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Posted on August 20, 2007 by Kevin G.

A news source that I often link to, DMNews, is in the final stages of accepting submissions for an Email Marketing Guide. If you have the chance, I would recommend taking a look at their site and see if there is anything you could submit.

August 20, 2007 in award winning blog, award winning design, award winning magazine, award winning newsletter, Award winning publications, Brand enhancement, Building B2B Relationships, Building Customer Community, Building Customer Intuition, Business editorial, business magazine, Business Marketing, Business newsletter, Business publications, Business relationships, company blog, company magazine, company newsletter, company newsletter sample, Company newsletters, Company publication, Corporate Blogging | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

6 blogging blunders

Posted on August 08, 2007 by Kathryn Regina.

If you're a regular blogger you should check out this article on common blogging mistakes. Among the top mistakes are not providing enough links, writing huge blocks of text and disabling comments.

6 Blogging Blunders

August 8, 2007 in award winning blog, award winning design, award winning magazine, award winning newsletter, Award winning publications, blog publish, Blogging Tools, Blogs, Brand enhancement, build credibility, Building B2B Relationships, Building Customer Community, Building Customer Intuition, bulk email marketing, business credibility, Business editorial, business magazine, Business Marketing, Business newsletter, Business publications, Business relationships, company blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Six Productivity Tips

Posted on August 02, 2007 by Kathryn Regina.

I love that Brazen Careerist. Really, I just love her title. But I think her article on productivity offers some helpful insights as well. If you want to get more done in less time--and who doesn't?--you should check it out. My favorite tip is "focus on outcome."

Six Productivity Tips to Put Time on Your Side

August 2, 2007 in award winning blog, Blogs, build credibility, business credibility, Business editorial, business magazine, company blog, company newsletter, Corporate Blogging, corporate magazine, Corporate publications, create newsletter, Custom publisher, Custom publishing, E-Marketing, e-newsletter, e-zine, Email Marketing, email service, ezine, ezine marketing, grow relationships, how to publish online, magazine design, magazine outsourcing, marketing newsletter, newsletter design | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

HTML Vs. Text

Posted on July 25, 2007 by Kevin G.

I was reading an article on practices that are working in B2B marketing. Written by Robert Bly, the article supports the notion that even though marketing gurus promote authentic and effective practices, the large majority of them are inconsistent.

It is a challenge to pinpoint what exactly makes a marketing campaign succeed or fail, even when it comes to custom publishing. One point, however, I refused to accept: B2B email marketing is a strategy best served in plain text format over HTML. What?!

Alright, I understand how spammers utilize HTML in various ways to trick filters, personal message are often sent in text format and HTML messages can seem insincere if sent to a bulky list. But to say that text email messages for B2B purposes works better than HTML is a bit shortsighted.

HTML has the capacity to present multiple sources of information in a customized way. If designed well, HTML messages can help promote a company brand while delivering a unique experience for the subscriber. Not to mention that HTML is more expansive in its capacity for tracking and measurement than plain text.

If you think text email messages will set you apart from the rest of the B2B traffic – you’re right. You'll leave your subscribers wondering why you seem to think bland is better.

July 25, 2007 in award winning blog, award winning newsletter, Award winning publications, Brand enhancement, build credibility, Building Customer Community, bulk email marketing, company blog, company newsletter, create a newsletter, create email newsletter, create newsletter, creating company newsletter, creating newsletter, direct email marketing, E-Marketing, Email Marketing, Email Newsletter, email tracking, ezine marketing, how to publish a newsletter, how to publish online, html email newsletter, html newsletter, newsletter design, newsletter publishing | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

3 Keys to Cultivating a Successful Blog: Relevant, Consistent, Transparent

Posted on June 21, 2007 by Kevin G.

Ok, we get it. We (marketers, business owners, the general public) all know that blogs are great tools to use. They spread awareness, knowledge and ideas behind a name, brand, or identity to the world on a personal level. But it takes more effort than you think to cultivate a bussling active blog. In the pursuit of spreading my knowledge (or my two cents), here are my three qualities any successful blog should have:

1) Relevancy is Key

Successful bloggers don't throw everything at the wall to see what sticks – that's just lazy. If bloggers are able to pick topics that ring clear to their intended audience, it shows they get it. Show that you know what your audience is concerned about. Be an expert through research and sharing experiences that people can benefit from. A blog with relevant conent will spark engagement and enhance interaction.

