Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
Promote Your
Business
How to write effective marketing material
for your small business
Mary Morel
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Contents
Contents
Preface vii
Introduction ix
References 238
Index 240
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Preface
Preface
vii
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Introduction
Introduction
ix
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company from several sources before you feel you know and
trust them enough to do business with them.
How you decide to promote your business will depend on
what you want to achieve, your budget and what is most appro-
priate for your audience. What works for one company may not
work for another, and sometimes issues like timing make a differ-
ence. Often you may need to use several complementary
marketing tools at once. For example, you may have a monthly
e-newsletter, which you complement with a regular, but inter-
mittent, schedule of press releases, advertisements and direct
mail. Gut feeling also plays a part. If a promotion doesn’t ‘feel
right’ and you find you’re pushing hard every step of the way,
then it’s probably the wrong marketing tool for you.
I have tried most of the promotional material covered in this
book personally for my own business. I’ve had some ‘wins’, such
as my brochure, e-newsletter and direct mail, and discovered
there are some things, like letterbox drops and flyers, that I won’t
do again.
Some professional services seem to have an ingrained belief
that marketing is somehow unprofessional and only suitable for
products, not services. This isn’t true—the trick is finding
marketing methods that suit the style of your business and are
appropriate for your prospects.
Many people (me included) don’t enjoy promoting them-
selves very much, but it does get easier with practise, and as you
are an expert in your field, you need to capitalise on your knowl-
edge. Be prepared to promote yourself as well as your business.
One of the difficulties for many small businesses, especially
sole traders, is time. When you’re busy you’re totally caught up
in your work, and when you’ve finished a major project you
face a vacuum as you haven’t kept in touch with your existing
clients and prospects. With a marketing plan in place, you’re
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Introduction
xi
more likely to market your business consistently—even when
you’re busy.
Emerald Furniture
Emerald Furniture produces high-quality, simple yet elegant
furniture manufactured from environmentally friendly materials
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for home and corporate use. Each piece is hand crafted and
customers can order from the workshop or through the product
catalogue, which is available online or in some furniture shops.
Susan Eves, who has 15 years’ experience in the furniture
industry, opened Emerald Furniture in 2003. She is currently
working out of a workshop garage and employs one part-time
furniture maker.
Chapter summary
Chapter 1 How to write a business and marketing plan
A marketing plan gives you a promotional strategy to achieve
your business goals and objectives. Without a marketing plan,
you risk marketing reactively when your business goes quiet.
With a marketing plan, your marketing efforts will be more
consistent and thus more successful.
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Introduction
xiii
Your marketing plan includes: mission and vision statements,
goals and objectives, market and competitor analyses, a SWOT
analysis, your position in the marketplace, budgeting and an
action plan.
Introduction
xv
and display advertisements. With advertisements you only have
a few seconds to grab attention, so your writing must be succinct
and memorable. This chapter looks at the ingredients of effec-
tive advertisements, including headlines, body copy, visuals and
layout.
How to write a
business and 1
marketing plan
How to write a business and marketing plan
1
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Delite Landscape
Description of the business DESIGN
Delite Landscape Design combines boutique gardening shops with domestic
and commercial landscape design and gardening services. The shops carry
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EMERALD
furniture
Description of the business
Emerald Furniture produces high-quality, simple yet elegant furniture manu-
factured from environmentally friendly materials for home and corporate
use. Each piece is hand crafted and customers can order from the work-
shop or through the product catalogue, which is available online or in some
furniture shops.
Blue Gum
Description of the business RESTAURANT
Blue Gum Restaurant is located close to the heart of the city and caters for
both families and the business community. It serves modern cuisine and is
fully licensed and BYO. Its prices are mid-range.
MISSION STATEMENT
A mission statement describes the core purpose of your busi-
ness, your values and approach. It focuses on what benefits
you’re offering your customers or clients.
VISION STATEMENT
A vision statement is about the future of your business and what
you want to achieve. A vision statement allows you to dream.
Where do you want your business to be in 10 years’ time? What
do you want to achieve professionally from your business? What
do you want to achieve personally from your business? Ideally,
your personal and business visions should align so you’re
focusing all your energies on what you want to achieve person-
ally and professionally.
Having a vision will also help you with the daily running of
your business. For example, if you want to sell your business in
10 years’ time, you will need to keep good records of your
processes and procedures to help make your business ready for
sale when the time comes. Lots of businesses fail to keep good
ongoing records and have to create them retrospectively. It’s
much easier to keep good records of your procedures at the time,
with another end user in mind.
Delite Landscape
Mission DESIGN
Delite Landscape Design cares and caters creatively for gardens of all sizes through
every stage of their development—from design through to maintenance.
Vision
Delite Landscape Design aims to be a reputable and profitable landscape
business operating out of three cities.
John Pettit’s personal vision is to sell the branches in seven years’ time
and to remain as a consultant for another three years before retirement.
EMERALD
furniture
Mission
Emerald Furniture produces good-quality, environmentally friendly furniture
that looks good, is comfortable and is built to last.
Vision
To produce award-winning furniture that sells nationwide through Emerald
Furniture’s own outlets and selected furniture shops.
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Blue Gum
Mission RESTAURANT
At Blue Gum Restaurant customers experience the finest foods and wine in a
relaxing yet stylish environment. The service is friendly and helpful without
being obtrusive.
Vision
To continue to provide a quality dining experience for customers, and earn
a comfortable living.
Tania and Bill’s personal vision is to continue working in the restaurant
until they retire. They hope to sell the restaurant as a viable business with a
strong, loyal patronage.
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Seven-year goal Seven-year objectives
• Sell or franchise business • Maintain excellent records of
processes, procedures and accounts so
the business is ready to sell at any stage
• Increase profitability by 10% each year
• Build a solid base of repeat and new
customers
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Goals for the year ahead Objectives for the year ahead
• Increase profits by 10% • Gain repeat business from 70% of
clients
• Gain three new domestic clients in
each city per month for general
work
• Gain one new commercial client in
each city per month for general
work
EMERALD
furniture
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Market analysis
YOUR TARGET MARKETS
Find out as much as you can about the markets you want to sell
your products and services to so you understand their needs and
stay abreast of changes happening in their world. Such research
will also help you identify your niche markets and target your
marketing material so you can talk your prospects’ language.
You’ll also have a better idea of what makes your products and
services unique and be in a position to spot opportunities before
your competitors do.
Your product or service is unlikely to have universal appeal,
so you need to identify and understand your niche target market.
Look at your market in terms of demographics (age, gender,
education, geographical location etc.) and psychographics (what
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MARKET TRENDS
Stay one step ahead of your competitors by looking at the gen-
eral market environment and doing trend analyses. For example:
Do you anticipate economic changes that will affect your busi-
ness? What are the latest trends in your industry? Is there a
business opportunity for you in these trends? Are your
customers or clients undergoing changes that will affect their
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Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Annual update
The census statistics show that the population is ageing, fewer women are
having children and more women are in the labour force. Most population
growth is occurring in the capital cities, and more people in cities now live
in apartments.
Overall, the home ownership rate is declining. High-income house-
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EMERALD
furniture
Having worked in the industry for 15 years, Susan Eves has a strong
interest in furniture and an instinctive feel for what sells. But she doesn’t
rely solely on this knowledge. She keeps abreast of what’s happening
in her field by reading trade magazines, visiting furniture stores,
attending trade shows and conferences, and occasionally surfing the
Internet.
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Tania James and Bill Johnson did extensive research before purchasing Blue
Gum Restaurant, which was an existing, run-down restaurant. Bill looked
closely at the books to work out what income they could realistically expect
to make. He continues to monitor the profitability of the industry and is
pleased that Blue Gum Restaurant performs better than the industry average,
based on profit margin information they have obtained from government
statistics.
Tania conducted and continues to conduct market research on
people’s eating-out habits. For this research, she uses information from
government statistics, and the national restaurant and catering association,
attending conferences, reading cuisine magazines and eating at other
restaurants.
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All Tania’s research shows that the trend to eat out is continuing. One
research company estimated that the number of meals served by the food
service industry grew by 20% over the last 10 years. Chicken is still the most
popular meat, followed by beef, pork and lamb.
Tania and Bill have found that their patronage has steadily increased over
the years for their evening meals, which are usually booked out in advance
three or four nights a week, but that their lunchtime clientele has changed.
When they first started out, business people would have long lunches and
drink copious amounts of alcohol.They find that business people now spend
less time over lunch and drink little or no alcohol.They also want lighter meals
and faster service.Tania and Bill have adapted their menu and service to meet
this need, but now want to market their lighter lunches to the corporate
world.
Competitor analysis
As part of your marketing plan, have a look at your competi-
tors. Group your competitors into types and analyse a few in
depth. If you’re having difficulty deciding how much to charge
for a product or service, check out what your competitors
charge. You can get information from various sources, such as
the newspapers, ringing your competitors directly, the Internet,
annual reports and trade journals.
This research needs to be ongoing, as your market will
change. You need to ask yourself: Are new businesses competing
for your customers or clients? Are competing companies altering
their products or services in a way that makes them more threat-
ening to your business?
I think that while you need to know who your competi-
tors are, it doesn’t pay to get too hung up about what other
people are doing. You’re better off putting your energies into
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Delite Landscape
DESIGN
John Pettit did extensive competitive analysis when he first started his busi-
ness. He now follows his competitors in the three cities Delite Landscape
Design operates in by looking at their ads in the newspapers and maga-
zines, visiting their nurseries from time to time, and listening to what his
customers say. He pays close attention when he is thinking of raising his
prices.
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EMERALD
furniture
Susan Eves has decided not to do a formal competitor analysis or to worry
about her competitors, but she does keep an eye on what her competitors
are doing to make sure that her designs remain original and to keep up with
changing fashions. She also constantly notes what her competitors are
charging to make sure her prices are competitive.
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Tania and Bill are aware that they face competition from other local cafés
and restaurants as well as takeaway outlets.
When Tania and Bill started their restaurant, they visited all the restau-
rants and cafés in their local area and ate in several of them. They continue
to dine out regularly, partly because they enjoy eating out and also to watch
what their competitors are doing.
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Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Current strengths Current weaknesses
• Strong profitable presence in three cities • A little complacent
• Solid background with years of experience • Higher staff turnover than in
• Award-winning designs previous years
• Quality and reliability • Growth last year was a little
less than predicted
Threats Opportunities
• New player in one city who has • Move into balcony design
fresh ideas and is marketing aggressively and target apartment dwellers
• Existing competition
• Nursery changing hands in one city
EMERALD
furniture
Threats Opportunities
• Other more established • Opportunity to create a niche
players in the market market for original, stylish
furniture using environmentally
friendly products
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Threats Opportunities
• Other restaurants, cafés and • Cater for the changing lunchtime
takeaway outlets in the area market
• Economic downturns—people
choose cheaper eating places
Positioning
Through your market analysis and your industry knowledge, you
will have identified your target market and your niche in it. You
now need to work out how to position yourself in that market.
Ask yourself whether your services or products have some unique
features that differentiate you from your competitors. In marketing
jargon, this is called a unique selling proposition (USP). Quality
products and reliable, courteous customer services don’t qualify
as a USP, as they’re too general. Don’t worry if you don’t have a
USP—a lot of small businesses don’t. But if you do, flaunt it.
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Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Delite Landscape Design’s USP is that it provides both a retail and landscape
gardening service, so can source plants at a reasonable price for its clients.
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In the domestic market, the staff promote their years of experience and
their ability to care for a garden at all stages, from original design through
to maintenance, including pruning and replanting. In the commercial sector
they focus more on their design capabilities and cite their awards and
previous examples to show their range of work.
EMERALD
furniture
Susan Eves intends to strongly promote the fact that her furniture is made
from environmentally friendly materials.
She will also capitalise on the fact that she’s a woman in a traditionally
male field.
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Tania and Bill believe that their USP is the fact theirs is a family business
and that every aspect of it, from the freshness of the food through to the
table service, reflects their commitment to and enjoyment of the business.
Marketing
The most successful marketing is consistent and persistent. All
small businesses will know the difficulty involved in keeping up
their marketing efforts when they’re busy, but the problem with
not doing it regularly is that when the work runs dry there’s
always a lag between generating prospects and getting new work.
Even with regular clients, you need to keep in contact so that
they feel wanted and so that you are front-of-mind when the
opportunity for new work arises.
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person who took her friends out for dinner and in exchange for
paying for the meal asked them to brainstorm her marketing
plan with her.
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Marketing goals Marketing objectives Marketing tools
EMERALD
furniture
Marketing goal Marketing objectives Marketing tools
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Marketing goals Marketing objectives Marketing tools
Budget
Although you can do many things cost-effectively, most forms
of promotion do cost money. Many businesses allocate a set
amount per year to marketing. Some businesses decide how
much to spend on marketing based on a percentage of profits.
Other businesses set aside a fixed amount, irrespective of the
profits. And sometimes, if you’re a start-up business or are
having a lean patch, you have to regard marketing as an invest-
ment rather than just a cost.
Another way of looking at your budget is to decide what
activities you want to do and who in your office is available to
manage them. Once you’ve decided this, you’ll be in a better posi-
tion to assign responsibilities for your marketing and apportion
a budget.
Your budget, like your business plan, needs to be constantly
updated and reviewed. At all stages, you need to be aware of
your cash flow and profitability so you can take action if neces-
sary to reduce costs and/or market more aggressively.
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Action plan
A quarterly and/or monthly action plan helps you keep your
business and marketing plans forefront of your mind and is also
useful to measure your progress.
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Target markets Marketing tools Whose responsibility Desired outcomes
EMERALD
furniture
Target markets Marketing tools Whose responsibility Desired outcomes
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Target markets Marketing tools Whose responsibility Desired outcomes
Summary
PURPOSE
The purpose of a marketing plan is to help focus your marketing
efforts.
AUDIENCE
You, your staff and possibly your bank or your business mentor.
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Branding and
creating visual 2
impact
Branding and creating visual impact
Branding
Branding reflects your company’s personality. It’s what people
remember and trust about your business, and what they under-
stand about your products and services and your values. People
want to buy from companies they know and like; companies
they trust will be around for a while. A brand is that promise.
If you’re reading this book, you’re probably not building a
global or even a national empire—nor will you have a squillion-
dollar advertising budget. But you will have a brand and image,
whether you manage it or not. You build your brand as a result
of the myriad impressions made by every encounter people have
with your business. Your brand includes your logo, your cor-
porate colours and your slogan, but it’s much more than that.
28
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CHECKLIST
1. What’s your vision?
2. What are your values?
3. What are the key characteristics of your products and services?
4. Who’s your target audience?
5. What’s your USP?
6. What benefits will people associate with your products and
services?
7. What emotional reasons will lead people to buy your
products or services?
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Name
Your name is part of your brand. Names conjure up thoughts
and feelings, which affect buying decisions. It helps if your name
is easy to remember, so that people can look you up in the phone
book or use your name when referring your business to others.
If you’re a start-up business you’ll need to choose a name.
Before you start, have a look at what other names are used in
your industry to get a feel for what works and to avoid choosing
a name that is already taken.
Once you’ve come up with some options, test them on
friends and colleagues to see what words they associate with
your name. Often, however, names are developed intuitively.
When I set my business up I struggled for ages to find a name.
