FunMarketer Lesson of the Week

Craig, where do you weigh-in on the debate between long and short copy?

The FunMarketer answer:

Our ongoing discussion on Brevity in Marketingleads to a good question: how many words is “just right” for good advertising copy?

OK, part of finding your marketing voice is making each word count. For most of us, this means slicing the number of words we use. Think Gettysburg address. But after we hone each phrase and sentence, then what? How many words do we need? Is the briefest copy always best?

No, of course not. Copy length depends on:

* the medium you are using – TV? Radio? Direct Mail?
* the product/audience combination – Tech-savvy B-B niche audience? or retail signage?
* placement in the overall advertising package.

For example, a Direct Mail Package aimed at a consumer might contain a 1,500 word letter, a 600 word brochure, and a 45 word lift-letter.

And the five most important words might be the teaser copy on the envelope. Think those aren’t critical? We’ll, the prospect will never see your brilliant 1,500 word letter if your five word teaser copy doesn’t tug them inside the package.

There is no ‘magic’ number.

Good Luck as you develop your own voice and sense of timing.

Call me for more ideas at 402-423-2444 or email me at funmarketer@marketinghawks.com

FunMarketer Free Campaign Idea of the Week

Anybody looking to put the word “excitement” into any ad campaign need look no further.

Photo: Istock #6543160

Headline: Mom, How Soon Can We Go Back to Acme Supply?

FunMarketer Tip of The Week

If you don’t have a copy of Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style, please pick one up.

FunMarketer Phrase of The Week

“Rock Solid”. Remember our value and trust themes during the economic slowdown. Weaving this phrase into your ads will reinforce trust and traditional values with your audience.

FunMarketer Lesson of the Week

Craig, You sometimes mention surrounding the customer with your brand. Is this possible? Can you overdo it?

The FunMarketer answer: How many ways do you tell your kid you love him or her? Sure, you say it. But more important, you show it. You show it with every sandwich you packed away in her lunchbox and every time you waited in the car outside school so she didn’t have to walk home in the rain.

Think that kid didn’t notice? She noticed.

Same with the customer. You must absolutely encase her with positive marketing messages that reflect your brand and your brand’s promise. When I review a client’s shop the first place I go to is the wash room to see what it’s like. Is it clean? That’s prerequisite number one. If you want to get an F on a Marketing Hawks review just have a dirty loo.

But OK, so you’ve hired folks that can pickup the trash. Yea! Now, how about a few flowers in that rest room, or maybe just a hint of something that makes it fresh. How about some lotion?

There, that wasn’t too hard. What, no push for a big old poster announcing CD rates or what’s on clearance this week? Maybe…it depends on if that promotional style reflects the personality of your store. Perhaps just a couple of nice prints hanging on the wall can bond you closer to the customer.

See, it’s the little things in marketing that your customers pick up on. Ever listen to a great story teller? Does she scream? Does she speak loudly? No, she knows the value of a pause, of just gracing her audience with a few seconds of silence. We require relief from the communications assault.

Sometimes the mind appreciates a breather from the overt marketing we are all exposed to. That’s the idea behind a Customer Respite.

Call me for more ideas at 402-423-2444 or email me at funmarketer@marketinghawks.com

FunMarketer Free Campaign Idea of the Week

It’s back to school, which means that many people are joining clubs and groups. These two young ladies look happy together – you can almost feel their arms around each other in a warm, friendship hug.

Photo: istock #4537186

Headline: Make a Friend for Life at Acme Girls Club
Alternate Headline: Find that Friend You Can Always Count On – Visit Acme Girls Club Today

FunMarketer Tip of The Week

Last week I discussed brevity in our marketing efforts. One way to keep your writing brief is to not worry about the number of words in the first draft. The first draft should cull out the ideas from your mind. Some of the perfect phrases we search for will start pecking their way out of this rough copy.

But, if you are like me, the first draft will contain many extra words and long phrases. Rather than trying to make the perfect first draft, just accept that it will be a bit wordy. Then, go back and slash out phrases and words that you can make simpler in subsequent drafts.

FunMarketer Phrase of The Week

“Silence is Golden”. In keeping with the brevity in marketing theme, here’s a phrase that we can certainly stick in the back of our mind as we construct our copy and our layout. Silence in a spoken ad is analogous to white space in a print ad. Like the ear needs the unspoken pause, the eye needs the unseen. Sometimes the presence of the blank space in an ad allows the emphasis on your headline or photo combination.

Happy Marketing!

