The announcement of a renewed Covid lockdown to Level 3 in Auckland – which affects me and many of my clients seems to be a mixture of ‘here we go round the mulberry bush’ and ‘once more into the breach, dear Friends.’ I can’t decide if it’s Shakespeare or a child’s nursery tale. Be obedient […]
I just sent this message to my clients. There’s an overload of businesses sending unnecessary emails about the New Zealand Covid-19 alert level change. May I suggest we simply put something on the website home page? And telephone anyone who’s coming in for a meeting. And maybe the team add a note to their email signatures…. […]
Data – love it or loathe it, we get it served up everywhere we look. But do you know enough to judge and make up your mind? What is factual, what is relevant, where are devious presenters hiding the truth? The answers to all these questions requires modern marketers to educate themselves. The The Economist called […]
My logo has a beautiful gradient of colours in the design. This gives me a huge number of subsidiary colour elements which I can add into customer communications and marketing. I did an analysis of the key colours and the “colour palette” of associated shades. You can do this by uploading your logo or using […]
Selling consultancy is hard. And selling a professional service is doubly hard. Niche selling is the best way to be – create a tight brief of detailed information what you do and for whom. Stay focused and don’t deviate. All easy to say and hard to do. When a contact asked me “What are your […]
I am a Facebook for Business group administrator and I’m delighted that they just added back an old feature. When FB introduced the new interface for Group Admins about 9 months ago, the “Invited by….” feature was missing. I sent my feedback that this is really useful and I wanted it…. Today it reappeared. Why […]
I write copy for a living. I write a lot. Words, words, words. Each project is designed to fit into a particular desired outcome within a marketing strategy and tactical framework. I say that so you understand context. Context in writing is both important and valuable – but more about that later. How I write […]
I got a question about what the four elements that comprise a “professional email”. I don’t know why the questioner thought that there were four parts. My best practice has three parts: Tell them what you’re going to tell them Tell them Remind them what you already said Easy! Good email message structure Slightly less […]
Making a big investment into solving a marketing problem is a giant challenge. The risks are huge, the investment uncertain and the outcomes are unproven. One way to overcome these risks is to do rapid prototyping. Rapid Prototyping needs new adherents Today I interview Joanne Jacobs, an expert in how to use this technique. Talking […]