Challenge yourself
Learn a new trick or two taking these quizzes. Marketing and sales people need to be in control of their software, so I emailed this to our entire group.
Would you want to read this?
I get a few direct mail pieces from marketing companies looking for my business every year. I study the piece for technique and effectiveness, as it is a one-piece portfolio of their capabilities. The subhead on the one I got this week says:
“From the CEO on down, this market-driven focus is our mantra. And we have implemented a proven process for customer interaction that enables us to build successful products that resonate with the market.”
This is a quote from their client, although I doubt anyone really talks this way. And thats the problem with this quote and the headline above it. They are vague and buzz-word filled. Worse than that, they give no reason to read the rest of the copy in this piece. They need to get Mark Joyner’s book.
Blog news
The Google-dance has happened to b2blog!. Two months after switching URLs, it looks like Google has fully assimilated the site. My page rank is 5 again. The archives are getting hits from the search engines, instead of to the old site. And I finally invested in Blogger Pro to make posting a little easier and to pay kudos for their services. (Also made a “Amazon donation” to Harmonica Lessons website, too. Keeping the internet economy going.)
I’ll be posting an article about site search, inspired by a recent white paper from GlobalSpec.
How do I control my URL
This article makes you feel like ownership of your URL is held together with bubble gum and string.
Helping a friend
Vincent Flanders asked at Web Pages That Suck what you would do if your spouse had a website that sucked? I think this applies to any family or friend who knows your are involved in web sites. Here are my thoughts: I’d do two things…
1. Give him/her a copy of Web-Usability by Jakob Neilsen. It’s more subtle than Vincent’s book.
2. I’d ask him/her to show you their best competitor’s website, then ask them what makes it the best. Maybe compare it one-for-one with their site.
Then make a list of things that they should/can add to their site to make it more like that competitor. That will help them focus and be ready to dump certain techniques.
CRM shopping update
Well, the local Goldmine rep hasn’t called me back regarding my two messages I left. Someone I know says their contract with Goldmine is on the rocks, so maybe that is why. They also pointed out their very high support rates, which, when rolled into my quote don’t look that scarry, but by their own are quite high.
I talked to the inside sales manager at SalesLogix this week. He advised me that as long as I am talking to one of their resellers, I should stick with them until I request to eliminate the relationship thru SalesLogix. This is done to avoid competition between dealers, which I understand. He did tell me that if I want their software set-up to work with our ERP software, I will have to buy from our ERP company, as they are the only ones licensed to sell that version.
So, trying to select from the top two CRM software packages is going to be an excercise in patience, it looks like!
Are they for real???
Apparently SBC Communications wants royalties for a certain type of web interface. Royalty fees in the thousands per year, to boot. Found on www.f*****company.com
Museum Tour requested to pay license to SBC for patent
Update: This story is hitting the press pretty good. Here is a sample article ComputerWorld
Blog marketing
In response to an email I recieved:
I’ve heard about marketing related blogs, but I think they will be hard to pull off. You need a number of ingredients:
Knowledge
Passion
Personality
Support
Knowledge is the hardest, I think, especially if you aren’t selling a service. Why? Because people are going to be most interested the experiences of other users like themselves. No one wants to hear a salesman pontificate about his products success and wonderful uses, will they? (Services are different because you are selling your knowledge.)
My idea is to do a limited-time blog for the sole purpose of documenting a customer experience. Take my current shopping for a CRM program and subsequent installation. A blog could be a diary of my experience. The CRM company could feature my blog as a way to let new potential clients see and prepare for such an undertaking. Of course the question is how do my efforts become owned/used by the company I am buying from and why?
Interesting?
A new website tool for me
I’ve always found myself looking for tools to help do what a computer should be able to do. Right now, I want to learn how to better control access to my website and my blog. Turns out that adding a “htaccess” file can do a lot of behind-the-scenes tricks like automatic redirects. I’m going to try this to get my old blog page off of Google. Google says until it sees the redirect, it will still crawl the site, although the bare-bones content there should reduces its value considerably. Here is a helpful guide to the tricks you can employ.
About B2B marketplaces
Online marketplaces were promised to revolutionize business, and it is partially true. This article reports the electronics industry still has 83% of its B2B exchanges in existance, in comparison with half that for this type of market in general. For the small players like me, we aren’t affected, but we should know what the marketplace is doing or not doing.