Craig Lutz-Priefert

FunMarketer Lesson of the Week

Craig, What is the right relationship between Story, Benefits and Features?

The FunMarketer answer: Story reinforces you as you market your Company Brand, Benefits (and Features) reinforce the Product.

This might seem academic, but it’s not. Think about it – when you shop at a retail store, you expect that store to treat you a certain way regardless of what you buy. If you are at Wal-Mart, you expect cheap prices, clean stores, smooth checkout and not much else from the staff. If you are at JC Penney, you anticipate that somebody in the sales department will assist you.

It doesn’t matter what product you are buying at Wal-Mart or at JC Penney, you walk in expecting the company’s brand to be stable and aligned with what you’ve previously experienced. Story should always reinforce the brand. That’s why the combination of photos and headlines or imagery surrounding the customer in retail is so important. It is also why it is beyond Herculean for a retailer to occupy both the Upscale and the Discount position. It is nearly impossible for the imagery in the store to shoulder these two loads at the same time.

But when you are buying a product, you need to immediately convey what that product will do for the customer. Quick – parade your benefits out there: fast, front and center. Don’t assume listing the features will be sufficient. Computer and tech products are especially guilty of this. Processor speed, ram, etc – just listing all that in a long litany of features won’t convince anybody. If that new Model 500 processor is 50% faster than the old Model 400, announce that fact after you scream: “Get your work done in 1/2 the time!”

Hint – The photo/headline combinations Marketing Hawks dreams up each week for FunMarketer are intended to jumpstart your creative mind for either story or benefits. You can use these suggestions as a launchpad for ideas to enhance and reflect your brand, or that latest product you are pushing.

Call me for more ideas at 402-423-2444 or email me at funmarketer@marketinghawks.com

FunMarketer Free Campaign Idea of the Week

Here’s one that will work well for just about anything you are selling to families – from food to fashion.

Photo: Istock #4669594

Headline: Swing into Fall with Savings from Acme! This week only, 10% off…

FunMarketer Tip of The Week

Sometimes a bit of creative help is as close as your kitchen’s pantry. Need marketing ideas for an ad or campaign? Go grab some inspiration from some of the best packaging around – the cans. Just look at how little space these marketers have to work with – and how much they pack in. Pull down three or four cans – and drink in some inspiration. Hey, don’t forget the generic ’store-brands’. Plus, your writing might even become more honed by learning the importance of brevity. Why?

People who create graphics and words for the cans often must condense benefits into just one or two words. Look at the phrase: “Packed Fresh”. If you were writing copy for the internet or a print ad – maybe even a coupon – you would write: “Packed fresh so you enjoy the good health you deserve.”

Brevity works. Try it.

FunMarketer Phrase of The Week

“Heavenly”. Wow, talk about a phrase that is malleable. You can run with cloud images, food images, happy close-ups with eyes shut and smiles and faces uplifted in anticipation or enjoyment.

It’s one of the best one-word sentences you can end an ad with. And, if you’re clever enough, you can create a little mini-story around it.

Happy Marketing!

Craig Lutz-Priefert

FunMarketer Lesson of the Week

Craig, Why is it important for a service company to have a Brand Banner?

The FunMarketer answer is: Because Word-Of-Mouth propels a service company. And your employees need to absolutely know what your company stands for. The Brand Banner accomplishes both.

The Brand Banner is an easily-remembered phrase or concept that your customers and employees can repeat effortlessly to other people. It’s much more than a tag-line or headline for a specific campaign; it must reflect the promise you are delivering to your customers, day in and day out.

One of the best is Hy-Vee’s “Where There’s a Helpful Smile in Every Aisle”. I am not a frequent Hy-Vee shopper, but last year I was in a Hy-Vee , bogged down with too many items in my hands because I had just ducked in to pick up one item and ended up snagging five. As the Hy-Vee employee walked by she literally lifted a twelve-pack of soda pop from my hands and shepherded me to checkout. All this was unsolicited, but definitely appreciated. (Hey, I’m a guy, and you know how we hate to ask for help).

Now that’s going the distance for a customer. That employee was 100% aligned with the company’s primary brand message – helpfulness.

Your brand has a position in the market. Notice, Hy-Vee isn’t positioned as the low-price leader. Although they have sales promote their prices as competitive, their brand stands for service and convenience, not price. It’s extremely difficult for your brand to occupy two places in the customer’s head – better to just have one that is clear in the mind of the employee and the customer. Keep your company loyal to one Brand Banner and you’ll win.

