Who Moved My Cheese (Again)?

At a recent networking event, a friend was discussing how the nature of her work has changed. As a software and human resources trainer, she has observed and participated in several workplace evolutions and revolutions.

When I first worked on a computer, I learned WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3 for dos and struggled to master Harvard Graphics without a users’ manual because the printed copy could not be located. There was no Internet connection at work, nor did I have email. The introduction of Windows revolutionized the way that I worked then and now. And the increasing influence of the Internet and mobile connectivity means that I must always learn new ways of doing business.

In other words, if I were one of the characters in the book, Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life by Spencer Johnson, my cheese would be a continually moving target. A seemingly simple fable about mice and “Littlepeople” (aptly named Sniff, Scurry, Hem and Haw), this book makes many readers think carefully about their own coping mechanisms and the ways in which they adapt to (inevitable) changes in their lives.

For me, the value of this book lies in its implied challenge — to incorporate its message into my own situation and respond appropriately to what can become positive changes rather than to oppose all deviations from the existing “norm” without thought. I have to admit that I don’t embrace all change equally and without any resistance. But after reading this book, I consider carefully the broader impact of change rather than just its effects on my particular circumstances.

There is an abundance of extremely valuable classic business and management books, including the following: The One Minute Manager, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People , and Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't. However, Who Moved My Cheese? is my favorite because it has remained the most relevant to me since I first read it a decade ago.

What is your favorite business or management book? I plan to use the selected entries in a future blog, so email me at nwolpin@hotmail.com with the name and author of the book along with one or two sentences explaining why you found it influential. Include your name and any contact information that you would like to see mentioned in the blog. I’m looking forward to your response.

Measuring the Success of Your Email Campaigns

Only 57% of marketers measure email campaign results within 24-48 hours after the email is sent and only18% measure email results on an annual basis according to a report by Email Stat Center (http://www.emailstatcenter.com/). The survey found that deliverability and clickthrough rates were considered to be the most important metrics when evaluating results.

I find these statistics surprising. One of the major advantages of email marketing is the rapid feedback, so I monitor these metrics carefully to determine which email campaigns are successful and which need improvement. Here are definitions of some of the metrics that I consider to be important.

Deliverability is the percentage of emails that Internet Service Providers allow to be placed into one of the addressee’s boxes. Some larger email service providers boast deliverability rates of 96% - 99%. It does not, however, necessarily indicate the percentage of emails that reached inboxes rather than the junk mail or spam boxes.

Hard bounce means that the email could not be delivered for a reason such as a nonexistent email address in which case sending it again will not remedy the situation.

Soft bounce is created by a temporary situation, such as a full inbox or a problem with the recipient’s email server.

Open rates refer to the percentage of emails that recipients click on and actually open. Open rates are obtained by obtained by dividing the number of emails opened by the number of emails sent and multiplying the result by 100. .

Clickthrough rates refer to the percentage of links clicked on by recipients. The clickthrough rate is obtained by dividing the number of clicks by the number of emails opened and multiplying the result by 100. Unique clickthroughs are the percentage of clickthroughs from different recipients. Total clickthrough rates reflect the percentage of clickthroughs from both unique and returning recipients.

Conversion rates are considered by many to be one of the most significant measures of success. The conversion rate is calculated by dividing the number of email recipients who actually clicked through to a website and took the desired action (purchased something, competed a registration form, provided information or whatever purpose the email was supposed to serve) divided by the total number of people who received the email multiplied by 100.

However, the Email Experience Council (http://www.emailexperience.org/) found that it is impossible to establish industry standards because of the lack of consistency in the calculation of these and other key performance metrics (March 2007).

Web 2.0: You and Me and an International Village

Like many of you, I have evolved from a passive web user to an active participant in web communities. I network on linkedin, check products on ebay, comment on photos on Flickr, view videos on YouTube, search MySpace and Facebook, create tags for technorati, read the South Florida Public Relations Network message board, and encourage emailed comments on my blog.

With Web 2.0, the Internet has evolved from a static collection of websites that were basically a library-like repository of information and a showcase for public, private, and municipal organizations into a collection of communities where users are encouraged to participate and join. Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia which allows almost anyone to post or edit articles, defines Web 2.0 as follows:

“Web 2.0 refers to a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services — such as social-networking sites, wikis, and folksonomies — which aim to facilitate creativity…, collaboration, and sharing between users. The term gained currency following the first O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004… Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users use webs.”

