Marketing Inspiration

I Am McLovin!

Even if you missed the gleefully raunchy hit comedy Superbad, you probably remember clips from a NSFW scene that got heavy rotation in trailers and television ads: A high school student played by Christopher Mintz-Plasse obtains a fake Hawaiian driver's license that gives his full name as "McLovin." When he proudly presents the fabricated identification to his friends, they're nonplussed. Teenagers loved McLovin's undaunted optimism—nobody remembers the character's real name—and reveled in his drunken misadventures with a pair of cops who seem to believe the license is legit.

His popularity is no doubt why Norman Lear's voter registration initiative Declare Yourself invited Mintz-Plasse to get back into character for a PSA. The brief video opens as McLovin lies on his bed, unbuttons his shirt and seductively intones, "Hello, America. Welcome to my bedroom. I'm just about to register to vote. Join me." He then rolls over to a laptop computer and does just that. When finished, he turns back to the camera. "Now stick around and you can watch me touch myself." It might sound creepy out of context, but coming from McLovin it's hilarious.

In a post at the What's Next Blog, B.L. Ochman says the video shows "exactly how to use social media for election impact." Declare Yourself hopes this campaign will help reach its goal of registering 2 million new voters by the general 2008 presidential election.

Any Superbad fan will watch this—and very likely take action—just because they like McLovin. Your Marketing Inspiration: Find out what your customers like that much, and you might have a social media bonanza on your hands, too.

Get to the Po!nt

The Name Game

Stroll over to MarketingProfs' Know-How Exchange and you'll find that small business owners ask one question with remarkable frequency: What should I call my company/product? Sometimes they already have ideas and are looking for feedback, and sometimes they're at a complete loss. Whatever your situation, Scott Trimble has some helpful pointers:

• Look for a name that is memorable but easy to pronounce and spell.


• Avoid a name so specific (e.g., Dave's 256K Flash Drives) that it might hinder later growth


• Choose a name that doesn't carry negative connotations, whether in English or other major foreign languages


• Check for existing trademarks and the availability of domain names.

Trimble recommends asking yourself questions such as:

• What does my product do?


• How does my product benefit the consumer?


• What are the "ingredients" that go into my product or service?


• What makes my product unique?

And consider the various ways you can "stumble" on a great name:

• Find a synonym using Thesaurus.com.


• Think up puns and plays on words.


• Deliberately misspell a word you like.


• Borrow from industry lingo.

The Po!nt: "There are plenty of highly successful businesses and products out there with bad names," writes Trimble. "So, take your naming, like your friends' opinions, with a grain of salt. And, as with everything, the more you stress about obtaining perfection, the less likely you'll come up with that killer name that seamlessly fits your offering."

Customer Behaviour

Warm Up Your Thinking Cap

Organizational psychologist Amantha Imber, Head Inventiologist of Inventium, claims nothing saps creative juices like the hyperlogical mindset that professionals often bring to the table. "Most idea generation or problem solving meetings are scheduled immediately after a strategy or finance meeting," she says. "[Consider] how difficult it is to come from a meeting that requires analytical, rational thinking into a meeting that requires us to think laterally."

To ready yourself for creative activities, Imber suggests a solution she calls Fat Chance. The idea is to warm up your brain for the task at hand, much as you might stretch before going for a jog.

Here's how it works: The team chooses an impossible goal to be solved in an unrealistic time frame. "The tighter the better," she says. Since this is an exercise, have fun with the subject matter and use the brainstorming session to tackle topics such as how to boost Paris Hilton's IQ 100 points by the end of the week, or how to raise $10 billion dollars by dinner tonight. Break into small groups to generate three solutions that don't have to be logical or rational. "Indeed," she says, "those types of solutions won't actually solve the problem." After five minutes, present your solutions and have a good laugh. You're now ready for business.

"It only takes a few minutes of effective warming up to shift your brain into an open-minded and lateral thinking mode," says Imber. We think any exercise that puts you in the right frame of mind for peak creativity is Marketing Inspiration.

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Show Me the Way

Suppose you want to make a quick online purchase, but get annoyed when you can't find the product you want on the Web site. The problem with this scenario, claims Rick Sloboda of Webcopyplus, is the site's architecture. It's important to ensure your customers aren't having a similar experience at your site. According to Sloboda, typical problems with a Web site's architecture include:

• Complicated navigation. This fundamental design error means visitors don't have a clearly marked path to the information they want. Present customers with an online labyrinth and they may give up and leave.


