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Operating under a full IQ
Posted on April 28, 2005 by Sarah Eaton.
Today has been an incredibly frustrating day for me (and it's only mid-afternoon.) Due to circumstances beyond my control, I have not had access to email except in unpredictable five-minute spurts.
Just typing that sentence made my blood rise. It created a quivery panicky feeling in my tummy.
This afternoon, I'm working on my column for this month's newsletter (I'll post it here after it's published), and my normal modus operandi is to write a bit, get stuck, check my email, read a few blog posts, go back to the column, write a bit, and so on and so forth.
But not today. No, today I am stuck with just sitting and writing. (And taking a break to blog when I get stuck.) Sitting and writing. Sitting and writing.
Of course, it's going to be my best column ever because the incessant email checking hasn't caused me to lose 10 IQ points today.
April 28, 2005 in audio publication, award winning blog, award winning design, Award winning publications, Blog Outsourcing, blog publish, Building Customer Intuition, bulk email marketing, company newsletter sample, corporate magazine, create a newsletter | Permalink | Comments (1)
Sales and Marketing: Like It or Not, They're Connected
Posted on April 27, 2005 by Sarah Eaton.
A major part of my job here at BeTuitive is working with statistics, compiling data, analyzing it, and then creating reports for our clients that, in the best-case scenario, provide them with truly actionable results.
Actionable in my world means you can pass this information along to your sales team, and it will be helpful to them in their everlasting quest for more sales, better sales, and better customers. And then all those shiny increased sales will look great when it comes time for marketers to show how much you're worth.
The perpetually excellent B2B Lead Generation Blog has a great post today with seven lead generation tips. My favorite of the bunch (perhaps because it pertains to list management, another subject dear to my heart) is this:
Develop a good house list – purchased lists have limitations. Even the best lists are not 100% accurate. During the planning phase you should make sure your list fits your ideal customer profile. Even if you are doing a direct mail campaign it is important that you purchase a list that includes as much information as possible so that it can be used for future marketing campaigns. Enlist your sales team to help you update your database with new information as they follow-up on leads.
[link]
April 27, 2005 in Blog Outsourcing, blog publish, Blogging Tools, Building Customer Community, Building Customer Intuition, bulk email marketing, company newsletter sample, create a newsletter | Permalink | Comments (0)
Make People Want to Read Your Stuff
Posted on April 21, 2005 by Sarah Eaton.
Two points today, that I shall stitch together loosely to form, if you will, a sort of mismatched pair of conjoined twins:
1. Happier is healthier, according to this Wired News article. And that old saw "laughter is the best medicine" turns out to be true, too.
2. According to the DoubleClick Q4 Email Trend Report, open rates have fallen again, to an average of 32.6%.
Why are the open rates falling? One reason is an overabundance of information. I get approximately eleventy billion newsletters a day--I like to see what everyone else is doing--and I open and glance at a lot of them. But there are some that I read all the time.
What differentiates those that I read from those that I don't? Two things: they consistently give me good information, or they are in some way amusing (contain lively language, odd points of view, or are downright funny). Or both. If they do both, I open that sucker every time it lands in my inbox.
If you inject your communication with amusing tidbits, you will make a more lasting impression. Plus, you will lower the blood pressure of everyone on your list. And they will thank you by opening your communication again the next time.
April 21, 2005 in award winning magazine, award winning newsletter, Award winning publications, Blog Outsourcing, blog publish, Building B2B Relationships, Building Customer Intuition, bulk email marketing, business credibility, company newsletter, company newsletter sample, corporate magazine, create a newsletter | Permalink | Comments (2)
Rights for Bloggers
Posted on April 19, 2005 by Sarah Eaton.
I've been thinking about the NYTimes article about bloggers being fired for (personal) blogging. (Of course we all knew about The Queen of Sky and Troutgirl.)
In personal blogs, people blog about their lives; for most people, work is a pretty big part of life. It's bound to come up every now and again.
So what's the solution for the blogger? Blog anonymously? That doesn't seem quite right...
So what of the company, then? Forced acceptance of the blogosphere? Yeah...that might not work either.
Baby steps, maybe. Employees will blog. The person sitting in the next office may even be blogging right now. And there will be even more employees blogging as time passes.
Why not set up a company blog that can give voice and personality to your company's opinions and policies and practices? If you don't feel comfortable having an employee act as a company representative (or you don't want to add to employees' already-full plates), outsource it to someone else who you feel confident will follow your guidelines.
Why not open up the discussion instead of closing it down?
April 19, 2005 in award winning design, award winning magazine, award winning newsletter, Award winning publications, company newsletter sample, create a newsletter | Permalink | Comments (1)
The Wrong Side of the Bed
Posted on April 18, 2005 by Sarah Eaton.
Everybody has those days when nothing goes quite right. Just this morning I spilled my entire mug of Earl Gray tea on the train. Fortunately, the fellow standing next to me was having a better day and managed to move his backpack out of the way before the rushing stream of tea reached him.