Folksonomies are tags or methods of organizing and bookmarking information into meaningful categories that add value and enable groups to easily find relevant documents, graphics, photos, products, or data. Because of the proliferation of information sharing on the web, folksonomies on sites such as technorati, delic.io.us, and flickr have become increasingly popular.

Web 2.0 websites share certain characteristics. They:

• Are interactive and dynamic with user-friendly interfaces
• Enable users to interact with each other as individuals, communities,
networks, or friends
• Allow users to access web-based applications through a variety of web
browsers
• Have long tails that enable narrow niches to reach out through the entire web
• Encourage user participation because users add value
• Facilitate cooperation rather than control

I recently attended a presentation sponsored by IBM that illustrated the use of social software in a corporate community. The employee directory features employee photographs, locations, contact information, job descriptions, interests, and pertinent information that the employee wishes to disclose. Employees in far-flung locations can work together in groups by uploading and sharing information or can join non work-related special interest online communities.

There is no doubt that Web 2.0 has changed the way that we live, work, shop, entertain ourselves, obtain information, and acquire new friends. And the power of Web 2.0 is that it enables all of us to leave our footprints on the Internet.

Email Marketing: The Numbers Behind the Buzz

Despite the ascent of Web 2.0, IMs, and text messaging, email marketing is still growing in importance in the marketing mix. And according to Datran Media Research (“The 2007 Email Marketing Survey”), 83% of the marketers who responded thought that email ROI will increase over last year. Statistics collected from a variety of additional sources indicate that email marketing still has a bright future.

The Direct Marketing Association’s 2006 Response Rate Trends Report finds that the highest direct marketing response rates result from telemarketing (2.6%) and email (2.45%). Email’s ROI index is 70% higher than any other method of direct-response marketing. The organization also estimates that marketers in the United States alone will spend $500 million on email marketing which is expected to generate almost $22 billion in sales.

Following are some statistics cited by Internet Retailer (2007) as a result of its monthly surveys:

- 18.7% of internet retailers indicated that email generates 1% to 2.5% of sales
- 37.4% of online merchants find that email generates between 2.51% and 15%
of revenues
- For 11% of online merchants, email drives more than 25% of total sales
- Nearly three-quarters (73%) of chain retailers, catalogers, virtual merchants, and consumer brand manufacturers report spending only 5% or less of their total marketing budgets on email marketing

Compared to other forms of online marketing, email delivers sales at an average cost per order of less than $7, compared to $71.89 for banner ads, $26.75 for paid search and $17.47 for affiliate programs. - Shop.org, State of Retailing Online 2007 report (Sept. 2007);

For additional email marketing statistics, you can visit the following websites:

http://www.emailstatcenter.com/
http://www.internetretailer.com/
http://www.the-dma.org/
http://www.mediapost.com/

PURLs –The Newest Treasure of the Internet

What may be hotter than Web 2.0? Personalized URLs (PURLs). Although they have been around for several years, they are suddenly exploding and take one-to-one marketing to new heights. Consumers have seen their names on digitally printed newsletters, postcards, letters, and other similar materials. Now, they can have their names on their own Internet page populated with their information and containing items especially designed for them.

PURLs don’t come in gift wrapped boxes. They are generally sent via direct mail or email. In this age of digital printing or mail merge, each recipient can receive an individual PURL in a letter, newsletter, postcard or other printed material. It is also easy to generate dynamic emails with a link to each person’s PURL in the message.

PURLs are rapidly becoming the gems of the Internet because they provide:

1. Higher response rates with better quality leads
2. Lower cost per lead
3. Opportunities to provide customized offers
4. Real-time statistics about consumer behavior
5. Integration with CRM systems
6. Better insights into consumer behavior

The uses of PURLs are limited only by your imagination. They can be used to obtain email addresses, to update or verify consumer information, for surveys, for special offers, to provide customized coupons, as triggers for certain events such as a reminder to renew a subscription, and to provide relevant content. The uses are almost without limit, depending on a company’s creativity and knowledge of its markets.

