If you are looking for a quality business writing course you have just found one

“Writing Skills to make your team more professional”

from Action Words

A one-day program designed to make your people more effective communicators

Almost all of us have to do a certain amount of writing just to get through the day. Even if it is simply writing a few emails. Strange as it may seem, very few of us give much thought to the structure of our writing. And as for persuasive business writing, most people never have any training in it at all.

That’s why this workshop is so useful.

This course will provide your team with proven techniques for using words with more impact.

What You Receive

• A customised, interactive one-day program for up to 15 people
• A 40-page workbook for your team to use during the session and as a valuable reference long after.
• The opportunity to contact Action Words - at no cost - for ongoing feedback and advice on your written materials for12 months after the workshop.

Our Guarantee: If you feel your people do not get value from the day, you don’t have to pay.

“We have had Action Words present their writing course three times for different groups and the attendees are always very enthusiastic. We plan to engage the company again and we are certainly happy to recommend this course.”
Wendy Hillman,Training & Development Manager, Management and Research Centre (MARC)

“All the members of our team got real value from the day we had with Action Words. We began using some of the practical tips the very next day."
Anastasia Kailis, Melbourne Business School

Contact Action Words

To find out more or to secure your booking.

Simply call or email Frank Chamberlin or Vikki Maver

Frank: frank@actionwords.com.au or 0408 359 039
Vikki: vikki@actionwords.com.au or 0413 005 808

Or visit the Action Words website for more information.

Customer Value

Everyone stresses the importance of ROI. And there is no argument. It is important. But there is something more important to have at the front of your mind.

And this concept is dead simple. Customer value.

More than anything else, it is customer value that should be behind every marketing decision you make.

If each customer on average gives you a profit of $10,000, your marketing decisions can be very different from the case where each customer gives you average profit of $200.

Mercedes, for example, can no doubt do a successful acquisition campaign where the response is very low. A few good hits will give them sufficient profit to well and truly pay for the campaign. It’s obviously not like that for everyone.

When it’s time for decisions about the investment you are prepared to make, the value of the offer and the amount you can spend on fulfillment, customer value should be your guide.

Where the profit per customer is very high, it does not make sense to quibble over an extra few dollars for faster fulfillment. But if the customer value is low, you have to look more carefully at every cent you spend on acquisition.

There are many important metrics in marketing but no metric is more important than customer value.

Writing Tip - Get rid of clutter

A huge problem in writing today is clutter

If you can get rid of clutter, you will improve your writing enormously.

An excellent piece on clutter and its negative impact appears in a book by the renowned writer, editor and teacher, William Zinsser entitled “On Writing Well” (Harper Collins 2001 – ISBN 0-06-000664-1). I can do no better than quote these few lines from what Zinsser presents so well:

“Consider all the prepositions that are routinely draped onto verbs that don't need any help. Head up. Free up. Face up to. We no longer head committees. We head them up. We don't face problems anymore. We face up to them when we can free up a few minutes.

Then, take the adjective ‘personal’, as in ‘a personal friend of mine’, ‘his personal feeling’ or ‘her personal physician’.

‘Personal’ is typical of the words that can be eliminated nine times out of ten.

Clutter is the ponderous euphemism that turns a slum into a depressed socioeconomic area, a salesman into a marketing representative and garbage collectors into waste disposal personnel.

Clutter is the official language used by the modern corporation—in news releases and annual reports — to hide mistakes. When a big company recently announced that it was ‘decentralising its organisational structure into major profit-centered businesses’ and that ‘corporate staff services will be realigned under two senior vice-presidents’ it meant that it had had a lousy year.”

And the winner is: Barack Obama

By Frank Chamberlin

I don’t know any more than you about the race to be President. But have you had a chance to look at the Obama site?

It’s absolutely worth a visit. I promise. www.barackobama.com

If you have ever wondered what a perfect online marketing campaign looks like, maybe this is it.

