Marketing Writing Resources for Creative Copywriters

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Billy Mays, who, sadly, passed away at age 50, was a potbellied, black-bearded Atlantic City carnival barker who wore a blue long-sleeve shirt and a white undershirt. And direct marketers loved him. According to Mays, to be great and an easy sell, a product must have these five essential character traits.

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With Q4 looming, along iwth company revenue targets for the year ahead, this company faced the perennial dilemma common to B2B marketers: how to fill the sales funnel with quality leads now to get a jump on sales-cycle activity in January. A classic direct-mail package and a brilliantly simple strategy for getting through the mailroom and onto prospects' desks was the solution.

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: Branding

Like the internet phenoms they trumpeted, Internet company names of the last decade have been, by turns, wildly inventive, deeply troubled, breathtakingly silly, serviceable (if dull)—and, occasionally, brilliant. Here are the trends and names that rose to the top (and sank to the bottom).

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As a B2B company, you may never air a 15-second message on NPR. But distilling your company description to its essence is a powerful goal. It will force you to jettison the jargon and superlatives. And your message will resonate all the more with prospects.

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I can't promise you that by following these suggestions you'll recover from bankruptcy or resurrect your business. But you can move on with dignity. And, sometimes, when your organization faces its darkest hour, choosing dignity may be the best, last business decision you can make.

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You think your value proposition is as strong as it needs to be because you are making sales, right? But you may be selling in spite of, not because of, your value proposition.

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: Writing

When potential customers arrive at your website or look over your marketing materials, they immediately want to know what's in it for them. If that's not obvious, chances are they will move on quickly. By using the word "you," you begin to establish a connection with readers because you address their needs. And rather than objectifying your message—placing it on a pedestal, as an object of study—you personalize it. Instead of creating an abstraction, you start to build a relationship.

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In aggregating and organizing content from top sites around the Internet, Alltop goes a long way toward solving the filtering problem that many of us have. Alltop can be an invaluable tool for marketers. This article shares eight ways that we can benefit from using Alltop.

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: Writing

A big part of making market leadership pay off is an ability to convey and promote thought leadership. Thought leadership is the outward expression of market leadership. It conveys your views on where your market-space is heading (or should be heading), and by communicating in that way, you show confidence in your organization and in those views.

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The holiday season is the most important time of year for retailers, when aggressive goals are set for increased traffic and sales, both in-store and online. Email marketing is a powerful tool that retailers can use to build their brands and increase sales during that crucial period.

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The pumpkins come out, the days grow shorter, the weather cools, and there's no mistaking that the holiday season is upon us, even though we're barely past the back-to-school rush. Already, it's holiday marketing time. Yet, in recessionary periods, what is normally a festive season is not all sweetness and light—for consumers or retailers. Still, that doesn't mean advertisers can't find ways to add some luster to their email-marketing programs this season. Especially during down times, here are three ways to make your holiday email shine.

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: Marketing Strategy

It's that time again: the end of another fiscal year. Time to assess this year's successes and start planning for next year. What does that mean? It means it's time to write your business plan. A business plan can be hundreds of pages or just a few. Whatever the volume, however, it needs to contain at least the following five elements.

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In the current economic climate, many local businesses are seeking more-effective ways to market. Since their potential customers are increasingly using the Web as a way (and sometimes the first and only way) to find products and services, local businesses realize that their marketing efforts should include at least some aspects of online marketing. One of the first strategies that come to mind for many local businesses is search-engine optimization (SEO). And although SEO has proven to be a profitable marketing channel for many businesses, you should ask yourself a few questions before investing in a full-blown SEO campaign.

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Without careful planning, your e-book may become a sinkhole of confused agendas, missed opportunities, and poor distribution. Here are a few key things that might help you avoid the pains and achieve the gains.

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We all know that it costs less to keep a current customer than it does to acquire a new one. As budgets continue to be pinched and resources diminish, businesses would do well to stop looking at past and future customers, and focus some love and attention on the customers they already have.

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: Writing

Email marketing has rapidly become all about quality: the quality of the sender's content and the quality of the sender's email addresses. Keeping the content simple and valuable is the key to crafting a quality email message. Trying to cram too much useless information into a message will leave the recipient with little choice but to abandon it with a quick click of the "next" or "delete" button, or even worse—the dreaded spam button. Below, a few tips for boosting quality when creating email marketing content.

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It's tough out there. Budgets are being cut. Markets are shrinking. Prospects aren't buying the way they used to. But you can still sell effectively. You just have to think differently. The message is important, but it's effective only if the right people read it. The process that you use to present your message is what makes the difference. Here are eight tips for securing meetings with the right executives.

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: Writing

You just sent out a request for proposal (RFP). Will it give you the responses you want? Will it set the stage for a great long-term relationship? An RFP is a key step in engaging an outside marketing partner. Don't underestimate its importance. It's not simply a straightforward business communication; it's a brand opportunity. If you're seeking a smart, strategic partner, your RFP should reflect that. Here are seven guidelines to help you create a great RFP—or what I like to call a "really fine publication."

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Banner ads are tried-and-true forms of advertising that can deliver great results while driving a return on investment. So why are advertisers so hesitant to use them? Maybe it's because they have been overrun with cheesy, annoying, misleading, and downright dumb content, creating an aversion to this otherwise effective form of advertising. In their design and potential effectiveness, banner ads are very similar to outdoor billboard advertisements. They have to be quick, catchy, and well planned out to be effective.