The Art of Self-Marketing

Spend enough time among the ranks of corporate culture and you are likely to hear many common catch-phrases like 'branding' and 'market differentiation.' These conceptual ideas can seem like mere marketing dogma reserved for abstract thinkers alone. Yet the savvy career-minded professional should turn a keen eye on these notions with a plan to incorporate a few basic principals into their annual objectives. Employing a few strategies for personal branding can help managers foster greater enthusiasm from their teams and provide the basic framework to help promote a positive self-image within an organization.

Harris, Kerri. TechCom Manager (2007). Articles>Collaboration>Branding>Marketing

How to Market a Documentation Department

When you first ventured into the tech writing ranks, marketing the department was likely the furthest thing from your mind. You already had work to do, so marketing was somebody else’s job.

King, Robert. TechCom Manager (2004). Articles>Management>Documentation>Marketing

Behind the Scenes: Marketing Documentation Services through Leadership

When you think of marketing, do press releases, brochures, presentations, direct mail, and web sites come to mind? Those pieces are certainly parts of the puzzle.But a lot must go on behind the curtain to make those on-stage pieces worthwhile. These often hidden goings-on are the leadership techniques of a successful documentation manager. The result is a documentation department that warrants the effort expended on marketing. After all, marketing succeeds only if services are reliable, communication channels are open, and products meet expectations.

Edgerton, Rebecca J. TechCom Manager (2004). Articles>Management>Documentation>Marketing

Making the Transition From Tech Comm to Marcom

At first glance, technical communication (techcom) and technical marketing communication (marcom) appear to be very different genres. Where traditional techcom strives to help people use products, marcom seeks to make people realize they need products. Techcom instructs, while marcom persuades, and this distinction affects everything from the genre’s focus, to its content, and medium.

Simard, Christy. TechCom Manager (2004). Careers>TC>Business Communication>Marketing

Best Practices for Facebook Fan Pages: User Types

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.

Douma, Collin. Social Media Today (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Marketing>Social Networking

Building Viral Marketing Tools  

One of the best ways to spread the word about your website is to let your audience do it for you.

Walter, Aarron. Building Findable Websites (2008). Articles>Web Design>Marketing>Social Networking

"Self-Googling" Isn't Just Vanity; It's a Shrewd Form of Personal "Brand Management," Says UB Internet-Culture Expert

"Self-Googling" -- searching for your own name on the popular Google search engine -- may seem like an innocuous act of vanity, but a University at Buffalo communications professor recommends it as a shrewd form of "personal brand management" in the digital age.

DellaContrada, John. SUNY Buffalo (2004). Articles>Web Design>Marketing>Blogging

Usability and Branding: How to Make or Break Usability Conventions to Create Brand Identity

It has long been acknowledged in the study of usability, that the usability of a product affects the associated brand identity. While study of usability is universal to any product design, it has sprung up with the advent of the world wide web. It is becoming more important of individuals and institutions to establish a strong on-line identity for themselves or their products.

Content Matters (2006). Articles>Web Design>Marketing>Usability

Create a Strong Intranet Brand

The intranet needs to have a strong brand, a sense of identity that, at a basic level, distinguishes it from the public website and other information sources within the organisation. Beyond this, the intranet brand should be designed to build staff trust, and to convey a clear sense of what the intranet can offer and when it should be used. This briefing explores the role of the intranet's brand identity, as well as outlining how to put it into practice.

Robertson, James. Step Two (2006). Articles>Web Design>Intranets>Marketing

Don’t Cut That Marketing Budget Yet

Whether your company intends to decrease spending or not, before you slash and burn across the board, you may want to consider preserving your web marketing budget or even moving more money into it.

Wieland, Diane. Duo Consulting (2008). Articles>Management>Marketing

Another Usability Tool: Marketing  

Discusses how working closely with marketing can improve usability.

Swartz, Andrew. Serco (2005). Articles>Usability>Collaboration>Marketing

Does Twitter Fit into Your Branding Strategy?

Twitter, often referred to as the water cooler of the Internet, teaches us the art of brevity by limiting communication to 140 characters or less. But unless you can compress instructional content in ingenious ways, you’ll find Twitter limiting as a method for delivering documentation. Instead, Twitter is better used for the following: eavesdropping on customer conversations; putting a personal face on your company; and increasing the reach of your announcements.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2008). Articles>Web Design>Marketing>Blogging

Copywriting and Technical Writing Compared

Technical writers (technical authors) produce technical literature such as standard operating procedures (SOP), user guides, reference manuals and white papers. Copywriters produce advertising copy and publicity copy (also known as marketing communications or marcomms). Typically, that means product brochures, poster advertisements, advertorials, leaflets, and mailshots.

