AMiable Solution #126: Life Beyond Our Laptops

Technology has made us pretty lazy.  We can look up customer stats, research prospects, investigate new markets, and coordinate the buying and selling of any number of products and services without ever getting out of our seats or interacting with another human. 

We’re not alone.  Consumers are pretty machine crazy, too.  According to a study by Synqera and reported by Print in the Mix in February of this year, 81% of U.S. consumers surveyed own a laptop.  Sixty-five percent of them own smartphones.  Forty-eight percent own tablets.  Thirty-seven percent own all three.

But just because we have all of this technology at our fingertips doesn’t mean we should always use it.  Sitting down with the originator of a report after reading the report, meeting regularly with members of customer service, asking clients questions over the phone instead of through email, and interacting with vendors in person not only builds relationships, but also offers greater insight and perspective on the things we read about.

And there are more benefits to putting down the data and pursuing more traditional methods of communication, including print: it seems that customers get a little tired of the technology, too.  This past February Print in the Mix also reported that 75% of consumers said they would prefer to receive promotional content and coupons in print.  More than 80% said they wouldn’t look for promotions and coupons on a company’s mobile app, and 73% said they don’t want to receive promotions or coupons on their mobile devices.

Technology does, of course, make our lives easier and provides us with opportunities we wouldn’t otherwise have.  Still, there is truth to the saying about having “too much of a good thing.”  Sometimes, more basic forms of communication are just better. 

AMiable Solution #125: Life Beyond the Party

Holiday season is here.  Whether your office marks the holidays with big, formal affairs or smaller, in-house celebrations, you can enrich the experience for everyone with one simple addition: a collection.

You don’t have to look far to find someone in need, whether it be physical, emotional, or congratulatory.  Students, families, volunteers, even neighborhood businesses and organizations could benefit from the charity of your employees.

Is your office located near a school?  Ask employees to arrive at your holiday celebration with a new pair of gloves or a hat. 

Does your organization employ or support members of the military?  Set up a card station at which guests can write a note of season’s greetings and appreciation to be sent to local veterans or to those serving overseas. 

Want to help others make sure they have a full or festive meal on their tables?  Collect holiday-meal-specific or general-need non-perishable food items to take to your local food bank.

Your office’s efforts are limited only by your imagination.  You could collect books or games for retirement communities or senior centers.  Go old-school and carol for your business and/or residential neighbors.  Raise money for a local family who has experienced a recent trauma.  Organize a blood drive.

Banding together for a unified, non-business goal will not only create a better sense of community within your organization, but it will also make the holidays a little merrier and brighter for everyone.

AMiable Solution #124: Life After Black Friday

It’s Thursday.  One week after Thanksgiving, six days after Black Friday, and three days after Cyber Monday.  Did you organization participate in the most-marketed, most-hyped time of the year?

According to the folks at blackfriday.fm, 73% of people they surveyed planned to do at least some holiday shopping online during the season’s “kickoff,” Black Friday.  That’s a significant increase over last year: 56% of shoppers reported shopping online on Black Friday.  Furthermore, 76% said they would research their purchases online: only 1% said they would rely on television ads.

What does that mean for you?  Whether you “participate” in Black Friday offers or not, if you aren’t emailing your database or highlighting your best service or offer on your website, you’re denying your organization an opportunity to increase exposure and build brand recognition.  

But you don’t have to be a “Black Friday Sale” sort of organization to score big this month.  You can still benefit from the increased interest the internet and email are receiving.  Here’s how.

First, emphasize customer service.  Going online to conduct business gets both you and your clients only so far.  Use email, your website, and even direct mail to remind your customers, donors, and prospects that the answers and the help they need are available over the phone and in person by real, knowledgeable people whenever they need it.

Second, emphasize year-round reliability.  Your market doesn’t need to wait until the end of the year for offers that knock their socks off.  Highlight your organization’s continued commitment to providing the best service and honoring budgets and schedules, despite the chaos caused by the year-end hustle-bustle.

