Category Archives: Relevant Content

How Well Are You Communicating?

The ability to communicate is a vital skill in today’s world.

Good communication relies on feedback and goes both ways.

When you think about your ability to communicate with your customers, being able to connect with them is critical when it comes to marketing your products and/or services.

Pay attention to some of the commercials you may watch on TV these days. Is the company or product message promoting the company or trying to connect with the consumer? Most miss the mark.

Texts. Ask your customers how they would like to receive messages from you. Many with smart phones are now open to receiving text messages, but use caution and avoid overwhelming them with sales pitches. A text is an attention getting communication and generally warrants a response for the sense of urgency. Trying to sell the receiver something is usually considered a major turn-off.

E-mail. E-mail messages may seem like stone age communication with newer technological developments, but they have been a stalwart of electronic communication methods for more than 15 years. E-mail messages that are meant to be read are best kept short. Attachments are okay, provided they are relevant to the general message. Assuming the recipient has received an E-mail is a false assumption. Just because you hit “Send” is not a guarantee the recipient got it. It may have wound up in a spam filter or lost in the cyber mail system somewhere.

If you realize someone you are exchanging E-mails with is responding promptly to your E-mails, pick up the phone and call them!

F2F. While we could elaborate on communication methods and styles for an entire year, one of the most important is face-to-face (F2F) communication. Yes, some believe it’s a dying art form, but it is still ranked high among the most effective ways of communicating with another person. Laugh if you do this, but think how ridiculous it would be to text your spouse while he/she is in the bathroom and you’re in the living room. Go and talk to them, even if it’s from outside the bathroom door!

Face-to-face communication is a two-way process. The difficulty in the process, which is why some people avoid it, is in listening to what the other person is saying. Our natural tendency is to say something and then look like we’re listening while we’re thinking of the next thing we want to say. It’s a more common occurrence than you might think.

Demonstrate interest in what the other party has to say. Listen and learn before you determine your response. Consumer complaints are best handled by listening, and asking what the customer really wants. Many times, they just want to know you care and that they are going to be heard.

Listening is a key skill for business owners and managers, too. When you hear what your team members are saying, you may discover new opportunities to explore or potential problem areas that can be averted with the right action.

How you communicate reflects your brand, too. More in weeks to come.

Brand Your Work – Work Your Brand

Advertising: Purpose is Pivotal

When a business owner tells me they need a brochure for their business, my first question is: Why? The answer usually goes something like: Well, everyone has one, we should too.

Again, why?

I take it a step further by asking: What is the purpose of the brochure? This puts a big stump in the middle of the road. When you take the time to think things through, the purpose of a brochure is, first of all, to get the viewer to pick it up. That means it either has to have a strong attention getting device or that the viewer is interested in the subject of the brochure. That could be a resort, a restaurant, tourist attraction, business information, or whatever else is being advertised, if done right.

Thinking it through a bit more, the second step in the process of an effective brochure is to get the viewer or person who picked it up to open it up and spend some time reviewing the contents. Typically, once they’ve digested the information, they look for a call to action or a reason to save the brochure. Without a call to action or reason to save it, the odds are that little brochure winds up in the recycling or trash bin.

The plus is that a brochure that is picked up and looked at has made at least one impression on one human being’s brain. Whether anything is done about it is another matter, and that is what has prompted this blog.

The purpose of the brochure or other advertising is pivotal. The call to action is essential, especially if it is intended to drive sales.

Regarding a brochure, here are a couple more questions:

Who do you want to see or receive the brochure?

What do you want them to do once they’ve received it?

The answers provide you with basic information about your target audience, how many brochures to print, the delivery vehicle (a brochure rack, direct mail, etc.), and how the reader should contact you. Have you ever received a brochure in the mail that was without any contact information? That’s a big “Oops!” and a costly one, too.

Whether it’s a brochure or some other form of advertising for your business, here’s the basic question you need to ask yourself: What’s the purpose?

You should know what you want your advertising to do. Do you want viewers, readers, and/or users to call you? Stop by your store? Go online? Check out your website? E-mail you? You must first give them a compelling reason to take action, and then call them to action so they do what you want them to do.

Even if you merely want to share information to educate potential consumers, you need to stir action to get them involved. If you’ve paid attention to the fine print in TV commercials for ED products, you’ll notice they generally direct people to a magazine ad for more information. Pick up that magazine and you’ll see a three-page ad; one for the product and two pages of disclaimers.

