Pulling together a strategic marketing plan for an organization and executing on it can be a real competitive advantage. If your organization hasn’t pulled together a strategic marketing plan, the good news is that it doesn’t have to require a huge amount of time or resources to provide a positive impact. In fact, some real basic strategic planning can be done in a fairly short amount of time. I’ve been involved in some very short (2 to 3 hour) planning sessions for organizations that hadn’t used any formal process in the past. These short sessions provided concrete feedback and direction that the organizations were able to apply to their business or strategy immediately.

So you've made the decision to go ahead with your e-newsletter. You've found a permission-based distribution solution and you can't wait to send out that first issue.

Not so fast. Before you even start writing, here are two things to consider that can have a major impact on whether your newsletter gets read or trashed.

Global warming has gotten a lot of "buzz" lately. The cover of Time Magazine told us to "be worried; be very worried." Folks who saw Al Gore's movie, "An Inconvenient Truth," dashed off letters to the editor. Heat waves across the country made us wonder if climate change was the cause.

Do businesses need to respond? The smart money says yes.

In my college days in Boston, I was accustomed to having to move every couple of years….a roommate would graduate, marry or move on. Since the budget was tight and I have thrifty Yankee roots, I would haul around a stack of seasoned bricks that I used as bookshelf material. (I had picked them off a demolished building lot on Commonwealth Avenue—"midnight requisitioning" we called it.) My friends would groan every time we moved, "are you bringing the bricks this time?!" So of course, I was heartened when I came across a recent article by Howard Mann on how "catching a brick" can sharpen your business skills.

You can be very good at what you do, but if people within and outside your organization don't know much about you or your performance it's unlikely you'll develop a strong professional profile that can move your career forward. The good news: there are some concrete steps that anyone can take to positively raise their professional visibility, like creating a personal marketing plan for you and your career.

How many e-newsletters do you have sitting in your inbox at the moment? If you’re like me, you’ve got at least three, and of those three, you probably have a favorite, a middle-of-the-road and a least favorite.

Without a doubt, the popularity of e-newsletters has exploded in recent years, becoming an integral part of the marketing process. At a fraction of the cost of traditional mail, they provide an excellent, cost-effective means for communicating with your customers and prospects.