Providing clients with consistent, quality care won’t create the profit spikes of Black Friday, but it does ensure a happy new year.

AMiable Solution #123: The Value of Gratitude

Gratitude, like love, is most genuine and most appreciated when it’s not only said, but also shown.  When it’s expressed not just on the quintessential holiday, but also every day of the year.  When companies not only say “thank you for your business,” but also show their customers or members that they appreciate them. 

In 2010, Return on Behavior Magazine reported, in its “50 Facts About Customer Experience,” that 70% of buying experiences are based on how a customer feels he or she is being treated.  Furthermore, the magazine reported that it takes 12 positive experiences for a customer to overcome one unresolved negative experience.

How can you make customers feel good all year round?  Make gratitude a daily part of your operations.  We’re not just talking about gratitude for your customers, clients, donors, or members, either.  Gratitude for colleagues, partners, and vendors counts, too.  Making respect for one another’s talents and contributions part of your culture creates a natural environment of appreciation that extends to your customers. 

As a result, providing your customers with services or products that solve their problems and resolving customer service issues promptly and to their satisfaction will be something you WANT to do, not something you HAVE to do.   And that’s what builds real relationships.  That’s true gratitude.

AMiable Solution #122: The Value of Preparation

Ahh…the Thanksgiving feast.  It takes hours to prepare but only minutes to consume.  Why do we spend so much time preparing something that lasts such a short amount of time?

Necessity. 

You can’t pop a frozen turkey in the oven and expect it to come out juicy and thoroughly cooked in an hour any more than you can expect to whip up a direct marketing promotion on the fly and expect your audience to respond.  You need to think ahead. 

Thinking ahead means devising a plan.  Who will your “guests” be?  What are their preferences?  What are their needs?  What have they consumed in the past?  Your offer should tailor to their specific tastes and histories.

Thinking ahead also means getting your timing right.  Offering a special discount?  Make sure you build in enough time to allow your audience to receive your offer and respond.  Doing an annual fund drive?  Think about psychological, financial, seasonal, and historical facts that could maximize interest and response.

The end result for any marketer--and any Thanksgiving cook--is to elicit the appropriate “oohs” and “ahhs,” which can be achieved only with the right planning and preparation.  And that’s something everyone will be thankful for.

AMiable Solution #121: The Value of Veterans

Most of us chose safe occupations.  We sit at desks or stand on shop floors or stride through stores.  Our biggest dangers include an angry boss, a traffic backup, or a missed budget.  To us, being a “veteran” of something simply means we’ve been doing it for a long time.  That we’re pretty experienced and, presumably, pretty good at the task or role at hand.

For anyone who is serving or has served in a branch of the military, and for anyone who has loved someone who served, “veteran” has even greater value.

Despite the enormous responsibilities they undertake and the morbidly high stakes they face, the task of protecting our freedoms and our lives is carried out by relatively few.  Veterans make up only 7% of the American population.  Active members of the military make up even less: less than 1% of the U.S. population, according to the 2010 Census, as reported online by ABC News reporters Luis Martinez and Amy Bingham in 2011. 

Although Veteran’s Day is officially over, we hope to always remember the men and women who voluntarily work some of the hardest, most dangerous, most important jobs in America.  To them, we say thank you.

AMiable Solution #120: Getting the Votes

For marketers, getting a customer, prospect, or donor to choose their organizations for a product or service is much like a politician trying to get votes.  There are usually campaigns, marketing, pleas, and personal appeals involved.

But what actually gets the vote?

While the promise of a better way sounds appealing, the vote usually goes to the one with the best track record.  The company or organization that makes and then follows through on a good offer.  The group that not only listens to what its customers have to say, but also acts on what it hears.  An organization that creates solutions to problems, not the other way around.

Have you been getting the votes lately?  If your numbers aren’t as good as they once were, maybe it’s time for a re-examination. 

