HOW TO MOTIVATE MIDDLE-MANAGERS.
"These days, a good manager is supposed to keep rank-and-file
employees motivated and happy," says management skills coach Mia
Melanson. "But who worries about the managers themselves?
They're . . .
THE MICROSOFT/GREAT PLAINS MERGER.
Microsoft has a reputation for gobbling up software companies, but
in reality most Microsoft acquisitions have been either tiny startups
with sexy technology (Firefly, Entropic, VXtreme) . . .
DATA POINTS: PRESS CONTACT FREQUENCY.
[CHART OMITTED]
The press may make or break a company's reputation, but most
software executives don't seem to have much to say to reporters and
analysts who cover their companies. In fact, a . . .
TURNAROUNDS: HOW INSIGNIA EXITED THE RETAIL CHANNEL.
When Rich Noling took over as CEO of Insignia Solutions in 1997,
the company was in deep trouble. Most of its revenue came from
mass-market "virtual machine" utilities that let users run
Windows on . . .
MAVEN MARKETING.
Maven--"an expert; a really knowledgeable person;
a good judge of quality; a connoisseur."
--The Joys of Yiddish, Leo Rosten
They trickle in almost unnoticed--fan letters, suggestions, . . .
A SERVICE PRICING CHECKLIST.
If there's anyone who understands the arcane art of how to
price services, it's Al Hahn. Hahn's consulting firm has spent
more than a decade fine-tuning service and support programs for
literally . . .
DATA POINTS: PUBLIC COMPANY DIRECTOR FEES.
Public software companies pay their outside directors in a variety
of ways, including annual retainers, fees for regular and special
committee meetings, and option grants (which usually vest over . . .
THE COSMI RETAIL SURVIVAL FORMULA.
For most consumer software publishers, the retail channel has
turned into a financial nightmare that never seems to end. Major players
like Mattel, Havas, Corel, Intuit, and Infogrames have seen . . .
SUPPORT: "WE CALL EVERYONE".
Like many developers, SoftWright invites sales prospects to
download a free trial version of its flagship product, a terrain
analysis tool for placing radio transmitters. But a day later,
there's a . . .
HOW TO BUILD A BETTER BOARD.
In small and subtle ways, the center of power in many technology
companies has begun to shift. Company founders no longer set strategy
and make key decisions by themselves; usually, they now . . .
SIDEBAR: IVAN LEVISON: TIPS FOR COPYWRITERS.
Ivan Levison is a well-known free-lance copywriter who has created
direct-response campaigns for dozens of software companies, including
Adobe, Claris, Intuit, Microsoft, and Netscape. Levison also . . .
SIDEBAR: JESSE BERST: THE PERSONALITY FACTOR.
With more than two million subscribers, Jesse Berst's daily
AnchorDesk is generally regarded as the Web's largest newsletter.
AnchorDesk combines strong editorial opinions, technology news, . . .
SIDEBAR: HOW TO AVOID THE SPAM COPS.
No discussion of e-mail marketing can avoid the dread spam issue.
Spam- -the electronic equivalent of "junk mail"--is still a
red flag to a small but passionate group of privacy advocates. . . .
ON BUILDING WINNING CAMPAIGNS.
H Keep nudging the customer: It may seem like nagging, but
trialware conversion rates usually jump when users get two or three
e-mail reminders during the trial period. "At ScanSoft, we offer . . .
ON WRITING HIGH-IMPACT COPY.
H Polish the lead sentence: Marketing consultant Michelle Bowman
points out that readers often have to be hooked by the very first
sentence in an e-mail: "Your copy will be given a . . .
ON CREATING READABLE E-MAIL NEWSLETTERS.
H Emphasize useful content: "It's critically important
that you do not turn your e-newsletter into a marketing letter,"
says Nick Bettis of Wind2 Software. "The Wind2 newsletter contains
some new . . .
ON BUILDING BETTER MAILING LISTS.
H Gather names at live events: Trade shows and conferences are a
great source of e-mail names, says Novell's Kristin Villanueva. Her
Today@shopNovell newsletter had slowly grown to about . . .
ASK THE EXPERTS: THE ART OF E-MAIL MARKETING.
Sometimes it takes just a simple example to suggest how profoundly
e- mail has begun to transform technology marketing. Here's a note
we got a few weeks ago from an old friend, Delahaye Group . . .
DATA POINTS: AFTER-HOURS SUPPORT COMPENSATION.
[CHART OMITTED]
As software companies begin to extend their tech support hours, the
problem of how to pay employees for after-hours work has become
increasingly complicated. A new survey by the . . .
FINANCE: INSIDE A SMALL-CAP IPO.
When Leslie Bernhard first went looking for venture money to bring
her 12-year-old software company onto the Web, she ran into a brick
wall. "The problem was that we had a 'legacy' . . .
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