2) Keep it Consistent

Consistency is key to developing readership. When you pick days to post (whether it be daily, weekly, or even monthly) stick to them. This shows that you care about the flow of your blog. Consider the way you write about topics, present media or comment on fellow bloggers' postings. A consistent blog is a reliable resource for your audience.

3) Maintain Transparency

Face it, your blog is open to readers all over the world. It is easy to get burned if done dishonestly. Savvy blog readers can see right through a fake and can make it a personal quest to expose the good, the bad, and the ugly. Make sincere posts with honest intent to connect with your audience on a personal level. Also, allow your readers to get in touch with you through email or be open to answer back on posts.

Here are some good tips to make a smashing start for your new blog. Now blog away!

June 21, 2007 in award winning blog, award winning design, Blog Outsourcing, blog publish, Blogging Tools, Blogs, Brand enhancement, build credibility, Building B2B Relationships, Building Customer Community, Building Customer Intuition, Business relationships, company blog, Corporate Blogging, Custom publication, customer retention, Educating Clients, Educating Prospects, grow relationships, how to publish and promote online, how to publish online, marketing solutions, nurturing relationships, web publish, Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The Speed of Book Summaries...and Trust

Posted on June 15, 2007 by Sarah Eaton.

One of the key components of BeTuitive Publishing's culture is continuous learning. There's nothing we like more than sinking our teeth into new ideas. Trouble is, we just don't have the time to curl up in front of the proverbial fire with the latest business books. Lucky for us, Executive Book Summaries hits the high points for us.

This week, we read the summary of "The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything" by Stephen M.R. Covey with Rebecca Merrill. And here are the responses:

Kathryn Regina:

“The Speed of Trust” book summary has a few helpful points amidst a cloud of vagaries and one unfortunate tree metaphor (integrity is the root, capabilities are the branches, results are the fruits…). The bright side is that instead of reading a 200+ page book to glean a handful of insights, you can get the same thing accomplished in eight pages. Here are the points I found most useful:

1. “Trust always affects two outcomes: speed and cost. When trust goes down, speed goes down and cost goes up.” An employer’s lack of trust in his or her workforce also affects morale, turnover and motivation, all of which have a measurable impact on profitability.

2. How do you get your employer and/or clients to trust you? A few of the most relevant tips are to behave consistently, apologize quickly and be clear up front on how your performance will be measured. Then deliver results.

3. How can an employer create a relationship of trust with his/her employees? “Extending trust leverages it to create reciprocity…Based on the situation, extend conditionally to those who are earning your trust but extend it abundantly to those who have earned it.”

Vinnie Lacey:

“The Speed of Trust” lays out principles that we learned in kindergarten but forgot along the way up the corporate ladder. The author gives fancy names and puts methodologies around basic concepts like sharing, caring, and doing what you say you are going to do. I really didn’t get much concretely out of the summary until I got to “Relationship Trust” portion, which outlines 13 behaviors that apparently are “common to high trust leaders and people throughout the world.”

I’m not sure how the author quantified behaviors to reach his conclusions, but the advice is pretty intuitive. Just not acted on much, as human beings tend to do. This is an excellent book if your philosophy of humanity has been crafted by the likes of David Hume and Thomas Hobbes—and you are looking for something to offset their characteristically gloomy interpretations of human behavior.

Jeff Sanchez:

Trust is vital for organizations and relationships…that I was aware of before this summary. However, to break it down to know how we seek it and how we can gain it is insightful as well as overwhelming.

These “waves” of trust that Covey describes do make reasonable sense--but don’t most people have a level of subconscious that leads to trust? I do not always see gaining trust as a strategic and meticulous process. In both personal and professional situations, it is often obtained merely by vibes or first impressions of other individuals.

I definitely see Covey’s waves of trust as more applicable in the workplace, especially between an employer and employee relationship. That relationship or similar would require steps to be taken to establish a trustful dependence on the employer being able to follow through on promises of employment and the employee fulfilling their roles and qualifications. If trust is obtained and lost it is a much more step-by-step process to gain it back…because as mentioned, trust is confidence and that is always appreciated in the workplace.

Brian Pinkley:

I completely agree with the authors’ perception of the great power trust has in just about every aspect of everyday life. The authors explained how trust has two outcomes, which are speed and cost. One example: Before 9/11, flying around the country was a cakewalk compared to the slow process of expensive security protocols in airports today.