Here are some examples of PURLs that you might find interesting:

Sample direct mail piece that delivers the PURL http://www.powerpurl.com/images/email_lg2.gif

A magazine subscription offer with audio https://www.expresslandingpage.com/TrackingSystem/AG_938/TMP_1016/VERIFYPAGE.aspx

A b-to-b marketing PURL with an incentive http://powerpurl.l2soft.com/images/webpub.gif

If you have a particularly interesting example of a PURL, you can email the link to me at nwolpin@hotmail.com.

Email Newsletters: Different Strokes for Different Folks

Some of us enjoy receiving email and some of us consider it an annoyance. But regardless of whether or not we like it, email marketing is here to stay. According to a recent benchmark study by Marketing Sherpa (http://www.marketingsherpa.com/), email marketing has the highest ROI of any direct marketing technique.

Email (electronic) newsletters are being used by more and more businesses to keep in touch with their customers and prospects, and there are several types of email newsletters.

Dynamic email newsletters can be customized to the preferences or demographics of each recipient. After opting in for the newsletters, recipients receive email messages that provide a list of topics and allow them to select any or all of those topics that are of interest. Their newsletters are populated with articles about those topics. At any time, the recipients can change their preferences and can unsubscribe to the newsletter.

Non-dynamic email newsletters can be customized but to a lesser extent. You can have different versions for various types of recipients (e.g. clients, prospects, vendors, employees). While each group receives a version designed specifically for it, all group members receive the same articles.

Email versions of print newsletters can be sent via email and/or placed on a website where visitors can view or download it. While this may seem to be merely a duplication of effort, different people prefer different methods of delivery. The same people who read the print version may not read the email version and vice versa.

Mini email newsletters or articles consist of one or possibly two articles which can be informational or promotional. Just as non-dynamic newsletters, you can have more than one version, but each group of recipients gets the same version.

Why should you use email newsletters? Here are some of the benefits:

1. Their costs are lower than those of print newsletters.
2. They provide real-time reporting statistics (delivery, open, clickthrough
and bounce rates).
3. Working with your web monitoring software, they can track conversions.
4. Email newsletters can drive traffic to a website.
5. A library of articles from the newsletter can be made available on the
website.
6. You can easily forward them to friends or colleagues.

Employee Performance Reviews: A Two-Way Street

Although we might no be aware of it, we have been evaluated from the time of birth when our length and weight are compared to those of the average newborn. In preschool and school, we are evaluated for our academic performance and social development. Our teachers are judged for their educational skills and interactions with those in their classes, and school administrators are likewise evaluated for their own accomplishments and the accomplishments of the entire school.

We continue to be evaluated throughout our working lives. From CEOs whose actions and results are commented on by a variety of stakeholders, to employees in the mailroom, we all want our performances to be judged fairly. And managers should realize that the employee performance evaluations that they use to judge their staff also reflect who and what they are. They are not only judging their employees but also being judged by them.

I believe that we should be accountable for achieving goals that are attainable and for which adequate resources have been allocated, but that we should not be criticized for our inability to adhere to unreasonable performance demands.

Many of us are familiar with the SMART principles of establishing objectives for employees:

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Reasonable
Timely

I would also like to see reviews that are FAIR:

Fruitful
Accurate
Informative
Responsible

Employee performance evaluations can either create positive and productive working environments or negatively impact company objectives and employee morale. As an employee who is a manager and has a manager, I want to provide and receive reviews that are knowledgeable and insightful. Although I have to admit that I dislike being criticized, I know when the criticism is warranted and when it is based on inaccurate perception. If a review is a true dialogue rather than a manager's monologue, it can help both parties.

How Much Connectivity Is Too Much?

Is constant connectivity crucial to modern business? According to a recent commercial on television and You Tube, “connectile dysfunction” is more than just a competitive disadvantage - it is a social embarrassment.

While I was having lunch with a friend a few weeks ago, I realized just how connected we are today. Every few minutes, he stopped to check new email and telephone messages on his Blackberry. Another friend told me that her company is installing a VOIP telephone system which will forward messages from an employee’s office phone to that person’s PC, laptop, cell phone or other mobile device. And another friend of mine is constantly receiving business calls outside of normal working hours on her cell phone.
When instant messaging, text messaging, Internet video and music, and social networking are added to the mix, the landscape of 21st century business is changing significantly.

