Monthly Archives: September 2012

Email Body Language

Email Body Language

A friend of ours was going to Costco, and sent an email to my wife and business partner, Angela, asking her if she needed him to get anything for her while he was there.

Her "NO THANKS" reply, mistakenly had the Caps Lock on when she responded. Our friend emailed back; "Okay, but don’t yell at me".

There is no doubt that email conversations are more subject to misinterpretation when the recipients can’t view body language, or hear your verbal inflections and tone.

While straight typed email messages can look like boring legal documents, with a little attention to detail they can have body language and tone.

Don’t hesitate to use the tools on your keyboard; bold type, italics, caps, pauses, icons, color, exclamation marks and more, to inject some life and body language into your messages.

Where applicable, include cartoon clips, video links, attachments and all of the tools at your fingertips, to hit home the points in your emails, in an entertaining and credible manner.

At the same time, you can also learn a lot about the personal style of those you receive emails from, if you read beyond the written word. If their salutation has a smiley face icon, or if they ask you about your weekend, you can respond in a similar style. Emails that are abrupt and to the point, will indicate yet another personal style, and also need to be answered in that style.

You are in the creative communications business. Exercising some creativity and paying closer attention to your email ‘body language’ and communications objectives, can ensure your message is perceived correctly.

Aristotle’s Media Mix

Aristotle’s Media Mix

There is a great deal of buzz among advertising and marketing types today about the synergies between paid media, owned media and earned media.
‘Paid’ media, of course, are the commercials or space advertisers pay for.
‘Owned’ media are newsletters, emails, websites, or any of the marketing communications vehicles that the advertiser produces and distributes themselves.
‘Earned’ media are the media exposures ‘earned’ by doing something newsworthy or ‘buzz-worthy’. Going ‘viral’ online, spreading a story via social media, or achieving traditional media news coverage, are all types of earned media.
Advertisers have total control over their owned and paid media messages. But it’s risky to rely upon earned media alone because they can’t totally control their earned media exposure.
While some might think of earned or owned media as ‘free’, they certainly are not. Paid media investments are obvious via invoices for spots or space.
Owned media often requires hidden expenses in man-hours, softw
are, and expertise to produce and distribute, and earned media costs include the hours for planning, organizing, writing news releases, creating events, and managing the buzz.
Aristotle’s study of metaphysics noted that, "the whole is more than the sum of its parts".
The multiplier effect of utilizing two or three of these media forms in tandem is always more than the impact of any one of these media types in isolation….1 + 1 can equal 4, and 1 + 1 + 1 can equal 6 or more in terms of impact, awareness and results.
But many advertisers who use all three types of media, don’t do so with a synergistic strategy. Often their paid and owned media, sound or look like traditional advertising, and the message bears no resemblance to the more newsworthy or buzz-worthy content in their earned media.
When you can show your clients how to drive more traffic and awareness for their owned and earned media via your paid campaign, with content that is congruent with their earned and owned media goals, you will dramatically improve their results and capture more revenue for your stations

Click here to arrange an appointment to learn how our radio e-marketing system, SoundADvice, will educate your prospects on radio’s strategic fit in the new media environment.

Too Close to The Forest

Too Close to The Forest

As a career professional who is focused on marketing every day, you can often take your knowledge and expertise for granted. Your clients seldom have time to focus on their marketing the way you can.

The knowledge, expertise, ideas and concepts you bring to busy clients and prospects, can have real value to them.

We recently had one of our SoundADvice member account executives suggest our SoundADvice; the weekly radio e-marketing system, was `too basic’. We monitored the SoundADvice responses from that account executive’s clients and were amazed at how many advertisers had really appreciated and used their SoundADvice.

Some of the knowledge you have that you might consider to be basic, might be a great revelation to your clients. Never underestimate the value of your expertise to your clients.

In a worst-case scenario; if you share an idea or principle with a client that they were already aware of, it might serve as a timely reminder of your expertise.

It’s been said, "The smartest person you know probably thinks just like you".

When you share your marketing knowledge with your clients, if it aligns with their beliefs, you can become the smartest person they know.

Click here to arrange a no-obligation online overview of how the SoundADvice radio e-marketing system can make you the smartest marketing person your prospects know.