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IN THIS ISSUE:
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FROM THE EDITOR
Market Research Tools Update Last issue I announced our tools were leaving Microsoft’s bCentral as of July 1, 2004. After that date you can access our tools at www.thirdwaveresearch.com/mrttwr. Your login and purchase history at bCentral Market Research Tools will be transferred. You won’t need to re-register. To encourage discussion of the Market Research Tools, I’ve set up a group for us on Yahoo. Please join us at finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Third_Wave. See you there! As our bCentral co-brand venture closes, I’d like to share some information that came my way... Business Closure vs. Failure: Debunking a Myth Research efforts tracking businesses have typically not allowed for a "closing while successful" outcome, and hence business "failure" statistics present much more daunting odds for business success than is actually the case. At FedStats, I found a report titled "Redefining Business Success: Distinguishing Between Closure and Failure". This report summarizes a survey asking owners of closed firms whether their businesses were successful at closure. To cut to the chase, the report suggests the following factors are linked to success, whether the business continues or closes:
Take heart! Resources: FedStats "Redefining Business Success: Distinguishing Between Closure and Failure" (PDF) TOOL BITS
Make Newsletters a Power Tool for Self-Promotion
A newsletter can be a potent tool for promoting your business. In the last issue of the Bulletin I featured "Parties by Panache", a southern California catering company with a marketing program that relies heavily on newsletters in both printed and PDF versions. Jerry O’Brien, marketing director for Parties by Panache, said "Our newsletter is one of our best means of ‘packaging our product’. We plan to do more newsletter features on events and the key staff that make them succeed." There’s a strategic reason for that. Jerry is working hard to broaden the firm’s reputation beyond the skills of its founder, his wife Hollis. "I’m focusing on the newsletter as a vehicle to showcase other members of our staff, and our ties to the community. This should help people understand Parties by Panache as more than just Hollis’s catering company." That’s a newsletter with a master plan! But Parties by Panache has taken an expensive route: he produces a full color high-quality printed newsletter, then distributes PDF versions to people who would like to receive it electronically. He has his reasons, tied to his target market and the desire to showcase the company’s work in delicious color. Many newsletter publishers prefer to forgo the expense of printing and mailing, and focus on electronic versions in HTML. I learned more about succeeding with e-newsletters when I attended a tele-seminar with Roger Parker on e-newsletter design. Roger Parker tele-seminar on e-Newsletters from WordBiz Your e-newsletter can go from lowly house organ to marketing powerhouse if you follow Parker’s "Six Essentials of HTML Newsletter Success". The essentials are:
What I will reveal is how Roger rated the Bulletin. From a design standpoint, we took a licking. The nameplate area at the top contains elements that fight each other rather than work together. Roger also found the light green background color tiring. Roger found the tagline "Tools and Resources for Data-Driven Market Research" too obscure. He asked, "What do you DO with data-driven market research? What is the goal you will reach, the benefit you will enjoy, if you engage in it?" Answering those questions will guide me toward a punchier descriptive tagline for my newsletter’s nameplate. Our content received higher marks from Roger, although he chided us for not including subheads to break up the text. He pronounced our newsletter content "fairly high-value", complimenting us on our mix of business philosophy, interpretation of trends, and quality how-to advice. Use your newsletter to brag about your firm! At the start of 2004 we launched a second newsletter, "Making Waves", to spread the word on our role in our clients’ successes. We’ve been receiving very good feedback on that newsletter’s content, even though it is unabashedly self-promotional. The traffic to Third Wave’s corporate website hits new highs each time an issue of that newsletter comes out, so it is clearly achieving its goal of inviting our clients and business associates to think of us more often. Are you publishing a newsletter yet? If your answer is "no", what’s stopping you? Check out Debbie Weil and Roger Parker’s advice, and get your newsletter going! Resources Parties by Panache newsletter archive Debbie Weil, WordBiz (sponsor of Parker’s tele-seminar) Roger Parker, One Page Newsletters | |  | |
SURVEY
Survey Results: User Satisfaction with Market Research Tools Increases We recently asked all registered tool users to participate in a satisfaction survey. I’m pleased to report that our scores have improved greatly since our User Satisfaction Survey in August 2002! Nearly 80% of respondents reported they found the tools easy to use (up 33 percentage points), 54% felt the reports are a good value at the price (up 28 points), and 80% found the related articles on bCentral helpful (up 18 points). Thanks so much to all of you who responded! These measurements are vital to the future of the Market Research Tools. Working Solo Networking Survey For results of the Working Solo Networking Survey featured in the last Bulletin, stay tuned. Terri Lonier has promised to share with us her survey conclusions in time for the August issue of this newsletter. Tell a Friend
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SPONSOR MESSAGES
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Download a $10 Mini Guide to Online Copywriting when you subscribe to Debbie Weil's award-winning WordBiz Report. Her online newsletter is directed at marketing and communications managers at small to mid-sized businesses as well as non-profits and associations. WBR focuses on how to market cost-effectively with e-newsletters and Web content, including blogs (Weblogs). Debbie consults, writes special reports and produces audio conferences and seminars on topics related to online marketing. For more information, visit WordBiz.com. Reach Debbie at 202-364-5705 or dweil@wordbiz.com Jay Conrad Levinson, creator of the Guerrilla Marketing book series, the world's best-selling marketing books, calls Roger Parker’s One-Page Newsletter "The Quintessential Guerrilla Marketing tool." The One-Page Newsletter is the least-expensive way you can enhance your credibility and maintain your visibility. One-Page Newsletters are easy to prepare, easy to read and can be distributed for FREE as e-mail attachments. For a free sample or more information about creating your own one-page newsletter, contact Roger@NewEntrepreneur.com or call 603-742-9673.
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