY (perception) come together in all the customer interactions, and you either satisfy your brand values in the mind of your customer, and make them happy (and keep them), or you simply fail to deliver (and lose them).

I hope that this helps :-)

Absolutely agree.
I always operate a Straight-Forward Marketing approach, and suggest that we shouldn''t make the task more difficult that it should be.

Anyone should be able to knock a marketing plan up in 10 hours, it needn''t be hard work. Your right that the basic figures should be used, but i have known people look back as very historic sales figures and plotted graphs based on it, it obviously means nothing on its own except they wasted lots of time producing it :-)

I don''t think I have kept any knowledge I picked up a college anyway, its all "on the job" training and real and very practical lessons when up against tight deadlines.a

Its also interesting to see Kotler backtracking on many of his original ideas in order to try to simplify marketing.

Anyway, lets be honest, probably most of what we do is based on gut feeling, and we are usually right :-)

I guess its too easy to suggest that you have sat him down with a pricing model to show what can happen with with different prices, suggesting different volumes of sales and popping ROI out of the bottom ?

I tried it once when our pricing team suggested premium pricing on a piece of kit and the model was powerful in suggesting a lower cost, equated to higher volumes, equated to better overall profitability.

You oviously just need to work on the link between price and volume :-)

Good day,

Correct pricing is based on competition, product and company positioning, overhead costs, inventory turn and cost of goods. Instead of working from a place of what the product price should be, sit down with your client and focus on what the financial and marketing goals are. Let their answers drive the price point.

1)Ask what revenue goals he has for sales per day by location

2)Calculate the units sold per day at different prices needed to hit the number he wants

3)Test market different price points based on his perception of what the price should be

4)Develop a matrix of his pricing compared to his competition

Use this data to discuss from a business point based on factual data not your client''s emotional observations.

Good day,

When talking with your management team, discuss how writing for trade publications allows your to put your "Business Value Out Front" instead of dragging it behind you. Most firms marketing pulls behind them their business value discussing why their better than their competition. Usually, this is worthless marketing approach because prospects just don''t believe you.

But, by writing for trade publications, you will position yourself as specialists and show value first to business prospects. This value forward method of communicating will shorten your sales cycle, and eliminate competition because prospects will just seek you out because of your expertise.

Ok, I guess I would only use email and direct mail together in two instances:

LACK OF POSTAL ADDRESSES:
If I didn’t have enough postal addresses to get the penetration rates and responses I needed, then I would look to email to supplement my mailing numbers.

GGET AROUND A GATEKEEPER:
Lots of the solution I market (B2B), means that I have to get past a gatekeeper, and if I had to post some special promotional item out, then I would consider sending an email first to my contact, explaining that something was in the post (as a teaser), and to ensure that they see it.

Other than that, I cannot imagine a campaign where I would use both as email marketing is much cheaper and you are able to get better metrics on delivery, how many are opened, and the click-through rate.

Good luck

I am a firm beliver of - know before you go -
Of course one can go om with research and analysis, in an effort to avoid actully confonting to jump into the sea and start swimming, but you won''t really know for sure if the water is icecold or not before you are into it.
But as I said: KNOW BEOFRE YOU GO.
Do all the preparements and reseach so you know the full picture,AND THEN jump and swim before you sink.
You can do your homework and spend 100$ on an add to gain 1000s, Skip it and loose millions.

Its obviously an important issue when looking at how the brand is potentially perceived. Its been many years since purchasers simply used the rational side of their brain in purchasing (“What benefits will I get from this product/service”), and we began to see more emotional or psychological (“How this product/service makes me feel”) purchasing, and we are now entering a era where political purchases are making an impact.

Political purchasers are interested in the true Political nature of the brand and organisation behind the product or service … they will ask questions about environmental issues, corporate social responsibility, GM, labour issues!

I seem to remember big brands having similar, high profile problems over recent (Nike and Levi Strauss spring to mind!). But these companies typically resolve the issue by pumping money back into the region that are moving into, they do this by supporting things like local poverty, housing, support of small business and women and children issues.

I guess your client needs to analyse whether this move was TRULY responsible for their downturn, and whether their buyers are acting politically, or is there a general downturn in their sector, is the workmanship at fault!

