TransPromo Buzz

PODI’s AppForum scheduled for January 19-21 in Las Vegas has added a TransPromo Track. TransPromo adds personalized promotional messages to routine customer/member/donor communications like bills and statements. The goal is to up-sell, generate new revenue, etc. Variable data printing and print-on-demand technologies put TransPromo capability into any marketer’s toolbox. Expect to hear more about the technology in months ahead.

7 Ways To Fail

The Nightingale-Conant newsletter reports on Larry Winget’s audio program, Success Is Your Own Damn Fault. Winget is guilty of contributing to the genre of "success formula books" he's criticizing, except he’s not promising success; only failure if you don’t follow his “truths.” Makes sense to me.

• Apathy will kill a business; care enough to do the job you're paid to do.
  
• Forget attitude (positive or otherwise); if you find a problem, admit it and solve it.
  
• You can’t make your employees happy, so don’t waste time trying.
• You don’t have to love your job, but you do have to do it well.
• Fire people when they don’t perform, and don’t hesitate [Note: I was struck by Winget’s notion that you destroy credibility with other employees when you don’t fire a bad one.]
• Ethics matter. Do the right thing, even when it’s unpopular, or might cost you money, or might be embarrassing.
• Do what you said you’re going to do; deliver what you said, you’d deliver. Ethics count.
  

Dell Loves Twitter

Since mid-2007, Dell says Twitter has garnered them $1 million in revenue. Folks who sign up to follow Dell on Twitter receive messages when discounted products go on sale at the company’s Home Outlet Store. Twitters can click over to purchase, or they can forward the info to others. That’s very good for Dell, but so far Twitter hasn’t made money on the deal. In 2009, Twitter will lay out its plan for how to cash in on its growing popularity. The plan may include the creation of premium corporate accounts to help companies like Dell pay the freight. In the meantime, Twitter has a lock on lots of [okay, an indeterminate number of] eyeballs and thumbs [Note, Twitter reportedly had about 275,000 users back in June 2007 and some 1 million+ in April 2008. Today? Not sure. It's controversial, says Techozi.]

Is Print Terminal?

It's a no-brainer that marketers need to talk to everybody online... but have we really reached that point in history where print is terminal, if not quite dead? Are we at the historical crossroads where professional writers don't make a difference .. where we just all blog and twitter to each other?

That's the direction a lot of organizations are taking in order to save money. Some who do this point to the New York Times website as the "model." But, hey, as S. Murray Gaylord, vice president, marketing and customer insights for The Times reportdly said at the National Center for Database Marketing 2008: "To evolve their brand and keep moving forward in the new climate, NYTimes.com began employing enhanced web features such as blogs and video capabilities, forging strong partnerships with new ‘participatory media’ like YouTube, and made major monetary investments in new media. Now, they are one seamless brand operating on many platforms such as print; web; mobile; iPhone; Amazon Kindle; and the Times Reader." I'm not hearing anything about discontinuing print there, which seems to be the piece of the puzzle some of the less-thoughtful -- or more desperate -- are missing.

Where Will All the Writers GO?

This has been a ghastly week for layoffs affecting many fellow writers, with Media Bistro reporting an uncommon number of headlines about media layoffs: Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia lays-off 100 this year ; NBCU global will lay off 3% of its workforce, or 500 jobs ; Universal Pictures announced it will reduce headcount by about 3% ; “Nobody saw it coming,” but Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has released “a lot” of employees from the publishing house ; Variety has folded its D.C. Bureau (just one job, but still, how can Variety Not have a D.C. correspondent?); Simon & Schuster has eliminated 35 positions; The Chicago Tribune is considering filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy ; The Miami Herald is up for sale; Ogilvy may be in for a 2009 bloodbath that dwarfs its 2008 50 to 100-person purge, with New York management now looking at letting 200 to 250 staffers go after the holidaze; and, finally -- at least for today -- NPR will lay off 7 percent of its workforce.

How-To Info and Video: Press Release It

PR guru Greg Jarboe suggests that organizations employ news releases featuring useful how-to/do-don't info. “For a hundred years, PR folks have been doing press releases assuming, 'If the content isn't newsworthy, I couldn’t write it.' But there’s a lot of publications -- mostly magazines -- that provide how-to information. When optimized in a press release format, this content gets just as much readership and pulls just as much website traffic.” Jarboe also suggests adding video to press releases. “We did a press release for a Better Homes & Garden cooking contest. The three-minute YouTube video featured in the press release [showing viewers how to enter the contest] got 27,000 views ... and a record number of people entered the contest.” Wilson Web has the video interview with Jarboe.

Read, Bled, and Spread

John Jay Daly, venerable direct marketer and postal expert, recently submitted a Letter to the Editor of The Washington Post. He was contacted by The Post’s editorial department, which had some additional needs:

• We need to verify that you wrote the letter and did not acquire any portion of it from other sources. [Other than properly attributed quotes.]
• We need to know that you are using your real name.
• Did you send or post this letter or a similar item to any other media, internet forums [including washingtonpost.com], or blogs?
• We need to know, if it is not already mentioned, what your involvement, if any, is with the subject matter.

Looks like The Post would prefer that contributors not share opinion letters with “any other media, internet forum, or blog.” How The Post will manage this puzzles. Web content is being picked up, tracked, and replicated by information-randy rabbits on steroids. Even blog comments are being tracked with programs like BackType and you can be sure smart companies are reading blogs (one of my posts mentioning ChaCha received a corporate acknowledgement). Exclusive content? When everything anybody posts is read, bled, and spread... how to be exclusive?