• Confusing classifications. Sloboda points to one client that had a dedicated page for each department. "That's how they wanted to present information," he says. "But was it logical from a potential client's perspective? Not by a long shot." To find information, site visitors had to hop randomly from one page to another.

Problematic content that decreases the efficiency of your site can compound the frustrations of inelegant architecture with:

• Self-centric copy. Address a customer's needs first when you write your copy. "What you want to say is not important," says Sloboda. "It's all about what the customer wants to do."


• Outdated information. It's critical to keep your content current.

The Po!nt: "The right Web site architecture means fewer clicks to get desired information and less effort to complete tasks," says Sloboda. "You're telling visitors you care. Bad Web site architecture sends your visitors a completely different message: Get lost."

E-Mail marketing

Remember Me?

"Most marketers have email addresses for less than half their customers and prospects," says Reggie Brady. If this sounds familiar, you should consider using an email appending service. The larger services maintain databases with as many as 90 million individuals. You provide a name and mailing address, and they give you the email address associated with that contact. In a B2B setting, match rates range from 10 to 15 percent; the B2C scenario has an expected 25 to 30 percent success rate.

Once you have the email address, your next step is to get the contact's consent by sending what's called a permission pass. "You should explain the existing relationship, tell recipients you would like to ... communicate with them via email, and give them a clear opportunity to opt out," says Brady. After that, the regular rules of email marketing apply.

Brady says one magazine publisher reached out to her using this method, and she was generally impressed with its approach. She received seven messages over the course of three weeks. The first offered 26 issues for $20. The second and fourth contained variations on the initial deal while the fifth and seventh messages offered a four free trial issues. She did not appreciate messages three and six, however, which came from third-party advertisers. Although the permission pass had mentioned the possibility of such offers, it wasn't clearly worded.

The Po!nt: Using an email appending service is a great way to reach existing or past customers. As long as you follow proper etiquette, you could see a great response.

Customer Behaviour

Do Touch the Merchandise

Despite its merits, online shopping has a severe disadvantage: Customers can't touch the products they find on the Internet. Is tactile sensation a concern, even if you don't sell products such as hand lotion or clothing, where feeling is a factor of quality?

Surprisingly, yes. Researchers have discovered that many consumers use touch to gather information or make judgments, even when an item's physical form has nothing to do with its value. Some people have a high need for touch—feeling products and packaging creates a pleasurable or fun experience for them. For these people, a pleasant or even a neutral sensation creates a positive reaction that can carry over to their judgment of the product.

While product packaging and point-of-purchase displays can obviously benefit from a shopper's interest in touch, companies can also use tactile stimuli in direct mail and print advertising. "Recent trends in advertising have focused on the experiential and aesthetic aspects of communication," the report states. "Incorporating touch may be the next step in adding a hedonic or experiential aspect to advertising and other marketing communications." Even people who are not tactile can be influenced by touch because they can see its relevance to the message.

The Po!nt: The way your product feels can affect how much consumers like it, even when touch has no relevance in determining whether the product is good or not. Communications that incorporate physical sensation is a subject area ripe for experimentation.

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Lessons From Your Favorite Store

Enamored of Whole Foods Market, Jackie Huba decided to spend a week patronizing the various food and beverage stations at the chain's 80,000-square-foot Austin flagship—for each and every meal. Huba recounts the experience at the Church of the Customer Blog. "My week wasn't Oprah-transformational (I didn't cry)," she says, "but we bonded." And she learned a few marketing lessons, among them:

Cater to the niche. "Organic food may have started as a tiny beacon in the world of corporate farming," writes Huba, "but for nearly 30 years, Whole Foods stayed true to the niche. Maybe nurtured it, too." As an example, she includes a snapshot of a sign explaining why you won't find one packet of Splenda in the store. It reads: "Due to our commitment to sell only products with natural ingredients, we cannot offer artificial sweeteners or sugar-free syrups." Now that's devotion.

Let fans spread the word digitally. Though the media badge Huba collected each morning allowed her to photograph the store's interior, she says, "that didn't stop employees, sometimes herds of them, from accosting me (politely, usually) when I whipped out my D40 Nikon to snap a picture of some sexy cous cous." According to Huba, the store's strict no-photograph policy—designed to prevent competitors from stealing ideas—is not only impossible to enforce in an era of camera-equipped phones, it hobbles customer evangelists who want to spread the word through social media.

