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Here’s the final in my three-part series on how to market to the human psyche, or to put it another way, how to diffuse the rabid dog response that kicks in when our livelihood is threatened.

I know we’re just talking about software, but consider for a moment what your product represents to new prospects. Sure, it holds the promise of efficiency or cost savings, but it also has the potential to disrupt, and to personally jeopardize their future and social standing at the company if, per chance, they were the one that recommended buying a software that ultimately failed to deliver.

Having survived the axe for one–plus years, people undoubtedly are stressed out and less willing to stand out from the crowd. Therefore, when we go knocking on a prospect’s door, we’ll stand a better chance of them opening it if our marketing collateral and messaging reflects their current frame of mind.

Scientific studies have proven that autonomy (that is, a sense of control) is an effective stress reducer. Nursing home residents are happier (and healthier) when they’re given more control over decision making. Franchise owners believe they have a better work-life balance, even though they earn less and work longer hours than they did as a corporate employee.

And in a more recent example that played out at town hall meetings throughout the country this past summer, U.S. citizens are extremely passionate when they fear they’re losing their choice in healthcare.

In the Chicago area where I live, AT&T is using the “freedom of choice” technique in their own advertising war against Comcast. While both companies offer triple-play packages, AT&T’s TV ad spots make it clear that with Comcast, there is no choice. All you get is cable, home phone, and Internet. AT&T, the ad continues, lets subscribers choose between home phone, Internet, TV, and wireless. While I’m not privy to the results of each campaign, my guess is that choice leads to more customers.

Likewise, as high tech marketers we can foster autonomy by emphasizing the options that already exist when doing business with our company. Here are four possible ways we can convey the sense of control when communicating with prospects and customers:

Choice #1: Options that cater to different types of users.

A choice in packaging to suit casual and power users, different licensing options (SaaS versus perpetual), and flexible payment options alleviate cash-strapped customers and prospects that may want to “get their feet wet” before fully committing to your product.

Choice #2: Collateral that encourages and promotes participation.

ROI calculators the prospects can fill in with details specific to their own companies, and case studies that demonstrate how different customers achieved similar goals by taking different paths to success, are two ways to encourage active participation (and control) on the prospect’s part.

Choice #3: Direct control over the communication process.

Newsletter subscription forms that let people choose how often they want to hear from you as well as the topics they’re interested in, and auto-responders that adjust to our readers’ behavior, can keep lukewarm prospects in the fold.

Even something as simple as giving website visitors a choice in how they contact us can foster a sense of control; with my personal favorite being the “live chat” option.

Choice #4: The freedom to proceed at their own pace.

A common complaint I hear is that eager ISVs push too hard to get prospects to “buy now.” During stressful times, we’d do better if we created multiple paths that allow potential customers to proceed through our sales funnel when they’re ready, which means we’ll have to be patient while we nurture prospects through an ongoing campaign.

Once you’ve identified the many ways that you give prospects and customers the freedom to choose, it becomes a matter of clearly articulating these choices in your marketing collateral and website copy.

In the end, it’s only human nature: We don’t like monopolies, and we don’t like being told what to do. “Choice” can be the start of a sales conversation.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sue Anderson-Lenz

Marketing Lure, Inc.

Today I’d like to continue a discussion I started in my last blog post: “Marketing to the Human Psyche.”

To recap, neural scientists have discovered a link between social needs and survival, a link which could trigger prospects to react to our marketing efforts as if we were a rabid dog.

I know what you’re thinking: “The software we sell isn’t going to harm anyone’s social status. If anything, it will elevate their status when higher-ups in their organization see how much money, time, and/or resources our software saves them.”

That might be true, but before prospects buy your software, they need to buy your story, and logic won’t work if they perceive you as a threat.

There are some techniques –- i.e. qualities –- that a recent strategy+business article suggests can be used to keep the threat response in check. One such quality is certainty. As human beings we crave it, and when we don’t get it, the uncertainty registers as a gap in our brain, causing us to pause until the conflict is resolved.

As marketers, we need to understand that any conflict we create in the prospect’s mind will either slow down the sales process, or stop it altogether. To keep the momentum up, create the perception of certainty. Here are six tactics that will make prospects feel more certain about you and your product.

Certainty-Building Tactic #1: Case Studies

We always knew that case studies can sell, but maybe now we understand a little better why they work: Prospects that relate to the people in our stories gain a sense of familiarity about our product.

