Is Grace a Two Way Street?

April 6, 2011 by Art of Eloquence

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Before I start posting my 10 Quick Rules for Disagreeing in Grace, I want to start off Grace Month with an article I wrote a while back. Is Grace a Two Way Street?

It talks about two news items where the speaker didn’t speak in grace, but it also talks about how Christians should react according to God’s Word and why that is most effective. Here is an excerpt from “Is Grace a Two Way Street?”

“God gave each of us free will and there are times when folks will choose to be evil with their mouths. Sometimes they don’t mean it the way it sounded and sometimes they mean it exactly the way it sounded. Either way, instead of getting angry and lashing out, let’s address the issues fairly and in grace. Let’s call it wrong but let’s do so with respect and in love. Why?”

To find out, read the entire article here!

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Filed Under: Communication Articles Tagged With: angry, Christians, excerpt, God, grace, mouths, two way street

April is Grace Month

April 4, 2011 by Art of Eloquence

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All this month I’ll be talking about the role of grace and godly communication in our daily lives from our marriages, kids, neighbors, family, friends and co-workers to how we handle the phone and social media. I’ll be sharing tips from my article, “Ten Quick Rules for Disagreeing in Grace” and expanding on it to include more insights. I’ll even share some from my upcoming new study, Say What You Mean: Avoiding, Reducing and Resolving Conflicts.

After checking out my article, for a little fun you can visit FIMM (Foot in Mouth Man) for some of his misadventures in miscommunication. There will be a new episode this coming Wednesday so stay tuned.

Later this month, I’m going to host a free seminar on godly communication so save up your questions! At the end of the show, I’ll be taking your questions which you can either call in to the show or post in the chatroom to share. Here are the details on the seminar. Mark your calendar so you don’t miss the live show. I always have something special planned for my live listeners!

Title: Godly Communication
Time: 04/28/2011 11:00 AM EDT
Episode Notes: It takes 21 days to make a habit; why not make one for God? I challenge you: Make a habit to speak in a more godly way and see what you reap and what you sow. I’ll show you how.

How to Join the Show: Join us via your computer by clicking this link, or call us during the show at (724) 444-7444 Call ID: 19736.

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Filed Under: Art of Eloquence News, Communication Articles Tagged With: avoiding conflicts, co workers, conflicts, disagreeing, Family, friends, grace, kids, marraiges, neighbors, Say What You Mean, talkshoe

P.P.P.P.P.S. and Hide & Seek Ads

March 30, 2011 by Art of Eloquence

Today is the last day of March and so ends Business Month here at Communication FUNdamentals. Here is the last two issues from my article, “12 Deadly Communication Sins of Advertising.” I pray these have helped you to increase your business success in 2011!

Pushy Postscript
Once you have made your point, back off, Buster! It is one thing to bring home a point; it is quite another pushy matter to pound your customer over the head with it. You goal should be to present the information so that the intelligent thing for your customer to do next is to call or visit your site to get more information. Long sales copy with different fonts, colors, sizes and six P.S.’s are an insult to their intelligence. If you can’t make them interested enough to want more information in five pages of ad, you won’t succeed by adding a P.P.P.P.P.S.

These always remind me of what I felt as a kid when I asked my dad to explain things like why was the sky blue. I was expecting an enlightening yet succinct answer, but what I invariably got was a two hour science lecture about the atmosphere, wavelengths and gas molecules. I must admit it was intriguing…for about 20 minutes at which time I suddenly remembered some homework I had to do. What I remember most is sitting there fascinated that my father new so much, but hearing and retaining only the image of a learned man who was keeping his daughter from watching Star Trek!

What in the world IS this?
Another area of controversy is the website or sales letter or call that gives a long involved presentation before it ever gets to the point of telling you why you are reading or listening. Many of us will not stand still long enough to read a book unless we believe it will be worth our time. If you can’t tell me who you are and why I should be interested, I may think you are hiding something or don’t have a case. Don’t waste your time. Playing hide and seek with your product or service won’t make me more eager to find out what it is. It just frustrates me.