The Obama online marketing team is implementing every online marketing strategy available, including social networking, search engine optimisation, pay per click advertising, email marketing and mobile marketing.

But that’s not all. As far as I can see, the implementation is flawless.

OK, I know, they have a huge budget and maybe you don’t. But this is a site that you can learn from.

If you are looking at ways to improve your website’s conversion rate, look at how the Obama website is designed. If you are looking at ways to implement social networking, check out the profile pages on MySpace or Facebook.

Let’s look at just a few of the specifics that make this such an excellent site.

1. The first time you visit the site you are asked to join his mailing list. Before you can view any part of Obama’s site you are taken to a page where you are asked to subscribe – but it is an easy subscribe and if you don’t want to be in it, you don’t have to.
   
   
2. Every web page furthers the primary action to ‘Donate Now’. No matter what page you are visiting on the Barack Obama website, the red ‘donate now’ button grabs your attention. It is essentially the only red image on a blue, grey and white website.
   
   
3. Clear layout. The way that the information is laid out and presented makes it easy to use and, more importantly, to scan. As we all know, website visitors have the shortest attention span of any mode of communication, quickly jumping between pages and leaving sites when they cannot quickly find what they are looking for.
   
   On the Obama home page, the information draws you in. You can quickly find what you are looking for, and it is easy to take action to learn more.
   
   
4. A blog is used to communicate messages. It seems that posts are added to the blog multiple times per day to communicate with supporters on a daily basis, as well as providing a channel for supporters to keep up to date.
   
   
5. Social networking is used to maximise exposure. Social networking is growing so fast and Obama is there. If you scroll down to the bottom of Obama’s site you will see that he has an account with virtually every high traffic social networking site on the Internet. They are all active accounts and they all drive traffic to the main site.
   
   
6. Mobile marketing is used to further his message
   Barack Obama includes a mobile subscription section on his website where you can join his SMS mailing list.

Your site may not be as good as you would like it to be. By spending some time on the Obama site, maybe you’ll see how much better it could be.

CRM for better businss

The next dm Forum will be held on Tuesday 27 October beginning at 6pm.

The speaker is:

Phil Wickenden
Vice President – CRM
GE Capital


Topic:“Using CRM for better business strategies”

Presenter: Vice President CRM at GE Capital: Phil Wickenden
Great door prizes
MC: the Editor of Marketing magazine, Kylie Flavell
Venue: Monash Centre, Level 7, 30 Collins Street

Sponsors: Veda Advantage, the Department of Marketing, Monash Uni., Aim Your Promos, and Revium.

Any profits from the night go to the Cancer Council.

Presenter: As the Vice President of CRM at GE Capital, Phil Wickenden is at the coalface working with data everyday. His focus is to use customer analytics and CRM capabilities to produce better business strategies in a changing environment.

Phil has been with GE a total of 10 years with previous experience at ANZ, Pacific Micro Marketing and Experian.

If you want to know more about using the data you have available for driving better business outcomes, this will be a very valuable session. Phil is committed to using data for making better decisions, achieving better business outcomes and enjoying more productive contacts with customers.

Bookings essential, please reply now: frank@actionwords.com.au
Entrance fee: $20 at the door by cash or cheque (receipts supplied)

Sponsors:
· Veda Advantage – business intelligent specialists – see below.
· The Department of Marketing, Monash University
· Top door prize is supplied by Mia De Rose of ‘Aim Your Promos’
· The renowned internet specialist company, Revium will supply a FREE brilliant website package for one lucky attendee.

Event details:Starting time 6pm with snacks and drinksTuesday 27 October 2009

Venue: Monash Centre, Level 7, 30 Collins Street.

Any profits from the evening go to the Cancer Council.

After the presentation and questions, the function continues with drinks and more eats.

Bookings essential: By email to: frank@actionwords.com.au

Enquiries: Phone (03) 9481 1410.

