Seasons Greeting

This is the time of year when we spend the quality time with our families that we strive to have daily. I guess it really takes a global holiday to ensure that it happens.

No mater what you celebrate the end of December brings us together with our thoughts and allows us to plan to do better next year.

Reach out and offer a helping hand to those whose struggle is more difficult that ours.

Have a safe,
happy holiday season and
a healthy, prosperous New Year!

What a home run!

Movies and television shows are the usual places we expect to see successful product placements. Occasionally we’ll actually notice the product. Yet most of the time it seems to just blend in as if it were meant to be part of the set, not a paid placement.

But today I noticed a real home run of product placements on a blog.

Bruce Eric Anderson managed to include not one, not two, not even three product placements in his latest Digital Nomads blog but eleven (that’s right 11) active links in a single post. We’re talking about 3 computers models from 2 companies, a telephone, a digital camera, HD video camera, a city guide, GPS/Navigation system, a resort and a snowcat. Oh, I almost forgot he also mentions Twitter early on in the post.

And he manages all this in under 500 words.

As far as product placements go, this is a home run in anyone book.

How visible are you to your customers and prospects?

It’s important to remain in front of your customers and prospects in difficult times. Concentrating on maintaining a strong brand becomes critical as your competitors struggle to stay in the game financially.

One of the best methods of keeping your brand visible is to position yourself as the expert in your field. Collaborate with existing customers to build a series of solutions to common problems that plague your industry.

Publish the results of your collaborative efforts on your web site, your customer’s web site and pitch the story to editors for inclusion in their online library.

Keeping you and your brand positioned as experts and leaders in your field during lean times increases your credibility, recognition and puts you in a position of strength when we enter the next phase of economic recovery.

Keep Going

There are a number of ways to respond to running your business during tough times. The challenge we face to move forward in a down economy smacks us in the face every day.

Business are faced with the prospect of loosing current customers and having difficulty acquiring new customers as capital is re-purposed to keeping the lights on and telephone answered.

But how do we manage the financial obligations and still continue to build your business.

Marketing keeps the lines of communications open. Make certain your customers, prospects and industry shakers and movers know that you’re here for them. Reach out and let them know that your company is here for the long haul, ready to help them weather the economic storm.

One of the best ways to keep in touch is rooted in good marketing practices. Review your plan to ensure that your message is up-to-date and consistent with how your company wants to be known in the industry. An on-topic message reinforces the benefits you bring to the market.

Stay in front of your audience with a consistent on-line and offline presence.
Increase your efforts rather than reducing your marketing resources. Create a new paradigm by sharing your expertise with white papers and articles. Promote your point of view with every e-mail and written correspondence. Participate in the recovery every day, in every way you interact with your audience.

The bottom line is simple. Keep your brand in front of your customers and prospects with news, article, sponsorships and expert advice.

My apologies

Recently I’ve been remiss at keeping up with this blog. What started out as a way of sharing my experience in marketing and business in general was a grand idea. Little did I anticipate a series of events that would distract me from this noble effort.

But they did.

I promise to do my best to add a new post weekly, but don’t think poorly of me should they be less frequent as the holidays arrive

Brand Building - Good News/Bad News

I read a news item today published by a manufacturing industry trade journal announcing that a supplier hired an agency to handle their PR and marketing needs. The first surprise, and there were a couple, is that the release was covered by a web site for the manufacturers industry.

Kudos to the agency for remembering to include that site in their media list. Most agencies would have restricted the distribution of this type of release to the media centric - advertising/PR/marketing - publications, not those where their client needs coverage.

That's the good news.

At the end of the release was the usual close, the contact information for the agency. What is remarkable about this is the e-mail address, it's an AOL account. Now I don't know about you, but using a branded (read that domain specific) e-mail is one of the key factors in building the recognition for you, your company and your products.

That's the bad news. Shame on this agency for forgetting a basic fundamental of brand marketing.


