OK, I’ve used a little hyperbole in the title of this blog, I’ll admit. There is no perfect submission letter because each submission you send is going in front of a different pair of eyes. But I think there are some very important points to consider and at the end I’ll tell you my own idea of what might help tip the balance when you send your dream off to a publisher. Firstly, and most importantly, check whether the publisher you are writing to has a preference for what a submission contains. Many of them do. Of course, you don’t have to follow it slavishly, but you need to work within their parameters and find a way to stand out without appearing to have ignored their wishes. When you get published you’ll be working with your publisher and demonstrating you can’t pay attention to their needs isn’t a recipe for […]
Stupid Consumers
A couple of conversations recently have highlighted just how stupid consumers often are. Case in point, me. I like to think I’m reasonably capable, astute, switched on, together. But that’s just what I like to think. You see, I’ve been following this blog on investment (www.greatwealth.com/). To begin with I felt sort of obliged to stick with it, I’d said to someone that I would look at it. But it was a bit annoying. The investment adviser there (Rod) seemed determined to spell out assumptions people have about investing with the implicit message that they didn’t stack up. Rod did say he would tell us why, but my resistance was, if anything, increasing as the days went on. You see I know about investing. Well, when I say “I know” that’s not totally accurate. It would be more accurate to say that I have invested money in my time, like […]
Promotional Pens (and the like), Do They Work?
I recently discovered some research which dovetails quite nicely with the blog I posted recently on Unconscious Advertising. Researchers wanted to explore the impact of drug companies’ low-key promotional items on medical students; were those scientifically-minded students, on the verge of becoming fully fledged doctors, susceptible to the old-fashioned marketing technique of branding any old trinket in the hope that your customer sees it and decides to choose you over a competitor? The results shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who’s read my blog or my eBook. But they are an interesting reminder that we could all benefit from tactical marketing that gets our brand around our customers as frequently as possible (however indirectly). You can find the article under the Latest Articles section here. As always, I’d love to hear your comments and thoughts. Philip Graves
Memes and Marketing: Part iii
Tinnitus expert Jennifer Battaglino mentioned that she would like some suggestions on how to apply memes in her marketing so I thought I would add to yesterday’s post on what makes for a good meme by talking about the ways in which you might use them. Incidentally, questions like Jennifer’s are enormously helpful to me when I’m thinking what to write, so thank you for all your questions and comments (this is very much an interactive process – I hope it feels like it!) The key is to think about any aspect of your business in terms of how readily it will be assimilated by your customers and potential customers and passed on. At the more obvious end are things like your brand name and website address; how easy are these to recall accurately first time? Next come the slightly more subtle elements; is your logo distinctively expressed? Does it have a […]
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