                                                                            

For starters, meet with your customer service department to discuss any noticeable changes in customer attitudes, questions, or complaints.  Then, study your marketing language.  Are you overselling or over-promising the benefits of your offers?  Do your offers sound attractive or unbelievable? 

Having a larger marketing budget than your competitors may help, but it will only be a short-term win if you don’t have the substance to support your position.

What can politicians learn from marketers?  Be honest.  Work hard.  Earn the votes.

AMiable Solution #119: The Smaller Picture

Ever feel overwhelmed by the demands of new and changing marketing technologies?  Longing for simpler marketing ways?  Here’s a time-tested marketing truth to fall back on: the 80/20 Rule.

Also known as the Pareto Principle, the idea behind the 80/20 Rule is this: a small percentage impacts the vast majority.  Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, after whom the principle is named, found this to be true of land in Italy in 1906: at the time, 80% of the land was owned by 20% of the population.

But marketers have found truth in the principle, too.   Eighty percent of your sales likely comes from 20% of your customers.  If you haven’t reviewed your list of top customers or donors, make it an annual exercise.  Then, make those customers a priority. 

Why spend so much effort on such a small percentage of your customer base?  Because they’re the best of the best.  The ones who know your organization and trust your service.  The repeat and frequent customers who are just waiting for you to send them another offer.

But don’t let your thinking stop there.  Identifying and marketing to your top customers is a great strategy, but it’s not the only use of the 80/20 Rule.  Once you know who your top customers are, don’t just market to them.  Study them.  Examine their buying habits and their characteristics so you can find new customers that are just like them.

AMiable Solution #118: The Key to the Sale

People buy benefits, not features.  They invest in something when they know what the return is, when they know what’s in it for them.

Unfortunately, we sometimes get blinded by our own knowledge of the products or services our organizations offer.  We assume customers, members, donors, or prospects can “connect the dots” between information we provide them (the features) and their own needs or interests.  But that can be a mistake.

According to Laura Clampitt Douglas, CEO of MAX International Converters Inc. and president of Small Business Marketing Analysis, often what we think is a benefit is really just an extension of a feature or a more detailed description of the feature.  In her December 2000 article, “Marketing Features Vs. Benefits,” for Entrepreneur magazine, Clampitt Douglas suggests that marketers think of “benefits” in terms of “results.”  For example, Clampitt Douglas says, “When someone chooses a VCR with a self-setting clock, the assumption is that the benefit is convenience, but the actual results are that they don't have to read the instructions, watch a blinking 12:00, and, most important, feel stupid. Those results are the true benefits.”

So how do you see beyond the facts of your product to the “benefits” and “results”?  Start with each of your features and imagine them in a client setting.  How would your clients use each feature?  Why would they use them?  What would make them use those features again?  What’s in it for them?

That said, don’t eliminate identifying your product’s or service’s features.  Decisions often start with the factual “what’s in the box,” particularly when customers are comparing one product or one company against another.  But choices are made when marketers translate “what’s in the box” into “what’s in it for me?”  Argue your case for every key feature so your prospect has no choice but to say, “Ahh, yes!  That’s what I need.”

AMiable Solution #117: What Do You Spend the Most Time On?

When you’re working on a new marketing campaign, how do you prioritize your time: copy, graphics, format?  It’s easy to get caught up in the details of the marketing vehicle, whether an online ad, email, brochure, letter, catalog, or postcard.  Although those things are incredibly important, they aren’t the most influential factors for inciting response. 

Ed Mayer, marketing expert, developed a principle of marketing design known as the 40/40/20 rule.  Mayer realized--and countless marketers after him have discovered--that the actual implementation of the campaign is the smallest part of the marketing pie.  Size, shape, paper weight, copy, etc., surely matter, but they don’t have as big an impact on response as audience and offer.  According to the 40/40/20 rule, 40% of your marketing campaign success depends on your audience, 40% depends on your offer, and 20% depends on everything else, including presentation and format.