Since no two people are identical, however, we need to have a portfolio of case studies that address the industries, geographical regions, organizations, and types of people we serve.

IT folks working in a Windows shop will relate to stories about other Windows-centric IT folks working in similar-sized organizations, government workers will relate to case studies that highlight other government workers, and so forth.

Certainty-Building Tactic #2: Analogies and comparisons

If you’re selling a bleeding-edge product, try to create a sense of familiarity by comparing yourself to a product or concept that was once unfamiliar, too.

Remember when we feared online banking? Nowadays, we don’t give it a second thought. If you can relate your product to something else that once conjured up similar feelings of uneasiness, you’ll help prospects “see” that your product isn’t as far-fetched as one might think.

Certainty-Building Tactic #3: Slower, more manageable steps

Nobody wants to have their name associated with a failed project, especially these days when budgets and job security weigh heavily on our minds. Marketers that sell large-scale, enterprise solutions can create a sense of certainty by helping prospects visualize a path to success.

Here again, case studies work because you can tell stories about how other clients achieved success by breaking down a large project into manageable chunks that fed off incremental successes.

Another way to accomplish this is to develop product offerings that let people buy only what they need right now, while at the same time showing them how your product will grow with them. In effect, people don’t want to buy a super-sized meal when all they need is a mid-afternoon snack.

Certainty-Building Tactic #4: Your own skin

Put some of your own skin in the game by finding ways to show prospects that you believe in your own product.

Money-back guarantees, technical support, and training are just a few good faith efforts that will make them feel more certain about their decision to go with you and your product.

Certainty-Building Tactic #5: Communities

While case studies are great, you can’t ask questions, and there’s always the suspicion that the story glosses over less-desirable bits.

Marketers can eliminate doubts by building into their website a means by which readers can send an e-mail or chat with the people in your stories.

Of course, this requires a bigger investment on your case study participants’ part, so if that seems unreasonable, set up an online community where prospects can freely discuss you and your product with existing customers.

Certainty-Building Tactic #6: An online sandbox

Remember how you felt when you installed Microsoft Office 2007? Despite the fact that I had been using Word for 20 odd years(!?), Word 2007, I found, was extremely unfamiliar and frustrating.

Let’s not follow Microsoft’s lead. Many software companies already offer free trials, but even then, people have to take the time to install the software; a task which can quickly become a roadblock to the sale.

If your software supports it, why not create a sandbox online where people can play with your product? The sandbox environment can be an extremely powerful tactic because 1) it makes it incredibly easy for prospects to demo your product to other people in their organization, and 2) it gives you unique insight into how customers actually use your product.

Stay tuned for my next blog post on November 17th, where I’ll cover the second psychological quality that will keep the rabid dog response at bay.

Sue Anderson-Lenz
Marketing Lure, Inc.

To win over sophisticated, high tech buyers, we’re told we need to appeal to their rational side, using logic and value to sell, but while this strategy may appear to work in the general sense, there’s some interesting neural research that might make you re-think your marketing approach, especially when marketing to prospects that are stressed out.

Maslow, it seems, may have been wrong about our hierarchy of needs, specifically about our need to belong. While Maslow ranked esteem (which includes respect by others) behind physical needs such as food and shelter, current research suggests that we humans equate social needs to survival.

In a strategy+business magazine article entitled: “Managing with the Brain in Mind,” author David Rock describes how UCLA social neuroscience researcher Naomi Eisenberger used a computer game to measure the human brain’s reaction to rejection.

People in the study believed they were playing a ball-tossing game over the Internet with two other people, when in reality they were the only real person in the game. The game started with all three players (one human player, two simulated players represented by avatars) taking turns tossing a virtual ball. About midway through, the human player stopped getting the ball, leaving the study participant to watch while the two avatars continued to play.

What Eisenberg found is that the study participants’ brains reacted as if they were feeling physical pain when they were excluded from the game. Even after they realized they were playing with a computer rigged to exclude them, participants still spoke of feeling angry, snubbed, or judged, as if the avatars excluded them because they didn’t like something about them.

Complementary studies further suggest that social situations (e.g. the fear of being shunned) and physical threats (e.g. encounters with a bear or rabid dog) invoke a threat response in the brain that impairs our analytic thinking, creative insight, and problem solving abilities.