I asked everyone I knew and even people I’d just met for inspi-
ration. I desperately needed business cards, so a name was
imperative. I was stuck. The best I had managed was ‘Dynamic
Writers’, but I wasn’t happy with it. Then, the day before I was
going to employ a designer, I opened the phone book under
Dynamic and realised there were ‘Dynamic Plumbers’, ‘Dynamic
Hairdressers’, ‘Dynamic Printers’ . . .
Fortunately, our subconscious aids our rational mind, and
the next morning I woke up with the name—‘The M Factor’.
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Delite Landscape
DESIGN
John Pettit chose his name, Delite Landscape Design, 25 years ago when
he set up his business. He wanted a name that described what he did but
that was also a bit different. And he wanted a name that started with a letter
close to the beginning of the alphabet so he would stand out when people
looked for landscape designers in the Yellow Pages.
At one stage he got sick of the name, and trialled ‘DLD’ with some of
his existing customers. The response was a strong negative, so he has chosen
to keep using Delite Landscape Design, sometimes shortened to ‘Delite’.
EMERALD
furniture
Susan Eves chose ‘Emerald Furniture’ because she wanted a name that
suggested her furniture was precious and long-lasting. She also likes
emeralds, and always wears an emerald ring she inherited from her
grandmother.
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Tania James and Bill Johnson chose their name as they are originally
both from Tasmania, and the Tasmanian blue gum is their state’s floral
symbol.
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Company colours
Choose colours for your business that reflect your values and
appeal to your customers. When choosing your colours, think
about the emotional meanings people associate with different
colours as some colours work better than others for particular
audiences. For example, purple and gold are great for fun prod-
ucts, but could be offputting for corporate clients. Blue and green
are much safer for the corporate world. Colours have different
meanings for different cultures, so if you’re targeting a partic-
ular ethnic group, check out their colour preferences.
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
John Pettit chose green and reddish-purple as Delite Landscape Design’s
colours. Most people associate green with nature, but he chose the purple
to go with it as it reminded him of the inside of an old-fashioned sliced
runner bean.
EMERALD
furniture
Susan Eves chose emerald green and cream as her company colours.
Emerald green was a logical choice to go with her name and cream provided
a softer contrast than white.
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
The juvenile leaves of the blue gum tree are blue-grey and the flowers are
cream. Tania James and Bill Johnson decided that these colours suited the
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Logo
Some logos are just a symbol and others include the name. Your
logo should make a simple statement, rather than necessarily
representing all aspects of your business. The best logos work
on an emotional as well as an intellectual level. Don’t be too
trendy or outrageous, as you want your logo to last for many
years.
Unless you’re talented at design, employ a designer to
develop your logo. When choosing a designer, get a few quotes
to compare prices and look at samples of the designer’s work
to make sure you like their style. Develop a brief for them
about your business and your values so they can design a logo
that reflects your company’s personality. Avoid being too
prescriptive, as you may curb their creative ability and thus
limit your options. Think carefully before using reversed type
(white type on a coloured background): although it may look
good, it’s harder to read than black type and doesn’t photo-
copy well.
If you are going to use your logo electronically, make sure it
works well in digital form and that it looks OK printed in black-
and-white as well as colour. Put your electronic logo on a
template to make it easier for staff to use and to ensure that it is
used the same way consistently.
Delite Landscape
DESIGN Delite Landscape Design
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EMERALD
furniture
Emerald Furniture
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT Blue Gum Restaurant
Delite Landscape
DESIGN For gardens that delight
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EMERALD
furniture
Eco-furniture + comfort = ageless class
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT Modern cuisine
Fo r g a rd e n s t h a t d e l i g h t
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
John Pettit
MANAGING 23 Landscape Lane
DIRECTOR
Rockville SA 1999
Ph/fax: (01) 0345 6789
Email: jpettit@delitelandscape.com
Susan Eves
Furniture Designer
EMERALD
furniture
Eco-furniture + comfort = ageless class
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Gary Modern cuisine
Burgess
9 Bannerman Street
HEAD CHEF
Blues Point VIC 1999
Ph/fax: (01) 0345 6789
Email:
gburgess@bluegumrestaurant.com
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Managing a brand
Once you’ve developed your brand, maintain it. It’s the
emotional and visual image of your reputation, so is worth
guarding fiercely. Most businesses understand this in theory, but
inconsistency is a common failure even among large corpora-
tions. One shoddy brochure or one poorly written letter can do
untold damage to a company’s reputation and brand.
Managing your brand means having a consistent look, tone
and quality throughout all your products and services and
communications. Look at Coca-Cola, Levis and Minties. The
marketing people must be very sick of working with the one
brand, but it works, so they won’t risk tampering with it too
much. Remember when at one stage Coca-Cola tried to change
the shape of the bottle? It wasn’t long before it reverted to the
old style.
How consistent are you? Review your print material and
audit your office procedures to see how consistent your brand
is. Do your business cards, brochures, stationery, invoices and
letters all have the same look and feel? If your staff write letters,
do they all use the same layout and typefaces, and is the tone
consistent? Does your print material have typos in it? If a client
or customer visited or phoned your office, would they be
surprised by what they saw? Or is your office and the way your
staff treat customers and clients in keeping with your brand?
It doesn’t take much effort to maintain high standards in
everything you do, and it does make a difference. If you’re a sole
trader it’s easier to keep your brand in mind as you’ve devel-
oped it; but if you’re writing your own marketing material it’s
worth getting a friend to edit it, as it’s difficult to see your own
mistakes. If you’ve been working on material for a while, you
tend to read what you think is there rather than what is.
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FONT SIZES
Once you’ve selected your typefaces, choose font sizes for your
body text and create a standard hierarchy of headings.
Small text can be difficult to read, especially for older people,
but if your text is too large it looks patronising. Body text size
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Readability
Good layout gives your material a structure and logical flow as
well as providing visual appeal. When most people look at page
or screen they first scan it for images, headings and captions.
The use of colour, size and position all influence our reading
patterns. Our eyes are attracted to bright colours and large font
size first, then to the more muted colours and smaller font size.
In the Western world we’re taught to read from left to right,
so our eyes naturally do this when we read. This is why most
headings are either flush left or centred, not right-aligned. It’s
also why most captions for photos are to the left or underneath
the picture, not above or to the right.
Once you’ve spent some time on the Internet, you actually
read screens differently from the way you read texts. For a start,
you scan more than you do with printed text, but your eyes
work differently as well: instead of reading from left to right,
your eyes go to the centre first, then left, then right. This is prob-
ably because on many websites the centre section contains an
introduction to the site, the navigational links are on the left and
the functional links, such as search, are on the right. Through
scanning, you quickly take in what’s on the site and what links
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Paragraphs
New paragraphs start on the line following the preceding one
with the first word indented (except after a heading), or there
is a line space between the paragraphs and no indentation.
No spacing and indentation is usual for books and magazines,
but corporate and marketing communications more often have
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White space
‘White space’ is the term used for space without words in it, and
the term is still used even when you have a coloured background.
Sometimes the term ‘empty space’ is used instead. White space
is particularly useful in print material, as it provides balance,
contrast and variety. White space also breaks text up into more
easily read chunks and gives our eyes a rest.
You can create white space in your documents by the use of
illustrative material, short paragraphs, headings, spaces above
and below headings and lists.
White space is still necessary on websites, but you have to
balance this with the need to fit your copy comfortably on a
page. Too much white space slows the scanning process and
means you have to scroll down more. A simple way of creating
white space in online text is to keep your paragraphs short and
use subheadings.
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Headings
The use of headings and subheadings has increased in recent
years, as people are less tolerant of large quantities of text
without the visual cues that headings provide. Headings tell
readers about the scope and structure of your work and break
your text into manageable pieces. There’s more on how to write
headings in Chapter 7.
Proof
If you still need proof, try reading the following paragraph
(a repeat of previous text) without any formatting or layout.
White space ‘White space’ is the term used for space without
words in it, and the term is still used even when you have a
coloured background. Sometimes the term ‘empty space’ is used
instead. White space is particularly useful in print material, as it
provides balance, contrast and variety. White space also breaks
text up into more easily read chunks and gives our eyes a rest.
You can create white space in your documents by the use of
illustrative material, short paragraphs, headings, spaces above
and below headings and lists. White space is not so useful in
websites, where space is more of a premium. Too much white
space on screen documents slows the scanning process and means
you have to scroll down more often. However, you still need
white space, and a simple way of creating it is to keep your
paragraphs short and use subheadings. Headings The use of
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DESIGN CHECKLIST
1. Will the design and layout entice people to read the material?
2. Is the design balanced and harmonious, and does it work well
with your words?
3. Is it easy to read or is the design distracting?
4. Is the design in keeping with your brand?
5. Do the layout and headings provide a good structure and flow?
6. Are the headings clear and consistent?
7. Is there enough white space in your print material?
Delite Landscape
Style guide—an extract DESIGN
This style guide aims to help us consolidate our strong marketing identity.
Please use it when preparing any marketing material or writing to customers
to ensure that we maintain a consistent, professional image.
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Typeface
The standard size and font for all printed correspondence is 11 pt Times
New Roman for body text and Arial for headings. There is a hierarchy of
headings preset on your computer.
For emails, use 10 pt Arial.
The standard font for all product brochures, flyers and other material
produced externally is Minion.
23 Landscape Lane
Rockville SA 1999 Delite Landscape
DESIGN
For gardens that delight
26 May 2003
Julie Young
8 Barton Place
Meritton, BIT 908
Dear Julie
Landscape quote
Enclosed is our landscape quote for your new home at 8 Barton Place.
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to quote. It would be a pleasure to work
with you to create a garden that complements your beautiful new home.
Kind regards
John Pettit
M ANAGING D IRECTOR
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Summary
PURPOSE
The purpose of branding is to convey a consistent positive image
to your target market.
AUDIENCE
Your audience is everyone who comes in contact with your
business.
CONTENT
Your branding consists of:
• your name
• company colours
• logo
• slogan and tag line (optional)
• visual appearance of all your written material
• the way you and your staff behave and treat customers and
clients.
TIPS
• Develop a brand that suits your products/services, will appeal
to your target audience, and reflects your values and personal
preference.
• Guard your brand and maintain it consistently.
• Occasionally you may need to do a complete overhaul, but
more often your brand will develop organically over time.
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Writing
guidelines 3
Writing guidelines
51
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Purpose
The purpose or objective is why you’re writing your marketing
material. Your purpose will always start with ‘to’—for example,
‘to persuade’, ‘to convince’, ‘to promote’, ‘to inform’, ‘to enter-
tain’ or ‘to instruct’. Often you’ll know instinctively what your
purpose is, but thinking about it helps refine your goals.
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53
If you record your purpose you can also use it to guide your
decisions about the format and style, and can refer to it later
when you monitor and measure your results.
Audience
Thinking about your audience is the key to writing successful
marketing material. Too many people forget about their audi-
ence when they write, and write for themselves. You only need
to read a few websites or brochures to see how widespread
this fault is. We’re all guilty of it at times. We get so engrossed
in what we want to say that we forget our audience is reading
our material from a completely different standpoint. We either
make the mistake of telling them everything we know, which
is total information overload, or assume they’re on our wave-
length and talk in jargon or shortcuts. Either way, you will
risk losing your audience’s attention. If you give them too
much information they’ll switch off, and if you talk above their
heads they’ll either feel dumb or decide your material is not
for them.
At the time of writing this book, there were several SAP bill-
boards and large posters at Australian airports. Two that stay in
my mind are ‘Oracle uses SAP’ and ‘Nestlé uses SAP’. I can’t
recall the pictures at all—they made no lasting impression.
I know that SAP is software, but I have no idea what advantages
it offers. It means nothing to me that Oracle and Nestlé use it.
The billboards and posters worked, in that they grabbed my
attention, but they also irritated me. Wondering whether I was
the only ignorant person I knew, I asked my teenage children
and friends if they understood. My limited research drew a
blank. Obviously we were not their target audience, but they
had chosen a highly visible place for their advertisements.
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I too fell into this trap recently, when running a business writing
course. I’ve learnt to assume that not everyone knows the meaning
of writing jargon, like ‘noun’ and ‘verb’, and I usually give people
a handout so they don’t have to feel ignorant and ask. But this time
I had some highly literate people in my class, and I pitched my
lessons at them and didn’t hand out my glossary. The course was
one and a half hours a week over six weeks, and it wasn’t until the
end of the final lesson that one person said she would like to have
known the difference between a ‘noun’ and a ‘verb’. She’d sat
through six lessons not wanting to make a fool of herself by asking.
(There is a very simple glossary at the end of this chapter.)
Writing guidelines
55
Also ask yourself what terms and concepts your audience
will understand. If you and your audience know what SAP is,
then use it. If you have multiple audiences, you have a greater
challenge. Some people will be familiar with your terminology
and others won’t. But remember, no-one is ever going to be
offended by terms being described in simple, clear language.
People take offence only if the tone is patronising. If you can’t
cater for all your audiences in one publication, you may have to
produce different versions for your different audiences—for
example, have a general brochure for all audiences and a specialist
product brochure for your technically literate audience. On your
website, you could have general information on one page and
hyperlinks to more technical information or definitions of key
terms.
As well as considering what information people wish to
receive, you need to think about what their attitude is towards
your product or service and your company. If your product or
service is unique, its features will sell it, but if you’re in a compet-
itive marketplace and people are likely to think ‘Not another!’,
then you have a greater challenge to make your marketing ma-
terial stand out. Often the best way of being different is being
true to who you are—writing simply and concisely and staying
within your brand and positioning.
When you’re engaged in the writing process, it’s easy to get
engrossed in what you’re writing and lose sight of your audi-
ence. So take stock from time to time to make sure you’ve still
got your audience in mind.
AUDIENCE CHECKLIST
1. What do you know about your audience—age, ethnic origin,
lifestyle, location etc.?
2. Do you know many of them personally?
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Key messages
Your key messages are the ideas and information you want to
convey to your reader. You’re best to get across a few selective
messages well rather than try to communicate too much ma-
terial and run the risk of clouding the issues. Content is not
the same as key messages. Content is all the information you
will include. It’s best to think in terms of key messages rather
than content at the planning stage, so you identify what’s
important. You will then use your content to support your key
messages.
At this stage, don’t worry about the structure of your ma-
terial. That comes next, at the beginning of the writing stage.
The important thing is to clarify the key messages.
Outcome
The outcome is what you want to achieve from your commu-
nication and relates to your purpose. For example, your purpose
might be to convince your target market to buy your products
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57
or services, and your desired outcome is that people do buy
your product or service. Or you may be wishing to raise the
profile of your business, and the desired outcome—which is
harder to measure—is that the profile of your business will
improve.
Think about how you can improve the desired outcome. For
example, if you want people to respond, make it easy for them
to do so, by either enclosing a reply-paid envelope or having
your contact details prominently displayed. Or make your
marketing material interactive, by having questionnaires or
competitions with prizes. If you encourage people to reply
you’ll be able to engage in a dialogue and start building a
relationship.
Delite Landscape
PAKO for brochure DESIGN
Purposes
• To inform current and prospective customers about the range of Delite
Landscape Design’s services
• To have some information to give to prospective customers about Delite
that they will take away and perhaps keep even if they don’t buy any
products or services immediately
Audience
• Current and prospective customers
Key messages
• Range of products and services—design, planting, maintenance etc.
• Benefits of services for customers
• Examples with pictures of previous work for customers
• About us—emphasising years of experience, awards won, etc.
