Ozdachs

Will You Do a Magazine Ad for Me?

A client asked me to help him submit an ad for the premiere industry magazine of his client base. He’d recently redone his web site, and now he wanted to announce his available to take on new work by buying a full-color ad that mirrored the colors of his web presence. Could I help?

Well yes. And no.

Yes, I could help him prepare the ad to the specifications of the magazine. I looked at their ad guidelines, and I can put my client’s material into a format that the magazine wants.

My focus is on web design and Internet marketing, but I have created print advertisements for clients and have also designed direct marketing campaigns. The card pictured with this post was the first salvo in a five-part mail barrage sent out by one of my clients.

The “five-part mail barrage” is where the “no” comes in. My client has good instincts about buying an ad in an industry magazine. But, his chances of gaining business from a single ad are pretty slim. The blue bird of happiness may strike, and a prospective client could see the ad and jump to the phone. Frankly, though, that’s an unlikely scenario.

Successful marketing ad campaigns involve repetition. Prospects have to get used to seeing your name, your product, your service, your offer.

An elementary school teacher friend says that kids have to be exposed to a fact five times before they can recall seeing it. That principle holds for adults and advertisements.

Rather than have my client blow his budget on a one-shot-wonder ad, we talked about how to make the appearance in the magazine part of a barrage of information. It turns out that he has been asked to present workshops at the major annual conference for his clients’ industry next spring.

Perfect! We talked about how to leverage his seminar appearance to make his single ad effective. By the time prospective clients see his name in the event announcement, see his name in the program, see his name on the presentation room doorway, and see his panel name card, his magazine ad can be memorable. “Oh, yeah. Wasn’t he the guy from the conference?”

Yes, I would be delighted to craft a print or direct mail ad for you. Of course. But, before you spend your money with me and the publisher, let’s have an effective, multiple mention campaign mapped out.

By Ozdachs|2010-10-05T13:39:11-07:00October 5th, 2010|Marketing|0 Comments

How to Get Results Like an Advertising Professional

If anyone in San Bruno reported smelling gas to Pacific Gas & Electric Company before the explosion last week, please contact the NTSB.

Anyone who sees the man suspected of kidnapping a child from Oakland is asked to call the Oakland Police Department.

Call us for your business’ financial needs.

For more information about the church picnic, contact the Hospitality Chair.

All of these public-service/small business/non-profit announcements obviously were not created by an advertising person. They leave the listener without clear instructions. None have a phone number, email, or other immediate contact information.

Just watch, listen or read communications written by big-business marketers. They all say “Call 1-800….” or visit “www.ozdachs.biz”. The contact information is repeated one, two, three or more times. You know what you’re supposed to do and how to do it!

Some corporations even name themselves with the way to reach them. You’ve heard of “1-800-FLOWERS” and Kars for Kids, with its ear-worm jingle to “call 877-Kars-4-Kids.” That’s how professional ad people craft their call to action! [By the way, before you consider donating to Kars4Kids, check out the fraud investigations and Charity Navigator report showing that they spend 33% of their money for “fundraising expenses”.]

In the commercial world, businesses spoon feed potential customers. They make it pig-brain-dead simple to do what the business wants you to do. There’s nothing for you to look up or even think about. Just go over in your commerical-induced trance and call, type, or click.

The examples we started with are all well meaning notices, but they require the listener to do research. Some people are both very motivated and skilled at figuring out what to do. They’ll will work to become involved. But, why make it so hard.

Let’s rewrite our first examples… and make sure that our future calls to action make it easy for people to do what we want.

If you reported smelling gas to Pacific Gas & Electric Company before the explosion last week, please call the National Transportation Safety Board at (202) 314-6000. Again, please report your call to the NTSB at (202) 314-6000. [Note: the NTSB web site is truly user hostile and there may be a better number. The site has no notice about San Bruno on its home page and no separate contact information for its pipeline safety work.]

If you see this kidnapping suspect, call 9-1-1 immediately.

Call 800 860-9660 and talk to a Sterck Kulik O’Neill accountant to solve your business’ financial issues. That’s 800 860-9660.

For more information about the church picnic, call Bob Smith at 415.776.4580.

By Ozdachs|2010-11-22T08:30:40-08:00September 15th, 2010|Newsletters|0 Comments

Look at Me!

Woman Looking Right Off the Web Page One of my favorite restaurants sent out a newsletter last week bragging about their new web site. I’m a sucker for new Internet looks, so I eagerly went to their site and clicked around. Nice colors, nice banner photos, good selection of information, and then, “Oh, no!”

The profile of “Our Team” was accompanied by a picture of the general manager looking right off the website. Like the photo at the right.

Having a person featured in a photograph look off the page just feels weird to the visitor.

