Many marketing and sales experts believe the case study is the most effective tool in B2B selling. One client tells me the case histories I research and write for them (one per quarter) are by far their sales and business development teams’ most effective sales tools, both here and abroad. And why not? After all, […]
Category Archives: marketing
How to get your e-mail opened
The biggest challenge for e-mail newsletters isn’t getting people to sign up. It’s getting them to open the darn thing when you send it. What can you put in the “Subject” line to get subscribers’ attention and motivate them to open and read it? Dilemma: If it’s too “salesy” it’s a turn-off. If it’s boring, […]
Ignore customers? Game over, Sony
“Pride, politics, and an overabundance of technology can blind you to the simple truth of what consumers want.” Thus reads the obituary — er, article about Sony’s Ken Kutaragi in Business 2.0. Kutaragi, the onetime genius behind Sony’s videogame consoles, will step down as head of the company’s games division, no doubt to be shuttled […]
Why your customers aren't paying attention
Let me guess. You’re probably doing a couple of other things while you’re reading this, right? Uh, hello? Are you listening? Marketing’s first and biggest challenge is getting the attention of potential customers. These days that job is harder than ever, because people are paying less attention than ever. They’re doing other things– consuming other […]
Does your writing need an editor?
Everyone know what a writer does. But what is editing? What does an editor actually do for (or to) your book, article, newsletter? Who needs an editor? Everyone who writes needs their worked edited — even famous journalists and novelists, says Dan Santow, a former magazine editor and now Edelman PR type. In his new […]
The secret of spreading "sticky" ideas
When you have an important idea, how do you communicate it in a way that has impact, a way that “sticks?” Guy Kawasaki recently interviewed Chip and Dan Heath, authors of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. The book reveals the six principles that characterize sticky ideas. They’re almost always some […]
Music marketing and free samples
Speaking of musicians using their unpaid promotional appearances as “free samples,” here’s an interesting aside about music marketing. From the record companies’ point of view, these unpaid appearances on television and radio programs are geared to promote the sale of their new CD. After all, the label gets to keep the bulk of the revenue […]