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• Pricing
• How to contact us
Outcomes
• Current customers will realise what else Delite does and use a wider
range of services
• Prospective customers will have information to refer to, to help them
make a purchasing decision
Medium—print or electronic?
You may already have decided before you started planning what
medium you wanted—for example, a brochure, a website or a
direct mail letter. The PAKO exercise will either confirm that
decision or make you realise that another format might be more
appropriate. For example, you might be planning to write a
direct mail letter but decide that an html email would achieve
better results.
There are pros and cons for both print and electronic media,
and the final decision will probably depend on a number of
factors, such as your audience and your budget. For example,
emails are cheap to produce and send, and they’re easy for most
people to access. But for some industries, such as the construc-
tion industry, emails may not be the best way to contact people,
as they’re often on site rather than in the office.
Although email is convenient, there is definitely still a place
for the printed word. Many people prefer reading print material
to online copy. Print material is often more visually attractive
than online material and people tend to hold onto print material
(except junk mail), while emails are easy to delete or file in an
obscure place where they’re often lost forever.
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Writing your marketing material
Structure
Forget everything you learnt at school or university about having
an introduction, a middle and a conclusion. In marketing ma-
terial this doesn’t work. Instead you have to start with the most
important information first to grab your readers’ attention. Work
out a logical, customer-focused structure before you start
writing, and then put yourself in your audience’s shoes to see
whether it works.
Some different ways of planning your material are:
Once you’ve worked out your structure, give it the audience test
again with your key messages in mind. Have you included all
the information your reader will want? What information can
you safely leave out?
Getting started
Many writers talk about harnessing their intuition to help them
write. When I first started writing, I wasn’t as aware as I am now
of its role in my writing. Our subconscious does work for all of
us, particularly when we feel comfortable with our writing style.
If you’ve just started writing you may not have found your own
writing voice. There’s nothing wrong with copying other
people’s style (without plagiarising) until you find your own
voice.
Writing is hard work, but it’s also rewarding. Whenever I start
a new project, no matter how big or small, I always think ‘I can’t
do this, it’s too hard’. I know this demon now and have a name
for it. I call it ‘creative anxiety’. Having a name for it doesn’t
make the fear any less real, but I now have confidence that I will
get through it and that, yes, ‘I can do it’.
The way I overcome this fear is to prepare myself well by
doing thorough research and using the PAKO exercise. I’m a
deadline person so I usually leave writing a bit too late for my
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61
own comfort, but I do make my deadlines. Somewhere along
the line my subconscious also starts working with me and
provides the best inspiration. It works best if I can shut off my
internal chatter and listen to it.
Luke Sullivan, in Hey Whipple, Squeeze This, refers to this
stage as ‘staring at your partner’s shoes’. Whenever he and his
partner have done all the groundwork for a new advertisement,
they sit with their feet on their desks chatting about all sorts of
things. To an outsider it would look as if they were wasting time,
but it’s part of the creative process.
My first draft, after I have done the PAKO exercise, is usually
a stream of consciousness, and I try to keep writing without
stopping. Whenever I come back to the piece I start at the begin-
ning again, so I rewrite as I go. My first drafts are always too
waffly and my rewriting often changes them beyond recogni-
tion. Writing a stream-of-consciousness first draft helps me keep
my flow, but if I get stuck I stop and jot down headings or use
a mind map.
Other people I’ve talked to about how they get started have
different methods. These include the following:
Style
Your marketing material should be easy to read. Your audience
should be so busy reading for content that they don’t even notice
the words. These are just a vehicle to get your message across—
unless of course, you’re writing a witty or funny advertisement
that plays on words. Then you want your audience to share in
your delight of the words. But mostly you will be writing simply
and clearly, with your audience in mind at all times.
Even when following the principles of good writing, there is
scope for the personality of your business to shine through. Think
about the websites and e-newsletters you receive that stand out.
They’re the ones that are original, that say something different
or have a unique feel. That doesn’t mean they’re necessarily way
out or wacky, but they’re not afraid to let their personality and
brand show. You can do the same with your marketing material.
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Tone
Often people are completely unaware of the tone of their writing.
Say it out loud and you’ll realise that your writing does have
tone, and the question you need to ask yourself is: ‘Is the tone
appropriate for my audience?’
The appropriate tone for marketing material is often neutral,
to let the key messages speak for themselves, but if you’re writing
an advertisement or direct mail, you sometimes want your ma-
terial to have a livelier, more persuasive tone. That doesn’t mean
going overboard on emotive adjectives. Rather, the art of writing
persuasively is to be objective, use specific examples and substan-
tiate what you say.
Words
SIMPLE, SHORT WORDS
Part of the richness of our language comes from the range and
diversity of words we have to choose from, but simple is still
best for marketing purposes. Often people use complex words
in writing, thinking these make them sound intelligent and
professional; in reality they often sound pompous, confusing
and bureaucratic.
The building blocks for your marketing material are words.
Short, simple, familiar words are stronger than long, complex
words. We’ve inherited a lot of the simple words in English
from the Anglo-Saxons (500–1100 AD). Although only about
one-sixth of our words come from this source, about half of
the most commonly used words in modern English have Old
English roots. They’re words like ‘water’, ‘strong’ and ‘brave’.
Write the way you speak, but without all the inconsistencies
and colloquialisms of oral speech. If you’re having difficulty
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Complex Simpler
amongst among
arising from the fact that because
as regards about
exceeding more than
in the foreseeable future in the future
furthermore and
despite the fact that although
in addition also
pertains to is about
predicated on based on
necessitate need
previous to before
requirement need
a small proportion of some
to a large extent largely
in view of the fact that because
CLICHÉS
We all use clichés at times (‘Please don’t hesitate to call me’ etc.).
Sometimes they’re appropriate, but we could often say the same
thing more simply. Look at the following examples of clichés
and possible alternatives.
Clichés Alternatives
‘At your earliest convenience’ ‘By 22 May’ (Being specific
gives people a deadline and
creates a sense of urgency.)
‘Please feel free to call’ ‘Please call’ or ‘Call me on . . .’
‘Thank you in advance for your ‘Thank you for your cooperation’
cooperation’
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ADVERBS AND ADJECTIVES
Adjectives and adverbs often slow the pace of your writing and
weaken it. A common mistake of beginning writers is to use too
many adjectives and adverbs. If you’re guilty of that, go through
your work and delete them all, then see which ones you can’t
live without and should reinstate. Many fiction-writing courses
also stress the necessity to be ruthless with your adjectives and
adverbs.
POWERFUL VERBS
Verbs are more powerful than nouns. For example, compare ‘The
installation of the program will take five days’ with ‘The
program will take five days to install’. Marketing material uses
verbs extensively. Have a look and see how often simple words
like ‘try’, ‘taste’, ‘switch’ or ‘buy’ are used in advertisements or
direct mail.
One simple tip to get even more mileage out of verbs is to
add an ‘s’. For example, when you say ‘Add zest to your life’,
the readers have to do something to get that zest. If you say your
product ‘adds zest to your life’, the emphasis has changed and
all the readers have to do is buy the product which will give
them the zest. Same message (buy) but a slightly different twist
that adds even more power to the verb.
Having said that verbs are powerful, there are two excep-
tions—the verbs ‘to get’ and ‘to be’. Many people take exception
to the word get, probably because often it could be replaced
with a more specific verb. For example, He got the book could
be written as He bought the book or He fetched the book.
In some instances, such as ‘got married’, there really is no suit-
able alternative.
It’s impossible to imagine writing without the verb ‘to be’,
but there is a temptation to use parts of it, like There is and It
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• Changing the word order to put the subject first, e.g. ‘The
memo was sent by the manager’ becomes ‘The manager sent
the memo’
• Supplying a subject if you know who or what the subject is,
e.g. ‘The method was ruled out’ becomes ‘The supervisor
ruled out the method’
• Replacing a passive verb with an active one, e.g. ‘The water
is sent into the lake’ becomes ‘The water flows into the lake’.
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Sentences
Use short sentences. Occasionally long sentences work, but as
a general rule sentences should be not longer than 25 words. The
problem with long, complex sentences is that you can get lost
in the middle and find it difficult to work out what the person
is saying. If your sentence is too long, try deleting unnecessary
words, breaking it into two sentences or putting some of the
information into bullet form.
Although long sentences seldom work, all sentences the same
length would be boring too. Add variety to your writing by
varying the length of your sentences. There’s nothing wrong
with the occasional short sentence, but too many short sentences
make your writing seem jerky. Single-sentence paragraphs some-
times work, especially in press releases, but use them with care
in other types of writing.
As a general rule, use one idea per sentence. Sometimes two
works, but three is overload. If you’re having difficulty with the
word order, put the main idea first and keep the subject and verb
close together. The rest of the sentence should then fall into place.
Remember to keep the internal structure of your sentences
consistent. A common mistake is switching between nouns and
verbs or using different forms of the same verb. For example,
‘To investigate the claim and reporting on it may take several
days’ should be ‘To investigate the claim and report on it may
take several days’.
Paragraphs
These days most of us are used to receiving information in
chunk-sized bites. The Internet is a prime example, but look at
modern non-fiction books compared with even 10 years ago and
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Lists
Lists are often used in marketing material, such as brochures and
websites. They’re useful to get across information quickly and
concisely. As stated in Chapter 2, however, use them judiciously
so as not to overdo them. The main problem that people have
with lists is inconsistency. So whatever style you choose, make
sure you use the same style consistently throughout. Semi-colons
used to be common in lists, but the modern trend is for minimal
punctuation.
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As well as using a consistent style, watch out for consistent
internal structure, punctuation and line spacing. For example, if
you have used a line space between the initial statement and the
first bullet point, use this style consistently.
Editing
Editing comes after rewriting, even though you will have done
considerable editing as you rewrote. You’ll now have the overall
structure right so you’re checking the detail to make sure your
facts are accurate, your headings and lists are in a consistent style
and there are no grammatical mistakes.
At this stage, you can still use that magic word delete and
tighten your writing even more.
Proofreading
After you’ve finished, put your work aside once again before
you proofread it. The problem with proofreading material
straight after you’ve read it is that you read what you think is
there rather than what is. For example, one of my common
mistakes is typing form when I mean from, and I often won’t
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71
even see this. Microsoft spell and grammar check is helpful, but
has its limitations. For example, it won’t pick up missing words
or some typos, such as an instead of can.
At the proofing stage, you’re looking for typos and incon-
sistencies, such as the use of ‘five’ and ‘5’ in one document.
These details make a difference, as first impressions count and
a typo on the first page can let down your entire work.
It happens to us all. I have a salutary story on this note. I was
extremely well prepared and had thoroughly proofed my
notes for a course but planned to put the structure of the
course on the whiteboard. When I discovered there was no
whiteboard in the room, I quickly wrote up the course struc-
ture on my laptop for the data show. I flashed it up on the
screen, and there was the typo. Not a good start or look for
a training session on writing! I now include the structure in
the notes.
Ideally, ask a colleague to proof your work for you as well.
They’ll approach it with fresh eyes and spot mistakes you’ve
missed. If you can’t find anyone else to proofread it, read it word
by word, line by line. Some people put a ruler under each line
to stop themselves skim-reading.
If you’re having your work professionally designed and
printed, you need to proofread your work at each stage of the
process. Mistakes can creep in during the design and print
process. Don’t expect a designer to treat your words with the
respect you do. Most are more concerned with the visual appear-
ance, and that’s why you employed them. So take responsibility
for the words and check them thoroughly. You don’t want a
brochure with a typo or missing paragraph. Talk to anyone who
has been involved in design and print management and you’ll
hear enough horror stories to appreciate the value of thorough
proofreading.
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PAKO CHECKLIST
The bottom line is:
• Does your communication work?
• Does it fulfil its purpose?
• Is it appropriate for your audience?
• Are your key messages clearly spelt out?
• Is the reader likely to respond the way you want them to?
Structure:
• Do you get your main message across at the beginning?
• Does your material flow logically?
• Is it easy to read?
• Do you provide closure?
• Do you have a call to action?
Style and language:
• Is your style clear and concise?
• Is your language appropriate for your readers?
• Have you chunked your information into easy-to-read
paragraphs with headings and subheadings?
• Have you used short sentences?
• Have you used simple words and avoided unnecessary
jargon?
• Have you used passive statements?
Repetitions:
• Have you repeated yourself?
• Have you got fixated on a certain word and overused it?
Layout:
• What does it look like?
• Do you need more headings and subheadings?
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73
• Do you need to put some information into bullet points?
• Do you have too many bullet points?
Punctuation:
Consistency:
• Have you used a consistent style for lists, numbers, dates? For
example, if you have chosen to spell out numbers between one
and nine, make sure you use the same rule throughout the work.
• Are your lists in a consistent style?
Nouns are the names of tangible things, such as cat, book and
report, and of abstract notions, such as ideas, dreams and love.
They’re sometimes called ‘naming’ words.
Prepositions are used before nouns or pronouns to relate them
to other words (e.g. he is in the car). Common prepositions
are by, for, in, of and to. Some people still maintain that
sentences shouldn’t end with a preposition, but this is not so.
This idea was rubbished by Churchill in his famous sentence:
‘This is the sort of English up with which I will not put.’
Pronouns take the place of nouns. Personal pronouns are I, you,
he, she, it, we, you, and they and their corresponding forms,
for example, me, my, us and our. Possessive pronouns are
mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours and theirs.
Verbs show actions (e.g. play), processes (e.g. grow) or states of
being (e.g. to be or to have). In simple terms, they’re often
referred to as ‘doing’ words.
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How to write
brochures and 4
flyers
How to write brochures and flyers
75
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Types of brochures
Brochures come in many different shapes and sizes. Start
collecting brochures yourself and you’ll see. Look at the words
and design critically, as this will help you work out what you
like and don’t like.
If there are elements in other people’s brochures you like,
keep them in mind for your own. This may seem like copying,
but if you write your brochure using both your head and your
passion about your business, it will be original. All traces of
copying will disappear as you incorporate other people’s ideas
and make them your own.
Capability brochures
A capability brochure, which includes corporate brochures and
company profiles, gives the reader a general overview of your
Bh0683M04-PressProofs.QX5 14/4/03 12:59 PM Page 77
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Delite Landscape Design mainly uses its capability brochure when pitching
for new work. Delite’s A4 brochure includes:
EMERALD
furniture
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Our services range from the initial consult to the final result and include:
2 Crampton Street
Browns Bay NSW 1999
ph: (01) 0345 6789
fax: (01) 0345 6789
<www.emeraldfurniture.com>
Bh0683M04-PressProofs.QX5 14/4/03 12:59 PM Page 82
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Only a few minutes’ walk from the heart of the city, Blue Gum is the perfect place for
that casual breakfast, a business lunch or an evening meal with friends or family.
Sit outside in our quiet, shady courtyard over your coffee or pre-dinner drink, then move
inside to dine in comfort. Located in a superbly restored old banking chambers, the
timber floors and high ceilings are a dramatic contrast with the contemporary décor.
The mood is warm and friendly, the service smart and professional, and the food
exceptional modern cuisine. Award-winning chef Gary Burgess combines his vast
international experience with exciting, fresh local ingredients to give you a unique dining
experience.
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Blue Gum Restaurant gives its brochure to corporate clients and people
interested in its catering services. Its capability brochure is a booklet with
a pouch inside the back cover for individual sheets, such as sample menus.