So, make sure your service business has a Brand Banner that customers and employees can remember. It’s not an easy task to build one – call me if you want some tips. Or else check out the tips in my Marketing Workouts

FunMarketer Free Campaign Idea of the Week

Here’s a photo that screams: “We appreciate our customer!”

Photo: Istock #4625200

Headline: To All You Who Help Make Us Great – Take a Bow!

Got any great ideas of your own? Just reply to the Funmarketer blog with your istock number and your headline and subhead (Clean Only, Please).

Oh, if you do use the campaign, make sure you give credit where due.

FunMarketer Tip of The Week

Use Google Alerts for your competition. If you are trying to find out when your competition is mentioned on the web, one way to do just that is using Google Alerts. Of course, it’s a good idea to sign up for alerts for your own company, too.

FunMarketer Phrase of The Week

“We’ve Got Your Back”. Remember, Trust and Value is our theme this summer. This phrase falls into the “trust” camp. It implies that you, as a company, will take care of the client. But just think of all the ways you can use this phrase:

Suntan lotion
Recliner chair (or a lawnchair, since it is still summer)
Chiropractor
Winter Overcoats (coupled with a strong, cold wind icon blowing)

More generally, the phrase is great for Customer Service. Some of you that are clever can probably even incorporate it into a tag-line for your Customer Service guarantee.

Happy Marketing!

Craig Lutz-Priefert

FunMarketer Lesson of the Week

Craig, Why the Stress On the Headline/Photo combination? Is it really that vital?

Yes. Every marketer should read a recent Wall Street Journal article on cognition. Basically, the article related new research that shows a human brain actually makes a decision before its owner is even aware the decision has been made. Of course, the article brings up weighty questions concerning free will and self-awareness. These are way beyond the scope of FunMarketer (although I’ll chat with you about them over a cup of coffee sometime).

As usual, I immediately thought: “How can I write a better ad from this?”

This research reinforces the idea that you’ve got just a couple of seconds to grab that customer/prospect. See, if the customer isn’t even aware her brain is processing information relative to making a decision, it’s all the more important for you to instantly push as much relevant information in front of her as quickly as possible. The headline/photo combination is a crucial first step in this process.

And it is a process. A simple shock photo and headline may attract interest, but if there is no correlation to strong Benefits or a Quick Story that pulls the prospect along the road to a purchase decision, then you’ve merely wasted your prospect’s time. And, in that moment, probably damaged your brand in the mind of the prospect. People accept that they’ll be advertised to, but they hate to be lied to.

For those of you familiar with Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink, I urge you to refresh you acquaintance with his theory of “thin-slicing”.

Remember, your customer is thin-slicing your ad campaign, from initial contact right through the moment they choose to act on your Call-To-Action — or not.

That’s why we always include a quick sample in our “FunMarketer Free Campaign Idea Of the Week”. If you save these you can quickly run through them and snag some ideas that you can use as the basis for some great campaigns of your own.

FunMarketer Free Campaign Idea of the Week

Here’s a great one for financial services or any type of educational/higher learning school deal.

Photo: Istock #5417006

Headline: You Still Must Run the Race – But We’ll Level the Track for You

Alternate Headline: Acme Financial: Leveling the Race Track Before Your Competition Does

Got any great ideas of your own? Just reply to the FunMarketer blog with your istock number and your headline and subhead (Clean Only, Please).

Oh, if you do use the campaign, make sure you give credit where due.

FunMarketer Tip of The Week

The last FunMarketer post mentioned value and trust and their importance in your marketing. Let’s look at three quick ways you can incorporate these into your marketing:

1. Length of time you’ve been in business. This adds the Trust element.

2. Testimonials. The fact that somebody supplies a testimonial adds a bit of a trust element. The testimonial itself should reflect value – either that the price was a world-beater, or that the product was stellar. Many of you are not the low-cost provider, you are the best-value provider. Make sure your testimonials reflect this.

3. Tone. If you want to scream low-price, then use lots of starbursts and other graphic treatments. Low-price ads usually must shout the fact; the text and graphics and message should be fast and in their face. Sure, if you’re Wal-Mart and you’ve pumped millions into an ad campaign like ‘Always’ you can afford to be a bit more subtle. For most of your low-price ads, say it loud and proud.

Again, it may sound really basic, but trust and value are big themes for the rest of this year.