Frank Chamberlin

Proudly sponsored by Veda Advantage

“At Veda Advantage, we provide you with access to the largest and most sophisticated single source of business intelligence in Australia today.

We combine our skills in marketing, data, statistics, and information technology to create customised solutions that can help you attract and retain profitable customers.

We can help you establish a sound basis for many business improvement initiatives by first analysing your customer data.”

The venue for the dm Forum is the Monash Conference Centre, Level 7, 30 Collins Street, Melbourne.

“It is great to have a regular forum to attend that I know will provide me with relevant and up-to-date information, with real life examples, in a friendly and relaxed environment”
Sally Johnson - Global Direct Marketing Manager, Intrepid Travel

“The dm Forums I’ve attended have been a great opportunity to share ideas with like minded colleagues and hear practical examples from expert speakers.
”David Bain - Marketing Manager, Sofitel Melbourne

Enquiries: frank@actionwords.com.au

Writing Tip - Business Proposals

If you are called on to write a business proposal these five points will help.

5 key elements of winning business proposals• Solutions: After you have written a lead paragraph on the company's needs and problems, follow up with a solid presentation of how your business can provide solutions. The key here is to promise solutions you can deliver.

• Benefits: All winning business proposals clearly outline for the company the benefits to be gained from doing business with you. If your business can offer complete confidentiality and meet tight deadlines, state this in your benefits section.
  
• Credibility: This is often the overlooked portion of a business proposal, but all winning proposals glow with credibility. If you have worked with clients in the same field or have an award-winning business, then third-party endorsements will build credibility.
  
• Samples: A business proposal with samples and evidence of your ability to deliver is vital to gaining the winning bid. A small sample of your work can show your ability to do the job.
  
• Targeting: A winning business proposal is all about communication. Speak in the language spoken by your intended audience. If the proposal evaluators are from an engineering background or financial department use the appropriate jargon.

Seven Principles of direct marketing announced

For many years Ian Kennedy OAM has been known as the Father of Direct Marketing in Australia.

There was a time when Ian presented his insights at the annual direct marketing conference nearly every year. And no one ever got tired of him. He always offered something new.

He has not been at the annual conference for some years now. However, with his background of amazing success, it was not surprising that the Australian Direct Marketing Association turned to Ian Kennedy for the launch in Sydney last Thursday of the Association’s Seven Foundation Principles.

Yes, the highlight of the 3-day direct marketing talkfest at Darling Harbour was the announcement of the Principles that are the result of expansive and careful research over the last twelve months.

Principle 1: Plan your strategy. This is the thinking before you get started. Your direct marketing strategy is driven by broader business and marketing strategies. As well, your strategy has to take into account your direct marketing history, the performance drivers of the business, an innate instinct for how people will behave and an understanding of the role of technology.

Principle 2: Crunch the numbers. Accountability and analysis lie at the heart of direct marketing. You have to know how much the activity is going to cost and how much you are likely to gain from it.
Principle 3: Work through the key components of your campaigns. There are numerous components, but the most critical ones to focus on are the audience, the offer and the creative idea.

Principle 4: Test, test and test again. Continuous testing minimises risk, refines and optimises results, strengthens customer relationships and maximises profit. If you are not testing you are not doing true direct marketing.

Principle 5: Focus on share of customer over share of market. Both these strategies have their place, but share of customer normally provides a higher return on investment.

Principle 6: Don’t forget it’s all about the customer. In 2008 probably the only sustainable competitive advantage is superior knowledge. To do direct marketing effectively you need to continually listen, learn and respond to customer feedback and behaviour throughout the customer lifecycle.

Principle 7: Never overlook privacy, choice and security concerns. Customers today understand that their data is as valuable as their dollars to a business. They demand the right to know the contractual terms of the relationship.

You can get a FREE copy of a 12-page PDF on “Direct Marketing Foundations”, written by Frank Chamberlin.