Thoughts on Marketing…

Want to do something today – right now – that will help build your business?
If you have a pen, a piece of paper, an envelope, and a stamp, you can do just that. You can write a thank you note.
In fact, you’ll do even better if you write a dozen thank you notes. And if [...]

Is your mailbox full of junk? Mine sure is, and some of it is getting really annoying.
I can’t count how many e-mail marketers have been telling me things like “Only 2 days left” – “Today’s the last day!” and similar shouting-type messages for at least the past 3 weeks.
If it’s the last day, fine. Wonderful [...]

Whether you’re writing a postal letter, adding copy to your web site, sending an email, or placing an ad in your local newspaper, it’s important that your customers don’t have to think when they read your message.
OK – I hear you telling me that of course they have to think. And they do. They [...]

When you offer products in an e-mail or in an article on your blog, are you sending your readers to the proper page to buy those products?
I just read an email about making your own facial scrub, and it sounded interesting so I went to the website and found the recipe… so far so good.
In [...]

Bob Bly’s letter this morning offered up some interesting tidbits that he’d found, and since he gives permission to re-use his letters, here are a couple of them:
***The ideal length for a web page***
According to web expert Gerry McGovern, the ideal length for a page of web copy on a regular web site (not a [...]

Do you find yourself in competitive situations?
When you really want that new client, and you know that 2 or 3 or more other people want them too?
If part of getting the client is presenting him with information, here’s how to stand out from the crowd: Send it via FedEx or UPS.
Think about it – you’re [...]

If so, wonderful! If not, why not?
Personal brochures are wonderful things, because they can introduce the “real you” to potential customers before you ever meet.
They can let your prospects see that you have enthusiasm for your work, show them what you can do for them, and give them a little glimpse of who you are [...]

Who hasn’t been annoyed by trying to get customer service from an American company and being routed to someone in “Who knows where” who not only doesn’t understand the problem, but whose English is almost impossible to understand? After saying “what?” about 40 times you just give up.
My personal belief is that it’s these companies’ [...]

You probably know by now that the first task in writing a promotion is to dig out the benefits of a product or service – the obvious ones, and the not so obvious ones.
It seems like focusing there rather than on features is a really hard task for some people. They just can’t get past [...]

This morning I read a short article about Chrsyler and their new campaign to sell the new Dodge Ram pickup.
Because of the price of fuel, truck sales are down – way down.  But they aren’t giving up. Instead, creative officer David Lubars was quoted as saying “We know the amount of people out there who [...]