From the category archives:

Communication

10 Tips for Click-Worthy Subject Lines: Do yours Stink?

by Deidre Rienzo April 21, 2011 Blogs

It doesn’t matter if your blog post or newsletter is literary gold. With a crummy subject line, people won’t read the message you’ve painstakingly crafted. In today’s environment of digital mania, less patience and overstretched schedules, you need to show your reader that clicking and reading is worth her time. Conveying that value in a [...]

Tagged as: blog posts, blog titles, newsletters, subject lines

0 comments Read the full post →

Is Less Copy a Good Idea?

by Deidre Rienzo March 24, 2011 Communication

Think less copy on your home page seems like a good idea? We do, too – usually. But having less copy isn’t as simple as it might sound. Light copy might seem ideal, but it can backfire unless it’s done right. When it comes to home page copy, balancing lightness with effectiveness is tricky.

Tagged as: home page content, web copy, website content

0 comments Read the full post →

What Do Marketing and Mysteries Have in Common?

by Mistina Picciano August 27, 2010 Communication

“What is the writer’s first job?” Award-winning mystery novelist Reed Farrel Coleman asked the question at a recent workshop sponsored by the Mystery Writers of America. A few attendees ventured educated guesses like “develop plot” or “sit down and write.” Some enlightened soul soon voiced the answer Coleman was seeking: “To entertain.” Exactly. He expanded [...]

Tagged as: copywriting, marketing copy, sales copy

0 comments Read the full post →

What’s Your Story?

by Mistina Picciano August 25, 2010 Communication

Try this exercise. Take a sample of your marketing materials, something that will likely form a prospect’s first impression: your website home page, a brochure. Take a similar sample from two or three of your competitors. Read these passages and highlight any similarities among them. Do you stand out from the crowd? Or are you [...]

Tagged as: differentiation, marketing materials, marketing messages

0 comments Read the full post →

Does Your Website Make You Sound Like “That Guy”?

by Mistina Picciano August 20, 2010 Audience

We all know the type: He’s the one at the cocktail party or networking breakfast you can’t escape fast enough. Why? Because he’s going on and on about nothing that you care about. Recently, a friend introduced me to a web developer, usually one of my favorite new contact categories. He heard what we do [...]

Tagged as: audience, marketing roi, Websites

0 comments Read the full post →

How to Be a Marketing Drama Queen

by Travis Heermann July 21, 2010 Communication

Evoking response is the primary duty of any marketing campaign. Generating more sales and revenue than the campaign cost to produce is the bottom line. Any good marketer knows that the first step is understanding the benefits of the product or service. Why should the customer care about what you’re saying? How can your widget [...]

Tagged as: advertising, business communication, copywriting, Marketing, messaging, sales

0 comments Read the full post →

What Motivates Your Prospect?

by Travis Heermann July 14, 2010 Audience

The Myers-Briggs Temperament Test is an increasingly popular way to identify what makes a person tick. The Myers-Briggs Test, originally developed in the 1950s, is now used worldwide to identify patterns of behavior and attitude. The expansion of the test’s popularity has been spurred in large part by Dr. David Keirsey, who refined and expanded [...]

Tagged as: audience, messaging

0 comments Read the full post →

Does Your Message Make an ‘Ass’ of ‘U’ and ‘Me’?

by Travis Heermann June 29, 2010 Business Development

Any good copywriter knows how to capture and lead the audience’s wants and capitalize on its needs, and he knows how to help the audience justify assenting to the call to action. All persuasive writing, including marketing messages, asks the audience to agree and to act based on an endless variety of specific reasons. For [...]

Tagged as: assumptions, marketing messages, value judgments

0 comments Read the full post →

3 Important Reasons to Use Lift Notes in Sales Letters

by Travis Heermann June 15, 2010 Business Development

Lift notes, also known as lift letters, are so-called because studies have shown that they can increase the response rate of a sales letter by as much as 50%. But what is a lift note exactly? A lift note is a short letter or note from someone other than the writer of the main sales [...]

Tagged as: lift letters, lift notes, sales letters

0 comments Read the full post →

4 Essential Tips for Writing an Effective Letter

by Travis Heermann June 8, 2010 Audience

Does anyone write letters anymore? We have e-mail, text messaging, social media web sites, and the soul of communicational brevity, Twitter. With all these other forms of communication, do we still need to know how to write a good letter? Whether you’re seeking employment, trying to sell widgets, or contacting business associates, now, more than [...]

Tagged as: audience, business letters, how to write a letter, letters

4 comments Read the full post →

← Previous Entries