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Here's a pop quiz: Name a form of marketing communications that can take as little as five seconds to complete, can be accomplished by a nine-year-old child or an adult, and is of absolutely no importance whatsoever. Oh, and it also happens to be the most difficult and frustrating form of marketing communications, by far. The answer is naming consulting, the often-arcane art of creating and applying names to products, services and companies.

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: Writing

You've carefully selected your list. You've labored long and hard over your letter—every word, sentence and paragraph. It's a powerhouse of persuasion with every key element firmly in place, including compelling benefits, powerful testimonials, a superb P.S. and an impossible-to-resist offer. But all your hard work, your hours of craftsmanship and painstaking attention to every little detail will go for naught, unless your prospect opens the envelope. Here are two distinctly different ways to go about that.

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Business events are at their most powerful when they are part of an integrated go-to-market strategy. Integration sounds logical, but how do you actually pull it off? First, you have to have control—or at least influence—over all the elements of the marketing mix. Then, you must develop a sound strategic approach to business event planning. Follow one of these three strategies.

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At a networking event, you exchange business cards with another person. The business card includes an email address. No doubt, it's okay to contact the person by email. But what about including that name in bulk emails? Is that okay... or not? This week's reader collected emails but doesn't have permission to send emails to the prospects. What can he do?

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Get ready—'tis the season for resolutions. But instead of a boring list of all-purpose to-dos, here's a single goal that can make a big impact: We will identify our most profitable customers (the top 20%) and create a strategy to increase business with them by 20% before year's end. Let's call it "the 20/20 strategy." It can capture the attention of your entire organization to drive profitability in 2006. Read on to find out why it's so powerful, and how you can implement it successfully.

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So you've created a Web log to communicate more intimately and more frequently with your audience. It's supposed to be easy. After all, the technology is simple, the style casual and the content brief. But after the initial wave of enthusiasm, you may find it increasingly difficult to generate ideas for the blog that began with so many thoughts—and so many posts—just a few months ago. Worse, you might be guiding a boss or colleague who may not be a fluent writer, but is the appropriate representative whose voice must be present in the blogosphere. How do you help that person refresh the well of inspiration when she's run out of ideas to draw upon? Tape the following list of ideas, prompts and suggestions over her monitor.

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Did you get a letter from someone who was offended by your latest TV spot? Did someone send you an email saying you suck? Do you have a group of angry folks boycotting your brand? You should be smiling. Having someone hate you lets you know you're doing a good job of branding. We all know our goal should be to evoke an emotional reaction in the consumer. But many marketers get so hung up on trying to evoke positive reactions that they pander to every possible audience that has a checkbook. When you put a stake in the ground and say "this is who I am," you are also saying "this is who I'm not."

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Webster defines "community" as a group of people living together as a smaller social unit within a larger one. Communities provide a convenient way to look at slices of your market. However, they are not the same as market segments; rather, they are groups of people linked by a common thread, a common experience or a common vision that may have nothing to do with your product or service at all, but can have everything to do with building your business.

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Marketing used to be merely one of many disciplines—on an equal footing with sales, finance, HR, manufacturing, operations, engineering or product development. Some might even say some considered it a lesser discipline. Well, that's no longer true. Marketing is increasingly taking over our world—we as as organizations and as individuals.

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: Writing

Before you release any communications to prospects or customers, gauge how your copy scores on the B/S Index. What is the B/S Index? It's not what you think it is—it's the Believability/Simpatico Index. There are five components to the Index.

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The power of partnership brand marketing brings two companies and brands together—each with its own brand equity and its own distribution channel strength. Whether teaming a car manufacturer with a theme park to capture the family segment, pairing ketchup with home video or aligning toys with food, corporations are looking to create strategic alliances that tap areas in which they may not normally compete—providing incremental marketing exposure and ultimately gaining new customers. Many organizations often place partnership marketing under the promotions banner within the marketing mix; as a result, it can become more promotions-based and limited. partnership marketing programs, however, are much more strategic and expansive, and therefore, more than just promotions.

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Business marketers spend more than $20 billion annually on tradeshow marketing, and another $15 billion on proprietary corporate events, such as client conferences and road shows. But most business marketers are unclear about what value they are getting from their investment. The best value results from a combination of careful planning, dedication to measurement and—above all—a strategic focus. First and foremost, you must consider the fundamental principles that drive successful business event marketing—boiled down here to 10 essentials.

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: Writing

As tech marketing experts, we have a responsibility to communicate what our product is and what it does—early, and often. If within our array of marketing material we can successfully explain what our product is, how it benefits the customer and answer questions regarding its features, we will differentiate ourselves from the competition and ultimately gain more sales. Here's a first step: avoid the nondescriptive "solution."

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In most of the US, the winter weather outside is frightful, but that's no reason for cold calls to feel the same way. Small business personnel typically do multiple jobs, and sometimes they get stuck doing something that's not comfortable, like cold calling. To address that marketing challenge, readers offer strategies for warming up those cold calls.

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A breakaway brand is a great brand that is built to be a winner over the long term. Time after time, a breakaway brand leads its category, generates high awareness and grows market share, despite intense competition. Nike, Apple's iPod, and JetBlue exemplify breakaway brands. While the approach may vary from one marketer to another, the process is essentially the same. Ultimately, the goal is to reach the brand truth.

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A good guarantee should not only appeal to the base emotion of a potential purchaser but also afford some real protection that the purchase he or she is making will provide meaningful results. Unfortunately, many of the most popular types of guaranteed SEO do not. Here's what really matters.

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A commitment to pleasing customers should be much more than a marketing claim (or an interface that can be capriciously switched off) but a core principle that guides every decision. All that should ever matter is what really matters to customers.

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When your company is well synchronized with market needs, prospects buy and money flows. Unfortunately, few companies can maintain a constant flow. Salespeople churn out demonstrations, samples and proposals. Marketing departments churn out newsletters, ad copy and brochures. But not enough prospects close. What makes the sales funnel flow faster?

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Value chains are replacing brands are the most powerful weapon in the marketing arsenal. While still widely perceived as source of risk, value-chain transparency actually offers brand owners an opportunity to create new forms of value for customers at an emotional and ethical level—the level where brands have traditionally operated. In contrast to brands, the equity currently locked within value chains is real, testable and valuable to end-users. Learning to release this value is the key to sustainable competitive advantage.

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Jimmy Wales is the founder of Wikipedia, the world's largest free online encyclopedia. In its development, Wales created a community of volunteers who have published over 800,000 articles. Here, Wales offers some insights to his business and its philosophy, and he talks about what's next in the wiki world.