1. Lifehacker
   Speed through those ‘must be done’ tasks with these useful tech tricks, tips and downloads.
2. Version Tracker
   A software update site for both Mac and PC users.
3. TV’s Worst Ads
   Watch. Vote. Vent your horror . . . you get the idea!  
4. Last FM
   A virtual arena for musos looking to get noticed. Upload your tracks here for others to find. And if you’re just looking for all things music, then this is the place to find it.
5. Good Things Should Never End
   Scroll down (and down!) this lovely new Flash site from Orange.

Source: Creative Pool newsletter, May 08

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There is a great debate going on over at Flying Solo’s blog on email versus phone. And let’s not even get started on texting as a business tool.  

I personally prefer email. Perhaps that’s because I’m a ‘typical’ writer; fairly eloquent on paper, but face to face or over the phone..!

What I particularly like about email is that it allows me to receive instructions by email that I can, if need be, print off and re-read, ticking off items as I work through them. Moreover, if there is some ambiguity or lack of clarity in the email author’s words, I can reply to the email highlighting that which I don’t understand. Far too often, things can be misconstrued or forgotten when communicating over the phone.

In essence, for me, having a ‘virtual paper trail’ means I don’t overlook or misinterpret that which may have been said (or not quite) over the phone.

That’s not to say I totally ignore the phone. Indeed, it can be a very useful tool, and at times certainly more direct than email. But, as a home-worker, what I have found that if I answer every phone call as it comes in, I wouldn’t ever get any project work done. When working on a client project, it’s important to have focus . . . and that means no interruptions of any kind. Hence, the answerphone is by next best friend.  

What about you? Are you a phonephobe? Do you hate email as a business tool? Perhaps you can’t live without it, and work with clients one-on-one almost exclusively by email consultation… Do tell! I’d LOVE to hear your thoughts.

Work Wise South East hopes to boost smarter working practices across the South East.

Heralded by the not-for-profit Work Wise UK, soon-to-be-rolled-out initiatives will include condensed hours and nine-day fortnights, more home-working, remote and mobile working opportunities.

This is all good news. especially when you consider that the average employee in the South East spends the equivalent of one full additional working day each week on commuting.

Source: South East Business magazine, May 2008

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Most entrepreneurs and even businesses are wasting the powerful opportunities that the email channel presents, despite the growing popularity of email marketing, according to enterprise marketing platform provider Alterian.

To date its free online interactive assessment (www.alterian.com/quiz) has received more than 700 responses from marketers, agencies and marketing-service. The tool takes an in-depth look at how marketers personalise, automate, segment, track and report on email campaigns.

The results so far demonstrate that many marketers have an opportunity to greatly improve the returns of their email marketing investment.

Especially as Alterian’s fifth annual marketing survey – a comprehensive analysis of spending and investment priorities for the industry based on responses from almost 900 marketers, agencies, marketing services providers and systems integrators – reveals that 81 per cent of participants plan to increase marketing spend on email efforts over the next 12 months. 

Forrester Research also reports similar trends: “In the coming year, we expect email marketers to make a priority of improving email sophistication by investing in analytics, customising message frequency, and using email data to inform other marketing efforts,” commented Forrester Research Analyst Julie Katz, in the report titled How To Move Email Marketing Forward In 2008, February 2008.

So what are your plans for email marketing? How can you improve its effectiveness? Have you tested any new approaches recently? I’d LOVE to hear from you!

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A readers asks:

Question: “Would you mind answering a quick question for me?  I received an email from XXXXXX (name removed for client confidentiality) earlier this week that they’ve developed a sample media release that members are free to modify and distribute to local media.  My question is, if I was to distribute this via email what do I put in the subject line and covering email?  Do I just say ‘Subject: For immediate release’ and in the email ‘Please find attached a press announcement for immediate release.’ Basically, what’s the code of conduct when sending these things?
 
Not sure if that’s turned out to be a quick question or not so I appreciate your comments.”

Answer: When you send a release via email put the actual heading or title of the release in the subject line. You can also add the fact that it’s a release, like this: “[news release] MediaMinister launches new service for the busy exec.”

Don’t bother putting “For immediate release” – that’s an antiquated tradition that doesn’t mean much. If it isn’t intended for immediate release, you’d say so. Hopefully!

Also, and this is a biggie, do NOT attach any attachment. Instead, simply copy and paste your release into the body of the email. (That said, it might be better to turn off HTML and send your email as a standard ‘text’ message, which could mean that the formatting/line spacing may need to be tweaked).

At the top of your message you might want to state that you have pictures (if true!) and whether the release available as a PDF or Word document. And ask editors to to get back to you should they want either of these or have any questions.

Immediately below this insert an obvious break in – like a solid line, or dotted – and then put line release.
Be sure to put the media contact (whomever will deal with press release enquiries) for editors, and of course their contact details. You’d be surprised how many people omit this vital information.

Hope this helps.

