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Don Draper on Direct Response
Mad Men character Don Draper once said “People are dying to be told what to do.” You might disagree with this brash statement, but many in DM and brand advertising would agree. It is true that lots of...
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Time-Sensitive Offers Versus Evergreen Offers
When creating an offer, you have a tough decision to make. You can make it an exploding or time-sensitive offer, or you can make it an evergreen offer that has no expiration date. The time-sensitive...
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Use Hashtags in Tweets
For Twitter cognoscenti, this is obvious. But, many newish Twitterers forget or never knew to use hashtags (#) right next to critical keywords in their Tweets. Why? Because you’ll come up in search...
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The Way We Weren’t
Too many old-school marketers reflect fondly on the old days when much less was known or could be known about what ads and offers were effective. IMHO, we are just now entering the golden days of...
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Changing Reader Habits
The old-school direct response practitioners will tell you copy should be as long as it needs to be. In other words, long copy is okay in certain circumstances. I’m sure this is still true. I have...
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Get Touchy
If you don’t have an iPad, an iPhone or an Android smartphone, get one (or more) quickly. Why? Because the call-to-action dynamics are undergoing great change with the multitouch screen interface....
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3 Tips to Avoid Analysis Paralysis
1. Don’t overwhelm yourself with too much data. Pick a handful of metrics to follow, and compare them to other similar datapoints. Look at click-throughs, exit pages and time spent on site, for...
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How Does Your Site Look in Google Instant Preview?
Do a search on Google, and you’ll notice a little magnifying glass next to each search result. Click on that icon, and you’ll see a little graphic showing you a low-res snapshot of that site. How does...
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Internet Marketing Humility
Now those are three words you never see together . But, the truth is, staying humble is the secret of successful Internet Marketing. If you think you know it all, you can’t learn anything more. What...
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Ads You Want to Get
You want your advertising to be so good that people actually sign up to receive it. That’s what Groupon is, after all: targeted loss-leader offers from retailers. You can imagine that these offer feeds...
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Be Captain Obvious
Face it; this is the age of distraction where it is rare you have someone’s undivided attention. If you are too subtle in your offer or meaning, it can and probably does fly right by your target...
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Getting a Direct Response in a Job Interview
Getting a direct response doesn’t only happen in advertising copy. There’s f2f direct response like a positive reaction to a sales pitch. You can also look for a direct response in a job interview. One...
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SocMed: Is it Good for Advertising, Lead Gen or CRM?
Why is it every time a new media channel comes into its own, all marketing types want to stick an ad in there somewhere? In these early days of SocMed, many of the success stories are about loyalty...
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Uncovering Risk in the B2B Sales Lead Process
As Gord Hotchkiss (author of The BuyerSphere Project) says, you are not in the best position to get a sale if you’re not the “wired vendor.” So, if you’re No. 2 or No. 3 on the short list, you’ll need...
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The Creative is in the Media Buy
In my interview with Conversion Guru Jay Baer, he said today’s creative is in the media buy. It’s no longer good enough to have clever copy and graphics. You want to be able to get your message in...
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What’s Your Twitter List Worth?
That’s a question that isn’t easily answered. Some will say it depends on the number of followers you have. Some point out it depends on how many influencers you have on your list (an argument for...
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B2B Sales Prospects are People Too
Many marketers believe that B2B products and services require no emotional appeal. After all, they’re not buying a BMW or life insurance for themselves or their families. But, there is emotion involved...
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I Remember Carol LaPlante
I was a few blocks away from the Twin Towers, just starting to send that week’s edition of this newsletter, when the planes hit. I didn’t know until about a year later that I knew someone who perished...
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What’s Your Agenda?
How many times have you gone to a website and not been able to figure out how the owners make money? Sure, it’s obvious with an e-commerce site. But, consultant sites or advertising-driven operations...
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Put Some Skin in the “Like” Button Game
Why should people “Like” your FB page? Maybe they really like you as a person or company. But, you know, you’re asking them for a commitment. When they Like you, they’re going to see your feed of posts...
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