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One of my favorite marketing techniques has little to do with marketing and everything to do with building confidence and a positive mental attitude.

I know the phrase “positive mental attitude” triggers a gag reflex in some people, but it’s hard to deny how powerfully your attitude affects everything you do. So keeping a positive attitude can work wonders for your productivity – even if you have to keep it positive through corny little tricks like the one I’m about to describe.

I call it my warm fuzzy file, and it’s saved me on more than one occasion.

What’s a Warm Fuzzy File, and How Do I Get One?

Creating a warm fuzzy file is easy. Just make a new folder named “Warm Fuzzies,” and put it where you keep all your other computer files  Then, the next time someone sends emails you a compliment, or tweets something nice about you, save it to the folder. (You may need to create a new Word document for some, but it should only take you a minute or two.)

The warm fuzzy file is even more powerful if you print everything out and keep it somewhere you can reach it often, like one of those 59-cent folders with the three little tabs so you can attach pages. Then, the next time you get a nasty blog comment, a rejection letter, or some other negative feedback, flip open your warm fuzzy file and build yourself up.

What’s So Important About Warm Fuzzies?

Part of the reason so many women struggle with confidence is because they focus on criticism and downplay compliments. I’m not making a gender stereotype. It’s actually been documented that women give less merit to personal compliments than men.

We hear something nice about ourselves and think, “That person doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” We don’t give ourselves any credit for the awesome stuff we do – and that not only hurts our attitudes. It also hurts our chances for success.

Try the warm fuzzy file for just a month, and I guarantee it will become an essential part of your marketing strategy. If it doesn’t build your confidence up, it will still give you some great testimonials and bullet points for future sales letters and other marketing materials.

This YouTube video commercial for Tipp-Ex, “A Hunter Shoots a Bear,” is one of the best pieces of viral advertising I’ve seen since Old Spice dominated the web. After a short scene in which a bear attacks a campground, YouTube viewers can choose to let the hunter shoot the bear … or not.

The “A Hunter Shoots a Bear” video then takes a creative twist, letting viewers type in virtually any action they want. (I suggest “loves” or “kills” … you can figure out the adult versions on your own.)

Sure, “A Hunter Shoots a Bear” rips off Burger King’s Subservient Chicken. But the video is bound to inspire lots of brand interaction as people look for online distractions before the big holiday weekend.

The only improvement I could suggest would be to ditch the salty language. The “NSFW” before the video title almost made me click away. I thought the video would be gory, or porny, or both. Then I watched the whole thing, and loved it.

My 7-year old nephews would love “A Hunter Shoots a Bear,” too, but the language makes it inappropriate. Then again, my 7-year-old nephews aren’t going to be buying Tipp-Ex anytime soon, so perhaps NSFW language is meant to keep the video focused on the product’s target audience.

In any case, I wish more advertisers would do creative video campaigns like this one. What do you think — and what funny actions can you come up with?

I assumed Moxie House wanted to stay away from the mud-slinging, but I was also interested to hear its side of the story. The fact that Moxie House is a boutique women-owned firm made me even more curious.

I called owner Deb Brandt, who agreed to speak with me.

“The rose was brought in by the city,” Deb said. “We proposed to design a logo, being the kind of business that we are, but we were told that the logo was in the process of being copyrighted … I knew the city had worked on it internally, and I was informed that it was created by a sign shop, but I didn’t know the origin of the logo. That was all surprising to me.”

“We’ve been working with the city for five years. I love the City of Lancaster, and I want to do as much as I can to promote it. Our mission is ‘design for good.’ Everything we do has some sort of philanthropic message. We do a ton of pro-bono work for the city and non-profits in the city.”

I asked Deb if it had shaken her trust in the Lancaster community.

“It makes me sad that a small group of people can make false accusations and be given a voice,” she said. “I wish that people would take that energy and passion and do something good for the City. The unity in this City is incredibly important. There are so many passionate, wonderful people that live and work here. We need to focus on the good of the whole and not let the few destroy its progress. “

“Over the past five years we’ve been told we’ve managed to rise above all the political muck, and now I know what it feels like be in it. We’ve done our due diligence with this project and are trying to deal with this less than professional situation in a graceful manner.”

Then an anonymous YouTube video appeared showing the rose logo to be virtually identical to one used by artist Dard Hunter.

The YouTube video points the blame at Moxie House, a Lancaster, PA design firm that worked with the city on the new branding campaign. So far, Moxie House has remained quiet about the issue. Owner Deb Brandt told the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal that her company received the logo from the city, and did not check the design origin because she was told the city was seeking copyright for the image.

No mention of the controversy was made on the Moxie House”s Facebook page or Twitter account.

