Jason Stitt of The Wisconsin Technology Network wrote a glowing stoy on INSPIRE, the web-based project management software that we've created here at epicsoft. This is a great case study (for us at least) on how well timed and thoughtful PR efforts can work in your favor.

I wouldn't be me without doing some shameless promotion of something we've worked for so many months on!

INSPIRE, the first web-based, project team collaboration tool designed to specifically serve the business of creativity; the core business of ad agencies, design studios, video and media houses, and all other creative service providers that collaborate in-house and with clients.

INSPIRE was designed with the foremost goals of simplicity, accessibility and usability to facilitate user tasks, expedite the approval process and stimulate project collaboration within the creative environment. INSPIRE is the first web-based, hosted solution to deliver creative team collaboration seamlessly integrated with online asset approvals, content management and project management tools within the context of an easy-to-operate Macromedia Flash based application environment.

Developed in the latest Macromedia Flash, FlashORB and Microsoft .NET technology, INSPIRE is designed to cut costs and speed up the creative process through utilizing faster, more secure, and more reliable collaboration processes than current methods such as FTP, e-mail or overnight deliveries. Online functionality saves time and money by eliminating travel time and expenses, service fees, delayed approvals, and missed deliveries.

From what I can tell, INSPIRE does compete, somewhat, with Basecamp, but I think that the file upload/content management capabilites and the easy to use interface (I've run through both, and then some - I like INSPIRE better) give us a bit of an edge.

ePrairie.com: Wisconsin Technology Start-Up Delivers Project Management Relief

I love the new "Click & Build" donation page on the website of Habitat for Humanity. Here you can specify what elements of a house to donate, by clicking on different parts of a cartoon house.

Perfect use of the Web for a nonprofit donation page.
http://www.habitat.org/donation/clickandbuild

Since I know it's only a matter of time before I write my first book, I've been passively collecting tips and ideas on how/what/when to write. An issue of the MarketingVOX Copywriting newsletter has some great ideas from a couple of contributors this week that I'd like to paraphrase here.

How to Write a Book - Martha Retallick via MarketingVOX Copywriting

1. Make an appointment with yourself. Say, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. every day, you are going to write. That means no surfing the Web, no checking e-mail, and no answering the phone.
2. Write a certain amount each day, even if you're sure that what you're writing is pure garbage. Just get those words down on paper, or into your computer.
3. If your home or office just won't cut it as a place to write, then go out. Get an hour's time on a computer at your public library. Visit a cyber cafe. Just be sure to bring a floppy disk so you can take your work with you when you're done.
4. Get a writer's posse together. Their job is to keep you writing. And your job is to do the same for them. Motivate each other.
5. Become a hunter-gatherer for tips on how to write faster and better. Ask your writing friends. Read books and magazines.
6. Don't pace yourself. Write as much as you can when you are feeling creative and when you're not, proofread what you have written.
7. When it gets to be too much, take a couple of days off and do something that is totally unrelated to your writing to give yourself time to recharge.

Lessons Learned the Hardest Way, by Going Belly Up is a piece that ran in the NY Times on Feb. 24th. It tells the stories of four business owners and the closure of their businesses. Take note of which failures came from factors that could be controlled (one dominant customer leaves) and which failures were beyond control (D.C. sniper shootings keep customers home).

What did they learn?

Thanks to an AMA InternetSIG member for this resource. This is another great synopsis of some research-based web design concepts.

Designing a website that takes into account the human element requires both an understanding of our nature as well as our physiological limitations. Usable websites incorporate human tendencies and limitation into its overall design.

Criteria for optimal web design (designing for usability): Software Usability Research Lab, Dept of Psychology, Wichita State University

I'm not usually one for weighing in on personal or family issues, but my general dislike for television collides with news like this and I can't help but passing something like this on. I like what a friend of mine has done with her family. As a general rule, if they see it on TV, they can't have it. But alas, that's just one mother's way of handling the onslaught of ads geared toward children. Another friend of mine grew up virtually sans television. Their TV is relegated to a corner of the basement and last I heard, they still rented the VCR from the local video store when they want to watch a movie. Granted, these are measures that are not for all, and TV is unfortunately the path of least resistance for many when trying to keep kids occupied.