Think about who you want to receive your advertising message. Male, female, or both? What age group? What income level? Where do the majority of them live?

Next, consider what is the best way to reach them with your message. Are they most likely to listen to radio or view a brief video online? Choosing the right delivery vehicle and crafting a message relevant to your target audience are additional steps to gain success and a return on your investment in advertising.

Advertising seems simple, but it’s a complicated process that requires you take the time to think it through. Save yourself some money and engage a qualified consultant to help.

Protecting Your Image

Your brand is your image. Your image is conveyed through the marketing or your brand. That encompasses your logo, your social media, your advertising, your employees, and every other aspect of your business … all the way down to your business cards and the way you answer the phone.

The first step is to brand your work. Even if you are a sole proprietor, your brand involves the unique nature of your business. What separates you from others in your field? How do you answer the question it seems everyone asks nowadays: What makes you different? You need to know.

The second step is to craft a plan to protect your brand. Your image, in large part, is what attracts consumers to your business. Your business, therefore, is on the line. Your reputation is at stake, so every effort should be taken to protect what you represent.

Set standards for the use of your corporate logo. Make sure printers have the right colors (PMS standards usually apply) and place your logo in the proper location. Register the copyright and consider obtaining either trademark (™) or registered (®) marks. Prevent infringement of your logo by copycats or thieves as much as you possibly can. In an earlier blog we covered the basics of protecting your brand.

The biggest concern for companies should be protecting the corporate reputation in social media. You can probably find an article about the topic in virtually any business-related publication since it has come to the forefront lately. One of the best methods for protecting the brand is an old technique – have an online and social media strategy that includes written policies and a corporate protocol manual.

Outline who is authorized to post. Be careful who has administrative capabilities. Clarify content to be posted. Create response time guidelines. Follow accepted protocols for each social media application. The concept for your business using social media should also be clearly defined in order to protect your credibility.

Here’s an example of how your reputation can be damaged in social media: If your goal is to increase sales and every post is a pitch to move a product or service, the strategy is likely to backfire and drive consumers away from you. Once that happens, it will be difficult to get them back. Share relevant information that is of interest to users, especially your target audience. You want to be a thought leader, which means consumers look to you and your company for valuable information to help them make decisions.

In today’s economy, monitoring your social media platform and electronic footprint involves keeping your website current and watching E-mail correspondence, too. These have become as important, if not more so, than keeping tabs on your other advertising strategies. Today’s savvy consumer checks out your web presence right away.

Other concerns when it comes to protecting your image may seem minor, but they have an impact on consumers. Two we’ll cover here are employee attire and visual images.

When they’re at your place of employment or representing your business in the community, your employees convey your corporate image. Consider putting a dress code in place, along with methods for dealing with violations. How would you feel about a sales representative appearing at a trade show for your company wearing a logo emblazoned dress shirt that wasn’t tucked in? Or being drunk? How about a customer service representative swearing and arguing with a customer in a room full of other customers? Proper training can go a long way toward alleviating the potential for these mistakes, which may seem trivial but could have an impact on sales.

How does the outside of your building look to the public … your potential consumer base? If you have a reader board, keep it current. Sweep the sidewalks and shovel the snow. Keep the lobby clean and smelling nice. It’s often the little things that make a difference.

Do your corporate vehicles sport faded or outdated signs? Monitor the quality of your vehicle graphics and replace them when they start – repeat “start” – to look shoddy. You want existing customers to be excited to see one of your vehicles in their neighborhood or community, and you also want potential customers to be enticed by the image they see.

Brand Your Work – Work Your Brand

Are You Really Who You Say You Are?

There are business owners out there who believe they, and their business, are one thing when they really are something else. The problem creeps in when they start telling people who they are and the customers (and the public in general) discover the business is entirely different than how it’s portrayed.

This, on the surface, appears to be a public relations disaster waiting to happen. It is more commonly known as marketing myopia, and can be corrected. That’s the good news!

A common example is the owner of a business that sells insurance. The type of insurance has little significance, primarily because whatever the type of insurance is offered to potential customers, roughly half of the population will have an adverse reaction to the term “insurance.” The same percentage, give or take a few percentage points, applies to car sales, real estate agents, consultants, plumbers, and virtually every other occupation. Why? More on that later.

Think about insurance in its most basic form for a minute. Insurance is protection for the purchaser from some accident, death, or the negligence of some other party. Except in the case of dying, the owner can rest assured that his or her property is covered against a loss. When the policy holder dies, the insurance is intended to take care of loved ones, although it can never replace the companionship that is lost.