Does that mean you shouldn’t spend much time on the design of your promotion?  Absolutely not.  It just means that that killer copy you wrote and that perfect photo you incorporated won’t do you much good if you’re not designing for a targeted, highly-scrutinized audience and creating around an intriguing, can’t-pass-it-up offer.

AMiable Solution #116: Survey Says: The End’s Your Friend

One third of all giving happens in October, November, and December.  According to Blackbaud, fundraising and constituent relationship management experts, those months saw 33.6% of 2013’s overall charitable giving, with December seeing the most activity of those three months.

With the end of the year practically upon us, how can you make the most of the most wonderful time of the year?

Heed the advice of Cheryl Keedy.  In her July 2014 Fundraising Success Magazine article, “It’s Not Too Early to Think About Year-End,” she suggests preparing for year-end all year by building stronger relationships with donors.  In your promotions, tell their stories and identify--and honor--their giving and communication preferences throughout the year.  When they respond, thank donors promptly and ask them for another donation.

Those are great tips for next year, but what can you do now?  Keep in mind these other survey statistics:

• ·        Most non-profits receive more than 75% of their yearly gifts through direct mail; they receive only 10% through online donations. (Blackbaud)
• ·        Women of the baby boom and older generations give 89% more than their male counterparts, according to research by the Women's Philanthropy Institute. (Charity Navigator)
• ·        Middle-class Americans give more than “rich” Americans.  The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported that households earning between $50,000 and $75,000 give an average of 7.6% of their discretionary income to charity; households earning $100,000 or more give an average of 4.2%. (Charity Navigator)

Bottom line: if your promotion schedule isn’t end-of-year heavy, it may be time to test, re-evaluate, and re-invigorate your charitable giving campaigns.

AMiable Solution #115: Survey Says: Bigger is Better

When it comes to getting a prospect’s attention, bigger is better.  At least when it comes to direct mail,  according to a study done by the Direct Marketing Association in June 2012 and reported by website and newsletter, Marketing Charts, that same month.

Although direct mail beats email for response rates among existing customers with an average of 3.4% over 0.12%, it’s telephone that scored highest in response rates with prospects at 12.95%.  Direct mail had the next highest response rates among prospects, with oversized mail making the biggest impact: 1.44% for oversized mail, 1.28% for letter-sized direct mail, 1.12% for postcards, and 0.94% for catalogs.

What constitutes “oversized mail”?  Better known in postal terms as “flats,” they’re the large envelopes, newsletters, and magazines with one dimension that is greater than 6-1/8 inches high or 11-1/2 inches long or ¼ inch thick but not more than 12 inches x 15 inches x ¾ inch.

What makes “big” mail work?  To be fair, the same variables and factors--graphics, copy, paper stock, use of color, etc.--can mean the difference between a successful mailpiece and an immediately-recycled one no matter what shape or size it a promotion is.  What makes a “big” mail piece work most often among prospects, however, could be the things you can’t see.

Say you find two promotions in your mailbox.  One is a 9” x 12” envelope.  One is a 4” x 6” postcard.  Based on size alone, you may inadvertently draw conclusions about the senders.   The contents of the envelope must be of better quality.  The company sending the larger promotion must have more resources.  The envelope folks are probably more experienced, more qualified, or more capable.  Right or wrong, size sometimes does imply “better.”

Oversized mail may also draw higher response rates because they literally stand out from the competition.  In a handful of #10-sized envelopes, small selfmailers, and postcards, a large mailpiece will surely grab someone’s attention, if even for a split second, which may be all the time that someone needs to take interest.

Size alone won’t guarantee your recipients will open your mailpiece, much less respond to it, but a larger-sized promotion can increase the likelihood that they will.

AMiable Solution #114: Survey Says: Direct Mail is No Disappearing Act

Marketers who use direct mail in their marketing mix know the power of a well-prepared mailpiece.  Typical response rates, according to a 2012 report by the Direct Marketing Association, are 4.4% for catalogs and 3.4% for direct mail letters (compare that to email’s average response rate of just 0.12%).

