Accountability and Return-On-Investment

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."

Watrall, Rick. Communication World Bulletin (2003). Articles>Business Communication>Marketing>Assessment

Ads Are Here To Stay: Planning For Ad Placement

Site advertisements can interfere with content and disrupt layout. Yet they are most often part of website requirements, forcing IAs to come up with strategies for incorportating them. Is there a graceful way to handle ads online?

Kirtland, Alex. Boxes and Arrows (2005). Design>Web Design>Marketing>E Commerce

Advertisers are Missing the Internet Connection, OPA Report Reveals

According to a June 2006 study conducted on behalf of the Online Publishers Association (OPA) by the Center for Media Design at Ball State University, advertising dollars aren't keeping up with skyrocketing consumer web demand.

Dye, Jessica. EContent (2006). Articles>Content Management>Marketing

An Alternative to Banner Ads

Banner ads are not a particularly useful way of getting people to 'click', but inserting a plain vanilla link just might be.

Baker, Adam. Merges.net (2001). Design>Web Design>Marketing>Usability

Architecting a Tradeshow Booth: A New Job for the Technical Communicator  

Can a technical communicator step in and create a striking booth to attract attendees and successfully market a company? You bet – it is easier than it looks. Designing a tradeshow booth is a fun exploration of a communicator’s talents in design, organization, and writing. And if you dare to add some creativity to your talents, success comes automatically.

Faure, MacKenzie, Amey Celoria and Cecilia Kullberg. STC Proceedings (1998). Design>Information Design>Marketing

Are You Communicating Dynamically?

It took only a few years for the Internet to fundamentally change the way we communicate. Marketers have learned to take advantage of this new medium by creating innovative ways to reach their audiences. But what about business communicators? Have we really taken advantage of everything the ’Net has to offer? With all the choices for news and information, how do we cut through the noise of the competition, keep our audiences engaged and influence them to move in the right direction? We need to think of the Internet as a dynamic communication tool that gives us the ability to target, focus and change our messages constantly in order to influence diverse sets of audiences.

Bechtel, Chris. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Communication>Marketing

The Art of Self-Marketing

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.

Harris, Kerri. Writing Assistance (2005). Articles>Business Communication>Marketing

The Art of Selling: Your Sales Techniques Must Fit the Product and the Times

A successful marketing representative shares her secrets on proven ways to sell writing consulting services.

Olive, Jo-Anne. Writer's Block (1996). Careers>Consulting>Marketing

A Bad Site: Martha Stewart Gets "Vasperized"

Even public relations web sites must be user-centered in design and content. Narcissistic, arrogant PR sites are counter-productive in the digital age of transparency, fault-admission, and altruism via shared information. Find out why Martha Talks is a web site failure from a usability and ethics point of view.

Streight, Steven. Blogger.com (2004). Articles>Web Design>Public Relations>Marketing

Basic Marketing Techniques  

Effective marketing is key to your success. Marketing is based on your image and message, both of which can be delivered in a myriad of methods.

Maggiani, Rich. STC Proceedings (2002). Articles>TC>Marketing

Be Open to Closed-Loop Marketing

Though it's sometimes tough to implement, making marketers feel as if they're going in circles, closed-loop marketing can help you adjust marketing campaigns to deliver highly targeted content and advertising.

Allen, Cliff. Allen.com (2001). Design>Web Design>Marketing

Blogs: The Fast Track to Getting Global Awareness

“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.

Albrycht, Elizabeth. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Articles>Business Communication>Marketing>Blogging

Brand Experience in User Experience Design

As user experience professionals, we have the opportunity to work more closely with brand and marketing specialists to clearly articulate the brand perception we want to elicit from our customers. Brand perception is, in part, an expectation on the part of a customer regarding future interactions with a company and its products and services. To achieve our desired brand perception, we must consistently represent and deliver the brand values we have led customers to expect.

Baty, Steve. UXmatters (2006). Design>Web Design>User Experience>Marketing

Branding and the User Interface, Part 1: Brand Basics

Develops a foundation for future, more detailed discussions by introducing several key brand concepts.

Fortin, Nate. Cooper Interaction Design (2003). Articles>User Interface>Marketing

Branding Copy and Web Sites: A Bad Fit

The trouble with using text as a branding tool on web pages is that it gets in the way of what visitors are looking for. Visitors want and expect text to be useful and information. They are in 'active' and 'engaged' mode. They are searching. They want something. Text that isn't useful is disappointing.

Usborne, Nick. Excess Voice (2004). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Marketing

Branding Your Company  

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.

Frick, Elizabeth G. (Bette). Intercom (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Marketing

Breaking Down the Silos: Usability Practitioners Meet Marketing Researchers

I often find that client companies keep two disciplines locked up in separate silos—usability research within IT and marketing research within the Marketing Services department. This can have a serious impact on the sharing of information relating to customer experience.

Kozatch, David. UXmatters (2008). Articles>Usability>Marketing>Collaboration

Build More Effective International Media Analysis Programmes with Market Research Disciplines

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.

Stoeckle, Thomas and Mike Daniels. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Business Communication>Marketing>Assessment

Build Up Links to Your Website

Link building is an essential part of any online marketing strategy. Learn how to in this article.

Moss, Trenton. Webcredible (2004). Design>Web Design>Marketing>Search Engine Optimization

Building Blocks for Marketing Documents  

Massa explains several features common to most technical marketing documents.

Massa, Jack A. Intercom (2002). Articles>Writing>Marketing

Building Brand into Structure

Brand should be a component of every decision a company makes, from its customer service to its logistics to its letterhead to its interactive properties. Tips and advice for the IA needing to support the brand experience within a quality user experience.

Saffer, Dan. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Design>Graphic Design>Marketing

Bulletproof Your Brochures

Brochures are good for some things but not others. The key to not wasting your money is to understand what brochures do well, and what they don't do well.

Bennaco (2005). Articles>Document Design>Marketing

Business-Centred Design

In traditional user-centred design, focus is on users’ needs and their use of the product, while marketing is left to the marketing department. On the web, usability and marketing go hand in hand. Whether commercial or not, a web site has to meet the need of its users and at the same time convince them to take action, for the objectives behind the site to be meet.

Olsen, Henrik. GUUUI (2003). Design>Web Design>Marketing>Usability

Care to Invest in Usability?

Making decisions regarding your investments is difficult, even during the best of times, and it is interesting to look at the reasons and drivers behind 'putting your money where your mouth is'. Usability, I believe, is a key part of the investment decision process. In an increasingly complex and technological world, a lot of people are perusing, gathering, and analyzing financial information using the internet. This is often the key material that helps people make their investment decisions in one particular way or another. 

Harrison, Nick. WebWord (2001). Articles>Usability>Marketing