Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Your vs. my. Do vs. don't. Dollars vs. percentages. Minor modifications can have major mojo.

Attend a Life is Good festival and you'll notice that security staff wear "Safety" T-shirts rather than "Security" T-shirts, writes David Meerman Scott.

This friendly idea is a typical tweak from a brand focused on giving customers a good time—another example is its internal ban on the phrase "I have to"—the preferred phrase being "I get to."

It sounds fun, but simple, one-word copy tweaks can make a huge difference to your marketing ROI. Here are five...

When you're frantically trying to stay in your marketing prime, remember: Some marketing advice stands the test of time.

... But sometimes, it's helpful to step back and remember that some marketing advice is timeless. Tools change, methodologies develop, but there are some core marketing truths that can stand the test of time. And sometimes, one person can be the source of a ton of timeless marketing advice.

Today we wanted to highlight one such person: David Ogilvy. Widely considered the Father of Advertising, Ogilvy was the founder of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide and a prolific writer. Even though his books were published decades ago, his advice is still applicable today. So we rounded up his best advice for marketers to help inspire you on this dreadful Thursday morning. Here's what Ogilvy has to say...

When faced with creating a conversion-focused SEO landing page, what should our copy focus on? There are so many things we can do — so many directions we can go — that it becomes hard to know what to choose.

Do I go with statistics or stories? Facts or feelings? Data or discounts? If one of these is good, isn’t a mix of all of them better?

Blending Content Types Doesn’t Work

We know we’re blending when we start adding adjectives to our sentences. “Our solution is the most cost-effective, easy-to-use, colorful, highest-intensity, waterproof, process-oriented available on the market.” We know we’re blending when we want to put one more “value proposition” on a webpage, even when we don’t have room. “Hey, let’s use a rotating hero image!” The beauty of it all, though, is that search marketers don’t have to blend. We can use keywords as a guide to help us get started on our copy....