And that’s where Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps by Susan Gunelius comes in. Step-by-step, Gunelius shows you how to build good copy. She gives solid examples, showing the difference between mediocre and great writing.

In each section she gives a fictional company case study to show small business owners how to apply the principles she lays down. After reading each chapter, you’ll know how to apply quality copywriting principles to your work.

If you can’t afford a copywriter, this book will help you improve your own writing. And if you can afford to hire one, this book will help you know what to look for in a copywriter’s portfolio. And it could help you when you’re hiring a copywriter, too.

Also included at the back of the book are even more examples. There are real-world and sample ads and campaigns so you can try to use the same tactics to boost your own business. The book is full of great information. Gunelius writing is clear and easy-to-read. She doesn’t talk down to readers, as she’s clearly there to help them. To help you.

If you’re struggling with placing effective ads and having a low response to marketing campaigns, take a look at this book. I don’t think you can go wrong by picking one up.

Disclosure: I read a review copy of this book which I requested directly from the author.

image: Amazon.com

Post from: EveryJoe

Book Review: Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps

Brand extension is the process of using different avenue to promote your business. According to Wikipedia.org…

Brand extension or brand stretching is a marketing strategy in which a firm marketing a product with a well-developed image uses the same brand name in a different product category.

So let’s look at a few example of companies who have been successful in creating a brand extension:

• Eddie Bauer: clothes, automobile and housewares
• Nike: shoewear and clothing
• Proctor & Gamble: bodycare, health products and housecare products
• Coca-Cola: different soft drinks
• Disney: partnering with food establishment to advertise their movies

These are just a few of the successful brand extensions that major corporation have accomplished. For smaller businesses, you can look into applying the following things.

• Joint venture with someone who is in a different industry to advertise each others products or services.
• Checkout local businesses who may be willing to partner with you to allow you to extend your brand to their products.
• Look into providing freebies with your brand on it to different non-profit organizations.

Post from: EveryJoe

Ways To Extend Your Brand

I was at home the other evening, lounging on the futon with my extremely liberated, psychology doctorate toting wife when an ad came on for a local carpet store.

Normally, we might have done a fast channel surf. I say “we” since I am so enlightened and sensitive to gender equality I often share the TV remote — a practice many non-politically correct people refer to as being “pussy-whipped.”

Most of the time the lovely Dr. Mrs. Jabo doesn’t listen to commercials because she is an intellectually rigorous, erudite and serious academic.

I, on the other hand, tend to pay close attention to commercials since I am a professional wise-ass and know a fertile source of material when I see one.

The Doctor and I are in the process of redecorating our house, so we both perked up when the voice-over announcer said, “Does your home look like it was designed in the last century?”

The commercial continued with a montage of clips of people installing carpet and the testimonials extolling the many benefits and increase in social status you’d enjoy by updating your floor coverings.

Then came the store’s tag line, delivered by the sonorous professional announcer: “Knucklehead Carpet. Designs she’ll love at a price he can afford.”

Holy Susan B. Anthony, Batman! Did that guy just say what I thought he said?

I wish I could remember the actual name of the carpet store because I think it would be fun to flood the store with angry e-mails, if only to make up for the seven-and-a-half minutes of uncomfortable silence I had to endure while I simultaneously refused to look at my fuming fiancee and bit down hard on my tongue so as not to make some deliberately smart-aleck and provocative remark like, “Hey, I heard that’s where all the bitches go for carpet.”

To her credit, the good doctor didn’t take out her frustration on the nearest male which happened to be me.

To my credit, I broke the uncomfortable silence by suggesting the ad copy should have read, “Does your home look like it was designed in the last century? And do your attitudes match?”

The only way this commercial could have been more offensive was if they’d gotten O.J. to appear in it.

The good news is the ad helped us narrow down our decorating choices.

We’ll probably just go with hardwood floors.

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“This is the first time we’ve shagged in weeks!”

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Image: Zuma Press

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Post from: EveryJoe

Carpet Bombing

Image: SXC.hu

Being able to piece together how you will communicate your brand to your target customers is important. Just as the image to the right shows, every piece counts. In branding, good habits count and can help you successfully communicate your brand.

