Northeast Treaters transforms 35,000 square feet of roof into a solar photovoltaic power plant.

We’re accustomed to absorbing discouraging news in the national and regional press. Teeth-gnashing politics, tear-gassed protesters, sex abuse scandals, devastating storms… we need to know.

News for trend trackers

But there is more to the news than imminent doom. There’s problem solving. van Schouwen Associates’ team provides client media relations, so our relationship with the news involves dealing with the nuts-and-bolts (and electrons and microchips, etc.) of business trends and challenges. When a company engineers a way to deal with a business or environmental challenge or harness an opportunity, talking about it in the press helps effect change.

This time, a client is harnessing sunshine.

We’re working with client Northeast Treaters, which has good news stemming from a forward-thinking project. Belchertown, MA-based Northeast Treaters has developed a 35,000 square-foot solar photovoltaic plant that generates 80 percent of the electricity used by the company. It was built by local and regional workers, with materials from the region and the U.S.

Local green jobs, local green energy.

Last week’s open house to celebrate the solar endeavor drew customers, influentials and the media. The press so far has done the project justice, and we extend our appreciation to Springfield, MA NBC affiliate -Channel 22, Springfield, MA CBS affiliate Channel 3 and The Republican (among others who will create a story about the project) for taking the effort to highlight how one company can make a difference in the local economy and to the environment by putting action behind its commitment to both.

Isn’t it great to see good news for a change?

Has CERN detected a particle traveling faster than light speed? If so, it could change the world.

A client commented wryly the other day that the Web as an informational resource is a mixed blessing. Like many other technologies, light-speed access to information has accelerated the pace of business and, much like the evolution from from courier to FedEx to fax to email and beyond, has created higher expectations all around. Ready access to information has made thorough competitive research easier… in fact, it has also made it imperative. This is how a new opportunity transforms into a baseline expectation. Everyone has the same opportunity and so doing business becomes more demanding than it was in more blissfully ignorant times.

Twenty six long years ago, when van Schouwen Associates opened its doors, competitive research (especially for smaller to mid-sized client firms whose budgets had their limits!) was typically a drawn-out and inefficient affair, depending variously on resources such as customers with opinions, loose-lipped sales reps and slyly procured sales literature and price lists. Information was often scanty and in some cases dated or seriously imprecise. But oddly, life was easier because the bar was set lower. We didn’t intend that; we weren’t lazy. It was just the way things worked.

The challenge today is that, with the exception of not-yet-released products that have been developed with dedicated attention to secrecy, it is possible to find out a great deal about other peoples’ products and services, marketing messages, pricing, and the strengths and weaknesses of any competitor’s offerings. It is often easy to reverse-engineer technical products. Why? In part because it’s all on the Web.

Well, nearly all of “it” is on the Web. A frequent discussion the van Schouwen Associates team has with its clients involves what to include and what not to include in that very public forum. There are several layers of potential privacy clients can employ, including:

No privacy: Placing material out in the public arena online

Moderate privacy with potential for leakage: Offering material protected by passwords (often permission-based passwords with expiration dates and renewal requirements)… plus additional layers of security

Higher privacy but not perfectly secure, just ask Congress how leaks happen: Material that isn’t put online anywhere, period.

Today, companies typically have (or should have) vast information about their competitors and their market opportunities. This is excellent.

Vast knowledge (or access to same) has also made business all the more challenging even as it presents clear new opportunities.

At vSA, we (and of course, our clients) know – more than ever before – exactly how high the bar has been set. So does anyone else who cares to look.

Result 1: Increasingly, products developed with insufficient regard to what is already on the market FAIL where once they might have succeeded. Less competitive services do the same because the customer’s process of finding a better deal – the best deal – is pretty easy. Just Google and go.

Result 2: We expect that this universal access to competitive information will continue to yield impressive improvement in business innovation. Innovators and marketers have to work harder… and harder… and smarter.

van Schouwen Associates has a career opportunity available… for the right person. We want a strategic communications professional to join our writing and PR team. WELL, you may say, that should be an easy position to fill.

