http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Articles/Business-Communication/Marketing A listing of the most recently indexed works about Articles and Business Communication and Marketing in the field of technical communication. en-us Copyright (c) 2005-08 by the EServer. All rights reserved. tclib-editorial@eserver.org (TC Library Editorial Board) webmaster@eserver.org (Geoffrey Sauer) http://tc.eserver.org/images/newlogo.gif http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Articles/Business-Communication/Marketing http://tc.eserver.org/35807.html http://tc.eserver.org/35807.html Do you know if you're promoting features or benefits in your marketing materials? The answer to this question plays a significant role in the effectiveness of your marketing message. While features are facts benefits explain why facts are important. Its these benefits that target your prospects emotions a key factor in selling situations. http://tc.eserver.org/35727.html http://tc.eserver.org/35727.html How can you build the right following? The question is important because like it or not, as communicators, we’re expected to lead the way in our organizations’ use of social media. http://tc.eserver.org/35728.html http://tc.eserver.org/35728.html Treat others the way you would want to be treated. It seems ridiculous to think that one of the most common rules taught to children somehow hinders effective business communication when these children become adults. But it’s true. To be effective at communicating with customers (for example, internal audiences who buy into ideas or messages, or external audiences who buy products or services), one must turn away from this standard rule and focus instead on treating others the way they want to be treated. http://tc.eserver.org/35055.html http://tc.eserver.org/35055.html Here are two main methods you can use to launch off your article marketing campaign. http://tc.eserver.org/34995.html http://tc.eserver.org/34995.html Point-of-purchase advertising (POP) is responsible for half of the purchase decisions made in the store. Because of: 1) the influence of POP on the sale of technical consumer products and the economy; 2) our need to understand trends that shape technical and business communication; 3) the intermedial nature of POP (where spoken and written words work with place, visual image, physical structures, and multimedia integrated marketing campaigns); and 4) its theatrical and local nature, we need both a situated and theoretical exploration of POP. Drawing upon three months' participant observation in advertising, I describe a POP composing process in an integrated marketing campaign. Cognitive responses to layout and the interrelation of rhetorical canons are considered for preparing communication for a marketplace that is three-dimensional variegated, noisy, and peripatetic. http://tc.eserver.org/34661.html http://tc.eserver.org/34661.html Do you have a new idea, business model, product or service? Do you want to get noticed by using a marketing method that might only cost you time? Try writing a white paper to attract people to your door. http://tc.eserver.org/34414.html http://tc.eserver.org/34414.html Online through mobile will be, is, WAS the future. Ori Carmel from Ambergreen says that The Future of Mobile Marketing crept up on us while we were looking the other way and is already here. http://tc.eserver.org/34298.html http://tc.eserver.org/34298.html Marketers are increasingly engaging with consumers on social media platforms and Twitter, in particular, has received, and continues to gain, attention. From shock tactics, to useful value propositions like @amazonmp3 content feed, brands are revealing themselves on Twitter. We are starting to hear of stories about top executives calling meetings about how they should "get on Twitter" and saying, "We need a social media profile." But should they? Do they? http://tc.eserver.org/34202.html http://tc.eserver.org/34202.html For writer, photographer, and video producer David Chandler-Gick, Facebook is a practical tool. "On a recent cross-country excursion to work with Cathy Steffan of Parallel Media Productions, Facebook served as a central hub to keep me in contact with friends and colleagues," he writes. "Accessing Facebook kept me in touch with what was going on, last-minute changes, and more." http://tc.eserver.org/34175.html http://tc.eserver.org/34175.html Utilizing reliable market research on an ongoing basis is the most effective way to ensure a successful marketing campaign. Nevertheless, for many companies, the benefits of conducting marketing research and the costs of conducting marketing research always seem to be at odds. Marketing research can be expensive. Not knowing your customer's needs can be costly. http://tc.eserver.org/34090.html http://tc.eserver.org/34090.html If you aren't yet, get really digital, really fast. Don't just hire some kid out of college that knows .NET or PHP and talks of something called Cold Fusion. No, go find one of those really expensive geeks that has been in the biz for a while. Then get out of their way. http://tc.eserver.org/33583.html http://tc.eserver.org/33583.html Every large corporation has a marketing strategy that outlines what it wants to say to customers, but many of them still aren’t using their homepages effectively to highlight that message. http://tc.eserver.org/33409.html http://tc.eserver.org/33409.html Unlike corporate websites, b-blogs are cheap to launch and easy to maintain, thanks to powerful, easy-to-use tools. Unlike spam, or junk e-mail, b-blogs aren't intrusive; users must click to them. Done well, b-blogs provide a fast, informal way to share information -- project updates, research or test results, product-release news, industry headlines -- inside and outside your company. http://tc.eserver.org/32566.html http://tc.eserver.org/32566.html The average Facebook user doesn’t want content pushed