According to the same news article, the city first received the image from the company who designed city wayfinding signs, which prominently displayed the rose icon. City officials then sought copyright for the image, and received a certificate of registration from the U.S. Copyright office in April.

The Origins of the Rose Logo

Since Dard Hunter Studios had used the rose logo before the city of Lancaster, I emailed them to ask about the image’s origins. Hunter’s heir, Dard Hunter III, responded:

We have been using the logo since 1997 when we founded Dard Hunter Studios. [Dard Hunter designed the logo in 1906.] To the defense of Moxie or whomever used the design, the rose design is available as a graphic element in the P22 Typefoundry Arts and Crafts Font.  It could have been lifted from our website, or, from the font package. However, commercial use of the square rose is prohibited no matter what the source.

… I am not a litigious person and will not be pursuing any legal action.  However, I do wish to thank the many people who are looking out for my best interests.

Lancaster City Officials Remains Silent

I called the city of Lancaster for comment, but received no response. In the Lancaster Intelligencer article, Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray did say that he didn’t think the logo controversy undercut the meaning behind Lancaster’s new tagline, “a city authentic.”

I beg to differ. Whether Lancaster City’s rose icon comes from intellectual theft or just legal naivety, the situation reeks of irony … and has left many Lancaster residents scornful of the whole initiative. Even before the logo controversy started, many were asking questions such as:

•   Who decided Lancaster needed to be “rebranded?”
•   What is this costing taxpayers?
•   Why didn’t the city of Lancaster get any public input on this?
•   Why weren’t other Lancaster designers a part of the conversation?

Since the logo was revealed to be a copy, even more questions have surfaced: who’s really responsible? What does the city plan to do now?

So far, none of these questions are being addressed.

My Two Cents: It’s Not About the Rose

The controversy surrounding Lancaster City’s rebranding goes much deeper than a copied logo. City officials chose the concept of authenticity without considering all its nuances. True authenticity, in today’s Web 2.0 world, means  honesty. It means transparency. It means two-sided conversations.

And let’s get real. City officials aren’t ready to embrace any of these concepts. They’re still hiding behind canned press statements and heavy-handed marketing that tells its audience what to think.

That breed of marketing went out of style long ago. Unfortunately, Lancaster is behind the curve. And paying lip service to a modern marketing concept — “authenticity” — won’t bring it back to speed.

In the meantime, local marketer Daniel Klotz has offered one alternative to Lancaster City’s new logo:

What do you think?

I’ve been a freelance web copywriter for over half a decade now, but one copywriting question still trips me up: how do you write a sales letter that’s not formulaic or full of hype?

Most people wrinkle their noses when they think of the long-form sales letters that dominate the internet, but that copywriting format has become a cliche for good reason: when done well, it works.

Then there are the thousands of long form sales letters that aren’t written well. (I’ve been responsible for at least one.)

Wondering how to be persuasive without being pushy, I asked one person whose sales letters I’ve always admired: Mark Silver of Heart of Business. Mark was kind enough to talk with me about his copywriting techniques and share what I learned with you.

The Top Two Copywriting Mistakes

One of the biggest copywriting mistakes Mark sees clients make is targeting their writing to complete strangers.

“There can be this assumption that if you just write the correct thing, then someone will magically respond,” Mark said. “When someone gets to a purchasing decision, they’re going to have a lot of contact prior to that.

“I think it’s a mistake to write sales copy for someone who doesn’t know anything about you. I’m not writing with that person in mind. I’m not writing with the attempt to convince or convert someone. I’m writing for someone who is already familiar with our business. I’m writing to help them to feel safe enough to make the decision to buy if it’s the right thing for them.”

Another common copywriting mistake Mark sees is when people focus solely on their perspective as an expert. “The language can be esoteric or obtuse, and there’s not a lot of connection,” he said.

How Long is Too Long?

I asked Mark how long he thought sales letters should be. He called the long-versus-short copywriting debate a false dichotomy.

“I see a lot of people not really giving the writing enough space,” he said. “They go, ‘Oh my god, I don’t want it to get too long.’ What people don’t understand is that if you have a conversation … and they have questions about what you’re offering, you’re going to be on the phone for 10 or 15 minutes.  If you were to record a conversation that’s 10 or 15 minutes long, you’d have pages and pages of text.

“If someone is really interested, they’re going to have questions, and they deserve your attention.”

Negative Selling is Bad … Right?

Any good copywriter will tell you that effective copywriting describes pain of a situation before presenting a solution. But I’ve had clients and colleagues tell me to focus my copywriting solely on the positive aspects of their business – the solution instead of the problem.

I asked Mark what he thought of this copywriting strategy.

