A number of years ago, a colleague of mine gave me a book on fractals to read and it was fascinating! At least I thought so. It was all about how nature is made up of fractals that operate in a systematic way to create patterns (in clouds, in leaves, in trees—in everything!). It’s all very mathematical (and I didn’t understand much of the really technical content…) but the images were fascinating and the idea that there are patterns—often predictable patterns—in everything around us, was (more…)
Archive for the ‘Marketing Communication’ Category
Direct Mail — The “Snail Mail” Kind — Never Goes Out of Style
Friday, September 1st, 2023Ask Before Acting: Why You Should Seek Input From Target Audiences
Thursday, August 24th, 2023The Power of Ethos, Logos, and Pathos in Writing Promotional Copy
Friday, July 21st, 2023It’s not uncommon for students in both high school and higher ed to question whether what they’re learning will actually have relevance in the real world of work. There are three concepts, though, from several speech classes I taught at the undergraduate level, that I’ve found to be extremely helpful in creating content designed to resonate with various needs and preferences of the target audience: ethos, logos, and pathos. Before I lose you, trust me, these are really simple concepts that you can use to create and evaluate your promotional content. (more…)
Zigging When They Zag: The Potential of Traditional Marketing Communication
Tuesday, May 9th, 2023The digital environment is quite cluttered these days and becoming more so. Consumers benefit from access to a massive amount of information literally available at their fingertips—and often being pushed to them by marketers yelling “pick me, me, me.” But with so much activity in the digital environment, sometimes it takes a different approach to stand out: (more…)
When You Make It All About You, You Lose
Tuesday, June 21st, 2022Whenever I’m called upon to offer a critique on or advice about a company or consultant’s copy – whether it’s on a web site, in a brochure, an ad, a blog, or whatever – the first thing I do is read through the copy to see whether the focus is on “we/me” or “you/your.” Most of the copy I look at is the former. A quick, easy and relatively painless way to improve it (more…)
Unless Your Customers Are Like You, You Shouldn’t Treat Them Like They Are
Thursday, June 2nd, 2022Over the years I’ve noticed a dangerous tendency—among myself and others—to assume that we “know” our customers, or target customers. Because we think or believe something, we assume that—of course!—others think or believe as we do. They don’t.
This was driven home to me a while ago as my husband was watching the MLB All-Star Game.
“Great!” I said—”this must mean the baseball season is over!” No, he assured me — only halfway over; still about 80 games to go. “Good grief! Who in the world wants to watch that much baseball?!! How can the networks possibly afford to keep broadcasting these things?!?!?!”
And then it hit me. (more…)
How Can You Find the Right Focus For Your Marketing Messages?
Friday, May 13th, 2022A prospective client contacted us recently wanting to produce a white paper to serve as a promotional tool. The white paper needed to include: a focus on the new national campaign theme, a focus on the new local campaign theme, a focus on the areas served, a focus on the organization’s new direction for the coming year, a focus on…OK, hopefully, you get the point.
If you focus on everything, you’re focused on nothing!
It’s tough to focus. Any organization has multiple objectives and messages that need to be conveyed and there can be a tendency to try to “do it all” in one message. The trouble with that, though, is (more…)
What Are the Best Tips for Writing Great Copy?
Monday, May 9th, 2022Whether you’re writing a brochure, copy for a newspaper ad, a script for a radio announcement, or a page or blog for your website, there are some tried and true techniques that can help you make sure that your copy gets the results you’re looking for.
Think about writing copy as making a sales pitch to a customer. Your goal is to persuade that customer to do something – most likely to purchase your product or service. Here’s how: (more…)