Additionally, email ads with no signature are likely to be filed in the eRound file. Surprisingly, I see a good number of email group ads come through on Ad Day with no company name, no web address, no signature of any kind. You should program your signature line in your email client (e.g.: Outlook) to appear on all of your communication to your groups, but especially on your ads. Not only can’t they order if they can’t find you, but they won’t remember you when they are looking for that item. More importantly, they won’t get the impression that your company has staying power enough to want to find out what you left off.

I’m a busy author, speaker, business owner, and homeschooling mom. If you can’t tell me in the first paragraph why I should read further, I’m gone. And if you tack on a bunch of afterthoughts in the form of a post script that goes on for more than half that paragraph, I’m gonna delete it.

Keep in mind that many of these techniques might have worked when they were new, but your customers are much more savvy than you think they are. They know a technique when they see it. They don’t want to feel sold. They want to feel as if you have the solution for their need. Do THAT and you will have communicated exactly what you need to in order to have a successful business in 2011.

If you missed the Business Communication Seminar with Jill Hart and a cast of CWAHMers, click here to listen to the audio.

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Filed Under: Communication Articles Tagged With: P.S., Post Script, Pushy Post Script

Whine and Please Marketing

March 23, 2011 by Art of Eloquence

All this month I’ve been sharing from my article, “12 Deadly Communication Sins of Advertising” and today’s installment is about whining. As mom would say…

Have Some Whine with That Cheese.
Be careful to look over your marketing message for anything that might seem unprofessional for your industry before it is sent out. Have you ever looked at some of those infomercials and cable TV commercials? Some of them make my daughter cringe. You may be a small business with a small budget, but you don’t want to give the impression that you are a cheesy, cheap company.

Aside from the issues I mentioned in previous posts like poor spelling or feigning ignorance, one of the ways small business owners can be cheesy in their marketing is to advertise that they are just starting out and still learning their craft. Everyone’s got to start somewhere, but it’s never an effective strategy to admit you are green. As I said in my previous post, nobody wants to pay an amateur. They want a professional. Most skills do require ongoing education. However, if you are still learning or honing your craft, it’s probably best not to charge for your services until you have reached mastery.

I’ve seen many an email ad go out over a Yahoo group that announced a new web design business where the new owner of the website asked her customers to understand that she was still trying to figure out how to create a shopping cart on her site. Hmm… Not sure someone would want to part with their hard earned cash to pay someone to create their website if they really don’t know how to do that.

Now if you are a photographer or a pencil artist and you are having trouble with your site, it doesn’t tarnish your professional reputation to admit that in your monthly ad post because it’s not in your area of expertise. On the other hand, I’ve seen marketing ads that claim to be able to take your website from rags to riches in a month advertise a Lay Away Sale so they could raise $300 to get their dd’s Christmas presents out of hock at JC Penny. In fact, she was selling an eBook with a title that said something like, “How to make $500 in a two weeks.”

That brings me to another somewhat cheesy tactic: to whine. While it is possible, especially in these difficult financial times, to have a true financial need, it is quite another thing altogether to whine at people and expect them to purchase substandard products just to help you out. And if you think this hasn’t been done, you are mistaken. I’ve seen it many times, usually on Yahoo groups for work at home moms.

Mary posts often that she is not making any money with her craft business. She posts how it is difficult for her to get good quality materials and how she has had several complaints about the paint rubbing off the wood. She also admits that she has had a problem keeping up with the orders and has had to delay delivery to customers by about three weeks. Then, one day, Mary posts that they are going to turn her electric off unless she raises $200 by Thursday and can folks see their way clear to order her crafts and wait three weeks for delivery so that she can afford to buy more supplies. Not only have I seen this done, but I’ve seen the posts put through complaining that nobody is taking advantage of her offer.

Especially in these hard times, there is no shame in admitting to your customers that you have a financial need, but do understand that you’ll need to offer quality products at a reasonable price. Oh, and please don’t whine at those who choose not to take advantage of your offer. They have issues of their own.

What say you? I’d love your thoughts. Any experience with whine and please marketing?

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Filed Under: Communication Articles Tagged With: Ad, advantage, cheese, craft business, customers, financial need, marketing, offer, sale, whine, Yahoo groups

Trite Right: Fancy Ads That Say…Blah!