to them, particularly contests or other promotional programs that don’t speak to their overall enthusiasm for a brand. These types of promotions can be supported on the Facebook Fan Page, but should not be the primary focus and should be housed in other digital arenas. Successful communities on Facebook offer an attitude of openness, transparency and enthusiasm - not a technology platform for advertising. http://tc.eserver.org/32020.html http://tc.eserver.org/32020.html In this article, the authors compare the corporate social responsibility reporting (CSRR) of companies" environment, human relations, community, human rights, and diversity dimensions"in the emerging market economy of South Africa with that of companies in the leading economies represented by the Fortune Global 100. The descriptive analysis extends earlier empirical work on the CSRR of emerging market economies, and the impact of culture on CSRR, by examining annual report data from the top 100 companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Index and the Fortune Global 100. Generally, the frequency and level of CSRR in South African companies was significantly higher than that of the Fortune Global 100, which indicates a greater willingness to convey social responsibility in their disclosure practices. This lends credence to the notion that emerging market economies may be more receptive to stakeholder concerns and social responsibility than peer institutions in leading economies. http://tc.eserver.org/31701.html http://tc.eserver.org/31701.html Whether you're a tech writer, documentation manager or training professional, after reading this article you may consider incorporating some marketing techniques into your annual objectives to maximize your career development. http://tc.eserver.org/31559.html http://tc.eserver.org/31559.html Once viewed more as art than science, marketers are increasingly interested in measuring performance. Like it or not, there is a new wave of accountability in the world of marketing, and if you're not prepared, you could get swept under it. Companies are becoming increasingly concerned with ensuring that all activities are profitable. As a result, each dollar invested in marketing is being challenged to demonstrate bottom line performance. New forms of marketing, escalating ad costs and tools that purport to measure marketing effectiveness have all contributed to the pressure traditional media is facing to "prove its worth." http://tc.eserver.org/31529.html http://tc.eserver.org/31529.html Corporate brands are built by countless interactions between people - customers and clients, suppliers and distributors, shareholders and communities, and one another. If your brand does not reflect your people in a way that makes them proud and passionate, they will not deliver the brand experience in the marketplace. Some do's and don'ts for corporate branding. http://tc.eserver.org/31564.html http://tc.eserver.org/31564.html The brand experts and advertising gurus tell us that "caring is commercial," but this has not changed the behavior or profile of many chief executives. One new chief immediately canceled the daily VIP lunch delivered to his office and instead went down to the staff canteen, sitting among his workforce. In another case, a tough CEO confronts an aggressive media at an annual meeting and declares, "Our task it to manage the business to provide maximum return for our shareholders -- end of story." In these cases, communicators provide support and advice, yet in many instances, the decision about profile is made before they are called in. http://tc.eserver.org/31558.html http://tc.eserver.org/31558.html Many companies have taken a limited view of the impact that marketing communication can have on overall corporate objectives, reducing their understanding of the value of marketing communication. One reason for this resistance is that the value of IMC can be complex to measure in a world where marketing usually moves at a dynamic pace and is driven by a changing competitive landscape and seemingly unpredictable shifts in customer attitudes. The potential revenue and customer satisfaction benefits of implementing an IMC program can be so dramatic that companies shouldn't ignore the movement any longer. http://tc.eserver.org/31528.html http://tc.eserver.org/31528.html Australasia's leading forest product company, Carter Holt Harvey (CHH), transformed itself in under three years from slumbering giant into a high-performing, innovative business leader based on values of performance, leadership and innovation - and won an IABC Gold Quill award in the process. Here's CHH's story in brief and rules learned along the way. http://tc.eserver.org/31499.html http://tc.eserver.org/31499.html Ask communication professionals why measurement is important, and their answers are likely to involve accountability, measures of effectiveness, ROI and planning support. Ask market researchers what makes for good measurement, and they are likely to respond that it involves reproducible results, adherence to rigorous standards and objective impartiality. Within the communication process, however—especially within PR and media relations—there is a tendency to look more closely at the output of their programmes than at the methodology yielding the data charts and reports. While market research has a well-established body of theory to support its claims of delivering objective and authoritative data, media analysis as a commercial discipline is only just beginning to grasp the importance of these standards. http://tc.eserver.org/31520.html http://tc.eserver.org/31520.html According to a 1997 survey entitled “The Quality of Working Life” by Professors Les Worrall and Cary Cooper of the Institute of Management, of the 5,000 U.K. managers polled, a majority revealed that they had been affected by organisational change in the last year and failed to see business benefits. When