The Copy Monkey

You’re Never Too Old To Learn

thecopymonkey — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:23:32 +0000

Well, after two years of carefully crafted emails, engaging headlines and offers that expired at midnight, I finally decided to order the AWAI (American Writers and Artists Institute) Six Figure Copywriting success course and a companion piece, How To Write For The Healthcare Market.

So what was it that triggered my ‘buy’ response? Was it a compelling discount? Nope. An amazing new testimonial? Wrong again. Maybe a new technique or development that would guarantee my success as a copywriter. Sorry.

They just wore me down. Once I had signed up for the free Golden Thread newsletter, I would read the various emails and knew I eventually should do it – heck, I really wanted to do it for a long time. But thinking about it, it was even that. It’s that I was not the ultimate decision maker. I needed to convince my boss and also the finance guy that it would be a good idea for the company to order the course for my department (and that I wasn’t trying to get a ‘freelance’ course so I could leave and make more money on my own.)

So when you are marketing your product or services, keep those two things in mind – a regular communication with your prospects so you are there when they are ready to buy. And that they are the right people to make the buying decision.

Now I’m just counting the days until my course arrives!

Responsible Green Reply Envelopes

thecopymonkey — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 17:10:11 +0000

One thing we all are hopefully aware of is the current push for a national “Do Not Mail” list. About 17 states currently have laws on the books or up for a vote. States v.s. Federal rights aside, if enough voters get behind federal legislation, the world of catalog & direct mail will change drastically – as well as the cost the consumer pays to mail a package or letter.

One way we can help calm the fervor behind such ill-thought legislation is to do what we can to self-police what the consumer may see as waste. And whether they are right or not, going ‘green’ is in and can help to give your response rates a lift. I receive a great newsletter called Springwise that keeps up on new trends and saw this post about reusable envelopes. Not only do Eco-envelopes encourage recycling, the look of the piece is sure to get noticed in your prospects mailbox.

Later

What were you doing at 5:11 am?

thecopymonkey — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 12:59:11 +0000

I got to work today at 8:01 am and after coffee, checking in with my staff, going to my management meeting, I logged into my personal email. (C’mon, we all do it!) And there in my inbox was an email telling me that Alan Rimm-Kaufman had posted a comment to my previous post.

Amazing. At 5:11 am, he was already up to speed on who had linked to his site and responding with a quick ‘thanks!’. Exactly as he said in his speech at the recent NEMOA conference. Now, I’m guessing it was Technorati that let’s him know about new links – I’m still learning about W2.0 stuff. But the point is, he is engaging with his cloud of users. In one night, I no longer feel quite like I’m on C-SPAN giving a speech to an empty chamber.

That kind of contact will go a lot farther than anything else you can do when building an online presence, or off-line for that matter. The paradigm has shifted. Users, consumers, people – that’s who’s driving the bus now.

Cheers

A Catalog Conference? Nope, Web 2.0

thecopymonkey — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 03:50:47 +0000

Across the Charles River, an aging icon waited for our arrival for drinks (open bar!) dinner and networking. The new upgraded box seats and other improvements hoped to breath life into the home of the 2007 World Series Champion Red Sox.

But while an empty Fenway Park beckoned, another aging icon was also looking for new life. And for those of us in the catalog/direct mail industry, that would be social networking or the already overused meme, Web 2.0.

For 20 years, the New England Mail Order Association had been holding it’s annual conference in the Royal Sonesta hotel in Cambridge. But until this year, I don’t believe that NEMOA had ever had such a concentration on web related customer acquisition themes and less on list metrics and mailing regulations.

From the fast talking Ken Bruce to Alan Rimm-Kaufman slipping into a Robin Williams like delivery, we all sat and realized that we’d better get up to speed on Web 2.0 or get left behind.

It’s probably no coincidence that it’s been almost a year since I’ve blogged here. But now with alot more ideas, free toys and other tips (notice the RSS feeds?) I’m going to be trying to really get past the ‘speaking in an empty room’ and build a blog of value that can help others in my industry, small business or anyone who wants to benefit from direct marketing and better copy.

