Kevin Harrington // marketing // blog

I’ve always found the issue of how to decide to work with a new client very interesting. For most people and businesses this is largely an emotional decision.

I was pleased to trip over a scorecard concept that seems to be very well balanced.

A simple, 5-question Business Development Scorecard will help you grade every new client and opportunity, helping to ensure that you stay on strategy and reinvent your firm one new client at a time.

Have a look at in full at www.winwithoutpitching.com

Simply, for every new client you bring in, large and small, ask yourself these five questions and grade the client/engagement to see if it’s moving you toward or away from your strategy.

Does this concept work for you?

How has B2B marketing changed in the last decade? Well in our business physical brochures are becoming less common, PDFs are prolific, websites are the order of the day and there are many other changes as well.

I was pleased to read a nice, succinct article at marketing.co.uk that talks a little more about these changes in B2B marketing.

One of the factors that is changing these days with regard to B2B marketing is the brochure culture. We often relied on brochures to introduce our business. However, it is changing dramatically, these days. Businesses are moving away from printed brochures. So if you are thinking of making thousands of copies of your brochure, hold on for a moment and look around to see what is happening in your industry. Most of the niches have moved on to using online versions of their brochures. You will look outdated if you are going to run around with your printed brochures or send them through the post. You will also be able to reduce your marketing expenses by uploading your brochures online. It is much faster and easier to distribute your brochure to your target audience. Moreover, you can save a lot of money. Today not many people ask for brochures, rather they ask for a website URL. It is also much easier for your customers to review your brochures online as they do not have to carry it along with them, they can access it anytime from anywhere. So why waste your money and efforts on brochures. By going online with your brochures, you can go green.

Click here to read the full article.

I’m not really sure who the winner is for wasted direct mail campaign effort this week. My favourites through the letter box this morning, and clear contenders, are:

Boden: A personalised letter with a £10 gift voucher to encourage me to use the catalogue they sent me a few weeks back. Sorry Boden, I haven’t received a catalogue from you, therefore your stream of restrictions and terms and conditions are of no relevance to me.

AA Insurance: A beautifully personalised letter inviting me to insure my car with the AA. The only real obvious blunder is that they are referring to a car that I sold nearly three years ago in August 2007.

I think my winner for the week is Boden.

Have you got any corking examples of poor, irrelevant or inaccurate direct mail? Please share.

This Sodexo Prestige video has got me looking forward to all those wonderful British summer events…

I spotted this video after following a link about Sodexo Prestige signing a deal with Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums.

This is a very good talk from Jesse Schell at DICE 2010 in Las Vegas. It’s rare that online videos are worth 30 minutes of your time, but this one is.

Issues covered:

• How gaming can be used in marketing.
• Why the iPad is rubbish.
• How valuable is Farmville on Facebook.
• Convergenace and divergence of trechnology.
• Why coffee loyalty cards don’t work.
• How to use games in rewards and incentives.
• And a lot more.

If the player above doesn’t show (for some reason Google Chrome doesn’t like it), follow this link.

I texted the number at the end of the TV advert for a catalogue. I got an immediate text back thanking me for my interest and saying they would contact me soon for address details. Five days later and I’ve still heard nothing.

I wonder how CPC Farnell measure the return on investment from their TV advertising? It may be by the increase in market share of their competitors…I’ve just got what I needed from Screwfix.

Scary or what? That wonderful website Springwise (daily fixes of entrepreneurial ideas) reports the US business that provides you with a fake child.

Why? So that you can get the same perks as parents i.e having to leave work early on certain occasions. Neat idea but can it also, in the spirit of the fairness it seeks, deliver sleepless nights and the occasional stress of a real child? I doubt it. Read more at springwise.com