While I was in and around AccountingWEB this week there were banner adverts at the top of the page asking me to “Talk to Sage“. This is a marketing campaign offering me free business guides and software information. After I registered at the site (because they want to capture my details as a lead before they give anything away) I was confronted with this screen of guides to select from.
Let’s look at the Setting and controlling a budget guide. If you follow the link, you might wonder at the level of business person that Sage are setting their sites at, or at least feel cheated that you haven’t got much return for parting with your hard earned contact details. Am I being harsh here, or are all of these guides only a smidgen above common sense. Don’t get me wrong, most good business advice contains plenty of common sense, but look at the guides you can get on the web for free.
Look at this Work.com resource on Creating a basic budget, no registration required. It gives me lots of practical tips and advice, and loads of links to other resources. Pretty good.
Before you take the trouble to register, have a look at Top tips on selling or Marketing strategy.
I sent the budgeting Sage link over to Dennis, who picked holes in the advice in any case, and gives his views here. He agrees with me.
Sage are just clueless at this stuff. When are they going to realise they need to provide SME’s with added value resources, rather than tricking them in to giving over their details for the sales team to call. If you’re writing good content that’s relevant, the audience will want to come and find out more. It upsets me that I don’t have their marketing budget. I’d spend it somewhat more wisely than this.
