Archive for November, 2006
"Really, you shouldn’t have."
That’s the tagline of Regiftable.com, a web site dedicated the sometimes-controversial habit of passing along gifts you don’t really want to other people. It was the subject of an AP story recently.
McGrigg noted that a survey done by MMC last year found that some 40 percent of respondents admitted that they had regifted. The main [...]
Jones for a Jones?
I’ve long suspected that consumer marketers could have more fun with their products than those of us who have labored in the B2B or B2T or T2T or G2G (geeks selling to geeks) world I’ve built my career in. Not that development tools, IT controls management software, and DSP boards aren’t fun, it’s just that….
So [...]
Real Bad News
One of my ongoing complaints with the consumer software industry is its utter contempt for customers. From installers that litter your PC with shortcuts and icons to take you to sales pitches (Quicken, anybody?) to partnerships that that mean that installing one piece of software leaves you with extra stuff you didn’t want on your [...]
Managing Leads
Managing leads is a topic that always worth revisiting, because it’s a place where things so often go wrong. I won’t repeat the points in this great little MarketingProfs piece on the subject, but I’ll call attention to one of their recommendations: “Know the sales process.”
In most effective sales organizations, the sales force adheres to a [...]
Getting to the Point
A week or so ago, Mary Schmidt had an excellent post on the uses and abuses of Power Point . She focuses on just four points, which she gets across quite concisely, and which I’ll boil down even further:
The presentation is for your customer (not you)
Keep the preso simple and uncluttered, but KNOW THY MATERIAL
It’s okay to have a long, [...]
Coffee Competition
Say “biggest national chain of coffee shops” and most people will think Starbucks. They’re wrong. MarketingProfs writes about America’s biggest coffee retailer in terms of cups sold: Dunkin Donuts.
The interesting part is that Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts are not really competing head on.
The campaign is a portent of the chain’s plan for national expansion over [...]
Jury’s Out
Normally, I hate it when web designers get clever with navigation. I don’t want to have to figure out your Flash-based navigation system when I visit a site; I want it to behave in predictable ways when I visit so I can find what interests me. I want it to be fast. Watching a “site [...]
Sometimes You Need to Ignore Your Most Passionate Customers
Every marketers wants passionate customers - people so in love with your product that they will tell all their friends about it, set up fan sites, post to their blog about it, and generally become your most dedicated product evangelist for no personal reward other than the happiness of talking about something they love.
And [...]
e-Mail Marketing: Non-Profit Division
Earlier this week, I attended a Board Meeting at St. Francis House, which provides multiple services (life-sustaining and rehabilitative) for the poor and homeless in Boston. (Disclosure: I’m a long-time SFH board member, and a volunteer, but I have nothing whatsoever to do with their marketing - other than being a devoted, enthusiastic member [...]
Advice for Letting Go
Return Path has some good advice on a topic many email marketers get wrong: the unsubscribe process.
Yes, someone who’s unsubscribing from your list is leaving and is unlikely to be a future customer… but you should still make the process as pleasant as possible. If you do, they might come back.
(And if you don’t, you [...]