It doesn’t matter if the subject is looking left or right. It just feels wrong if they’re looking away from the main content of the web page.

In fact, the layout rule that requires pictures to look toward the article is as old as newspapers. Even back in the days of lead type the rule was ironclad (to mix metals): have your subjects look into the body of the article.

Now, of course, multi-column designs “force” you to post a picture looking off the page. The restaurant had designed a web site with a left sidebar and the main text on the right. The only photograph they had of the general manager was one where he was looking to his left. What choices did they have?

Two:

Flip the picture horizontally. The subject’s left side would then appear as his right, and people who know him would sense that there was something wrong with the picture. But, the picture would be of him and he would be drawing people’s attention to the rest of the story.
Take another photograph. Really. How hard would it be to get another picture of the restaurant’s key personnel?

What the web site shouldn’t do is simply post the photograph of the man looking off the video monitor!

Most stock photos (ones you buy and then can use on your website and blog) show people looking at the camera. This direct-look approach finesses the problem of the model looking off the web page. Here are three examples of stock photos which can be placed anywhere on a web page, anywhere on a magazine, anywhere in an ad because the subject’s eyes are looking at back at the viewer.

Stock Photos with the subjects looking back at the viewer

Whether you use stock photos, professional shots, or pictures you’ve taken yourself, make them look better. Place them on your web page so that the subject is looking inward.

By Ozdachs|2010-09-13T16:35:39-07:00September 13th, 2010|Web Design|0 Comments

What’s the Value Social Media for Small Businesses?

I’m being interviewed for a podcast this week about easy and inexpensive social media actions small businesses can take. Stuff like Facebook, Twitter, Groupon, etc.

I’m starting my outline and have some initial ideas of what social media can do:

1.   Put your name in front of potential clients/your clients.
2.   Create “buzz” for your business. If you catch eyes on social media, others will do your marketing for you!
3.   Make you an expert. When you post authoritative articles, people will come to your blog for information and they’ll come to you for expert services.
4.    Create more incoming links to your website. No human may read your blog, but Google will. Google will treat social media links as evidence that your site is popular and that it should show up higher in search results.
5.   Use a new advertising channel. Social media ads have the promise of being targeted at people who are already looking for services like yours and who are in your physical neighborhood.
6.    Create an illusion of success and recreate your business’ personality.

What info do you want to hear about? What tips should I pass on?

Comment here, shoot me an email, or even break down and give me a call at (415) 347-6479.

By Ozdachs|2010-09-04T15:30:44-07:00September 4th, 2010|Social Media|0 Comments

Let Me Spell it Out for You

Want to hire me as an SEO expert to make your business show up high on SERPs?

Say what?

I’m asking if you want to use my Search Engine Optimization skills to get your web site to display at the top of the list of Google’s Search Engine Result Pages.

Oh.

I write and edit a lot of copy for clients, and about half of them send me material that starts off reading like a cryptographer’s training manual.

My church seems particularly addicted to using arcane acronyms when publicizing its events. Invitations are written like: “Come to UUSF’s SCW luncheon in the MLK with PCD delegates.” Sounds like something you want to do, right?

The addiction to alphabet soup acronyms and jargon isn’t always accidental. When I have replaced “UU’s welcome you…” with “Unitarian Universalists welcome you…” I have gotten told off by some of the original authors. “‘Unitarian Universalist’ is too wordy,” I have been instructed.

Yes, “Unitarian Universalist” is indeed a mouthful. If the organization’s name is too long, then perhaps a catchier name should be adopted. But, announcement writers shouldn’t adopt in-group shorthand in their work. Non-Unitarian Universalists may not have a clue what a “UU” is. Once readers have been introduced to the full term, the abbreviation can be specified and used later on. “Unitarian Universalists (UUs) welcome you to the UU picnic.” Or, something more exciting, but along the same lines.

Similarly, when I rewrite messages about services from professionals like lawyers and accountants, I am questioned if my straight-forward, non-jargon language sounds educated enough. It’s like a potential client won’t hire the firm if the attorney’s web site uses English sentences instead of Latin-infused contract terminology.

Here’s the truth: visitors will click away from your web site if you speak to them in code. Unless you are the National Aeronautic and Space Administration, NASA-like acronyms make you sound cultish and not open to newcomers. And, using industry jargon — whether it is educated jargon or just simple convenient jargon — puts distance between you and your potential client.

Remember who you are writing for and leave both abbreviations and in-terms out of your writing.

By Ozdachs|2010-08-28T15:35:36-07:00August 28th, 2010|Blogging, Marketing, Web Design|0 Comments

About Ozdachs

Will You Do a Magazine Ad for Me?

How to Get Results Like an Advertising Professional

Look at Me!

What’s the Value Social Media for Small Businesses?

Let Me Spell it Out for You