Here are new tips from which I promise, you can use at least five.

Check 'em out.

Use color in e-mail pitch

Don't be shy to use color in your e-mail — it's an excellent way to reinforce your brand. Change background and text colors to grab attention, match your logo or recreate the look and feel of your website.

Don't limit yourself to primary colors either — the Color Marketing Group tells us that for 2002, "The trend is away from any one pure color standing alone". Remember to choose highly contrasting text and background colors for maximum readability. And if you stay consistent in your color choices, your readers will soon come to recognize, at a glance, your mailers as ones that are worth their time.

Appeal to the senses

Appeal not only to emotions, but also to the senses:

- sight: "that looks great on you"

- sound: "hear that powerful engine"

- touch: "feel the luxury"

- smell: "such a clean, fresh aroma"

- taste: "it's so delicious"

The personal touch

As much as I enjoy my word processor, I must tell you that a handwritten message on the envelope of your direct mail will result in seven out of ten obvious direct mail pieces being opened.

Three sales you must make

To succeed in business, you must always sell yourself, then sell your product, then sell your company. The quality of your company is always a major concern with the customer.

Tips for dealing with the elderly

With this huge market getting even larger and richer, here are a few things you can do to help with customer relations:

1. Become a sponsor of local athletic competitions through Senior Olympics or other non-profits.
   
   
2. Provide "walking" parties for your older clients. Lay out walking courses of various lengths with healthy drinks, snacks and socializing at the end.
   
   
3. Develop a program with a health club to offer your customers a discounted membership; or hold a social event at a health club where the attendees can come in athletic clothing and use the facilities before and during the event.
   
   
4. If you have welcome packets for clients, include information about venues for excercising, walking tours of the area, lists of groups that exercise together with contact numbers, and special outdoor recreational attractions.
   
   
5. Celebrate the accomplishments of active elders in your newsletter.
   
   
6. organize safe outdoor adventures such as a bike ride, a canoe trip, a fishing expedition, a kayaking clinic.

FOR SECRETS OF SELLING SENIORS, CLICK HERE

Get a press kit

If your attempts at gaining publicity meet with success, the first item you'll need for interested editors is a press kit. A press kit can contain:

* a backgrounder, or brief history of your company, its products, its markets, and its management,

* one or more press releases explaining your current news announcement,

* photos of your products or key management personnel,

* reprints of other articles about your company,

* your company brochure,

* a competitive analysis of your company versus its competition,

* a press guide, or key questions and answers about your company, and

* your business card.

Along with printed versions of these, prepare electronic versions for editors who contact you via e-mail. Don't go off halfcocked in the battle for publicity. Prepare a press kit before you begin seeking publicity, and you'll be prepared when opportunity strikes.

Follow up on press releases

Editors at major magazines get dozens of press releases every day, and after awhile they all look alike. To make your press release stand out, make a follow up call to the editor a few days after you send out the release, and ask if he or she would like more information about it. The follow-up gives you a chance to establish a personal contact with the editor, to expand on your news item or article idea, and to learn more about the specific needs of that editor.

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Have you seen the articles on PR

at this site's Marcom Library

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Act like an editor

The headline and the beginning of any press release is your best chance to get an editor interested in your announcement, so make it count. The headline and the first sentence should summarize not only what you're announcing, but why it's newsworthy. Consider these two headlines:

APEX ADVERTISING WINS COMPCO ACCOUNT

APEX ADVERTISING LANDS COMPCO ACCOUNT, BEATING BIG NAME FIRMS

Both headlines summarize the announcement, but the second one offers a reason why it's newsworthy. When writing a press release, put yourself in the position of the editor who will eventually be reading it, and make sure the headline and the beginning of the release are designed to get that editor excited.

Use local cable TV

Here are two quick tips:

1) Try viewing your spot with the sound off because TV is a visual medium. Many people will mute the commercials but stare at them anyway.

2) Profit from the wisdom of major advertisers. McDonalds insists that either its name, logo or product appear in virtually every frame of a TV commercial.

