January 2008 Archives

Great marketing from corporations comes from productive marketing teams that have the tools to work together no matter where they are geographically.

This means that marketing teams need the best collaboration technologies available to speed interaction.

One of the best productivity tools, Microsoft OneNote, is also one of the best collaboration tools.

I use OneNote all day on a Motion Computing Tablet PC. The slate tablet is great for marketers because we like to scribble notes, draw 2x2 matrix diagrams, and tap into mounds of marketing data during the same meeting.

I'm not anti-keyboards -- I use two keyboards with my slate -- and I use OneNote on my desktop computer, too, so OneNote isn't just for tablet users.

But I was reminded of OneNote's collaboration features by Chris Pratley's post about how it's used by teams inside Microsoft.

Take a look at the videos he links to and you'll get several ideas on how to use OneNote to make your marketing team to be more productive.

We all know that marketing is a process -- a never ending process of generating awareness, interest, leads and, of course, sales. Periodically we need to step back and review our online marketing strategy to make sure that our day-to-day tactics are the best uses of our resources.

Michael Ortner at Capterra has written a short, but very valuable free e-book for online marketers about the best ways to generate traffic, leads, and customers.

In short, it outlines the keys to success for any of your online marketing campaigns. Topics include: 1) Design and content tips to improve your ability to convert web visitors into leads. 2) How to accurately measure your online campaigns. 3) The importance of sales lead cultivation.

...all with a special emphasis on the business software industry.

Michael has packed a lot into 12 pages, but if your B-to-B marketing and sales operation isn't meeting it's goals take a look at page 9 for the likely solution. While his company works mainly with software companies, the situation he describes there happens at many B-to-B companies.