"For all children, a time limit makes a big difference," she said. "Parents need to provide other options so TV isn't the first resort or becomes a constant background in a child's life."

Chicago Tribune: Task force reports commercials have big effect on kids

Research shows about 65 percent of America's school children have televisions in their bedrooms. Even one of four toddlers has personalized TV access.

If you ask Joanne Cantor, this is not good. Part of her reasoning is based on a new, comprehensive report by an American Psychological Association task force calling for tighter government regulation of television advertising aimed at children.

"Sponsors spend a lot of money for a 30-second commercial to make the product seem so incredibly fun and enticing," said Cantor, professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin and member of the APA task force. "Then Mom -- or Dad -- is left with only words to provide a counterpoint of view."

Cantor and her APA colleagues spent two years poring over all available studies about kids and TV. Among other findings: The typical American child will see 40,000 commercials this year. That's more than 100 per day.

What's more, the task force confirmed what some behavioral scientists have been contending for nearly three decades. Kids who are 8 or younger can't discern what is a sales pitch and what isn't.

UPDATE: Chris O'Donnell bit into this one with a full set of teeth. I knew I'd like his point of view on this subject!

An article by Nicole Burdette, O'Keeffe & Company, "Good PR Needs Good PR"
maintains that PR teams neglect the crucial final step -- leveraging results. PR needs to support sales and sharing PR results can help achieve that goal.

Among the suggestions:
- Hand out PR results at sales seminars, demonstrations and user group meetings;
- give press clips to current and prospective employees and hsareholders;
- post news of speaking engagements, media placements in Intranets, all company publications
-
Source: Insider Pass E-Letter - http://www.technologymarketing.com/mc/index.jsp

[via DesignObserver] Top Ten Things They Never Taught Me in Design School

Michael McDonough's Top Ten Things They Never Taught Me in Design School

1. Talent is one-third of the success equation.
2. 95 percent of any creative profession is shit work.
3. If everything is equally important, then nothing is very important.
4. Don't over-think a problem.
5. Start with what you know; then remove the unknowns.
6. Don't forget your goal.
7. When you throw your weight around, you usually fall off balance.
8. The road to hell is paved with good intentions; or, no good deed goes unpunished.
9. It all comes down to output.
10. The rest of the world counts.

I've never been to design school, but working in the creative industry, I would whole heartedly agree with Michael McDonough.

I just finished a discussion with a co-worker about the merits of marketing/adversting online, vis-a-vis that yellow pages. Seriously folks, I had no_freaking_idea how much a yellow pages ad cost, even in Green Bay, WI.

A certain company pays almost $2000 for a 3/4 page ad in the yellow pages, amidst a blur of 4 page ads in a very crowded category - That's $24,000/Year!!! All of their ads say the same_damn_things. Fine, I get that...but there's NO WAY for them to track (OK, maybe there is a way, but seriously, how sophisticated to you want your average small business to be) Worse yet, the prices go UP every year! With, what I feel, is less return. (more people on web, less people in the pages)

I'm sure that there are ways to differentiate yourself in the YP, but why bother. Drop the size of the ad, and jam more of that budget into online.

I was almost angry when I heard how much the YP ad cost, I thought "what a damn ripoff" - just think what we could do with that in online marketing. A year-round combination ALL of the following ideas, used for a small, say 10 person local business, could be done more cost effectively and have have more impact than the Yellow Pages.

- Pay-Per-Click
- Targeted Microsites
- Personal Biz Weblog
- Permission e-mail marketing
- Banner exchanges
- Affiliate program with local complementory businesses
- Targeted online banner placements (on local high-traffic sites, in contextually appropriate areas)
- Sponsorships in other complimentory businesseses online or offline newsletters
- Do some online customer feedback/surveys to gain more intelligence about your customers - use to reinforce all of the above
- Promote your aforementioned efforts on all bills, stationary, biz cards, etc...
- Develop a Loyalty & Referral program, or at least facilitate said programs through your website and e-newsletters
- Do a few press releases on new services, new hires, or damn near anything that's press-worthy for your SMB

While hunting for a review of Onfolio today, I came across this site, Marc's Outlook on Productivity.

