Apparently there are blogs that get millions of hits on a regular basis, thousands of followers all glued to the screens with huge anticipation of what’s coming next. As for my blog, I thought my readers amounted to a couple of staff, a couple of ex staff, my wife, and a bloke who mistakenly tapped in Workhouse when he was really looking for a whorehouse. So I was absolutely delighted to find out that the Workhouse Marketing blog had 73 visits (that’s nearly two coachloads) to the blog on Friday! (the whorehouse still probably got more visits though.)
Got an e-mail today from one reader, the business magazine Lancashire Business View no less, saying that they really enjoyed my blog post last week called ‘To pitch or not to pitch’ and could they put it on their website, but I was a bit of a ‘scaredy-cat’ worried that the company concerned might recognise themselves and strike us off their Christmas card list alltogether. Steven Carlin e-mailed me a really good article about not pitching written by Julian Kynaston the Chairman of Propaganda called “pitching – there is another way”. They don’t pitch and Julian is forthright in his reasons why.
Read it on this link…
http://thedrum.co.uk/blogs/juliankynaston/2009/10/30/pitching-there-is-another-way/
If you read my post on pitching last week, you’ll know we were in a six way pitch, in front of 10 senior executives, for a company’s new website. Well it’s now down to the last two…they have made a decision….and we’re going home, we didn’t make it through. Funnily enough their existing agency, who they’ve had a long standing relationship with, is still in the race, and why not they know the client better than anyone, but I’ll bet my bottom dollar they get the job. I did wonder about the rationale of getting all your ‘not too website savvy ‘ top brass in for a day of six presentations, but hey, a lot cheaper than paying for a seminar I’d say. And customised too. Sour grapes? Of course!
Steven sent me another article on pitching, brilliantly entitled ‘does my website make you puke?’ A great blog from Tony Stanton, MD of An Agency Called England, who lost a pitch because a vegetarian client claimed his website had literally caused her to vomit! (They’re selling the sizzle not the sausage)
Here’s the blog…
http://thedrum.co.uk/blogs/tonystanton/2009/10/30/does-our-web-site-make-you-puke/
And here’s the website…
So having already pointed you in the direction of two competitors both writing blogs for The Drum magazine, I will finish by promoting another. I’m a big fan of Lancashire Business View, I think it’s by far the best regional business magazine we’ve ever had in Lancashire, The editor is a talented journalist from Ribchester, Ben Briggs (we buy eggs off his mum), and the publisher is Richard Slater, (who competes with us under the guise of Slater PR) a Blackburn Rovers fan and general supporter of all things East Lancashire over many years. Keep up the good work boys.
Workhouse Blog 