Its structure is:
1. Cover—photo of the restaurant that extends over front and back cover
2. Inside cover—address, phone number and location map
3. Description of restaurant
4. Information on functions
5. Information on catering
6. History of the restaurant, profile of the owners and a review
7. Pouch for sample menus etc.
8. Back cover—photo that continues from the front page.
Product brochures
Product brochures describe a specific product, service or
offering. These brochures are usually shorter than the capability
brochure, but go into more depth about a particular aspect of
your business. They are usually less showy and more functional-
looking. They get down to business and discuss the details of
your products and services. Sometimes, but not often, they
include pricing.
Product brochures come in many forms, including leaflets,
pamphlets, cards, flyers (covered separately), factsheets and
booklets. They’re sometimes professionally printed, but many
are photocopied or printed on a laser or inkjet printer. At its
Bh0683M04-PressProofs.QX5 14/4/03 12:59 PM Page 84
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Delite Landscape Design has a regular stand at a garden show, and this
year has decided to use a pot-shaped card to promote its courtyard and
balcony design service. The other side of the card is an illustration or photo
of potplants on a balcony or courtyard plus Delite’s phone number.
EMERALD
furniture
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Blue Gum Restaurant has some information about its function room in its
capability brochure. In brief, the room holds up to 40 people and is
available for private functions, such as corporate dinners or birthday
parties. Blue Gum Restaurant inserts a sample menu in the pouch on the
back cover of its capability brochure.
Bh0683M04-PressProofs.QX5 14/4/03 12:59 PM Page 86
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
We’ve gone potty!
Brighten up your courtyard or balcony with
potted plants—ferns, flowers, herbs,
bamboos, palms . . .
<www.delitelandscape.com>
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Ph: (01) 0345 6789
Bh0683M04-PressProofs.QX5 14/4/03 12:59 PM Page 87
EMERALD
Eco-timber
+
eco-techniques
+
style
=
pure class
furniture
Class that
lasts . . .
Our home furniture is
lovingly handmade out of
environmentally friendly
materials.
2 Crampton Street
Browns Bay NSW 1999
ph: (01) 0345 6789
fax: (01) 0345 6789
<www.emeraldfurniture.com>
Bh0683M04-PressProofs.QX5 14/4/03 12:59 PM Page 88
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
RESTAURANT
Sample
Sample menu
menu for
for functions
functions
Catering
Catering starts
starts at
at aa very
very reasonable
reasonable $15
$15 per
per person
person for
for cocktail
cocktail food
food and
and $60
$60 per
per
person
person for for a three-course
a three-course set set menu
menu for for large
large groups.
groups. TheTheset set
menumenuhashas three
three choices
choices in each
in each course.
course. Smaller
Smaller groups
groups cancan choose
choose fromfrom
ourour
à laàcarte
la carte menu.
menu.
Entrees
Entrees
Spinach
Spinach andand fetta
fetta cheese
cheese fritters
fritters
Chilli
Chilli fish
fish with
with sweet
sweet lemon
lemon salad
salad
Beef
Beef salad
salad with
with coconut
coconut dressing
dressing
Mains
Mains
Roasted
Roasted jewfish
jewfish fillets
fillets with
with braised
braised fennel
fennel and
and aa lemon
lemon cream
cream sauce
sauce
Prawn and chicken curry cooked in coconut
Prawn and chicken curry cooked in coconut cream cream
Butterflied
Butterflied leg
leg of
of lamb
lamb with
with roasted
roasted vegetables,
vegetables, served
served with
with yoghurt
yoghurt and
and sesame
sesame
All
Allmains
mainsare
areserved
servedwith
withbaby
babypotatoes
potatoesand
andaaMediterranean
Mediterraneansalad.
salad.
Desserts
Desserts
Coconut
Coconut tart
tart with
with raspberry
raspberry sauce
sauce
Crème
Crème brulée
brulée and
and steeped
steeped apricots
apricots
Chocolate
Chocolate spice
spice syrup
syrup cake
cake served
served with
with home-made
home-made vanilla
vanilla ice
ice cream
cream
Folders of information
One of the most versatile marketing tools is a customised folder,
which houses all your brochures, leaflets, factsheets, flyers and
other printed material, such as price lists, presentations, annual
reports, press releases and letters.
Folders are used by businesses of all sizes. Ideally, your folder
will be in your corporate colours, with your name and logo
clearly displayed on the front cover. The contact details will
probably be on the back. If you’re a small business starting out,
search the stationery shops to find a commercial folder in your
corporate colours. Some of them have a space on the front cover
to insert your business card.
The advantage of a folder is that you can mix and match
your material to suit specific customers or prospects. This is
Bh0683M04-PressProofs.QX5 14/4/03 12:59 PM Page 90
EMERALD
furniture Learn how to
make your own furniture
One-day furniture making class for women
Pay only $195 for this one-day course and save $100
if you book before the end of September.
By the end of the day, everyone will have a stool to take away with them.
The materials are included in the overall cost. If you want to make any other
furniture, Susan will help you with the design and let you choose some
wood, which you can select and buy from her supplies.
Susan is renowned for her stylish and comfortable designs and for her
environmentally sound approach to furniture making. All the wood you use
is either recycled or sourced from sustainable forestry plantations. You’ll
learn traditional furniture-making techniques and use natural finishing
products, not toxic chemicals.
Online brochures
Often, particularly if you’re telemarketing, prospects will want
you to email them information rather than posting it. An online
brochure is never going to look as good as a hard copy, but it is
cheaper and often more convenient.
Think about how you will present your information via email.
You can convert your brochure into a PDF file or Word document.
Alternatively, you could email prospects a link to a specific
page on your website.
Delite Landscape
Testimonial DESIGN
I wanted to let you know how pleased we are with all your work—the overall
design is everything we hoped for and we now eat most of our meals outside
so we can enjoy our beautiful garden.
You and your staff were a pleasure to work with. Your staff constructed
the rock retaining walls, planters and pond professionally, with care for the
surroundings and respect for the occupants in the home—a rare trait in
tradespeople.
We will have no hesitation recommending you to all our friends who
admire our garden. Once again, THANK YOU.
Bob and Jane Smith.
Blue Gum
Review RESTAURANT
‘Everything you expect from a fine restaurant except the price tag and the
pretensions. Set in a spectacular 1920s banking chamber, the high ceilings
create a sense of reverence, which is countered by the comfortable, modern
décor.The atmosphere is friendly and relaxed and you can hear yourself talk.
Bh0683M04-PressProofs.QX5 14/4/03 12:59 PM Page 97
your claims. But be careful not to use statistics that will date
your products too quickly.
Be as specific as possible. For example, if you sell an IT
product and speed is a selling point, then state how fast your
product goes.
Mention any awards you’ve won—that’s always impressive.
Summary
PURPOSE
• Capability brochures give an overview of your business and
help establish your credibility.
• Product brochures provide more details about specific
products or services.
• Flyers promote specific events or special deals.
AUDIENCE
Your audience is your existing customers and clients and
prospects. Write with your audience in mind and think about
what they will want to know, not just what you have to offer.
CONTENT
Your key messages in your brochure are how your customers
and clients will benefit from using your products or services.
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TIPS
• Use your capability and product brochures to support your
marketing efforts. People often keep brochures to refer to
when they’re making a purchasing decision.
• Give your brochures to existing customers and clients as well
as prospects, as existing customers and clients are often your
best ambassadors.
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How to write a
press release 5
How to write a press release
105
Bh0683M05-PressProofs.QX5 14/4/03 1:02 PM Page 106
use your press release unchanged but often they’ll do their own
research, using your story as a basis for their own story.
Press releases have to be newsworthy or you’re wasting your
time. So before you start, ask yourself what you want to achieve
with your press release; ask yourself whether you really do have
a story or whether you’re just after free publicity. What you may
think riveting may not appeal to an editor, so run it past a friend
or colleague first.
Also remember that, even if you have got a good story and
your press release is well written, there’s still no guarantee that
your story will get picked up by the media. There’s an element
of luck involved. Your story might arrive on a quiet day and fill
a space, or land on a busy day and get overlooked. There’s no
way your press release can compete with a national or inter-
national disaster dominating the news.
But time your press release right and you can scoop some
good publicity. One method of getting press coverage is to
piggyback on a breaking news story. If you spot such a PR
opportunity, you need to act fast to capitalise on it. If your story
doesn’t have a ‘use-by’ date, a good time to send it in is over
school holiday periods when many reporters are on leave.
If you plan to make press releases a regular part of your
marketing and PR, I recommend that you read Peter Denton’s
How to write and pitch your Press Release. It’s an excellent book
by a former journalist with many years’ experience in the media.
News agencies
If your story is nationally newsworthy you could send it to a
news agency. Newspapers, television and radio all source stories
from news agencies.
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Local press
Don’t underestimate the power of the local press. Lots of people
skim local papers before throwing them in the recycling bin, and
your story might just catch their eye. Local newspapers will
often use stories unaltered if they trust your credibility.
The Internet
Don’t overlook the Internet, which is a rapidly evolving medium;
most major news organisations have a presence on the Internet.
Press releases specifically written for the Internet are often
shorter than their print counterparts. Many consist of five short,
one-to-three-sentence paragraphs.
Audience
Who’s your target audience? If you understand your audience
you’ll pitch your story right and find it easier to write an opening
paragraph that will grab their attention. You’ll also provide
supporting information that you know will interest them.
Find out what media your audience reads, listens to or watches
so you’ll send your press release to the most appropriate places.
You can find out by asking some of your target group directly or
seeing what papers and magazines are available at newsagencies.
Look at the magazines and newspapers you’re interested in
to make sure your story is right for that publication. Or listen
to local radio and TV stations if they’re an appropriate medium.
As well as researching your chosen media, find out the
name of the editor so you can personalise your cover letter.
Metropolitan newspapers have different editors for different
sections, so choose which section your press release is most
appropriate for.
KEY MESSAGES
• Delite Landscape Design: Launching a new product—
balcony design.
• Emerald Furniture: Won a furniture award.
• Blue Gum Restaurant: Dial-a-dinner.
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Delite Landscape Design has decided to write a press release promoting
their new balcony service. They are going to target the local press, and hope
that some papers will pick up the story and write a feature article. They
regularly advertise in the local papers, so they already have an established
relationship with the editors.
Delite Landscape Design has decided to take a human-interest angle
and to profile one of their clients who represents the business they want to
attract.
EMERALD
furniture
Emerald Furniture has won a furniture design award, so has decided to send
a press release to both the local papers and a trade magazine.
Susan Eves’s aim is to help establish her brand and credibility and to
attract new business. She has decided to make it a straight news story for
the local paper, as it is topical, and to expand on it for the trade journal, as
this comes out on a monthly basis and the award will no longer be hot news.
Bh0683M05-PressProofs.QX5 14/4/03 1:02 PM Page 113
EMERALD
furniture
Key information
You may have already guessed what it’s about, but you have to
read the next paragraph to be sure:
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Gifted choices
Corporate gifts and promotional products are tools to increase
brand awareness. If they are not translating to bottom line sales,
then are they an effective use of your marketing dollar?
Use a spokesperson
Press releases usually contain quotes to add credibility. Quotes
give you the opportunity to say something about your products
or services that you can’t say yourself as it sounds like bragging.
They also allow you to state opinions as well as facts.
Occasionally press releases start with a quote, but more often
the quote is in about the third or fourth paragraph, to provide
supporting information for the opening paragraphs. It’s common
when writing press releases to make up people’s quotes, but you
must check them with the people you’re quoting so that they’re
comfortable with the words you’ve attributed to them.
Journalists often contact the person directly to substantiate
the comments, or interview the person and write their own. This
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QUOTATION STYLES
The question of whether to use single or double quotation marks
is a matter of style preference. Have a look at the publication
you’re targeting and see what its style is. Some modern style
guides recommend using single quotation marks and then double
quotation marks for quotes within quotes.
If the quoted speech runs on from one paragraph to the next,
you don’t need to put the quotation marks at the end of the first
paragraph, but you need them at the beginning of the following
one. For example:
‘We haven’t had rain for several weeks now,’ Mr Jones said.
‘This is a very serious situation for farmers and the whole
country.’ (Alternatively, you could say ‘said Mr Jones’.)
• After the person has been introduced, ‘he’ and ‘she’ are often
used for variety:
What to avoid
Write your press release in plain, direct, clear language, and avoid:
• Exaggeration and hype words, like ‘cheapest’, ‘best’ and ‘most
unique’
• Words aimed at getting the journalist’s attention, like ‘STOP
PRESS’, ‘URGENT’ or ‘NEWS FLASH’. They’ll have the opposite
effect
• Clichés, like ‘smelling of roses’ or ‘greatest invention since
sliced bread’
• Puns and word-plays. People haven’t got time to admire your
cleverness—they just want the information. Leave the puns
to the subeditors.
Bh0683M05-PressProofs.QX5 14/4/03 1:02 PM Page 120
Pictures
A picture is worth a thousand words. Trite but true, especially
if you have a strong action shot and not just a head-and-
shoulders portrait. Your photos need to be of reasonable
quality. If you could use the photos for other promotions,
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Background information
It’s accepted practice to provide background information with
your press release. For example, you might write about your
company, the person you’ve quoted, or give some more infor-
mation about the product or issue you’ve addressed in the press
release.
Your background information needs to be concise, clear and
objective. This is not the place for a sales pitch about you and
your company. Mark your background information ‘Back-
ground information’ or ‘Backgrounder’, to distinguish it from
your press release.
If you’re emailing your press release, this background infor-
mation could be on your website and you could provide a
hyperlink. This has advantages over attachments, which many
people are wary of opening because of viruses.
Contact details
A reporter may want to follow up on your story, so provide a
spokesperson who is available and prepared to answer questions.
Make it easy for the journalist or editor to contact you by
including all your relevant contact details, such as your phone
number, email address and website, at the end of your press
release.
Bh0683M05-PressProofs.QX5 14/4/03 1:02 PM Page 123
Format
The appearance of your press release has an influence on how
it will be received. Traditionally, press releases were written on
A4 pages in double spacing, but I think 1.5-line spacing is
acceptable today. Some organisations use single spacing so they
can fit the whole press release on one page. Leave wide left and
right margins and generous spaces at the top and bottom of the
pages.
Be careful how you split paragraphs at the bottom of the
page. If you have a four-line paragraph with one line on one
page and three on the next, move the one line onto the follow-
ing page to keep it together or, alternatively, put two lines on
each page.
Remember to number your pages if you have more than one
page. Some people also put key words in the header and ‘more’
in the footer in case the pages get separated. Another conven-
tion is to put the word ‘ends’ at the finish. With the increasing
use of electronic media I’m not sure that these conventions are
so relevant today, but page numbering still is.
Most newspapers do not use bullet points. Some magazines
do. But if you look on Internet sites, some organisations write
press releases with bullet points to convey as much information
to the media as possible. However, journalists use such press
releases as background information rather than printing them in
their entirety. Check out the style of your target publication.
If it doesn’t use bullet points, steer away from using them in
your press release.
Bh0683M05-PressProofs.QX5 14/4/03 1:02 PM Page 124
Distribution
FAX, POST OR EMAIL?
Find out the name and title (e.g. Susan Smith, Business Editor)
of the correct person to send your press release to, and check
how they want to receive it. Many editors these days like press
releases emailed, but some still like them faxed or, if there’s no
time constraint, posted.
If you’re faxing or emailing your press release, you may need
to courier your photo unless it’s on your website. Include
another copy of the press release with the photo.