If it is a political move then ideally these companies and your manufacturing client should have anticipated the problems, but that said, no-one ever does! I think the answer is that your client must now embark on a Corporate Responsibility campaign (and promote it), and this means understanding the need of the local community where the new plant is, and seeing what can be done (I know they will argue that they are paying wages … but they must do much more). This campaign could be as simple of giving to local charities or other community based projects.

As always .. good luck

Speaking from a UK perspective, I have often found that getting press releases published is extremely difficult unless you have a relationship with the publication or editor (it seems unless there is a good angle to the story or it’s a particularly slow news period!).

Emailing them is fine, and always include a photo (can help the press release stand out!).

Keep a list of press contacts and speak with them on a regular basis. If you have something big coming up, I would always contact one or two to see if they are interested first (its surprising how many people still fail to do this and it often means the difference to getting it printed).

Its always been the case in the UUK that to get a press release in a trade publication, you usually need a relationship with their sales team (and have previously bought space!).

Remember that as well as the press, you should always consider sending copies of the release to:

Employees
Your house magazine
Your reception
Salesforce
Top management
Engineers
Agents
Eternal agencies (ad agencies etc)
Distributors
Opinion formers (business groups, MPs etc)
Trade associations
Customers (selected and relevant releases only)
Shareholders (selected and relevant releases only)
.. and anyone else you can think of.

Let me know which state you are in and I can recommend a few good events.

In my experience:

Marketing is thought of as an art 99% of the time.

Good marketing is a science like any other business function. For some reason we have gotten away with treating it as an Art (read no real measurement of results, and no clear, documented processes). Can you imagine trying to run a manufacturing plant without processes and measurements? Why should marketing be any different. Calling it "creative" is a crutch that people use to avoid being accoutable for measurable results.

A piece of the Advertisng puzzle is art. I agree with Cortez''s example above regarding Absolute Vodka. The rest of advertising should be considered all science. Measure, analyze, revise, measure again.

We ran a contest like this and were quite disappointed with the results. Post mortem told us this:

* We didn''t have reports lined up in advance and by the time MIS got to it, the contest was half over.

* We didn''t keep them informed enough about who was in the lead

* The contest was too general and not synched with the key products we wanted to promote

* The reps already had nice cars and would have preferred cash (ours was a Viper)

Best way to avoid failure is to make sure you actually talke to many of the members of the sales team to see if they think it''s motivational.

HTH

I did some work on this a few years back for a UK telco.

We decided that customer segmentation MUST be looked at on different levels as the UK mobile market is complex. You are absolutely right about offering customer/segment specific positioning and offers.

I do not have the answers, I dealt with the UK market 2 years ago, but here are some areas to start looking at.

CUSTOMER SEGMENTATION:
By value, behaviour and demographics
By Pre-Paid/Post-Paid
Needs and Price Sensitivity

ECONOMICS FOR SEGMENTATION:
Customer Value
Retention and Acquisition Costs
Payback per customer
“What if” scenarios

PROGRAM ELEMENTS:
Different service levels per segment
Increase retention
Increase Average Revenue Per User (ARPU)
Loyalty Scheme (never really took off in the UK!)
Identify high value customers, that may churn
Avoid retention activity aimed at low value customers

IMPORTANT: Customer Lifetime Value is critical to forming the basis for segmentation, remember over the life of the customer you will incurr costs (acquisition, handset subsidy, network costs, customer service costs, upgrade costs etc)

Finally … think bundles :-)

Good Luck

GENERATE AWARENESS:
Advertising (ATL/BTL)
PR
Sponsorship

Take your pick really, agree that if you are already successful in another segment then you leverage that.

Consider White Papers positioning yoursef as knowledgeable in the new area.
PR is great, but in the form of advertorials becomes more poswerful.

Nothing like self training, set a target (say 35 hours a week .. like most CPD programmes) and suggest that your teams gives themselves at least that many hours worth of training, the CIM in the UK runs an approach like that, and they use the following criteria which may be useful for you:

https://www.cim.co.uk/mediastore/Chartered_Marketer/Record_Card_2003.pdf

There are some useful ideas in this link: https://www.marketingprofs.com/ea/qst_question.asp?qstID=123

It is always good to know what your value it in the market. Re-vamp your resume and polish your potfolio and go see what your worth! You will feel better asking for a raise if you know what you''re worth somewhere else.

