Thoughts on Marketing…

Yesterday I picked up a brochure for a new rental business. Along with porta-potties, they’ll supply the tables, chairs, tablecloths, glasses, etc. for your next party. In fact, if your house is too small, they’ll even rent you a tent. It was a home-made brochure and had no graphics. But that wouldn’t have been so [...]

Do you write your own advertising copy? Many do, for reasons ranging from budget constraints to not having experienced the value that professionally written ad copy can bring to their business. And that’s fine. You can learn how to do an acceptable job if you spend some time studying the psychology of advertising, read ezines [...]

Every writer has pet peeves that make him or her cringe. I actually have two. The first one is “I want to thank…” It must be just me, because I see it and hear it all the time, but my instant reaction is always “Well, then why don’t you do it if you want to?” [...]

You probably know that guilt is one of the reasons why people donate to causes. But apparently some non-profits believe that it’s guilt over not donating that motivates people. No, no, no! It’s guilt over something they did or didn’t do in the past. Perhaps over a time when they could have helped someone and [...]

Last night I somehow ended up on a web page advertising software that would improve your SEO. According to the ad, running your article and your headline through this software would tell you if you were using enough key phrases and apparently would insert them for you. I’m not really sure, because it wasn’t making [...]

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 [...]

Marketing your business in tough economic times requires more from you than marketing when business is booming. The message you send out must be clear and compelling, and give your prospective customers a reason for buying that they can’t resist. In addition, the methods you choose to get that message out must be carefully chosen [...]

Small business marketers across the world are trying to get their message out to consumers – and failing miserably. They know they have a wonderful product or service, but somehow, no matter how often they send a letter or an e-mail, and no matter how often they pay to have their message printed in a [...]

Last night my son came to dinner, and he brought along a little “throw away”  newspaper/magazine. You know the kind you get to browse through while you’re waiting for your lunch at a diner. It had a few good articles and he always chuckles over the personals page, but this time it had a guest [...]

Have you ever been tempted to buy software that turns one article into many, so they can be distributed on article sites across the web without becoming duplicate content? Be careful! If you do it, read every article before you submit it, and make necessary changes. Otherwise you could end up looking foolish. You probably [...]