FunMarketer Phrase of The Week

“Ripped at the seams”. Speaking of phrases, you can almost hear the Grease soundtrack in your head if you’re over 35 (maybe even if you’re younger, if your parents took you to the 20th year Grease mania ten years back). OK, so here’s a phrase you can leverage for some last summer hurrahs — I don’t recommend you actually use the entire phrase from Grease, “Summer Dreams, Ripped at the Seams” because it’s copyrighted and there’s no use ripping off somebody else’s art. The key idea here is to plug into a popular phrase, “ripped at the seams”, and let your audience make their own associations in their mind(s).

It’s not exactly archetypal, but it’s along the same line. Sorry, Carl J.

Happy Marketing!

Craig Lutz-Priefert

FunMarketer Lesson of the Week

Craig, what do you mean it’s critical that I “Signal after the Sale”?

The FunMarketer answer is: You Signal After the Sale to achieve a Competitive Advantage.

Many of you know I study Michael Porter. One of his key insights for marketers is the idea of “use criteria” and “signaling criteria”:

use criteria = what the product does for the buyer

signaling criteria = how the buyer thinks or feels about what the product does for the buyer

Superior marketing can often successfully defend against a superior product. But, even if you have a superior product, you must use signaling criteria to make sure your competitor – who you know makes an inferior product – isn’t clobbering you through superior signaling (marketing).

And guess what – a great deal of signaling needs to happen AFTER the sale.

What are you communicating? Value, of course. Yes, I can hear some of you saying: “Craig that’s Marketing 101″. Yes, well then why do so many of us violate the rules of Marketing 101? Probably the same reason the huge banks violate the rules of Finance 101; sometimes Finance or Mkg 401 looks sexier and more attractive, but it doesn’t always make you the most money.

Signaling after the Sale (to communicate the superior value your product/service has) can take many forms. You can’t just fire off a signal flare when you are in trouble and sales are down–that’s what your signaling strategy can head off. Here are two powerful reasons to implement an after-sale marketing strategy, and the attendant tools to use for each:

1. Facilitate Two-Way Communication. You want that customer talking. You want them talking to your company if there is a problem, and you want that customer talking to other people if there is no problem. The tools:

a. Survey. No, not the 10 question Customer Satisfaction stuff that corporate puts out. Just a quick survey that asks “how’d we do” and “how can we do better.” Make it look like a quick note and not something that is going to be graded by a computer. Mail it to your customer along with a pre-stamped envelope. People respond more openly if they can safely enclose their answers inside an evelope – don’t cut corners with a postcard, here.

b. Referral or Tell-A-Pal program. (Yes, it needs to be incentivized). These are simple programs to set up and monitor; just make sure you think the rewards through and that BOTH parties – referring and referred – receive some incentive for participation. Email me at funmarketer@marketinghawks.com for more ideas or specifics.

2. Head-Off Buyer’s Remorse

Good salespeople close today’s sale; great salespeople close tomorrow’s sale.

Ever felt great about a purchase in the store, and then once you were home balancing your checkbook or figuring out how to pay for your purchase got a sick feeling in your stomach? You need to be proactive in your signaling to avoid this happening to your customers.

a. Handwritten thank-you note is absolutely huge.

b. Phone call from the salesperson. Joe Girard has excellent advice here. His books are just great at sharing all kinds of sales tips, and this is one of the best.

c. Reassurance via product benefits, helpline, we are here for you, ways others are using the product, blogs on the product, etc. For those of you living in Web 2.0, this is the time to engage good blogs on your product to help re-sell you to that customer.

Get creative! It’s rarely the cost of signaling after the sale that causes companies to abandon the practice. Lack of management will and commitment is the usual culprit.

FunMarketer Free Campaign Idea of the Week

Save this shot of a US Flag for a serious campaign geared around Flag Day or the Fourth of July. For those of you who’ve seen the burial of a vet and the presentation of the triangular-folded flag to the spouse, you know how powerful that moment is.

Not an image to be used lightly – yet some of the most powerful ads can generate some very positive emotion for your company or cause.

Photo: Istock #1954124

Headline: In Between Hot Dogs and Soda Pops, Take a Moment to Salute the Real Heroes This Independence Day

Alternate Headline: For Those of You Who Couldn’t Be Here in Person This Independence Day – Thank You for Our Freedom

Got any great ideas of your own? Just reply to the FunMarketer blog with your istock number and your headline and subhead (Clean Only, Please).

Oh, if you do use the campaign, make sure you give credit where due.

FunMarketer Tip of The Week

OK, if the ‘Ka-Ching’ of the cash register is just the start of the sale, how do you keep the line of communication open with your customer?

Ask.