This is good advice for anyone. I have vowed never to let more than 4 years go by without testing my value in the market.

My typical opening rates are 65%, click through rate 10%. But there really isn''t a standard.

According to DoubleClick''s Q3 2003 Email Trend Report

Open rates averaged 37.1%, remaining constant with Q2 at 37.3%.

Click-through rates where 9.2% increasing from 8.2%

According to Constant Contact, aggregate statistics for the last 3 months from all small businesses using Constant Contact where 48.3& and 4.1%.

Lots of driving factors play into this, that is topic of another discussion.

I agree with humble.

You''ve been there too long to give it up without showing other companies what you have done and what you can do.

Even after getting another offer, and asking your current boss for a raise based on that offer...if he gave you the money, would you WANT to stay?

Is money the problem, or the workload? You need to figure that out for yourself!

Welcome to the world of delegation!

I strongly recommend (and do not make any money from) Ralph Wilson. Ralph has been running www.wilsonweb.com for years. While I''ve always focused on the corporate side of things, Ralph set himself up as an advocate of small biz.

He''s running a seminars series east of the Mississippi
https://www.wilsonweb.com/seminar/?homepage
but at $297 for the day, it''d be worth the trip.
Ralph knows his stuff.

On the other hand, you could learn a heck of a lot just bumping around his website.

Open rates in the 30-40% range is acceptable in B2B email campaigns. Response rates from 1-10% can be expected but there are some things that have to be evident:
1. Who is sending the email?
2. Do I know who the email came from?
3. What is the offer?
4. Does the offer have a ''wow'' factor?
5. How do I respond?

If an unknow sender from an unknown company sends a wishy washy offer that requires too many hoops in the response mechanism...then failure will follow.

First of all, if getting the names is not a problem, I would suggest contacting specialty surgeons. I have worked with surgeons for over a decade and it is no news that they are not only in the high income bracket, but most are avid golfers as well. Just a suggestion I''m sure you already thought of.

Regarding approach and intimacy:

1. I would reccomend hosting a semi-casual Open-House with food, open bar, etc.

2. Have BRIEF vocal presentation, with blueprints, architectual artwork, benefits of membership etc in a "classy" display on easels throughout the clubhouse.

3. Have brochures and applications arranged on a table with a person there to answer questions.

4. As far as approach: Mail invitations much like the ones you would use to announce a wedding...very nice stationary, ink, print, personalized, and perhaps a little picture card of the club/course. Request an RSVP so you can plan your catering.

By sending the "wedding" style personalized invitations, you will exude class and intimacy. The semi-casual attire will make people feel comfortable to "come as they are" ( Given your target demographic, I doubt you risk anyone showing up in flip-flops and cut-offs)!

Give a short welcoming speech and a summary of the future plans, inform everyone where the information and applications are located and there will be staff available throughout the event to answer questions. Perhaps the staff can all where the club golf shirts for identification.

Then, just let everyone mingle, eat and check it out!

I hope this is along the lines of what you are looking for.

Good Luck!

4writer I work in B2B, the majority of email addresses are existing customers. We use Rich content (not just text, HTML etc).

And the offers are usually based around discounts.

There is a great site simply titled Businesswarfare.com

Maybe it can give you some guidance!

That was a blast from the past!
Back in 1995, I developed a management game, and ran competitions for business friends of mine, the game seemed to work well.

I delved back into my files and found it! Written in MS Excel, either Excel or myself has advanced, and I think i will tidy it up a little, shouldn''t take long and I will email it out to anyone who wants it.

Drop me a line andrew.scaife@ntl.com

"in the process of developing a branding strategy for the corporation."

In your case you are also having to wrestle with existing brands probably each in varying degrees of success and life cycles.

One risk of viewing brand strategy development at this stage is viewing it too much as a Top Down process, or conversely, too much of a Bottom Up evaluation.

Is "what''s best for the corporation" more important than the cash flow or profitability of an existing brand and what''s good for that brand?" Is possibly diluting a brand''s identity worth the corporate identity gain? Is the company being packaged for a larger strategy that may dictate many of these issues and strategies?

Clearly a brand''s personality develops to suit and serve it''s specific markets and tampering may not be worth the risk - depending on where each is in it''s life cycle, or it''s cash flow or asset value.