Follow-up
Like all aspects of marketing, dealing with the media is about
building relationships. So if it’s appropriate, ring up and ask
whether they want any more information. Or you could even
ring them before you write it to see whether the story interests
them.
But remember, your press release is only one of many, and
if you don’t know the editor or journalist you may get a frosty
reception. Don’t take it personally: they may be busy. Some
journalists prefer being contacted by email; others regard that
as intrusive. Trust your instincts on the best way to contact
journalists personally and whether it’s even advisable.
Bh0683M05-PressProofs.QX5 14/4/03 1:02 PM Page 126
Timing
The timing of your press release is important. Check out what time
your target media likes to receive their press releases. As a general
rule, aim to fax or email your press release through by 11 am and
follow up, if appropriate, late morning or early afternoon.
Delite Landscape
Press release for local papers DESIGN
F O R I M M E D I AT E R E L E A S E , 1 J A N UA R Y 2 0 0 0
EMERALD
furniture
Press release for local newspapers
F O R I M M E D I AT E R E L E A S E , 1 J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 0
Two hundred furniture makers were invited to take part in the awards
In awarding Susan the Bronze, the judges described her chair as ‘one
‘It is a very stylish and comfortable chair,’ said Graeme Jones. ‘We were
received high praise. The chair was made out of recycled New Zealand Kauri
Blue Gum
Press release for a food magazine RESTAURANT
AUDIENCE
• Who do you want to reach?
• What is the best media to reach your audience?
CONTENT
• What is your key message?
• What is your angle?
• Do you get the main message (5W & H) across in the first
two paragraphs?
• Is your press release clear, simple and direct?
• Have you used a spokesperson?
• Is your layout clean and attractive?
• Have you provided background information?
• Have you provided contact details?
• Have you remembered to include the date?
TIPS
• Make sure you have a newsworthy story.
• Read, listen to or watch the media you want to use your press
release.
• Make press releases a regular part of your marketing. Even
if they don’t give you an immediate return in terms of
increased sales, they help build your brand in the marketplace.
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How to write
direct mail 6
How to write direct mail
130
Bh0683M06-PressProofs.QX5 14/4/03 1:04 PM Page 131
Purpose
Most businesses use direct mail to encourage people to buy their
products or services. But think laterally. You can use your direct
mail for PR and to build relationships so you attract lifetime
customers or clients, not just make a one-off sale.
Some people think that direct mail is suitable only for prod-
ucts or not-for-profit organisations, not professional services.
But professional services can use direct mail successfully. Rather
than a hard sell, they may take a more ‘softly, softly’ approach
by sending their prospects information that will interest them,
such as an article on a change in legislation.
You can also use direct mail with existing customers or clients
to encourage them to buy more or new products and to make
Bh0683M06-PressProofs.QX5 14/4/03 1:04 PM Page 132
• News updates
• New community sponsorships
• New employees
• New program, products or services
• Events
• Changes happening in the industry
• Law change or new legislation
• Product launches
• Introducing a new webpage
• New pricing schedule with some specials
• Annual reports
• Awards
• Confirming your attendance
• Your purchase is on the way
• Time for your next appointment
• Thank you for your time
• Thank you for the referral
• Thank you for buying our product or service
• Promotions
• Special deals
• Discount coupons
• Congratulations on:
—buying a house
—getting a loan
Bh0683M06-PressProofs.QX5 14/4/03 1:04 PM Page 133
DIMENSIONAL MAILER
Dimensional mailer is the marketing term for any direct mail
that’s not flat. Dimensional mailers often come in a box. They
grab attention, because they’re different, but they’re also usually
expensive, even if you send only a small gift like a fridge magnet.
You’ve got to pay extra postage, and put something of value to
the recipient inside the box.
Case study
The following study of Corporate Marketing Aprimo Inc. was
profiled in a Marketing Sherpa Weekly ezine.
Corporate Marketing Aprimo regularly schedules dimen-
sional mailers every two weeks for most of the year—except
before Christmas, when they could be confused with gifts. These
dimensional mailers are aimed at encouraging companies with
reasonably large IT budgets to buy software.
This case study highlighted the following ingredients for a
successful dimensional mailer:
• Pick the right item to insert in your box. Aprimo chose three
different wooden toy sets: Chinese checkers, a Brio train with
tracks, and a Tinker toy set. Each would look good sitting in
their box on the executive’s desk and each had enough room
for Aprimo’s labels. (The trains were the biggest hit.)
• Send the box to the person who influences the purchasing
decisions. Aprimo uses an in-house research team to gather
Bh0683M06-PressProofs.QX5 14/4/03 1:04 PM Page 136
Results
• Ten per cent appointment rate.
• Every 1000 boxes leads to 100 appointments.
• About 2% of prospects visited the webpage.
Audience—the list
If you’re doing a targeted mailout, the quality of your list is as
important as the timing. You may have the best offer, the best
price and the best letter about lawnmowers, but if you send your
letter to people living in high-rise apartments your direct mail
Bh0683M06-PressProofs.QX5 14/4/03 1:04 PM Page 137
Timing
Whether you’re doing a large letterbox drop or a targeted
mailing, timing is crucial. The same direct mail sent out at
different times can get completely different responses. Even a
Bh0683M06-PressProofs.QX5 14/4/03 1:04 PM Page 138
The letter
Direct mail with a covering letter has a higher rate of success
than other forms of direct mail. Even if you’re sending your
prospects information, such as a reprint of an article or a
brochure, include a covering letter. A letter creates an illusion of
Bh0683M06-PressProofs.QX5 14/4/03 1:04 PM Page 139
HEADING
Use your heading to grab attention and inform your readers
what your letter is about. There’s more information about head-
ings in Chapter 7.
The heading often comes after the greeting (‘Dear Ellen
Jones’), but in some direct mail it’s before the greeting.
OPENING SENTENCES
Your opening sentences are your chance to establish rapport,
focus your message and entice your reader to read on. Keep your
tone friendly and informal and get straight to the point. If you’re
having difficulty with the first sentence, move on and come back
to it at the end.
THE OFFER
Have an offer that is impressive and irresistible. This is some-
times known as the bribe. It is the hook to get your prospective
client or customer interested.
Bh0683M06-PressProofs.QX5 14/4/03 1:04 PM Page 140
CALL TO ACTION
A call to action encourages readers to take the next step, to
contact you or buy your product or service. Most direct mailers
put their call to action at the end of their letters. Some place it
at the beginning and repeat it at the end.
A call to action creates a sense of urgency. Often the offer is
time-limited, for example ‘reply by X date’, and sometimes it’s
limited to the first X (number of) people who respond.
Sometimes the call to action relies on making it easy to
respond, by a prepaid reply coupon, a 1800 number, or even
just your contact details prominently displayed. If you want
people to visit your business, maybe you could include a loca-
tion map.
FINISH WITH A PS
A PS at the end of a direct mail letter is a common technique (if
you don’t believe me, read your sample letters again). Apparently
it works because people opening a letter first look to the bottom
to see who it’s from and the PS immediately grabs their atten-
tion. Another theory is that we remember the first and last things
that we read, so if we’ve read the entire letter the PS will stay in
our minds. Or maybe it’s just the personal touch.
Whatever the reason for its effectiveness, the PS is a common
technique in direct mail. It’s mainly used to reiterate the offer
or emphasise the call to action, but it is sometimes used to make
a bonus offer.
Bh0683M06-PressProofs.QX5 14/4/03 1:04 PM Page 141
WRITE PERSUASIVELY
Many people think that persuasive writing needs superlatives,
like ‘best’, ‘greatest’ and ‘largest’. While some direct mail letters
use such hyperbole, simple writing is more powerful. Writing
persuasively includes the following:
TIGHT COPY
Every word counts in your direct mail. Keep your language
simple and direct and be as specific as possible. Write your first
draft and then go through and delete all unnecessary words, like
‘perhaps’ or ‘maybe’. Don’t be surprised if you manage to reduce
your copy by as much as 25%. The tighter the better. But check,
once you’re finished, that your copy still flows. You need to
maintain a friendly, conversational tone.
Most direct mail letters are one page long, although longer
letters are fine if the content is informative and interesting and
the writing not verbose. If you can’t fit all the information
comfortably on one page, it’s better to go over the page.
ATTENTION TO DETAIL
Check every little detail with direct mail and flyers. Imagine
you’re writing to the most intelligent and least intelligent
people you know. Make sure all the details are clear and
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APPEARANCE
First appearances matter with direct mail. If you’re using an
envelope rather than just a flyer, then first appearances start
with the envelope. It’s amazing how many companies put
direct mail in an envelope that screams ‘direct mail’. Look
outside post office boxes in the rubbish bin and you’ll notice
that many such direct mailers are discarded unopened. Avoid
putting your direct mail in such an envelope. Opinion differs
as to whether you should type or hand-address your envelope,
but either way it’s best to address your direct mail to a specific
person.
Once your reader has opened the envelope, appearances still
count. People are more likely to read a letter that looks profes-
sional, well laid out and easy to read. Letters are easier to read
if they’ve got lots of white space and aren’t too cluttered-looking.
Have a look at your sample direct mail: it’s surprising how many
companies you’d think would know better spoil the visual
impact of their direct mail by cramming too much on one page.
Too much information on one page is offputting.
Some direct mail letters go overboard with colour, graphics,
large type and fancy typefaces. In most cases, simple is better.
Often a clear, professional-looking letter is more appealing than
gimmicks.
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Email marketing
Email marketing facts
• Worldwide email is the fastest-growing use of the Internet.
• Email is the number one reason why people turn on their
computers.
• Consumers check their email more times daily than they
watch TV, read the newspaper or listen to the radio.
• Fifty-three per cent of those polled by the Gartner Group said
they checked their email at least six times a day when they were
in the office, while 34% admitted to checking it constantly.
Source: <www.internetstats.com>
Opt in
Email marketing is the flavour of the month, and many busi-
nesses that leapt on the bandwagon early had spectacular results
with email marketing. But some people abused it, and as a result
of the backlash that followed, unsolicited emails (known as
spam) are illegal in many countries and states.
So if you plan to do email marketing, make sure all your
prospects have given you their permission to email them. Every-
one on your email list must ‘opt in’, and you must make it easy
for them to ‘opt out’ (i.e. unsubscribe to your emails). Also, you
should have a privacy statement to reassure prospects that you
won’t rent or sell your list to anyone.
Err on the side of caution. You can’t run a competition or
survey and assume that the people who entered the competition
or answered your survey gave their permission to receive your
marketing material. Nor is it sufficient to give people the right
to opt out. Opt in means as its name implies—opt in.
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Delite Landscape
Direct mail DESIGN
Delite has used two direct mail campaigns to promote its balcony design
service. The first concentrated on the design aspect and the second
promoted ‘rent a garden’, aimed at people selling their apartments.
Yours sincerely
John Pettit
M ANAGING D IRECTOR
PS A free pot plant goes to the first 50 people who take advantage of this offer.
Bh0683M06-PressProofs.QX5 14/4/03 1:04 PM Page 148
Advantages
There are many advantages to email marketing, and it’s worth
adding to your marketing mix. According to Boldfish, emails
generate the highest response rates and conversion rates of any
direct marketing tool. Compared to average click-through rates
of 0.65% for banner ads and average response rates of 1%–2%
for direct mail, opt-in email’s average response rate is 5%–15%
(<www.boldfish.com>).
RELATIONSHIP BUILDING
Given that you can send emails only to those who have opted
in, you can’t use email marketing for ‘cold’ prospects, so
successful email marketing, like most other marketing, is based
on developing an ongoing relationship with your prospects. This
means that your emails must be interesting and relevant or your
prospects will soon delete them.
A 2002 study by Jupiter Communications found that the
most common email marketing goals are to:
Source: <www.boldfish.com>
COST
One of the main advantages is the low cost. If you take your
time out of the equation, email is a cheap method of communi-
cating regularly with your customers, clients and prospects. You
don’t incur the costs of paper, envelopes and stamps. With many
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PERSONAL QUALITY
Emails are not as personal as talking face-to-face or over the phone,
but it’s more personal than mail. It’s also convenient for both sender
and receiver, as you don’t both have to be available at the same
time. People can choose a time that suits them to read your email.
But given that emails are personal, they must have something
of interest for the reader. If you collect information about your
database, you can use it to tailor your communications so that
people feel you’re talking directly to them.
SPEED
Emails are fast. Your email arrives shortly after you send it, and
people can respond instantly.
According to GartnerG2, part of the Gartner group, it takes
4–6 weeks to complete a direct mail campaign versus just 7–10
business days for an email campaign. Responses to direct mail
take an average of 3–6 weeks, while responses to email take an
average of 3 days (<www.gartnerg2.com>).
Purpose
As with all marketing, you need to be clear about what you want
to achieve with email marketing. It still has a bit of mystique,
but when you stop and think about it we all use email marketing
all the time, whenever we keep in touch with our customers or
prospects via email.
Your e-newsletter, if you have one, is an example of email
marketing. An e-newsletter is a great, low-key way of building
relationships and promoting your products and services.
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You can use email marketing for many of the same purposes
as direct mail. You can also use it to supplement your phone
calls and meetings. Some examples of how people use email
marketing are:
• News updates
• Surveys
• Competitions
• Loyalty programs
• Reminders
• Thank yous
• Product releases, promotions and special offers
• Congratulations.
Case study
Helen Bateman, owner of the Helen Bateman Shoe Store in
Edinburgh, doesn’t sell her shoes online because she believes the
fit is so important, but she wanted to build her business and keep
in touch with the tourists from around the world who visited
her shop. So she hired a local marketing firm to create an easy-
to-use template, based on the idea of sending an electronic
postcard—something with high visual impact that would be
quick and easy to read.
Each postcard has her brand lavender background, plus her
shop logo, address and phone number prominently displayed,
at the very top. At the left she types in a quick, two-or-three-
paragraph note in postcard style, and on the right she inserts a
digital snapshot. The postcards are signed ‘Helen’ and have four
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Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Delite uses emails for a variety of reasons, including confirming orders,
thanking customers, invoicing, and informing customers in advance of
sales.
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EMERALD
furniture
Susan Eves emails people on her database when she introduces a new
product. Now she’s introduced her e-newsletter, she may send out the
product information in that and use emails to communicate personally with
clients.
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Blue Gum staff send people who belong to the restaurant’s club a menu
from the chef every month. They also regularly email people their dial-a-
dinner menu. Occasionally they have special theme evenings, and they email
customers informing them of these events and offering them a discount.
The list
As your list has to be ‘opt-in’, you need to think how you are
going to compile it. The simplest way is to be up-front—ask
people for their email addresses and get their permission to email
them. You also need to make it easy for them to opt out.
A good step to ensure that your database is up-to-date is to
send an email to all your customers and clients, reconfirming their
details and getting their permission to email them with promo-
tional material. Seek out information that will help you segment
your database into different groups so you can tailor communi-
cations to individuals. For example, if you’re running a promotion
in one city, you might send the initial email to everyone on your
list (you never know, they might be in that city at the time), but
your follow-up emails could go only to people in that city.
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Frequency
Once you’ve put the hard work in to compiling your list,
you need to treat it with respect. Unlike with direct market-
ing, which is often a ‘one-off’ campaign, you want to develop
an ongoing email relationship with your prospects. Even if
you don’t sell to them immediately, you may in the future.
