The vast majority of websites fall into one of two categories.  They’re very functional, but visually unappealing or worse.  Or they look cool, but are a pain to figure out.  Both types undermine the purpose of the site – to engage visitors and draw them closer to the sales point.  With this in mind, consider…

Two recent events point to the importance of knowing what matters.  First, the sad news: Gidget, the chihuahua made famous by those Taco Bell commercials, passed away.  The most memorable thing about Gidget for marketers was not her popularity, but the fact that the very popular campaign barely nudged the sales needle for the restaurants. …

Let’s start by saying that if you don’t already have a plan in place to deliver value to customers and prospects through regular e-mail, you’re late to the party.  With that out of the way, here’s a recent number you can use to measure your own efforts.  The average open rate for e-mail campaigns is…

During a recent Youth Entrepreneur Success (YES) program, we were working with a group of young people who would be selling Pizza Hut pizza as their “company” product the next day.  These middle school students all agreed that their product was better than Little Caesar’s, which was being sold by a competing group.  But when…

Everyone knows that moms have found the internet to be a great resource for everything from health information to shopping and price comparisons.  But how to reach those moms?  Consider “cost per lead” advertising on relevant websites.  Unlike their “cost per click” cousins, with CPL ads, you pay only for leads – moms who sign…

To prove a point about the value of creative copy, some ad agency folks bought a used BMX bike on eBay, re-listed it using amped up copy (“wicked sick BMX”) and sold that same bike for five times what they paid for it.  The upshot?  Copy counts.  Whether it’s your website, a brochure, a direct…

A Yale University study showed that about half of all kids ate more snacks when they watched a cartoon that included commercials for food.  The same study showed that adults who viewed commercials for snacks and fast foods while watching TV ate more than grown-ups who saw only commercials for healthy foods.  Health implications aside,…

The second season of the AMC TV series “Mad Men,” which recounts life in and around an ad agency in the early 1960s, has just come out on DVD.  Inside the packaging (designed to look like a shirt and tie in a box) is a slip of paper showing a white shirt collar with a…

Fifth Third Bank’s new campaign targeting high school and college students and their parents is designed to help young people learn to handle money well before they develop bad habits.  The marketing effort uses humor to warn students about being “that guy” who’s always hitting his friends up for a little cash and leaves college…

During a recent move, a local bedding manufacturer and retailer, Bowles Mattress Company, actually talked the customer out of buying a new mattress and springs, noting that the customer’s existing set still had plenty of life left in it.  A lost sale today?  Yes.  A customer for life?  You bet.  And the lifetime value of…