Marketing is more than PR or advertising, it's about building a perception about your reality in the eyes of your buying public. Using a branded e-mail address is part of the process.

Keeping it all together

Digital Nomads has struck again.

Jay White's recent post about 'Tools of the Trade" struck a chord for me. Managing documents, bookmarks and other user specific information when out of the office is a real pain for most of us. Dealing with these issues has us trying to sync various settings on desktops and laptops.

Jay's post offers a number of solutions to make our traveling easier and productive without the headaches.

Where Do You work? I Work Everywhere.

I can't take credit for the title, but I can certainly relate to the concept. For as long as I've been working, and that's a long time compared to some of you, my job has included significant travel.

When I first entered the workforce as an adult I spent 12-15 weeks straight on the road. This was before cell phones and email. (Yes, I may be considered older than 'sin' for admitting this fact.) We traveled by car, bus, truck and plane to both exotic and non-exotic destinations. Unfortunately these visits were always brief, some lasting less than 24 hours, and filled with work. But at the same time I was working in the entertainment industry during a very exciting time.

Today's nomad's have it dialed. We have cell phones, laptops, email and high-speed internet connections at hotels virtually every night. Some of us refuse to book a hotel without a fast connection in our rooms to avoid being 'off the net' for even one night.

That brings me to the headline from today's post - 'Where Do You work? I Work Everywhere.'

The story is posted on Dell's new DigitalNomads.com site, which seems to be a combination of a back-door, community oriented sales pitch and a site that answers a true calling for travelers. The real question in my mind: Is this the start of a new social networking community or just another flash in the marketing pan by Dell?

What's your take?

Knowledge is a great thing to have, keep and expand

When Wikipedia first entered the internet fray it stunned a number of folks. After all, how could you trust a collection of diverse people that took it upon themselves to help define our world.

Today, the Wikimedia Project extends to multiple languages, is part of our daily life and in fact, indispensable to students of all ages. It takes user generated content to the nth degree.

But wait there's more (as the DTV commercial goes). . . Google has introduced "Knol: a unit of knowledge." (A knol is an authoritative article about a specific topic according to Google.)

The good news is that we now have another user generated content site to serve our research needs. The other good news, from a marketing standpoint, is that Google once again, has an opportunity to capture more of our time.

Moving to Vitrual Trade Shows - Is it worth it?

My colleague Rick Short addressed a great question in his blog Virtual Trade Shows in the B2B Environment today.

Marketers in the electronics manufacturing sector, suppliers of capital equipment or consumables, and users have faced ever increasing costs to attend trade shows over the past few years.

We're reminded of the costs every day when we fill our tank up at the pump.

The big 'take away' from both Rick's post for me is simple. Virtual shows can be used to augment traditional trade shows, but may never replace them. At least not in the near future.

One of my electronics sector Clients summed it up pretty well by commenting that customers and prospects needed to have a hands on experience with his products. It that tactile, touchy-feely time that really makes the difference with hardware.

What do you think?

Working together to better our world, a WOMM winner

When I read Seth Godin's blog (When you least expect it) this morning, it reminded me of from my mis-spent youth and a bumper sticker talking about doing random acts of kindness.

He ordered t-shirts from an online vendor with the expectation that they would fill his order correctly. Little did he anticipate that the vendor would check out the imprint design and make an offer a donation to the non-profit run event.

And the vendor expected nothing in return (as Seth aptly put it:) "Just plain generosity."

My hat's off to Custom Ink and their dedication to serving the community at large.

Now that's word-of-mouth marketing at its best!

A Gasoline Emergency

Rising fuel costs do more than empty our wallets!

Running our gas tank down until the 'low fuel' light on the dash turns on has never been a problem for some of us, except in the winter. Then we're concerned that the inevitable water in the fuel will freeze rendering the car unusable when we need it the most.

