Archive for April, 2007
Tragedy Marketing
Responding to events that relate to your business is smart marketing, but it helps to have some semblance of common sense. And taste.
Consider this press release from an outfit called US Netcom:
Virginia Tech President Charles Steger indicated that it would’ve been difficult to warn every student because most were off campus at the time.
The fact [...]
Not the Most Social Customer Survey
Would this email want to make you answer a customer survey?
It would be easy, amidst the garbled HTML, to miss the part about getting an Amazon.com gift certificate for taking it. Or you might miss it among the page and a half of legal language, almost all of which could have been included on the [...]
The Stuck in the Elevator approach to messaging
Mary Schmidt’s recent post, Merde before Magic, made the point that, when you come up with messaging for a customer, you just need to start getting something down on paper. It won’t be brilliant or perfect to begin with - and may, in fact, never be anything more than serviceable. But you gotta start somewhere.
I [...]
Your Web Content is Always One Second Old
(This post is not directly about yesterday’s tragedy at Virginia Tech, but it does relate to it, so I do want to take a moment to express my sympathy for the victims and their families, friends, and community.)
It doesn’t matter when you posted it; to a visitor, your web content might as well have [...]
Parago/Circuit City Finale: Victory is Mine!
(Entire story here.)
Constant Comment: Blogging at Bigelow Tea
April 9th was apparently just another normal day on Bigelow Tea’s blog. Dean told about how Bigelow cleans its tea-bag making equipment each spring. (”Not all tea companies take such a proactive approach…”) 3 comments.
April 10th started innocuously enough, as well, with recipes for muffins made with Pomegranate Pizzazz and cake made with Tasty Tangerine. (The Tasty Tangerine [...]
Answer the Questions You’re Asked
I thought I made it pretty easy.
On Friday I put an ad on Craiglist looking for web help. I was relatively specific; I explained that I had a small, primarily informational B2B site. I explained that I was very happy with the site design and content, though I had some ideas about changes and additions [...]
Seth Godin on Vision and Change
Seth Godin hits on something critical in a post on being “anti-change vs. “pro-business”:
The car makers continue to lobby hard, or even sue, over emission rules. Wendy’s, as previously discussed, is working hard against a rule in New York requiring they post calorie counts. It’s common wisdom that government regulation is bad for business, and [...]
Web Site Advice for Small Companies (thanks to Mark Cahill)
A week or so ago, Mark Cahill over at Vario Creative, had a post listing tips for making your company’s web site active and engaging.
The list was thorough and thoughtful, but, as someone who works for a number of small companies, it gave me heart palpitations.
“My companies” tend to be understaffed when it comes to marketing. [...]
How Not to Handle Bad News
If you do a Google News search right now (it may be different when you read this, of course) for “Turbo Tax Security” you’ll find a bunch of stories like this one: Glitch Gives Woman Access To Others’ Turbo Tax Information.
If you were a Turbo Tax Online customer and this made you nervous (as it [...]