It’s easy to send people a series of emails. Many mail list
servers promote this as part of their service, stating that you can
write different messages in advance which they will send over
the coming days, weeks and months. When I was researching
mail list providers, I experienced this feature when I expressed
an interest in one server. They sent me a series of about six emails
over a period of two weeks and each email had a little more
information aimed at tempting me to buy.
In theory this sounds great. But before you blast your data-
base with emails, put yourself in the recipients’ shoes and ask
how often you would like to receive emails and how many
follow-ups you would think reasonable. In my opinion it’s
best to send too few than too many, rather than have people
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Timing
As with snail mail, your timing is important and will affect the
success of your promotion. Some times of the year will be better
than others. Some days of the week and times of the day may
also be better than others. Some experts think you achieve best
results if you send your email between 10 am and 4 pm from
Tuesday to Thursday.
You also need to consider how far apart to space your emails
if you’re sending a series to promote the same product or event.
For example, in a traditional mailout to promote a seminar, you
might send the first notice a couple of months in advance and
then a reminder in a month’s time. With email you can leave it
until closer to the event, and then send people several reminders
over a few weeks.
Writing emails
WHO FROM
Many people will make the decision about whether or not to
read your email depending on who it’s from and the subject line.
Statistics show that 30% of emails are deleted when the recip-
ient doesn’t recognise the sender (see The Essential Guide to
Email Marketing, F2 network).
If you’re a small business, you may want to use your own
name. If the person you’re emailing will be more familiar with
your company’s name, then use that. Some emails just have the
email address in the ‘From’ line.
SUBJECT LINE
Your subject line is probably even more important in your
marketing emails than in your e-newsletter. Email newsletter
publishers are doing well if over 50% of the e-newsletters they
send to opt-in subscribers are opened. Promotional emailers have
a much lower rate.
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With your subject line you want to interest and engage your
readers, but you also need to give them an indication of what
your email is about. Your heading needs to brief—probably no
more than 35 characters, as some email programs don’t display
more than that.
One of the first offences is to be boring: it’s better to be
controversial than boring. But on the other hand, don’t be overly
witty with word plays, as most people haven’t the time to appre-
ciate your humour.
It’s best to be straightforward and descriptive unless you’ve
got a ‘wow’ headline that really works.
Some people use the same heading every time, but the
problem with that is that it’s too general. People already know
who the email is from; what they want of the subject line is to
find out what it’s about. You can start off with the same key
words but add a different descriptive phrase each time. This also
helps people find your information later if they’ve filed your
emails. If all your subject lines are the same, they’ll have diffi-
culty knowing where to look first.
Avoid using hype words, or people will mistake you for
spam. Also avoid words like ‘register’, ‘buy’, ‘new’, ‘free’,
‘important message’, ‘$$$’, ‘shop for’ and ‘guaranteed’.
Design
Although content is paramount, design also matters if you plan
to use html. Many people use graphics, but if you do, keep
them simple as many of your audience may still have dial-up
modems and they won’t thank you if your email takes ages to
download.
Consider having a designer develop a template for you or
keep your design simple and remember some fundamental design
principles. For example, choose a typeface that’s easy to read and
create white space by using subheadings, short sentences and
short headings.
Testing
You can send your emails out in batches to test such elements
as your subject line, frequency and timing, copy elements,
graphics, offers, number and placement of ‘click here’, and the
links.
It’s tempting to evaluate the success of your email campaign
by the number of people who open and click through to your
links. But the bottom line is the amount of new business you
receive. More relevant measures are:
AUDIENCE
Know your audience so you can tailor your direct mail. People
must opt in to receive emails from you, but you can send snail
mail to strangers. Both direct mail letters and emails work best
if you personalise them by addressing the person by name.
CONTENT
• Your content must be relevant and of interest and benefit to
the reader.
• Make an irresistible offer to hook people’s attention and make
it easy for them to reply.
TIPS
Snail mail:
• Good list
• Timing
• Test and refine
• Follow up
• Measure your results.
Email:
How to write an
advertisement 7
How to write an advertisement
160
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DEFINITIONS
Classified advertisements mainly appear in print material, such as
newspapers, magazines and trade journals. Such advertisements
are usually text only, and consist of a headline, body copy and
contact details. (Copy is the term for the words that fill the body
of the advertisement. It is also sometimes referred to as body copy.)
Display print advertisements also appear in magazines, news-
papers and trade journals. These use a combination of a headline,
copy and visual elements, such as graphics and white space, to
attract readers’ attention.
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Newspapers
Newspapers reach a wide range of people within a geographical
area, and you can place your advertisement in a specific section,
such as the finance or lifestyle pages. You can usually pick what
size advertisement you want and the cost of production is rela-
tively inexpensive compared to other media. You also don’t need
to book too far in advance to place an advertisement.
However, while classified advertisements are within the
budget of most small businesses, large display advertisements
are expensive in daily metropolitan papers. Don’t overlook your
local papers if they reach and are read by your target audience.
The disadvantages of newspapers is that they have a short life
span and you’re competing with lots of other information, the print
quality is limiting, and they are not widely read by young people.
Directories
Directories have the advantage that people consult them only when
they’re ready to buy or at least are ready to get information to start
the buying process. A directory listing also offers you credibility:
readers will assume you’re established in the marketplace. The costs
are relatively low, and one advertisement will usually last a full year.
There are a number of disadvantages. If you have several
products or services, you’ll need to make separate entries under
different sections. There is a long lead time, and you have to
make a commitment in advance and write an entry that will
remain current for at least a year. Also, competing advertise-
ments are all placed together so it’s easy for your prospects to
comparison shop. This leads many companies to compete on
size to gain attention, which increases the costs.
An entry in the Yellow Pages is a must for many small busi-
nesses. If you rely largely on word-of-mouth and low-key
marketing methods for your business, you don’t need a big adver-
tisement but you do need a presence. Research shows that nearly
half (40% in Australia, closer to 49% in the USA) of those using
the Yellow Pages already have the name of the business in mind.
Before you make a purchasing decision, think about what you
want to achieve with your advertisement. Then monitor the results
in terms of how much business you get through your listing.
Perhaps a large display advertisement is appropriate for your busi-
ness, especially if you want to attract prospective customers and
clients rather than have people looking for your phone number.
Directory salespeople will often try to talk you into having a
large advertisement—another reason why it’s good to know what
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Delite Landscape
• Design DESIGN
• Maintenance
• Construction
• Over 20 years’ experience
• Office and nursery
23 Landscape Lane
Rockville VIC 1999
<www.delitelandscape.com> ph/fax: (01) 0345 6789
Outdoor advertising
The advantage of outdoor billboard advertising is that the adver-
tisements are often large and in prominent positions so they
attract your attention. If people are driving the same way every
day, they see them over and over again. As they’re aimed at a
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Radio
With radio, you have a highly targeted audience. You can choose
the radio station your prospects listen to and choose which
programs you want your advertisement to be attached to. You
don’t usually have to book far in advance.
But that’s no guarantee your prospects will listen to your
advertisement. Listeners can switch stations to avoid adver-
tisements. And, if your advertisement interests them and they
want more information, they can’t rewind to hear it again.
So you need to repeat your advertisement several times for it
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Television
Television is expensive, and is mainly used for brand and image
enhancement or special deals. While you have an opportunity
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Internet marketing
Companies advertise on the Internet with banner advertise-
ments that people click onto or with pop-up boxes that appear
when you enter or leave a site. Companies also advertise
through competitions, some advertise in their own e-newslet-
ters and increasingly companies advertise in other people’s
e-newsletters.
If you want to put an advertisement in someone else’s
e-newsletter, have a look at how other people advertise in this
medium and base your advertisement on the elements you think
work the best.
Benefits of a campaign
There are a number of advantages to running an advertising
campaign rather than placing a single advertisement. You can repeat
the same advertisement several times to reinforce your message
and so encourage your readers to make a purchasing decision.
The most important factor in advertisement recall is the
number of times people are exposed to your advertisement. So if
you have a small budget, limit the size of your advertisement
and even the number of individuals and households your adver-
tisement reaches and concentrate on frequency.
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Oxygenics® Showerhead
A shower so invigorating, you’d never guess
it’s cutting water and energy use in half!
Conserve water and electricity without
sacrificing comfort. The Oxygenics Showerhead
self-pressurizes for a refreshing spa shower
even with low water pressure. So efficient, it
can reduce the volume and cost of hot water
needed for showers by up to 70%.
overstate your case. People are discerning, and don’t like exces-
sive marketing hype.
The issue of trust is particularly important for professional
services, so many people use testimonials in advertisements. Make
sure you check with your referees that they’re happy to be quoted
in your advertisement. Another common way of gaining credi-
bility is having a well-known person endorse your product or
service. David Ogilvy recommends using an expert rather than a
celebrity for credibility, as with celebrities people recall the celebrity
over and above your product and assume (usually correctly) that
the celebrity is doing your advertisement for the money.
Develop a concept
The overall concept is the key to a successful advertisement, and
this is where the experts earn their money—they’re used to thinking
creatively. But it is a craft that can be learnt, and one of the best
ways of learning it is to read books on advertising and to study
advertisements. Copy them at first until you understand how they
work. That’s how many of the top advertising copywriters learnt.
Great ideas are memorable and often have an element of risk.
One of the techniques used by advertising copywriters to come up
with ideas is brainstorming. Brainstorming occurs after you’ve done
your spadework, so you know who your target audience is and
what you want to achieve. It involves relaxing your mind to see
where it takes you and treating all ideas as good ideas so you don’t
block the flow. You doodle, invite others to brainstorm with you,
flick through magazines, look at past advertisements, view your
competitors’ advertisements, and think about the unique benefits
of your product or service. Then suddenly you start to write.
As Luke Sullivan says in Hey Whipple, Squeeze This:
‘Eventually you get to an idea that dramatizes the benefit of your
Bh0683M07-PressProofs.QX5 14/4/03 1:30 PM Page 175
• Hours
• Map of directions
• Parking instructions
• Credit card options
• Licences, etc.
Prices
Small Business Marketing for Dummies has some advice on
pricing, starting with the fact that price alone is never reason
enough to buy. Your price announcements must be accompa-
nied by positive reasons and benefits.
Pricing must not be misleading or complex. Your prices need
to be presented in a straightforward and visually attractive manner,
and if you offer a discount it needs to be compelling to be a real
incentive. Many people no longer regard 10% off as a big deal.
Tips Findley Schenck suggests for pricing announcements
include the following.
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PRICING P R E S E N T A T I O N DO ’ S A N D D O N ’ TS
Don’t Do Why
We’ve just cut our Announcing a new St The second approach makes the
nightly rates—to $89 Louis number to deal sound noteworthy, whereas
mid-week. Some remember—$89 per the first approach provides no
restrictions apply night positive rationale and implies that
‘small print applies’.
Sofa and loveseat Sofa and loveseat When prices are more than $100
$1995.00 $1995 drop the decimal point and zeroes
to lighten the effect.
25% off two or more 1/ off second pair Complicated discounts are
2
uninspiring, plus ‘1/2 off’ sounds
like double the discount of 25% off
when you buy two.
30% off Regularly $995; now ‘1/3 off’ sounds more compelling
$695 while supplies last than 30% off; but showing a $300
reduction is strongest of all. ‘While
supplies last’ adds incentive and
urgency.
$6.99 each $13.99—Buy One, Get Sometimes a low price conveys low
One Free value. Consider doubling the price
but making a powerful two-for-one-
limited-time offer.
$14.95 plus $17.95. We pick up all The word ‘plus’ alerts the consumer
shipping/handling shipping and handling that the price is only the beginning.
Calculate and include shipping and
handling to remove buyer concern
and possible objection.
Ingredients of an advertisement—
visuals, headlines and body copy
In print advertisements, the headline, body copy and graphic
or visual elements all work together to capture your audience’s
attention and entice them to buy your product or service.
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Visuals
Illustrations and photos are what catch people’s attention first.
Sometimes they present the product, sometimes they show
the product in use, and sometimes they create a feeling or
mood. David Ogilvy maintains that photographs attract more
readers than drawings, but cautions that photographs repro-
duce badly in some newspapers so a line drawing is sometimes
better.
Luke Sullivan advises being visual and going short on the
copy, on the basis that showing the benefits is more involving
than describing them. Show not tell can be done well in print,
not just on TV. He gives the example of an advertisement for
Fisher Price’s anti-slip roller skates. In the picture there is
one kid standing in the far right. The headline reads: ‘Which
one of these three kids is wearing Fisher Price anti-slip roller
skates?’ He comments that the mental image of ‘two kids
landing on their duffs is more powerful than actually showing
them that way’.
Headlines
Four out of five people who see your advertisement will read
only the headline. If your headline doesn’t inspire them, the
rest of your copy has no chance. Your headline has to work
hard, so it’s worth spending time getting it right. It needs to
grab attention and say ‘Stop, this concerns you’. It must
Bh0683M07-PressProofs.QX5 14/4/03 1:30 PM Page 178
Body copy
Only about 5% of readers will read your body copy. But they
may be the 5% of potential customers you want, so the body
copy still matters. Expert opinion is divided over whether to
write short or long copy. The most important factor seems to
be the quality of the copy.
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Editing
As space is at a premium in an advertisement, every word has
to count. Once you’ve finished your copy, go back and see how
Bh0683M07-PressProofs.QX5 14/4/03 1:30 PM Page 182
many unnecessary words you can get rid of. Remember the
rule—delete, delete, delete. Keep paring away words until you
have the essence of your concept.
Read through your copy and see whether you can strengthen
any words. For example, would ‘guts’ work better than
‘stomach’, or ‘brains’ better than ‘intelligence’?
Sometimes when you’ve done a heavy edit you lose the flow,
so go back and see whether you need to use transitions to join
your sentences and paragraphs seamlessly. Then give your work
the final check by reading it out loud. Imagine you’re face-to-
face with your prospects and they’re hesitating. What can
you say to convince them your product or service is just what
they need?
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Buy any Delite
pot or plant and go
into the draw to win
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Visit our stand (J8) at the show
for our potting demonstration and
to collect your entry form.
Win a $20 000 getaway.
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EMERALD
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furniture pure class
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Designed by Susan Eves,
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Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Summary
PURPOSE
What do you want to achieve with your advertisement?
AUDIENCE
Who’s your target audience?
CONTENT
• Offers a benefit
• Is believable and credible
• Is simple and easy to read
• Is specific
• Arouses curiosity
• Captures attention
• Awakens interest
• Contains a verb
• Is proactive
• Is distinctive and memorable
• Informs
• Includes your brand and company name
• Includes a call to action.
TIPS
• You can get extra mileage out of your advertisement by using
it in conjunction with the rest of your marketing and by using
reprints in other promotional material. For example, you
could do a poster-sized version of your advertisement, place
it on your website or insert it in your e-newsletter.
• Advertising campaigns are usually more successful than a
one-off advertisement, as people often need to see an
advertisement several times before they take action.
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How to write
your website 8
How to write your website
185
Bh0683M08-PressProofs.QX5 14/4/03 1:43 PM Page 186
Types of websites
Before writing or upgrading your own website, ask yourself
why you need a website and how you want people to use it. You
may want a business card website, an interactive website or an
eBusiness website.
eBusiness websites
Increasingly sites are eBusiness sites, conducting business online.
The Australian eBusiness Guide (CCH) states that businesses
make money from eBusiness through the following:
• Direct sales. For example, through catalogues, auctions and
group buying.
• Advertising. Charging advertisers a fee for placing ads on a web-
site is one of the commonest revenue models on the Internet.