March 21, 2011 by Art of Eloquence

Continuing this month with in-depth tips from my article, “12 Deadly Communication Sins of Advertising” is today’s two-fold topic of being trite. Here are two closely related communication faux pas in advertising that results in most readers clicking the delete button or throwing away that flyer.

Trite Right
Nothing says blah like “Great!”, “Fantastic!”, “Superb!”, “Marvelous!” and “FREE!” These words are so overused that they no longer hold any meaning for potential customers. Use unique words when you describe your products/services. Marvelous can mean almost anything! After all, one man’s marvelous is another man’s ho hum. These are typical sales words. They scream “I WANT TO SELL YOU SOMETHING!” Don’t use them.

SHOUTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Speaking of screaming, don’t use all caps and don’t use a barrage of exclamation marks. Marketing copy with a large quantity of words in all caps (or a sea of exclamation points!!!) gives the impression that you are an amateur. Nobody wants to pay an amateur. They want a professional.

How do you react when you see an email with fourteen colors and six kinds of font in four sizes that boasts generic, insincere verbiage such as:

FREE Sample!

INCREDIBLE Results!!!

Fantastic DEAL!!!!

I don’t know about you, but it’s enough to make me yawn! What’s so incredible and fantastic about your product? In fact, what is your product? What kind of deal are you talking about and this is a free sample of…WHAT? I’m a fairly smart gal. If you tell me what it is, I’ll be able to decide for myself if it’s an incredible deal. Heck, I may even want to buy it!

However, give me a bunch of overused, generic terms not so efficiently cloaked in hype and wrapped with a colored ribbon, and I don’t really care if you’ve got the cure for my lifetime illness, I’m outta there!

It’s simple, really. Just give me the facts, tell me what your product can do for me and give me the information so I can look up the details when I’m ready. I don’t need “Pomp and Circumstance.”

A similar marketing technique that borders on scam is to use flowery religious language in order to attempt to solicit business or donations. These usually begin: “Greetings in the holy name of our Lord and Father…” I think it comes off in bad taste when an ad appears to use religion or God in order to make money. Somehow this appears to be more of a technique than a genuine motive. I think it also leaves a bad impression on the nonreligious as it makes all religious people appear self-serving.

What do you all think? What experiences have you had with companies who market using these techniques?

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Filed Under: Communication Articles Tagged With: ads, blah, deal, free, free sample, market, results, sell, shouting, techniques, Trite, words

Does Speling and Badly Grammar Count?

March 16, 2011 by Art of Eloquence

This month we’ve been talking about the deadly communication sins of advertising from my article, “The 12 Deadly Communication Sins of Advertising.” What a coinkydink, eh? Today I’d like to talk about:

*Badly* Grammar and *Speling*
The written word has always required proper grammar, spelling and punctuation, but in recent years, email has become an accepted form of communication with our customers. Email is generally a more informal communication prone to incomplete sentences, abbreviations and typos. These are all generally accepted as appropriate among friends and co workers, not, however, for customers! Misspellings, typos and bad grammar all tell our customers that we don’t take the time to do things properly. Done too often, it can make a message almost unintelligible!

One of the most basic mistakes I see is not creating paragraphs. Nobody wants to read one long run-on sentence. When the eye sees a two page sentence, it sends a message to the fingers to hit that happy delete button. Skip lines between thoughts to make it easier for your customers to follow you. You don’t even need to indent anymore. It is perfectly acceptable these days.

I know several people who cringe when they see words *speled* incorrectly or encounter *badly* grammar. It just sort of *ribs* them the wrong way. My dh is one of those who will discount anything riddled with *spilling erors* as he says it “insults his intelligence.” To me, it just calls into question the quality of their product when the don’t take the time to *profreed* or even notice that they need to *take take* out duplicate *wards.*

What about you? Does *baad splelling* and grammar count with you? *Dose* it bother you if someone sends you an email filled with *tapos” and “erorrs?* Or do you *ovrlok* such things?

