Most valuable writing lesson ever. Or so says Steven Pressfield in this blog post on how his first professional job as an advertising copywriter indelibly carved this truth on his psyche:

“Nobody wants to read your shit.

Let me repeat that. Nobody–not even your dog or your mother–has the slightest interest in your commercial for Rice Krispies or Delco batteries or Preparation H. Nor does anybody care about your one-act play, your Facebook page or your new sesame chicken joint at Canal and…

...continue to read "Nobody wants to read your sh**!"

Bryan Eisenberg was recently asked the following question via e-mail:

“I know you are very busy, but I would like your help. I have read your blog(s) about Unique Value Proposition over and over (and others too).  I am perplexed.  How do you distinguish between a Unique Value Propostion and tag line. For example Fedex, ‘When it absolutely positively has to be there overnight’ – tagline or UVP? Your site ‘Keep Your Goals On Target: Increase Conversions, Get More…

...continue to read "UVP or Tagline?"

According to copywriting legend Eugene Schwartz, a headline’s main job isn’t to sell; it’s to gain the readers attention and compel them to read the ad.  And this is sound advice, but the Internet also requires one other thing in today’s web 2.0 copy world… Step 1. Scent: Web copy adds the requirement of scent.  Your headlines and sub headlines have to assure visitors that they’re in the right place.  A compelling headline that doesn’t orient readers…

...continue to read "3-Steps for Writing (and testing) Great Headlines"

My name is Bryan and I am a screenshot addict.

When I fall off the wagon, every so often, I’ll go ahead and pick a keyphrase and start clicking through PPC ads and their landing pages and take screenshots of the whole entire experience. You can’t imagine how often the experience from keyword to ad to landing page is broken. I want to call them and yell at them to subscribe to OnTarget. I don’t do it. Instead a few weeks…

...continue to read "#1 Pay Per Click Marketing Lie"

Comcast Business Services cares about their customers. They implemented iPerception’s free 4Q customer survey solutions recently and found out that nearly the majority of visitors who were coming to the website came with the task to find out about their services and pricing, but nearly 60% left frustrated because they couldn’t get the pricing information from the website. Keeping pricing hidden has been a long time telecom industry practice.

Armed with this powerful data, the Comcast Business Services team went ahead and got the ok…

...continue to read "Use 4Q for Q4 Results"

I was firsthand witness to a clever promotion recently, so I’ll share in the hopes it inspires you to turn the Economy’s lemons into lemonade.

Seattle’s Chow Foods runs six restaurants, and recently sent an email blast with an inventive promotion.  The one-day promotion adjusted their menu item pricing based on the close of the DOW and the NASDAQ – the tumultuous DOW set the food menu pricing, and the NASDAQ set the price of house wine, draft beers, and well…

...continue to read "How To Leverage Economic Woes and Promote Business"

With the shaky economy weighing on all our minds, this Holiday Season could be make-or-break for a lot of eTailers.  So, like Bryan Eisenberg mentioned in a recent blog, the time to innovate is now, and relying on the status-quo isn’t wise.

So as you ramp your sites and marketing up for the Holidays, do you have a few innovations up your sleeve?

Let’s face it. Despite the economic troubles, people are still going to want to give gifts, and find the…

...continue to read "Redeeming Holiday Gift Card Redemptions"

If you sold Widgets, and a Widget-buying customer walks into your store, can’t find any Widgets on her own, and when she asks what aisle they’re in you remain silent, would you fire yourself? Maybe contribute to the Darwin Awards?

Think of your site’s search box as a last chance to get a visitor to take action on your site.  A majority of visitors will only use internal search as a last resort when they are unable to find what they…

...continue to read "Tweaking Internal Site-Searches into Buying Opportunities"

With annual revenues for the weight-loss industry estimated at $60 billion a year, competition is fierce. Food-based programs like Nutri-System and Weight Watchers account for hundreds of millions of dollars, so getting the right message across to potential customers is critical.

While other companies have featured real-life success stories in their advertising, Jenny Craig has chosen another route: the celebrity spokesperson. While I’m not a big proponent of celebrities as an effective marketing tool, Jenny Craig has applied the use of…

...continue to read "How Jenny Craig Uses Personas for Successful Marketing"

After reading Danny’s, and Mel’s first impressions of the new search engine launched by former Googlers, Cuil, I did what anybody in the industry would do first: search for their name. I wouldn’t consider the result set the best choice, but the results were at least somewhat relevant.

However, my big concern came when I searched for broader terms like “conversion rate,” “web analytics,” “Search Engine Marketing” and then did searches for things like “airlines” and “marketing blogs.”

What was apparent in every one…

...continue to read "Cuil is Not Kewl with Brands Yet"