The corporate brand surely should encompass the brands it purveys, or will purvey. The answers to these issues will almost surely become corporate strategy discussions at some point as well. So I wonder if the corporate charter for you to build a brand strategy has guidelines or goals that would steer you.

"... if you develop brand values, personality, attributes & a brand promise for the "family" brand, should you allow some flexibility for the individual product businesses to express their individual product brand..."

My vote is "Yes", unless the brands are to become generic players.

Excellent challenge! Good luck - I''d love to hear how you decide to proceed.

I don''t know of a model that works across the board, but here is what we tell our clients. Rather than focusing on a % of sales or marketing budget we tell them to determine what kind of research they need to do to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Then obtain bids from several respectable providers for that envisioned research project or projects. Once you know what the research will cost, you should evaluate the cost based on what you might risk if you don’t do the research. What is the potential loss if you launch a new project and it fails? What will it cost you in lost customer satisfaction?

Good answer from Win, I would just drill a little deeper and suggest that you actually need to test the following as they greatly affect your response rate:

offer
price
premium
creatives (including strategy, format and copy)
timing
list selection

Test the items one at a time to find out what works and what doesn''t (cause and effect).

I usually test between 5-10% of my overall list.

Heres a list! https://www.wkinteractive.com/wk_products_wk.html#COBRNewMovers

Hi Gillieo,

For attraction, try turning the online panel into an instant messenger interface, and have the questions be the topic for discussion. Flash each question on the screen for 10 seconds, the teen would select their answer, and then they would have an online chat with other teens to blog about the topic and answer. Not only could you agregate and total the answers using multiple choices, but you''d have more insight by reading the blogs. Then again, some teens are tight lipped.
Sup?
Nuttin.

For retention, simply ask the teens why they aren''t coming back to complete the remainder of the panel? Maybe the surveys are boring, etc.
If you pursue the IM idea, they might make friends with the other teens online and come back to the v community.

If that doesn''t work, just ground them in their room until they finish the survey. :-)

good luck.

Although the possibilities are endless, here is what I suggest:

1. Find out what promotions your competitors are using and use a better one. for example, if your competitor uses "Buy 2 Get 1 Free", you may want to offer "Buy 1 Get 1 Free". Of course, you may want place limitations such as "Buy any NEW game at regular price and get a USED game of equal or lesser value FREE".

You may also consider a "punch card" promotion where after every transaction over $9.99, the customer gets a hole punched in a special card you provide. After 5 ppunches, they get a free game. You would have to have a custom hole punch or rubber stamp made to prevent fraud.

2. Compare your pricing to their''s and either beat it right away, or offer to beat any price of a competor.

3. Hold weekly video game competitions with a free game to the winner(s). Perhaps you could tier it into a championship with a Grand Prize of cash, gift certificates, or perhaps a game package or an exclusive accessory.

4. I wold start out with an ad in local paper. Call for rates and see what you can afford. Local newsletters (the kind you see for free at restaurants and clubs) offer cheaper rates and usually have a large reader demographic. If you need help designing an ad, email me.

5. Become a memeber of your local chamber of commerce (usually around $300). They will provide you with mailing lists for zipcodes in your area. Design a mailer, and blast an zipcode or two with mailer ads. Again, I can help with design.

6. If you want to go the web route, go to the major game sites and email them about getting listed as a game supplier for your area and inquire about placing an ad on their site. Ask them for stats on visitors from your area before you commit.

Well, That''s a start! You can alter and elaborate from these suggestions. If you need help with anything else or wish to discuss in further detail, email me at jett_enterprises@cox.net.

Good Luck!

On this issue, I don''t go my industry metrics since it is so variable.

Personally, I would offer 3%-10% for any qualified lead to my site.

Your idea has intrigued me. I wish to know more! Perhaps I can be your first customer??!!!

Shoot me an email: jett_enterprises@cox.net

Thanks!

I have a very similar marketing company. Almost identical.

I too, market multiple products to people in the same industry. Regarding, knowing who will be interested...you never know until you present it.

My company promotes in a kind of fusion of your suggestions. We promote/present ALL of our products to our retailers etc. via live, CG animated, and/or mailed proposals along with emails, phone calls, and ultimately lead EVERYONE back to our website where we have everything you would want to know about the products.

