Great reminders from Target Marketing Magazine

By Pat Friesen

Excerpts:

I have become fascinated by the multitude of media choices now available to target and deliver the messages you and I write. And there are more new media options headed our way. This means that in today's media-rich world with readers strapped for time and bombarded with marketing communications, wordsmithing alone probably won't get our messages opened and read. We've got to understand how to deliver the message at the right time and in the right place.

• Don't be overwhelmed by choices. Remember what's worked in the past, and test those new options that make strategic sense for reaching your audience and meeting your business objectives.

• Apply common sense and basic direct marketing principles. Measure and evaluate results, including initial response, closure rates, average order size (dollars and units), abandon/cancellation rates, lifetime value, etc. Remember, direct marketers track and measure to the individual level of response.

• Cheaper on the front end isn't necessarily more cost-effective on the back end. Track, measure and compare results.

• Not all media is direct response media … but that doesn't mean you shouldn't use it. Like public relations and special events, social media such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook are marketing tools with the power to influence buying decisions. Use them accordingly.

• Don't put all your eggs in one basket. For example, a client recently called with a letter writing assignment. After successfully testing an e-mail cross-sell offer to customers, he wanted to make the same offer in a letter to his remaining customer database. The rationale? Even with a successful 15 percent to 20 percent e-mail open rate, he still wasn't reaching 80 percent to 85 percent of his highly qualified buyers. A matchback of direct mail respondents showed they hadn't opened the e-mail. Common sense dictated using both e-mail and postal mail to maximize results.

To read the rest of this article; Delivery Confirmation by Pat Friesen

How to write a blog that will turn readers like me into Company Heroes

Using Psychology to lure readers

Are they serious?

I just ran across an article in Advertising Age in which the author, Marsha Lindsay, CEO of Lindsay, Stone & Briggs, an ad agency, suggested that the key to attracting readers to your corporate conversations is to incorporate psychologist Carl Jung’s 12 archetypes into the messages. She wrote: “Messages that speak to one of these discrete motivations naturally engage consumers and fuel conversations for many reasons: Associating with any one of these motivations gives a brand relevance and innate appeal. These motivations are behind our search for change and meaning, and words related to them will find their way into consumers' natural online search habits. They are timeless and universal. Messages based on them will be relevant across cultures and age groups.” Mary Lindsay, Lindsay, Stone & Briggs. Advertising Age Magazine

So, after scratching my head, and shrugging off the urge to dismiss this as hog-wash, I searched for information about the 12 archetypes and found this link: http://www.herowithin.com/arch101.html.

Let’s test Mary’s theory out to see if her idea would work for readers like me.

Step one
Figure out what exceptional blend of the 12 archetypes I am. Here are my results.

Hero/Warrior: Likes to save the day. Sets and achieve goals, overcomes obstacles and persists in difficult times.....tends to see others as enemies and to think in either/or terms.

Explorer/Seeker/Wanderer: Seeks out new paths.

Ruler: Creates environments that invite in the gifts and perspectives of all concerned.

Step Two
Plan a blog addressing these archetypal passions. For the Hero/Warrior/Seeker: Content could present new, cutting-edge strategies and technologies that would help me beat my competition and increase profitable sales; thereby counter-acting the economic downturn……..I’d be able to save the day…….and in the end, I’d be recognized as the “company hero.”

For the “Ruler” in me: A blogger could suggest that I capture a continual flow of new ideas and strategies by encouraging blog readers to share their techniques for getting readers to their blog. Of course this good, no-cost idea would reinforce my hero status.

Well, I have to say that if bloggers presented legitimate content offering fresh strategies to beat the competition and increase profitable sales, while becoming a hero; it would hit on my hot buttons.

What do you think? I’m going to try it, I am already getting that hero feeling.

Step Three
Thoughtfully consider what archetypes your target audience/s represents and theme your blog content to those motivations.

Step Four
Referring to the plan, create a compelling message to post on your blog. They say that advertisers are using it, so let’s watch and see if we are able to recognize when the archetypes are woven into the messages.

Tell me what you find and how you feel this Jungian strategy works. Go get em’.

The Hero/Warrior/Seeker/Ruler

By the way, can any of you give me great ideas to attract readers to our blog? I need the blog to be a smashing success so I become the hero at my company!