asked about possible improvements, the largest response reflected the need for greater involvement, more listening by senior managers and more honest, two-way communication. http://tc.eserver.org/31503.html http://tc.eserver.org/31503.html At the heart of a successful brand strategy is a clear understanding of the customers you serve and what’s important to them. Employees need direction on what the customer expects and the actions they must take to deliver on those expectations. To gain this understanding, employees must identify the interactions from the customer’s point of view to determine whether or not the company is living up to its customer “promise.” While companies can easily measure marketing dollars spent on brand-building initiatives, understanding how the brand drives customers’ purchasing decisions has often proven to be more elusive. http://tc.eserver.org/31506.html http://tc.eserver.org/31506.html There are few things in life more subjective than graphic design and color. You like blue, but the client likes green. You want to use illustration, but the client prefers photography. You like a serif typeface, the client doesn’t. As the designer, you believe the choice should be yours because that’s why you went to college and have spent years working on design and branding projects for other clients. The client feels because it’s their money, it’s their call. However, the truth lies somewhere in between. In spite of client/vendor differences, you are both trying to achieve the same goal: to create design and branding elements that make the strongest, most memorable impression to generate maximum visibility and produce the most sales possible. http://tc.eserver.org/31504.html http://tc.eserver.org/31504.html Why are some companies regularly recognized as the nation’s most admired even when their across-the-board performance is inconsistent? Why are other companies that demonstrate solid, consistent performance often ignored? In two words, the answer is awareness and performance. Wal-Mart ranked at the top in a number of corporate reputation lists, yet the company was dogged by the discovery of undocumented workers in their stores. How does a company such as Wal-Mart succeed in light of such news? http://tc.eserver.org/31519.html http://tc.eserver.org/31519.html In the waning weeks of 2004, discussion of integrated communication is, to paraphrase my teenage daughter, “so yesterday.” Like cascading communication, any talk today about integrating organizational communication is on par with contemplating one’s navel. Integrated communication should be a given for any organization. What is integrated communication and why is it so passé? To have a chance at being heard in today’s cluttered environment, all facets of the organization’s story need to be coordinated and consistent. No matter where you touch that organization, the story must be the same. http://tc.eserver.org/31493.html http://tc.eserver.org/31493.html Microsoft’s marketing of Windows Vista and the Zune have failed in large part due to the fact that Microsoft has not learned how to effectively sell consumer products. Consumers buy Windows and Office, but that’s because they have no choice, not because of the company’s marketing savvy. Microsoft only effectively markets its products to businesses, which represents a very different type of sales relationship. http://tc.eserver.org/31411.html http://tc.eserver.org/31411.html A good reputation, particularly in an increasingly competitive world, is a must for all companies and organizations. Reputation is a company asset and should always be taken seriously—lose your reputation and you often lose a lot more besides. A good reputation is essential in crisis situations and can help to reduce the impact of negative events and press. http://tc.eserver.org/31389.html http://tc.eserver.org/31389.html Too often companies perceive rebranding as a shallow cosmetic exercise. New PMS colour here, tweak of the logo there and throw in some nice TV ads. Done deal. Not so. In order to compete, be differentiated and sustain a competitive advantage, organisations need to push the brand much deeper to their internal core: their people. http://tc.eserver.org/31385.html http://tc.eserver.org/31385.html While webmasters have long been able to study how site visitors interact with a web site, e-mail has been more elusive. No more. With the latest generation of smart e-mail software, marketers can now essentially look over the shoulders of their readers, seeing first-hand what works, what needs improvement and what is simply falling on deaf ears. http://tc.eserver.org/31366.html http://tc.eserver.org/31366.html “We need to get global awareness fast,” says your CEO. “Make it happen.” When faced with the need to rapidly increase your organization’s visibility around the world, there are some daunting and expensive challenges, particularly if your company does not have a local presence in the countries it is targeting. Hiring local public relations and marketing communication talent, translating collateral into local languages and identifying and getting into both formal and informal business networks are just a few of these challenges. http://tc.eserver.org/31361.html http://tc.eserver.org/31361.html Branding dates back to ancient times and can be an aspect of every field. Not only does branding provide clients with a sense of professionalism and reliability, it can also help define your company. http://tc.eserver.org/31336.html http://tc.eserver.org/31336.html Internal branding is alive and well, and continues to evolve as more people realize how powerful it is as a business tool. You may hear it called by different names, such as employer branding, employee branding or employee value propositioning, but whatever the term, it is an important and useful concept. http://tc.eserver.org/31334.html http://tc.eserver.org/31334.html A recent Gallup poll showed that 69 