“If you avoid talking about somebody’s problems and you talk about the solution, you’re missing empathy,” he said. “You’re not empathizing. People can come off as feeling not seen or judged with what they’re struggling with. It’s totally unintended. I really get that desire to want to be positive and inspiring, but it’s just common manners to open your heart and connect with that problem.”

For more wisdom from Mark Silver (and some examples sales letters that don’t suck), visit his blog at Heart of Business.

Who are your favorite copywriters?

From the E-Trade baby to the Geico gecko, advertising is awash in all things cute. Far from being a recent phenomenon, advertising has capitalized on our love of cute since stipple prints of babies graced the first Victorian print ads. But our obsession with the adorable has reached an all-time high in recent years.

Examples of Cute Advertisements

Consider the Geico gecko, who first appeared on all fours slithering across the Geico logo in 2000. He’s since morphed into a cuddly character with a charming Cockney accent.

“The gecko’s cuteness tricks you into forgetting that it represents something that’s not cute in the slightest,” James Wolcott writes in the Vanity Fair article Addicted to Cute: “a giant insurance company, which must deal in matters most uncuddly, such as injury, death, and arguments over claim payments.”

Wolcott’s explanation doesn’t work for all cute ads, though. What about Evian’s commercial of roller-skating babies, which garnered over 26 million views on YouTube?

Then there’s the ETrade baby, who first appeared in a 2008 SuperBowl commercial. Love him or hate him, the commercial boosted ETrade’s business by almost 20 percent, according to ABC. Today, the ETrade baby has almost 20K Facebook fans and his own “BabyMail” web app.

Lest you think babies get all the action, there’s also Samsung’s series of commercials which used puppies, kittens and other baby animals to demonstrate new uses for Samsung mobile phones.

OK, What’s With All The Cute Ads?

According to science, our attraction to the cute and cuddly may have an evolutionary basis. Many traits that symbolize “cute” – big eyes, round faces and vulnerability – originate in human infants. And paying attention to those characteristics, says Natalie Angier in the New York Times, makes good sense:

“As a species whose youngest members are so pathetically helpless they can’t lift their heads to suckle without adult supervision, human beings must be wired to respond quickly and gamely to any and all signs of infantile desire,” Angier writes.

If cute characteristics appeal to our nurturing side, is cute advertising an effective way to reach women? I asked an expert, Michele Miller of Wonderbranding and author of The Soccer Mom Myth. Michele responded:

“The use of ‘cute’ in advertising and its effectiveness comes down to whether or not it makes sense to do it for your product or service.  Women’s BS meters are in hyper-drive, and using babies or cute puppies for an effect sends those meters into the red.  Believe me, WOMEN ARE ON TO YOU.  And don’t mistake lots of positive reaction from potential customers for persuasion.

Your ad may be creative, cute, and comment-worthy, but in the end, will it SELL YOUR PRODUCT?  Cute has always been around, and always will be – but does it sell?”

Do Cute Advertisements WORK?

Michele raises a good question: cute traits may cause us to pay attention, but do they cause us to reach for our wallets?

So far, research is inconclusive. While no study links cute imagery with increased buying behavior, a recent study by Edinburgh psychologists showed that seeing pictures of infants greatly increased people’s tendency to behave altruistically.

“If you are a non-profit organization that depends on altruistic behavior, employing baby images could get your donors in a more generous mood,” writes Roger Dooley on his blog Neuromarketing.

I emailed Roger and asked if he thought cute advertisements were a good marketing strategy. His response:

“In my opinion, cute ads work best where there’s a logical relation to the product or service, or where they add something tangible to a more nebulous product.  For example, the Geico lizard (gecko?) and Aflac duck have no relation at all to their firm’s products, but in fact insurance products are intangible and potentially intimidating.  The mascots are fun, friendly, and tangible – along with being cute.”

In other words, “cute” is no magic bullet in advertising. It’s just another marketing tool that needs product relevance, understanding of your target market and a healthy dose of common sense.

That said, I’m still not tired of watching the puppies, bunnies, kittens and hamsters try out new uses for the … what’s that phone called again?

What are your favorite cute ads? Leave your response in the comments section below.

]]> http://www.onewomanmarketing.com/cute-advertising/feed 2 http://www.onewomanmarketing.com/write-killer-copy-for-the-web http://www.onewomanmarketing.com/write-killer-copy-for-the-web#comments Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:21:08 +0000 Kelly Watson http://www.onewomanmarketing.com/?p=5300

The Lancaster SEO Meetup Group recently invited me to speak on one of my favorite topics, writing killer copy for the web.

Copywriting describes writing that appears on sales and marketing materials. (No, it has nothing to do with copyrighting, or registering stuff with the government.)