I'm always on the prowl for better and faster ways to get more done, and Marc's site has a lot of great news on tools such as OneNote and Onfolio, PDAs, and other misc. productivity enhancing tools.

One of Marc's latest reviews:

I've often noticed a tendency for people to compare new and innovative tools to something they already use as a way to define the new product. It's human nature, I suppose, to refer to the known when describing the unknown. In the past few weeks, this has been happening with regard to two new tools I've been testing and writing about - Onfolio and Scopeware Vision.

Both of these products have been described as alternatives to OneNote. In my estimation, this is way off the mark. In fact, I think a much more compelling argument can be made that both Onfolio, a research gathering and publishing tool which I've written about here, and Scopeware Vision, which I'm preparing a review about for you, are excellent companions to OneNote in a productive synergy of information management tools.

When products "blur the lines" like all three of these applications do, a lot of people try to define the new idea by a process of reduction. That is, they focus on one aspect of what the tol can do that overlaps with what they're familiar with rather than evaluating the new tool on its own merits. I think that's a mistake and can lead people to dismiss, out of hand, some very useful additions to their system.

Dave Pollard discusses some of the ways to increase your blog's readership.

THE TOP FIVE WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR BLOG...

Marketing is useless if you don't have a good 'product'. Here are five ways to ensure you do.

1. Provide something unique
2. Provide something valuable
3. Be first
4. Do your research
5. Learn to write very well

... AND THE TOP FIVE WAYS TO ATTRACT MORE ATTENTION TO IT

1. Use other media to pull people to your blog
2. Write, at least sometimes, about 'hot' topics
3. Make a great first impression
4. Learn by studying who's reading what, and what works
5. Get outside more

When I started my weblog about a year ago, I had the express purpose of blogging so that I could work on my writing, (anyone who wants to write needs to write at least every day), keeping a personal knowledge base, and communicating with peers. I've not wavered from that purpose, but many who have started blogging and dropped it, have wavered.

David at Ripples (via Jennifer Rice@BrandMantra) discusses the topic of staying in blogging for the long haul, and outlines some of his ideas for what you need to do personally if you're going to be around in a few years.

"Would you like to be writing your weblog a few years from now? Can you even stand the idea of blogging for that long? I don't have the answers for you, but it has made me think about my own future as a blogger."

1. Understand why you are writing. Have a mission statement, even if you don't publish it.
Revisit it occasionally if production drops.
2. Write about things that interest you
3. Write so you do not have to apologize for your choice of words.
4. Try to make your topic as interesting as possible, without bending the truth too much.
Parodies are excepted, of course.
5. When the words don't come, work on something else.
6. Keep track of what you have written so you will know when you are revisiting subjects.

QuickTime, Windows Media Player and RealPlayer/RealAudio are dead web technologies

Why do we need the QuickTime, Windows Media and Real Players when it comes to video and audio on the web? I, for one, am seriously tired of Apple's persistent begging for me to upgrade to Pro when I launch their player. I am absolutely frustrated with Windows Media Player and its inability to either find a codec or to tell me which flipping codec is missing. Real, to me is a litterbug, strewing my desktop with RAM files. Not only that, I have absolutely no guarantee the users even have the plug ins and can see the content.

Flash isn't just for website intros anymore!! (I know better than that, but seriously, everytime I ask a group of people what Flash it to them, the inevitably come up with "website intros"...)

These facts became readily apparent on a recent venture where we were experimenting extensively with the merits of the .flv format, and it's power within Flash. Consider the following stats.

Media Player Market Penetration:
Macromedia’s Flash - 98%
Viewpoint Media Player - 64.3%.
Shockwave - 58.1%
Windows Media Player 9 - 57.5%
RealNetworks RealPlayer - 46.5%
Apple’s QuickTime - 43.1%

Taken from: Bye Bye Quicktime, By: Tom Green

For those of you reading who are athletes, or for anyone who's ever choked down a PowerBar (I've eaten thousands - literally), this is a pretty sad moment, and a shocking one as well. Here, a world-class athlete turned successful entrepreneur, Brian Maxwell, passes on at age 51 of a heart attack.. Strange stuff...

VeloNews: PowerBar founder dies at 51

WTN: The "Big Squeeze" - Look for a job or be an entrepreneur?