percent of employees are disengaged at work. A survey of human resources managers by PricewaterhouseCoopers in the U.K. found that only 26 percent of employees demonstrated brand values in their day-to-day behavior. These figures suggest that internal branding efforts are perhaps not producing the desired effect. "Living the brand" initiatives cannot work when the majority of employees are not tuned in at work. Great brands are built by consistently delivering on the brand promise, which requires employee engagement with that brand. http://tc.eserver.org/31335.html http://tc.eserver.org/31335.html Employee engagement, getting employees to "live the brand," gaining employee buy-in—today's managers are trying to wrap their minds around these critical practices through internal marketing and internal branding. But not everyone understands these concepts. You even hear people use the terms interchangeably, even though there are a number of differences between these concepts. http://tc.eserver.org/31292.html http://tc.eserver.org/31292.html Today's audiences are jaded about marketing and savvy about messaging, making it harder than ever for marketers to earn an audience's undivided attention and create a meaningful bond between brand and individual. Whether you're talking about a 10,000-person corporate sales meeting or a multi-city mobile marketing program for consumers, you are more likely to hear words like integration, engagement and participation as criteria for marketing success than terms like impressions and eyeballs. http://tc.eserver.org/31243.html http://tc.eserver.org/31243.html There has been a lot of buzz lately about the dynamic created by having four generations in the workforce at once. Dozens of experts, myself included, have spent hours with businesses worldwide to help management better understand how to connect with employees by learning how a generational perspective can color the world and affect business relationships. http://tc.eserver.org/31258.html http://tc.eserver.org/31258.html Consumers no longer have to rely only on mass media for information. More often than not, they are turning to colleagues, friends and other people they trust for advice on what products and services to buy, generally trying to avoid sales people altogether. Understandably, this is what makes social media so effective, and one of the reasons why it can have such a positive impact on your bottom line. http://tc.eserver.org/30599.html http://tc.eserver.org/30599.html Writers of marketing materials seem to be stepchildren at best in the family of technical communication. Yet one cannot engage in writing effective marketing materials about technical products or services without being a technical communicator. And the more "typical" technical writer--such as an author of documentation--will perform better when she understand-s the marketing component of her work. We will serve the marketing communicator and his technical writer counterpart well by breaking down the barrier that seems to exist between the disciplines. http://tc.eserver.org/30522.html http://tc.eserver.org/30522.html This workshop will examine the types of marketing materials that can give you creative experience. You'll learn how to adapt your skills and subject matter knowledge to these projects, how to plan and develop different types of materials, and how to identify opportunities for new types of communication. http://tc.eserver.org/30322.html http://tc.eserver.org/30322.html Today's business climate is kinder to those who understand and act on the fact that there are numerous ways to communicate positive attributes. http://tc.eserver.org/30277.html http://tc.eserver.org/30277.html A good relationship with internal clients, accompanied by well-defined procedures, makes the creative process of developing marketing materials as smooth as possible. http://tc.eserver.org/30264.html http://tc.eserver.org/30264.html Grab readers. Make them want to read about your product. No, not by writing sparkling prose in a brochure or flier, but by showing your product or service solving a problem -- as told by a real user. A unique blend of journalism and promotion, "case history" articles offer benefits for everyone. The user gets to look like an important expert. Your company or client gets its product or service shown in a good light. And the publication where the case history is published gets an article that will appeal to its readers. http://tc.eserver.org/30087.html http://tc.eserver.org/30087.html Direct marketing in the form of direct mail is used by almost every company whether it is the local service station or shoe repair shop or a Fortune 500 company. Unlike documentation that instructs or describes a process, marketing materials must persuade as well as inform. Increasingly, technical communicators’ responsibilities are being expanded to include marketing materials such as advertisements and direct mail. Writing successful direct marketing letters or advertisements can be easier by using a 10-point guide that uses the principles of attracting attention, arousing interest. creating desire and asking for action. http://tc.eserver.org/29749.html http://tc.eserver.org/29749.html This article explores the functional elegance of direct mail as it constructs its target audience. More specifically, it examines direct mailings included in a nationally publicized court case involving Publishers' Clearing House and articulates how the use of particular genre-based, rhetorical and linguistic strategies in these mailings construct reader identity. It argues that the documents use you-attitude to construct the identity of the reader as winner, implied reader devices to reinforce the reader's identity as winner and to establish the reader's identity as the writer's friend, and linguistic politeness strategies to build feelings of solidarity of the reader toward the writer. It concludes with the observation that