Blog - Page 49 of 58 - Bob Cargill

21Jul 2005 by Bob Cargill

The Cure for the Common Headline

Advertising, Copywriting, Direct Marketing, Marketing

If you were a neighbor of mine, you’d know what I mean when I say my lawn isn’t going to win any beauty contests. It’s so thin, brown and malnourished, it’s embarrassing – especially during the dog days of summer. So when The Scotts Company wrote to me recently about growing a thicker, greener lawn, its timing – and targeting of me as a potential customer – couldn’t have been better. After all, like any other proud homeowner in this day and age, I need to be doing everything I can to keep up with the Joneses, no? Which reminds me of a direct mail package Scotts sent out a few years ago, bearing the words, “Now the grass can be greener on your side.” While these folks didn’t earn…

14Jul 2005 by Bob Cargill

What Pauly Shore May Have Learned from Direct Marketing

Advertising, Direct Marketing, Marketing

I may not be a big Pauly Shore fan, but he scores big points in my book for putting his money where is mouth is and guaranteeing his new TV show, Minding the Store, (which is premiering this Sunday, July 17, at 10 PM EST on TBS). “I am so confident that my new series will make people laugh,” said Shore in a press release, “I’ve convinced the network heads at TBS to let me offer this special guarantee. It’s our way of saying we value people’s television-viewing time, and we know they’ll feel their time spent watching Minding the Store is well worth it.” Viewers who fail to laugh after watching the first episode of Minding the Store are invited to mail a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Shore, care…

07Jul 2005 by Bob Cargill

Marketing on Martha’s Vineyard

Advertising, Branding, Direct Marketing

To know Martha’s Vineyard, an island seven miles off the southeast coast of Massachusetts, is to know The Black Dog logo, which in recent years has come to represent this vacation paradise almost as much as the tavern, bakery café and general stores for which it was designed. Yes, this logo is that ubiquitous. First emblazoned on a T-shirt in 1979, today The Black Dog is found on practically every article of clothing you can imagine, not to mention on bumper stickers, coffee mugs, tote bags and key chains. For tourists, it’s a status symbol and a fashion statement, a logo that tags them popular by association. For the business people who own the rights to this logo, The Black Dog must be, well, a cash cow. Spending a little…

30Jun 2005 by Bob Cargill

Yet Another Endorsement of the Corporate Blog

Blogging

“As blogs become easier to create and manage, they can be used to provide employees valuable tools to share information within their spheres of influence, such as colleagues, partners, distributors, customers and other constituents,” writes Renee Blodgett, president of Blodgett Communications and – naturally – a blogger herself, in the June 20 issue of DM News. “Blogs not only broaden your corporation’s knowledge base by tapping new content from employees, partners and customers,” adds Blodgett, “they can extend this new content to more audiences and communities, including specific topic experts who can add credibility to your product or service.” Cautions Blodgett, though: “Blogging is a great new tool to communicate to existing audiences and reach new ones, but it is critical that we don’t forget basic marketing and PR principles…

22Jun 2005 by Bob Cargill

The Power of Loyalty Marketing

Branding, Direct Marketing, Marketing

Every shopper likes to belong, to feel like an insider, to get a good deal that can’t be had anywhere else. At least, those are the cravings that retailers are counting on – and playing to – by asking their customers to use so-called loyalty cards, those small pieces of plastic so many of us have been conditioned like sheep to carry around in our wallets or on our key chains. I don’t know about you, but I have a handful of them, three for groceries alone (Stop & Shop, Shaw’s and Price Chopper), one for books (Barnes & Noble) and one for, well, this and that (CVS/Pharmacy). And while I sometimes feel like I’m being subjected to undue scrutiny when asked to produce one of these cards at the…

15Jun 2005 by Bob Cargill

The Growth of Online Donations

Direct Marketing, Fundraising

According to The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s sixth annual survey of online fund raising, “Online donations to the nation’s largest charities grew sharply in 2004, with many groups receiving at least twice as much money via the Internet as they did in 2003.” In an article (“A Surge in Online Giving") in the June 9 edition of the publication, Nicole Wallace reports that “fund-raising experts say that year-to-year percentage increases in online contributions that far outstrip gains in other types of fund raising have won over many of the lingering naysayers.” Adding to the momentum was the strength of online donations to help victims of the December tsunamis in South Asia, acknowledges Wallace. The article also points out that the amount of money currently being raised online still pales in comparison…

10Jun 2005 by Bob Cargill

WorldWIT’s Free Blogging Teleseminar

Blogging

Find out what the Blog hubbub is all about. That’s how an upcoming teleseminar on blogging is being promoted by WorldWIT, the leading global online and offline network for women in business and technology. According to an email sent to my friend, Erin Sheehan (of Oceanos Marketing), WorldWIT – whose CEO and Founder, Liz Ryan, just so happens to have her own blog, Business Mom – is continuing “its free teleseminar series with blogging guru and serial tech entrepreneur Derek Scruggs,” who “will share a ton of strategic-to-tactical tips on creating your blog, building an audience, generating revenue via your blog, and taking advantage of new blog-related technologies.” During this free teleseminar – which will take place at 3 PM EST on Wednesday, June 29 – you’ll also be able…

31May 2005 by Bob Cargill

A List of Nonprofit Blogs

Blogging, Direct Marketing, Fundraising

In preparing for my luncheon presentation for the Direct Marketing Fundraisers Association on Why Nonprofits Should Blog (Tuesday, June 7, 11:30 AM – 2:00 PM, at the Lenox Hotel in Boston), I have come up with a short list (below) of nonprofit organizations who have already established a presence in the blogosphere. If you’re in attendance next week (you can register here), you’ll hear me and special guest speaker, Emerson College faculty member Dr. Todd S. Gernes, offer kudos to these prescient organizations for being early adopters of an online communications platform that will likely have been put into play by more nonprofits than not come this time next year. Nonprofit Blogs Greenpeace Action Without Borders The Sierra Club The Nonprofit and Foundation Advocacy Blog The South-East Asia Earthquake and…

23May 2005 by Bob Cargill

One of the Habits of Highly Effective Marketers

Copywriting, Direct Marketing

All experienced copywriters know how advantageous it is to establish common ground from the get-go with those on the receiving end of our messages and offers. Whether we're selling products and services or raising funds for charitable organizations, like ambassadors of goodwill, it behooves us to speak the same language as the constituencies before us, it pays to strike a chord to which almost everyone can relate. For instance, in the early '90s I wrote a direct mail package for Science News magazine that featured the following copy on the outside envelope: "Electricity so powerful it shocks a heart-attack victim back to life... Whales so hungry they take a bite out of the beach... Grasshoppers so smart they change coats to beat the heat... And other things that will make…