Today's ever increasing fuel costs have started to hit home for most of us and it's not just at the pump. We see it everyday with rising costs for all goods. Transportation providers tend to pass their fuel increases along to their customers, who in turn pass them along to the consumer - that's us!

But one of the unexpected side effects to the rising costs of fuel has finally been brought to the forefront by a town in New Jersey. Holmdel, population of about 14,00, is similar to many of the communities across the nation. Part of the town commutes to a major city - in this case New York - by train, bus or car five days a week. It hosts the PNC Bank Arts Center, Vietnam Veterans Memorial and a hospital. And the Garden State Parkway runs through the Township. They also host a number of large and small businesses within the confines called Holmdel.

Unlike it's counterparts in large cities, EMS duties are handled by volunteers. (EMS handles first aid and rescue efforts for the Township.)

Many of the volunteers are finding it hard to respond to emergencies - 911 calls - since they need to use their personal vehicles to get to the squad building where they pick up the ambulance or to get to the actual scene of the emergency. Some of the members are on fixed incomes, making the sacrifice of helping others a drain on their limited incomes. Add to that the high cost of diesel for the response vehicles and we have a recipe for disaster.

Their plea for help has attracted the attention of local politicians, yet it may take a national effort to address the issue. Their story has been covered by the Asbury Park Press and picked up by Fox News in New York.

Until a solution is reacted, each of us can do a small part to help. Find the local version of the all volunteer Holmdel First Aid Squad in your town and make a donation. If your town uses paid EMS crews, feel free to send a donation to the Belmar First Aid Squad, PO Box 636, Belmar NJ 07719. (Let them know where you read about this critical issue!)

Even a couple of dollars is a welcome donation to these folks. Heck, it's probably less than a cup of fancy coffee!

Quotes that live in infamy

Some very brilliant people have made some very, very wrong presumptions over the years. With the internet, these guffaws live on forever.

Brian Clark gives us a look at some of the best misstatements in his copyblogger post 'What's the Ultimate Creativity Killer?'

Seth Godin* Strikes Again!

Seth's blog entry today is titled "Lenore Godin's son" containing some good words of wisdom from his mom. Of course he transfers the lesson to marketing.

Our lesson is simple. Don't wait to be nice to your customers (and prospects) until the last minute. Be nice, courteous and kind (some of my words, not Seth's) all the time. Get used to acting as if your mom and dad were constantly looking over your shoulder.

Being nice should be part of your day to day philosophy, not something you decide to pull out of your hat only as a last resort.


*Seth Godin, a best selling author, entrepreneur and agent of change consistently writes about marketing and things in general, His books are popular with both marketers and others.

What do you promise?

Under promise, over deliver. That's a mantra practiced by some of the best companies in business.

From a marketing standpoint, it creates a win-win philosophy. We an see the process in practice frequently, but its most noticable when we place an order over the internet. As we complete our purchase the shopping cart automatically calculates the tax an shipping charges. On some sites the checkout process includes an estimated shipping time. This covers how long it will take the company to process your order, pick and pack the items ordered, ship and have them delivered to your door.

We're comfortable with some of the estimates where we no longer notice the estimated delivery time, since we know in our hearts that the order will arrive within 2 or 3 days.

How do you stack up to the under promise, over deliver mantra?

APEX Day Three

Following i the footsteps of yesterday, Thursday traffic was better than the last day of previous years. But at the same time the decision makers were out in the aisles.

I spent some time over the past few days speaking with a number of exhibitors about the move to Las Vegas and April. Overall consensus from everyone was that this years event delivered higher level attendee that ever. Less tire kickers and more real decision makers is the phrase many used to describe attendees.

The true test of APEX's sucess will come over the next few months as exhibitors close deals discussed in Las Vegas. Let's hope that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas only holds true outside of the show.

Keep tuned for a return to marketing tips in my next post!

APEX Revisited/Day Two

What was a good start to this years APEX with good, constant traffic flow has morphed into a slightly smaller crowd. But that turned out to be a good thing.

