In a discussion on new product development last week on the Discussion Forum, a member was looking for a new product development worksheet—something that "gave the editorial and development teams a starting point for creating the product or service."   Stephanie Williford, CEO of EB Medicine, responded that they "developed something like that several years ago and have found it to be very helpful. We actually created a three-step process; step 1 is filling out an initial worksheet... If the idea passes that step, then it goes to the next one, which is a more detailed worksheet and business cases analysis."   From there, Ed Coburn, president of Cabot Wealth Network, made those forms generic and combined them into a single document for others who may want to use this. It's titled Product Development Process Template and now sits in the Sample and Model Documents section of our website.    Take a look at these documents for your own use ...

I had the wonderful experience of interviewing our four Andy McLaughlin Rising Star Award finalists last year. Simone Bunsen, marketing manager, Chief Executive Group, told me about the time they made a small mistake in a personalized email. Did they fret? No. Instead, they sent out a corrected version, apologized and offered $100 off registration to an upcoming event. "And surprisingly," she said, "we did really well on that email! I think the lesson is to own up to any automation or marketing mistakes. It gives your brand an opportunity to show its human side."

At an SIIA Boot Camp in Chicago one year, Tracy Samantha Schmidt, founder of TS Media, told us that she has had great success—an over-50% open rate—with a Sunday night newsletter or "memo” that goes to executives. "It takes two-minutes to read and we really think value,” she said. “CEOs are thinking about work at 7 pm on Sunday. I'm totally against putting everything on social media at 9 am Monday morning." Biggest lesson here—when it comes to modern-day marketing, don’t sleep on the weekends. In their latest survey, The Best Time to Send Emails (for Better Sales), Omnisend found that their lowest unsubscribe rates came on Sunday or Monday and their highest click-to-open rates on Saturday. Associations Now, one of the best email newsletters that I receive, has just started a "weekend edition." "This special series of Associations Now Daily News Weekend Editions features good reads on big issues facing associations today," they write ...

On the phone last week, Stephanie Williford, CEO of EB Medicine, spoke to me excitedly about SIPA's new Executive Councils, groups that will consist of 12 niche publishers who meet by video conference 11 times a year, plus once a year for an in-person meeting in Washington, D.C., in conjunction with SIPA's annual conference in June.

At the end of last week, the subject of emails and how often they should be sent to your audience moved to front and center on the SIPA Forum. The prevailing wisdom is that it's the content that matters most.

Finalists Named for First-Ever Andy McLaughlin Rising Star Award

Towards the end of a takeaway-stuffed session at our BIMS conference in November titled Bringing Customers Into Your Marketing, Fulfillment & Product Development, Jim Sinkinson of Fired Up! Marketing asked his fellow panelists this: "Do you ever get to the point of asking customers or prospects, 'Would you buy it [if we built it]'? How do you get as close as possible to the answer in your interactions with customers?"

It's great when there's member follow-up to my posts, and this week provided some very beneficial after-column info.

Prior to joining School Family Media, Ed Coburn was senior VP at Mequoda Systems where he provided strategic consulting to numerous B2B and B2C publishing clients. Previously, he was publishing director at Harvard Medical School.

Gamification can even help a presentation on SEO for Publishers. During a talk last month at SIPA's Best Practices Conference on New Marketing and Sales Strategies for Customer Acquisition in San Francisco by Ed Coburn, co-president, School Family Media, a chart popped up that drew quick interest. It read Optimizing Posts and listed point values for various criteria of your posts: