Month: March 2003

While I catch up…

Sorting through my email, I found this gem. It gets a “lol” (laugh out loud) from me, but then I start thinking–who wrote this and why did they send it?



We are pleased to provide you with the April 2003 issue of the Bismarck-Mandan Development Association UPDATE Newsletter!

To read this issue, just click on this link: http://www.bmda.org/Newsletter/index.asp. If your email program doesn’t support links to the Internet, please cut and paste the address, starting with “http”, into a web browser such as Netscape or Internet Explorer. Be sure to highlight the ENTIRE address as line wrapping may occur. An Adobe Acrobat (pdf) version of the newsletter has also been attached on the chance that our web links won’t work with your browser.

Included in this issue:

North Dakota ranked in top six states for overall cost of doing business

Bismarck State College receives grant for energy training

• Mandan re-development project update

• NorthDakotaHasJobs.com

• New officers, board members for BMDA

• New and renewing BMDA members

Feel free to pass this newsletter on to interested friends and business associates. You can also direct them to our web site at www.bmda.org. Want to unsubscribe? Having trouble accessing a story? Receiving this newsletter from a friend or colleague and want to be added to our regular mailing list? Email your message to info@bmda.org.

At trade show this week

Discuss amonst yourselves…Trade shows, necessary evil or outdated marketing tool.

Going to Jail

I’ve got a warrant for my “arrest”. I’ll be going to jail tomorrow as a fundraiser for the MDA. If I make bail of $1,000, I don’t have to go. Readers of this blog may contribute. I’ll even promise a post on a subject of your choice, if you do! You can promise a check or give me your credit card number. Email me at dave@b2blog.com. I’ll need your response by 8:30 tomorrow morning to make bail.

Interesting marketing technique for CRM

What would you do if you were trying too sell a software package to three different clients with similar needs? Would you send them each other’s phone numbers and let them talk? Well, that’s what the consultant for Goldmine has done. He’s also included the info for a current user that we can also contact.

I think its a very progressive idea, probably based on some idea that clients would prefer to talk to other clients, rather than the salesperson. We’ll see how it works out.

Good article on home pages

Aren’t our websites about selling? This article makes a case for a compelling home page that draws the visitor in. If they don’t go past the home page, you aren’t going to sell them anything.

Great Homepages Really Suck

Got the following email from a reader:

The Marketing update Meeting:

CEO: Hi Dave, how did we do this month.

Dave: I got 136 click throughs from IQS and 22 from Thomas and some more from Google adwords and overture.

CEO: How much did that cost us ?

Dave: Let me check ! (fumbling for calculator) Total yearly cost / 12 = monthly cost. Monthly cost / 136 for IQS cost per click and / 22 for TR cost per click and the same formula for google and overture. $XXX dollars.

CEO: How many sales did we get from those clicks ?

Dave: I’m not sure

CEO: You mean we are paying for clicks with no way to find out if they became a sale ?

Dave: Uh, I guess so.

CEO: Well, at least you got some contact info for our direct mailing list.

Dave: Uh no, click throughs do not provide contact information.

CEO: Why are we using click throughs then ?

Dave: Well, I know that our customers will find our web site on their own.

CEO: Dave, I hope your right. I just hate losing all those click throughs with no way to follow up with them.

My measured reply:

The CEO’s got Dave cornered with the classic “what’s the ROI on our advertising budget” sting. Will he survive? Will he bluff his way out like marketing managers before him or just take it in the pants? Perhaps he can pull a Captain Kirk and get out of the impossible. Tune in to find out!

Okay, I’m stalling. I come up with a real answer later.

Why did Overture buy Altavista and FAST

I’ve kind-of ignored this recent action by Overture because I didn’t really have an feeling for the benefit of the action (unlike Google’s buy of Blogger, which makes a lot of sense).

This article (Thanks Brian) makes some hay out of it, as it affects “database publishers” (those that publish industry directories etc.). They see Overture making a big risk without a clear strategy that will disrupt the PPC marketplace. As a client of directories and Overture, their summary point is well taken:

Overture was rapidly becoming the obvious and easy answer for a lot of directory advertisers–usually to the detriment of directories…As long as paid search stays fragmented, confusing and expensive, database publishers have a window to establish viable vertical portals that provide a targeted and cost-effective alternative to most advertisers.

The future of Overture?

A funny story

I get a phone call this morning from a major CRM vendor that I’ve never talked to (or asked for info on either). He is just the front-line trying to sort out leads from the show/seminar I went to. He promised to call back in the afternoon to introduce my area’s account executive.

He calls back this afternoon a little late and says he had two “David Jungs” on his list and wasn’t sure which one he had set an appointment to call back. Are they not letting him use their own software to track his calls? If thats not funny enough, he should have also known via the software (if he was using it), that the account executive wasn’t available today. Oh boy!

Three good articles on net-marketing

Its interesting to see mainstream b2b magazine focus three articles of search-engine-optimization and pay-per-click advertising. Articles don’t break new ground, but are good educations for the uninitiated. The valuable part is that they are making saying that this type of marketing is becoming more important to business.

B to B Magazine (scroll to bottom of page for two more articles)

First month on IQS

After our first month on Industrial Quick Search’s site for my product category, we had 136 click-thrus, compared with 22 from Thomas Register. And 22 is a high number for Thomas Register after tracking them for years. With each source, I can continue to argue that these people will find my company anyway, but the sooner they find me the better!

Of course, this may be comparing apples and oranges, but IQS is targeting TR, which is why I make this comparison. To further compare, I did even better with Google AdWords.