If you’d like to see what has my rapt attention right now, go to this link on the RKG site: Alan’s NEMOA 2008 links

Cheers

Coast to Coast Collaboration

thecopymonkey — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 15:57:14 +0000

I have found an illustrator to partner with my on my first book “Die, Monkey, Die”. And, it was a bit of an adventure. I posted the project on iFreelance.com, not thinking that they might be adverse to my quest for a no cash upfront, share in the profits kind of deal. So, after receiving about 38 bids, they put my project on hold.

However, I did manage to solicit enough interest to get two people who were qualified, had the style I was looking for and… one of them was willing to share on the back end. So, onward and upward!

I will post the finished verse soon, as a way of establishing copyright and to share it with you. And, as Mark gets the illustrations going, I’ll share some of those as well.

This is fun.

Jonathan

Die, Monkey, Die

thecopymonkey — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 13:56:31 +0000

Oh to be full time writer. What does that take?

Maybe a patron… or a rich wife. Or getting into a set routine that will allow you to practice your craft and then have the ability to pursue it as a passion and a career.

I don’t have a patron and my wife was hoping I would be the one who was rich.

So, that leaves me with trying to balance my day job, my home life, and my various developmental writing and internet projects. This blog always seems to come last. But maybe by making it one of the first things I do after supper (not ‘dinner’, because in Maine, that’s the main Sunday afternoon meal) it will help get my writing juices going on my other projects.

One such project that has taken me away from this venue is my first book titled “Die, Monkey, Die.” And… it’s a children’s book. Ok, the title might not give that impression, but it’s a kid’s book in a Brothers Grimm, Roald Dahl kind of way. 12 four line verses and 24 pages. And now I am looking for an illustrator to partner with me. This will also be my first foray into self-publishing and I think I’ve settled on LuLu.com. No upfront costs and what looks like a wide and professional array of printing options.

You definitely will be hearing alot about this book.

Peace

Jonathan

Apples News

thecopymonkey — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 00:27:34 +0000

Being a certified MacEvangelist since 1987 (not in any official capacity) I first want to dig a little deeper into todays ground breaking news from Cupertino. Ok, the iPhone is not just cool – it’s truly revolutionary. One product that is the widescreen iPod we’ve been waiting for along with broadband internet and cellphone would have been fine. But the addition of OS X and 8gb of flash memory racks it up more than just a couple of notches.

If it has OS X, then ostensibly it can run iChat, correct? Not too much to expect that the second generation iPhone will have an iSight camera and boom – we’ve got the video phone long predicted since at least 1959, which is as early as my memory will serve.

The predictions of 1% of the cell market by 2008 or 10 million units should not be too much of a stretch. This is the convergence handheld we’ve been waiting for. Early adopters will rush, coolness will abound, and all-you-can-use flat rate broadband cell plans will be the next plateau, freeing us from our laptops and desktops and further ingraining the internet into our every waking moment.

Apple has reinvented the phone is an understatement.

First New Years Resolution- Post Or Die!

thecopymonkey — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 15:07:13 +0000

Ok, like all of you, I have a short list of resolutions I am going to be attempting to follow through with, longer than the end of this week. Lose a few pounds, get my internet biz going , etc. But I know I need to also make it a habit to post and try to build some traffic (for a lot of various reasons).

Besides wanting to spout on about my years of invaluable marketing experience (I say invaluable as I guess I didn’t make enough money on it) I also realize I don’t know everything. And when I find a resource that I think has value, I guess you guys would benefit from it as well. I came upon this list of creative and marketing blog links and wanted to post it. I have yet to peruse them all, and as I do, I’ll be making comments on them. There! See? I now have a whole bunch of posts I know I can do – just reviews!

