Wesley Day Advertising

ON ADVERTISING
July 2007 issue

TIPS FOR SELECTING THE RIGHT AGENCY.Here’s some practical advice for clients desiring to hire the right agency.
Size matters
Be honest about budgets. If your account value is less than 30 percent of the agency’s total billing, they are probably too large for you. You’re simply not apt to get the attention and service you deserve. If you can’t represent 30 percent, look for an agency that specializes in your arena.
Personnel matters
In the review, be sure to directly meet the people who will be involved in the day-to-day operations of your account. That is really who you're hiring.
Don’t be blinded by friendship While personal relationships are important, your choice of agency is a key one for your organization and should be based on sound principles of return on investment and achieving measurable objectives.
Be sure your expectations are in line with reality. A good agency will take the time to go through reasonable expectations based on budgets and your specific goals and objectives. This is why requests for proposals are not effective. Return to top

COPYWRITING SECRET #3 OF 8:
THE ARCHITECTURE OF PERSUASION.
In 13 words, here's how to persuade anybody to do almost anything: 1. Hook their attention.
2. Show them a benefit.
3. Prove your credibility.
4. Urge their response.
   That's it. That's the formula the top copywriting school in America-American Writers & Artists Inc.-teaches every single member to master. It’s also the formula ad writers have used to craft some of the world's most successful ads and sales letters.
To make this secret architecture of persuasion even easier to remember, just follow the four Ps:
1. Picture
    Create a word image that resonates with your reader.
2. Promise
    Make the benefits of your product valuable to your reader.
3. Proof
    Give your readers reasons to have faith in your product.
  Provide urgency and the specific action to take.
  Watch for more secrets in upcoming issues. Return to top

BRANDING MYTH #3 OF 7:
IF IT ISN’T BROKE, DON’T TOUCH IT.
The unwillingness to investigate, evolve, and challenge has killed more brands than competition.
If you're overly concerned about what associates think rather than overly concerned about your brand, getting anywhere near branding is a bad career move. To succeed in successfully managing a brand, you need to have a firm belief in your product, a willingness to deliver what's promised, and a strength of conviction. Return to top

FIVE COMMON GRAMMATICAL ERRORS.
1. You're for your
    No: Remember to defrag you're machine on a regular basis.
    Yes: Remember to defrag your machine on a regular basis.
    No: Your right about the changes.
    Yes: You're right about the changes.
2. Different than for different from
    No: This setup is different than the one at the main office.
    Yes: This setup is different from the one at the main office.
    Yes: This setup is better than the one at the main office.
3. Lay for lie
   No: I got dizzy and had to lay down.
   Yes: I got dizzy and had to lie down.
   Yes: Just lay those books over there.
4. Then for than
    No: The accounting department had more problems then we did.
    Yes: The accounting department had more problems than we did.
Note: Here's a subpeeve. When a sentence construction begins with If, you don't need a then. Then is implicit, so it's superfluous and wordy:
    No: If you can't get Windows to boot, then you'll need to call Ted.
    Yes: If you can't get Windows to boot, you'll need to call Ted.
5. Could of, would of for could have, would have
    No: I could of installed that app by mistake.
    Yes: I could have installed that app by mistake.
    No: I would of sent you a meeting notice, but you were out of
    town.
    Yes: I would have sent you a meeting notice, but you were out of town. Return to top

USING WIDGETS FOR VIRAL MARKETING.
A Web widget is a chunk of HTML code that people can insert into e-mails, Web pages, and Blogs to perform a specific function such as displaying a map to your business, a YouTube video of your product, or a shared calendar.
Widgets have become a phenomenon for two primary reasons:
1. Blogs and social networking sites allow anyone to publish content
     to the Web. Consequently, people can pepper their MySpace
     profiles with pictures and embed YouTube videos in their Blog
     entries.
2. Widgets facilitate viral marketing. If you provide a useful service or
     interesting content on your Web site, you can make it available      as a widget by posting HTML that others can copy and paste in
     their e-mails and pages.
   To incorporate the power of Web widgets into your marketing programs, be creative. Consider what aspects of your product people would want to try or show off if it's presented to them on a Web site. Also consider what would make them likely to spread your widget.
To get started, do a Web search for “Web widgets” or check out Google Business Solutions for ideas. For example, a marketer of baby products provides a free “baby ticker” that tens of thousands of expectant mothers have put on their personal Web page to show the countdown to their blessed day. What special events affect your business? Washington State Ferries provides a GPS-drive map showing the current location and direction of travel of their ferries; do you have a traveling exhibit, service vehicle, or blimp? Wunderground can feed live weather radar and satellite images for your Web site. Return to top

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