What is the end result of having a policy? Peace of mind. The ability to sleep well at night. Reduced risk in case of loss. Protection. What is that insurance agent selling, from the customer’s point-of-view? Pick one of the above, such as peace of mind.

Before we move on to other examples, let’s go back to the reason why so many people have an adverse reaction to various professional occupations. If you had a painful experience in the dentist’s chair when you were a child, how positive are you likely to feel about dentists in general? Over the years since, you’ve probably shared your uncomfortable experience and fear with countless other people. You probably wait to go see a dentist until you have cavities or need a root canal, which creates another less-than-pleasant experience … and the cycle continues.

Any person who’s had a bad experience with an insurance agent or policy claim has done the same thing, so the more types of insurance and agents that are in business, the greater the chances of bad experiences. We tend to forget the good experiences, so it becomes natural to have apprehension about various occupations, especially those involving sales. People don’t like to be sold; they like to make their own decisions.

Consultants are another good example. Business owners shy away from consultants because they have the single perception that a consultant is going to cost them money. The truth is a consultant should help a business make money!

Let’s look at some more examples.

If you operate a tavern and someone asks what you do, do you tell them you run a bar or serve alcohol to get people drunk? Maybe. Would it sound better if you explained that you’re in the business of providing entertainment in a fun, relaxed environment? People can drink alcohol anywhere. What you provide is an experience.

As a restaurant owner, do you tell people you run a restaurant? Yes, it’s true that’s what you do, but what they’re really looking for is the answer to why you do what you do. Try telling people you provide delicious food and exceptional service in a family friendly or cozy, candle-lit environment … whatever’s appropriate for your establishment. The right answer is far more likely to pique a person’s curiosity and be interested in giving you business than the fact you run a restaurant.

A carpet cleaning business helps people keep their living spaces clean and healthy.

A website company creates a global presence and market place.

A gas station enables car owners to keep driving their vehicles.

A plumber reduces the risk of water damage or ensures a clean supply of drinking water.

It’s our hope this has opened your eyes, and minds, to taking the time to think about what it is provide as a product or service to customers. A manufacturer of baseball bats turns pieces of wood into sporting equipment but, from the consumer’s perspective, offers a quality product to play a game at a professional level.

Contact Brand Irons if you’d like some help sifting through the jumble of what you offer so you can concentrate on telling people what it is you provide to them

Does Your Message Get Through?

The ability to communicate your message clearly and to have it understood by those who receive it comprise the foundation of your marketing efforts. What value is there in your message if it fails to get through to the people you want to “get it”?

Companies that advertise on TV or radio or any other medium and that claim it doesn’t work have, invariably, failed to communicate their message properly. What do we mean?

First, it is critical to know what your message is, or should be. If you’re in the insurance business, for instance, you may believe you’re selling policies to protect people and their assets. In reality, you’re offering those clients peace of mind or the ability to sleep well at night, knowing their assets are protected and their family is safe.

Quick, what’s the name of the insurance company that insists “You’re in good hands”? The tag line communicates the message that the company is going to take good care of its customers.

What we see, far too often, is a commercial touting the company and how long it’s been in business rather than the value it offers to the consumers who work with its products and/or services. What message are you sending?

Let’s step back a minute. If your message is unclear, go back to your business or strategic plan and revisit what it is you are selling. Clearly define your products or services, and then try to see them from the viewpoint of the consumer. What is the potential purchaser of your product or service looking for? What is their motivation for buying what you offer? Change your perspective and you will be astonished how the appearance of even the simplest item can be changed.

On a recent drive following a passing thunderstorm, the sunset to the west was a beautiful golden globe offset by white clouds against an azure sky with sunbeams radiating through the breaking cloud cover. It was a gorgeous, captivating scene. When you looked to the east, the perspective was markedly different, yet strikingly beautiful with a full-bodied, bright rainbow bursting through the darkened storm clouds over the lake.

Let’s take a minute or two for a brief exercise in the power of clear communication. After you read the following description, close your eyes and imagine the scene if you haven’t created it as you read. Then visit the real description at the end of this blog.

Imagine a kitchen table with a vase of flowers on it. A cat jumps up on the table and knocks over the vase of flowers.

Read about the real description later on.

When you have a clear picture of what you offer to the consumer, think of it in terms of how you can convey the message of your offering in the most favorable way. What is your call to action? What do you want the consumer to do? Usually, it’s that you want them to call and schedule an appointment, stop by your place of business, or go online to order.