SEO copywriting is a subcategory of copywriting that describes writing that has been optimized with keywords and formatting that makes it appear higher in search engine results.

Have your eyes glazed over yet? I hope not, because while search engine optimization is a mouthful, it’s essential to effective online marketing. Without it, nobody’s going to see your web site.

In the following two videos, I:

•    Give some examples of bad SEO copywriting

•    Reveal what constitutes good web copy

•    Give a step-by-step tutorial on writing copy for the web

•    Provide tips on hiring a good SEO copywriter

You can also see a short SlideShare of the PowerPoint presentation I used below.

]]> http://www.onewomanmarketing.com/write-killer-copy-for-the-web/feed 0 http://www.onewomanmarketing.com/real-women-in-business-marketing-campaigns http://www.onewomanmarketing.com/real-women-in-business-marketing-campaigns#comments Sun, 08 Aug 2010 13:51:22 +0000 Kelly Watson http://www.onewomanmarketing.com/?p=5284

I found this video via Savor the Success, an online women’s business community I’m exploring. (I haven’t decided if I want to shell out $50 a month for a premium membership, but I’ll let you know if I do.)

Not only is Angela Jia Kim a super-smart marketer, she’s also descriptive about the process she went through to create this poster for a press event. The world needs more savvy women business owners talking openly about their marketing!

I look forward to watching more videos from Angela, and I hope hers will inspire you to create a video, article or blog post about your own marketing process. If you do, let me know and I’ll share it with the world!

A few years ago, I emailed the editor of a local business magazine to complain about its lack of women writers. Women make up 50 percent of the population, I argued, so why did they make up only two of the fourteen writers at the magazine?

The editor responded:

Hiya Kelly,

A number of years ago a leading feminist writer and a frequent commentator upon women’s issues on TV lamented that the only place that serious women are invited to speak is to forums on women’s issues. To which a particularly indelicate male responded, ‘When you stop talking exclusively about yourselves, you will be invited.’  AAARGH! Okay, he was the ugly sexist pig. Not so much for what he said, but the fact that he actually said it.

AAARGH indeed. It’s not stupid to think of women as so single-minded and self-obsessed that they talk only about themselves, the editor implied. But it is stupid to state that thought aloud, and risk getting ripped to shreds by hordes of angry feminists.

This email got me thinking about the gender divide: so what if women make up half the population? Does that mean they need to represent 50 percent of everything?

What if they don’t? Does it indicate sexism, or is it more complex than that?

Introducing TEDWomen

These are just some of the questions raised last week when creators of the TED conference, an annual event devoted to “ideas worth spreading,” announced the creation of TEDWomen. Less than 20 percent of TED talks have been given by women. But in creating a new venue, is TED boxing women’s contributions in its own narrow category?

“It makes some sense,” writes Ryan Brown on Salon.com. “It’s not as if issues concerning women don’t deserve a global forum. Actually, they probably deserve a few thousand, you know, to make up for that whole male affirmative action program we’re running here called ‘the entire history of the world.’”

But given the gender imbalance of other TED events, Ryan writes, “it’s hard to shake the feeling that creating a separate event for women simply throws up another barrier to their full participation in the TED brand. By partitioning the ideas of women — and the issues that face them — into their own conference, you risk marginalizing women further.”

My Own Experience of the Gender Debate

Time will tell how successful TEDWomen will be. Meanwhile, I’m left struggling with the same problem. I resonate with the views and experiences of other women in business, but by catering my business exclusively to them, I alienate 50 percent of the population.

For some men I’ve talked to, simply the indication of a female audience sends them running in the other direction. They assume they won’t identify with the subject matter, or worse, that they’ll be unwelcome among a group of mostly women.

The first reason I understand. The second makes me sad.  Has gender become such a divisive topic that we can’t talk about it in mixed company?

I hope not, because I find the topic fascinating, so it’s unlikely I’ll stop writing about it any time soon.  But I hope the debate that follows will welcome all points of view, no matter how marginalized.

What do you think? Are you sick of seeing delineations between men and women in business, or do you enjoy them and the whole debate?

First time here? One Woman Marketing is for small business owners who hate to market. Just a few years ago, I hated marketing too. As an introspective creative type, I thought promoting yourself meant selling out.

Then I started my own freelance writing business, and knew I’d have to market myself if I wanted to pay my bills. This blog documents that journey, and the lessons I’ve learned along the way.

You may also enjoy:

•   Guide To Copywriting From The Heart

•   Why 95% Of Web Copy is Crap (and How To Tell if Yours Is Too)

•   Advanced Blogging Strategies From The  Pro’s Playbook

•   Success and the Art of Shutting the Hell Up

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