Consumers want and need copy to read

Media Post reveals that a new Forrester study indicates that consumers are both becoming more educated about using the Internet as their primary resource for information. And information - descriptive content - is exactly what consumers (across all industries) want you to give them. Not a sales pitch, not an infomercial, but real honest to goodness content about why they should be choosing you over your competition. With so many clients getting caught up in the search engine placement frenzy, the results of this study are particularly relevant. After all, what good is copy that is so keyword heavy as to be unreadable? It may place the site higher in the search results, but at the expense of ROI. Recently, I've had a rash of clients who were preoccupied with keyword ratios, and who had to be talked down from their obsessions.

Direct Mail Still Delivers!

24 percent of adults who read direct mail, have visited a store in the past 90 days prompted by receiving a retailer's direct mail piece, according to a new Vertis Retail Direct Marketing study "Customer Focus 2005." Thérèse Mulvey, vice president, marketing research, at Vertis, said "Adults have become more receptive to using direct mail to obtain information on the prices and selections available, and it has proven to be an effective medium for retailers to connect with new customers." According to the Customer Focus study, 63 percent of adults say that an interesting looking package makes a difference as to which direct mail they open. For 51 percent, a special offer or discount will make a difference as to whether or not they open the direct mail. The study includes additional findings, which provide insight into the direct mail readership of consumers in the retail industry.