Confessions of an Ad Man At a used bookstore many years ago, I bought a first edition of the 1963 classic Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy. Neatly folded and tucked inside the book was this hand-typed memo on Diamond National Corporation letterhead: Required reading The language in the memo seems almost quaint, […]
Thoughts
What is Email Marketing
Most folks get it wrong Despite all the hype about TikTok, Facebook ads and YouTube videos, there’s still no better way to connect with your customers and grow your business than through email marketing. Yet the vast majority of businesses aren’t using it effectively. Own your audience On any other platform, whether it’s Instagram, YouTube, […]
A Single Window
Constraints are good ” … life is much more successfully looked at from a single window, after all.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald / The Great Gatsby 1925 In the context of his masterpiece The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald probably wasn’t thinking about web design. I get that. More likely, this memorable line suggests that a person […]
The Truth About Logos
Logos are overrated “The truth about logos is that they are not that hard to do. If you ask people in the U.S. what logos they like and recognize, they’ll name Target or Nike. Target for example, is just a dot with a circle around it, that’s all it is. So if you want a […]
Smart People
Don’t tell me what to do. “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do. We hire smart people so they can tell US what to do.” — Steve Jobs 1955–2011 Amen. I reckon maybe 20% of big employers get this. The rest insist on second-guessing your every move […]
Email Is Hard
Almost indispensable If you run a business there are few things worse than a broken email system. And here’s the rub — It’s pretty obvious when you’re not getting any email, but when you’re not getting just some of it, it’s much tougher to diagnose. And fix. The problem, of course, is that a lot […]
Sharing Isn’t Reading
Just an observation I read an article the other day that suggested that the best length for a blog post was 1,447 words. No more, no less. The author came to this conclusion by analyzing 11.8 million Google search engine result pages (SERPs). He went on to say that “this correlation could be due to […]
Inspiration Is For Wimps
No shining moments It’s very trendy nowadays to peddle “inspirational” books and courses about “finding your passion.” And I suppose there’s a certain hopeful charm to the notion that one day your true calling will reveal itself in a single shining moment. I guess it happens to some people, but not many. And certainly not […]
The Truth About Inbound Marketing
Outbound vs inbound marketing You may have heard these terms before and been thoroughly baffled by the confusing definitions you found online. Is it really that complicated? No. Marketing agencies just want you to think it’s some big mystery so they can charge you an arm and a leg for their advice. Not to worry, […]
The Power of Emotion
Don’t be boring “Don’t mistake legibility for communication. Just because something’s legible doesn’t mean it communicates. More importantly, it doesn’t mean it communicates the right thing. So, what is the message sent before somebody actually gets into the material? I think that’s sometimes an overlooked area.” — David Carson Why is this important? According to […]
