Direct Marketing

Archive for April, 2010

It’s always risky to rely on spellcheckers because they don’t take context into account.  

There’s a great story in the news this week about an Aussie cook book in which one recipe asked readers to add freshly ground black people.

Obviously it was an innocent mistake. They meant black pepper. But these are strange times, and political correctness is king.

As it happens the publisher had to destroy 7,000 copies, which cost a fair few dollars. If they’d been unlucky, and the mistake less obviously innocent, they could have faced legal action.  

Once, long ago, I printed 60,000 direct mail leaflets with the signatory T. Bollock. It should have said T. Bullock. It went down like a fart at a Bar Mitzvah. Luckily I wasn’t sued either. But it just goes to show - you can’t be too careful!

Spellcheckers check spelling, but not context. The word ‘people’ isn’t a spelling mistake, nor is ‘bollock’! The moral of the tale – get someone who knows their stuff to proofread your copy or content before approving it for upload or print. 

Source: admin

… but it’s a limit, not a target.

A strong, sales focused, benefit led meta description works wonders for SEO. But do you need to use all 152 characters?

No. It’s best to use common sense rather than slavishly create 152 character meta descriptions every single time:

• a short, sharp meta description can sometimes make your point more powerfully 
• make your meta descriptions readable and impactful
• remember to include your top key word for each page
• include your USP – check what your top competitor is saying and improve on it 
• keep it real and relevant, don’t over-promise or you’ll disappoint visitors
• test meta descriptions to identify which performs best
• every time you change a page’s meta description, check its performance (visitor numbers and bounce rate)

Source: admin