Conflict sells PR ideas

When seeking publicity, position your company against competing companies. The press loves conflict, and describing your company in terms of its differences from your competitors is a natural way to build conflict into a proposed article. Think about proposing articles about how you're fighting for your share of a larger company's market by offering better customer service, or more expertise, for example. Or maybe your company is the David and your main competitor is Goliath. No matter what business you're in, competitive conflict can whet the media's interest in it.

Winnie's speaking gems...

Opening with a bang; getting to the point fast; sticking with one theme; using simple language; using illustrations; concluding with emotion or drama. For these, thank Winston Churchill.

Use power words

Copywriters and advertisers have known for years that certain words, by themselves, excite readers and encourage them to learn more. Use as many of the following words as possible in your e-mail subject lines, brochures, ads, and in your storefront:

You, now, money, save, sale, new, secrets, results, proven, guaranteed, health, easy, safety, why, benefits, yes, love, discover, deliver, announcing, how, fast, information, intelligence, report, tip, news, bulletin, guide.

Talk to your customer

One-to-one relationships are important in any business, and they're harder to achieve in cyberspace. Your writing style has a lot to do with your ability to form such relationships. If you write stilted, formal messages, you'll put readers off. But if you speak to readers as individuals, you'll invite personal relationships that are a foundation of repeat business.

When composing e-mail, brochures, or other online messages, use personal pronouns rather than third-person pronouns. Say "I" or "we" or "you" or "our" rather than "they" or "his" or "its." Using personal pronouns helps bring the reader (and the sale) that much closer.

Be selfish in the Yellow Pages

Control the page. Do it by running two different dimension small ads on the same page. This eliminates any possibility of anyone running a larger ad on that page.

Increase your impact!

Long copy works as well as short copy. Vague headlines reduce effectiveness 11% while humor adds 10%. Newness adds an average of 24% and celebrities contribute 25% more, though not guaranteed. Recipes can add 29%, coupons boost persuasion 26%, and using just one frame from your TV commercial increases impact by 42%. See what I mean about integrated communications?

Business cards that really sell

The best are mini-brochures that open up and list benefits and features. Print your photo on the card and opt for full color. Print cards to fit in a rolodex. List all of the ways to reach you; office phone, car or cell phone, voice mail, pager, fax number and e-mail address.

Trade show wisdom

Always keep in mind the big three:

1) Who you are

2) What you do

3) How you can help the attendee

Only after you are positive that your exhibit addresses these three points should you turn your attention to colors and other design elements.

Qualities men most admire in other men

Dependability (88%), honesty (88%), willingness to help (86%), humor (81%), authenticity (79%), is a regular guy (69%), balances work and home (65%), intelligence (65%), is left-handed (99%). (No no! I'm only kidding. I just put that last one in to see if you were paying attention.)

Marketing to older Americans

Most older Americans do not think of themselves as being old. They do not respond well to offerings identified with age. Make your appeal to health and vitality. For more advice, go to http://www.suddenlysenior.com/howadvertiseseniors.html.

Where is everyone?

Of the 99 million households in the United States, about 35 million aren't listed in the phone book. Of those, 15 million are recent movers, 6 million just don't have a phone, and 14 million are avoiding somebody on purpose.

How to get that envelope opened

Business people are far more likely to open unsolicited mail when the address is handwritten or when the package is thick. A major turnoff: out-of-date details concerning the name and address.

Explain your order form

Ordering goods or services online is a very new thing in our world. Most people have never done it, and the process is a nerve-wracking one. When designing your order form, calm customer jitters by explaining every aspect of the ordering process.

Explain how to select an information blank and fill it in, how to move from one information blank to the next, how the order form isn't transmitted until the visitor clicks a Send or Send Form button at the bottom, and how the form's information is automatically cleared if the customer clicks away to a different page. Most people don't know these things, and even if they do, they'll appreciate your desire to set them at ease.

Let ‘em remember that 800 number

If you're marketing with direct response TV, keep the phone number on the screen at least ten seconds. Tests proved that response rates increased 70% by increasing the phone number exposure time from three seconds to ten seconds.

