Waving Direct Marketing Rx Logo
Apply Lake Effect to your Picture WaveMyPic.com
Eye catching way to use your logo on you website, blog and social networking sites. Try it out and let me see what your logo looks like.
Is Your Marketing Message Being Upstaged By a Talking Stain?
I love the new Tide commercial with the job interviewee blathering on while the prospective employer just stairs at the shirt stain. The stain babbles nonsense while the employer stares mesmerized. He’s not listening to the interview prospect outlining his skill set and potential value to the company. The oblivious job applicant rambles on unaware of his talking shirt stain.
If your marketing media isn’t performing the way it should as the following questions. Is there a talking stain upstaging my Marketing message? Is it spelling errors, bad design and layout or a poorly worded message? If prospects are focusing on the mistakes and not on the benefits of your product or service then your marketing needs cleaning up. Remove the talking stain and get customers focused on buying from you. .
Let me know what talking stain has been hiding your marketing message. If you haven’t seen the commercial visit www.mytalkingstain.com and check it out. Send me a photo of your worst shirt stain!
Watch Your Keywords Fight it Out!
Are you wondering which keywords will work best for you? If you’re looking for a quick way to find good search engine results try GoogleFight.com. When you get to the screen you type one phrase into the first keyword box and a second phrase into keyword box #2 and then click make a fight. You’ll see who wins the boxing match when a graph appears showing which phrase has the highest search engine results.
I typed in financial recession and financial boom. Financial recession won with 797,000 hits compared to economic boom which only had 374,000 search results hits. Which means if you want to know what people are searching for it’s the financial recession not a boom. Now you know people are worried about the recession so focus your marketing on surviving or thriving during a recession and get lots more.
Let me know what words win your fights. If you need help getting started check out who wins, vanilla ice cream or chocolate ice cream.
Are You Risking a Marketing Short Circuit?
Are you doing the same thing over and over without the best results but it kinda works so you keep using it? Well here’s a story of what happened to me a week ago that I hope you can use.
I cook for the week on Sunday afternoons. My kitchen is tiny so space is at a premium. For weeks I’ve been moving my can opener and using it on the stove top because my slow cooker took up too much space. (I was too lazy to figure out a new spot for the slow cooker.) So I’m opening up some cans so I can prepare a stew and all is going well.
Then I remember oh, yeah let’s get the brown rice started because it takes longer to cook than white rice. So I turn the oven knob to on. A minute or so later I’m busy putting away dishes when I here a pop and see sparks coming from my can opener which is still sitting on the back burner. Yikes! I’m trying not to freak out as I quickly turn off the burner and lift the can opener up.
Now I smell a nasty electrical burn and I’m worried my smoke alarm is going to start shrieking. I look at my poor can opener which has the bottom melted on parts and the power cord is charred black and I’m thinking I’m not gonna be able to use this thing again it’s a goner. I toss my the thing in the trash and run to open the front door so the burning stink won’t stay in my place all day and night.
Back in the kitchen I try to turn on the overhead fan and light but nothing happens. I popped the circuit breaker! So now I have to figure out which switch to pull in the fuse box. Crum! I hate this stuff.
Oh yeah did I mention my kitchen wall outlets also stopped working? Well, I went to read the labels and pull the switch that I think connects to the kitchen outlets. Then I head back to the kitchen and switch on the fan and oven light. Nothing happens.
Back I go to peer into the fuse box while hoping I don’t have to call my property manager and tell him what stupid thing I did. This time I make sure both switches pull back and forth and hooray my outlets work! I can finish cooking and fortunately the rest of my cans have pull up tabs. But I added buy new can opener to my list of things to get done before cooking again.
Looking back I knew it wasn’t the best or safest place for my can opener but since I’d done it several times before I figured nothing bad will happen this time. Oh, Murphy’s Law is my life! Sunday was the day bad stuff happened! I could’ve caught my kitchen on fire and burned up my apartment. A friend told me I could’ve electrocuted myself! I hadn’t even thought about that but now an image of me with singed hair and smoke coming from my ears is running through my mind. WAAA!
To make sure I didn’t do that again I immediately moved my wretched slow cooker and made space for a new can opener.
Is it time to rethink your current marketing plan? Are you burning up your marketing dollars on a mildly effective marketing campaign that isn’t targeting your niche?
Do the safe thing for your business now and shift your marketing around so you can make the most of your customer niche and have growing sales not burning ashes of a failed marketing plan.
Four Keys to a Successful Direct Mail Marketing Campaign
You want your direct marketing mailers to:
- Get delivered – Make sure they meet postal regulations
- Get opened – Does it catch your prospects eye?
- Get read – Once its opened is your offer compelling so the prospect reads to the end?
- Get responses – Ok it got read. Are people buying what you’re selling?
If you answer is no to any of these questions don’t send out the mailer. Fix the problem so you can answer yes to all four points and prepare to rake in big bucks!
Show Me the Money!
National Coin Week is April 20-26. Send your clients a bag of chocolate coins or a coin purse to hold their change.
Many even collect elongated coins also known as pressed pennies, nickels or quarters. If you know your clients are fans send the pressed penny wallets to hold their precious collections. Or consider having a die made to press your own logo on pennies for a truly memorable promotional item.
Never heard of pressed pennies? Well here’s some history on them:
In 1893 at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois the first pennies were rolled through hand cranked mill type machines with reverse engraved dies.
Today, pennies are run between rollers under approximately 22 tons of pressure which squishes the penny into an elongated shape with your business logo or other artwork you select for the four dies that come with the machine. Guests supply their own penny and for the price of two quarters they get an enduring memory of their experience.
I’ve designed pressed pennies for clients like amusement parks, zoos and other tourist sites. It’s a popular hobby for many.
Have You Talked to Your Plants Today?
April 13th is International Plant Appreciation Day. Plants are vital to our lives. Without them we wouldn’t have coffee, tea, paper, T-shirts or flour for baking. I’m growing some daffodils, freesias and tulips. Having fun just watching the leaves sprout from the dirt. And I’m not one of those green thumb types. I’ve killed cactus in the past…more like a black thumb. But I’ve come to appreciate plants. Remind your customers how important plants our by sending them a gift of a flower, plant or tree or even a packet of seeds.
I Have a Favicon – Do You Have One?
A favicon aka a favorite icon is a small graphic that is associated with a page or website. You can use your business logo or some other image to customize your site when it appears in the address line of many web browsers and in the bookmarks when the site is saved. Faivcons were first developed in Internet Explorer which calls bookmarked sites “favorites.”
To create an icon save an image that is about 16 x 16 pixels. You can use a graphics program like Photoshop or you can go to www.html-kit.com/favicon/ and they will create a favicon from your uploaded image file. You can see my logo favicon when you visit my site at www.direct-marketing-rx-copywriting.com in most web browsers.
Show Your Auto Some Love
April is National Car Care Month. Give you customers an automotive safety it (with you business logo & contact info) to show them you care. Hand out car maintenance checklists to encourage your customers to keep up with their car care. Need a promotional opportunity? Have a mini classic custom car show for your customers to participate in. Let me know of any ideas you come up with and which you actually use.
