I just have found this video, which demonstrates …
Well, just watch it. It's only 2 minutes or even shorter. (I didn't look at the timer.)
And then, please, leave a comment and let us know what you think.
That's what the description at YouTube reveals,
«While technology, communications channels and media usage habits change over time, the fundamentals of profitable business-to-business marketing, including the importance of building awareness, credibility and relationships, do not. In this excerpted video from a live staging of McGraw-Hill’s classic “Man in the Chair” ad at the Business Marketing Association’s 2009 national conference, BMA drives home the fundamental similarity between how buyers and sellers built business relationships 50 years ago and how they continue to do so today, albeit with many new and revolutionary tools and techniques at their disposal. For more information on BMA’s “UNlearn” conference, go to www.marketing.org/conference»
The Man In The Chair Ad — Then and Now
BMAintheUSA on YouTube
BMAintheUSA is based in Chicago. The Business Marketing Association is a leading marketing organization serving the professional development and networking needs and interests of some 2,500 senior business-to-business marketing professionals and 21 chapter organizations throughout the U.S.A.
I am buying the second part of his statement immediately, but “Email OUT”?
I had to think about it a couple of seconds longer than usual, ’cause a couple of respectable experts like Chris Brogan (↑), Warren Whitlock (↑), and Willie Crawford (↑) already had left comments on Dr. Mani’s blog post.
Here is the re-print of my reply:
I don’t think email is OUT in 2010.
I rather would say, we have to use and nurture email marketing differently than in the past.
A strong email list is still an asset, like your website. I hope you have purchased your own domain.
Who owns—and most importantly who has jurisdiction so to speak over—your social media profile?
The inherent benefit of email is it’s independence from any given email marketing service provider on the sender side. Maybe the Google Wave protocol will push email type communication into this century and at a same time allow a merger with social media. I am looking forward to it. Maybe in 2011, 2012.
What’s the deal with email marketing in 2010?
You would be crazy to stop building an email list. But on the same token you would be insane not building your social media presence.
In case you are sitting on the fence and don’t know whether you should put the subject email marketing into the IN or the OUT bucket. Think about why businesses are complaining. You hear two main reasons:
Low open and response rates resulting in less sales.
Deliverability problems.
Now ask yourself or your team a couple of questions and revisit the response rate issue. For sure you will find a couple of areas where you can improve.
Is my aging email list outgrowing my content, my offers?
Do my offers mature in-sync with my subscribers?
Am I (trying to) milk my members or am I graduating them?
Does my offer evolve over time and stay fresh and state-of-the-art that it appeals to new subscribers as well.
And now probably the most important question: Am I sending brochures, pitches, or am I building a relationship with that person who reads my email message. (Hint: Even outside of internet marketing consumers already can smell automated follow-up messages.)
One kind of email marketing campaigns did especially well in 2009. It’s called customer reactivation. But that is just one tactic that worked.
Maybe your email marketing activities need that sort of a botox treatment. (LoL)
Recently I have described how I fixed a wrong setup of the tweetmeme button on my blog. I manually modified the blog template and I only mentioned briefly there is a Wordpress plugin for Tweetmeme.
Acknowledging Wordpress as the most popular blogging platform I need to follow up with a more detailed description of the Tweetmeme WP Plugin.
The installation and configuration is straightforward and shouldn't be a problem for anyone who has installed Wordpress on her hosting account successfully.
I provide some screenshots for your orientation.
Update Dec. 21, 2009: I made a screencam video of the procedure as well.
