Vol. 4 , No. 13     March 30, 2004

 


In this Newsletter:

  1. How to Build a Beautiful Friendship with Your CFO
     
  2. The Whole Whole Product
     
  3. Are You a Believer?
     
  4. The Business Model IS the Brand
     
  5. SWOT Team: How to Kill Popular but Unprofitable Products
     
  6. How to Stand out in a Crowded Marketplace: The Zap System
     
  7. How to Make Links Work for Your Web Site
     

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Roy Young
How to Build a Beautiful Friendship with Your CFO

If Marketing is to become the engine of the business, marketers must build a beautiful friendship with the Chief Financial Officer to get the necessary fuel.

Here, Roy Young suggests five keys to beginning a beautiful friendship with your CFO. He follows up with five management processes to make the relationship last.

Get the full story.

Search CRM

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Michael Fischler
The Whole Whole Product

Core strategic marketing thought has (for many reasons) changed in the 25 years. The core focus has shifted from “how good can we make our product?” to “how happy can we make our customers?” Two very different questions, looking at the marketplace from two very different perspectives.

This means that it’s time to alter the definition of "Whole Product," and by so doing alter our view of what that really is.

Get the full story.


Michael A. Goodman
Are You a Believer?

As any professional salesperson will tell you, it’s a lot easier to close a sale if you really believe in your product.

When you think about your job search as a marketing project—marketing yourself and your capabilities to a prospective employer—at some point you become a salesperson. Selling is part of the marketing process, and it is important that you be a product believer too.

Get the full story.

 

A Note to Readers

Free and Clear

Hello and welcome to another rib-stickin’ issue of MarketingProfs.

We’ve had some interesting exchanges this week with each other, and with a few of you, about our new Premium Subscription offering.

Some of you, it seems, feel a little put out by the shift to some fee-based content. One or two of you feel that we are abandoning our core subscriber base—that we are now filling our newsletter with the equivalent of cheap box wine while reserving the well-aged Zinfandel for our Premium subscribers.

But here's the skinny: For most of you, there’s been very little change. Each weekly newsletter now includes seven articles—six “free” pieces and a single “Premium” one. If you are a Premium subscriber, you can click through and read that piece in its entirety. If you are not, you can’t. But, just as always, you can still read the other six articles for free.

So is the free stuff worthless? Absolutely not—just as it never was before.

The Premium article is a different animal than the rest of the MarketingProfs content. It’s a longer research piece that digs a little deeper into a topic. But, at the same time, the “free” articles are of the same quality as they have always been.

Your favorite authors (and mine) are still writing “free” stuff for the site. The quality of their missives has not declined. And we haven’t moved any of their still-free good stuff behind the green door.

Our imperative is to continue with our original mission—to continue to fill the newsletter with good, strong, quality content (for free) and without alienating loyal, long-term subscribers. With the introduction of Premium Subscriptions, we are balancing that with the need to serve another audience: those willing to pay a few bucks a year to get a longer, more filling feast.

We need those bucks to continue operating and improving the site and the newsletter—AND to continue providing quality free content.

I’m excited about our new direction. And while I understand and respect the opinion of those upset by the change in content delivery, I don’t apologize for the change. We’re still giving you what you want, when you want it, at whatever price you are willing to pay—even if that price is nothing. (Last month, we added a record 8,000 new subscribers to the site, so I guess we’re serving up lots of good stuff!)

Ann Handley
ann@marketingprofs.com
MarketingProfs.com


 

Last Issue's Top 5

  1. How to Build a Beautiful Friendship with Your CFO
  2. 10 Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Next Speaking Opportunity
  3. Five Ways to Achieve Better Forecasts
  4. The Brand Called We
  5. How to Manage Your Corporate Reputation Online
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Recent Know-How Exchange Questions/Answers

  1. Business Proposal
  2. Retirement . . .ugh. Not For Me. What Should I Do?
  3. Advertising Versus Networking, Which Is Best.
  4. Is Direct Marketing Still A Money Making Opportunity In India?
  5. Why Do You Believe The Imc Approach Is Becoming Popular Among Marketers?
 
 

 

Ray Podder
The Business Model IS the Brand

What do recent emerging trends mean for the next generation of business models? For one, it means a full disclosure of business practices.

Today, there are no secrets, at least not for long. Get the full story.


Yvonne Bailey and Hank Stroll
SWOT Team: How to Kill Popular but Unprofitable Products

This week, weigh in with your own suggestions to: When you’ve made a practical decision to cut your losses on a highly popular but unprofitable product line, how do you make a gracious market exit?

Also this week, read your answers to last week's query: What steps and checklists can you use to back up planning decisions?

Get the full story.

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Sean D’Souza
How to Stand out in a Crowded Marketplace: The Zap System

Zapping is just about being yourself. Different.

In other words: When everyone else zips, you zap.

Get the full story.


Gerry McGovern
How to Make Links Work for Your Web Site

Quality links from external Web sites will help get more of the right people to your own site. Well-written links within your Web site will ensure that your readers can act in a way you want them to.

Linking is about driving action. It’s about getting the right people to the right content as quickly as possible. Here's how to do it.

Get the full story.

Contact

Publisher:Allen Weiss
amw@MarketingProfs.com

Content: Ann Handley
ann@MarketingProfs.com

Partnerships:
info@MarketingProfs.com

Ad/Sponsor Information:
go here or contact jim@MarketingProfs.com

Premium Subscriptions:
Roy Young
roy@MarketingProfs.com

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