Monthly Archives: August 2005

Probably not immediately, says Rich Brooks in Business Blog Consulting. As he puts it: I argue that business blogging should fall into Stephen Covey’s second quadrant: important but not urgent. I don’t think many people would argue that a business blog alone is enough marketing for any company, even a business blog consultant. However, it […]

If it’s just too much trouble to right-click and choose “Blog this,” now you can draft and even post a Blogger entry right from Word. Pretty handy for guys like me, who spend a huge percentage of our time in that particular program. Has anybody tried it? What’s the verdict? Give me some help, OK? […]

In a humorous and head-slapping post, Seth Godin confirms that marketing is now officially about wants, not needs. Check it out here. Of course, marketers have known for years that people are willing pay much more for what they want, compared to their needs. In fact, they’ll skip their needs to get what they want. […]

Want to get people to pay attention to your memos, slides, sales letters — all your written business communications? Then scuttle those lame adjectives, and replace them with strong “action” nouns and verbs. Ruth Walker has a great tip in the Verbal Energy blog: Think like a newspaper headline writer. “Before there were flying thumbs […]

OK, Mazda, here’s your choice: A. Replace the customer’s defective car now (cost: $30,000), orB. Wait and cough up $300,000 later. Guess which Mazda chose? A simple conversation (a/k/a/ better business communication) could have resolved this mess 3-1/2 years sooner, salvaged a customer relationship, built great PR — and saved the company a quarter of […]

Seth Godin has some good insights into one of the things that’s wrong with business writing today. There are two kinds of writing, Seth explains. If you’re writing for strangers, keep it short. To the point. Don’t answer unasked questions. (I’d put it this way: Don’t be a bore.) However, if you’re writing for colleagues […]

Despite the rough seas and occasional storms we face, business owners like me love steering our own ships. Being the captains of our fates. Standing up and (warning: mixed metaphor ahead) taking our best shots. OK, most of the time, anyway. This is confirmed by a new survey from the Wells Fargo/Gallop Small Business Index. […]