How you communicate the message is critical to driving business. This, however, is where we also need to take the time to determine who it is we most want to receive our message. Your target audience. Diapers are for babies, but it’s their parents who make the purchase. Who are the best prospects for consuming your product or purchasing your services?

Mostly men or primarily female? Under age 18 or older than 65? Do they fit any of the in-between adult age demographics – 19-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, or 55 and older? Are they physically active? Do they drive a car? Where do they live? What level of education do they have? Do they read newspapers? Watch TV? Text? Feel free to add categories to your demographic profile, because the more distinctly you can define your audience, the more targeted your message can be communicated to that specific group of people.

Now you’ve done all this and put your message out there. Does it get through? Monitor your results. Ask people how they found out about you. Ask what intrigued them about your message. Talk to your customers and get their feedback. Those are steps that will help you verify your message did, indeed, get through to the right people.

Remember, too, that there are independent, third party professionals such as those of us here at Brand Irons who can assist you in evaluating if your message is getting through. We can also help you derive strategies for making sure it does.

Back to the cat on the table scenario. What shape was the table? What kind of flowers were in the vase? Was there a table cloth on the table? What color was the cat?

Virtually every one of you reading the original sketch came up with different answers for each of these questions. While it seemed the scene was clear, the communication left room for you to enhance it with your personal experience.

Try this version for clarity: Imagine a rectangular kitchen table with a butcher block top and white legs. There are four white ladder back chairs positioned on each side of the table with seats that match the table top but have blue-and-white checked cushions tied on. There’s a clear glass vase on the table with three red roses that are just starting to open up on it. A white, domestic short-hair cat named Snow White jumps up on the table. She goes over to the vase and, instead of knocking it over, reaches into the vase with her right front paw, dips it in the water, pulls it out and licks the water off her paw and jumps down.

While this may seem extreme, communication is important to make sure your customers get your message the way you want them to receive it.

Making Choices & Getting Business Advice

New to owning a business?

You may find the following information valuable, and certainly of interest, even if you’ve already been in business for a number of years.

Every business owner needs advice on occasion. The key is knowing when to ask for it.

It is said you are never alone if you have a deck of cards. Start playing solitaire and someone is bound to tell you what to play where.

If you believe you can make your own decisions without counsel, go right ahead. Even if you do receive a professional’s expert opinion, you can always choose to ignore it and make your own choices. You own the business, so every decision you have to make is ultimately your responsibility. You reap the rewards or bear the blame.

One of our clients was looking to raise more capital. The company was solvent and generating close to $1 million in annual sales. More funds were needed to complete some upgrades, so the owner was curious about options. We discussed the ins and outs of venture capital, issuing stock, private equity investors, and traditional financing options for the investment the company was seeking. We had experience as licensed investment representatives, so we had a grasp of the basics. We continued the discussions as time moved forward and, eventually, the client was able to get some of his better clients to invest in the company and accomplish their shared objectives.

Was it our professional counsel that turned the tide? All the client needed was information to make an intelligent decision, and the right choice for the company’s survival. The client got advice from other sources as well, and used the accumulation of information to choose wisely.

In many cases, the advice is free because of the relationships business owners have with the resources available to them, whether vendors, friends, or business associates. In other cases, the counsel is part of the overall service the business owner is contracted to receive. Is one better than the other? Only the person receiving it and using it to make their business decision can determine that. There are occasions where the more expensive advice is better than that offered without cost, and the reverse can be true, too.

Back to the issue of knowing when to ask for advice. Your accountant should be consulted before you ask your banker to extend you a line of credit, so you know what your cash flow looks like for repaying the loan and other reasons. Your legal counsel should be asked to review legal documents before you sign them, just to protect your assets, if nothing else. There are other professionals and business associates out there that you can ask for opinions about a variety of topics, from buying company vehicles to advertising campaign strategies and from charitable contributions to lobbying legislators.

If you take the time to get the information you need, you are far more likely to make a better, wiser, and more profitable decision for your business. The secret: Knowing where to get the information and being able to interpret that knowledge to gain wisdom.

Minimize Your Mistakes

We all make mistakes. It’s in our human nature to be fallible. My line is that if I were perfect there’d be no reason for me to be here. In business, however, mistakes can be costly and may even be fatal for the company.