One section I found particularly interesting was on relationship trust. In this section there were behavior points that help aid in building trust. My favorite point was “Listen First.” By genuinely making an effort to really listen another person before giving feedback, you can build trust in a relationship. This is not just waiting for the other person to stop talking before your agenda can begin. The process involves really listening, analyzing, and understanding what the other person is saying.

Once you’ve taken time to really listen to the other people, they will begin to notice that you’re actually taking account into what they are saying.

Kevin Grant:

Many times we think of trust as a nebulous gauge that influences our approach towards our various relationships. Stephen Covey seems to see it a little differently. I liked how the notion of trust was conceptualized as “hard, real, and quantifiable.” By articulating a level of substance behind trust, it made the reader more willing to accept a model consisting of Five Waves, Four Cores of credibility and 13 Behaviors of high-trust leaders. It made trust more exciting to explore and apply.

Beyond acting loyal, respectful and transparent in our various relationships, I like how Covey made sure to communicate how trust is not attained, but cultivated. We need to practice it to maintain and grow it. This also helps in developing “smart trust,” or trusting someone or something for the right reasons and not blindly.

Lastly, examples of how trust can be rebuilt through different relationships were a nice encouragement to the notion that rebuilding trust is a difficult thing to do.

See? We got a lot out of just a little. If you're interested in checking out Executive Book Summaries for yourself, do so here.

PROBLEM: So many great business books. So little time. SOLUTION: Read Less. Learn More. Subscribe to Soundview Executive Book Summaries!

June 15, 2007 in award winning blog, Brand enhancement, Building Customer Intuition, Corporate newsletter, Educating Clients, email tracking, Freelance newsletter, how to publish and promote online, how to write a newsletter, Interactive Marketing, Newsletter complete outsourcing, newsletter layout, Newsletter ROI, Newsletter solution, outsource magazine, prospect newsletter, self publish, Thought leadership newsletter, writing magazine | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Hitting Two Birds With One Stone With SEO

Posted on June 13, 2007 by Kevin G.

It appears that even Google and Yahoo’s search engines can be consolidated in one main service. The search engine, SearchBoth.com allows users to simultaneously search on the Google and Yahoo search engines on the same screen.

The interface is easy to work with and search results are easy to navigate through. Powered by Yellow Pages Corp., it seems to be the easiest solution to win leverage against the two internet powerhouses. Check it out.

June 13, 2007 in award winning blog, award winning magazine, award winning newsletter, Brand enhancement, build credibility, Business editorial, Business relationships, Corporate Blogging, create newsletter, custom newsletter, Custom publication, Customer Intuition, e-newsletter, Educating Clients, Educating Prospects, email marketing solution, email services, Newsletter Marketing, newsletter outsource solution, Newsletter ROI, Print newsletter | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Keep Your Company On Target: Top 3 Lessons Learned from the Target Corporation

Posted on May 31, 2007 by Kathryn Regina.

The Target Corporation has a loyal customer base whose enthusiasm has become somewhat of a cultural phenomenon. From the pet name Tarzhay (a “French” pronunciation of Target) to the scores of shoppers professing their love for the red bull’s-eye, Target is a force to be reckoned with in the discount retail industry.

In her book On Target: How the World’s Hottest Retailer Hit a Bull’s-eye, author Laura Rowley expounds on Target’s business and marketing strategies. And although the book is retail-centric (and at times a bit promotional), I think it offers some valuable insight into what makes a business—any business—successful. The following are my top three lessons learned from the Target Corporation.

Lesson One: Take the best of both worlds

Die-hard Target shoppers will adamantly dispute the idea that Target is “just another discount store” like Walmart or Kmart. How has Target so effectively differentiated itself from its competitors? They did it by taking the best elements of a high-end department store--a clean well-lit sales floor, stylish products and friendly customer service--and tailoring those elements to fit a discount store.

“’Before I was a professor, I worked at a housewares distribution company which sold to Target,’ said Michael Levy, a professor of retailing at Babson College in Massachusetts and co-editor of the Journal of Retailing. ‘They always paid a lot of attention to detail. Their stores always looked a lot better than the discount store competition. Even though the shelves were stacked a little higher and the displays were not as slick as department stores, they looked more like department stores in those days than the sort of dark, dingy look of a discount store (On Target, p11).’”

Consider your chief competitors, and companies that provide high-end services in your industry. What are the most attractive elements of their offers, and how can you integrate those elements into your business in a realistic, manageable way? Take the best of both worlds and you’ll make your customers feel like they’ve hit the jackpot.