Basically, We reach out to all our contacts, tell them what we have, send them demos, and direct them to our site for more specific information, pricing, picutures, etc.

It works real well. This way, EVERYONE sees what you have to market and can refer to your site for info. Saves you TONS of time trying to target a demographic...not to mention the potential loss of sales by not letting everyone know what you have. Like you said, you have no idea who is interested in what. So show them everything!

It works. It''s also good for web stats and site promotion!

Freddie,

I see we are of one mind. I agree that there is no widely accepted "best practice", I do believe it is possible to create one though. It is just too early in the adoption of marketing as a science to have one established. I believe that in the next 5 years we will see a strong shift toward documented and accepted mareketing best practices; a trend that is being led by small, independent, online marketing entrepreneurs.

Within this close-knit group of direct marketers testing is the norm and what works for one company can easily be applied to another company with a totally different product with profitable results.

Doug Hudiburg
https://www.dailymarketingace.com

I would definately sugggest segmenting your services and presenting as such rather than a full list of services you offer, which you are right, can be confusing, confusion leads to NO sales!

example:

1. marketing strategies
2. creative services
3. direct marketing
4. online

One segmented, promote as such.

Consider a "do it yourself" segment, that allows a pick and mix type approach, you just deliver the solution (leaves your client thinking that they have done something for themselves ... gives them some respect!)

Sell these, either as bundles or individual solutions, you can even brand the segments (SmB marketing strategies, SmB creative services etc)

In your web site, ensure you have a "I am a ...." or "I am looking for ... " type link so people can more easily navigate to the relevant section to them.

I guess ultimately your model needs to show, potential profitable revenue per customer/solution etc.

Then a small basic percentage <5% on any sales to that lead, but consider a stepped commission, so if whoever has qualified the lead has good a really good job on selling you they get a better reward.

Just keep an eye on customer PROFITABILITY and give percentages based on that.

Good Luck

It is a good question and one that is hardly ever answered by Strategy books as always assume the target market is known!

Properly analysed, Target Market Selection is one of the most time consuming areas of Strategic Marketing, and comes from the analysis of:

Your Gap (https://www.marketing-magic.biz/archives/archive-marketing/gap-analysis.htm)
Market Share (https://www.phoneplusmag.com/articles/111feat4.html)
Customer Behaviour (https://www.businessvision.co.uk/sales_marketing_03.html)
Market Segmentation (https://www.harcourtcollege.com/marketing/students/segmentation.htm)
Market Research (https://www.sba.gov/starting_business/marketing/research.html)
Market Attractiveness (https://www.yourethebusiness.com/content/tour/con10.asp)
NOTE: Links above used, because I think they offer simple descriptions.

Free lnfo sites:

https://www.zapdata.com/Valuecode.do?group=valueres

https://www.jewelers.org:

https://www.jckgroup.com/index.asp?layout=front_page&webzine=jck&publicatio...

You will have to do some "work" on these sites. Otherwise, you'll have to pay $1000-$2500 for a comprehensive report from several different sites.

If I can think of others or find more I will post them.

I agree with Doug that https://www.marketresearch.com is a good choice.

You can also get a report here (https://www.bizintelagents.com/reports/bta12563_jewelry.html) and here (https://www.researchbarn.com/consumerproducts.jsp).

You will have to pay for these, but to be honest as you are doing this on behalf of a client and not yourself, I would strong suggest you paid for the most indepth, accurate and up-to-date analysis you can ... this is your reputation on the line!

Good luck

One of your challenges is lead qualification.

Look to segment your customer and/or prospect groups in ways that help you learn more about their needs. For instance, if you offer a free report on your website or to your email lists entitled "How to Pump Up your Marketing Results with an Email Newsletter", the people who download the report have qualified themselves as targets for that service.

You can use an autoresponder system to track and segement groups this way kind of like a poor man''s CRM solution

Doug Hudiburg
https://www.dailymarketingace.com

If I understand you correctly you are looking for a marketing role within the sports industry !!! assuming you are in the US, have you looked at any of the following ?

https://www.onlinesports.com/pages/Jobs.html
https://www.usatoday.com/marketing/jobs.htm
https://www.jobsinsports.com

Lena,

Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. In fact, with the recession of the past couple of years, I seem to be in it again.

