It’s easy to understand why businesses want to be on Facebook. There are more than 500 million Facebook users, and half of them are logged in on any given day (thanks, DigitalBuzz, for the stats). But the funny thing is that people don’t really want to get cosy with you on Facebook. Sure, they’ll temporarily [...]
Tag Archives: Marketing
Is this how to treat a ‘valued subscriber’?
“Dear Valued Subscriber,” the note began. Ah, my newspaper really appreciates my business. As well it should; isn’t the industry in distress? Millennials don’t read newspapers, do they? It’s time to renew my subscription and I’ll bet the paper really wants to keep me as a customer. Well, maybe it does want to keep me, [...]
Outreach doesn’t have to be pushy
Freelancers and independent communicators often agonize over following up with prospective clients. We don’t want to bother people. We worry that we’ll be seen as pushy. This might not be a good time. We’re calling too often. We’ve sent too many emails. But there’s a difference between being pushy and following up in a polite [...]
Marketing on a tight budget
For Tom Kaufman of TK Enterprises, attitude is everything. “Do you want to soar with the eagles, or gobble with the turkeys?” he demanded at IABC/Toronto’s Professional Independent Communicators meeting last week. Tom’s topic was “Marketing on a tight budget,” and he had plenty of suggestions. First, though, he made sure the group agreed that [...]
Posted in The Red Jacket Diaries blog Also tagged Event reviews, IABC, The independent life 5 Comments
Follow up!
It’s okay to follow up. That was my message this week to a friend who runs an aesthetics business out of her home. Pat has been in business a number of years, but at one point went from being there all week to only a couple of days when she worked part-time at a local [...]
In search of real
(<— Real dog, fake squirrel) Quite a while ago, an association I belong to created some new marketing material. Prominent on what really was a good-looking piece was a stock photo of a group of people, basically standing in for those of us who are actual members. The stock photo is also front and centre [...]
Write news releases without this lead
A client called yesterday in a bit of a panic, wondering if I could revise a news release for her by end of day. This is the kind of thing I often refer to as “pulling a rabbit out of a hat.” I was already juggling a number of projects, but this is a long-time, [...]
A peek under the blog hood
Toronto-area independents, join the Halton-Peel Communications Association next week for a peek under the blog hood! HPCA’s social media expert Rob Clark will discuss web analytics, and his colleague Kyle McKeown will talk about inbound marketing and search engine optimization. A couple of HPCA guinea pigs (including me) have offered their web sites for closer [...]
Know thy customer
Oh, those funny folks at Honda! They’re doing a good job of keeping in touch with me, long-time Honda owner that I am. But their enthusiasm for selling me a new car always seems to overtake their good sense. I bought a 2009 Honda Civic last year, and I’m happy with it. But one of [...]
Sue awards her own gold medals
Phew. It’s been all Olympics, all the time for the past two weeks, and I’m ready to say goodbye to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. But first, my own gold medals go to the things I loved about these Winter Olympics: Patriotic feelings. Canadians are normally shy about this, at least compared to Americans, but [...]
Posted in The Red Jacket Diaries blog Also tagged Communications, General nonsense, IABC conference 2 Comments