Perhaps it’s this link between survival and social acceptance that’s driving the popularity of social networking sites, and it may be one reason why prospects that are fearful of the economy don’t buy into rational arguments. When we’re worried about losing our jobs, we’re not interested in “rocking the boat,” even if that boat clearly cuts operational costs or improves efficiency!

When we market a product that could be perceived as a potential threat –- e.g. goes against what’s generally accepted, is complicated or risky to implement, etc. -– we can grease the sales process by recognizing our prospects’ unspoken need for social acceptance.

The “Managing with the Brain in Mind” article lists five qualities that managers can use to minimize the threat response. Two qualities jumped out at me as potential strategies marketers can leverage when selling high tech. In my next blog, I’ll discuss the two qualities (hence marketing strategies) in detail.

In the meantime, folks who want to read the entire strategy+business article can do so online by following this link, but you’ll need to register in order to gain access to the article.

Sue Anderson-Lenz
Marketing Lure, Inc.

No longer an expensive marketing strategy, press releases can now be written and distributed for
little-to-no cost, but unfortunately, accessibility has led to a PR pipe clogged with bad,
non-newsworthy announcements.

Before you issue your next press release, here are 4 questions to help you assess whether your press release is ready for public consumption.

Question #1: Why will the reader care?

A press release with sticking power makes company news relevant to the readers. Find a story angle that will hit a nerve with the public, and write your press release around that angle.

Question #2: Will your readers “get it” if they only read your first paragraph?

If your readers need to read past the first paragraph to understand the point of your news story, then you’ve made a novice mistake that journalists like to call “burying the lead.”

People (especially journalists) are way too busy to dig for news, so make your leading paragraph strong, and make sure it can stand on its own. All of the subsequent paragraphs in your press release should support the message delivered in the lead paragraph.

Question #3: Does your press release look like a desperate attempt for incoming links?

Without question, press releases are an effective SEO tactic, but you need to balance your desire for incoming website links with your human audience.

To avoid the appearance of link spam, strive to have at most one link for every 100 words of content. For a typical, 400 word press release, that means you should have no more than four links in your release.

Question #4: Does your press release content pass the B.S. test?

HubSpot has a cool (and totally free) press release grader that will score your press release based upon language, content, use of links, and more.

To rate the B.S. factor, the tool looks for the over-used words and meaningless catch phrases that David Meerman Scott identified after analyzing 388,000 press releases over a nine-month period — words like next generation, flexible, robust, world class, scalable, and easy to use.

To purge the B.S. from your own press releases, use concrete examples, or try the “so what” exercise described in an earlier blog: “Do You Play B.S. Bingo.”

Sue Anderson
Marketing Lure, Inc.

There’s a right way, and an extremely wrong way, to tell your customers about a new release of software.

The right way greases the upgrade wheels, clearly describing the added value customers will gain, while at the same time reinforcing their decision to trust you to deliver them a high-quality product.

The wrong way seriously undermines your credibility. At best, you’ll have a support issue as customers refuse to take a risk by upgrading, but if the release announcement is really bad, customers might start to question whether your product is worth paying for.

If this sounds elementary, it is, but I’m rehashing basic release announcement rules because I’ve seen some very scary release notes go out from well-intending, extremely ambitious software entrepreneurs as recently as yesterday.

Development delays slowed this company’s release plans, so when they finally had a product that could go out as promised, they rushed the release announcement and made what I believe are 6 serious errors in the process.

It was too late for me to stop them (I saw the release note at the very same moment their customers did), but what I can do is stop other entrepreneurs like them from making these same mistakes.

Before you hit the “send” key on your next release announcement, here’s a list of DOs and DON’Ts to avoid doing harm to your good name.

Release Announcement Rule #1: DO always test your links.

Customers are busy people, so asking them to upgrade once is already an intrusion on their time. Asking them twice –- first with a link that doesn’t work, then later with a link that does –- shows you didn’t thoroughly test before sending your message, and if you didn’t test something as simple as a link, they’ll begin to wonder if you really tested your software.

Release Announcement Rule #2: DON’T rely on friends or Microsoft to catch your spelling errors.

Microsoft’s spell checker won’t catch silly yet oh-so-embarrassing mistakes like “rear” instead “rare,” and friends, frankly, don’t have enough skin in the game to make sure your work is flawless.

The mind can trick our eyes into seeing what we want to see, but our ears never lie. As a copywriter I personally learned this valuable lesson a long time ago, which is why I swear by TextAloud, a $30 dollar software that reads your text back to you.