But it is also a powerful tool for acquiring new customers.  In 2012, Target Marketing surveyed its print subscribers and discovered that direct mail acquires more new customers than any other marketing channel.  Direct mail’s rate of success in acquiring new customers--34%--outperformed every other marketing channel, including email (25% success rate), SEM (10% success rate), and affiliate marketing (8%), the other most-cited channels.

In addition, the Chief Marketing Officer Council reports that 40% of consumers say that they tried a new business after receiving direct mail.

What makes direct mail so effective in reaching new customers?  Is it an allusion?  Actually, it’s much simpler than that.  Direct mail is less intrusive than email and telephone solicitations.  It’s convenient, available to be read, reread, and studied.  It can be marked with notes and filed for future reference whenever the mood strikes. 

Brian Fetherstonhaugh, chairman and CEO of OgilvyOne Worldwide, also cites endurance.  In his October 2011 article for Direct Marketing News, “Don’t count direct mail out,” Fetherstonhaugh reported on an analysis Millward Brown, marketing and brand experts, did using MRI technology.   According to the company’s research, print marketing “engaged the brain more deeply and more emotionally than digital ones.”  The result: higher response rates.

Even though direct mail is an effective acquisition tool, it’s not a magic wand.  You can’t wave it once and expect to create a new crowd of devoted customers.  You have to convince them that your solutions are real, not just smoke and lights.  And that takes several mailings.  Don’t give up.  Prospects will start to trust you and begin to anticipate the next great thing to come out of the (mail)box.

AMiable Solution #113: Buildup is for Beavers

If you want to pitch an offer, do it immediately.  Don’t produce it in stages, piling one small fact onto another, like a beaver building a dam, saving your biggest sales pitch for the final paragraph or final page of your campaign.  Most readers aren’t that patient.  If you don’t get to the point quickly, they won’t stick around long enough to hear the big conclusion.

Instead, treat your direct mail letter, web page, product description, brochure, or other marketing vehicle like a newspaper article.  Start with your most important information--your strongest sales pitch-- first.  Then, after a few seconds (which is usually all the time you get to hook a reader) if your reader abandons your copy, then you know he or she left fully informed.

If your format allows, get your main sales pitch out in other areas, too.  Incorporate it into your subheads.  Repeat it in your last paragraph.  Emphasize it in your postscript.  State it on your envelope or brochure cover.  Illustrate it with your pictures, picture captions, and other images.  Restate it on your order form. 

Strong marketing campaigns do require strong foundations.  However, most readers would rather know that you can hold the water back, not how you laid the sticks.

AMiable Solution #112: Remember Who’s Important

As professionals, we love adding things to our credentials: awards we’ve won; titles we’ve earned; honors our organizations received; personal and organizational appearances in newspapers, magazines, conference programs, and Twitter feeds.  Sometimes we get so caught up in our achievements and our expertise that we lose focus when we write.

Have you ever received a direct mail letter that contained more paragraphs beginning with the word “I” or “we” than not?  Have you ever written one like that?

Your customers, members, donors, and prospects need to hear what makes you qualified to solve their problems, but what they want to hear is how you’re going to do it.  They want to know what you can do for them, how long it will take, and how much it will cost.  The fact that Washingtonian magazine named your organization one of the “best of” in the areas will give your audience more confidence in you, but it won’t keep them glued to your promotion.

How can you be sure you don’t toot your own horn too loudly?  Take a close look at your copy.  Circle every word that refers to your organization, whether it’s your organization’s name, “our company,” “We,” “I,” etc.  Now circle every “you” and “your” in the copy.  If “we” outnumbers “you,” try rewriting the text with your target audience’s interest, not your own self-promotion, in mind.  The more you can put yourself in your market’s shoes, the sweeter your music will sound.