• For specific ideas on tailoring a news release to your business, and how to develop a PR campaign that can help you generate masses of free publicity, for less than the price of dinner, see:

http://freepublicitymadeeasy.mediaminister.co.uk

FREE CONSULTING ALERT: Got a burning question you want answered? Pop it in the ‘comments’ box and I’ll see what I can do. 

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Without a marketing plan, your business will meander along the ‘hit and miss’ path. For you will tend to set no specific goals, and therefore not really progress. Your budget, time and other resources allocation will be either non-existent or haphazard at best. And generally you will – intentionally or not – let things slide.

But all you need to get started is three minutes. Not much, really now, is it?

Sure, a big international player such as Cadbury Schweppes may have a marketing plan that runs to 100 pages. However, your first marketing plan need not be more than one single sheet of A4.

Here are the key steps to getting your marketing action plan moving:

1. Write down in one or two short sentences the purpose of your marketing. Be specific. Examples include:

   • To get published in the local media.
   • To get more repeat customers.
   • To attract new women customers within the age group 30-45.    

   Your goal here is to make sure your marketing goal is a ‘doable’ one. Do not set yourself up for a fall at this stage. Think small, work towards big…

2. Write down your budget for achieving this marketing goal. Be sure to budget enough of your money, as well as time and other resources (eg, staff) to get the desired results from your marketing plan. If you are a start-up, then ideally you will be allocating the majority of your time to marketing. If you are more established, then you may be too busy to put 80-100% of your time towards marketing activities. In that case you would outsource the majority of the marketing tasks to freelance professionals (ie, copywriters, marketers, and so on). 
    
3. Now schedule what you will do and when to get things moving. Eg:

   • By the end of next week I will have achieved…………………………….
   • To do this I will spend ………. hours on marketing activities.
   • These activities will include…………………………………………………….
   • Within one month, I will have completed/acquired………………………
   • The days and hours I will dedicate to marketing each week will be..
   ……………………………………………………………………………………………..

Taking your first mini-marketing plan as an example, you can now go on to develop several for each marketing or business goal. Start right now: one for ‘creating a monthly ezine’, one for ‘referral or word-of-mouth marketing’ and one for ‘developing free samples of your services’. These are just examples; you are, of course, free to choose your own!

Obviously, the above mini-marketing plan assumes that you have already worked out who your target audiences are, as well as your positioning statement, USP and so on. If you need any help in these areas, then there are a myriad of both free and inexpensive tools to guide you.

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At any given point in time, there are a number of major ‘conversations’ going on inside the heads of your prospective customers. This is partly down to the increasing demands on our time and attention… What’s more, your target market will only be aware of a small portion of this inner talk.

So you can appreciate why trying to sell anything – online, via a classified ad, or a letter, wherever – can be nigh on impossible. Until you find a way to stop all that mind chatter. And it’s your opening, or headline, that gets you noticed.

As well as grabbing that all-important attention, a great headline will help pull your readers into the body copy, so compelling them to read the rest of your message.

Here are three top headline formulas that have, over the years, proven to be winners. Try one or all of them in your own advertising and marketing materials, and see your response rates change for the better.

1. The ‘how-to’ headline

Perhaps the most used (and abused) headline of them all. When done well, the ‘how-to’ headline has the ability to dramatically improve the response. I use this type of headline all the time. What you’re selling here is how to achieve a given result. Some examples of ‘how-to’ headlines include:

• “How To Have a Long and Healthy Life”

• “How a Computer Crash Can Be Good For Business”

• “How to Open Your Own Online Shop in Just 15 Minutes”

• “How to Lose the Bloat (Safely) in Just 10 Days”

2. The question headline

Another winning headline formula I use often is the question headline. This can be a very effective way of using headlines, as the question will (or should) appeal to your prospects’ emotions. It’s a good way of engaging your readers, too. When they read a headline written in the form of a question, they’ll usually answer the question in their mind. Examples include:

• “Are You Making These Five Marketing Mistakes?”

• “Want to Stop Spam Once and For All?”

• “Are You Sick and Tired of the Daily 9-5 Routine?”

•  “Does Your Partner Do Any of These Embarrassing Things”

3. The testimonial headline

This is a very powerful headline technique IF you have specific and exceptional customer testimonials you can use. Examples include:

• “Everyone Keeps Commenting on How Well I Look – and I Feel Years Younger Already…”

• “My Website Traffic Increased by 315% In 31 Days…”

• “I Made £276 Yesterday Alone Using Your Marketing System! I Didn’t Think This Was Possible – Especially As I’m No Marketing Expert Myself.”

• ”Tom Jones’s Consulting Is Magic – My Sales Have Increased by 25% Over the Past Two Months!”

Tip: To appear credible, always include your clients’ full names and their websites or the cities they live in. Oh, and be sure to get permission first!

Your headlines literally have the power of making or breaking your marketing efforts. So, take your time and test the different formulas above to see which works best for you. By testing and refining, you should hopefully see your sales grow considerably.