Tony DiRomualdo in todays edition of the Wisconsin Technology Network newsletter, discusses the fever pitch of sentiment surrounding offshoring. Having just reviewed the presentation of the St. Norbert College SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) group last night, and having listed to the stories about finding jobs in this economy, it seems to me that promoting entrepreneurship is a damn good idea. Which, in short, is the point of Tony's article

Despite two years of recovery, our economy is not producing anywhere near the number of new good-paying jobs needed. How then can America begin to redeploy and grow our human capital and economic assets? First, stop depending on big corporations for job growth. To create more jobs we need to start more businesses. Business ownership needs to be as much a part of the American dream as home ownership. It is vital to encourage entrepreneurship and help displaced workers to venture out on their own or join with others to start businesses.

It's ironic that SIFE members are going out into the community pitching entrepreneurship but come back to school, hit the PC, and troll for jobs online while feverishly updating their resume, trying to eek out every last bit of relevant experience that will land them a job. While I realize that it takes money, luck, and balls to venture out as an entrepreneur, I know for a fact that I had less of the former and more of the latter when I was graduating.

There are other benefits to democratizing business ownership. Trust between workers and top management is gone and can't be restored simply or easily. Instead, new kinds of companies and organizations must be created that blend people-centered management practices with commercially sustainable business models. These principles need not be mutually exclusive, but can be synergistic engines of economic growth and human development. They define what we call Next Generation Companies. America's future depends on our ability to renew and redeploy our economic, human and knowledge assets and to move away from the dysfunctional behaviors and practices so prevalent in mainstream business

It seems fitting to be writing a review to evangelize a book written on the topic of making evangelists out of your customers. I can’t help but think after reading Creating Customer Evangelists, “how can I let as many people as possible know how wonderful this book is!”

I’d venture a guess that many of you reading this review have delved into a lot of business books in your lifetime. I’m sure that the best of intentions were taken into each book, only to find out that ½ way through the majority of them, they had lost their relevance and hadn’t delivered on their promise. I mean, really, how many books about marketing can possibly have any really interesting and immediately helpful ideas?

While CCE is not a fiction thriller, it will keep you as engaged as any good novel would, because at it’s heart, it tells a lot of great short stories, and it tells them with insight and conviction. The book follows a “case study” approach and illustrates a world-class case example of a company doing CE right in each chapter. And, unlike those feel-good business books about how breakthrough something is that leave you hanging with no action items, CCE includes a full set of appendices on how you, yes you and your business, can get going on your CE efforts.

The book lays out the process of creating customer evangelists in the following order:
1. Customer Plus-Delta (you need to be continuously gathering customer feedback)
2. Napsterize Your Knowledge (share and share alike, and freely, and not cheap crap either – put some good material out there!)
3. Build the Buzz (find the WOM networks in your industry and tap into them, not blatantly, but intelligently. Oh, and give to get. See principle #2)
4. Create Community (encourage your customers to mingle, either physically or virtually – build a coalition of customers around your cause)
5. Make Bite-Size Chunks (devise specialized, smaller offerings to get your customers to bite) The software industry uses this tactic with abandon. When’s the last time you bought software w/ out a trial download?
6. Create a Cause (focus on making your world, industry, community, and company a better place because you were involved)

These are easy enough principles to understand, but NOT_EASY_TO_EMBRACE. How many of you are prepared to “Napsterize” what you know to everyone in and around your industry? Really, how many? Do your marketing managers actually “participate” in the industry and community, or are you all a bunch of bystanders.

Creating Customer Evangelists is about more than “implementing a few best-practices”, this is not six-sigma, but there are ways to measure, and Ben & Jackie have an entire appendix devoted to those to!

Are you ready to embrace your best customers as customer evangelists? Get the book – get the culture!

**This book was read and reviewed in conjunction with the Business Blog Book Tour

Thanks to Ben & Jackie for stepping in and providing their insights on Creating Customer Evangelists! I love the BBBT because it gives the bloggers a chance to interact with world-class authors, get some great ideas, and forces me to add another book to my reading list for the month!

Thanks also to Todd for setting up the tour, this is a great idea, and I trust that it's been as valuable to the readers as well.