Pretty high-tech, isn’t it. At the point of sale…ask the customer if they’d like a frequent purchase punch card, or to be placed on your newsletter or email list. Make sure you let employees know how important the lines of customer communication are.

FunMarketer Phrase of The Week

“Red Letter Days”. OK, you know a Red Letter day is typically a holiday or a specialy day on the calendar. During the summer in the US we have various “Red Letter” days such as Memorial Day, Flag Day, Juneteenth and Independence Day.

Next time you’re searching for a theme for any sale or promotion you’re having, why not try “Red Letter Days” instead of the over-used “-thon” such as marathon, sale-a-thon, etc.

Just a thought, but you might be able to build a whole promotion around it.

Happy Marketing!

Craig Lutz-Priefert

FunMarketer Lesson of the Week

Craig, why do I need a marketing checklist?

The FunMarketer answer: If seasoned airline pilots trust the discipline involved in using a checklist before they take off, why not apply the same method to our marketing?

Checklists are easy ways for us to keep from reinventing the marketing wheel every time we start a new ad or launch a new campaign. There are two types of checklists:

#1: The Repeater. This is the checklist(s) we develop for repetitive tasks. Let’s say we are launching a new landing page for an AdWords campaign. Your checklist might include the following:

Did we restate our Brand Message?
Is there an Offer?
Is there a Call to Action?

Seems like a pretty simple list, doesn’t it? But something like 80% of the power in your landing page resides in those simple yet overlooked intangibles like an Offer or a strong Call To Action. Even pros need reminded; that’s why it’s important to make the checklist uniquely your own.

For the Repeater Checklist, make sure it is:

a) Quick – there’s no time to debate
b) Yes or No questions – it’s a checklist, after all.
c) Just 4-6 topics. More than that and break it into smaller lists for specific tasks.
d) Remember – If a checklist is going to get used it must be EASY and FAST.

#2. The New Campaign Checklist. Because we are plowing new ground this checklist will be more involved. You’ll need to arrange your tasks into different groups or categories. Since we are generating ideas and brainstorming, we’ll need to move beyond the simple “yes/no” of the Repeater. Here is the place to ask some very brief questions. On the Marketing Hawks “New Launch” checklist I leave some spaces for me to write in answers, plus I’ve included a couple of “fill-in-the-blank” tables.

The New Campaign Checklist tends to evolve with the marketer. Remember, this is a checklist you are making as an aid to your remembering specific marketing questions you need to answer prior to the campaign. Here you need to use a kind of shorthand to jar your brain into action. For my own checklist, I use four main areas: Use Criteria (from Michael Porter) and then Brand, Package and People.

Under each section I have several pre-printed questions drawn from each of the people above, and space to fill in my thoughts. For example under Brand I have questions relating to Brand Essence (Scott Bedbury) and Story (Laurence Vincent).

Under the Package section I have a simple question: “Can we Thin-Slice It?” For those of you familiar with Malcolm Gladwell, that statement makes 100% sense and is obviously vitally important for marketers. But to people unfamiliar with Gladwell that question leads to deli thoughts. Yet the question occupies a vital place in my New Campaign checklist because I often overlook the importance of the “Blink” look that so much of our marketing receives from our audience..

If you want my New Campaign Checklist, just email me at funmarketer@marketinghawks.com and I’ll be glad to send you a copy. Be warned: you’ll have to build and edit and make it your own, otherwise it might not make much sense.

Sum-Up – Learn from the masters, add your own experience, and then combine both into a marketing checklist to devastate the competition.

FunMarketer Free Campaign Idea of the Week

Here’s an image that you can use to show appreciation to customers or employees.

Photo: Istock #6039478

Headline: “Thanks to Everybody that Helped Us Make the Grade”

Alternate Headline: “Just In: Our Customer Report Card”

Got any great ideas of your own? Just reply to the blog with your istock number and your headline and subhead (Clean Only, Please).

Oh, if you do use the campaign, make sure you give credit where due.

FunMarketer Tip of The Week

For those of you marketing anything “green”, check out Abraham Maslow and his famous Hierarchy of Needs. (Yes, it is a part of my New Campaign Checklist). I do think there is an enormous value in building the Esteem Needs into your green marketing. And, while you’re at it, check out what Dale Carnegie talks about in his appealing to the nobler motives. In a nutshell – see if you can influence somebody to act on something green-related because it’s the right thing to do.