Ads that stand tall in small spaces

If you run small ads in newspapers or magazines, make your design stand out by using tall bold headline, heavy top and bottom rules, color or screens, interesting visuals, and minimal copy.

Why promote?

Advertising can make a brand name number two, but promotions can get it to the top. Ads create attitudes: promotions get results.

Your signature deserves a slogan

Some of the best-known companies in the world have one-line slogans that instantly identify their business mission.

We're all familiar with slogans like "We Try Harder" or "All The News That's Fit To Print," for example. Come up with a one-line slogan that crystallizes your business mission and use it on your web site, in your e-mail signature, in discussion group signatures, and in your electronic brochures.

Your company name identifies your business. Your slogan gives people a reason to learn more about it.

If you stand to present and use visual aids:

Prospects are 43% more likely to be persuaded, prospects will be willing to pay 26% more for the same product for service, learning is improved up to 200%, retention is improved up to 38%, the time it takes to explain complex topics is reduced by 25% to 40%.

So stand up.

 

Repackage your message

People get bored hearing the same message over and over again, yet repetition is one of the keys to visibility online. What to do? Create new versions of the same message that present your product in slightly different ways.

To do this, come up with a list of benefits for your product or service and then think of a message that focuses on each benefit separately. This way, you'll be able to promote the same product in several different ways.

Soap manufacturers have been doing this for decades. Soap is basically soap, and the main message is that it cleans things. But soap makers have used benefits ranging from smell to healthfulness to appearance to biodegradability to sell the same product.

 What influences people to buy?

28% of adults say articles about a product; 8% say advertisements. 95% say they believe newspaper articles publicizing a product; 89% say they believe magazine articles; 71% say they believe TV talk shows that are publicizing a product.

Push the envelope

The direct mail letter gets 70% of your orders, the brochure 20%, and the order form 10%. But none of these items will be seen if the envelope doesn't grab their attention.

Personalize with stamps and handwritten addresses. Try using bright colors, rubber stamp and post-it effects.

 Survey your prospects

Surveys serve a dual purpose: they gather your prospects' and customers' thoughts, and they boost goodwill by showing customers and prospects that you care about what they think. A brief survey posted on your favorite discussion group can help you better understand customer needs, gauge reactions to a product name or idea, or provide valuable information about you versus your competition. To conduct a successful survey:

* Use yes/no or multiple choice questions;

* Use 20 or fewer questions

* Explain who you are and why you're doing the survey when you post it, and promise to post the results;

* Set a response deadline;

* Offer to reward respondents by entering them in a drawing for a prize.

Ten commandments from Sam Walton:

1. Commit to your business
   
   
2. Share your profits
   
   
3. Motivate your partners
   
   
4. Communicate all that you know
   
   
5. Appreciate what your associates do
   
   
6. Celebrate your success
   
   
7. Listen to everyone in your company
   
   
8. Exceed your customer's expectations
   
   
9. Control your expenses better than competitors
   
   
10. Swim upstream and avoid conventional wisdom.
    
    

 

Five direct mail tips:

1. Spend 50% of your time designing your order form;
2. write that order form first, not last;
3. in your copy present one idea and force a yes or no response;
4. judge your results by cost per order and not response rate;
5. build your database by asking customers for referrals and trying new mailing lists.
   
   

 Billboard tips:

Billboards help remind others of what you are doing and can direct people to you. Never take the published rate. You can usually negotiate a lower price. Also negotiate to shorten the term of the contract. If they say 12 months, you can get it for six or less. Buy at the end of the month. Winter is the off season in most states and you can save 50%.

 

Older Americans: control 77% of the nation's assets...

but represent only 35% of the population; are the reason for phones with bigger buttons, appliances with easy-to-reach controls, cards with large-type instructions, clothing and shoes with Velcro closures instead of teensy buttons; a reduction in childproof packaging.