The tour wraps up this week with the following blogs:
3/23 - StartupSkills.com
3/24 - SBBlog
3/25 - A Penny For

Ben & Jackie keep their own blog as well: Creating Customer Evangelists

So many corporate marketing initiatives that I've seen are driven by ad agencies. That's become even more apparent now that I'm on that side of the fence and working more with agencies doing work for clients. In my experience, ad agencies are not the most "innovative" when it comes to new techniques, technologies, or methods that do not involve creating ads or print pieces.

How does a company's Customer Evangelism efforts fit into the client agency relationship? Have you encountered any agencies which adovcate customer evangelist principles and develop/support programs to build CE initiatives within client companies (besides yours)?

In a recent client meeting, I encountered a perfect opportunity to introduce some CE techniques, yet the agency would hear nothing of it. My fear is that they uptake of valuable programs like this will take exponentially longer if companies are using marketing and ad agencies as their filters for ideas or to set their frame of reference on what's "new, cool and effective" in the world of marketing. (Not that WOM is that new anyway, but to some it's a very new concept - evangelism is even edgier in some circles)

According to Ben, The ad agency model is optimized for mass-media purchases. Most of their profit arrives from commissions on purchased media, or the billable hourly rates of their people. This model incents agencies to dream up marketing strategies that optimize the model. Unfortunately for them, the effectiveness of traditional media are declining in effectiveness, especially network TV, and clients are demanding more accountability for their dollars.

Jackie Huba and I spend the majority of our time writing, speaking and evangelizing the tenets of customer evangelism. The rest of the time is spent training companies on how to do it themselves and facilitate the creation of a customer evangelism plan. In the end, the client must own a customer -focused strategy. Management and employees must live it.

You can't outsource your soul to an agency.

I've worked in companies where customer satisfaction data is collected, and passed on to market research for analysis, and maybe even passed on to product development for improvement. But that's it. Very little about the "customer experience was ever recorded let alone questioned and improved. What ever can be done quickly and impersonally is usually the road taken.

An article from the e-Prairie newsletter (from Chicago also I believe!) today highlights some of the great and inexpensive ways to get real-life, street level customer feedback, the kind that you speak of in your book. Yet, despite your efforts with the book, and knowing how much of the aforementioned article will fall on deaf ears, I continue to wonder what the big road block is to companies getting real data and using that real data to make marked improvements in their customer-facing experiences?

In your experience, why is it so hard for some companies to take that first step and engage the primary principal of creating customer evangelists, going out and getting real "customer plus-delta" feedback? Outside of what's written in Chapter 16 about getting started, are there any grass-roots (aka - mid-management level, not executive order) tactics that you've seen to get companies to take this first step to creating customer evangelists?

According to Ben, "The biggest obstacle to knowing what customers really think about us is fear. It's easy to fear customers will tell us you your product or service stinks, that you're horrible people and you should never have set foot on earth. That's the worst-case scenario.

Realize, though, that people are already talking about your product and services; they're telling colleagues, friends and family about product quality and service experience. They may be evangelizing you or discussing slipshod quality or defectiveness in online or offline forums. An organization focused on creating customer evangelists knows what people are saying by going after feedback before it goes too far out of bounds.

Some tactics for gathering customer plus-delta (the plus, meaning what do customers love, and the delta, meaning what would customers improve):

- Google your company name, products, and your name to see what people are saying on the web. Google makes it easy for you to receive an email alert when your name pops up on the web.
- Call at least one customer every week, just to chat. Ask a lot of questions and listen, listen, listen.
- Form a customer advisory board. The purpose of this group is to provide ongoing insight into improving current products and feedback on new products and strategies. An outside company that facilitates the board can be invaluable.
- Make it easy for customers to provide their feedback, such as on every page of your website, through point-of-sale displays, after every meeting with vendors, etc.
- Put pictures and email addresses of people in the company, even the CEO, on your website."

My first query deals with the concept of "corporate loyalty to customers". I know, not a new concept, but I have experienced a great deal of cynicism at companies I have worked with when I brought the concept of "corporate loyalty" when discussing "customer loyalty." How can we expect customers to be loyal to us, when we have shown very little in the way of being loyal to them?

