The Rumors of Email’s Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated, Part III Now it’s Groove Chairman Ray Ozzie saying that email is toast, since his kids use IM as their preferred channel, relegating email to something to be avoided since it’s only from parents or teachers. Um, ok. What about bosses and clients and colleagues? You may not want to hear from them, either (especially that pesky boss), but I’m still struggling with the argument that because kids aren’t addicted to the medium, it will surely die. Kids eventually grow up and do things differently than they did when they were kids. Perhaps email is one of those things you have to grow into when life isn’t (regretfully) just about chatting…
Archives / January, 2005
VC Wisdom du Jour
VC Wisdom du Jour Two good ones today: 1. Brad on what makes a great Board meeting (hint: it’s not going through the materials you send out ahead of time). 2. Jeff Nolan/Dispatches on 10 questions to ask a VC. Remember, when you’re raising money, you must do active due diligence on your prospective investors, not just the other way around. These questions are a good guide.
Everyone’s a Direct Marketer, Part I
Everyone’s a Direct Marketer, Part I I had breakfast a few weeks back with John Greco, the new CEO of the Direct Marketing Assocation, and was telling him why I felt it was essential that interactive marketing be included in the DMA’s mainstream mission and not regarded as separate. The substance of my argument was that the Internet has turned every company into a direct marketer, whether they know it or not, whether they like it or not, and whether they care to act like one or not. I was happy that John agreed with me! I’m going to write a three-part posting on this topic. First topic: Why is this happening? 1. The mechanics are now ubiquitous. Every company’s…
Ratcheting Up Is Hard To Do (or Boiling the Frog, Part II)
Ratcheting Up Is Hard To Do (or Boiling the Frog, Part II) I’ve had to ratchet down business several times over the years at Return Path. Times were tough, revenues weren’t coming as fast as promised, my investors and I were growing weary, the dot com crash, etc. etc. We had layoffs, consolidated jobs, cut salaries multiple times, made people wear 8 hats to get the job done. It’s an awful process to go through. In the last year or so, business has finally started going much better. We’ve been fortunate in many ways that we’re still around, with products that work really well, with a good customer base, and with good and patient investors and employees, as the business…
For Whom the Bell Tolls, Part III
For Whom the Bell Tolls, Part III My original posting singing the praises of VOIP and Vonage in particular (for those of you who haven’t tried Voice-Over-IP, it’s still working great and unbeliebaly cheaper than traditional phone service) was met with a criticism by my colleague Tom Bartel, who said Vonage in particular didn’t allow him to keep his particular phone number. This is something that varies carrier by carrier, area code by area code. So Tom tried an alternative service in Colorado called Lingo. So far, he seems to be having the same positive experience that we are in NYC.
Email Marketing 101
Email Marketing 101 We just published a book! Sign me Up! A marketer’s guide to creating email newsletters that build relationships and boost sales is now available on Amazon.com. The book is authored by me and my Return Path colleagues Mike Mayor, Tami Forman, and Stephanie Miller. What’s it about? – At its core, the book is a very practical how-to guide. Any company — large or small — can have a great email newsletter program. They’re easy, they’re cheap, and when done well, they’re incredibly effective. – This book helps you navigate the basics of how to get there, covering everything from building a great list, to content and design, to making sure the emails reach your customers’ inboxes…
Everyone's a Marketer, Part III
Everyone’s a Marketer, Part III Along the lines of my "Everyone’s a Marketer" series of postings, Seth Godin put a finer point on it today. If Everyone’s a Marketer, then you can easily make the case that the CEO is the CMO.
Who Wants to Get Hit by a Bus, Anyway?
Who Wants to Get Hit by a Bus, Anyway? Fred had an accurate if somewhat morbid posting today about succession planning, one of the many higher-order HR tasks that small entrepreneurial companies are particularly bad at. He’s completely right — for one example in our industry, you only have to look back about 9 months or so to Phil Goldman’s shocking death to see the impact it had on Mailblocks. I’ll have to post on succession planning in a startup in more detail sometime soon.
Boiling the Frog
Boiling the Frog We boiled the frog recently at Return Path. What the heck does this mean? There was an old story, I’ve since been told apocryphal, we told a lot back when I was a management consultant trying to work on change management projects. It was basically that: If you throw a frog into a pot of boiling water, it will leap right back out. But if you put a frog in a pot of water on the stove and then heat it up to boiling, you’ll boil the frog because it never quite realized that it’s being cooked until its muscles and brain are slightly too cooked to jump out. How have we boiled the frog? Two ways…
Rejected by the Body
Rejected by the Body My most recent posting ("Sometimes, There Is No Lesson To Be Learned") about a strange hiring incident at Return Path has so far generated 5 comments — a whopper for my blog. You can read them here if you want. They’re a little bit all over the map, but they did remind me of something I frequently tell senior people who I am interviewing to join the company: Hiring a new senior person into an organization is like doing an organ transplant. Sometimes, the body just rejects the organ, but at least you find out pretty quickly. At least we found out relative quickly with this one, although it was more like the organ rejecting the…
Sometimes, There Is No Lesson To Be Learned
Sometimes, There Is No Lesson To Be Learned We had a very unusual employee situation this week at Return Path. A brand new senior executive we brought in to the company to be our first ever head of HR and Organization Development resigned very abruptly after only a few weeks on the job, citing a complete change of heart about her career direction and moving on to a government position in economic and community development. Unfortunately, the person gave no notice and provided no assistance with transition, and resigned by cell phone. What a disappointment, especially coming from an HR professional! After getting over my disbelief/irritation/rage (not easy, not a small amount), after communicating this difficult message to the company,…