Strumpette
A VC
The Next Net
Successful Blog
Will Video for Food
Caffeine Marketing
MarquisDeJolie
Widgets Lab
Guerrilla Innovation.com
No Mans Blog
Viral Garden
MicroPersuasion
Viralmeister
Social Media Optimization
Coolz0r
SEO Black Hat
Creative Think
Movie Marketing Madness
Blog Till You Drop!
Get Shouty!
One Reader at a Time
Critical Fluff
The New PR
Own Your Brand!
OTOInsights
bizandbuzz
Work, in Plain English
Buzz Canuck
New Millenium PR
Pardon My French
Troy Worman’s Blog
The Instigator Blog
AENDirect
Diva Marketing
Marketing Hipster
The Marketing Minute
Funny Business
The Frager Factor
Mindblob
Open The Dialogue
Word Sell
Note to CMO:
That’s Great Marketing!
Shotgun Marketing Blog
BrandSizzle
bizsolutionsplus
Customers Rock!
Being Peter Kim
Pow! Right Between The Eyes! Andy Nulman’s Blog About Surprise
Billions With Zero Knowledge
Working at Home on the Internet
MapleLeaf 2.0
darrenbarefoot.com
Two Hat Marketing
The Engaging Brand
The Branding Blog
CrapHammer
Drew’s Marketing Minute
Golden Practices
Viaspire
Tell Ten Friends
Flooring the Consumer
Kinetic Ideas
Unconventional Thinking
Buzzoodle
Conversation Agent
The Copywriting Maven
Hee-Haw Marketing
Scott Burkett’s Pothole on the Infobahn
Multi-Cult Classics
Logic + Emotion
Branding & Marketing
Popcorn n Roses
On Influence & Automation
Bullshitobserver
Servant of Chaos
converstations
eSoup
Presentation Zen
Dmitry Linkov
aialone
John Wagner
Nick Rice
CKs Blog
Design Sojourn
Frozen Puck
The Sartorialist
Small Surfaces
Africa Unchained
Perspective
gDiapers
Marketing Nirvana
Bob Sutton
¡Hola! Oi! Hi!
Shut Up and Drink the Kool-Aid!
Women, Art, Life: Weaving It All Together
Community Guy
Social Media on the fly
Jeremy Latham’s Blog
SMogger Social Media Blog
Masey.com

Enjoy!

The Secret

thecopymonkey — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 16:21:32 +0000

Y’all don’t know me enough and I haven’t written anything yet about my thoughts on the current evolution of mankind going on right under our noses. And it’s been happening for decades. Recent authors and popular books like Dr. Wayne Dyer ‘The Power of Intention’, movies like “What The Bleep’ and others are laying out the secret to the universe we’ve all been searching for – but up until now have not been ready for.

Another movie came out back in March – but I just found out about it. Must be because it’s the right time for me to add it to my own journey of truth. It’s called, appropriately enough, The Secret.

I’m off to order it as I am sure to want a copy of it, even though you can watch it online for $5.00. I’ll update you guys once I view it (multiple times I’m sure.)

Peace.

The changing face of direct response marketing

thecopymonkey — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 14:23:34 +0000

Two years ago, direct marketing was chugging right along, with everyone getting in on the band wagon. Ten years ago, it was like the old wild west gold rush – stake out your claim, and just pick up the nuggets. Well two years from now, we’ll probably hardly recognize the medium.

Does that mean DR is going away?

Hardly. It’s just moving more towards customization, personalization and more efficient ways of getting your product to the consumer who is looking for it. Sure, there will still be the :30, :60 TV informercial spots and probably still the longer format spots. But look for the content to change. And with more digital options available, I see them moving off of broadcast and more towards internet broadband download sites like AOL, iTunes, YouTube and others. You can then produce multiple spots each targeting a specific area or condition. Got a weight loss product that’s better suited towards men and you have a celebrity athelete spokesperson? Or how about a the same product but you want to target sedentary office workers? Come up with unique content for each and get specific about how it benefits that group. Then market directly to them.

The same goes for direct mail. You’ve already seen the jump in response rates with variable data marketing. One postcard design with specific graphics, consumer name and copy – all data base driven.

So what does that mean for copywriters? Boom time baby.

Because we can now talk very specifically to each group, crafting controls and measuring response rates with almost pinpoint accuracy. That’s a lot of copy – but the results will be worth it. Think about it this way. TV didn’t kill radio advertising. Cable TV didn’t kill network TV advertising. And the internet won’t kill cable and network TV. It’s all about the consumer being exposed to and finding the exact content that they are interested in – however it’s delivered. When the highly anticipated convergence happens with the net and TV, look to be able to insert specific spots geared right to the consumer on their particular home networks.

Now that will be fun!