The typical responses are:

"With the Internet, customers are just a click away from a lower price, so why bother?"
"Customer loyalty - there is no such thing as customer loyalty anymore!"
"We can't afford services like that for our customers. Let's just start a formal loyalty program with a frequent buyer card."

The most pertinent example of corporate-to-customer loyalty that I have seen is Southwest Airlines' approach to reaching out to customers and coddling their evangelists. But they are but an example, and few (at least that I have seen) have walked in their shoes.

How can companies even think of creating customer evangelists when there seems to be such a lack of corporate-to-customer loyalty? Why would customers even want to be become evangelists for most companies?

According to Ben, "There's compelling evidence why focusing on your most loyal customers makes good business sense:"

Good Morning! Today the Business Blog Book Tour makes a stop here for some Q&A with Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba, the authors of Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales Force. Please check back throughout the day for updates!

Dear MarketingSherpa Business-to-Business Reader,

I'm writing to ask for your help today. I'm frustrated by the lack of benchmark data on B2B marketing - especially in high-tech.

No one really knows what a good response rate for a lead generation or direct sales campaign is for 2004. So, we've set out to create a benchmark report for you.

You'll get a *complimentary* copy of the executive summary with useful charts in April. But first, I desperately need your input to create it....

If you haven't already, please take our three-minute IT Marketing Metrics questionnaire posted here:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=63026421363

GOAL: 309 of you have taken the Questionnaire so far. We need 500 total (and preferably more) to make sure results are statistically significant for you. Every single answer counts. Your answer will make a real difference.

And thank you for helping us create this resource for the B2B high-tech marketing community.

P.S. Got questions? Our Metrics Editor, Andrew Latzman, is available at andrewl, marketingsherpa.com

Forbes.com, Bitpipe study examines white paper usage

According to the study, which was conducted by market research company Insight Express, 63% of survey participants said they use white papers or case studies to evaluate technology products and services.

The study also found that after reading a white paper or case study, 78% of all respondents passed it on to a colleague.

Also, 93% of respondents said high-quality vendor white papers positively influenced a company's image

But what really matters is "Does it make them want to buy?" Yep - they help in that area too! 57% said that the reading of white paper content influenced thier purchase decision (let's feel good about this and think that a positive impression was made).

The Register: The value of PC real estate

Flash Player is the world's most pervasive software platform, reaching 98 per cent of Internet-enabled desktops worldwide as well as many other popular devices such as mobile phones and PDAs (source: NPD research April 2003). By comparison, Windows Media Player and Real Player have less than 60 per cent market penetration, and QuickTime Player has less than 40 per cent.

Flash Player was initially developed to deliver a rich media experience on Web sites, but it is now evolving. Macromedia Flash enables designers and developers integrate video, text, audio and graphics into effective and engaging user experiences.

Macromedia is able to leverage the power of the Flash Player to deliver one of the best desktop video conferencing experiences available. The ubiquity of the Flash player enables Macromedia to deliver high quality media streams while being economical of bandwidth. This is of key importance in Web conferencing, and Macromedia recently announced Macromedia Breeze to exploit Flash Player capabilities.

It never ceases to amaze me though, no matter how pervasive Flash becomes, it always becomes a rallying point when discussing web design amonst market-techs (marketers with enough technical knowledge to be dangerous). People always struggle to define just what Flash is, and when you take a poll and go 'round the room, Flash means different things to different people.

Someday...we'll get there...

Mark Cuban rocks! From his post today about telling the media that from now on they could reach him through his blog. He said, in no uncertain terms, that he would be "...posting whatever I had to say on my blog"

"The satisfaction of knowing that each will have to explain to their editors what a blog is — and argue for who knows how long about whether or not BlogMaverick.com is an attributable source — crept over me and that jaunt on the gauntlet flew by.

DMNews: Survey: Many Loyalty Rewards Go Unclaimed

Customers love loyalty programs, as evidenced by their shopping habits, but often do not do anything with the points or incentives. I'm as guilty as anyone. I have thousands of frequent flier miles and other varoius points in various programs, but have yet to capitalize on them! Bummer.