There are some good points made here and in the link posted by AndrewS.

From my point of view, I'd suggest that you ask yourself some questions:

Are you still learning something new on a regular basis that challenges and excites you?

Do you feel a true sense of accomplishment in the majority of every tasks completed?

Do you really like what you're doing?

Are you being adequately compensated for your current position (go to salary.com, plug in all the variables, and see).

Do you have a network of peers and contacts who are familiar with your work?

If you answer YES to all of the above, then, as others have suggested, develop your case. Get together some supporting documentation for your value to the company. Ask for what you want -- don't demand. If it's within reason, chances are you'll get it.

Remember though, people are not always reasonable. So be prepared to walk to another opportunity (hopefully one that you are already aware of).

Good Luck!

Check out https://awstats.sourceforge.net/ and https://www.analog.cx/ for free Web site / log analyzers. I''ve never used either, so can''t give personal experience (I bookmarked these a while back on other peoples'' recommendations).

For more inexpensive choices, check www.adbility.com and select the Site Monitoring category in the left sidebar.

Once you have identified specific products that interest you, you might then want to ask peoples'' experiences with them.

btw, Websidestory.com has been around for a good while and its Hitbox has a very good reputation.

Good luck!

Carmen

If your looking for a free tool, webanalyse (https://webanalyse.sourceforge.net) is supposed to be good (https://webanalyse.sourceforge.net).

OR

ClickTracks (https://www.clicktracks.com) has won awards and everything!

Not knowing your business, I would offer this approach:

1) Do as much PR yourself. Read "Guerilla PR" (Michael Levine) and "The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR" (Al Ries) . Save big money.

2) I agree with you that "build it and they will come" doesn''t work anymore" with websites. But do keep it updated (if you have e-commerce, that is another animal) with fresh relevant value-ad content. Too many companies spend too much money on web design and if they looked at their logs they would cry.

3) However, building your permission-based database makes cost-effective sense. Then you can send the web-site, new content, white papers, self-published PR articles, case studies etc. via e-mail marketing i.e. newsletters, announcements, specials etc. to customers and prospects who want it and will derive benefit from it.

I use the following free application on several client's web sites

https://www.zymodules.com/realtracker/

Mark Wilkinson
Brand Architect
https://www.newmarque.com

Glen

If I were given the task to articulate to the senior management team (that are non marketers) the difference between brand values (we are not talking about brand value) and brand personality - I would start by asking them a few thought provoking questions.

1. Brand Values

“Do they know anyone who has personal values that would simply make them ineligible to represent our company?” Out of some forty common values, people chose less than ten to run their life and everyone puts different emphasis on those they select as important. This question effectively points out that the leadership has an existing set of core values. They are just not clearly articulated.

Jim Collins, author of Built to Last addresses this topic when he says:

“A few points about identifying core values, for without this stake firmly in the ground, the organization is unable to articulate its purpose effectively:

First, you cannot "set" organizational values, you can only discover them. Nor can you "install" new core values into people. Core values are not something people "buy in" to. People must be predisposed to holding them. Executives often ask me, "How do we get people to share our core values?" You don't. Instead, the task is to find people who are already predisposed to sharing your core values. You must attract and then retain these people and let those who aren't predisposed to sharing your core values go elsewhere. "

Ideally, once you achieve agreement on company core values you can comb through the organization and identify where policies and actions are misaligned with the core values. Get rid of those. Next create visible actions that create alignment between what the company does and its core values. Think of it as the company fulfilling its “promise” to behave in a certain way.

2. Brand Personality

Here you might ask the senior management to think of a relative or acquaintance that has no personality. It should become abundantly clear that a company without a personality is in the same position. This should achieve your goal of getting buy-in to discover and shape your company’s desired personality. Chances are you already have one that you can take steps to enhance.

3. Brand Definition

Just in case you need a definition of brand to get these guys all on the same page try this one on for size:

A brand is the sum total of everything that is known, thought, felt or perceived about a company, product and/or service. It is a promise to achieve a certain result, deliver a certain experience and behave in a certain manner. (source unknown)

My colleagues have given you a lot to work with. Good luck with your brand development process.

