| | | What Works - What Doesn't | |  Companies | 14 articles |
| Page 1 of 1 | Previous | Next | WHAT WORKS - WHAT DOESN'T JULY 8, 2010  Time to Kill the Press Release? Because the more I thought, the less reason I could find for a company to issue a traditional “press release.” What with the long decline of the trade press, there is less “press” out there to “release” information to. Maybe, as PR pro Don Jennings suggests, companies need to issue press releases for regulatory or disclosure purposes. | WHAT WORKS - WHAT DOESN'T NOVEMBER 9, 2010  How Much Rope Should You Give a “Corporate Reporter?” Companies have been hiring ex-journalists for years as PR people because they knew how to tell a story and how to work with their fellow ink-stained wretches. His goal, he says, is “to drill down within the company and the industry to find the stories that too often go untold. For those old enough to remember ink.). will profile brands and the people that work for them. I (of course!) | | | | | |
| WHAT WORKS - WHAT DOESN'T DECEMBER 21, 2010  If You MUST Write A Press Release, Do It Better At Schwartz Communications’ breakfast roundtable on content marketing last week, attendees were asked to rank which channels they used to get the news out about their company. Plenty of people use “blogs,” “Twitter,” “Facebook,” or “LinkedIn” but “press release” barely registered. That led one attendee to ask why. They get decent readership, she said, as well as some media mentions. | WHAT WORKS - WHAT DOESN'T JULY 21, 2010  Selling Your Weaknesses in B2B Content Marketing For example: Reason Two, that social media causes companies to “Focus on the Wrong Metrics.” I’ve long argued that admitting your product or service isn’t the right hammer for every nail is an effective way to sell. The folks at marketing automation software vendor HubSpot seem to agree, judging from a recent blog post on “Seven Reasons Social Media is Bad for Marketing.”. | WHAT WORKS - WHAT DOESN'T OCTOBER 19, 2010 Software Consultancy: Why MA Is Hot It would seem PR and marketing firms can help their customers by delivering the skills, processes and content B2B companies need to make marketing automation software work. Recent survey data indicates these are the top three hurdles to companies adopting MA software. Software consultancy Software Advice has a good business model: Give away a certain amount of information about software, then charge for more detailed counseling. All of which begs the question: Which of these specific hurdles is most critical, and where do B2B vendors need help getting the benefits of MA software? | WHAT WORKS - WHAT DOESN'T AUGUST 10, 2010 Virtual Trade Shows for Mere Mortals What can we in smaller companies learn from giant SAP? recently helped “cover” a customer summit for a multinational services company and was amazed by the amount, quality, and candor of the interchange among customers. SAP appears to have done a bang-up job with its combined physical and virtual customer conferences, according to B2B Magazine. Not only did it focus on getting customers to talk to each other, (VS. The simultaneous physical events attracted 20,000 people to Orlando and Frankfurt, not to mention satellite physical locations where people watched live satellite feeds. | | | | | | | |
| -
WHAT WORKS - WHAT DOESN'T | MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2010  Maintenance Fees, a Cash Cow for Vendors, Under Attack From Users
Ending maintenance agreement might mean an end to technical support as well, but that’s less of an issue for companies with years of experience maintaining a mature application. Some customers are pushing back on software maintenance agreements, threatening vendors with the loss of their most predictable, profitable continuing revenue stream. Priced at 15% or 18% (or more) of the up-front purchase price of the software, maintenance agreements provide customers with updates and enhancements as well as support. For endors, they generate profit margins as high as 85%. MORE >> - Huge Jargon Slick Drifts Towards Readers; “Resources,” “Mitigate” Clog Brains
Let’s say – let’s just say – you were a huge oil company, or a government agency, desperately trying to recover from a major blunder. You’re not sure how bad things are or when you can fix the situation. But do you do know you messed up real bad, didn’t move quickly enough to fix the problem and are desperately trying to calm everyone down while you scramble to undo the damage you’ve caused. Yes, I’m talking about the oil slick the size of Puerto Rico now drifting towards the Gulf Coast. Nearly 2,000 people are working to protect the shoreline and wildlife. MORE >> -
WHAT WORKS - WHAT DOESN'T | MONDAY, APRIL 26, 2010  Boeing Redesigns Web Site Around Features. And the Business Case Is?
In short, it looks and feels much like the glossy corporate publications companies did when they had fatter marketing budgets, and customers had more time to read. Boeing is in some ways a business to consumer company (we all use their products) but the actual purchasers are airlines, aircraft leasing companies and governments. So while I love to see someone still doing fun feature journalism, I wonder how much dollar value there is in such “brand journalism” for a company like Boeing. Which leads me to wonder about the business case behind this redesign. MORE >> -
WHAT WORKS - WHAT DOESN'T | TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2010 Find Trend Pitches In Your Earnings Releases
It’s good news these days to see a company whose revenue grew more than 70% year over year, as encryption vendor Voltage Security announced today. They’re even profitable, more to the point.) It’s an even better story when the earnings press release holds the germ of a trend story, which this does – but not until the sixth graf. That’s when Voltage says one reason for its success is that many customers are using Voltage’s encryption products to reduce the size of their PCI (Payment Card Industry) audits. MORE >> -
 Real Editors Don't Just Retweet
“Content marketing” – using material such as white papers, podcasts and videos to sell to customers – is the latest buzzword as companies try to grab market share in the recovering economy. One common refrain I keep hearing is that marketers should “think like an editor” in deciding what information to give to customers. The only problem is that some of the very smart people giving this advice have no real idea what an editor does. Sure, real editors read “the other paper,” but mostly to beat up their own reporters about scoops they missed. MORE >>
- About Us WHAT WORKS - WHAT DOESN'T | TUESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2011
- How Quality Content Is Helping IT Vendors WHAT WORKS - WHAT DOESN'T | FRIDAY, JANUARY 7, 2011
- How We Can Help WHAT WORKS - WHAT DOESN'T | SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2011
| |
