Dear Dave:
Every time I write something for my company, I end up resorting to jargon: words and phrases like synergy, leverage, spot on, scalable, best of breed, etc. Is this okay? Or is there a better way to write?
Signed,
Stuck in a Cliche

Dear Stuck:
The reason people use business jargon in their speaking and writing is [...]

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Dear Dave:
My company is considering using a cold call campaign to help generate leads. But it seems that everyone is so busy and also using Caller ID, and no one answers their phone these days. Can cold calling still work?
Signed,
In the Dark about Cold Calling
Dear In the Dark:
The name alone gives me the chills and [...]

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Dear Dave:
How can we keep prospects from filling in junk on our landing page forms, which prevents us from generating a lead and contacting that person again?
Signed,
Can’t sell to zzzyyyggyg
Dear ZZZYY …
Every company that drives prospects to the Web and offers valuable content such as white papers in exchange for contact information has met up with Ima [...]

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Dear Dave:
Our company has had the same look and feel to our marketing materials for years. Is that reason enough to make a change?
Signed,
Familiarity Breeds Contempt
Dear FBC:
I’ve seen otherwise intelligent and accomplished marketing professionals overhaul—at significant expense—a company’s entire marketing collateral set, even the logo, simply because they became tired with the way it looks. [...]

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Dear Dave:
An executive at our company came into my office and dropped a magazine on my desk and said, “I want you to place an ad in here,” then turned and walked out the door. The magazine covers our industry and target market, but will running a single ad in a single issue of a [...]

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Dear Dave:
My colleague at work says you’re only supposed to put one space at the end of a sentence before starting another sentence, but I learned you should put two spaces and that’s how I write documents. He’s always changing them. Who’s right?
Signed,
Two Spaces are Better
Dear Two Spaces are Better:
You call this marketing? What are [...]

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Dear Dave:
Our company sells this nifty project management tool to small medical device manufacturers and we’ve got good market share. Then just last month we closed our biggest deal ever selling the PM tool to a telecommunications service provider, where the decision maker there knew our VP of Sales through a previous personal relationship. Now [...]

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Dear Dave:
At my company, we have marketing meetings that go on and on and nothing seems to get accomplished. People talk about a million things and by the time we get on track, everyone’s exhausted. What should we do?
Signed,
Nodding off at the meeting table
Dear Nodding:
In a previous article, “The Vital Few, The Trivial Many,” I ranted [...]

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Dear Dave:
My company is significantly cutting our marketing budget for 2009, but I’m still expected to deliver results. What should I do?
Signed
Desperately seeking marketing budget
Dear Desperate:
Welcome to the “do more with less club.” A recent survey of Chief Marketing Officers by marketing services company Epsilon revealed that marketing is usually among the first casualties in a [...]

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Dear Dave:
My boss keeps talking about guerilla marketing. She wants our marketing department to scale back our budget and ”attack” different markets with little campaigns to see where we get the most traction. What does this mean?
Signed,
Fatigued by War Metaphors
Dear Fatigued:
It means your boss doesn’t know your target audience or how to reach them. In fact, [...]

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