The Po!nt: Studying a store you admire, even if it has nothing to do with your business, can be a critical element of defining do's and don'ts for your own business.

Marketing Inspiration

Get Over It, Kid

It usually happens when deadlines are looming and there's so much going on you can't cope with one more thing. A nasty message from a customer or a colleague sends you over the edge, and your immediate desire is to tell them exactly where they can stick their grievance. But before letting your emotions rule, consider the case of Candy Tistadt, wife of the COO of Virginia's Fairfax County school district.

Dave Kori, a senior at Lake Braddock Secondary School, called the couple's home to ask why the district had not declared a snow day when three inches were predicted in their suburban Washington D.C. town. Tistadt responded with a minute-long tirade that included choice lines like: "[My husband] is out almost every single night of the week at meetings for snotty-nosed little brats, and he may not have called you, but it is not because he's home because it snowed. Get over it, kid, and go to school."

Kori might have deserved an angry response. Though few people will notice that they haven't heard the message he left on the Tistadt's answering machine—meanwhile, Candy Tistadt's scathing words zip around the Internet, attracting the attention of media heavyweights like the Washington Post and CNN. What most people will remember is that a grown-up lost her cool.

Your Marketing Inspiration: Don't forget that social media can be a two-edged sword. So go ahead and lose your temper, but calm down before you pick up the phone or hit reply. If you don't, you might have a starring role in the viral video of your nightmares.

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Network Like Charlie Wilson

If you've seen Charlie Wilson's War, you'll probably agree that Wilson seemed an eminently likeable and accomplished individual. Tom Peters, who read the book upon which the movie is based, noticed that Wilson also provides many lessons on how to do business. Peters wrote a detailed post at his blog providing 33 takeaways; here's a snapshot of those related to networking:

Make friends! And then more friends! And then more friends! Wilson's gentile heritage didn't prevent him from joining the congressional Jewish caucus; the Texan also joined the Black caucus. According to author George Crile, "The House, like any human institution, is moved by friendships, and no matter what people might think about Wilson's antics, they tend to like him and enjoy his company."

Make friends with people several levels down from decision-makers and with disenfranchised groups. Writes Peters, "the key to sales success is 'wiring' the client organization three or four levels down—where the real work gets done."

Seek unlikely allies—or at least don't rule them out. Simply because someone doesn't meet with your complete approval doesn't mean their buy-in and follow-through won't help move your project forward. Says Peters, "Find the right path (often $$$$) and the most bitter of rivals will make common cause relative to some key link in the chain."

The Po!nt: "I'd guess that 98 percent of projects fail in terms of even near-total implementation," writes Peters. "And 98 percent of [those] are the results of lousy political and networking skills—not selection of the wrong project management software package."

Marketing Inspiration

A Doctor Who Only Makes House Calls

Dr. Jay Parkinson's Web site is stylish enough to belong to an ad agency or a media start-up rather than a general practitioner. Then again, Parkinson isn't like your average family doctor.

For starters, he only makes house calls. Each visit costs around $200, and he stays for as long as he's needed, not the five or ten minutes you're allotted in a traditional office. Also—hold onto your hats—he's easy to reach. On the site, he displays his mobile phone number, his email address and a quartet of IM addresses.

In another shocking twist, Parkinson demystifies the process of diagnosis and treatment, using hypothetical situations like falling on your wrist in the park. You could go to an emergency room for a seven-hour visit and a $2,000 bill, writes Parkinson, or you can call him to do the following:

• Based on a phone conversation, he suspects your wrist is broken. He sends you to nearby radiologist, who charges $80 for an x-ray.


• Your wrist is broken. The radiologist emails the x-ray to Parkinson, who directs you to an orthopedist in the neighborhood who can see you in an hour and charges $400 to cast your arm.

Parkinson's summation: You've saved $1,520 and five hours of your day. "But say your wrist wasn't broken," he concludes. "It was simply sprained. You only spent $80. I then tell you what to do about that sprained wrist."

By making convenience, transparency and value the central thrust of his unconventional practice, Dr. Parkinson makes himself virtually irresistible to his target audience. And we'd say that's a healthy dose of Marketing Inspiration.

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Would Anyone Care If You Went Out of Business?