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Filed Under: Communication Articles Tagged With: errors, grammar, spelling, typos

Vote for Long or Short Ad Copy

March 14, 2011 by Art of Eloquence

The 5th Deadly Communication Sin of Advertising is…

Loooooooooong Sales Copy
There is a controversy over this among the marketing gurus out there, but in my humble opinion, long sales copy only sells to men and, then, only when they are deeply interested in that subject. If you market to women, keep it brief! Most women are busy wearing many hats: wife, mother, housekeeper, baby sitter, teacher, medic, career woman… Most of the women I survey say that they don’t have the time to read long, hype-y sales copy that doesn’t reveal what they are selling until the very end. Most women like short and sweet ads that grab their attention and give them a way to find more information when they have the time to do so.

When I see a seemingly endless email or website with the typical white borders so that the sales copy is further elongated downward, my eyes get glassy and I develop a blank stare with an urge to gain relief by clicking the delete button or X out of the landing page. Am I alone in this? I don’t think so. I’ve talked to many women, moms, wahms and busy homeschoolers who say they just don’t have the patience to read long sales copy and prefer to get, as Sgt. Friday used to say, “Just the facts, Ma’am!”

I don’t think I’m the only one who doesn’t even care to find out if it’s something I vitally need before I gain freedom from having to read all those words, especially on a computer.

What say you? Do you like long sales or ad copy or does it make you wince? Do you think it’s effective? Is it effective on YOU? Your husband? Anyone you know? Why do you think that is? Please share what you like or don’t like about long sales or ad copy.

xwif

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Filed Under: Communication Articles Tagged With: ad copy, homeschooler, long ad copy, long sales copy, mother, sales copy, wahm, website, wife

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!

March 9, 2011 by Art of Eloquence

Liar, Liar Pants on Fire!
I hope nobody reading this is making a practice of lying to their customers, but I have seen spam come through with subject lines like…”Knew you would appreciate this site!” and “How are you?” Anyone who knows me knows that I most certainly wouldn’t appreciate a website that sells pornography so when I open an email to find this website link, I am a little miffed to say the least!

This is an extreme example, but I have also seen subject lines that have nothing whatsoever to do with what they are selling. Most people find it offensive to open an email entitled…”re: your inquiry” only to find an ad for something that they had never *inquired* about. If you do send out emails, for whatever reason, keep your subject lines pertinent to your message.

While legitimate ads may not be sent as spam, they can resemble spam because they use the same untruthful tactics. In the interest of making their subject lines POP so they will have a better chance of being opened, some advertisers bend the truth of their subject lines just a tad. “This is what you asked for!” Even if I did ask for it, what is it I was supposed to have asked for? The subject line has nothing whatever to do with the ad for a purple Rolex watch on sale for only $9.97!

If I find a headline or subject line that has nothing to do with the ad, it feels like spam to me and I won’t buy anything from that company–even if I had subscribed to their newsletter and bought from them in the past. Lying just turns me off, even a small, white, ad lie. What say you? What’s been your experience?

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Filed Under: Communication Articles Tagged With: ads, headline, liar, marketing, spam, subject lines

3rd Deadly Sin of Advertising: Feigning Ignorance

March 7, 2011 by Art of Eloquence

3rd Deadly Sin of Advertising: Feigning Ignorance
Have you ever known someone who posted something on one of your business email groups knowing that it probably wasn’t allowed but they would rather ask forgiveness than permission? When caught, they usually say something like…”Oh! I am so sorry. I didn’t realize that wasn’t allowed!” Now sometimes they truly had no idea that a certain rule exists, but many times they secretly hope they will get away with it and rely on the kindness of people to forgive their little sin.

Be careful! I have seen people do this once too often and it can backfire in a big way. The net is a surprisingly small world. Many of your group members are also on other groups with you. Once they get to know you, you have a reputation. It’s wonderful to have a reputation for being honest, trustworthy, kind, uplifting… But a reputation for posting “Ooops! I didn’t know…” emails will catch up with you.