The crowds were thinner than Tuesday but the 'quality' of the attendees is much better than past events. We've all heard that story before. Yet this year it's not being used to explain away a slow day.

Exhibitors are taking more time with visitors and at times, sitting down for lengthy meetings to hammer out deals and issue quotes.

One of the exhibitors I spoke with came right out and told me that he's issuing more overnight quotes than ever. Another mentioned that they are meeting with 'ew prospects with real needs and budgets to support purchasing the right solution.

Moving the event to Las Vegas has a larger contingent of real decision makers, not the tire-kickers of the days of old.

IPC Delivers at APEX

APEX Day One

WOW! Full aisles and full booths marked the first day of APEX 2008. It was a welcome sight to the suppliers who took the chance that moving the venue and time of the show was the right move.

Many exhibitors come into a trade show with a bit of skepticism, particularly when an established event moves to a new venue and city. There has been an under-current amongst APEX exhibitors over the past year that maybe the move the Las Vegas might not work. Some people I spoke with over the many months since the LA show were concerned that traffic would be light at this year edition of the APEX - primarily due to the location, not economic conditions.

They were wrong.

Some of the exhibitors finally got their morning break sometime in the middle-to-late afternoon. A few were still talking to attendees well after the end of the Cirque du Soleil entertainment during the on-floor reception.

While there were the requisite number of tire kickers, a number of 'real deal' buyers were in scattered in the crowd.

With Day Two ahead of us, let's see the crowds for the traditionally heaviest day of the event.

Your comments on the show are welcome . . .

What do you do when the inevitable delay occurs?

We may experience delays every week. In some cases it's as simple as a traffic backup on the way to work. It can also be a delay in active projects or delivery of parts from a supplier that impacts our ability to deliver our product on time.

The way we handle delays can make or break our efforts to retain customers. Hence the tie-in to marketing and this blog.

Keeping your customer's in the loop by actively updating delivery information provides them with the information they need to keep their business running and on schedule. And it gives them a reason to keep coming back.

Make your Customers a partner in your business with regular communications.

Case in point . . .

This week finds me back in Las Vegas. It's my second trip in the past three weeks. I flew Continental Airlines for both trips.

The first visit lasted close to a full week for the ConExpo/ConAGG trade show. One of my newer Clients, a business started in August, was displaying their wares for the first time. ConExpo/ConAGG covered over 2.2 million square feet of display space combining all of the Las Vegas Convention Center, The Hilton Hotel Convention Center, a couple of temporary tent structures and a number of outdoor lots. Hence parking was a challenge for attendees and exhibitors.

This week it's time for APEX, the electronics show from IPC.

My trip to and from ConExpo/ConAGG was fairly uneventful with the exception of full planes and the large row mates on one of the flights. Everything about the air portion of the trip was 'normal' by most standards.

The flight to Las Vegas yesterday was closer to the new paradigm of travel - a departure delay that was ignored by the gate staff.

Inbound equipment delays for my flight from Newark to Vegas may have been exacerbated by the previous flight pushing back less than 45 minutes before the scheduled departure time. Yet as we moved closer to that time, it was evident to all of us in the boarding area that we would leave the gate late.

Adding to the delay was an unusually high number of 'Elite' status flyer's complete with multiple pieces of carry-on luggage apiece. The gate area all but emptied when theses customers were called to board the flight. This resulted in a massive backlog down the jetway. Hence an additional delay. With no order to the boarding, passengers in the middle of the cabin were in front of passengers in the rear. Forget about stepping into the row to let others pass, these frequent travelers are special, with high mileage rights to tie up the entire process.

Some airlines have a policy that kicks into action when the number frequent flyer's on a given flight exceeds a given threshold. They get to board by rows like the rest of the passengers. Continental apparently does not agree.

As a member of the traveling public I expect that the carrier will keep me informed of anything that has a negative impact on a trip.