AMiable Solution #111: Small Success

Want an easy way to make your marketing copy more readable?  Try not to sound so smart.  In other words, use shorter, simpler words over longer, “more sophisticated” ones. 

According to John Caples in his book, How to Make Your Advertising Make Money, word choice is incredibly important.  Changing just one word in a headline caused “How to Fix Cars” to out pull “How to Repair Cars” by 20%.

Want more proof?  How far do you get in the following paragraph before you get turned off or your mind starts to wander?

The critical component to composing understandable text is to maintain simplicity.  Communicate using compact verbiage.  Author highly edited messages.  Employ language any recipient will comprehend.

Now read this version:

The key to writing clear copy is to keep it simple.  Use short words.  Write short sentences.  Use language any reader will understand. 

Just because you or your audience knows big words doesn’t mean you need to use them.  The less you make your audience work, the more they’ll reward you.

AMiable Solution #110: The Un-Tease

Including teaser copy on the outside of your direct mail envelope or selfmailer is a great move…unless you don’t follow through. 

Teasers, by their nature, create interest.  They turn “regular” mail into “must open” mail.  They promise the answer to an interesting question, a solution to a problem, the end to a story, a benefit for simply opening up the mailing.

But when a reader opens a piece of direct mail and doesn’t find the promised contents, you not only lose credibility and a response to your offer, but you also risk angering your audience and discouraging response to any future offers.  You leave your market feeling duped.

Teaser copy isn’t just a strategy for getting your mail opened.  It’s the string you use to lead your readers through your offer.  The bread crumbs you drop for bringing them through the woods and to safety.   The focus of your sales pitch.

Writing teaser copy isn’t complicated, and you have many approaches to choose from:

·        Tell your readers what’s inside: booklet, checklist, membership card, etc.

·        Make a provocative statement.

·        Establish urgency.

·        Offer a benefit.

·        Start a sentence or story.

·        Ask a question.

·        Make a challenge.

·        Appeal to your audience’s interests or identity.

·        Identify a problem and hint at the solution.

Writing your “outside” copy first—not throwing it together at the end of the creative process—will both help you determine the direction your “inside” copy takes and will help ensure your readers are satisfied once they get there.

AMiable Solution #109: Summer Assignment #4

Do you ever find yourself writing or reading the same phrases or the same descriptions in your marketing over and over, or worse, reading similar phrases and descriptions in your competitors’ marketing?

If so, it might be time to rewrite tired text.

It’s hard, okay impossible sometimes, to keep someone’s attention--much less make a sale--when you have nothing new or beneficial to say.  Unfortunately, once we find a phrase or pitch that works, we’re hesitant to change it.  But sometimes change is just what we need.  Sometimes the “most effective” language becomes the least effective simply because our market has heard it before.

What should you look for when changing up your copy?  Start with words like “finest,” “best,” and “leader.”  Not only are these terms used subjectively, but they’re also empty.  Anyone can claim to have the “best” product or service.  What not everyone does is offer supporting information.  Instead of claiming superiority, describe the qualities your leaders, volunteers, or employees possess that make your organization so exceptional.  Qualify your claims. 

Next, check your marketing copy for overused terms and phrases. You know you’ve used them: we all have.  Innovative.  Experienced professional.  Unique.  Make a difference.  Don’t say your technology is innovative.  Describe what unique benefits it offers your audience.  Don’t tell your readers their donations will make a difference in the life of a malnourished child, show them the impact past donations have made on similar recipients.

Finally, try to avoid relying on adjectives to make your case.  Instead, explain your product, your service, or your offer in simple, clear, direct terms.

A summer slump doesn’t have to last until fall.  Change things up in your marketing copy today.

AMiable Solution #108: Summer Assignment #3

It feels like we just kicked off summer with Memorial Day, and suddenly the July 4^th celebrations have already been accounted for.  In a blink, the new school year will start, and we’ll be facing down the end of the year.

