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Since I did not study Business (but the Arts) in university, I find it interesting to read and think about some of the classic texts that business majors (or MBA students) have read, as a part of their training. Often there are tremendous insights to be mined for my work, as a freelancer.

One such study, Roger Fisher, William Ury and Bruce Patton’s Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In (Revised Edition, 2011) makes a very powerful case on how to negotiate agreement well with another party or parties, however different and dissenting the two or more groups in negotiation may be.

The authors are pillars of the Harvard Negotiation Project, which has worked together in print and in world-wise settings of negotiation, in state and industry, since 1977. The project is based on a method of “principled negotiation,” that aims to “decide issues on their merits rather than through a haggling process focused on what each side says it will and won’t do” (xxviii).

One of the authors’ foundational arguments in this book is that behind opposed positions are shared and compatible interests, and not only conflicting and different ones. A shopkeeper may haggle with a customer over the cost of an antique bowl, until both parties are blue-in-the-face and further from agreement than when they started. Participants’ egos become identified with such positions, until both parties are at an impasse and have lost all amity (not to mention time and energy).

Two men in a library quarrel over whether or not to open a window (their positions are yay/nay). “They bicker back and forth about how much to leave it open: a crack, halfway, three-quarters of the way. No solution satisfies them both. . .

Enter the librarian. She asks one why he wants the window open [his interest]: ‘To get some fresh air.’ She asks the other why he wants it closed [his interest]: ‘To avoid the draft.’ After thinking a minute, she opens wide a window in the next room, bringing in fresh air without a draft” (42). Here the librarian has effectively negotiated a settlement that meets both men’s interests, and has done so through a principled weighing and considering of each side’s interests. She has simultaneously sidestepped their polarized positions. Continue reading “Favourite Books: Visiting Fisher and Ury’s _Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In_”

A blog posting of B2B Marketing expert Louis Foong further confirms the potential power that I continue to find in e-mail and e-newsletter (or “email newsletter”) writing and marketing.  For B2B clients and campaigns, the stats are impressive, even if we communications’ types in Canada are wading through new legal anti-spam regulations!

Foong cites the US site “Position” as indicating that the ROI from B2B email marketing (in the US) is 127%! And a full 55% of B2B businesses last winter expected to increase their annual expenditure on email. True, these aren’t Canadian statistics, but they bear relevance, just the same, to “marcom” work in our country.

“Position” further reports that the key purposes of B2B email use is for customer retention (77%) and high quality lead generation (40%). The ROI for email marketing is about $44.25, per $1 spent!

Email marketing is a huge producer of intelligent, fact-based, content-marketing (so lately the thrust of marketing), and increasingly, content is going mobile.

Foong reports that for marketing and communications’ experts, mobile formats aren’t entirely positive: for instance, 80% of email users delete emails that don’t appear well on a mobile device. No second chance for that message, if it isn’t mobile-friendly. And a lot of companies currently have been missing out on their ROI, because they don’t consider mobile formatting.

When US companies implement responsive design to email campaigns, Foong reports that click-through rates fall between 21 and 25% — a convincing response.

So, closer to home: what is your company or organization doing to tap into B2B email marketing? Have you outsourced your newsletter production and related strategies to specialists like me? And what use are you making of a mobile platform (Apple? Samsung?)

Please share your observations and strategies with me. I’d be delighted to hear from you.

Fewer and fewer folk out there still smoke (huddling outdoors if you are addicted to nicotine creates challenges during Prairie Winters.) Everyone knows the dangers of smoking (even if people act in denial of them . . .  . )

But many more people sit all day, every day, five (or more) days per week, in front of their desks. Sitting is “the new smoking,” a friend recently commented to me.

Bolstered by reading various articles since 2013 in the Associated Press and by observing two mentors who are full converts to standing while they work, I have been transitioning over the past six months to a standing desk. On a day when I feel too tired to stand, I do sometimes sit down. But I find that having a stool that allows me to perch (or lean), near my raised computer when I feel fatigued, often provides the necessary support.

In part due to this change, I have lost about five pounds, drink more water (another health-giver), and concentrate much better over long periods of time. Standing also reminds me to get out and take a short walk each afternoon (especially when the weather’s good!), so that I don’t spend whole spring and summer days “cooped up” in my office. (Even the coops of chicken, on which that metaphor is based are being replaced with more humane living spaces, on chicken farms, these days.) Standing when one works leads to better overall health.

Doctors say that even three, hour-long workouts at the gym each week cannot counter the effect of prolonged weekday sitting. Some workers try slow walking and cycling on low-speed treadmills or stationary bikes, burning approximately 300-350 calories in the course of a work day. That’s like adding the benefit of a half-hour cardio session, for each day that you stand at work.