(C) 2007 T Dooley, All Rights Reserved 
Article first published in the August 2007 of CfS –– a free newsletter aimed at helping entrepreneurs, solo professionals and small businesses: 
 

 gain more customers
 secure more sales
 increase website hits
 and generally be more successful in today’s fierce marketplace.

Want to use this article on your own blog, or website, message board or in an ezine? Not a problem! But please give credit where it’s due. You MUST include the following: 

Tracey Dooley of MediaMinister (www.mediaminister.co.uk) is an experienced copywriter, editor and marketer. She has spent 14 years crafting compelling concepts and copy that successfully sell, inform, educate or entertain. =====>Get a FREE business-building audio CD by signing up for her freebie business-building tips, marketing and publicity pointers: www.mediaminister.co.uk.

***Would you like some help in developing or polishing your headlines? I would be glad to help or act as a facilitator for you and your team… Just let me know.

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That’s probably one of the most often-asked questions my clients put to me…

Well, the answer is, it depends on your ‘ideal customer‘. (If you haven’t a clue what that means or who that is, then my Stop Working With Deadbeats! Attract IDEAL Clients & Knock Out The Competition Instead will help you hone in on what is potentially one of the most important elements of running your business.)

In a nutshell, you need to know your target buyers like the back of your hand before you can target them appropriately. Until then, you are pretty much wasting your time, expense and effort trying to reach them.

OK, for the point of this post, let’s say you know exactly who your ideal client is. By now, you should know that a) targeting has suddenly become much easier, and b) you know where they ‘hang out’, which publications they read, and so on.

Assuming you decide to advertise in a given publication that they read, make a note of whether any of your competitors are advertising regularly there. If so, that’s a good sign…

Now, phone up the advertising department for that publication and tell them that you are thinking of placing an ad, and that you’re currently researching the results of ads in the same industry (ie, those of your competitors). 

You will be surprised as to how honest they’ll be with you.

If it all sounds good, arrange a multi-run ad deal – ie, where you place a similar-sized ad in that publication for a number of issues (ideally, seven, but at least three if you can push to that). Make sure you include some kind of code for tracking purposes, and then measure the response you get. If it’s good, repeat the ad – it is obviously extremely well targeted. If for some reason it bombs, consider your ad’s copywriting and/or offer. Could either be improved upon?

The key to ANY advertising and marketing is to test, track, tweak and test again and again until you get the response you want. I covered more on this in a recent issue of my newsletter Communiqué for Success! 

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When I used to work at the largest consumer-magazine publishers in the UK, the one thing that used to really grind away at the section editors was time-wasters. Specifically, people who would send in long, meandering, non-newsworthy or just totally unfocussed press releases. Rather than try to make sense of the tens of releases like this they would receive each day, they simply went into the ‘reject’ pile…

So if you truly wish your release to stand out and make sure it has a future, take note of the the ‘press release wish-list’:

1. Do your homework. Get to know your editor’s audience, and make your release appeal to that audience. How? By studying at least several of the latest issues of the publication in question. 
2. Make sure you have something newsworthy to say. Although it sounds obvious, you’d be surprised to learn of just how many releases I saw that did not make this crucial grade.
3. Place your news at the beginning of the release, preferably in the headline or at the very least in the opening sentence.
4. Provide nuggets of information the scream “must be interviewed”. Be fresh, be original.
5. Include a short yet compelling bio (aka boilerplate) at the foot of your release. Ideally, your USP, or point of difference, should be here, too.
6. Finally, proofread your release for errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar. On the magazines I mentioned earlier, if we spotted more than one error in the first paragraph, we’d throw the release in the bin (unless it was a REALLY great story). If people couldn’t take their work seriously, why should we have?

Need more structured help in finding the right story angle, hook, even publications for your release? Powerhouse Publicity – How to Profit from the Media and Get FREE Publicity is a step-by-step system offering proven techniques that, when followed, can give you the tools to publicise you, your company, your product or service! It’s packed with facts and tips that you can start applying straight away, too.

Britain is way ahead in the European shopping stakes. A whopping £5 billion (approx 6.31 billion euros) in online sales ahead of its closest European competitor, in fact.

The figures come from a recent study conducted by data supplier Mintel, which also reports that last year Brits racked up £12.8 billion (16.16 billion euros) worth of online sales. In contrast, the Italians and the Spanish favoured brick-and-mortar shopping, spending just 1.1 and one billion euros respectively. Germany fared well with a total of 13 billion euros (£10.3 billion) worth of sales.

And the UK online market shows no real signs of slowing down. It has shown a healthy 75% growth over the last two years alone. What’s more, UK online sales are expected to increase by as much as 200% over the next four years to hit £44.36 billion (56 billion euros). says Mintel.

Do you sell your products or services online? If not, why not? there’s a burgeoning market out there…

You can double, triple or even quadruple your sales when you learn the dynamics of selling online and how to easily apply it your business. Click here to find out more.

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