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ONLINE MODEL
The online model sells goods and services direct to customers.
The terms eTailers and online retailers are often used to describe
these businesses. Examples include websites that sell software,
computer equipment, office supplies, tickets and groceries. Many
of these businesses also have a retail outlet, but some, such as
<www.amazon.com> and <www.shopfast.com.au>, are online
outlets only.
This model had some teething problems in the early days and
it has not replaced traditional retail to the extent that many
predicted. But online retailers are here to stay, and most tra-
ditional retailers now have an online presence and trade online.
Many smaller businesses today are also using their websites to
sell their own products and services, such as bed linen, work-
shops or books.
MARKET-MAKER MODEL
Market-maker websites bring buyers and sellers together, facili-
tating trade between third parties. They provide the software
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CONTENT MODEL
The content model provides access to valuable or entertaining
content, such as news or horoscopes. Some sites provide free
information and others charge for it. In the early days of the
Internet a lot of information was given away, but there is an
increasing trend for companies to want some financial return on
their investment. Some sell advertising to cover their costs and
many use a two-tiered approach, where some information is free
and some is charged for. For example, many news sites have
current information free, but charge for access to their archives.
On the other hand, research companies may charge for current
research but provide old research free.
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Delite uses its website extensively to promote its products and services and
uses its ezine to drive people to its website for information and specials.
It also sells some products online.
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EMERALD
furniture
Emerald Furniture has an eBusiness website with a catalogue online to make
it easier for customers in other places to buy the furniture.
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Blue Gum Restaurant originally had a business card website, but as it has
recently started writing an ezine, it is now updating its website more often
and monitoring the site visits with interest.
CONTENT CHECKLIST
1. Home—an overview of the company
2. Products and services
3. News—latest e-newsletters, dates of training programs etc.
4. About us—often includes a profile and photo of the director
of the company
5. Articles
6. Case studies/success stories/samples of work
7. Client list
8. Testimonials, reviews or references
9. Contact us.
• Simple words
• Short sentences (15–20 words)
• Short paragraphs (three to five lines).
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Each sentence should have one idea, and that idea should usually
be at the start of the sentence. Each paragraph should contain one
main idea and it should be in the first sentence (topic sentence).
You can convey the same information, but you have to write
in small, bite-sized pieces, often called ‘chunks’, broken up by
headings and subheadings. This is a very different way of writing
from when you’re writing a report, though some of the online
techniques are increasingly finding their way into the printed word.
Either you can chunk material into screen-sized pieces, using
hyperlinks if necessary, or you can scroll. But remember that
people don’t like scrolling too deeply. There are no rights and
wrongs about using chunks or scrolled text. It depends on your
purpose and audience and your personal preference.
Often chunked text is aimed at people who visit and leave
quickly, whereas scrolled material is more suitable if you expect
people to print off a copy. If you use scroll, pay attention to what
is above the scroll. Make sure that the information and links that
all readers of a page need are visible without scrolling when a page
is first viewed. Whether you ‘chunk’ or ‘scroll’, the principles of
effective writing remain the same—keep it short and simple.
Longer text is sometimes published as Adobe PDF files. This
has the disadvantage of taking ages to download—and not
everyone has downloaded the software from the Internet they
need in order to view PDF files. Also you can’t copy and paste
any of the material (maybe that’s a plus!) Another alternative
is to write a punchy summary that links to another webpage.
Be credible
Your content must be credible. Many people visiting your site
won’t know you, but they want to be able to trust your infor-
mation. You’ll automatically have some credibility if your site
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Write to be found
More than half the people who use the Internet rely on search
engines to find sites. If you’re listed with search engines, you
put your information in front of more people. You can tempt
people to revisit your site through keeping it updated and inter-
esting to visit.
Make sure you’re listed with the top search engines. Even
though your main business will come from your marketing efforts,
some of those chance visitors may turn into clients or customers.
You’ve got a better chance of being listed high up in a search
engine by using key words in your summaries and headings that
accurately sum up the page. Use words and groups of words that
people are likely to use to look for you. There are useful tips on
writing to be found at <www.sun.com/980713/webwriting/
wftw6.html>.
USE LISTS
Bulleted or numbered lists work well on webpages as they provide
information succinctly and provide white space. Bulleted lists are
more popular than numbered lists, but use numbers if the order
of the list is important. As a general rule don’t have more than
nine items, preferably fewer, and use one or a maximum of two
levels. There’s more information about lists in Chapters 2 and 3.
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Design
Some people have the skills to design their own website, but it
is a specialised area so most businesses employ a designer to
create the look of their site. Although people go to websites for
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Colour
Choose a colour scheme for the site in keeping with your
brand, and stick to it. Colour schemes can be quite simple,
such as one or two colours plus black and white. For read-
ability it’s hard to go past black or navy text and a white
background, though coloured headings and subheadings can be
effective. Use colours in keeping with your brand. Don’t use
bright blue for words, as this colour is commonly used for
hyperlinks.
Make sure your use of colours complements and doesn’t
distract from your text. Some common mistakes are busy back-
ground graphics or very dark backgrounds, especially black.
I personally hate sites with coloured or busy backgrounds—they
lose credibility in my eyes before I’ve even read a word, as
I know they’ll be more difficult to read.
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Flash
There is an ongoing debate about the use of multimedia like
Flash, which is used in the introductions of many sites, but the
software may in the future become the foundation of many sites.
In 2000, Jakob Nielsen pronounced Flash bad, stating that:
Print-friendly
Your webpage needs to be print-friendly. So watch out for
traps for the unwary, such as pages that print only the frame
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Delite Landscape
DESIGN For gardens that delight
Our shops Subscribe to
our monthly
Commercial
e-newsletter, which
landscape design
brings you up-to-
Residential landscape date gardening
design snippets and news.
Garden maintenance
Garden design
Courtyard and workshops
balcony design Learn how to design
your garden from
Irrigation and paving
scratch or give it an
Samples of our work overhaul. Join us for
our evening classes
Before and after Delite Landscape on garden design.
About us Design at work When: Every
e-newsletter Working out of our boutique Wednesday evening
gardening shops, Delite Landscape June and July 2003
Contact us from 8 to 10 pm
Design provides the full range of
landscape design, construction and Venue: St James
What our maintenance services. Price: $150
customers
Whatever your landscape problems, Balcony and
say about us we can work with you to find a courtyard design
‘My garden was an solution that suits your budget and Balcony and court-
eyesore before Delite your needs. Our clients include home yard design is a new
Landscape Design gardeners, local authorities and large service. With more
came in. Now it’s a property developers. people living in
pleasure to be in. cities, many people
Delite Landscape Environmental and water no longer have the
Design did a management concerns are vital quarter-acre garden.
wonderful job and issues today. We can create you a We’ve developed this
were a delight to beautiful garden that needs little service to bring your
work with. Thanks to watering and doesn’t require garden back into
all the team.’ pesticides or fertilisers to flourish. your life.
Bh0683M08-PressProofs.QX5 14/4/03 1:43 PM Page 205
E MERALD class
that
furniture lasts
Home Eco-facts Online catalogue Order About us Contact
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Current menu
About us
Tania James and Bill Johnson
Blue Gum Restaurant is family owned and run. Tania James
Dial-a-dinner and Bill Johnson set up Blue Gum Restaurant in 1993. Both
Bill and Tania are passionate about food and love providing
Directions memorable meals for all their guests.
Tania manages the restaurant and Bill chooses the wine list
Reservations and does the accounts. Their children are also involved, and
you’ll often have Belinda or Tim waiting on your table. It’s a
family affair.
Function room
Gary Burgess
Join our club
The kitchen is run by award-winning American chef Gary
Burgess, who is renowned for combining the freshest ingredi-
About us ents he can find into delicious modern cuisine dishes.
His philosophy is simple: food must look good and taste good.
There are no dramas in Gary’s kitchen—just good cooking.
Join the Blue Gum Club and receive our free monthly e-newsletters and occasional emails.
You’ll receive news of special events and our current hot recipes. Join now.
Bh0683M08-PressProofs.QX5 14/4/03 1:43 PM Page 207
AUDIENCE
• Who is the target audience?
• What is the age group of the target audience?
• What is the education level of the target audience?
• Can you class them in any other way, such as professional or
industry group?
• Is your target audience local, national or global, or a combi-
nation of all three?
• Concise?
• Credible?
• Clear?
NAVIGATION
TIPS
• Promote your website in all your marketing material so
people visit your site.
• Make it easy for people to respond.
• Update your site regularly but make major changes
infrequently.
How to write
newsletters 9
and ezines
How to write newsletters and ezines
210
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Objectives
Like all marketing communication tools, your newsletter or
ezine has to bring results over a period of time or it’s not worth
it. So before you start planning your first issue, ask yourself what
you want to achieve. You may well have more than one objec-
tive. For example, do you want to attract more customers, gain
more business from existing customers, keep an open line of
communication with customers and prospects, or establish your-
self as an expert in your field?
CHECKLIST OF OBJECTIVES
1. Gain new customers.
2. Gain more business from existing customers.
3. Stay in regular contact with customers and prospects.
4. Build a relationship with customers and prospects.
5. Build and maintain good staff relationships (internal newsletter).
6. Establish your expertise in your field.
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Once you’re clear about your objectives, stop and think again.
Maybe you can see the advantages clearly, but do you have the
time and resources to produce a newsletter or ezine on a regular
basis? To make it an effective marketing tool, you must produce
it regularly. You may have enough time now, but what about in
six months’ time when you’re snowed under with work? Will
you still have the time then?
You will get quicker at writing the content, but there will
be times when you’re so busy that thinking about what to
write and finding the time will be difficult. That’s when many
people give up. And once you’ve missed one issue, it’s harder
to write the next. Too many businesses rush into producing
a newsletter or ezine and state with great fanfare that it will
be a monthly publication. Six months later they have pro-
duced three issues, and a year later it’s fizzled completely.
What does that say about their reliability? Better not to start
in the first place.
Another issue to consider is that, unlike an ad, a newsletter
or ezine is unlikely to bring instant results. You may be lucky
and find that it is an immediate hit with a huge return for your
business, but realistically it will take time to bear fruit. The bene-
fits will come as you develop a loyal readership. For this to
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Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Delite has both a regular monthly ezine and newsletter, containing similar
information. The newsletter is available in the shops, and staff put it into
every bag along with customer purchases. The newsletter encourages
people to register online for the online version.
The newsletter includes photos and pictures, but the ezine is purely
text. John Pettit has some customers who prefer the print version and visit
his shop every month, just to pick up the newsletter.
John finds that the newsletter and ezine are excellent for building
customer relationships and making sales. Every time the newsletter or
e-newsletter goes out, sales increase in the following week. They’re also a
good way of promoting special deals.
EMERALD
furniture
Following the success of her workshops for women, Susan Eves has started
an ezine based around woodworking tips. At this stage her database is very
small (about 40), and she plans to build it slowly by promoting it in all her
marketing material.
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She intends to send her ezine out every six weeks, but she hopes to
make it monthly if it works well for her and doesn’t take too much time.
She’ll reassess the situation in a year’s time and weigh up the costs (time
and money) against the benefits.
Blue Gum
RESTAURANT
Blue Gum Restaurant has a regular ezine that they send to people
who’ve joined their club, informing them of special events and sending
them a new recipe from chef Gary Burgess each month. They also send
occasional promotional html emails.
REGULAR PUBLICATION
Most newsletters and ezines are produced regularly—weekly,
fortnightly, monthly or quarterly. Newsletters are more likely
to be quarterly than ezines, which tend to be distributed more
often. Some ezines are daily. This is a huge commitment, and you
also run the risk of overwhelming people with too much of a
good thing.
Some of the most successful ezines are run by large com-
panies with the resources to maintain consistent quality.
I subscribe to emarketer, which is a daily ezine. It has summary
information and links to websites. It usually has three arti-
cles per issue. I find it manageable, as I’ve set up a folder in
Outlook Express so it automatically goes straight there
without clogging up my inbox. The article summaries are easy
to read at a glance and I can delete them if they are of no
interest. But there are enough articles of interest to keep me
subscribing.
When you start receiving a newsletter or ezine, you usually
know how regularly you will receive it. Some even give a specific
date, such as the 20th of the month. A few newsletters and ezines
are occasional or intermittent. This may be a good way to start
if you’re not sure how often you will manage to write your
newsletter or ezine. Once you’ve established a pattern that
works, you can publish more regularly. Even if you don’t want
to make a public announcement about the frequency of your
newsletter or ezine at the start, set yourself a deadline so you
have something to work towards.
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DISTRIBUTION METHOD
Newsletters are usually posted, and this plus the cost of printing
the newsletter limits the size of your audience, even if you find
a sponsor to pay for the postage. This may suit your business if
you want to keep your audience select. It has the advantage that
you know who your audience is and can target your communi-
cations to them. You can also offer special promotions that are
of direct relevance to your readers. Some newsletters are con-
verted into PDF files and emailed to people. The disadvantage
of PDF files is that they can take a long time to download.
With an ezine your audience is potentially unlimited. A few
businesses keep their membership select, but anyone can
subscribe to most ezines. Think about how big you want your
readership to be—and take your ego out of the equation. This
is a business decision. With a large subscriber base, most readers
will never become customers. But the more readers you have,
the greater your profile and credibility and the more paid work
you could receive from your database.
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EZINES
With plain text emails you cannot use colour and graphics for
your branding, but it is important to have the name of your
company and the ezine prominently displayed in the subject line
and the heading. Html emails are usually written within a
branded template and banner heading. Some include graphics.
Consider using a web designer to develop your template.
Even though your visual branding is limited with ezines,
everything you write is making a statement about your business.
Keep your audience and objectives in mind as you write, so that
your key messages are consistent throughout all your ezines. It’s
easy to get side-tracked and write about things that interest you
but do not reflect your core business values. You want your
readers to be interested in your business as well as the content
of your ezines.
Content
The best way to get ideas for your own newsletter or ezine is
to read lots of others. Don’t limit yourself to others in your industry
—read as many as you can find. It will be time-consuming, but
it will help clarify what you want to write about.
When planning your newsletter or ezine, think about your
readers. This will be easier if you have a limited readership, but
even if your readership is large you will have some idea of the
sort of people who subscribe. For example, a golfing site is likely
to attract people who enjoy playing or watching the game, and
a marketing site appeals to people in the industry or those
wanting to learn more about promoting their business.
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CONTENT CHECKLIST
Common ingredients of newsletters and ezines are:
1. Industry information (many ezines have hyperlinks to other
websites for industry news)
2. Personal anecdotes (more common in ezines), although some
staff internal newsletters include staff information
3. Opinion pieces
4. Useful tips
5. Reviews of websites or books
6. Guest columnists or items by contributing writers
7. Questions and answers—for frequently asked customer
queries or to anticipate customer queries
8. Staff changes
9. Company news
10. Product information
11. People profiles
12. Surveys
13. Results of surveys
14. Competitions
15. Advertisements—for own business and/or from other
businesses
16. Quotes.
Costs
A newsletter costs more than an ezine to produce, but both
are usually provided free so you need to budget to cover the
costs. There are exceptions. Some newsletters are provided as
part of an overall membership fee, while other newsletters and
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Delite Landscape
Delite-ful DESIGN
NEWS — S P R I N G
naturally.
will direct energy into the buds for next year’s growth.
Pansies
Your pansies are probably past their best now, so cut them back by half.
Feed them liquid fertiliser and they might surprise you with another burst
of flowers.