Below are a list of good branding habits that can help as you communicate your brand message.

• Incorporate your brand message on all your promotional items.
• Have a common message when communicating with others
• In your communication with others, whether online or offline, be very professional in that you do not argue with others.
• Make you and your brand know on social media networks such s Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn.
• Look for opportunities to share your brand message online and offline.
• Be consistent when you are communicating your brand message.
• Create brand awareness by looking at possible joint ventures to co-brand.

Each of these branding habits are different ways that you can inject good and effective branding habits into your business. To help you learn more about good and effective branding habits, I have included the video below.

Post from: EveryJoe

7 Good and Highly Effective Branding Habits

Image: SXC.hu

What I mean by this is that when you develop a partnership by merging with another business owner that you should try to work into the agreement that you will keep some type of autonomy for your original business. You can view this as a safeguard in case your partnership ends. Your new partnership can have its own brand message while at the same time you can keep the brand message going for your original business.

Now let me preface the above with the fact that if your new partnership doesn’t allow for you to keep your original business running as is then you should look for ways that you can create a separate business that won’t clash. As you develop your partnership along with the new brand, one of the things you should keep in mind is how you will merge the brand message of both businesses.

To help you understand better how to build your brand with a partnership, I have included the video below that talks about: “When you want corporate partnership, you need to link up who you are, who you are at your authentic core with an organization that reflects the same brand.”

Post from: EveryJoe

Branding A Business Partnership

That may be true, but only if you haven’t leveraged your real estate and can afford the increasing taxes which are likely as state and local governments look to tap any revenue source they can find.

With record foreclosures, plummeting prices and an overhang of supply in the housing market, another real estate crisis also appears to be imminent.

Builders are warning a new financial catastrophe may be looming in the commercial real estate market.

If the story sounds familiar, it’s basically a rehash of the lending excesses which caused problems in the housing market.

Banks, in particular smaller local banks, boosted lending to commercial real estate owners and developers over the past 20 years. The conventional wisdom was business real estate would be a more reliable source of income than individual homeowners.

As is often the case, it turns out the conventional wisdom just meant there were a lot of people making the same faulty assumptions.

With the recession, the owners of shopping malls, hotels, office space and apartment buildings are all seeing falling occupancy rates.

A slowing economy also puts pressure on commercial property owners in other ways:

Massive layoffs have left office buildings with unrented space. The slowdown in consumer spending is hitting owners of malls and retail space where foot traffic has dried up. Hotel owners have been hurt by the slowdown in travel and tourism.

Miami’s ritzy hotel The Shore Club offers one case in point. The hotel was appraised and mortgaged for $176 million as the Florida real estate market got particularly frothy in 2005.

The hotel’s occupancy rate was 54% in the second quarter of 2009, down from 66.5% a year earlier. Revenue per available room was also down 40% to $151.44 from $251.17 during the same period. The hotel recently was declared delinquent on its $111.5 million mortgage.

The good news is the commercial real estate market is much smaller than the residential market. The residential housing market represents a $22 trillion sector of the economy. By contrast, the commercial real estate market is estimated to be around $6.4 trillion.

The bad news: problems in the commercial market could spill over into the residential market as losses on commercial properties could cause banks to curtail overall credit extension and, in many cases, accelerate sales of foreclosed houses in order to help offset more illiquid commercial real estate properties.

There are other problems in the commercial market as well. Commercial loans tend to be much shorter than home mortgages. Many commercial mortgages have terms of only three to seven years and are the mainstay of most smaller bank portfolios.

As MSNBC reports:

For smaller banks with assets under $1 billion the concentration [of commercial real estate loans] is even higher. Some 74 percent of all loans held by smaller banks are secured by commercial real estate. These roughly 6,500 banks represent some 90 percent of all U.S. banks.

As it turns out, Ice-T’s residuals from Law and Order may represent a better deal than any property he holds.

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Just like a real hotel … it’s empty inside.

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Image: Zuma Press

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Post from: EveryJoe

“I’ll Never Go Broke, I Got Property”

Which is why, when I went to our local warehouse store, I stopped in my tracks when I saw a package for neck cream. In big letters — a font you could see from several feet away — was the product’s catch phrase:

Got turkey neck?