Nope. In fact, looking for the right person to fill this job opening gives the existing vSA team a new appreciation for what we do every day. And it gives me a new appreciation for the team we have. The job opportunity requires a person who can:

-Face undaunted the task of QUICKLY learning to communicate intelligently about client specialties that may range from geothermal engineering to patented building supplies, aerospace quality management to investment planning for the wealthy.

-Write like Ernest Hemingway about said topics.

-Edit like… oh, I don’t know, A.M. Rosenthal?… about said topics.

-For media relations initiatives, pitch to diverse, extremely busy editors, employing a keen understanding of what each editor, each venue and each readership needs right now.

-Switch between topics, disciplines and client needs at a moment’s notice. And again. And…

-Genuinely enjoy working with clients who are smart, busy, facing pressures and deadlines of their own, and who trust vSA to create and implement strategic marketing programs that perform… programs that perform extremely well, no matter what the climate.

-Come up with great program ideas and innovations for clients.

-Work social media in B2B, financial services and other wilderness expanses.

-Work with the rest of us.*

Are you the one? Do you know the one? Be in touch…

*We’re fun. Naturally.

Let’s start at the top with a compelling subject line; it’s basic and obvious but not always done correctly. We recently sent an eblast on behalf of a client and the open rate went beyond 60 perecent; in the world of emarketing, a 12 percent open rate is average. The subject line was successful because it succinctly defined reader benefits. Customer interest was piqued and readers wanted more.

If you are able to make the first cut and avoid being deleted, be certain there is something of value when customers open your emails. Once upon a time the world waited to see what was inside the vault of famous Chicago mobster Al Capone. But after months of frenzied pre-publicity, when the door flew open the vault was empty. Don’t let that happen when business prospects trust you enough to open your emails.

Create eblasts that are content rich, informative and clearly add value to the reader by delivering information that helps them do their job more productively, efficiently and profitably. Make those benefits crisp, clear and compelling. No one has time for too many words.

Finally, package it in a format that is inviting and engaging. We recently designed an eblast promoting a client’s online, cost-saving calculators. The eblast featured a calculator and we used inverted numbers to spell marketing messages on the calculator’s display screen. You know – 4 and 5 look like “h” and “s” when you turn them upside down.

The calculator also included an “=” key that redirected readers to the client’s website. The open rate for that email was three times better than the industry average, and creativity was the key.

The blizzard of eblasts is blowing strong and blown opportunities are piling up. But if your messages and benefits are clear and creative, customers may come storming to you.

Nothing.

Such was the case recently when we were on the receiving end of an e-blast that went out from a photographer trying to market his service. By the looks of his very sophisticated website his work is fine.

But picture this…he enraged prospects with a poorly executed e-marketing campaign that resulted in responses like “Now everyone hates [you]” and “I will never use you.”

He was even accused of sending people an email worm.

There was a standard, boilerplate disclaimer at the end of his email indicating that people had received the email “as a result of your registration on photographer’s source database.”

This was not true; no one in our office had ever signed up to receive emails from this outfit.

But the real meltdown came when hundreds of e-mail recipients clicked UNSUBSCRIBE. Instead of the “regrets only” emails flying back to the web hosting company, they went to everyone on the email distribution. The UNSUBSCRIBE link was improperly programmed and not only did everyone receive the initial, unsolicited e-marketing piece, they also received hundreds of misdirected requests to be removed from the list.

Opt-out was not an UNSUBSCRIBE at all; it was a “reply all” which sparked even more angry emails that everyone received. “Wow – talk about an email marketing fail!” was one of the more polite responses.

Email marketing is a great way to reach key influencers but no one, from journalists to marketing professionals and senior corporate leaders wants to receive spam. Such is a given, so how do you target and reach your key audience?

