Bretts Marketing Bytes

Archive for December, 2009

A lot of people ask me if email marketing still works. The answer is without hesitation… YES!. Email marketing is one of the best methods to reach customers if done properly, However, it  has evolved into something more complicated than it ever was. This is due to more sophisticated email software and savvier consumers.

So why are some people saying that email marketing is dead?

One of the most common reasons why email marketing doesn’t work for a lot of companies is because they run into something called list exhaustion.

List exhaustion is when your emails have no perceived value to your recipients anymore. This occurs when:
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I am delivering a seminar called Mastering Google Adwords in Buffalo NY, on January 20th, 2010. This should be a great seminar. We are going to cover everything from increasing quality score to writing effective ad copy. If you are using Google  Adwords to promote your business, attending this seminar should be a no-brainer.

There are only 26 seats available and we have 6 left to fill before January 20th.  They are going quickly, so I am going to be doing another one around the same time at a different location. As soon as I know about the new dates I will post them. Please click the register today link below for details.

Register Today!

Website page copy is an important element of your website. However,  I find that most companies spend way too much time crafting their  message and way too little time focusing on what truly makes a difference to readers.

I put together a list of some important aspects of writing web page copy. Enjoy!

• Companies love to talk about themselves so naturally they ramble on and on. Don’t ramble. Keep it short and sweet.
• Your message should be about the reader not your company. People don’t really want to read about how great you think your company is. They want the WIIFM(Whats in it for me?) factor.
• You have less than 8 seconds to catch a persons attention. Make your page easy for someone to scan by using white space, heading tags, and bold fonts when necessary.
• Welcome… For some reason some organizations think that their home page should welcome their visitors. Why, it’s not a house, its a website. Give them the information that they want..Information about what you do, or your products or services.
• Thank you…Companies also feel the need to thank visitors for coming to their site. Why, is your site so bad that you have to be thankful that someone came to visit it? Okay, that might be a little harsh. But seriously, if you do this you are wasting prime real estate on your web page for more important page copy. Don’t thank people until after they have made a purchase.
• Bad grammar – It is fascinating how many companies use  grammar improperly in their page copy. You should always have someone read over what you write. Even if you are good at writing. A second eye is always a good idea.
• Make sure to use a call to action where it is  necessary. Don’t be afraid to ask someone to contact you or make a purchase.
• Use blurbs that have a read more link on your home pages. Blurbs are easy to scan.
• When writing page copy, try to identify with the reader. What are the important pieces of information that they would want to read?

I hope this was useful . Good luck and happy page copy writing.

Wordpress is a great blogging software, but one of the questions that always comes up in a lot  of my seminars is how to theme Wordpress.  My answer is usually, hire my company! ha ha.

However, there are a lot of do it your-selfer’s out there. For you guys there are ways of skinning a Wordpress blog that doesn’t require you to go into the code and spend all day making tweaks.  One of the best resources that I have found is Frugal Themes . I am a big fan of keeping the blog clean and there is no cleaner theme out there. Unfortunately this is a paid theme ($79.00), but it is well worth the money!

It provides complete customization of layout style, colors, logo, fonts and what ever else you can imagine without having to know any code.  I have to admit, even for a guy like me who doesn’t mind getting my hands dirty with code, I use this from time to time.

The other reason I thought this would be a good post is because a lot of people in my seminars are not tech savvy. Frugal Themes support and comprehensive directions are unmatched. I think most non savvy people would be able to figure this one out with a little help from the Frugal support forum.

This theme also lends itself nicely to most business people because it is very clean. If you are looking for a funky style theme, fugal themes is probably not for you.

If you do not want to pay for a theme, there are plenty of free ones available, but you will have to spend a lot of time tweaking code to get it to look like you want. I love when I find something that truly stands out from the rest and this is one of them.

Click here to check out the video on their home page to see how it works.

I hope this helps. Good luck with your theme.