I was flabbergasted. I had to wonder what customer would actually buy the product. No woman I know would be caught anywhere near a product with that on it. If a woman is vain enough to want cream for any neck waddle she may have, she certainly wouldn’t want to advertise it by buying something that announces it so… nondescriptly.

While packaging like this may garner attention at first, is it really the attention you want for your product? Think hard about the message you are sending to your customer. Does this send the message that you respect your customer? That you want to help them? Or does it just say that you are trying to embarrass them into buying something they think they may need?

image: Becky Scott

Post from: EveryJoe

Your Product Packaging Sends a Message

“With the Buddy Media Platform,” explains Buddy Media’s CEO Michael Lazerow, “agencies can now provide a full suite of social marketing capabilities, including Facebook Pages and Twitter management, in a meaningful and measurable way that deepens client engagements.”

Buddy Media is a well-known name in the social media world. Many companies are jumping on the Buddy Media Platform including MDC Partners, Converseon, theKbuzz and VivaKi.

“Having access to an intuitive, easy-to-use set of social media tools backed by Buddy Media, which has an outstanding track record of customer success, is incredibly valuable,” said Jeff Flemings of VivaKi.

For marketing, social media can be tricky business. If you are looking for a solution to make it easier, give Buddy Media Platform a try.

Social Media (Image: Flickr)

Post from: EveryJoe

Buddy Media Platform Launched

3 Ways for Businesses to Take Full Advantage of Facebook
Here’s a great listing of three different ways you can use Facebook for your business. John gives some good ideas on how to make the best of your Facebook experience.

Internet Marketing for Smart People
I don’t link a lot of e-courses, even though there are tons out there. But when a free offering comes from someone with a good reputation, you should definitely check it out. So if you want to learn more about internet marketing from one of the best, check out the free newsletter from copyblogger.

BlogWorld Expo Recap: Day 1
Lisa gives recaps of some of the sessions she went to at BlogWorld last weekend. You’ll find some gems in there, so check out Day 2 and Day 3 also.

Who’s more important: the division president or the customer?
One thing that bugs me when I go to the store is employees who complain about work, their boss, other customers, or their co-workers — in front of me. I find it highly unprofessional and it makes me uncomfortable. I don’t want to hear you complain, because it usually means you’re so busy with your conversation that you’re ignoring me. Your customer. So Steve’s post here about making sure your employees treat customers the same as the company big wigs hits a bulls eye for me.

Did anything stand out to you over the last week or two? Let us know in the comments.

image: morgueFile

Post from: EveryJoe

Recommended Marketing Reads for Monday, 10-19

The story spread all over Twitter and other parts of the web as concerned people retweeted the original story. Who wants to be separated from their child at the airport, confined to a security area? It hit an emotional nerve, especially with parents across the web.

Concerned about potential public relations damage, the TSA blog posted a video showing footage from the woman’s screening. And suddenly, the story makes a decided turn in favor of TSA. The video — while not complete — shows most of the screening and the woman’s child is either on her lap or next to her in a stroller the entire time.

The TSA Blog Team also posted the rebuttal to Twitter, actually sending tweets to many of the people who had retweeted the original story.

After the video was posted, Nic, the woman who claimed TSA broke its own policy, eventually responded to the story. She says that footage of her phone calls while in the security holding area, and the time when her son was in a separate area, is missing. But that is “being handled between [her] family and the TSA.”

Sometimes people tend toward exaggeration or hyperbole when they’re upset. Is that the case here? We can’t be certain. What I find interesting is that the TSA posted footage of the incident (which the woman states is actually her and her son) on their blog and on their YouTube channel.

In the midst of a potential PR nightmare, TSA (fairly) swiftly responded with their side of the story.

Are you monitoring social networking sites so you can respond in a crisis? Social networkers don’t take weekends off, so make sure you have a way to check in or get notified if something immediately needs your attention. Make it part of your PR or marketing plan.

Post from: EveryJoe

TSA Uses Blog and Twitter to Defend Itself