I just made up the word “jrip” and the phrase “jargon jrip.” It’s like drip (as in seriously uncool person, common in the late 1950s/early 1960s)–except it begins with a j to go with jargon. And I made it in response to these couple of lines that showed up in my e-mail (name withheld to [...]

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I’ve long been an advocate of writing marketing copy that uses both emotional and rational appeals. Here’s a specific example: my all-time favorite of the hundreds of press releases I’ve written. I did it back in 1999 when a client hired me to write a press release for a new book on electronic privacy. Most [...]

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I recently purchased a copy of Paul Hancox’s ebook, “Secrets of a 10% Conversion Rate” from copywriting superstar Michel Fortin. You probably already know that most direct mail and PPC convert at somewhere between zero and five percent, so getting up to 10 is huge. I tell my clients they should be able to make [...]

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I won’t embarrass this company by naming it, but boy, they could use some marketing help. They really haven’t got a clue. I found their quarter-page ad in the program guide of a play I attended. here’s what it contained: An attractive, professionally done logo with the firm name (but no clue either in the [...]

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