But don’t just take my word for it. If you still think you can rely on someone else to catch your mistakes, I dare you to try TextAloud free for 15 days. Run something you’ve written by a friend, and then run the same piece through TextAloud. If you’re like me, you’ll never go back to proofreading the old fashioned way.

Release Announcement Rule #3: DON’T have your development team write the release note.

Lest you’ll end up with a message that sounds more like a development status report to management. Most developers live in a techie silo with little outside contact, so most don’t know how to explain bug fixes and enhancements from the customers’ perspective, and most don’t know how to deliver less-than-ideal messages without scaring the crap out of people. I know, because long ago I used to be a developer.

To clearly articulate value, give the job of writing the release note to someone in your organization who understands your customers and the value they derive from your product.

Release Announcement Rule #4: DO sell new value before diving into what wasn’t fixed.

This rule is a carry on to what I said about not scaring the crap out of people. If you ask a developer to write the release note, they’ll probably try to put a positive spin on the release by describing it as “more robust and bug free.”

Okay, but if all you’re selling is less bugs, I’m not buying.

I recommend you structure your release to first emphasize new capabilities. Second, move into major bugs that were fixed, but don’t go into bug-fix minutia. Finally (and only if you must), spell out what you didn’t fix.

Release Announcement Rule #5: DO take your T-I-M-E!

A rush job makes you look sloppy, and sloppy translates to all areas of your business — including your code.

The release announcement is the first impression you’ll leave with your customers, so make sure it’s a good one by taking your time to do it right.

Release Announcement Rule #6: DON’T inconvenience your customers with extra work.

In today’s software-mature world, I believe upgrades should happen auto-magically without any intervention by customers, especially when it’s a minor release from say, 3.0 to 3.1.

When you ask customers to uninstall your existing product before installing the new version, you’re basically telling them a) your time is more important than their time, and/or b) your software is so complicated and/or spread out that it’s hard to clean up via scripts.

Not only does the uninstall take more time on their part, there’s a greater likelihood of errors (which translates into more support costs), and the mere request could unnerve them as they silently wonder:

* Will I lose work I created with the prior version?

* Will the uninstall and re-install trash my computer?

You’ll eliminate all risks, doubts, and friction if you take the time to create an install process that handles the upgrade, including removing old software components.

Follow these 6 rules whenever you create a product announcement, and you’ll  leave your customers with a warm and fuzzy feeling about you, and your software.

Sue Anderson
Marketing Lure, Inc.

Quick survey: When you’re searching for that perfect domain name — easy to type, easy to remember — do you:

a) Never factor trademarks into your domain name search

b) Sometimes consider trademarks, but only if the domain name you want looks and/or smells like a well-known trademarked name

c) Always perform an exhaustive search in the USPTO trademark database prior to buying any domain name.

Judging by the number of confusingly similar websites on the net, I’d be willing to bet that most people answer a) to this question.

But what if I told you that even c) won’t completely protect you from legal tangles with trademark owners? That’s right, the USPTO’s trademark database is just the first of seven exhaustive steps one must take to avoid buying a domain name that conflicts with a trademark owner’s rights.

If you’re a website owner reading this blog, you might be interested in an upcoming story I’m writing for Website Magazine. The working title, “How to Pick a Domain Name that Keeps You Out of Legal Trouble” explains in layman terms trademark law, the types of trademarks that exist, and due diligence a website owner should perform prior to buying that coveted domain name.

Through my research for the story, I was surprised to learn that even without official, federal protection, any business that uses a mark for interstate commerce, with or without the ®, ™, or SM symbol, has priority over a domain name owner.

I’ll say it again: You don’t need to have a trademark filed with USPTO to have trademark rights. A wildcard of sorts, these common law trademarks protect anybody that uses a name for interstate commerce. What does this mean for the unsuspecting website owner with a confusingly similar domain name? They can be forced to turn over their domain name and pay restitution to the common law trademark owner.

Of course the trademark owner needs to prove they were using the name before you, and they need to prove that your domain name has the potential to create confusion in the marketplace, but they can certainly make your life miserable in the process, and take away all of the sweat equity invested in your website — from keyword-rich content, to incoming links, to optimized landing pages and conversion forms — if they win.

If you’re interested in the full story, drop me a line and I’ll let you know when it’s officially published.

Sue Anderson
Marketing Lure, Inc.