What do you think should have been done by the airlines in this situation?

it's been a while . . .

since I last added to this blog. With two major expositions for my Clients, it's been a busy couple of months. This week is the last of the events. Once it's over we'll move to the follow-up phase of marketing.

I'll try to post daily over the next few days with some thoughts from APEX.

5 Reasons to send a news release

Experienced pros make it seem easy to get your news into a magazine or on a web site. We look at a number of items before deciding what would make a good story for publication.

Here's a look at five topics that can help build a strong case for coverage:

1.Solving a problem

Editors love hearing about how one of your end users found a solution to a problem. It may be specific to their operation, or it may be a systemic issue plaguing their industry. Either way its a win for the end user by eliminating a roadblock in their operation, a win for you as the supplier helping them overcome a hurdle and a win for the publication (or web site) who gets to help thier readership with the solution.

2. Significant sales accomplishment

This is not your typical 1 or 2 unit sale to the same end user regardless of your ASP (that's average selling price for the uninitiated). Look more towards 3 to 5 units or a significant dollar amount that's over 4 times your normal sale volume for a single order.

3. Staffing Changes

Everyone loves to see their name in print. As a matter of fact, people like to keep track of their colleagues as they move up the corporate ladder. Executive, senior and field staff along with key personnel appointments help keep your name in front of your public and promote the health of your company.

4. Educational Seminars and Conference Participation

Offering a free or low cost webinar or face-to-face seminar on a key technology or process issue? Telling your customers and prospects is a good start, but getting the word out to the rest of the industry helps position your company as a technology/process leader. It can serve to add potential prospects to the sales funnel with a lower lead acquisition cost over more traditional methods . . . and they are more qualified leads to boot!

5. Good Corporate Citizenship

Many companies overlook the opportunity to publish the good work they are doing for charities, scholarships and general donations. While this may yield a lower publication rate that the other topics, it can yield a request for a focus article on your company that allows you to promote the way your business gives back to the community.

We have 2 Clients that participate in corporate giving in one form or another. One contributes to AMURT (Ananda Marga Relief Team), an organization that provides humanitarian aid across the globe. They donate a percentage of their revenue each year to help with clinics in Kenya. The second contributes a portion of their annual revenue to UNICEF.

My company, NAMCo - Not Another Marketing Company, provides more direct support in the local community by providing free or discounted marketing/PR services for the Belmar Arts Council, Belmar Chamber of Commerce and Belmar First Aid Squad. I also volunteer on the Belmar First Aid Squad answering calls during the workday when many of the squad members are at their day jobs out of town.

Are you a 90% marketer?

We've been taught since our formidable years to give a 110% effort in order to succeed in life. Athletes do it every game. Successful Type A personalities do it without thinking. Yet we as marketers sometimes settle for less.

My latest reminder of this phenomenon was delivered in the mail last week. Here was a beautifully designed direct mail piece that had it all, almost. The major elements were right in front of my face. It used an offer - in this case for a portable optical mouse which would be a great addition to my laptop kit. It had a 'call to action' - giving a link to the survey that acted as the qualification phase of offer. So what made this a less than 110% marketing piece? The web link to the survey!

Although the mailer was personally addressed, there was an error in the individualized link printed on the outside and inside of the promotion. The end result? There was NO way to capture the prospect's information since following the link yielded a generic, yes generic error page in my browser.

The end result was a total waste of money for the advertiser. I don't know where the error occurred. It could have been the agency that failed to verify/vet the printing automation used in the customization phase. It might have been the source data that was unchecked. Or it may have been a costly oversight in the entire process.

The moral of this story? Check your information over an over again to ensure that it's correct. Test, Test and test again until you are confident customization works for your mailer. And always make one person fully responsible for verifying and validating the data, process and end product.

I'll see you later with another Marketing and more . . . tip shortly.

Are you a news junkie?