1. If you say someone is receiving an email because they asked for it, make certain they have really opted in.
2. Work hard to create a qualified list of email recipients through opt-in settings on your Web site, e-blasts, newsletters, social media pages as well as other marketing materials and business prospecting.
3. Create marketing materials that are truly content rich, informative and will attract readers and subscribers.
4. Stick to your specialty; sharp execution is key. Don’t dabble in creating and blasting e-marketing pieces if that’s not your profession; consult with professionals.
5. Send materials that are creative and engaging; think hard about what would get you to open and read an e-marketing piece.

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but in this case, the final word was UNSUBSCRIBE.

What’s more refreshing than a new start?

Here are just ten “to dos” – small and big – any of which you can employ to make 2011 an exciting year, professionally and/or personally. Everything you do to grow in one way likely helps you grow in other ways, too. Or so I’ve experienced.

In fact, I’ve done or attempted at least four of these in 2010. Perhaps four more in 2011?

•Question some of your own assumptions. It’s harder than it sounds.*

•Take on a challenging project at which you’re not confident you’ll excel – probably keeping some form of safety net such as associate support or a long-lead deadline, just in case.

•Learn accounting or bookkeeping skills you’ve always brushed over.

•If you typically drag yourself to work when you are sick, stay home, for heaven’s sake (I could use this piece of advice myself).

•Read a “for Dummies” book about a topic that holds some interest for you – (oh, don’t scoff, it’s a pretty good series).

•Marry him or her, if he or she is the life partner you want.

•Learn some relevant business acronyms: VAR, COGS, MSI… or invent a new one that resonates.

•Make a new friend, find a new mentor, let go of a friendship that no longer works.

•Take a class, in a physical classroom or online.

•Save some (or more) of the money you earn.

Other ideas? Happy holidays. Happy upcoming new year.

*Ask any liberal or conservative.

A thought leader is somewhat snidely defined by Wikipedia as “business jargon for an entity that is recognized for having innovative ideas.” (This link leads, nonetheless, to a good article that is worth a few minutes if you’re interested in the topic.)

Being a thought leader goes beyond a few light bulbs of inspiration. It involves having an in-depth understanding of some key aspect (or many key aspects) of your field. These may include the technologies, people, and trends involved, and the direction in which this field may be going. A thought leader also has opinions on which way things should be going, and these are generally (optimistically!) based on more than quick judgments. Typically, a thought leader also knows what others have been saying and feels no compunction to be in lockstep with the other thought leaders, nor to disagree with them. Being a thought leader takes nerve.

There’s also (hello? anyone out there??) the issue of being heard over the noise. How can one be a thought leader if one has no followers? If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear… It’s pleasant to think that some thought leaders would express their opinions because of a clear intellectual or ethical compunction to do so, even if no one or hardly anyone is listening. Even if there will be no book sales. Or speaker fees. But most leaders want followers. Being a true thought leader eventually demands that you have (although not so formally named) “thought  followers”.

There is also the question of forum. A thought leader can start small. She can be the manager of a group. She can give seminars, write articles, give speeches to small groups. She can blog. Being a thought leader demands that you find a medium or multiple media in which to express your insights.

But most of all, the thought leader needs insights. Vision. Education. Breadth. The person most likely to become a thought leader has all these. The thought leader also enjoys a clarity of thought process that, while not an infallible defense against errors in tactics, strategy or advice delivered, allows cool reassessments and logical course changes when required. Generally, that clarity of thought will also inhibit the leader from speaking about an opinion until he is PRETTY SURE that opinion is valid. This is not always the case. Take Pat Robertson‘s many quotes.

A thought leader need not always be followed. Should not always be followed. That alone is a reason either to become one or to focus on being an independent thinker, sifting the insights of many, swallowing none of them hook, line and sinker.

Simonds International Microsite, www.neveryieldtosteel.com

Why develop a microsite when you already have a corporate site? There are a number of situations in which a microsite can be an unbeatable marketing tool. Here are five best uses for a microsite:

1-You are running a specialized promotion or contest. Examples may include: an offer that you’re making in specific geographic regions and/or to specialized market segments. For example, one of our clients created a B2B promotion for just a few southern cities in which sales had been lagging. All sales and marketing outreach led small business owners from these cities to a microsite that offered business tips and allowed firms to compete for regional recognition… all while promoting our client’s best products for small businesses.