John Moore of Brand Autopsy blog has a provocative series of posts in which he asks: "If [company name here] went out of business tomorrow, would anyone care?" Subjects have ranged from Sears to Subaru.

When Moore asked about Eddie Bauer, he received a range of answers that hinted at the struggling clothier's strengths and weakness. Interestingly, readers who said they would miss Eddie Bauer tended to cite specific products, while detractors focused on the company's image. "They stock tall size in shirts and pants that fit off the shelf," said 6' 4" commenter Jamey. "Very few places meet that specific need." A contrary view from commenter Jon Gabriel: "I would identify EB as a mall-bound pretend-outdoors brand containing items that look vaguely rugged, but wouldn't last an hour in the wild."

Moore's inspiration for the series came from Bill Taylor and Polly LaBarre, who say it's the question every company needs to ask itself. How would your company fare in the harsh glare of self-examination?

• Do you provide such a unique product or service that customers would be saddened to see you go?


• Have you forged an emotional connection with your customers that another company couldn't duplicate?


• Could your employees find an employer that treated them as well as your company?

The Po!nt: "How does your company rank?" asks Moore. "Can you answer YES with conviction? Or, do you have to concede by answering NO?" If the latter, it's time to work on drumming up support.

E-mail Marketing

Give 'Em a Good Tease

Whether your email campaign's audience is B2B or B2C, most recipients use a preview pane to decide whether they want to read the message or hit delete. Reggie Brady suggests several ways to maximize your preview pane's effectiveness. Here's the overview:

Include your logo and a headline above the body of your email. Traditionally the location for housekeeping items such as "Add us to your address book" or "Click here to view online," this space is wasted without a headline to highlight a product, service or offer. Other items to include in this valuable real estate:

• Personalized salutations. People are drawn to their own names.


• Your toll-free number. "Today, the customer is in control," says Brady, "and should have as many options as possible to conduct business in their channel of preference."


• A secondary offer. Don't crowd too much text into a small space. Relocating "Add us to your address book" to the footer could free up room for an additional offer.

Link to an HTML version of your email's content. "I am astounded to see how many marketers who rely on images in their emails ignore this," Brady writes. "[I]mage blocking represents a major challenge and it is likely that many recipients will not see your message as you planned."

The Po!nt: Says Brady, "What readers see in [the preview pane] can influence their decision to open your email." Remember this, and you'll increase the odds that readers get your message.

Customer Behaviour

How Saying the Least May Achieve the Most

Clearly the things you say and show in an ad can convey something about your product. But how about what you don't say or show?

A study has revealed that ads containing considerable white space lead customers to perceive the advertised product as more prestigious, sophisticated, trustworthy, higher in product quality and leadership, and lower in risk than the same ad without white space.

Researchers note that these associations hark back to the minimalist movement, a reaction against artwork perceived as deceptive or full of illusion. In advertising, the less-is-more approach to graphics is a response to the text-heavy, authoritative, "scientific" or "information"-type ads of the early to mid-20th century—examples of which include, for instance, extolling the digestive benefits of smoking Camels or drinking Schlitz beer. The removal of excessive imagery and language makes the information in the ad appear more truthful, and makes the advertiser appear as if it has nothing to hide.

The Po!nt: If you are trying to create a sophisticated and trustworthy brand image, consider saying less—not more—in the ads you create.

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Time Is Money

It doesn't matter if you work in an entrepreneurial or corporate environment: Demands on your time can pull you in two—or ten—different directions. Taking control of your schedule can be challenging, but blogger Jeremiah Owyang suggests to wrangle your workday by thinking of time as money. Though Owyang speaks from the perspective of a Web strategist, much of his advice can be applied to a variety of disciplines. Here are some ideas that you can put right into action:

Pay yourself first. Each morning, Owyang budgets two uninterrupted hours for online reading and blogging; he enjoys both activities and they increase his professional value. "Like the advice from most financial advisors, they encourage you to pay yourself first by investing in your own funds, paying your bills and making yourself (reasonably) happy before paying off your creditors," he explains.

Cut back on unnecessary expenses. If an element of your workday doesn't provide ROI on the time invested, spend less time on that element. Owyang cites email as a typical problem area in his daily operations. "As soon as you answer emails, you're now paying for someone else's time," he writes, later noting it compounds his loss of time: "The more you respond to emails, the more you will receive."