I admit it, I wasn’t a big fan of social media marketing, that is, until yesterday.

Yesterday is the day I realized how much I can positively influence my 14-year-old, boy-crazy niece who lives 500 miles away from me, and yesterday is when I realized how much my 14-year-old niece is like everybody else us marketers set our sights on when we jumped on the social media bandwagon.

You see, both 14-year-old girls and potential customers want to be in control. My niece doesn’t like being bossed around by big sis or Mom. Likewise, customers don’t like being told what to do. Both want to make up their own minds — on their own time — even when it comes to subjects that are new or unfamiliar to them.

Lectures and any attempts to control will build walls that grow higher with time. Keep nagging, and they’ll eventually push back, ignore you altogether, or start lying just to get you off their back.

So what does all this have to do with social media marketing?

Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites create an opportunity where you can open up honest lines of communication between you and the public.

Sure, teenage girls might yell “I hate you!” when they’re being rebellious, and customers might post negative things about you when they’re frustrated with your company. In the long run, however, none of this matters. What matters is how you respond to their frustrations.

Horizon Group Management’s recent lawsuit response to a negative tweet is an example where the reaction could end up doing more harm than good. Absolutely I agree Bonnen should have shown some restraint when it came to her twittering about alleged mold in her apartment, but even if Horizon wins their lawsuit, what have they gained?

There’s now more than 9500 references on the Internet for “horizon mold tweet” yet Horizon continues to stand behind their decision to sue. My niece, on the other hand, is beginning to open up to me through Facebook.

Teenagers need parental authority, but we can’t just tell customers to “go to their room” whenever they have an issue with us. Maybe, just maybe, Horizon could have avoided the whole PR nightmare with a social-friendly response.

Sue Anderson
Marketing Lure, Inc.  

“Free” isn’t a selling point. If you want people to give up an hour of their time to come to your webinar, you need to give them real value in return.

I realize you probably think I’m stating the obvious, but I’m doing it for a very good reason. You see, I help businesses by writing e-mail promotions for their online events. I consider it a personal challenge to write content that drives interest and demand for their webinars, and after doing it for more than four years I think I know a thing or two about what works, and what doesn’t. Yet every once in a while, I encounter a webinar presenter who forgets the basic rule of value.

If you really want to kill attendance at your next webinar, here are three tips to do just that

Attendance-Killing Promotional Tactic #1: Emphasize how great you are

Forget about webinar content. Instead promote your vast experience, boast about big-name clients, and talk about how you’ve become independently wealthy with the products and services you sell.

Attendance-Killing Promotional Tactic #2: Reveal nothing.

If you decide to address webinar content, keep the reader in the dark, using vague descriptions, common, everyday language, and meaningless buzzwords to describe what you’ll talk about at the event.

Attendance-Killing Promotional Tactic #3: Throw in some unsubstantiated claims for good measure.

Finally, sprinkle that promotional material with unsubstantiated claims like “breakthrough sales” without providing any meat to back up your claims.

All kidding aside, your experience does have its place in promotions, and an element of mystery does sometimes work.

Don’t give away the farm in your promotion, but do provide enough teaser information to pique your readers’ interest in your event, and do sell them on the webinar content before you start to sell them on the value of YOU.

Then to make your webinar really convincing, offer up tangible proof that what you’ll be talking about works. Tease them with one, two, or three success stories that you’ll cover in-depth during the event, or share statistics that demonstrate success at your own firm.

One company that I think does a fantastic job with webinars is Citrix. Citrix sells a webinar service, but their strategy isn’t to invite people to an online event where they can learn about their product.

Instead, Citrix invites outside experts in to teach attendees webinar best practices, sales techniques, business strategies, etc. This approach is far more helpful, and as a subtle side benefit, attendees get to see how the Citrix webinar product works in practice.

Of course there will always be the odd case where a vague, boastful webinar promotion actually works, but if you want to improve your chances of a great turnout at your next event, strive to deliver great content, and sell the value of your content in the promotion.

Sue Anderson
Marketing Lure, Inc. 

The Washington Post made national news last night, and sadly, this time it wasn’t because of their outstanding journalism. Their integrity was called into question because of a marketing flyer distributed last week.

Publisher and CEO Katharine Weymouth addressed the issue directly through a “Letter to Our Readers” published on Sunday July 5th. In it, Weymouth apologized for the new venture which she said went off track, and she apologized for any cause they may have given their readers to doubt the Post’s independence and integrity.