If you are familiar with the Tylenol case, there are some who believe the problem was perpetrated by an outside influence and the company made no mistake. There had to be a failure somewhere, however, that enabled the perpetrator to infiltrate the system and contaminate product. In either case, the incident could have proved fatal for Tylenol had they chosen a different way to respond or not responded at all. Yes, it was costly to pull all of their potentially-contaminated products from the shelves and re-tool production to include protective seals, but those costs were made back up with the brand regaining its market share because of making the right decision. The right choices were made … and steps were taken to correct the failure in the system.

You will make mistakes in business. You can minimize those mistakes, though, with some preventative measures such as this limited list:

1. Internal Communication. Your corporate mission and the vision you have for your company must be consistently conveyed to your management and employees frequently. Supervisors should be talking to production people and dealing with issues the line identifies. Sustaining a positive, supportive attitude within your team is far more productive than standing by and waiting for something to break. I’ve always believed a pat on the back goes further than a kick in the pants.

2. Quality Control. The image your company portrays – through employees and your product’s packaging – creates the perception of your business to consumers. By controlling that image you can minimize negative perceptions about your products and/or services. It can be something as innocent as printing direct mail pieces when your printer is running out of ink that conveys the wrong impression. Keep an eye on your image and encourage your entire team to do the same.

3. Strategic Plan. Your corporate mission and the other aspects of having a plan for where you want your business to go serves as the guidebook to avoid mistakes. Take time to think things through. Evaluate where you are in accomplishing your strategies on a frequent basis. Spend time on the tasks that are important to the business for the long term and less time responding to urgent tasks. It’s the proverbial but true statement about spending more time on the business than in it.

4. Crisis Management. An often overlooked element in your business and marketing strategy is a response mechanism for when crises occur. Thinking through what might happen and devising methods for dealing with each of them can minimize risks, alleviate headaches, and keep your company in business when mistakes happen. Keep in mind that in certain situations, your best crisis response may be to let the crisis pass without a direct response. You must still be ready to act, however.

5. Learn. To keep from repeating errors that can prove costly, a great piece of advice is to learn from those mistakes you do make. You are doomed to failure if your company continues to make the same mistakes. Make sure your legal counsel knows the risks you face and does what he/she can to help you minimize them. Trust your non-staff team to help you gain from the lessons mistakes teach us. Stay positive and keep moving forward. Understand that this, too, will pass.

Detach yourself from the desire to make a rush (and often rash) decision. Distinguish the true from the false, the facts from the assumptions. Then choose the right path.

Does Social Media Work?

If you’ve wondered whether you should engage social media for your business, the April 17th edition of USA Today shared the results of a study you might find interesting.

Here are some of the key elements of the article by Oliver St. John for you to consider as a business owner:

The CEO of Manta, Pam Springer, is quoted as saying the negative impression business owners have about using social media is “…probably because they don’t know how to launch a successful social-media campaign…” She recommends connecting with other business owners to get advice, but only 36% of businesses do this.

There are resources available for business owners to connect with other owners and discuss topics such as social media. In Green Bay, there’s a networking group consisting of only business owners that meets the 1st Wednesday of every month at the Green Bay Yachting Club. There are other networking organizations for business owners as well.

The CEO of Crackerjack Marketing, Stephanie Schwab, is cited in the article as saying many small businesses “…just don’t have a place in social media.” She’s right in the sense you need not put your business in the social media environment because of peer or media pressure to be there. What she adds is that you need to know what you’re trying to get out of a social media campaign.

That’s common sense when it comes to marketing your business. Far too many business owners lack a strategy for marketing their products and services. If the only reason you advertise on TV is because the sales representative talked you into buying the time, you will either stumble into success or endure costly failure. You need to strategize and, as Schwab adds, use “…marketing techniques already proved to work, such as having a website.”

One of the business owners covered near the end of the article said social media hasn’t helped her business, which sells $5,000 to $40,000 pool jobs. She added, however, that out of the 200-300 jobs she does every year, three or four come from people online. Even at the low ($5,000 level) end, that could be as much as $20,000!

She gets most of her customers through referrals. That is the preferred way to get new business for most of us, and what business owners fail to realize is that they should have a strategy for that aspect of marketing their business as well.

I always find articles such as this one fascinating, especially when 61% of small businesses fail to see any return on their investment in social media. A similar article in Advertising Age, a marketing trade publication, a few years ago cited a study that showed roughly the same percentage (62%) of advertisers were dissatisfied with their agencies. What I’ve discovered and believe strongly in is that, as a business owner, you must take the time to think through what your business is all about; less about where you’ve been and more on where you want to be.