Unwalla, Mike. TechScribe (2007). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Marketing

Optimize Your AdWords Campaigns

Both AdWords and YSM are much more complicated beasts than the old banner networks ever were, and coming to grips with them can be a bit of a headache.

Oxer, Jonathan. Internet Vision Technologies (2008). Articles>Web Design>Marketing>Search Engine Optimization

Blogging for Business, Marketing Via the Internet

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.

Stuart, Anne. Inc. Magazine (2003). Articles>Business Communication>Blogging>Marketing

Design for Persuasion

Five proven techniques for powerful and effective marketing design.

Blum, Sandra J. Dynamic Graphics (2005). Articles>Graphic Design>Marketing>Persuasive Design

Is Your Homepage Immature?

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.

Young, Indi. Adaptive Path (2005). Articles>Web Design>Business Communication>Marketing

XML for Creative Content and Page Layout Applications

While technical documentation has traditionally been the domain for structured authoring, there is increasing interest in using XML for more “creative” materials such as sales brochures and marketing collateral. Such pre-sales materials often have even more compelling opportunities for single-sourcing and reuse than technical documents. Up to now, these materials have been produced one at a time in page-oriented publishing systems like Adobe InDesign and Quark. While this provides maximum flexibility in controlling exact page layouts, it can create a nightmare when small changes must be replicated across all the independent pages and documents. Why can’t we use XML to more flexibly handle this kind of content? In fact, we can! Using page formats from real marketing content, this whitepaper demonstrates how XML tools can be used to maintain highly graphical sales collateral, web pages, and product catalogs from a single source of XML information.

Severson, Eric. IDEAlliance (2004). Articles>Document Design>Marketing>XML

Stepping into the Freelance World, Part 3: Marketing

So, you’ve hung out your virtual shingle and even have a couple of contract gigs under your belt. You’ve decided that the freelance life is for you. Now what? Obviously, expand your business to gain more and varied clients. The way to do that is by marketing.

DMN Communications (2009). Careers>Freelance>Marketing

A Seven-Step Web Strategy to Save Your Business

Here's a 7 step strategic plan that should fit most small businesses. Naturally a good deal of hustle will be needed to implement this kind of plan while doing everything else you need to do to keep your business afloat. There are businesses that can help you implement this plan as well- wink, wink. But if you can dedicate the time and resources I have no doubt that you will see serious ROI. I have seen it in my business and with many of our clients.

Banner, Jeb. SmallBox (2009). Articles>Web Design>Management>Marketing

MySpace: The Business of Spam 2.0 (Exhaustive Edition)

Most users believe that MySpace started as some kind of fluke—a happy accident that began in Anderson's bedroom or garage—and many still don't wonder, know, or care about the site's real business history and model. Heralded as a haven of DIY self-expression, MySpace was actually created by executives whose backgrounds are anchored in spam and mass marketing. The real genius of MySpace lies in its re-imagining and repackaging of spam. While most internet users expend time and energy attempting to keep it out, MySpace is spam that they actually invite in.

Douglas, Nick. ValleyWag (2006). Articles>Web Design>Marketing>Case Studies

Your Agency's Clients Deserve the Truth -- Can You Handle It? The Digital Age Will Force You to Give Up Pseudo-Science and Rules of Thumb

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.

Martin, Tom. Advertising Age (2009). Articles>Business Communication>Management>Marketing

Talking 'Bout My Generation: The Evolution of Online Marketing Research

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.

Janisch, Troy. Icon Interactive (2007). Articles>Business Communication>Marketing>Research

Creating Marketing Slides for Engineering Presentations    

Defines basic sales terms. Explores ways to use text and illustrations to create engineering marketing slides. Examines six methods of strengthening the persuasiveness of engineering marketing slides.

Jennings, Ann S. Technical Communication Online (2009). Articles>Presentations>Marketing>Engineering

Strictly Business: Marketing With Social Networking Sites

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."

Yankee, Steve. Event DV (2009). Articles>Business Communication>Marketing>Social Networking