Archive | Publications & Enewsletters

Copying without permission is theft

By Scott Flood on July 25, 2018 in General rants, Marketing Wisdom, Publications & Enewsletters

You’re responsible for your organization’s newsletter, and the other day, you read a great item in a magazine. It’s perfect for your organization’s audience, so you reprint it in your newsletter. If you didn’t get permission to do so, you’ve just broken the law. “Wait!” you protest. “I put the name of the magazine under […]

EVEN MORE GOOFS AND GAFFES

By Scott Flood on April 6, 2016 in General rants, Mistakes & Mishaps, Online Words, Publications & Enewsletters

I miss the days when newspapers and other media wouldn’t publish a story until it had been edited and edited again. Sadly, expediency has supplanted accuracy, and shrinking budgets have eliminated the copy editors who dispatched typos and other errors from their writers’ dispatches. These days, the only thing protecting writers from themselves is their […]

MEET YOUR SILENT SALESPEOPLE

By Scott Flood on January 28, 2015 in Advertising, Direct Marketing, Marketing Wisdom, Publications & Enewsletters

What is a brochure? An ad? A radio commercial? A website? You get 5 points if you said they’re all marketing communications channels. But they’re also something more. You can’t be everywhere, and that includes everywhere your prospective customers are. So you develop materials such as ads and brochures to stand in for you. In […]

TALKING TO YOURSELF IS UNPRODUCTIVE

By Scott Flood on September 24, 2014 in General rants, Marketing Wisdom, Publications & Enewsletters

I once received an assignment to rescue a doomed newsletter for companies providing towing services to a motor club’s members. The motor club didn’t understand why it was failing. So we conducted a random survey of towing operators. What we heard was enlightening. “I don’t read that rag. It’s nothing but PR for your company […]

PUBLICATION SECRET: PLANT SOME EVERGREENS

By Scott Flood on September 10, 2014 in Online Words, Publications & Enewsletters, Uncategorized

In a recent entry, I mentioned the value of a good swipe file for newsletter development. Another very handy tool is what are known as “evergreen” articles. What’s an evergreen article? It’s simply a story that provides general information, will always be appropriate for the audience, and isn’t time-sensitive. For a financial institution, evergreen […]

DON’T USE FAKE PHOTOS

By Scott Flood on June 18, 2014 in Advertising, General rants, Marketing Wisdom, Publications & Enewsletters

I was leafing through what I thought was a great local tourism publication. It was well-written and well-designed, and the photography of local landmarks and amenities was outstanding. And then I noticed the full-page photograph opposite the Lodging page. It was of a maid in a luxurious hotel throwing open the drapes and revealing the […]

YOU MIGHT NEED TO PREP TOMATOES SOMEDAY

By Scott Flood on May 21, 2014 in Advertising, General rants, Marketing Wisdom, Online Words, Publications & Enewsletters

One of the most common mistakes made by marketers is trying to cram too much information into their communications materials. It’s often the result of saying “well, we probably need to mention this … and this … and this,” along with a bit of “well, there’s some empty space. How can we fill it?” […]

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