Marketing Technician

The attack on paid software and services continues.

In general, free and open-source software isn't yet robust enough to stop the corporate dollars flowing to Redmond. Nor are shallow-pocketed companies likely to try, since the development effort to match feature for feature is just too much. Heck, most of these companies may be gone in a few years if they don't make the transition to an ad-supported or paid-tier model. Or get bought for their codebase and user list, like Writely. But for now, it's a good time for entrepreneurs, consultants and startups.

We spent most of Good Friday on pro bono work -- producing a simple website for the Fishers Island Conservancy.

Usually I can't share details of client projects, but this one is different as my role is a public one. The NYT Small Business Summit Center is a microsite that supports an annual day-long event targeted at entrepreneurs. We wanted to make a major upgrade to the content and stickiness of the site, to support 2008 event sales and sweeten the deal for advertisers.

In a post from last week, I mentioned (almost as an aside) that marketers have to own the “What The Customer Wants” piece if they want any authority. This was a rather loose end that needed tying. I can think of three other subjects that a marketer ought to know cold, if they expect to have a say in corporate strategy.

Interviewing customers for marketing purposes can be done two ways.

• Regular calls from your marketing team to customers. This keeps your marketers focussed on customers.
• A series of 10-15 interviews, outsourced to a third party who can understand and speak knowledgably about your products and services. The interviewer works from a set of basic questions, but in a conversational manner – to get the customer to open up about their needs and experiences.