|
|
|
----------------------------------------------- Bob Bly's Direct Response Letter: Resources, ideas, and tips for improving response to business-to-business, high-tech, industrial, Internet, and direct marketing. May, 2003 ----------------------------------------------- You are getting this e-mail because you subscribed to it on www.bly.com or because you are one of Bob's clients, prospects, seminar attendees, or book buyers. If you would prefer not to receive further e-mails of this type, go to http://www.bly.com enter your e-mail address, and hit Unsubscribe. ----------------------------------------------- 3 WAYS TO KEEP YOUR "LEAD PIPELINE" FULL If you depend on a steady flow of new leads to maintain revenue and profitability for your business, the weak economy may be slowing that flow down. Here are three ways to rev it back up again: 1. Regular direct mail outreach: Each month, a mailing list company ships a local printer labels for newly incorporated or newly registered businesses in his area. Sending them a special offer for printed stationery yields a couple dozen new faces in his shop a month, some becoming long-term customers. 2. Periodic seminars: Many years ago, terrific leads came my way through several adult education programs where I taught. After preparing once, I merely had to show up and perform well. I even got paid a small amount to teach the programs. 3. Recurrent publishing: Either a column that you write every week, month, or quarter or your own newsletter, mailed out or sent by e-mail, will normally bring you inquiries like clockwork, too. Source: This article originally appeared in The Marketing Minute, a weekly newsletter on creative marketing published by Marcia Yudkin. For more info or to subscribe: http://www.yudkin.com/marksynd.htm ----------------------------------------------- IS THIS THE END OF MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS PROFESSIONALS? I had an interesting e-mail exchange with consultant Jeff Herrington. Jeff specializes in teaching non-writers in corporations to write content. His basic premise is that everyone must have communications skills, and in the future this will reduce or even eliminate the need for communications specialists including employee, corporate, and marketing communications. In an e-mail to Jeff I wrote: "In a recent interview you said, 'The whole idea of a central group being the communicators will be seen as old-fashioned.' Does that mean you don't think marketing communications will continue to exist as distinct positions within the corporation?" Jeff's response was as follows: "I would not say that something precise like marketing communications will completely vanish within companies in the next 3 to 5 years. What I do foresee, however, is that over the next 10 to 15 years, marketing communications as a separate department will slowly fade away. "Communications departments will shift in priority from churning out communication pieces themselves, to strategizing how everyone in the organization can best communicate internally and externally and then facilitating their obtaining the tools and skills to do just that. "Communicators won't be doing communication themselves so much as giving information owners access to all of the tools they need to communicate both inside and outside the organization." What do you think? Is the communications professional disappearing along with the dinosaur and the dodo? Or is there still a place for us in the world? E-mail me your thoughts at rwbly@bly.com. ----------------------------------------------- NEW IN-HOUSE TRAINING PROGRAM AVAILABLE - "COPYWRITING FOR NON-COPYWRITERS" Even if Jeff Herrington is dead wrong, many non-writers want to improve their writing skills, whether it's to write sharper e-mails, Web content, and product sheets, or to be a better reviewer and editor of copy written by their staff, ad agency, PR firm, or freelance copywriter. I have taught copywriting to hundreds of managers, engineers, and other non-writers, and my latest course is "Copywriting for Non-Copywriters." It is designed to help anyone - pro or amateur - improve his writing, critiquing, and editing skills for content, internal communications, and marketing communications. In this workshop you will learn how to: * Understand your reader's "core complex" on a much deeper level. * Write crisply and concisely to accommodate today's time-pressured, non-reading audience. * Trim the fat from your writing. * Talk to your reader in a friendly, natural, conversational style that builds empathy and strengthens the relationship. * Write about what your reader really wants and needs to know. * Create e-mail messages and landing pages that double click-throughs and conversions. For more information, or to schedule a "Copywriting for Non-Copywriters" seminar for your organization or group, call Fern Dickey at 201-797-8105, or e-mail her at dickeybf@aol.com. ----------------------------------------------- MORE ADVICE ON CHOOSING DOMAIN NAMES Direct Response Letter subscriber Andrew Denny comments, "The real problem with descriptive domain names (e.g. divorceonline.com) is that they then tend all to sound the same. For instance, divorceonline.com is too close to onlinedivorce.com or even divorce-easy.com." His solution? Get an unusual, memorable name, and plug it heavily until it's associated with what you are promoting (e.g., google, amazon, yahoo, ebay, clickz). It will be more easily memorized in the short term - and more findable in the long term. ----------------------------------------------- WRITING TIP OF THE MONTH "Today's time-starved, MTV-ized, USA Today'd readers don't have the patience for the kind of polite strolling about the subject that Victorian-era authors indulged in. They want their stories straight up, fast and furious, with no throat-clearing. If you're writing a book about a homicide, get the bullet out of the gun on the first page. If you're promising to improve readers' sex lives, get between the sheets in the opening sentence." --David Fryxell, Writer's Digest, 4/03 ----------------------------------------------- BOB'S NEW BOOK: "CAREERS FOR WRITERS, SECOND EDITION" VGM Career Books has just released the revised and updated edition of my book, "Careers for Writers & Others Who Have a Way With Words." If you want to start or jump-start your writing career, this book offers plenty of career opportunities for writers to make that dream come true. Order now and get 20% off the cover price. Just click on the link below: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/007140600X/qid=1048704295/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/002-6839593-2717666?v=glance&s=books ----------------------------------------------- NEW AUDIO CONFERENCE: "GENERATING MORE LEADS IN A TIGHT ECONOMY" If business is slow, and the weak economy has you worried, go to the Web to listen to my well-received teleconference, "Generating More Leads in a Tight Economy." You'll get practical, easy-to-implement strategies that can help you generate more leads and close more sales, even in today's marketplace. To hear this seminar and get a copy of the accompanying PowerPoint presentation, click on the link below: https://www.pbconferences.com/audio/main.asp?G=2&E=88&I=1 ---------------------------------------------- 60-SECOND COMMERCIAL FROM FERN DICKEY, OFFICE MANAGER: Bob is available on a limited basis for copywriting of direct mail packages, sales letters, brochures, white papers, ads, e-mail marketing campaigns, PR materials, and Web pages. We recommend you call for a FREE copy of our updated Copywriting Information Kit. Just let us know your industry and the type of copy you're interested in seeing (ads, mailings, etc.), and if Bob is available to take your assignment, we'll tailor a package of recent samples to fit your requirements. Call Fern Dickey at 201-797-8105 or e-mail dickeybf@aol.com. ---------------------------------------------- Bob Bly 22 E. Quackenbush Ave. Copywriter/Consultant Dumont, NJ 07628 phone 201-385-1220 fax 201-385-1138 www.bly.com rwbly@bly.com ---------------------------------------------- |