the direct mail in our study, rather than being "junk," is really a skillfully written set of documents, successfully interweaving various discourse strategies and raising both ethical and professional issues in the process. http://tc.eserver.org/28842.html http://tc.eserver.org/28842.html Ask print direct response copywriters if they are held accountable, and they'll say yes. That was my own life for 15 years. I wrote direct mail packages and was judged not on my past reputation, but on the performance of each piece I wrote, one mailing at a time. http://tc.eserver.org/28073.html http://tc.eserver.org/28073.html During a recent move, the author not only acquired and sold many items via Craigslist (www.craigslist.com), but gained insights about herself as well as running her business. http://tc.eserver.org/28054.html http://tc.eserver.org/28054.html Lack of personalization made an email newsletter completely useless to the recipient, damaging long-term customer relationship efforts. http://tc.eserver.org/26628.html http://tc.eserver.org/26628.html Lack of personalization made an email newsletter completely useless to the recipient, damaging long-term customer relationship efforts. http://tc.eserver.org/25051.html http://tc.eserver.org/25051.html An application story is a form of promotional writing that highlights the practical benefits of a new product. The story tells why a client company purchases the product over comparable market offerings to solve a business problem. The story is complete when the writer (1) states the client's problem; (2) gives the solution to the problem; (3) shows how the new product solves the problem; (4) describes the criteria the organization had originally set for a new system; (5) shows the benefits of the new system; and(6) describes future applications of the technology. Using this 6-step formula, promotional writers can produce successful application stories. http://tc.eserver.org/25046.html http://tc.eserver.org/25046.html Marketing writing is creative and fun, but it is also frustrating and challenging to do well. On the one hand, you are freed from the necessarily rigid writing style of most documentation. On the other hand, you face higher expectations from the reader for tone, content, and style. In a marketing piece you can use a broader vocabulary looser sentence structure, metaphor—even humor. But you also must present a realistic and compelling message about your product or company. http://tc.eserver.org/24741.html http://tc.eserver.org/24741.html A sales letter must capture the reader's attention immediately or it won't get read. Most people accomplish this by stating their biggest benefit at the top of their letter. I've found something that works even better. http://tc.eserver.org/24520.html http://tc.eserver.org/24520.html If you provide after the sale customer service reluctantly, or delegate it to outsourced, but cheaper, providers, you're making a huge mistake. Customer service generates revenue via word of mouth, cross-sell and up-sell opportunities, and repeat purchases by satisfied customers. http://tc.eserver.org/24514.html http://tc.eserver.org/24514.html Use reponsivity to command or coax customers into acting on your offer. http://tc.eserver.org/24165.html http://tc.eserver.org/24165.html I don’t like to market myself. Sometimes I think, 'Heck, I’m good at what I do. I've been doing this for thirty years. Why don’t people come to me?' Then I get over it, consult my marketing plan, and get on with it. (See my previous column, 'Building a Marketing Plan,' in the May 2004 issue of Intercom.) I don't like to market my services, but I like to have marketedmy services. And I keep one thought foremost in the process: 'Marketing is like swimming: If you stop, you sink!' http://tc.eserver.org/23567.html http://tc.eserver.org/23567.html If you think marketing communications are written by an entirely different brand of writer—in a version of the language wholly unlike the one you employ— then think again. Marketing and technical communications do share common ground. And by expanding the horizons of this landscape, you can move into marketing writing. To begin, you must explore what the disciplines share, what attributes are peculiar to marketing communications, and how you can go about developing your skills in this field. http://tc.eserver.org/23574.html http://tc.eserver.org/23574.html Although there are important differences between technical and marketing writing, technical writers have some prerequisites that support a transition to marketing writing: in-depth product knowledge, research experience, and strong oral and written communication skills. To develop data sheets, brochures, and other materials technical writers must first understand the goals of marketing communications. By focusing on audience needs and product benefits, by using writing techniques that engage the reader, and by providing appropriate supporting visuals, technical writers can develop persuasive marketing messages. http://tc.eserver.org/21064.html http://tc.eserver.org/21064.html We pump out a lot of information about product features and benefits on the Web, but have you taken a look at how much -- or maybe how little -- we use emotional appeals to help customers buy our products? Take a look at how customers make purchase decisions. http://tc.eserver.org/20805.html http://tc.eserver.org/20805.html Online brochures don't attract return visits or serve your customers, so turn your Web site into a customer interaction center. http://tc.eserver.org/20106.html http://tc.eserver.org/20106.html Marketing writers face project demands and challenges that are different from those in other forms of technical communication. This session will be a highly interactive discussion between the presenters and the participants, sharing tips and techniques for surviving as a marketing writer in all aspects of a marketing communication project.