Watch Your Language!

As a child were you forbidden to use a Anglo-Saxon terms and required to use words with latin roots, such as perspire and urinate? Certain words were not considered polite.

Well, there are some words which are inappropriate to use in advertising copy.

Susan Gunelius wrote "10 Words to Avoid in Your 2009 Advertising"

Your Email Should Not Read Like An Infomercial

Recently my wife and I were watching a Movie on a non-network local market TV station. The commercial breaks were filled primarily with the most obvious infomercials for low end products.

I said to my wife, "If that product was so good, he wouldn't need to YELL so much."

Sometimes an email writer feels that he has to convince the reader to click on the links in his email. Listen closely because I am going to let you in on a BIG secret. If the content of the page is fantastically great, then all you will need to do is tell what the page is about - your target audience will say "wow" and click on the link.

But if you say "WOW, you won't believe how GREAT the content on MY web page is." You're audience will not be convinced no matter how hard you try.

Ardath Albee wrote on keeping your emails brief, bold and germane

That's so 2003!

In almost every aspect of I and E publishing there is a tendency to cling to methods or truisms from years ago. Only problem is that technology changes so rapidly that if you are reading something that is more than 24 months old - it is almost definitely outdated.

In fact, most industry people cite 18 months as the statistical average for a tech cycle.

One of the areas which has changed dramatically in the last few years is the topic of SE ranking. Many business owners think that they know all about SEO but most of the business owners whom I meet are hung up on something they heard about 2 years ago or something that someone told them recently but their source hasn't read anything up to date.

Karon Thackston is a professional writer who wrote an article a few weeks ago, in which she shows that keywords while still important do not produce the kind of results most business people seem to think that they do.

Karon Thackston wrote "How Many Keywords Are Enough?"

Slow and Steady Wins The Race

Many sales and marketing people could learn a lot from the fable of the Tortoise and the Hare. There marketing comes across like a jack rabbit, both by trying to cram too much into each communication and by the sporadic nature of their communication.

A much more effective method of communication is audience development and nurturing.

Another metaphor for this same idea is "watering a cactus."

If you provide just a little marketing, on a consistent basis to people who have given you permission to communicate with them, you will build an audience of clients and allies who will recommend you to others.

But if you "flood" your prospects, you will kill your cactus.

Ardath Albee wrote a great article on lead nurturing.

E-Mail that Successfully Sells

Because of Can-Spam laws, e-mail is a difficult medium to use for marketing. Sometimes if you are not careful, your e-mail can actually cause you to lose clients

Ritu of Marketing Hackz wrote: "6 Steps to Effective e-Mail Marketing."

Quit Trying To Dazzle and Start Selling

Wow! That was brilliant!

Place an Order?

We'll get back to you on that, we want to consider our options.

Have you ever gone to a website and had to wait until the most fantastic and gorgeous multimedia presentation that you have ever seen L - o - a - d - e - d and then spent 1 to 2 minutes running before finally showing you the website?

Recently I tried to read an article and was shown an advertisement which was supposed to go away in ten seconds, it had a countdown feature, but when the countdown reached 3 seconds it resetted itself and started over, the first time it happened, I ignored it but when it happened again I started thinking about it. It took a few seconds but quickly dawned on me that the site assumed that all of its visitors would have their cookie settings set to "accept all." That is just as stupid as the company that places downloadables on its site in a format which is not "universal."

(Universal refers to formats such as HTML, PDF, JPEG, SWF, etc which are accessible on Windows, Mac OS Classic, Mac OS X and Unix/Linux without purchasing a proprietary application.)

Many small business website owners get talked into using audio, video, or flash as a means of impressing their visitors. Do not misunderstand, I am not talking about using audio samples to sell music or recorded materials, nor am I talking about using video to build a social media community, nor am I talking about using flash in a widget or to present a 300 by 100 sidebar graphic. I am talking about full-screen splash intros on a investment advisors website and background music on a mortgage brokers website. The use of "stuff" which does not actually SELL your service or product but is only for the purpose of Impressing or Dazzling or Entertaining is a marketing mistake.

Do you think I am wrong?

Don't take my word for it. Read what Clayton Makepiece wrote about worthless movie-style TV ads in the Major Corporation market.

Why Your Ad Campaign ROI is poor

Process is key to success in Business.

Well...Duh!!!

Yet, when many entrepreneurs and business owners first attempt an internet ad campaign, they fail to remember the need for process.

Seth Godin wrote an article entitled, "Welcome to Offer World." Here is a sample:
"offer---> sample ---> permission ---> learning ---> sample ---> sale ---> subscription."