Lesson Two: Design is king

From the basics of product selection to larger decisions about its marketing campaigns, Target takes design very seriously.

Tupperware chairman and CEO Rick Goings: “I think they are looking for brands that really draw people into Target stores. If you compare them to some other retailers, they have a fairly narrow product line that they show in any category in Target, but it’s usually brands or product categories where there’s a panache to it, or a design element (On Target, p23).”

Following the iMac model of “show, don’t tell” Target ads and commercials are visually compelling, with very little text. The bulls-eye logo is so strongly branded that the Target name is usually not even included in advertisements.

“This is the ultimate emotional connection,” says Mark Gobe, founder of the branding and design firm Desgrippes Gobe Group, “when your message is so powerful and so unique that visual expressions can stand alone (On Target, p58).”

Lesson Three: Partner with people who are experts in their fields

The “do-it-yourself” method seems like a frugal choice for home owners, but it isn’t always the best financial decision for a business. So when Target decided to join the e-commerce market, it turned over its Web operations to Amazon.com.

“’I think [the Amazon deal] gives them an edge,’ said Cynthia Cohen of Strategic Mindshare. ‘You can create your own infrastructure for e-commerce, hire people, teach them—but that is expensive and time-consuming, versus going to somebody whose core competency is e-commerce. Amazon already has this knowledge—so [Target is] buying the knowledge—their dollars versus their time frame, their risk. This isn’t entirely risk-free, but Target is reducing risk by using knowledge from a company whose core competency is e-commerce (On Target, p76).’”

Whether you’re trying to break into e-commerce or start a custom publication, partnering with an expert can increase efficiency, reduce risk and optimize results while sparing your company the cost of internal time and resources.

Visit Laura Rowley.com

What's a tag?

May 31, 2007 in award winning blog, award winning design, blog publish, Blogs, Brand enhancement, build credibility, Building Customer Community, Building Customer Intuition, business credibility, Business Marketing, Business relationships, Corporate Blogging, Customer Intuition, customer retention, E-Marketing, Email Marketing, email marketing solution, grow relationships, Marketing Communication, marketing solutions, nurturing relationships, online marketing, publish, Strategic Internet Marketing | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

ACES in Bloom

Posted on May 21, 2007 by Vinnie Lacey.

It's not often that we get to pat ourselves on the back here at BeTuitive Publishing. But award season is in full swing, and we are proud to announce our first wins of 2007!

Miller Heiman and BeTuitive Publishing scored top honors at the 2007 ACE Awards, sponsored by the Reno-Tahoe chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA). AMA has been the leading source for information, knowledge sharing, and development in the marketing profession for over six decades, with over 38,000 members internationally.

The Miller Heiman Sales Performance Journal nabbed an Award of Excellence in the category of Comprehensive Marketing Campaign for BeTuitive and Miller Heiman. Miller Heiman also won awards in the categories of Special Events, Direct Mail Campaign, Web Marketing Campaign and Publicity/Public Relations Campaign.

Congratulations to our friends at Miller Heiman, pictured here with their shiny accolades:

Excellence is Contagious!

May 21, 2007 in award winning blog, award winning design, award winning magazine, award winning newsletter, Award winning publications, blog publish, Blogging Tools, Blogs, Brand enhancement, build credibility, Building B2B Relationships, Building Customer Community, Building Customer Intuition, company magazine, company newsletter, Custom publication, Custom publications, electronic newsletter, Email blast, Email Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Everybody's Workin' for the Weekend

Posted on May 14, 2007 by Vinnie Lacey.

When was the last time you told a job interviewer you have trouble getting things done? Probably never. We all like to think productivity is our strong suite. In reality, getting things done is a common obstacle, with nuances for every job position and industry.

Not to fear. No, really...c'mon now...take your forehead off the keyboard and get those pencil erasers out of your ears.

There are a few things that anyone can do in today's time-crunched business world to turn unsightly "to do's" into gold star "all done's." Our friends over at Yahoo Finance share these "Five Steps to Being More Productive."

Now excuse me while I go clean out my inbox.

May 14, 2007 in audio publication, award winning blog, award winning design, award winning magazine, award winning newsletter, Award winning publications, Blog Outsourcing, blog publish, Blogging Tools, Blogs, Brand enhancement, build credibility, Building B2B Relationships, Building Customer Community, Building Customer Intuition, bulk email marketing, business credibility, Business editorial, business magazine, Business Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

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