Mark Wilkinson
Brand Architect
https://www.newmarque.com

PS. Let me know if you need a list of values

A great question, one that actually adresses a fundamental marketing issue. If you (we) truly believe marketing is more than promotion, the answer to your question is a no brainer - by not involving the customer in the process you're not marketing anyway!

With regards to literature to help validate customer involvment in new service developemnt (NSD) you will find some in the busienss to business literature where this is not so rare as it appears to be in B2C. For specific articles, let me know if you need a hand locating them.

Also a colleague of mine has just recently completed his Phd in NSD within the hospitlaity industry (Europe), while this was not a specific theme (customer involvment) I am sure he would be able to provide additional insight.

Problems you may need to deal with is motivation of the customer to be involved ie. why would they help, remuneration and the political ramifications of managing a group involving (probably) one of your key customers in the decision making process eg. what if they are no use, or none of there input is utilised, who tells them they are wrong without wearing the outcome (reduced sales to that customer?).

However despite this, i think you are on to something and you should persevere; i think you have the makings of a comparative advantage and you will definitely engaging in real 'marketing'.

Hi Mac,

I looked at your profile, determined what type of business you were in, and then and visited your website at vcgsoftware.com

Your website looks professional enough, but a quick search in google for "staffing software" did not list your site in the top 50 results. Your home page has a google pagerank of 6 out of 10 (which is good) and you have approximately 60 other sites linking to your home page.

Depending upon how many prospects are using the web to find your product (software), you might consider optimizing your website to rank higher FOR THE KEYWORDS THEY USE TO FIND YOU. Make surew they're the prospects keywords, not the powers that be's keywords.

However, if your prospects are too busy to search the web for their software needs, or they don't know their software needs, you would likely have better luck pitching them with articles published in trade magazines (publicity).

That would drive them to the website, which should then be modified to have HUGE BILLBOARD SIZED graphic images of those articles, (OK not HUGE, but...) which link to a specific page that talks about how your solution can help them, and then a contact form for a free trial or demo, etc.

I'd spend a day on the phone with your existing customers and a group of prospects and ask them how they found you, and determine if THEY WANT YOUR WEBSITE REDESIGNED or THEY WANT SOLUTIONS TO THEIR STAFFING NEEDS THROUGH SOFTWARE. Then take that data to the PTB (Powers That Be) to win your case.

Write the articles, have your focus group read them and give you feedback, then get them published, modify the website, and watch your weblogs for signs of life.

GL (Good Luck)

Woody,

Allen has posted very sound advice. If you wish to pursue upper level positions, an MBA is a very good "Gold Star" on your resume.

To add to Allen's copy.....

You really do need to decide what type of marketing and what type of positions you wish to pursue. This can make all the difference in your strategy. Allen already gave you an example of the benefits of an MBA...but let's say you don't want to do that right now. What do you do?

First of all, I would STAY in your current employ since they have given you a chance to not only learn the ropes, but use their company as an entry level basis for your marketing future. Even though the newsletter may not be intellectually rewarding right now, you are gaining EXPERIENCE!

If the newsletter is "cake" to you, then I assume you have room in your life (and energy) to educate yourself. Your inquiry about AMA workshops is indicative of your willingness to devote time to training.

Where do you start? RIGHT HERE! This website has a plethora of information from basic "101" to complicated metrics analysis. Read, Read, Read!!!! You will be amazed at how much you can find out in just a few short hours of online tutorial, articles, etc. This site will keep you tied up for days if not weeks! You can also check out marketing firm sites to see how they present themselves, etc.

Secondly, start interacting in the forum. You asked a question...now try answering one. Marketing is not all about degrees and such. Much of it is creativity and intuition. If you feel like you have a good answer to a posted question, give it a shot! Interacting with other marketers is another valuable "free" resource.

Another suggestion, which is quite a big step but worth a shot, is to start your own marketing firm. Work it online from home after work. Start slow. Ask questions. As you go through the phases of developing your business, you will be "forced" to inquire about certain topics, thereby not only enhancing your education, but your experience as well! In other words, you can't learn how to swim until you get in the water! I'm not saying you can't have "floaties", but I believe hands on experience within your current job along with self education as described above will help you decide if you really need or want to devote the time and money to obtain an MBA.

Good luck with your endeavors!