When that picture is clear, how you need to market your business also becomes clear. The proprietary process used at Brand Irons can walk you through the process, save you money over the long run, and add to your bottom line if you’re willing to change the way you’ve always done things.

To answer the question posed in the headline: Yes, if you have a strategy that is designed to reach your target demographic.

Fresh Perspectives

head-scratcher Stop and think about this for a minute: How has the market for your industry changed in the last five years?

Did your target demographic age out of being able to use your products or services? Has the target audience gotten younger without you realizing it because you’ve been mired in “the way we’ve always done things”?

Every six months, and maybe more often depending on your business, you should take a step back from your business and get a fresh perspective on it. Take a good, hard, long look at it. Consider how well your marketing efforts have been doing. Your sales should be driving production and keeping inventory low or at a level you can fill orders for 15 or 30 days, depending on demand. Advertising should be introducing you to new customers and, at least, hitting the break-even mark on the return for your investment.

Remember to take a look at your products and services. Have they remained relevant to your customers and appealing to your prospects? Crunch the numbers for which of those products and services generate the highest profit margins for your bottom line. Think about whether one of your products has reached the end of its life cycle.

The idea here is to avoid change merely for the sake of change, but if the offering has served its purpose and the profit margin continues to shrink, it may be time to shift your corporate emphasis to other products to meet emerging markets.

Ah, emerging markets! This is probably the most prolific reason to take the time to get a fresh perspective and think things through. A recent meeting with a professional in the HVAC (Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning) business drove this point home. The market for HVAC services amongst the 55 and older demographic had become stagnant. The audience had, in essence, become arthritic and uninterested in change when they’ve had the same HVAC company for their entire home-owning life.

This professional sought a new perspective and did some market research. Lo and behold, it was discovered there was an emerging market being woefully underserved. You may be able to guess the demographic, but out of deference to my friend’s research and marketing efforts, I will abstain from divulging secrets that would aid the competition.

The more I see business owners searching for answers to keeping their company alive or expanding their culture and growing the business, the more obvious it becomes that a fresh perspective is essential. When you engage a consulting firm such as Brand Irons, you get a different, customer-oriented viewpoint backed by research that can be critical to your long-term survival.

AGD’s – Attention Getting Devices

How long does it take you to check your smart phone when you hear the familiar “ding” that you’ve received a text message? If the phone is in your hand already, only a few seconds. If you have to find the phone, perhaps 30 seconds. And who knows how long if you have it on vibrate or can’t remember where you put it?

The point is that little “ding” is a very poignant and effective attention getting device, or an AGD for those of you into types of acronyms, like F2F for meeting someone face-to-face. That “ding-y” AGD is part of the reason text messaging is growing in popularity for business owners, and why texting has such a phenomenal response rate. Unless a text correspondence has ended, the sender or receiver is likely to continue responding until it does. And the end result is likely to stir one of the parties to action. Hence the effectiveness of flash mob.

Jamie's Baby

This banner from www.greenbayfloorrestore.com’s website is an example of an Internet attention getter; the client wanted more carpet cleaning business.

In more traditional methods of advertising, AGDs are as important, if not more so, than a strong call to action. Think of a direct mail piece that blends in. It looks like all the other direct mail correspondence in your mailbox and, most likely, gets recycled before it hits the countertop. We could spend an entire blog on direct mail, but as it relates to getting someone’s attention, that piece must stand out from everything else, be delivered at the right time, and pique the receiver’s curiosity enough to get them to open it and see what it’s all about. The odds are still in favor of it getting recycled, but if the offer is strong enough, it may survive.

Watch some television commercials, if only to see what grabs your attention. This can be important to you as a marketer and business owner if your target demographic matches your profile to some extent. Is the AGD a recognizable celebrity? A cute pet? Someone doing something silly or scary? Does the AGD tug at your heart strings, make you cry, or cause you to salivate for some reason? Most TV commercials, while they may seem longer, are only 30 seconds. That’s a short time to get a viewer’s attention, pitch the product, and call the observer to do something about it.

Music and humor can be attention getting devices for advertising your product or service. Beautiful images and sexual innuendo can also work, but the key to your success is using AGDs that reflect your image and convey your unique selling proposition to the targeted audience as clearly and succinctly as possible to GRAB THEIR ATTENTION … like yelling in an E-mail.

The fun part is that you’ll know yours when you discover it.