A new survey from Maritz Loyalty Marketing claims almost 40 percent of longtime members of retail loyalty programs have never redeemed rewards. In a paradoxical finding, the survey also reported that 49 percent of participants said retail rewards programs influence where they spend their shopping dollars. It is clear retailers are not doing enough to bridge this disconnect, or to convince consumers that loyalty points are an effective proxy for money.

One of the best executions of how to engage loyal customers who have loyalty points but are not redeeming them on your products was a cross-marketing opportunity which was done by NorthWest Airlines where they sent me a flyer where I could sign up for number of magazine subscriptions, depending on how many miles I had. Now, every time I get my monthly issue of Wine Spectator, I remember NorthWest and how valuable their miles are, whether I'm flying or not!

MarketingSherpa: 57% of Consumers Will Give Email Addresses to a Local Retailer

I know, this is old news. But I know that I'll need this information somewhere down the line so it's best to blog it. Which brings me back to the mission of this blog as a personal KM device, and a way to share ideas with others. Can't forget the personal KM elements...

How can you take advantage of the fact that people trust local retailers with their email addresses? Well, for one, start with your in-store promotions!

Have consumers will fill out a card to receive email alerts when asked to by a clerk at a local small business such as a beauty parlor, car-repair shop,
or restaurant.

When you couple this with data from Quris' email study last summer, that revealed consumers vastly prefer receiving email from local "traditional" businesses to any other type of marketing messages, it opens up a world of opportunity.

Realistically, the whole idea of leading the proverbial "SMB Horse" to the proverbial "E-Marketing Waters" has been a hard road for some . Many SMB (small to medium size business) owners are not e-biz savvy, and take time to convince. In fact, recent research bears out that only 11% of SMBs are using pay-for-performance search.

For nearly every SMB out there, e-mail marketing and loyalty programs are an outstanding idea. For those small business owners who actually have a head for business, they'll reap the benefits of their technologically backward competitors sitting on the sidelines.

Entrepreneur Magazine: CHEAP Ways to Drive Site Traffic

Entrepreneur waxes on about the low-cost high return strategies of per-click (PPC) search engine marketing and affiliate programs. ...

That's all good and well, just don't drop the ball on conversion when you get 'em there...

I thought that this was just too cool! We don't have much in Green Bay for free wireless yet, save for Kavarna, but Milwaukee has a bit of a base already. Check out the Milwaukee Wi-Fi Hotspot map that Stanley Miller has put together on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel website.

Local Goes Live By Aaron Swartz

Google Local integrates yellow pages-style information right into your search. Search for pizza 54217 (Luxemburg, WI - Where I live) or plumbers Luxemburg, WI and up will pop a little compass with a couple results. Click the compass, and you'll get a full listing of nearby results, with distance, maps, directions, related web pages, phone numbers, and more. You can narrow it down by category and distance, and look at a map of all the results.

Google's really done a nice job of combining various sources of information for this service.

I came across this site today, "The Unofficial Cookie FAQ".

The site is chock-full over every detail on Cookies that you never knew...such as where the name Cookie comes from.

According to an article written by Paul Bonner for Builder.Com on 11/18/1997:

"Lou Montulli, currently the protocols manager in Netscape's client product division, wrote the cookies specification for Navigator 1.0, the first browser to use the technology. Montulli says there's nothing particularly amusing about the origin of the name: 'A cookie is a well-known computer science term that is used when describing an opaque piece of data held by an intermediary. The term fits the usage precisely; it's just not a well-known term outside of computer science circles.'"

ePrairie: Too Many Tech Entrepreneurs Lack Marketing Understanding

Darrell Dvorak of Tatum Partners has a great piece on ePrarie about getting your shit together when it comes to marketing your tech startup.

The world’s greatest management consultant (Peter F. Drucker) doesn’t mince words: “There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer. Because its purpose is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two and only these two basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results. All the rest are costs.”

If you as the tech entrepreneur don’t have the experience and skills to answer questions like these, you need to hire marketing folks who know all the questions to ask and how to get the answers. Because of your limited resources and small margin for error, you need to work hard to get the very best with your first personnel selections.

A good start would be to probe marketing candidates about their skills and experience in successfully addressing issues like those above. If all they can discuss is their advertising expertise, move on.