Today's business news & commentary: Susanna's Online Magazine: copywriting, Internet marketing, direct response.

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Sunday, December 18th

More People Selling on the Internet.

Credit Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay in 1995, with being the first to realize the transformative sales power of the Internet. He had the original insight, "I wanted to give the power of the market back to individuals." And now, ten years later, 25 million people are proving him right.

According to a new study, the Internet is transforming a nation of shoppers into a nation of sellers. Full details here.

Susanna on 12.18.05 @ 05:43 AM CDT [link]

Jolly Clerks are a Pain in the Butt.

I went to Starbucks the other day to get my stash of French Roast beans and had the bad luck of drawing a clerk in his early twenties with a fresh face and a penchant for verbiage that at that particular time I found undesirable.

Said he, "Are you buying this for a Christmas gift or for yourself?"

Well, to begin with, it's none of his damn business what I do with my own French Roast. I can smoke it if I want. But I played along and said, "No, it's for me."

"Awesome!", he replied.

God, I hate it when someone says that. And he repeated it several times whenever I uttered a word.

To begin with, I don't do Christmas. And I don't like a jolly clerk asking me things that are none of his business. Oh I know he was just making conversation and trying to be nice. But I would have preferred a nice normal transaction ending with "have a nice day."

Clerks can be so damned annoying. Like the grocery clerk who reads my newspaper headlines while I'm checking out! I told her, "Buy your own god damn paper and let me get the hell out of here."

And the other grocery clerk who comments on your purchases. "I've been meaning to try this. Is it good?"

Perhaps as people get older and the hair starts to turn they get irritated more easily. But I just think people are far too nosy. Sort of like a president who orders the wiretapping and eavesdropping of Americans. What the hell is this world coming to?

Susanna on 12.18.05 @ 05:28 AM CDT [link]

Saturday, December 17th

Are Blogs Useless Dribble?

There is a discussion over at Bob Bly's great blog about the usefulness or uselessness of blogs and blogging. Bob is of the opinion that most of the blog writing is bad and, in his opinion, blogs have little value.

Obviously when people have a blog, they've every right to write what they please and as they please. It is perhaps the one and only place where one is free to do this in safety, short of a journal.

Having said that, I am not one to search out the opinions of others in most matters. I don't read editorials much because they are not news but opinion. And there are few people whose opinion I'm that crazy about and don't consider their opinion any more or less valuable than my own.

I don't, however, think blogs are worthless tripe.

There are blogs that offer real news and valuable insight and ideas. In addition, there are a few like 43 folders and http://www.moleskineart.com/ and diy planner that offers the thoughts of people who, like myself, enjoy keeping a journal in the pages of a Moleskine, an impractical and overpriced possession yet one that many of us love dearly. Reading the thoughts and opinions of others withwhom you share a passion is fun and, I think, useful. For example, we share "hacks" or ways or using our journals.

Much of the writing on most blogs is bad to be sure. But then most people are bad writers. Most people are not careful writers. In fact, most people can't communicate with a good deal of effectiveness.

But I don't think blogs are useless. At the least, they are cathartic to the blogger and at most they have value to others as well as the blogger.

The defination of "blog" according to Dictionary.com is "to author an online diary or chronology of thoughts." That's the carthitic part I guess. But many take it further and introduce news and ideas in conjunction with the thoughts.

Our business Web sites leave little room for us to let our hair down. They are offices where we conduct business. The blog is the coffee room or water cooler where we gossip a bit. And who could find that useless?

Susanna on 12.17.05 @ 06:16 PM CDT [link]

Marketing & Advertising News You Can Use.

CINCINNATI (AdAge.com) -- Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. plans to cut its health-care costs by forcing its employees to quit smoking -- and intends to use the savings from this and other cost-cutting programs to boost its advertising spending.

Full story here.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Yahoo's new original news ventures appear to gotten off to a slow start. Advertisers are avoiding the gritty content of the Kevin Sites "Hot Zone" feature, while “Richard Bangs’ Adventures” has pulled low traffic.

Full story here.

Yahoo! to Help Advertisers Measure Offline Results
Full story here.

Be a Marketing Rockstar: Supercharge Leads and Sales for Your Organization.
This is a Free 1 hour online Seminar presented by the American Marketing Association. You must register to view.
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
10:00 am, Pacific Standard Time (GMT -08:00, San Jose)

Susanna on 12.17.05 @ 12:22 PM CDT [link]

Sunday, December 4th

You Gotta Know What You're Writing About if You Expect to Sell It.

I'm putting the finishing touches on a campaign for a major U.S. company. I'll fly to New York and show the boys and girls my story board and present them with what I hope will be a major consumer product campaign, complete with great tag line.

What's amazing about the whole thing is that I had no creative ideas at the start. I was coming up blank when I thought about how best to sell the product.

Now this is a new product (yes, I'm being a bit secretive) and the packaging is good. The company is already doing television for the product and the ad campaign now in use is good. In fact, it's good enough that I bought the product and used it.

That was when the ideas for my own campaign hit me out of the blue! The entire campaign just sort of fell into place, complete with the tag line.

In my long career, I've found that you have to use a product or service if you expect to sell it. If you want the words to flow and if you want to say the right things, you need to know your audience. But you also have to understand the product.

I spend a lot of time learning about a client's business before I write a word. And when possible I use his product or service. It's easier to sell insurance after a family has suffered a loss than at any other time. That's because they feel the pain. They understand the need. In fact, they could probably sell insurance better than any salesman because that's where they're at right now. They're coming from inside the need. And no one understands it better than they do at this time.

A copywriter is a salesman. You need to feel the pain or the pleasure or whatever it is that is cured or solved or improved by the product you're selling. You have to approach it from the point of the prospective buyer to whom the product is to be sold.

Too many copywriters simply take on an assignment and set down and begin to write. That's not the way to sell your client's product or service. You have to get in it. Feel it. Smell it. Understand it. Words come hard when you don't understand. Words come effortlessly to the writer who understands well the problems his product solves and how it will improve the lives of the people who will read or hear his copy.

You gotta know what you're writing about if you expect to sell it.

Susanna on 12.04.05 @ 05:42 AM CDT [link]

Friday, December 2nd

Speaking Gig in Canada Available.

Ottowa's Zone 5 club of marketing and agency execs is seeking
great speakers for its monthly meetings in Jan, April or May of 2006.

I'm told that about 300 attendees show to each event, which is an unusually high
turnout for a regional group. Top North American marketing gurus (in particular
with an Internet-spin) are invited to submit speaking proposals to volunteer speaker coordinator Lynda Partner at Partners Inc Fax (309) 418-7157.

Susanna on 12.02.05 @ 10:16 AM CDT [link]

Mobile Media Market on Brink of Boom.

The mobile media market is on the brink of a boom, said executives at the Reuters Advertising and Media Summit yesterday, according to Reuters. As people spend more time with their mobile devices, and depend on them for more, mobile video, in particular, could prove to be the next big thing.

For more information go here.

Susanna on 12.02.05 @ 09:35 AM CDT [link]