Now some critics complain that ergonomics can be a costly business. And it’s true that you should wear good sneakers or at least walking shoes (if you use orthotics, then obviously you must wear them at work). But you (likely) own those already, so footwear doesn’t really add to the bill. You should also stand on an anti-fatigue mat. And while they can run in the hundreds of dollars, some inexpensive and adequate models can be found via Amazon and other online sellers for under $40. The floor walkers and greeters at many stores use these, themselves.

Continue reading ““Sitting is the New Smoking”: Affordable Ergonomics Can Keep Us Healthy and Working Longer . . . .”

This week, some further thoughts on the longevity of electronic mail (which is also the format for e-newsletters) . . .

On his influential site, “Leadership,” B2B expert and industry leader Louis Foong observes that social media isn’t good when it comes to “delivering what B2B organizations [and companies] need—leads, conversions, customers and sales.” Despite the sparkle and glamour of social, Foong says, email persists and remains the best conversion tool after organic searching.

The stats are powerful: last October, he reported that email had more than three times the number of users of Facebook and Twitter combined and that email marketing outpaced “more than four times” all other web viewing, including videos and images (my emphasis).

He writes: “[W]hile email is no longer the preferred personal communication channel among the younger generation, for business communication, it still rocks.” The email list must be “segmented, target and frequently cleansed” (there’s no room for a stagnant email list) but it still rocks!

UK and US users in 2013 used email as the top outreach channel for all of the steps of a customer’s purchase.

The value of content-rich communication persists in email marketing and in digital marketing, as well.

It is also true that mobile technology presents the latest challenge to consumers, since messages that do not shrink to fit tiny screen-widths are easily deleted.

But Foong observes that social networks and tools “vanish or decline significantly” over time in ways that email has not. He cites many teenagers who years ago gave up on Facebook, leaving it to their mothers and grandmothers. Continue reading “Is Email Really Dead?”

I’ve long been interested in the format of electronic newsletters, with their capacity to share knowledge and insight with one’s prospects, and so indirectly lead people toward one’s services. After all, who doesn’t love reading a short, informative e-newsletter?

E-Newsletter specialist Michael Katz has pioneered the format over the past 15 or 20 years for professional services’ firms. In two recent interviews with AWAI, he argued that email and email-based newsletters are not “dead,” despite the many recent developments in mobile technology. In fact, the e-newsletter format continues to influence prospects’ knowledge and buying decisions. If you have an opening rate of 25 to 30%, that is likely significantly better than consumer response rates to traditional newspaper ads, direct mail or unsolicited phone calls.

After consulting Katz’s brief but powerful book, E-Newsletters that Work (Xlibris, 2003), I’ve added e-newsletter creation, writing and editing to my list of available services. Here’s why: the following are some reasons why e-newsletters are very much worth creating for small- and medium-sized business owners, like you:

•   With many professional service-type companies, prospects can’t measure your services upfront, before they buy them. But by publishing an e-newsletter, you can easily earn the respect and trust of new prospects

•   E-Newsletters are low-cost, convenient ways to “stay in front of people” over and over (month by month), so that you become seen as a “likeable expert” in your field. When a prospect thinks of that field, you will come quickly to mind

•   E-newsletters really are simply extended email messages, and are a systematic version of “word of mouth.”  (And everyone knows how valuable word of mouth can be . . . . )

•   E-Newsletters are easily forwarded from one reader to another, including over social media

•   As a client, you may not feel that you are an expert. But most business owners have lifetimes of knowledge and expertise that I can leverage, for content

•   E-Newsletters are meant to be conversational and interactive relationship builders. They invite readers to reply to a particular story or detail that resonates with them

•   Although they focus on the needs of the prospect, e-newsletters have a distinct voice, point-of-view and authentic (not salesy) content that convey the identity of the service provider

•   E-Newsletter content does not need to say wholly original things, but should instead share simple content in the form of a single powerful insight, told from a clear point-of-view, with a lay audience

•  A strong format for B2B marketing, e-newsletters are not about a hard-sell. 80% of them should share knowledge and only 20% should promote a good or service

• E-Newsletters should not be more than two pages, or they will not be read

•  You can re-purpose e-newsletter copy in the form of webinars, books, special reports and other content-rich formats

•  Since about the year 2000, vendors for newsletters have grown more sophisticated and easier to use, so that now one doesn’t need to know HTML programming, in order to create a successful newsletter. Numerous good programs in North America exist, some with complimentary trial periods, training and support

•  The quality of the subscribers’ list is more important than its size.

Katz observed recently that e-newsletter clients like you should not be afraid of “giving away” your expertise. He observed: “If you can give away your business in 12 monthly newsletters, you don’t have a business in the first place.”

What ideas or questions do you have about electronic newsletters? Do you see a need for one in your business? Please share your thoughts — I’d be delighted to hear from you.