Why did I spill my tea? Because I was changing the batteries in my old-fashioned CD player (yes, I know I wouldn't have had this problem if I would just upgrade to an iPod) while leaning against the side of the train and hugging my travel mug between my feet. The train stopped suddenly. It was bound to happen.
What could have prevented this? A little organization. I knew my batteries were dead. I should have changed them at home. Heck, I could have even done it the night before. And, if I hadn't hit snooze that extra time, I could have spent some more time over breakfast and wouldn't have even needed to bring along my portable tea.
If only I had run into this helpful list yesterday...
April 18, 2005 in award winning blog, Award winning publications, Blog Outsourcing, blog publish, Building Customer Intuition, bulk email marketing, company newsletter, company newsletter sample, corporate magazine, Corporate newsletter, create a newsletter | Permalink | Comments (1)
Smart People Love Learning
Posted on April 15, 2005 by Sarah Eaton.
You're nuts for self-improvement. You want to be the best you you can be. Now if only the company you work for recognized the value in your relentless quest to continually expand your brain-power.
BeTuitive's president, Todd Smart, loooves learning. He wants us to create new wrinkles on our cerebral cortexes every single day. He loves learning so much he ranted about it in this month's newsletter.
And what do you do with all that internal company knowledge once you've fully embraced the way of continuous learning? How do you manage all that knowledge? CMO Magazine takes a look at KM systems.
April 15, 2005 in award winning design, award winning magazine, award winning newsletter, Award winning publications, Blog Outsourcing, blog publish, Building B2B Relationships, Building Customer Intuition, bulk email marketing, company magazine, company newsletter, company newsletter sample, Company newsletters, Corporate Blogging, corporate magazine, create a newsletter | Permalink | Comments (0)
Feedback: Brain Food for Growing Companies
Posted on April 14, 2005 by Sarah Eaton.
In an ideal world, we all constantly strive to better ourselves.
In an ideal world, we want to know what others think about our processes and policies and procedures and just us in general, because to know what others think (good or bad) can provide us with information we can use to get better.
(Of course, it goes without saying that we shouldn't rely on others entirely to tell us how we're doing. Deep down, we all know how we're doing. It's just helpful to get others' perspectives.)
My article in this month's newsletter is all about the different ways to amass feedback, and how you can use that feedback in a productive way. (Hint: you can't just ignore the negative stuff.)
April 14, 2005 in award winning design, award winning magazine, award winning newsletter, Award winning publications, Blog Outsourcing, blog publish, Blogs, Building B2B Relationships, Building Customer Intuition, bulk email marketing, company blog, company magazine, company newsletter, company newsletter sample, Company newsletters, Company publication, corporate magazine, Corporate newsletter, create a newsletter | Permalink | Comments (0)
Patience or Procrastination?
Posted on April 13, 2005 by Sarah Eaton.
Gosh, I like this post by Steve Pavlina. Here's an excerpt:
If this sounds like a recipe for procrastination [patience], it is. Procrastination only becomes a problem when you put off working on what’s truly important to you and get sucked into wasting time. But it’s a valid tool when used to incubate a problem to make it easier and more efficient to solve.
One of the things that I do as a recovering procrastinator (in order to avoid slipping back into being a practicing procrastinator) is to do things immediately. Pronto. Stat. With extreme efficiency. I make schedules, and I stick to them.
But, as Steve points out, sometimes just letting time pass solves certain problems. The challenge is to identify when you're being patient, and when you're avoiding, I suppose.
And I guess I could always use a little more patience. Yeah, yeah. Just a little patience.
April 13, 2005 in award winning magazine, award winning newsletter, Award winning publications, Blog Outsourcing, blog publish, Building Customer Intuition, bulk email marketing, company newsletter sample, create a newsletter | Permalink | Comments (0)
Method Behind the Madness
Posted on April 08, 2005 by Sarah Eaton.
I don't know about you, but I spend most of my spare time thinking about the psychology behind marketing.
All right, maybe I'm being a teensy bit facetious, but I do like knowing the why behind the what.
And I like Chris Baggott's from-line philosophy when it comes to email marketing. He's always contended that using a person's name instead of a company's name will yield better results, and now, over at his Email Best Practices blog, he's got the evolutionary psychology research study to prove it:
We are hardwired to pay attention to those that are familiar.
Humans unconsciously feel that people we see frequently are our friends (which explains celebrity endorsements).
[link]
April 8, 2005 in award winning magazine, award winning newsletter, Award winning publications, Blog Outsourcing, Building Customer Intuition, bulk email marketing, company newsletter, company newsletter sample, create a newsletter | Permalink | Comments (0)
Mind Your Commas: Book Offers Proper Grammar With a (Correctly Used) Dash of Humor
Posted on April 07, 2005 by Sarah Eaton.
Review by Susan E. Fisher
“Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation” by Lynne Truss is a grammar. It discusses in great, but not excruciating, detail the proper use of commas, semicolons, apostrophes, dashes and those other particular, little companions of the English language. If these facts alone are not enough for you to stop reading, do read on. You may be the ideal candidate to become a fan of this witty, best-selling book.
