Marketing IQ

Thanks to marketing guru, Larry Chase for the link to Copernicus Marketing. They offer a very challenging “test your marketing IQ" quiz. I decided to give it a whirl. I didn’t score highly enough to make the guru category, but I did make the next rung down—seasoned professional.

That’s all well and good, as far as it goes. I certainly include the words, “seasoned professional,” on any bio or promotional communication about myself. But, to be perfectly honest about it, it‘s not really an accolade. You didn’t do anything to earn it other than put in the time.

The quiz employed by Copernicus is a great marketing tool. Not only does it tweak your curiosity and draw you in, they give you a detailed analysis of each answer, thereby showing off their marketing smarts in a much more interesting way than some dry, analytical white paper. I highly recommend the Copernicus site to anyone interested in marketing. They walk the talk.

On another marketing note, the noted Web marketing authority, Ralph Wilson, has decided to sacrifice half of his subscribers and switch to a double opt-in permission standard. That’s what it cost him to make the switch, but Dr. Wilson feels, with the horrific increase in spam, adhering to the higher standard has become necessary, both for one’s integrity and for avoiding future legal difficulties. Wilson is convinced that the day is coming when the government is going to require audits of marketers’ email lists for adherence to strict opt-in permission standards.

Let’s hope he’s right. Wilson makes an observation worth quoting:

“Selling an e-mail newsletter to a company that continues publication of that same newsletter may be a legitimate transfer of permission. But if the use changes, the permission is no longer valid. You can't take permission given to Company A for a particular purpose and then transfer it to Company B which e-mails different content for a different purpose. Then it is no longer permission but presumption!”