The Po!nt: "Cherish your time as you do your wallet or purse," writes Owyang. "[T]his is yours, and unlike money, you can't invest and grow new time, you can only manage the existing time you've got, cut into other areas, or hire someone under you to do it."

Marketing Inspiration

Rules Schmules

Ben McConnell has been campaigning against inane corporate rules at the Church of the Customer blog. In a round-up of marketing resolutions for the new year he puts "Vow to eliminate a stupid rule" at number six. "You know what it is," he says. "Customers (or bloggers) have already told you. So eliminate it already. For extra points, give it a funeral." McConnell cites two examples of rules gone wild:

• A customer at a pack-and-ship store who wanted to tape his package was asked to do so outside. Huh? It turned out a woman had once sued the store for cutting her hand on its tape dispenser, and the company chose to avoid future lawsuits by banning the practice altogether. "One customer's misfortune inspired an unnecessary rule at the expense of 10,000 others who aren't clumsy and litigious," notes McConnell.


• In another logic-defying case, the manager of a high-end grocery store ordered an employee to release a shoplifter he had restrained, and then fired him for violating a hard-and-fast rule that prohibits employees from touching customers—a loose definition at best—for any reason.

"More rules are proportional to less convenience," writes McConnell. "More rules = fewer customers. You either let the tyranny of one customer influence your organization, or not. When someone wants to add a new rule, how about eliminating an existing one instead?" And we think that removing rules, not adding more, is Marketing Inspiration.

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Don't Sabotage Your Creativity

Even for an out-of-the-box thinker, being creative on demand can be aggravating. In a guest appearance at Drew's Marketing Minute, blogger Katie Konrath offers advice on how not to get tangled up in frustration:

Don't reinvent the wheel. "Look around to see what people in other fields are doing," says Konrath. "Then adapt their solutions to your particular situation. It's not cheating if you expand on a concept that came from somewhere else." Henry Ford took the concept of an assembly line and applied it to cars. Likewise, the technology for roll-on deodorant was inspired by the inner workings of a ballpoint pen.

Actively pursue brilliant ideas. When you have an epiphany at three in the morning, or while waiting in line, don't be fooled into believing it's a random thought that came from nowhere. Writes Konrath, "Serendipitous ideas occur because you've set your mind to looking for a solution, and—even when you're not thinking directly about your problem—your brain is ticking in the background."

Think before throwing out a "bad" idea hastily. A brainstorming session often produces a few real duds, but concepts that seem implausible, impossible or silly may still have potential. "A lot of ideas that sound completely backwards at first are actually gold mines for new and better ideas," Konrath says.

The Po!nt: There are a million tools and strategies for sparking creativity, says Konrath, but none will "help unless you stop ... self-sabotaging behaviors that destroy your best ideas before you have them."

Marketing Inspiration

A Week at IKEA

Mark Malkoff, a comedian best known for patronizing each of Manhattan's 171 Starbucks in a single day, needed a place to stay while his apartment was fumigated. Since his friends had no extra space in their tiny apartments and hotels were too expensive, Malkoff decided to spend his week of temporary homelessness at his local IKEA. "My apartment is 80 percent IKEA anyway," narrates Malkoff in the first video documenting his experience. "It would be like living at home."

The premise is a bit thin. But whether a skunk works brainstorm from IKEA marketers or one comedian's inspired self-promotion, the series of videos collectively known as Mark Lives in IKEA are a win-win situation for all involved.

• IKEA gets lots of free press and product demonstrations from someone who appears to be the ultimate customer evangelist. (There seems to be no official support from IKEA, and Malkoff claimed he wasn't paid.) Additionally, the Swedish company's bemused cooperation reinforces a good-natured image.


• Malkoff has a viral venue to audition for a larger role on The Colbert Report, where he currently works as an audience coordinator.


• Viewers are entertained—and, perhaps, slightly appalled—by someone with the chutzpah to brush his teeth at the self-serve soda fountain and toss a used towel back on the shelf. All of this, meanwhile, is set to a diverse soundtrack that runs the gamut from Herb Alpert to Mötley Crüe.

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This Deal Available Only Last Week

How often do you come across an advertisement with a limited-time offer that has already expired? Or a seasonal offer still lingering after the holiday has passed? Like any public goof, you're probably just grateful it wasn't your screw-up. But it could be—and that's why Susan Gunelius of the MarketingBlurb blog says it's important to stay on top of your various campaigns.