Tulips
It’s now time to lift and dry your tulips. Let them dry off for a few days,
then dust them with sulphur powder and store them in a paper bag in a
cold, dry, well-ventilated space. If you’re afraid rats might eat them, put
Cuttings
Tip cuttings take well at this time of the year. So try taking cuttings from
plants like geraniums, begonias, fuchsias and from silver foliage plants,
like lavender.
Ezine structure
Whether ezines are written in plain text or html, ezines have
developed unique structure conventions.
Bh0683M09-PressProofs.QX5 14/4/03 1:50 PM Page 226
SUBJECT LINE
Use the subject line to identify your ezine so the readers know
immediately what they can expect. Many people make a deci-
sion on whether or not to read the ezine based on the sender
and the subject line.
Many state the name of the ezine and include a brief caption
that tells the reader something about what’s in the ezine—a bit
like a press release heading.
Some ezines use clever and witty captions to grab attention,
like ‘Beware of superhighway robbery’, which related to a story
about domain name thieves, or ‘Big boob theory’, for an article
on the different types of Internet users (ranging in a concen-
tric circle from expert to novice). If you do choose to be witty,
it must be attention-grabbing. If in doubt, stick to a simple,
clear heading that gives an indication of the content. This also
has the advantage that if people save your ezines they can find
the information they want later based on the subject line.
Some ezines include your name in the subject line. For
example: ‘Subject: Jane Your Marketing newsletter—Surefire
sales tips for January’. Some people simply give the name of
the newsletter and the issue number. But be aware that some
servers block emails that have words like ‘issue’, ‘ezine’ or
‘number’ in the heading. The same applies to the word ‘free’.
Look closely at subject headings on all your emails for a while
and you’ll soon see which ones work the best.
HEADING
Use a header to identify your ezine. It should contain the name
of your ezine and your company name. Even if you’ve put the
name of the ezine in the subject line, repeat it here because if
your ezine is forwarded the subject line may be changed.
Include a line or two about your business for new readers.
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CONTENTS
Ezines are short. Many you can read in their entirety at a glance.
Others provide a short summary of the article and then hyper-
links to their own or other people’s websites for the full article.
If you are providing hyperlinks to other people’s websites, have
the courtesy to notify them.
Some ezines provide a summary at the top; you can then
scroll down to read the entire article if the summary interests
you. The title in the summary is often a bookmark to the article
below to save you scrolling.
A common feature in many ezines is reviews of useful
websites and links to these sites.
FOOTER OR SIDEBAR
Develop a standard footer or sidebar. This should include infor-
mation such as:
• Your contact details
• How to unsubscribe—this must be easy for the reader to do
• Encouragement to forward the ezine to colleagues or friends
who may wish to subscribe
• Copyright
• Disclaimer notice, if you’re offering opinion or advice
• Privacy statement—your guarantee that you won’t distribute
information about your readers.
When developing your own privacy statement, check out the
privacy legislation and look at other people’s privacy statements.
These vary in length and detail. The simplest merely state that the
ezine owner will not sell, rent or give the mailing list to anyone.
BACK ISSUES
Choose a way that suits your marketing strategy to manage your
back issues. Some people archive them on their website, some
provide the latest issue only on their website, and a few compa-
nies don’t put their ezines on their website at all, choosing to
keep their readership select. I assume that the rationale for not
providing back issues on the website is to encourage people to
sign up so they don’t miss out.
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Delite Landscape
Extract from e-zine DESIGN
John Pettit sends his ezine out in both html and plain text, but chooses not
to use pictures as they take too long to download. Sometimes he provides
hyperlinks to his website.
Delite Landscape
DESIGN
Delite-ful gardening news
Contents:
• Daffodils
Daffodils
It’s that wonderful time of year when you can go out in your garden
or onto your balcony enjoying the smells of Spring. A sure sign of
Spring is the daffodils. Once daffodils were on display for only a brief
period, but today you can plant different species of daffodils to flower
continuously from winter to late summer.
They’re good value in both gardens and pots as, after the initial
outlay, they continue popping up year after year. Daffodils dislike
being cut down too soon after flowering. You need to wait first about
six weeks. Then cut the flower stalk but leave the rest of the foliage
to die down.
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Some people lift their daffodils each year, but you can let them lie
dormant and divide them every four or five years in autumn or
summer once the foliage has died down. You can either replant them
immediately or store them and plant them in autumn. If you store
them, cure them first by lying them singly in a shady spot with good
air circulation. Then once they’re dry, which takes only a few days,
put them in a paper bag and store them in a cool, dark, well-
ventilated spot.
Please feel free to forward this email to friends or colleagues who may
wish to subscribe.
EMERALD
furniture
Extract from ezine
This is the first ezine Susan has sent, so she is sending it to everyone in plain
text using Notepad with an autowrap after every 65 characters. She has not
included her logo, as it takes up too much space.
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Emerald news
Boutique furniture maker using eco-materials and techniques.
Draw your pencil line first. Then trace over it with a piece of
blackboard chalk. The chalk doesn’t stick to the pencil line, so
you’re left with an easy-to-see black line between the wider chalk
areas. Alternatively, draw your original line with a white pencil.
Woodworking courses
A big thank-you to everyone who came to my woodworking courses. You
were a great group to work with. I plan to hold more in the New Year
(there’s information on my website at <www.emeraldfurniture.com>).
Your feedback
I’d love to get some feedback from you about what you’d like to read
in my e-newsletters. Please email me at <susan@emeraldfurniture.com>.
SOFTWARE
Some people choose to go the software route, as it’s a one-off,
up-front cost and they then have greater control over their data-
base and the process.
Software works like mailmerge and will merge any part of
your database within an email. Software will personalise each
email, handle your subscribes and unsubscribes, send all your
ezines in one hit and allow you to do both html and plain text
versions.
Building readership
The number one rule is to make sure you get everyone’s email
address when you meet them. But don’t just add them to your
database—remember, they have to opt in. Ask them at the time
if appropriate or send them a sample ezine and ask them whether
they want to receive it. When you enter them in your database,
include some identifying information, such as city, so you can
also use your database for targeted email marketing. Include a
subscription form on your website.
Decide in advance how you will build your subscriber base
and set yourself growth targets. You will probably start with
your current customers and prospects and then expand your list
through your marketing efforts. You can encourage people to
sign up to your ezine by including information in your other
promotional material, such as your website and direct mail, and
by listing yourself with search engines. You can also list your
ezine with ezine-promoting companies, most of which are based
in the United States (see <www.ezine-tips.com>).
Some businesses that work with many clients with common
interests or issues set up an email discussion or research and
development group. These groups have different functions. With
the discussion group, you provide the infrastructure and the
members discuss topics of interest. Although you make comments
too, the group develops a life of its own. A research and develop-
ment group is like having a virtual board of people who are
Bh0683M09-PressProofs.QX5 14/4/03 1:50 PM Page 236
Summary
PURPOSE
Newsletters and ezines build long-term relationships with
clients, customers and prospects to achieve your marketing
objectives. For example, they might help establish you as an
expert in your field or help you gain more business from your
existing database and new business from prospects.
AUDIENCE
Your existing client database, prospects and, in the case of
ezines, people who subscribe because they enjoy the content of
your ezine.
CONTENT
• Information of interest to your readers—not a hard sell
• Short
• Informal, but well written. Ezines are often more personal
than newsletters and reveal more about the personality of the
writer.
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References
References
Books
CCH, Australian eBusiness Guide, Sydney, 2001. Very sound book
for the Australian Internet market.
Denton, Peter, How to write and pitch your Press Release, Prentice
Hall, Sydney, 2000. An excellent book on press releases.
Evans, Wendy, How to Get New Business in 90 Days and Keep it
Forever, Millenium Books, Sydney, 1993. I read this book years
ago but it has stood the test of time. It has probably influenced
my marketing strategy more than any other marketing book.
Findlay Schenck, Barbara, Small Business Marketing for Dummies,
Hungry Minds, New York, 2001. Sound and comprehensive.
Gerber, Michael, The E Myth Revisited, HarperBusiness, New York,
1995. A basic, easy-to-read business book.
Griffiths, Andrew, 101 Ways to Market Your Business, Allen &
Unwin, Sydney, 2000. Some great ideas.
Hailey, Linda, Kickstart Marketing, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2001.
A useful marketing book for small businesses.
Kilian, Crawford, Writing for the Web, Self-Counsel Press,
Bellingham, 1999. One of the few good books on writing for
the web currently available.
238
Bh0683M09-PressProofs.QX5 14/4/03 1:50 PM Page 239
References
239
Mayo-Smith, Debbie, Successful Email Marketing, Penguin Books,
Auckland, 2002. A sound book on email marketing.
Ogilvy, David, Ogilvy on Advertising, Prion Books Ltd, London,
1983. Old, but still sound.
Stapleton, James J., Developing a CPA Practice, John Wiley & Sons,
New York, 1997. Written for accountants, this is an excellent
book on marketing. It has one of the best sections on
telemarketing I’ve ever read.
Style manual for authors, editors and printers, Sixth edition, John
Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd., Melbourne, 2002. A must for all
writers and editors in Australia.
Sullivan, Luke, Hey Whipple, Squeeze This, John Wiley & Sons,
New York, 1998. An entertaining and informative book on
advertising.
Websites
Being a typical user of search engines who often dips into multiple sites
on this list, I sometimes forget what sites I’ve visited. But these sites
are all worth more than one visit.
• Jakob Nielsen’s website: <www.useit.com>
• Excellent, succinct advice on writing for the web:
<www.sun.com/980713/webwriting>
• Crawford Kilian’s personal page (author of Writing for the Web)
with useful links to other sites:
<www.capcollege.bc.ca/dept/magic/cmns/crofpers.html>
• A prolific American copywriter with some useful articles on
writing: <www.bly.com>
• Check out how customer-friendly your website is:
<www.futurenowinc.com/wewe.html>
• Articles and case studies about marketing: <www.clickz.com>
• Useful Internet statistics: <www.internetstats.com>
• eBusiness strategy consultant’s site with some good articles and
speeches on the Internet: <www.cyberspeaker.com/index.html>
• Good site on email marketing: <www.successis.co.nz>
• Useful information on writing for the web: <www.tightcopy.com>
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Index
Index
240
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audience (continued) branding (continued)
press release, 110 business cards, 36–7
website, 191–2 colours (company), 32–3
Australian eBusiness Guide, The, consistency and change, 39
188 design and layout, 140–9
Australian Financial Review, The, logo, 33–4
114–15, 120 managing a brand, 38–9
name, 30–1
background information (press
newsletters and ezines, 218–19
release), 122
slogans and tag lines, 34–6
benefits
stationery, 36
advertising, 172–3 181
brochures, 75–6
brochures, 94–5
Blue Gum Restaurant, xii, 3 design and print, 100–1
action plan, 25 editing, 101–2
advertisement, 183 ingredients of, 93
business card, 37 types of, 76–91
capability brochure, 82–3 writing of, 91–100
colours, 32–3 see also capability brochures;
competitor analysis, 16 flyers; folders; online
email, 152 brochures; product brochures
goals, 9–10 budget, 23, 76
logo, 34 see also prices; costs
market trends, 13–14 bullet points, 98
marketing, 23 see also lists
mission, 6 business cards, 36–7
name, 31 business plan, 1–2
positioning, 20 action plan, 24–5
press release, 128
budget, 23
product brochure, 85, 88
competitor analysis, 14–16
review, 96–7
description of business, 2–3
SWOT, 18
goals and objectives, 6–10
tag line, 36
vision, 6 market analysis, 10–14
website, 191, 206 marketing, 20–3
body copy (advertisement), 180–1 measuring and monitoring, 25–6
bold (text), 42–3 mission and vision, 3–6
bookmark, 208 positioning, 18–20
branding, 28–30 SWOT, 17–18
advertising, 172 buttons (website), 209
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directories, 163 Emerald Furniture
distribution (continued)
ezines, 232–4 market trends, 13
press release, 125 marketing, 22,
DL brochure, 84 mission, 5
DM (direct mail), 130 name, 31
positioning, 20
eBusiness websites, 188–91 press release, 112, 114, 127
editing, 69–71 product brochure, 85, 87
advertisements, 181–2 review, 96–7
brochure, 101–2 SWOT, 17–18
press release, 121 tag line, 36
websites, 198–9 vision, 5–6
electronic (medium), 58 website, 191, 205
email marketing, 146 endorsements, see testimonials
advantages of, 148 Essential Guide to Email
case study, 150–1 Marketing, The, 155
frequency, 153–4 evaluation, see measuring results;
list, the, 152 monitoring results; testing
opt in, 146, 152 ezines, 210–14, 225–36
personalise, 153 advantages and disadvantages,
217–18
plain text, html or rich text,
appearance, 216
154–5
back issues, 228
spam, 210–11
branding, 218–19
timing, 154
common issues with newsletters,
writing of, 155–8
218–25
Emerald Furniture, xi-xii, 3
content, 219–21
action plan, 25
costs, 221, 224
advertisement, 183
database and distribution,
business card, 37
232–4
capability brochure, 79, 81
footer, 228
colours, 32
html or plain text, 227–8
competitor analysis, 16 monitoring, 224–5
email, 152 sidebar, 228
ezine, 213–14, 230–2 similarities and differences
flyer, 90 between newsletters and
goals, 8–9 ezines, 214–17
logo, 34 (continues)
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mail list server, 234–5 online brochure, 91
main messages see key messages opening sentence, 139
market analysis, 10–14 opt in (ezines) 146
market trends, 11–14 outcome, 56–7
marketing, 20–3, 26–7 outdoor advertising, 164–5
brochure, 102–4 Oxygenics showerhead, 173
ezine, 235–6
website, 203 PAKO, 52–3, 57–8, 61, 72
measuring results, 25–6 paragraphs, 44–5, 67–8, 98, 193–4
see also monitoring; testing PDF, 157, 194
mission statements, 3–6 perspective (clients’/customers’),
monitoring results, 25–6, 224–5 54–5
see also testing persuasive writing, 141–2
My Business magazine, 113–14, 115 see also writing
photos/pictures, 99, 121–2, 198
name (company), 30–1 see also appearance; design;
navigation devices, 209 illustration; images; visuals
navigation (website), 192–3, 209 plain text, 154, 227–8
Neilsen, Jakob, 185–6, 201–2 positioning, 18–20
news agencies, 107 positioning statement, 171–2
newsletters, 210–14 positive statements, 97
advantages and disadvantages, prepositions, 74
217–18 press release, 105–6
branding, 218–19 distribution, 125
content, 219–21 follow-up, 125
costs, 221, 224 format, 123–5
monitoring, 224–5 planning, 109–11
similarities and differences timing, 126
between newsletters and where to place, 106–9
ezines, 214 writing, 111–23
newspaper advertisements, 162 prices, 175–6
newspapers (press release), 107 see also budget; costs
nouns, 73 print (medium), 58, 100–1
print-friendly webpages, 202–3
objectives, 6–10, 211–12 product brochure, 83–8
see also purpose pronouns, 73
offer, 138–40 proofreading, 70–1
Ogilvy, David, 171, 177, 179 see also editing
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white space, 45 writing (continued)
words, 63–4, 98, 193 for the web, 191–9
writing, 59–69 press release, 111–23
brochure, 91–100
direct mail, 141–4 Yellow Pages, 137, 163–4
emails, 155–8 ‘you’ language, 95, 195