Weymouth went on to say the flier was not approved by her or her newsroom editors, and it did not accurately reflect what they had in mind. The suggestion that the Post would hold and participate in an off-the-record dinner with journalists and power brokers paid for by a sponsor, she says, was wrong.

I don’t doubt that, but I couldn’t help but feel her explanation (e.g. the flier wasn’t approved) was somewhat of a cop out. Sure, marketing has always been perceived as living in an ivory tower, but here’s a case where a fellow writer may have hurt the integrity of the paper.

Is it possible that writers on the marketing side of the house don’t fully understand and appreciate the importance of maintaining journalistic integrity? Maybe, but I believe we all have a responsibility to bear when it comes to accurately representing our companies.

So what really went wrong, and what can we marketers learn from their mistake?

Whatever their reasons, it appears the Post lost sight of the core values that made them what they are today. Moreover, the marketers at the Post forgot the power they wield when they serve as the “public voice.”

The truth is, one marketing mistake that undermines our company’s credibility can be catastrophic. I suspect Weymouth understands this, which is why she swiftly nipped the issue in the bud with her open letter. Will it be enough? Only time will tell, but my guess is they will recover from this incident because their long-standing history of integrity far outweighs this one incident.

So what about us B2B marketers who don’t work for powerhouses? We must be far more careful in our messaging.

To serve our companies well, we must first understand the core values that distinguish us from the competition. Second, we must never waver or allow our marketing enthusiasm to erode the principles that made us great. Third, if we’re living in an ivory tower, it’s time we get out and start engaging with the people who create the wonderful products we market.

Yes, we all have a responsibility to bear when it comes to accurately representing our companies. I propose marketing be the catalyst for change.

Sue Anderson
Marketing Lure, Inc.

If you’re a B2B marketer who is still sending out graphics-heavy e-mails, here’s something to consider: nearly two-thirds of the high-level decision makers in corporate America –- you know, the people that you’re trying to reach — probably can’t read your e-mails!

You see way back in 2007, 64% of these decision makers were already telling MarketingSherpa that they “regularly view e-mails using a mobile device,” and given that more than 269 million mobile devices were sold to users during 1Q09 alone, I’d be willing to bet that mobile e-mail readership today is pushing 70%.

When it comes down to it, mobile devices (not lack of interest) might be the real reason behind your recent drop off in open or click-thru rates. The only way you’ll really know is to start catering to the mobile crowd with messages that render properly on their mobile devices.

Here are 5 mobile-friendly e-mail tips, a few which I lifted straight from MailerMailer’s 2009 E-Mail Marketing Metrics Report.

Mobile-Friendly E-Mail Tip #1: During signup, give people the option to receive a mobile version of your e-newsletters and promotions.
If you give subscribers a mobile box they can check on your signup page, you’ll know right away what percentage of your audience plans to use their mobile device to read your messages.

Mobile-Friendly E-Mail Tip #2: Ditch the images.
Images have been known to turn an otherwise great e-mail message into a horrible mess. To be safe, save the flashy graphics for your brochures. Focus on solid content for your mobile readers.

Mobile-Friendly E-Mail Tip #3: Shorten your subject lines.
MailerMailer’s research suggests that succinct subject lines can pull nearly 4% more opens. How short is short? Thirty-five characters or less.

Mobile-Friendly E-Mail Tip #4: Ditto for your e-mail content.
For as long as I’ve been writing e-mails, there’s been a long-standing debate between long copy versus short copy. I myself have always tended towards long, because personal experience taught me long outsells short. The trend towards mobile, however, is making me rethink my position.

If you have a mobile audience, MailerMailer suggests that you give readers an abbreviated version of your message with link they can use to get the full story.

Mobile-Friendly E-Mail Tip #5: Test your messages on a mobile device.
Fine advice if you have a smartphone, but what about us traditionalists who still believe a phone is just for talking?

Fortunately, there are free simulators on the web. A quick search turned up these simulators:

• iPhone: http://www.testiphone.com/ or http://iphonetester.com/
• Blackberry: http://www.blackberry.com/developers/downloads/simulators/index.shtml
• Windows Mobile: http://www.g-site.com/ppc/

Let’s get a discussion going. If you’re already a savvy mobile e-mail marketer, what tips, tricks, and best practices do you use when creating content for your mobile crowd?

Sue Anderson
Marketing Lure, Inc.