FunMarketer Phrase of The Week

“Price Hike”. Wow, here’s a phrase that’s being used all the time as inflation comes racing back at all of us. In the USA, one generally hears the verb “hike” standing all by itself and used in reference to football or outdoor walking. The word “hike” as in “to lift up” is rarely used anymore, except in the over-used “price hike”.

Here’s the opportunity for you marketers. How about using the price-hike in some of your ads, such as “We refuse to participate in any price-hikes this week”. Or “Inflation? – We do our hiking outdoors, thank-you very much”.

Happy Marketing!

Craig Lutz-Priefert

FunMarketer Lesson of the Week

Craig, how do I boost my company’s legitimacy?

The FunMarketer answer is: Let the world see what others say. Here are four powerful techniques:

#1: Ratings. If you sell products, it’s hard to beat the “Five-Star” rating system. Put a rating system on your website, then setup Google Analytics on your website, and see how many visitors immediately nav to the ratings system. Why? Because consumers need to be reassured they are making the right purchase decision, and they know that everything else on your site is carefully crafted advertising.

#2: Testimonials. Let’s face it – a ratings system isn’t the best fit for many local service companies. It’s one thing to rate a product, it’s another to rate a service, like dry cleaning or tax preparation. Here about the best you can do is a testimonial.

Don’t discount the power of a testimonial. They are not as powerful as a five-star rating system, but for many small service companies they can still boost the legitimacy of your website. Also, if you are selling to business owners, then it’s vital to have the person making the testimonial person put supply the name of their business on the testimonial. You need to quickly bond the website visitor to the person who made the testimonial–and you need to do it in a “Blink“.

Obviously, if you are selling to consumers, you won’t list the name of a business but rather some other kind of title or qualification, such as “mother of two” (if you run a daycare) or “age 65″ (if you provide services for seniors) or “long-time runner” (if you are a personal trainer). This “Bonding in a Blink” is critical – because it cements your website visitor to the testimonial writer and hence to your site and your service. You want identification – that’s the first step in gathering trust, generating a quick feeling of “this person is like me”.

3. Press or News. Powerful press is great. People will listen to their peers, but they will also listen to those in authority. The media is viewed as a less-biased authority than any of your advertising. If you have specific press releases or any articles written about your company make sure you mention them or have pdfs of them or links to them on your site.

What if you don’t have much? Then a backup – not as desirable but better than nothing – is to legitimize your industry or the type of service you are providing. Sometimes your industry or your method of service can come under attack. Use the power of the press – link to positive articles about your service or the industry you are in.

4. Industry Info or Government Info. In addition to other consumers and the press, there is always authoritative information that is published by either a government agency or your industry trade group. Used properly, this can lead to additional legitimacy for your group. Also, don’t forget the BBB. If your business is in good standing, make sure you put it on your site.

Many times you are looking for the tiebreaker – that little piece of information that, in your customer’s mind, will put you ahead of your competition. Go the extra couple inches that your competitors don’t and make your site stand out in the eyes of your prospect.

FunMarketer Free Campaign Idea of the Week

Hey, if your company really goes the extra mile in providing great customer service, here’s a concept for you:

Photo: Istock #4846536

Headline: Just Another Day at Our Customer Service Center

SubHead: Because Every Customer Deserves the Royal Treatment

Got any great ideas of your own? Just reply to the blog with your istock number and your headline and subhead (Clean Only, Please).

Oh, if you do use the campaign, make sure you give credit where due.

FunMarketer Tip of The Week

Build up a good backlog of ideas. Many times one client will shoot down that brilliant marketing idea you’ve had. Maybe the client is right, and \your brainstorm wasn’t the best fit for their business. However, that doesn’t mean the idea can’t ably serve in some other client’s marketing arsennal. I’ve had client A that rejected my “Brilliant Idea 1″ only to present it later to Client B who though it was an excellent fit. Industries vary, as do client’s individual tastes and their audiences.

FunMarketer Phrase of The Week

“Microhoo”. May 3 – Yes, the Microsoft/Yahoo deal is dead. May 15 – no wait, maybe it’s not. Whatever the outcome of the union, the phrase “Microhoo” was used millions of times over the past few months. It does roll off the tongue, well. However, there is an even better lesson here for marketers – both companies have easily prounouncable names. This is a huge advantage, one pointed out by Ries and Trout years ago in Positioning. Microsoft’s three syllables and Yahoo’s two both easily roll off the tongue.

Remember – if you are picking a new name for a product or service, fewer syllables is better. And, you MUST speak the name out loud; because that’s how people are going to ‘hear’ it in their head.

Happy Marketing!

Craig Lutz-Priefert