Cylon Philosophy as Applied to Direct Mail Marketing

Don’t know if you’ve been keeping up with Battlestar Galactica, but you may have noticed the following recurring phrase: “All this has happened before, and will happen again.”

Cylon Philosophy as Applied to Direct Mail Marketing

This is pretty much the way of things in life, fiction, and in marketing of all sorts. Direct mail marketing might have been presumed to have gone the way of the “Toasters” – the original Cylons – obsolete.

Direct Mail Marketing On Earth

But direct mail never really went away. Direct mail marketing to potential customers is still a viable marketing technique. Direct mail can be customized to specific neighborhoods, districts, zips, as well as to specific economies and interests.

Direct mail marketing has an additional advantage in tough economic times – customers are more willing to carefully consider mail containing coupons than they might be in more affluent times. Direct mail marketing is obviously a great way to get the coupon directly into the hands of customers.

You can get a little expansive with direct mail, unlike the rigid constraints imposed upon radio or television advertisements. Direct mail can contain far more information, and consumers may well pay more attention, as they can pick up your direct mail postcard at their leisure and read it all through

In troublesome times, consumers tend to take emotional solace in tradition, making them more likely to celebrate holidays and events and thus more likely to look twice at the coupon in your direct mail postcard.

All this has happened before and will happen again – applies to direct mail marketing as well as to the destinies of humans and robots.

Check out marketing assistance, direct mail for franchises for more information.

Franchises, the down economy, and direct mail marketing

Franchises, the down economy, and direct mail marketing

In questionable economic times, people tend to roll back to dependable stuff and to distrust innovation. Like most things people tend to do, there are both bad and good elements.

When it comes to marketing, direct mail is a longstanding, proven method. Direct mail marketing is easily targeted to specific communities, great for local businesses and franchises.

So, rolling back to proven direct mail marketing techniques is a good thing.

Distrusting innovation, however, can be problematic; for business owners already wary of anything involving the Internet, which can seem ephemeral and mystical, ignoring new marketing techniques can leave the business behind when the economy improves.

In an unhappy economy, prices for just about everything a business tends to need are generally lower, and though it may go against instinct, it’s actually a good time to innovate.

The Direct Mail Combo Platter

Direct mail marketing combined with modern data techniques can be pretty nifty; for those companies who dare to innovate during hard times, the combination of moving electrons and direct mail can be an exciting prospect.

Some of us can remember when demographic research for direct mail marketing was done at the library with reference books, telephone books, and a yellow legal pad.

Direct Mail Starship

If databases make your direct mail marketing campaign about a thousand times easier, why not boldly go?

Part II - Search Engine Optimization, Austin

Part III: Another Search engine optimization Metaphor

Dear Austin – Thank you for asking advice from LAL – here’s Part III of my advice:

Okay, we’re still thinking of ourselves as a website that needs search engine optimization, Austin. Now we’re going to focus on the putting ourselves out there part of the metaphor – social networking.


Social networking in love vs. Social networking in Search Engine Optimization, Austin:

In love, social networking means networking with people with similar interests; in search engine optimization, Austin, social networking means networking your site to potential visitors with similar interests.

If you’re working to optimize for teens, you’re lucky; Facebook and Myspace have zillions of users, mostly teens; creating a page on those sites will put your site out there in a big way.

Other social networking sites, such as delicious, StumbleUpon, Digg, YouTube, offer plenteous opportunities for search engine optimization, Austin.

YouTube is an amazing tool for search engine optimization; searches will almost always take a minute to watch a video; users can exchange comments on videos, post video responses, and in general create the kind of community that spreads in a viral way when working towards search engine optimization, Austin. Nowadays, with webcams, videos can be created pretty quickly, and if you have something worthwhile to say, you’ll get an audience.

To summarize, when working towards search engine optimization, Austin, you need to clean up shop, be yourself, and get out there and mingle. Everything your mom always said, in fact.

Check out SEO Austin expert company JCJ Interactive for more information on search engine optimization.

Franchises Can Get a Bad Rap

Franchise and Undeserved Bad Raps

Unfortunately, it’s true that sometimes the notion of franchise will have connotations of boring, vanilla, too-plain.

Franchise in the Movies

Like in the movie “Empire Records” where the fab small record store fights to resist becoming a supposedly evil franchise. The kids in the movie are missing a big point – most franchises are individualized to a degree; it’s certainly possible for a cute store to become a franchise of a big chain without losing all personality.