 How Alka-Seltzer increased sales dramatically:

Instead of saying "pop a tablet in a glass of water" they switched to "pop two tablets in a glass of water." Bingo!

 Include a question in every e-mail contact

When you respond to customer inquiries by sending out your electronic brochure, include one or more questions about the customer in your message. Questions beg to be answered, and by answering them, your prospect continues the online relationship. The longer you can continue the dialog, the more likely you'll end up with a customer.

People remember only two or three points of a presentation...

so you should not give them more than three reasons for buying your product or show them more than three points on a slide or overhead projection.

Your direct mail based on telephone lists?

Of the 99 million households in the United States, about 35 million aren't listed in the phone book. Of those, 15 million are recent movers, 6 million just don't have a phone, and 14 million are avoiding somebody on purpose.

Ads that stand tall in small spaces:

If you run small ads in newspapers or magazines, make your design stand out by using tall bold headline, heavy top and bottom rules, color or screens, interesting visuals, and minimal copy.

 Long copy works as well as short copy.

Sometimes better.

Vague headlines reduce effectiveness 11% while humor adds 10%. Newness adds an average of 24% and celebrities contribute 25% more, though not guaranteed. Recipes can add 29%, coupons boost persuasion 26%, and using just one frame from your TV commercial increases impact by 42%. See what I mean about integrated communications.

 A refresher course on what makes print advertising work:

It rewards the reader by providing news or information, solves a problem, or appeals to the emotions. It repeats the message three times -- in illustration, headline and copy. Illustrations relating directly to the message work 32% better, unless they're a cliché. Leave out the illustration and the ad is 27% less effective.

 Why postcards?

Postcards have lower postage rates than letters, easy labeling, and lower printing costs. You can create your own four-color designs on your desktop computer and send your artwork on disk to printers.

 Direct mail advice:

Before printing your mailing piece, run it by your staff to pick up any problems. Companies that try this approach, report sales increases of 20%. And sales people sell like crazy because they feel that they are in the loop.

Why Sunday is the best day to run newspaper ads.

More employment opportunity ads resulting in higher readership of the paper, especially the classified section; people on the road are usually home on Sundays and have more time to spend with the newspaper; Sunday newspaper circulation is usually

greater than weekday circulation.

Exceptions to the Sunday rule: Super Bowl Sunday, Christmas, New Year's Day, Easter.

 How to create really effective business cards.

The best are mini-brochures that open up and list benefits and features. Print your photo on the card and opt for full color. Print cards to fit in a rolodex. List all of the ways to reach you; office phone, car or cell phone, voice mail, pager, fax number and e-mail address.

 Why do businesses advertise with newsletters?

Among the reasons are increased sales from current customers, maintaining contact with current customers, adding value to your services, locking down your niche, educating prospects, establishing expertise, saving selling time, spurring word-of-mouth referrals, networking through news, and staying in contact with the press. Two more guerrilla reasons: it's easier and it's more inexpensive than ever before.

See special newsletter section on this site for more moneysaving, moneymaking tips. How to help promote your business with a newsletter

 Telemarketing tip:

Only 3% of people called sit through a computerized telemarketing call, 33% sit through a call from a live human being. Some 4% of people reached by telemarketing actually place an order. Figure the cost/return feasibility before starting a telemarketing campaign.

 Roses are red, not profits. Profits are blue.

A recent study showed that shoppers spent about 50% more on TVs placed in front of blue displays. With a red display, twice as many purchases were postponed.

Words to live by:

Lily Tomlin says, "We're all in this alone." David Ogilvy says, "The consumer is not a moron; she's your wife."

 International POP factoids:

In Europe, 55% of purchasing decisions are made at the point of purchase, compared with 65% (down from 74%) in the USA Spending on POP among brand leaders takes up15% of all marketing funds in the USA, but only 5% in France.

If you'd like more, click here.

Be sure to see the extensive Kaiser Communications Marcom Library for essays on Newsletter Marketing, Effective Copywriting, Internet Marketing, How to Advertise to the Senior Market, and How Best to Use Exhibits and Shows. CLICK HERE.