Scott's Blog - Scott Flood Writing

Differentiate your business by fulfilling your promises

By Scott Flood on November 24, 2020 in General rants, Marketing Wisdom 0

If you’re looking for a powerful way to differentiate your company from your competitors, I have a simple suggestion: just fulfill your promises. I know that sounds ridiculously simple, but recent experiences with companies that depend upon top-notch service to draw repeat business have convinced me that far too many organizations see promises as tactics […]

More media mistakes and mishaps

By Scott Flood on November 18, 2020 in Mistakes & Mishaps 0

It’s time once again to present some typos and other amusing mishaps that appeared in the media. I don’t poke fun at individuals for making mistakes, but professionals should know better. All three of these examples involve the use of the wrong word. In each, the writer chose a homophone of the intended word, and […]

Advertising doesn’t have a Holy Grail

By Scott Flood on November 10, 2020 in Uncategorized 0

If you bring a group of business owners or managers together and ask them the most effective way to promote their organizations, you’ll get a wide range of answers and little agreement. One may insist on blogging, another on radio spots, a third on coupon envelopes, and a fourth may affirm billboards are the only […]

How a kid kept my business

By Scott Flood on November 4, 2020 in Uncategorized 0

We enjoyed the quick-service restaurant’s food, but their service was often way beyond poky. That evening, I called in our large order and was told it would be ready at 5:45. Arriving at exactly 5:46, I discovered that only was my order not ready; nobody had even begun to prepare my food. The manager shrugged, […]

What is marketing’s most powerful word?

By Scott Flood on October 27, 2020 in Marketing Wisdom, Online Words 0

If I asked you to name the single most powerful word in marketing, which word would you choose? Many people claim it’s “free,” while others insist on “sex” or something similarly salacious. But none of those answers is correct. The most powerful word is one of the most common and simple words in English, and […]

Customer service that’s barely there

By Scott Flood on October 7, 2020 in General rants, Marketing Wisdom 0

The client wanted to advertise in a local publication for the first time in years. I had sent other business to the printer who produced it in the past, so I emailed my customer service contact with a simple question: is your company still printing this publication? Instead of answering my question, she replied with […]

Everything you create is a marketing piece

By Scott Flood on September 29, 2020 in Direct Marketing, Marketing Wisdom 0

As I pointed to a clunky phrase, the client waved me off. “Don’t worry about the language. It’s a proposal, not a marketing piece.” She saw my confusion and explained, “We don’t need to waste our time making the language flowery or sales-y sounding. This is just so we can get all the details together […]

“We already did that”

By Scott Flood on September 23, 2020 in Advertising, Marketing Wisdom 0

Like average Americans, you’re exposed to thousands of marketing messages each day, from TV commercials to billboards to slogans on fast-food drink cups. How many of the ones you saw yesterday do you remember? Probably just a couple – maybe a few if you really strain your memory. So why do so many companies and organizations […]

Don’t rely on insider information

By Scott Flood on September 9, 2020 in General rants, Marketing Wisdom 0

Companies have many reasons for trying to handle their marketing communications needs in-house. Sometimes, budget is the main reason, but a more common justification is the belief that nobody in the outside world could ever understand the company as well as its employees. Hard to disagree — but it’s the very reason working with an […]

What cherry tomatoes taught me about marketing materials

By Scott Flood on September 1, 2020 in General rants, Marketing Wisdom 0

Back in high school, I learned a valuable lesson about marketing materials while working as a dishwasher for a chain steakhouse. Washing dishes may be the grimiest job in most eateries, but I didn’t mind it. There were clear objectives and performance measures, the work was predictable, my co-workers left me alone, the radio made […]

Older posts

Navigation

Scott Flood Writing