Advertising silos could be killing your results

Image courtesy of Lavoview at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The great thing about the Internet is that it gives everyone a voice. The bad thing about the Internet is that it gives everyone a voice.

From a positive standpoint, companies and individuals can get their messages out quickly and affordably, building their reputations and attracting followers.

On the flip side, anyone can claim to be an authority on any given subject. And bad advice is more widespread than you might think. I probably shouldn’t be by now, but I’m still surprised by a lot of what I see online. 

My best advice for writing direct marketing that works

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Getting people to take action, right now, without ever interacting with them face-to-face is really hard. In fact, a response rate of just 3% is considered a great result in many instances. Worst of all, we often make it even harder than it has to be.

That’s why what I’m about to share is my absolute best advice for writing direct marketing that works. If you follow this, you’ll get out of your own way, simplify the task at hand and improve your response rate.

So what is this magical pearl of wisdom?

Why your PPC results stink

If you’re reading this, then you’re likely frustrated with your search engine marketing efforts. Maybe you’re losing money on your ads, and even worse, you’re not sure why.  It’s probably one or more of the following.

Here’s one piece of common marketing advice you should ignore

If you’ve been in the marketing and ad biz for any length of time you’ve no doubt heard it numerous times. You may have even said it to your protégées. It’s one of the most common pieces of advice in all of marketing. And you should ignore it.

Is Twitter worth it?



KitchenAid got a lot of flack for this tweet an employee mistakenly sent from the wrong account.

 It seems like there’s always someone getting in trouble on Twitter. And it’s not just celebrities that put their feet in their mouths with the popular social media vehicle. You can find scores of examples of brands blundering tweets this year alone. Here are just a few:

What was Progressive thinking?

Emotion can be a powerful thing in advertising. Even negative emotions such as fear and anger can be used to make a positive connection with consumers and motivate action. But to do that, advertisers need to direct those emotions at something other than themselves. Seems like common sense to me. That’s why I was so confused by this banner ad from Progressive insurance that ran on my fantasy football league’s website.

Enthusiasm is nothing without authenticity

I heard a commercial for the upcoming Eagles vs. Patriots preseason game on the local radio sports station that caused me to roll my eyes. It wasn’t the clichéd analogy of “going to war” that caused my reaction, although that certainly didn’t help. It was more the sheer absurdity of the attempt at creating excitement.