An obviously outdated ad does more than embarrass your company; it can permanently change the way people think of your company, brand or product. After all, if you don't pay attention to your marketing, what other details do you gloss over? "Even if the ad works and catches a person's attention," she says, "the negative effect of the expired offer is enough to turn that person off of the advertised product completely."

To demonstrate, she provides an example she came across online in early January. The ad is from a prestigious automaker and reads "Now's the time to bring one home for the holidays." There is a link with the ad that takes to you to a local dealership, where you see yet another version of the expired ad prominently displayed on the dealer's homepage. Simply put, Gunelius says, "An outdated ad or promotion does not drive sales."

The Po!nt: "Make sure your copy and ad placement are timely and don't have a chance to become outdated," writes Gunelius. "Or else you'll risk negating your ad's effectiveness and throwing your advertising dollars out the window."

E-Mail Marketing

Newsletter No-No's

How can businesses use email newsletters to achieve their marketing goals? Knowing what not to do is a good place to start. Mark Brownlow claims there are six big mistakes marketers make when publishing newsletters. Here's a peek at three:

Confusing newsletters with promotions. Brownlow claims that newsletters' "real potential lies in building, over time, a lasting, long-term relationship with the reader." Instead of promoting your ergonomic office chair, for instance, provide an article on avoiding back strain at work. You aren't asking for immediate action—you're starting a conversation that might lead to eventual action.

Focusing on yourself, not your audience. Is your average reader really interested in the new employee gym at your office or the retirement party for your receptionist? Probably not. Save that info for internal publications and give your readers useful, timely and relevant content to build newsletter loyalty.

Making it difficult to unsubscribe. "Some marketers still believe a disgruntled subscriber is better than no subscriber at all," says Brownlow. "So they make people jump through hoops to get off an address list, or they wait a few more newsletter issues until the unsubscribe request is properly honored." Big mistake. Not only do you annoy and alienate potential customers, you create a statistical headache by throwing off response rates. A quick, painless process is in everyone's best interest.

The Po!nt: In your eagerness to get the most out of your newsletter, you might inadvertently defeat its purpose. Avoiding these common mistakes can help keep you on the right track.

Customer Behaviour

Nobody Wants to Be a Tightwad

It would be logical for consumers to use a coupon to save money rather than pay full price for a purchase. Yet redemption rates for coupons are really quite low! Is it simply that consumers don't have the time to clip and retrieve coupons from newspapers, magazines or product packages?

Researchers have discovered another reason why consumers might not like to redeem coupons: They make the buyer look cheap. Consumers are concerned with more than price when shopping—they are also aware of the impression they are making on fellow shoppers. They not only worry about others' impressions of the quality of their purchases, such as the amount of junk food in their shopping baskets, they also care that others might consider them stingy if they whip out a stack of coupons.

Consumers do not behave the same way, however, if the coupon is attached to the package or if they make the purchase online. In the first case, the consumer is not actively going out of his or her way to save money, so there is no negative connotation attributed to the behavior. In the second case, no one sees the online purchase being made, so there is no fear of others' negative reactions.

The Po!nt: To make coupons a viable part of your promotion arsenal, you may want to rethink how they are distributed.

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Five Ways to Boost Intranet Traffic

If you aren't familiar with intranets, they are essentially an organization's online network (a private Web site) that can be accessed only by employees or authorized users. Intranets can be a great way to communicate with employees, but getting everyone excited about logging in can be a challenge. If you're having trouble building buzz for your intranet, or are still in the planning stages, Shama Hyder of the After the Launch blog offers this advice:

Feature intranet-only content. Would you visit a site that rehashed information you had already read in memos and newsletters? Probably not. So offer worthwhile content available exclusively on the intranet.

Make the login process easy. Don't let a labyrinthine login process convince your employees that it isn't worth the trouble.

Solicit user input. The most effective question to ask users might be, "Why aren't you using the intranet on a regular basis now?"

Implement a rewards program. "[R]eward your members for using the intranet," writes Hyder. "It's a great way to increase participation and cultivate a healthy competitive spirit within the organization."

Results won't happen overnight. Even the best intranet offerings might take a while to catch on, so don't get discouraged if it takes a few months to build enthusiasm.

The Po!nt: "We often think about marketing as an external practice, but it is just as important to market within the organization," writes Hyder. "Once employees are on board, the entire operation runs easier."