Advantages of Franchise:

· Name Recognition: I mean, “Empire Records” could be a data storage service, couldn’t it?
· Lower risk of failure: a franchise can build on the successes of the franchisor
· Training and management: a franchise reaps the benefits of a much larger knowledge base.
· Bulk Purchases: a franchise gains from corporate numbers – volume buyers get better discounts.
· Marketing – This is a big one – corporations can afford to design and implement the marketing for all its franchises, taking a huge responsibility from each franchise location.

Franchise Reality

While it is true that some franchises will straight-jacket all the individuality out of a concern, the sheer volume of available franchises means that, with proper research and care, it’s possible to find a franchise situation that suits your personal degree of franchise-individuality / franchise-personality / franchise-crazy swinging style.

Franchise, Franchisee, Franchisor

Don’t forget to consider turning your own business into a franchise for others to buy into – maybe businesses should be copying You!


Check out marketing assistance, direct mail for franchises for more information.

Part II: Another Search engine optimization Metaphor

Part II: Another Search engine optimization Metaphor

Dear Austin – Thank you for asking advice from LAL – here’s Part II of my advice:

Okay, we’re still thinking of ourselves as a website that needs search engine optimization, Austin. Now we’re going to focus on the searching part of the metaphor.

Metaphorical language AND search engine optimization, Austin:

If a website manages to achieve really high search engine optimization, Austin, it means true love for searchers; they find exactly what they’re looking for. But, even if the site gets millions of hits but no purchasers, the whole search engine optimization process has failed.

If you’ll follow: search engine optimization, Austin, in the love arena, will only be successful if your “search tags” reflect who you really are.

I’ll use an example geared toward girls – countless teen girls decide to find love by attracting the lowest common denominator: by bleaching their hair, going bulimic, and wearing tacky, revealing clothes.

This search engine optimization technique, Austin, produces attention for the girl, but not attention from guys optimized to who she really is.

And the same will prove true for you – metaphorically, in love, search engine optimization, Austin, requires both soul-searching and honesty in what you put out there for searchers to find.

Check out SEO Austin expert company JCJ Interactive for for more information on search engine optimization.

Another Search Engine Optimization Metaphor

Another Search engine optimization Metaphor

Dear Austin: Thank you for asking advice from LAL – here’s my advice about the encroaching Valentine’s Day:

If you’re still searching for that special someone, I’d give the same advice to you that I’d give to a website: Be Yourself.

Search engine optimization = Personal Best

If you think of yourself as a website that needs to be optimized for the right people to find you, it becomes clear. Search engine optimization, Austin, is a lot like prepping for a relationship – be yourself, and be your best self.

You can achieve beatific perfection in the search engine optimization arena, but if your website is a mess when people get there, you’ve wasted the universe’s time. If you are the website in this analogy, then before you even aim for search engine optimization, Austin (marketing yourself), you hafta clean up shop. And I don’t mean drastic temporary weight loss, either; bait and switch makes for bad romantic karma.

Just the way webmasters work to ensure their site works when visitors arrive -- do pages load quickly? do the menus make sense? Ensure your life is in working order. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people who finally fix the one thing they’ve been putting off and instantly find true love. Character is the first of three variables in finding and keeping love, but that's another blog.

Search engine optimization, Austin -- be the website. Optimize yourself .


Check out SEO Austin expert company JCJ Interactive for for more information.

Marketing Yourself

Marketing Yourself

You are not unskilled, okay? Think of yourself as a product that a marketing firm is taking on as a client -- stand back and look objectively at everything you do for the world – your family, house, church, community, yard, even your pets.

Don’t edit, just free-flow; make a list of what you’re good at, what you most enjoy doing. Don’t be modest, be marketing firm objective about your client, yourself.

Marketing analysis for instance:

This 50-year old man has a 20 year history of solid employee traits –
dependable, resourceful, creative.
He’s the official photographer for his kid’s activities and always volunteers his skills for family weddings and events….

While performing your marketing analysis, keep in mind that the Internet makes dreams possible now that weren’t when you were a rash, crazy kid. Why shouldn’t you be able to sell your photography online? If creating a marketing website seems beyond you, then start with tutorials on how to sell on ebay.

Marketing, say, original photography, art, handmade crafts, to the entire planet is suddenly quite possible.

Marketing Mantra to Live By:

When life hands you a lemon, create an ebay marketing plan that hypes lemon interest to the point of hysteria.

For help with marketing and direct mail for franchises click for more information.