Have you ever been embarrassed by a mistake in an email you sent? Whether you’re creating marketing emails that go out to thousands of people, writing business emails that go individually or in small groups to colleagues and clients, or just emailing to your family and friends, accuracy and clarity are essential for effective communication. [...]
Do the people in your audience understand you? Whether you're in business dealing with customers and creating written content for your website, social media and content marketing campaigns or you're a writer creating your own books, be sure you’re communicating in a language your audience understands. As I write this, we are in the final [...]
In these days of email, social media and texting, we probably communicate more in writing than we did a few decades ago when we had to actually speak with each other because there was no immediate alternative. At the same time, our spelling and grammar skills seem to be on the decline. Whether it’s a [...]
If you have a contact form on your website, will you get the messages people submit through it? Recently I received an email from an online marketing expert sharing the story of how his contact form failed and he didn’t realize it for about six months. It’s likely that he missed messages from prospective customers [...]
Your customer mailing list is one of your most valuable assets. It’s the foundation of your ability to communicate with the people you’ve identified as customers or potential customers. Whether you market by email, direct (snail) mail or a combination, think about this: What would it mean to your marketing plan specifically and your company [...]
A couple of days before the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, I heard a news report about a mattress store in Texas running a sale on the weekend of 9/11. In “honor” of the attack on the Twin Towers, they were selling all of their mattresses at the twin price. Or something like [...]
Though summer doesn’t officially end until Sept. 22, Labor Day is over, the kids are back in school and Halloween decorations are in the stores. We’re not going to share what we did on our summer vacation (unless you really want to know!), but we thought you would enjoy some business highlights. New Products We [...]
Recently I was talking with a friend about the typical Christmas (or holiday, if you want to be politically correct) gifts that companies send to their associates and clients—and how most of them are a waste of money. Over the years, Jerry and I have received gifts from business associates that ranged from excellent wine to [...]
Is a picture really worth 1,000 words? Absolutely. Maybe more. Pictures are powerful. We live in a visual, fast-paced world. Images grab attention and give the reader an at-a-glance answer to the “why should I read this?” question. They can dramatically improve the effectiveness of almost any written message, including web copy, content marketing, social [...]
Why I Switched to MailChimp from Constant Contact When our company first started doing email marketing, we used Constant Contact as our email service provider. I appreciated many things about the service, especially the various training programs. But gradually my frustration level with Constant Contact increased, so a few years ago, we switched to MailChimp. [...]
