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{ Author Archives }

So let me get this straight

Samsung spent all that money to get a front page ad on Facebook and… … that’s the piece of trash they’re driving all those clicks to? We’ve got a lot of work to do, people.

You think THAT’S hard?

I used to think copywriting was one of the more difficult things in life, until I read this. It’s nice to get things back into perspective.

7 nuggets of direct response fund raising

Imagine if every organization that relied on fundraising paid this much attention to their metrics. HT: Ramit.

Presidential subject lines

Best email marketing article I’ve read in a long, long time. Money quote: On the website Mental Floss, someone has created a quiz called Obama Campaign Email Subject or Message From My Aunt?, which includes such hard-to-guess examples as “Is this still your address?” and “This email will offend you.” I scored only a 45% [...]

Airport Advertising

Imagine if these folks took that $1 million they spent on airport ads (to “convey imagery”) and instead spent it on direct mail to “generate actual sales.” Money quote: He likens the spectacle of the Violin ads to “ego campaigns” that actors in Hollywood sometimes demand of studios. “This is so the CEO and Violin [...]

From the Chevy Newsletter

I have no idea how I started getting the Chevy monthly newsletter. In most cases, I’m willing to give the sender the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes you forget you signed up to something, sometimes you get a promo email via one of your subscriptions, etc. But the very last line in this particular email [...]

Good dinners deserve blog posts

You don’t often find yourself breaking bread with 3 published authors. But tonight, at the invitation of Ramit Sethi and Michael Fishman I did just that. I was well out of my league sharing time with those two plus: Derek Halpern — he writes Social Triggers and is an extremely sharp guy. It’s immediately apparent [...]

37signals A/B Test Results

A short squeeze-ish page generates 47% more paid signups than a long copy page for their Highrise product. Here’s what we don’t know yet (and this is crucial): which one generated the largest profit? You can’t really form a conclusion until you know which version created the highest average customer value. Nonetheless, this will be [...]

Nice Headline

From a recent TechCrunch article: Headline: Index Leads $4 billion Valuation Round In Dropbox First sentence: Dropbox is finally moving to close that massive valuation venture round we’ve been talking about all summer. Emphasis mine. Notice how the headline implies the deal is done, yet the first sentence reveals the real truth. It’s almost done. [...]

A cutomer’s take on autoresponders

From a customer: Haha, I caved and bought last night. I’ve wanted one for so long, and after receiving such personal emails (even before the one where you personally replied), I decided that was enough to convince me to buy on customer service alone. I really look forward to working with you. Thank you! Yes, [...]