Are you ready?  Here are three ways to prepare:

1.      Review your rates.  We never plan for promotions to underperform, but sometimes they do.  And sometimes we make long-term plans based on the assumption of those promotions’ success. If response doesn’t come in as expected, we set ourselves up for additional disappointments and consequences.  Bad history doesn’t have to repeat itself.  Before you get caught-up in the last days of summer, check your year-to-date campaigns and their response rates.  Make sure, based on current data, that your existing fall/winter plans still make sense.  If not, adjust accordingly.

2.      Change your tone.  If you’re a non-profit, you probably notice a marked difference in donations between the beginning of the year and the end of the year, when thoughts turn to tax-deductible donations.  In their Network for Good June 29, 2010, article, “Get Ready for Year-End Fundraising,” Rebecca Higman and Julie Stofer suggest communicating regularly with donors, not just when you’re asking for money.  According to Higman and Stofer, non-profits who give supporters “content of value as it happens, rather than just at the end of the year,” help development relationships with donors, increasing their feeling of investment, which results in higher gifts.

3.      Create a calendar.  You have a marketing schedule—a list of all upcoming promotions with due dates—but do you have an actual marketing calendar?  Keeping an actual calendar marked with your due dates not only helps you plan, but it also helps prevent dates from sneaking up on you.  Use it, too, to remind yourself of regular projects or maintenance items, including website updates, that are too easily overlooked or procrastinated.

Enjoy the summer while you can, but make sure you see the year’s end on the other side of this season’s sun.

AMiable Solution #107: Summer Assignment #2

You keep tabs on your competition: you know when they change prices; when they roll out a new campaign; and when they add a new service, product, or feature.  You probably also keep a file of their mailers and print campaigns.  You know all you need to know, right?

That depends.  How much time do you spend with your competitor files?  How well do you know your competitors’ marketing habits?  If you study your competitors’ efforts, really study them, not only could you gain insight into their strategy and positioning, but you may also learn a trick or two for reaching your market better.

For starters, look at the format.  Is there something new and intriguing about it?  How does it differ from yours?  Is it a standard format for your competitor or a test?

Now look at the graphics.  Do they enhance the message, draw your attention to it, or draw your attention away from the message?  Are the graphics effective?  If so, what makes them work?  How do they compare to the graphics used in your campaigns?  Do they convey a different tone or emotion than yours?  What’s the benefit?

Next, examine the fonts.  Are they clean and traditional or unconventional?  Do the font choices, size, placement, and color work?  Do your competitors’ efforts work or make more work for the reader?

Finally, study the text.  Don’t just read it: dissect it.  Is the language loose and colloquial or formal and businesslike?  How much detail do the descriptions provide?  What tone does the text convey?  How easy is it to read?  Does the text sweep you smoothly along or feel choppy and pieced together?  What phrases or descriptions jump out at you?  How is your competitors’ approach different/better/worse than yours?

Digging deep into someone else’s work can feel tedious and time-consuming, but the rewards of striking insight “gold” could repay you dearly.

AMiable Solution #106: Summer Assignment #1

By mid-month, most of the students in our area will walk out of school and not pick up another book or write another paragraph until August.  They take their summer vacation seriously.

How seriously do you take your summer?  Do you take time off to reset your state of mind, or do you plow right through summer without a break? 

Although we aren’t suggesting that you follow most students’ lead and shut off your brain for three months, we are encouraging you to give your head and your health a much-needed timeout.  As we’ve addressed before, taking time off not only improves your productivity, but it also improves your health. 

Stress, which most jobs create, takes a toll on your entire being.   According to a June 2010 article by Susan Krauss Whitbourne in Psychology Today, chronic stress makes your body more prone to infection, injury, illness, accidents, poor sleep, poor digestion, memory problems, and poor decisions.  It even lowers your ability to maintain vital functions!

A vacation, on the other hand, gives your body and mind an opportunity to relax.  To reset.  To gain perspective and insight.

You earn vacation days for a reason.  Use them.