Here are three quick takeaways:
1. “Its” vs. “it’s.” Know your apostrophes of omission.
Do you know the difference between “it’s” and “its”? (Answer: The punctuation mark in “it’s” is the apostrophe of omission. You use the apostrophe to replace the “i.” “It’s” means “it is.”)
2. Be consistent with commas in a series.
Which sentence has the correct punctuation?
• The colours of the Union Jack are red, white, and blue.
• The colours of the Union Jack are red, white and blue.
The answer will vary depending on your adopted model of punctuation. The most important thing is to be consistent. Inconsistencies suggest you don’t know what you are doing.
3. Be particularly sensitive with electronic communications.
The dangers of disregarding or abusing grammar are particularly great in the Internet age. With the ready combination of word processing software, email and the Web at our fingertips, everyone has become an author. This is one of Truss’ insights. Top managers, including CEOs, who once were shielded by their own lack of grammatical know-how by in-house editors, PR managers and other handlers, are now free to dash off ill-conceived messages to customers and business partners at lightning speed.
The blogging environment is even worse for sticklers, a label Truss gives the lovers of language who both lovingly and doggedly stick by the rules. The bulk of bloggers are cavalier with language, showing little regard for the fine points of grammar, punctuation or even spelling. Once out on the wild, untamed Web, ill-constructed sentences and typos can have the shelf life of Twinkies; they may never completely disappear.
A CEO with an Ivy League pedigree can come off like a dimwit. A CEO, who recently wrote our company, thanked us for the “priveledge” of reading our newsletter. One of our competitors blasted this message to a potential customer: “For more inforamtion on our e-newsletter services, please see….” (Just in case you missed it, “priveledge” should be “privilege” and “inforamtion” should be “information.”)
The Impact of Errors
Do you realize the impact you are making when you introduce errors in your electronic messages? Do you even realize the errors you make? Of course, there’s a difference between simply slipping up with a typo and making a grammatical error out of ignorance. Those typos can be forgiven, but ignorance is unacceptable.
Still, the prospect of reading a grammar book may sound as appealing as drinking cod liver oil. It’s something we know is good for us but seems a bit old fashioned, and we fear it may leave a bad taste in the mouth. Truss serves grammar to us with a spoon full of sugar (much like that upright symbol of British civility, Mary Poppins.) "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" opens with a title that is a reference to a joke and keeps you amused along the tidy, 204-page way.
(You see, there's this gun-totting panda that enters a bar and "eats, shoots and leaves." The bear, it turns out, is merely fulfilling his destiny as defined by a punctuation-challenged wildlife guide. The guide reads: "Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.")
Truss Makes It Fun
Get it? Okay. If that joke does not quite elicit a hardy belly laugh, hang on for a few giggles. Truss manages a mean feat, something your third or fourth or fifth or sixth grade teacher may have failed to accomplish: She makes learning about grammar actually fun. Fortunately for us Yankees, Truss is British. She has that dry wit we've come to love in those clever British sitcoms broadcast on PBS.
By the way, nothing is Americanized in the American-version of the book. We get it in full “colour” without any superimposed U.S. laugh track in the edition by Penguin Group (USA). In the latest edition, Truss offers us a little update, explaining how she is struck by her own heady success with the book. Much to her surprise and delight, “Eats” was the “runaway No. 1 British bestseller,” and it quickly climbed the U.S. bestseller charts.
Don't mistake Truss' humor for a lack of seriousness. The writer is passionate about her subject. She confesses a desire to join the militant wing of the Apostrophe Protection Society and blasts the careless individuals who ignore the gods of grammar. She writes, “No matter that you have a PhD and have read all of Henry James twice. If you still persist in writing, ‘Good food at it’s best,’ you deserve to be struck by lightning, hacked up on the spot and buried in an unmarked grave.”
Caring About Grammar
More important than tickling our funny bone about seemingly obscure points, Truss makes us truly care about grammar. Mispunctuation can lead to dangerous misunderstanding. Consider the impact of a misplaced comma in this example cited by Truss: “A woman, without her man, is nothing” versus “A woman, without her, man is nothing.” See the difference one swift keystroke can make?
As a child of the free-wheeling, open-classroom 1970s, I must confess to never having had a formal lesson in such niceties as proper placement of the semicolon. Actually, I don’t recall cracking open a grammar book until a rather stern editor at my first newspaper job handed me a basic text. It was more than a hint; it was a lifeline.
When is the last time you had a grammar lesson? Perhaps it’s time to go back to school on this important subject, for your own sake and for the sake of your business. You can start by cracking open “Eats, Shoots & Leaves.” At the very least, it may crack you up. At best, it may save you a client or two.
Gaudere's Law: any post made to point out a spelling or grammar error will invariably contain a spelling or grammar error.
April 7, 2005 in award winning magazine, award winning newsletter, Award winning publications, Blog Outsourcing, blog publish, build credibility, Business editorial, Business newsletter, Business relationships, Corporate newsletter, Corporate publications, create a newsletter | Permalink | Comments (3)