Before this technological explosion, basically only members of occupations such as law enforcement, medical, and other emergency workers had to be available 24/7. Now, this situation has been extended to a much larger segment of the workforce. Real estate agents, mortgage brokers, entrepreneurs, accountants, lawyers, salespeople, engineers and many others seem to be constantly on call.

What effect does this connectivity have on employees? A recent study performed at the MIT Sloan School of Management found that ninety percent of employees at an unnamed financial services firm felt a “compulsion” to constantly check their Blackberry. I know that when I am at a conference or on vacation, I check the messages on my work telephone and my email as do many of my friends and colleagues.

What about future connectivity? As Dr. Alan Kay, one of the developers of the modern workstation, aptly stated, "The best way to predict the future is to invent it." And the future is being invented as you’re reading this article.

Ten Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

Here are ten common marketing mistakes that attorneys and other professional service providers make:

1. Market sporadically without a plan.
2. Fail to differentiate yourself from the competition.
3. Overlook valuable speaking and publishing opportunities.
4. Lose touch with qualified new prospects.
5. Abandon your marketing effort when you get busy.
6. Focus on only one or two marketing channels without a fully integrated program
7. Waste too much marketing time talking to other industry professionals.
8. Limit PR to the announcement of new hires.
9. Ignore state bar or industry guidelines on advertising best practices.
10. Terminate a long-term marketing program after the initial campaign.

Avoid these simple mistakes and you will see a dramatic improvement in your marketing efforts.

This is an excerpt from the book Courting Your Clients: The Essential Guide to Legal Marketing (http://www.legalexpertconnections.com/courtingyourclients.html) by Margaret Grisdela, President of Legal Expert Connections. You can visit her website at www.legalexpertconnections.com and her blog at www.rainmakingclub.com. She is a well recognized consultant with a national clientele of legal and litigation support providers.

Note: Although this article was written for members of professional services firms, her advice is applicable to a broad range of industries.

Comments and Suggestions

I never realized how many people that I know have friends, relatives, or acquaintances who were victimized by employee theft. Because my objective is to make this blog relevant to as many people as possible, I welcome your comments and suggestions for future articles.

If you have expertise in a business field that would be of interest to the readers and would like to write an article, please let me know. If I believe that the article should be published on this blog, I will also include a few sentences about you and your company and links to your website or any appropriate books of yours that have been published and are on Amazon.

You may contact me at nwolpin@hotmail.com.

Who's Minding Your Company's Business?

Are you watching you company’s finances or are you trusting your employees to do it for you?
No matter how trustworthy you consider your bookkeeper or accounting staff, you must establish some system of checks and balances. Answer “yes” or “no” to the following questions to give you some idea of how vulnerable your company is to employee fraud.

1. Your bookkeeper has the authority to approve invoices for payment.
2. Your bookkeeper issues checks and reconciles your checking account.
3. You don’t have a policy to flag unusually high amounts on employee expense
reports.
4. You believe that your employees are honest and never conduct surprise audits.
5. Your employees would be uncomfortable reporting suspicious behavior.

The more “yes” answers you have to this quiz, the more likely you are to be victimized by one of the three most prevalent forms of employee fraud — misappropriation of assets, corruption, and financial statement fraud. While Enron, Worldcom, and other large corporations have received a great deal of publicity for financial statement fraud, in smaller companies the most frequent type of employee theft is misappropriation (payments to fictitious vendors, overpayment to vendors with kickbacks, or checks for unearned overtime).

How can you protect your business? There is no simple answer because each situation is different, but here are some internal control practices that can minimize the opportunities for employee fraud:

1. Separate responsibilities so that:
the person who opens mail with payments doesn’t record receipt of payments
the person who approves invoices doesn’t issue the checks
the person who issues the checks doesn’t open and reconcile the checking
statements
2. Have all financial transactions reviewed and approved by an appropriate
manager
3. Conduct surprise financial audits
4. Develop and enforce a code of ethics with appropriate penalties
5. Encourage employees to report suspicious behavior
6. Establish an anonymous employee hotline if possible
7. Create an atmosphere in which employees feel valued and fairly paid

Fraud can hit your company where it hurts the most — in the bottom line. So, if you don’t mind your business, someone else may do it for you.