2-You have a new Web application or service that deserves its own Web presence. Examples include: training, certification, relevant calculators, product life cycle assessments, competitive comparisons, product specification/product selectors/e-commerce, or specialized product catalogs. The sky is the limit here!

3-You are running a specific advertising/marketing campaign and want to test its success in bringing respondents to your landing page – a microsite allows you not only to track responses but also to continue the conversation or even clinch the sale on the spot.

4-You want to communicate actively with customers and prospects, creating a special place for them to speak or be recognized, through vehicles such as customer-focused case studies, awards, testimonials, Q & A, real-time communications, or other personalized content that develops and sustains relationships between your firm and your customers.

5-You want to entertain, engage or inform customers and prospects on a site that does not overtly promote your products, brand or services as the main corporate site may do. However, consider that you need to plan to “hook” these prospects at some point, so some (even subtle) branding and a link to your main company site are often in order; this is also an important consideration for search engine optimization (SEO).

Your thoughts and experiences? We’d enjoy learning from you.

We’re doing it all. Productivity continues to be high, because there are fewer people doing more jobs, working longer hours, coming up with better ideas. If we don’t remain at the alert (or if we don’t hire back some of those people we’ve ushered to the sidelines) production will fall and our ability to respond to opportunities quickly will drop.

Prospects and customers say “maybe” and “no” more easily than they say “yes”. We must stay on our toes to give them reasons to move forward with us. They’ll save money. They’ll save time (which is money). They’ll be more productive (which is money). Or they’ll feel happier (which is more important than money sometimes, eh?). Get to yes. Argue with the going wisdom of the day, with the “we have no budget” or “we’re not planning to do that until 2011″ or “we have a supplier already.” Invite your prospect to look at a situation through new eyes and improve results.

We’re operating in a new environment. Picture yourself trying to perform everyday tasks in a weightless environment. Your cereal floats away. You can’t move from here to there the way you used to. Doing business today is similar. People don’t often pick up their phones unless they expect your call. They may make decisions by doing research online rather than talking to people like you. They do without, or they do things themselves. (How many major corporations have taken to creating their own sales materials, for example, or simply have no current materials? Oh, there’s nothing more impressive than the sales rep drawing the new automation system on a frayed paper napkin at Burger King to show to a key prospect, I’ll tell you!) Take the time to dream up new ways to help your prospect, and to speak to his or her real concerns, which are very likely different than they were two years ago.

Since you’re wide awake anyway, walk away from the lagging crowd. Think for yourself or find a fresh new adviser or partner with whom to share ideas. Figure out how to develop, value, sell, and build market share for your product or service. Learn about the new tools and techniques, motivations and buy signals that work in a strange new world, even as the pundits wring their hands and your competition slumps in its seats.

By the way, coffee helps.

Potentially, busy with the severe recession, the financial sector bailout and the fight for a national health care plan, the Obama administration missed at least one ball it should have been keeping in the air: effective regulation of the oil industry in general and of deep-water drilling in particular.

The potent lesson for those of us in charge? There’s a question we should ask ourselves often, and that we should grant ourselves the mental space and creative license to answer: What am I missing?

It’s natural and tempting to get on a track and follow it, or to create a plan and execute it without taking the time and energy to step to the side and take stock – frequently. Are you missing opportunities? Not alert to certain dangers? Letting issues, people, money, or projects slide while you deal with everyday urgencies and tempests in a teapot?

It’s true that people in charge have many of their best ideas while driving, showering or taking a vacation. Extend that freedom of mind into your everyday routine. Assign or put aside routine tasks to facilitate your own creative thinking. Read a business book on a new topic. Ask yourself if there’s anything on your mind that you’re not dealing with (it’s often right there below the surface). Access your right brain.

What am I missing? I’m glad I asked myself. I’ll ask again. And again.