Here’s a great example of what NOT to do with a postcard.
Postcards can be a very affordable and effective direct mail piece–done right. Or even mostly right. This one, however, is nowhere close.
There’s…
– NO headline to get your attention
– NO problem or solution being addressed
– NO real offer being made
– Nothing to build credibility with [...]

When you’re looking to hire marketing help for your small business, you need to know where those folks fall on the branding-direct response spectrum.
Many agencies and consultants who spent their careers in super-sized companies have a clear bias toward branding and lack of understanding or even disdain about direct response that can be dangerous to [...]

…when it comes to the word “UTILIZE” in your marketing copy (or really, anything you write for your business).
First, a definition from good old Merriam-Webster:
utilize (v)–to make USE of, turn to practical USE or account
See a pattern here?
Twice as many letters and three times as many syllables add nothing meaningful to the word “use.” So [...]

When you’re crystal clear on what you bring to the table for your clients–and how you’re different from all their other options–marketing becomes much easier and more effective. So take some time to really think about and answer the following questions:
1. Who are you? As Carlton said after my first attempt at this exercise, [...]

Verizon Wireless is a perfect example of companies that don’t get that being a responsible company means being one ALL the time. Yes, they a nice little Corporate Responsibility section on their website where they tout their admirable Hopeline program, which provides phones and service to victims of domestic abuse.
But when it comes to find [...]

Dear Carefirst Blue Cross Blue Shield,
I have a money-saving tip for you.
I’ve gotten 11 allergy shots in the past month and you’ve sent me 11 two-page Explanation of Benefits statements by mail. I’m sure my mailman is tired of delivering them and it annoys me that I now have 22 sheets of paper to file. [...]

Here we go again. B2B magazine reported recently that both the Wall Street Journal and Forbes have started separate content sites/publications for women. WSJ’s is just a section of its online site called Journal Women but Forbes is launching a quarterly ForbesLife Executive Women (FLEW) magazine and online section.
I have to say, I find this [...]

64% of key decision makers are viewing your carefully crafted email on their BlackBerrys and other mobile devices, according to new data.
39% of handheld email users are less likely to read commercial email such as newsletters and promotions on a mobile device. That’s about 2.3 out of five users.
69% of at-work email users usually [...]

If there is one industry I hate, it’s pharmaceuticals. I know, its an expensive business–developing drugs that may or may not actually ever see the light of pharmacist’s shelves. And the drugs themselves can sometimes do a lot of good. But I have trouble feeling sympathy for pharma management crying over declining earnings when the [...]

When you tick off your customers. I was all prepared to write another post this morning before I ran over to the vet. While there, a woman came in cradling a trembling border collie. She said she had found the dog loose without a collar while out walking and was trying to find her owner. [...]