How Safe Is Your Company's Wallet

When I was 18, I went to a dance at an Ivy League University. I remember dancing a lot and speaking to several people. Of course, my purse would have been in the way while I danced, so I put it down on one of the chairs without a second thought. It was a nondescript black purse surrounded by many others, and it never occurred to me that it would not be safe.

At the end of the evening when my friends and I were ready to leave, I retrieved the purse. Nothing looked amiss, and it was only when I opened the wallet did I realize what had happened. All of the bills were gone, but fortunately there was enough change to get me home. I felt stupid for being so trusting, and now I guard my wallet much more carefully.

What happened to me happens every day on an even greater scale to businesses. My $30 loss pales in comparison to the losses sustained by businesses every day. According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners http://www.acfe.com/ over $650 billion was lost by US businesses in one year as a result of employee fraud.

And it’s not only big businesses such as Enron, WorldCom, and Adelphia that are hurt. An employee of the Miami-Dade Florida Water and Sewer Authority pled guilty to defrauding the agency of $1 million dollars earmarked for bulk mailings. A former bookkeeper for a Scottsdale, Arizona, cryonics company was accused of stealing $177,000 from the company to invest in a bar. In a Chicago suburb, an office manager embezzled $143,000 from an auto parts dealer.

Statistics show that small businesses are more vulnerable and more likely to be hurt by employee theft, and the person most likely to embezzle is frequently the most trusted employee — the employee that comes in early, stays late, and rarely takes a day off. What is perhaps the most horrifying statistic revealed by the ACFE is that most cases are discovered by accident rather than by any system of controls.

How can business owners protect themselves from employee fraud? Read my next posting on this blog for some practical advice.

Whose Web Page Is It Anyhow?

Have you ever wondered whether anyone else is using your website material for their own purposes? Or whether your web writer(s) have used any verbiage from someone else’s web page? With all of the information available on the Internet and the millions of web pages available for public view, finding violations of copyright and enforcing them may be difficult.

From time to time, I have found plagiarism on the Internet and I’m sure that there are many undiscovered examples. Last year, I decided to compare the website content that I developed for a previous employer to other web pages. I was surprised when I found that a page on another company’s website was exactly the same as mine with one exception. I mentioned the name of my employer, and the other company substituted the word, “we” for a company name.

You, too, can find out whether your web content has been copied. Just go the http://www.copyscape.com/ and enter the url of any web page that you want to compare. This is the free version and it will return a limited number of similar pages but includes those that are most similar or even identical.

If you do find another web page that is suspiciously like yours, the date of publication on the web becomes important. You can find out approximately when pages were uploaded or changed at the Internet Wayback Machine at www.archive.org/index.php. After you enter the url of the page(s) involved, you will be given the dates that changes were made to that page.

As you can see, it’s easy to use material from one page on another, but it’s also easy to get caught.

Not Just Another Business Blog

Why another business blog? As Calvin Coolidge said, “… the chief business of the American people is business.” Although this observation dates back to 1925, I believe that it is still valid today. As a business owner, an employee, and a consumer, I know that business touches every aspect of our lives. And in this blog, I would like to address many of the themes that are of major concerns to all of these groups: accounting and finance, sales and marketing, information technology and the Internet, risk management, ethics, leadership, performance management, and human resources.

For companies to prosper, they need to continually monitor and respond to these issues and the rapidly changing regulatory, technological and fiscal climates. And so much material, including an abundance of blogs, has been and is being written for businesses.

I would like to distinguish this blog from many others by dealing with some topics that I consider “sidelights” – topics largely ignored in other blogs and in business articles — as well as with the larger issues. Also, because no one can possibly be an expert in everything, I would like to have other writers, specialists in their respective fields, contribute articles.

I hope that you will agree that this is “not just another business blog.”

For those of you who may be considering blogging yourselves, I would highly recommend blogging for Business by Shel Holtz and Ted Demopoulos. I would also like to thank www.marketingsherpa.com for introducing me to this book.