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I’ve wanted to talk about proofreading for some time, but in the age of texting and tweeting I thought: to what avail? A recent subhead in a prestigious trade journal, however, revived my determination to do so. It read:

“Use this method to allogate (sic) limited maintenance resources to the most critical equipment.”

Now in the age of “ginormous” passing itself off as a legitimate word, I completed due diligence to determine that no such word as “allogate” exists.

So, here is my advice concerning proofreading:

1. If you do a lot of publications work, hire a professional proofreader with newspaper or publishing house experience. Alternately, identify a candidate for formal training.
2. After the initial draft and first round of editing and proofing, the author should not see it again until the manuscript is ready for publication or posting.
3. You should conduct three types of proofreading with three different proofreaders.
   1. Accuracy of content - Whether technical or mundane have someone check the correctness of the principles, theorems, relevance, facts, etc.
   2. Clarity of writing - No matter how complex or arcane have your spouse, secretary or even the UPS driver read the copy to see if it is comprehensible or at least tracks.
   3. Grammatically correct - Make sure voice and agreement are consistent, punctuation, spelling, etc., are correct and so forth.
4. Do not overlook the most obvious elements that will result in the most embarrassment if incorrect - the inside and outside / front and back covers.

True story: Whilst on a tour of a top tier commercial printer to solicit my business, the salesman was proudly pointing out an annual report cover they were running. I was impressed they were printing the report of a major auto repair chain and said, “Wow, you do work for Aamco?” To which he replied, “No, why?” “Well, it says here Aamco,” I said. The salesman turned ashen as the publication was the Armco annual report. Now how many times and by how many people do you think this piece was proofed?

Tip: ALWAYS proof the obvious first as this is often overlooked and the greatest source of embarassment. Check the company name, address and phone numbers, etc. A typo on page 31 will be forgiven; a mistake on the covers is unforgivable.

If you’ve been in this business for any length of time, I’m sure you have similar tales. I and those reading this blog would very much like to hear about them. Please share them with us.

The other day I was working on an online survey script for a customer. Midway through the project, I found myself overcome by the temptation to sneak in a few bonus questions in the hopes of picking up some extra intelligence. I added a couple of harmless questions and went home. After a good night’s sleep, I read through the survey again and came to my senses (thankfully). I was getting ready to break one of the golden rules of survey writing – KEEP TO ONE OBJECTIVE – all for an intelligence-gathering quickie. Before anyone else succumbs to the same temptations, I felt a quick recap of the dos and don’ts of online survey execution might be helpful.
Continue reading Online Surveys in B2B – Temptations Every Marketer Should Avoid

TriComB2B has learned a lot lately about product launches within B2B. Across industries, product development entails all types of activities, from market research to testing and launch to market. Research tells us that with the product developed and ready for sale, many companies simply pass it along to sales and hope for the best. A recent study published by AcuPoll indicates that as many as 80 to 95 percent of B2B product launches fail, typically after being evaluated against metrics such as revenue achievement and profitablity goals.

Continue reading B2B Product Launch White Paper

I am a big fan of MarketingProfs  and consume their reports and data points with the same level of enjoyment of the day’s first coffee (preferably a tall mocha from Starbucks). MarketingProf’s recently published the “Digital Marketing Factbook,” a well-done report that covers recent online data, email marketing, search marketing and social media marketing. While much of the online data was focused on B2C research, I still find it interesting. For example, did you know that the Top 5 countries with the highest population percentages using the Internet are Greenland, the Netherlands, Norway, Antigua & Barbuda and Iceland? The U.S. placed 13th with a 72.3% Internet penetration rate.

Continue reading Social Media and Marketing: Here to Stay?

I just finished reading an article in the November issue of PRWeek entitled, “How Can Companies Be More Creative in Maximizing Their SEO Efforts?” Included below are some of the article’s creative business-to-business marketing strategies. Continue reading Creatively Maximize SEO Efforts for Business-to-Business Marketing

Well, it was pretty great. I attended the Medical Design and Manufacturing Midwest 2009 Conference last week in Chicago. I left with a new perspective on the importance of this industry to our region as well as our global economy. In my day to day life, I try hard to power through the difficult business climate. But at MD&M Midwest, the overall tone was positive and highly educational.

Continue reading How Great Was MD&M Midwest?

I recently blogged about the potential of viral video in B2B marketing. While viral video injects a “cool” factor to your marketing efforts, the likelihood of an unmitigated success is unpredictable. One often-overlooked and underutilized B2B marketing tactic is a straightforward product demonstration video. And, unlike viral video, a well-executed product video delivers very predictable results: clear and cogent reasons to choose your product over your competitors.

TriComB2B has experience using multiple approaches to product video, from educational/documentary-style to 3D model animation… and everything in between.
Continue reading Utilize Video to Outshine Your Competitors

After a lunch seminar we hosted on lead generation last week, I was fortunate enough to take part in a few informal discussions with some of our attendees about the current state of B2B marketing. A few observations from a really smart group of B2B marketing gurus from the Southwest Ohio region…

Continue reading Four B2B Marketing Observations - What’s Happening Out There?

I am quickly learning that the ability of a state to attract new business can largely depend on its Department of Development. Ohio’s Department of Development is doing what appears to be the best it can to attract new business to our grand state, particularly in manufacturing areas. This  makes sense given our proximity to Michigan and, therefore, the massive automotive manufacturing infrastructure built in Ohio for the OEMs, all of which has vastly changed in the last 18 months.

Continue reading Become an Ohio Ambassador

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