I am to an extent. I subscribe to over 45 different RSS feeds. Some of them relate to my Clients industries, others cover marketing/pr/web/advertising areas with a third group of miscellaneous topics.

One of the feeds I scan daily covers SEO/SEM (search engine optimization, search engine marketing) that lends a front line perspective on the way some self-appointed gurus approach web marketing. Today's digest presented an interesting topic that relates to all types of marketing, not just online.

The moderator presented this as the lead to the post - "Lean economic times do not call for...a conservative approach to marketing online." This was a reply to a general call for comments about the predictions in the SEO/SEM marketplace for 2008.

What strikes me most about the posting is the spin. It ties more creative marketing efforts that can yield high impact returns with completing the tasks within the current, thin marketing budgets.

Creative ideas have and always will stand out in a crowd, no matter what the budget.

Reduced budgets have a variety of results on most marketers. The real challenge is not the reduction in budgets, but the associated reduction of resources. Marketers are being asked to create more with less, and asked to extend their work day with the inevitable ‘by the way could you cover these other jobs at the same time.’

One of the many ways a marketer can overcome this challenge is to bring in an outside partner. A partner can compliment the internal staff (or what’s left) and grow/contract the available resources dynamically with the tasks at hand. This extends the talents needed to create new opportunities without breaking the budget.

Here's the real bottom line:

Many traditional marketers look at their thin resources as a challenge to think outside the proverbial box. Given a chance to make a difference, many will . . . and in the process help build the reputation of the business and brands we hold so dear.

Where do you stand?

It should be easy . . .

It should be easy to upgrade a piece of software, yet yesterday it proved to be a challenge.

Software vendors like to think that their bit of code is special, unlike any before (or after) its sold. One of the ways they ensure that we don't forget that we bought, installed and maybe used to their product a couple of times is to place a link at the top level of our 'All Programs' folder.

While I don't mind that, I always wondered why I was not given an easy choice to put the link where I wanted it, not the manufacturer. But that was the least of my worries (take heed Symantec) when I tried to upgrade from Norton SystemWorks 2006 to the latest Norton SystemWorks Pro 2008.

My decision to stay with a known vendor (Symantec) is based in part on past experience and part on marketing. For years Norton had been the king of the hill in the anti-virus and system utility arena. The signature look and feel of the GUI, the industry reputation and dedication to eradicating the bad guys has been Symantec's mantra for decades.

The biggest issue I faced was that Symantec it seems does not like to play nice with others. Specifically mentioned is my favorite firewall, ZoneAlarm Pro (ZAP). While the installation routine did not come right out and say remove ZAP before attempting to install NSWPro, it did display a stern warning that things might not go well with ZAP installed. They even gave me an opportunity to open the 'add/delete' program dialog from inside the installation program and remove the errant program (ZAP).

I won't get into all the challenges I needed to overcome during the upgrade process, but let it suffice to say that it was an arduous adventure spanning the evening and the next morning before it was complete.

Before it was all done, I ended up having to remove all Norton programs, including ACT! (which Symantec sold years ago) and WinFax Pro. Once everything was removed, not an easy task thanks to a corrupt WinFax Pro uninstall file, I was able to run the Norton removal program. This time I installed the anti-virus first, followed by NSW, WinFax Pro and finally ACT.

What should have taken about an hour ended up taking over 6 hours to complete the task.

FYI -- I promise the next entry will have something to do with marketing, and not just a rant about the lack of consideration suppliers have when they try to 'sell us the goods.'

And now for my New Year's resolution

I promised myself that I would start sharing some of my experiences with others for the new year. There have been a number of challenges (and successes) over the 10 years since I struck out on my own with NAMCo Not Another Marketing Company. What once was a simple consulting gig has turned into longer term commitment for me and my family.

I plan on addressing a number of topics in this blog - from marketing topics all the way down to some nuts and bolts challenges small business owners face on a daily basis.

It's not my plan to use this blog as a soapbox, so you're welcome to share your ideas at any time.