QViews

Before You Join the Social Media Party

2009-10-28T12:36:17-05:00

Over at Brazen Careerist, Matt talks about what it takes for an individual to be successful in social media. If you think you'd like to join the rest of us using social media, or worse, if you feel competitive pressure to use Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media tool, please consider these 15 steps. I encourage you to read Matt's original post, which is very insightful, or click through to my paraphrase. Whenever I actually intend to use advice, I re-write it in my own language, so that it becomes part of my thinking. Thanks, Matt! Brazen Careerist: Invest...

Top Ten Email Newsletter Designs

2009-09-28T08:59:18-05:00

Of all the email newsletters I receive, these are the ten best designed. All are excellent in a different way, so there's no ranking. le cool - most innovative Publishing Perspectives - best example of curating a topic ClickZ Experts Today - most effective at humanizing news and opinions Promo Xtra - best at discovering valuable tidbits First to Know - best at showing what news means (relevancy) Fast Company - the glitziest take on technology and business trends Springwise - best use of imagery to convey ideas quickly Fetchdog - most beautiful overall design Flavorpill - best information architecture...

What is marketkeeping?

2009-09-23T14:24:41-05:00

Many people equate marketing with creativity, but I prefer to equate marketing with accounting, or better yet, housekeeping. Whether you're in the office or in the home, the quality of your environment depends on keeping the books and sweeping the floors. Instead of hoping for a marketing campaign that 'knocks their socks off,' set up a marketing system that keeps the right audience involved month after month.

Listen past the data

2009-09-21T14:51:00-05:00

We're experiencing an explosion of technologies that help us listen to our audience, but none of them can apply the common sense of a human being to what they collect. While you can't listen to all your customers every month, but you have to make sure you interact with a few. As David Armano points out in this article, reports and surveys can lead you astray. That's what happened to BusinessWeek. Logic + Emotion: How Filter Failure Contributes to Business Failure, 2009-Sep-19, by David Armano Watch this video by Bruce Nussbaum, BusinessWeek's innovation editor and veteran employee with the company....

Sales Leads: Talk to 'em or Lose 'em

2009-09-11T09:16:00-05:00

'Working a lead' is an unfortunate concept because the person at the other end often ends up feeling 'worked on.' Always remember that your leads are people who can tell you what's going on. Take an interest in their life—it won't take long until you relationship has a trajectory and a rhythm. Marketing Strategy and Innovation Blog: Give Your Leads a Regular Check-Up, 2009-Sep-10, by Maria Pergolino: How often do you ‘talk’ to your leads? The frequency in which you engage with your leads is correlated with the chance of a sale. For example, calling a lead too much may...

At Etsy, email pulls its weight

2009-09-09T16:38:00-05:00

Compared to ephemeral social media channels, email is practically a "hard copy." We can just let it lie in our inboxes until we get around to it. Musings of a VC in NYC: Don't Forget About Email, 2009-Sep-7, by Fred Wilson Our portfolio company Etsy operates a market for handmade items. Etsy has been operating for over four years. For most of its life, Etsy had little to no email communication with its buyers. In the past six months, they built a number of email services and now email is one of the top traffic drivers to the site, passing...

How RSS strengthens newsletters

2009-09-07T15:57:00-05:00

Our audiences are collecting information in many different ways. For many people, an RSS feed is the easiest way to be alerted to new content. Make sure your headlines and excerpts look good on the feeds, then leverage RSS to improve your newsletter's reach. BtoB: How RSS can complement e-mail marketing, 2009-Sep-3, by Karen J. Bannan: Four tips courtesy of Derek Harding, CEO of Omnicom Group's Innovyx: 1) RSS works only if you are using it for frequently updated content. 2) Track and target your RSS feed. 3) Promote RSS using e-mail and promote e-mail using RSS. 4) It's OK...