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Vol. 4 , No. 34     August 23, 2005

 


In this Newsletter:

  1. Thought Leaders Commune on Email Marketing: Spam Is Not the Only Issue
     
  2. Q&A With Chris Maher: Marketing's Lost Souls
     
  3. Who Comes First: Good to Great Marketing
     
  4. Seven Steps to on-Time, on-Budget Whitepapers
     
  5. The Marketing Juju of Fantasy Football
     
  6. Dragons, Quests and Marketing Plans
     
  7. Simplicity Is Hard Work
     

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Premium Content

Stephan Spencer
Thought Leaders Commune on Email Marketing: Spam Is Not the Only Issue

Email marketing has an innate and powerful ability to communicate one-to-one with your customers. But its cost-effectiveness has been its Achilles heel; so many marketers are now using email that consumers are overwhelmed. Is email marketing, as we know it, doomed?

MarketingProfs convened a Thought Leaders Summit of global experts to discuss the issues facing email marketers today. On hand were the likes of Chris Baggot of Exact Target, consultant Rok Hrastnik, DoubleClick's Eric Kirby of DoubleClick, and Forester's Shar VanBoskirk, among others. Here's their take on spam, relevance, RSS, and much more.

Get the full story.

Please note: This article is available to paid subscribers only. Get more information or sign up here.

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Ann Handley
Q&A With Chris Maher: Marketing's Lost Souls

Chris Maher is president of Fosforus, a business-to-business marketing, media, and interactive design firm based in Austin, Texas. Those of you who have read his writing on MarketingProfs know that Chris is a little different from your average agency guy. He beats a drum about real connections (not just marketing) with real people (not just customers).

Lately, he's also been worrying about the effect of all this marketing and advertising on the human soul, and thinking about the longer-term implications for our culture and society.

These dog days of summer offer a perfect time to pause for some perspective, and reflect on some of the larger issues inherent in marketing and advertising today.

Get the full story.


Paul A. Barsch
Who Comes First: Good to Great Marketing

Many marketing professionals are trapped in discerning the best tradeshows, direct mail pieces or advertising layouts.

But the truth is that great marketing starts with the "who." It starts with finding the right people and putting them in the right jobs. Indeed, the "whats" are important, but only in context of "first who."

Get the full story.

 

A Note to Readers

The Dog Days of Summer (& a Deal!)

Here in New England, the dog days of summer are nearing their end. It's slightly nippy in the mornings, a little darker in the early evenings, and the morning lawn is tinged with dew—the earliest signs that the long and glorious days of summer are drawing to a close.

I love the dog days of summer, because, well, I love dogs. Nah, just kidding. What I really love is the quiet before the urgency of fall. It always feels to me like the last contemplative bit of the year, when it's still OK to sit on a beach all day. September, not January, marks the real start of the new year in my mind. That's when school starts, deadlines come due, and the manic pace of work and home life resumes.

Which is why now is a perfect time to reflect on some of larger issues of marketing and advertising. Not to get too out there... but I think it's healthy to periodically take stock of your perspectives and goals, and question the premise behind what you are working toward.

For that reason, I'm really excited about today's Q&A with one of my favorite MarketingProfs writers, Chris Maher. The Q&A in today's issue was originally intended to be the shorter-format Note to Readers this week.

But I should have guessed, from having edited Chris's work for... like... ever (!), Chris doesn't do "short format" well. OK, he doesn't do short format at all. He's anything but long-winded: He simply has a lot to say, and he feels a certain urgency in saying it.

Coincidentally, the MProfs team is gathering this week in Santa Barbara, California; it's our twice-annual companywide Team Summit. So as you read Chris's Q&A this week and apply it to your own work and life, know that we'll be doing the same as we take stock of MProfs and plan its direction for the coming months.

Thanks for stopping by! As always, your feedback is both welcome and encouraged.

Until next week,

Ann Handley
ann@marketingprofs.com
Chief Content Officer
MarkeitngProfs.com

p.s. And by the way, the dog days of summer also happen to be an excellent time to sign up for that MarketingProfs Premium membership you've been craving. For a limited time only -- like, NOW! -- annual Premium membership is a whopping 20 percent off the regular price. (That's up to $39 off.) Check it out here.


 

Last Issue's Top 5

  1. Internal Customer Service: Why It Matters (and How to Apply It)
  2. Marketing Operations: Solving Marketing's Seven Deadly Sins
  3. Product Differentiation in a B2B Market
  4. The New Innovators: Mompreneurs
  5. How to Identify the Right Copywriter for You
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  4. Whats Wrong With Our Old Site? Really?
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Replay

 

Martin Chorich
Seven Steps to on-Time, on-Budget Whitepapers

In today's increasingly post-literate culture, the idea of a 10-plus page linear narrative may seem out of date. But not so. The role of the marketing/technical whitepaper is on an upswing as companies recognize their effectiveness in communicating with audiences that demand authenticity and detail when making business decisions.

The big problem with whitepapers, however, is that their length and complexity make them vulnerable to delays and budget overruns, usually in the late phases of the document review process. Here's how to avoid Death by Review.

Get the full story.


John Moore
The Marketing Juju of Fantasy Football

As marketers, we are always seeking ways to make our products and services more attractive to consumers. When we do it right, we know we've created marketing juju.

Consumers are more than just attracted to these businesses. They are downright captivated by them. Each of these brands creates marketing juju by (1) facilitating, not dictating the usage of its products, (2) fostering community and (3) assisting consumers in actualizing their aspirations.

With the 2005 National Football League season upon us, we should add the brand called "Fantasy Football" to the list of brands with marketing juju.

Get the full story.


Laura Patterson
Dragons, Quests and Marketing Plans

A good marketing plan is in essence the Cliff Notes version of the company's current status, how it got there and what if anything needs to be addressed.

In other words, a good marketing plan has all the elements of a well-told story.

Get the full story.


Gerry McGovern
Simplicity Is Hard Work

Simple is a lot harder than it looks.

Indeed, to achieve simplicity, an organization needs to be genuinely customer-focused. Extra investment will be required, as well as a special commitment from designers and management.

Is it worth it? Certainly, organizations such as Apple and Google are showing that simplicity can become a genuine competitive advantage.

Get the full story.

Contact

Publisher:Allen Weiss
amw@MarketingProfs.com

Content: Ann Handley
ann@MarketingProfs.com

Strategy and Development:
Roy Young
roy@MarketingProfs.com

Director of Premium Services
Val Frazee
val@MarketingProfs.com


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