Creative Archive
Big Brands Embrace Performance-Based Pricing Agency Relationships
With a contagious desire for accountability spreading among marketers, some big brands are insisting their agencies change pricing models ...
Design Your Website to Meet Customers' Needs
No doubt, you've visited plenty of Web sites that have proven to be a waste of your valuable time. If you're like many business and marketing professionals, you secretly hope that your site meets the needs of your prospects, customers and internal users. But you're not really sure, are you?...
The Value of Testing in a Tight Economy
It's a common fact. Times are tough for marketers. Many folks say you can't spend money if you're not making money. But others, the wise ones, know that the time to spend more marketing dollars is when sales are down. Here's how testing can improve your results...
The Power of Anger in Marketing Copy
Anger—rational or not—is such an incredibly strong human emotion. And that's what makes it a powerful marketing copy driver, regardless of channel. Of course, like dynamite, a campaign created to touch an angry nerve has to be handled carefully...
Do Nuances in Copy Matter?
When buried under deadlines, it’s easy for a copywriter to just start cranking out the words to fill the space. But by not taking that extra few minutes to refine your copy you are missing out on one of the most powerful tools that a copywriter has—one that can make or break a product—and that’s nuance...
Copywriting for All Ages: Is Your Communication Kid-Like?
Kids and great copywriters have something in common. They both understand the power of clear and simple communication. Learn how to apply this to your next marketing campaign...
A Powerful Back Cover Can Help Cover Your Catalog's Back
Most catalog creative and marketing departments spend oodles of time working on their front cover. The back cover? It's treated as quite literally an afterthought. Here's why the back cover is just as important as the front...
Walk on Buy: Palladium Shoes Drives Web Foot Traffic
If you want people to buy more shoes, get them to walk more. That's the idea behind a new point-of-sale poster campaign launched last month by Consolidated Shoes' Palladium brand. The "Get Your Ramble On" posters, which customers can download from Palladium.com, feature maps and slogans like "See Praha like Kafka—Walk it." ...
Blogs Vs. E-Newsletters: Which Are Right For You?
Tick, tock. Every second a new blog is created. That's 31,556,926 blogs per year! So, should you be blogging? Or, are e-newsletters a better option for your business?...
The Big Split: Brands vs. Agencies
(Promo) CareerBuilder.com's unceremonious dumping of its long-time advertising agency Cramer-Krasselt in February for failing to place in the top 10 in USA Today's consumer poll of favorite Super Bowl commercials sent shockwaves throughout the industry. ...
The Thank-You Page Should Say More Than Thank You
Last Thursday I met with our new senior reporter, Sean Donahue, who covers the b-to-b marketing beat for us. He wanted to know best practices for getting more people to sign up for Webinars. ...
Mind Your Messages: In Online Media, Content is Still King
A new blog is created every single second of every single day. That's a whole lot of content. But many blogs are abandoned by their creators almost immediately, totally defeating their purpose. Many blogs are of no value at all. E-mail, a medium that once held so much potential, is best served as a customer retention and reactivation tool; often in the form of a high-quality content e-newsletter that entertains, educates, informs and then sells. ...
E-mail Creative: What Works and What Doesn't
(Multichannel Merchant) Imagine creating and sending a print mail piece only to find out that before delivering it, the U.S. Postal Service stripped out the graphics and put little symbols where pictures used to be. ...
The Write Stuff for SEM
(Multichannel Merchant) Hardly anyone talks about what tends to be the most critical component of paid search success: the marketing communications strategy....
Blockbuster Products: More Than Mere Functionality
Because of saturated markets and the dominant power of the buyer—distributors, retailers, and consumers—it is no longer enough to deliver a well-engineered, functional product or package. ...