Similar to this is the Facebook practice of sending ads to your entire friends list. I think folks may be interested if you are doing something brand new and if it isn’t a recurring event, but to email 3000 of your closest Facebook friends every time you list something on Etsy, Craigs List or eBay get’s a bit tiresome for most of your friends. I’ve had people do that to me generating several emails an hour for a few days only to start all over again a few days later when they have another sale. Contacting them to ask them to stop sending me a notification on every item, they usually say, “Oh, I’m so sorry. I had no idea it was going out to all my friends.” I’m not sure I believed them even at the time because the link you click to send an email says it is going out to all your friends. However, I was sure they knew when it was sent out six more times the very next day.

Aside from the fact that Facebook takes a dim view of ads on a personal wall (that’s why they created business fan pages), your friends will find your spam annoying but they will quickly see through the excuses you give for not knowing what you should have known, especially if they are the ones who told you.

What’s your experience with this deadly sin of advertising? Who has been a victim of someone feigning ignorance of the rules? Did it color your opinion of them and their business?

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Filed Under: Communication Articles Tagged With: Advertising, craigs list, eBay, etsy, Facebook, ignorance, Yahoo

The Type is Ripe with Hype!

March 2, 2011 by Art of Eloquence

It’s Dr. Seuss’ Birthday today! To celebrate (and continue discussing “12 Deadly Communication Sins of Advertising“), let’s talk about how advertisers can sound a lot like Dr. Seuss wannabees! It happens when marketing begins to hype it up. Here’s the excerpt from the article on hype:

“Error #2. Hype it Up
Today’s consumer is very savvy! People can spot hype a mile away-unless it is their own! Too much glitz and glam can make your company, product or service sound too good to be true. Just as I began writing this article, I got a phone call from a salesman who told me that I had been chosen to win a free computer, $1000 shopping spree to some website I never heard of, a cell phone and a $500 something or other! lol I didn’t listen that closely as I replied “Yeah, sure!”. Nobody gets something for nothing and your customer’s mind will not let go of the feeling that you are going to take them for everything they’ve got. So …maybe you don’t call your customers and offer them a free $1000 worth of your products, but have you ever sent out an ad that made outlandish sounding claims? “Make $2000 your very first month!” “You will never need another ….” While these claims may be true and certainly do catch your customer’s attention, they do not lend credibility to your company and are dismissed immediately if not sooner.”

Some ads try to use as many keywords as possible and end up sounding like a bad Dr. Seuss imitation:

“Eat your way to health. Weight loss you can believe in. Weight loss pills, skinny pills, lose weight while you eat. Why not lose weight the easy way? Weight loss, lose weight, pills take, but wait!”

Some ads aren’t quite as blatantly Seussical…

“This free forex ap is a proven trading system. Nothing makes you rich like forex and nothing builds wealth like a good trading system. Prosperity can be yours if only you take hold of this success principle of building personal riches. Wealth building has never been easier with this forex trading wealth producing trading system that is used by the rich and famous. Money making strategies that really work and none of the risks associated with trading. Trade your way to wealth and prosperity in just minutes a day! ”

Some ads even have a list of nonsensical words at the bottom of the email:

“Instant wealth, wealth and money, money and time, money making, strategies, trading, trades, money in your sleep, sleep while you earn, earn while you learn, learn while you turn, profits and no loss, trading forex, forex trading, eat of the fruit of the forex tree, on your mark, get set, be free!”

Notice the use of hype language making it appear that the outcome will be so incredibly easy it’s just about guaranteed! Now in this ad, you see not only hype words, but give you inflated numbers and try to tell you how much he was cautioned not to offer something this good.

“My wife told me I was crazy to offer this to you, but I’m just such a nice guy! Most of my colleagues would sell this widget for $1500 but I just have to make this available to everyone who needs it. It’ll save your marriage, save you money and bring you wealth so how could you resist. BUT I can only sell six of them at this low price! I’m not going to sell you this widget for $1500. Not even for $700 and not even for the extremely low price of $300, but I’m going to sell it to the first six people for the ridiculously low price of $37.97! ”

At this point you don’t even know what this widget really is or does and you have no clue who would value it at $1500 or why. If he wants to make it available to all, why limit it to six people?

Dr. Seuss’ claim to fame was making fun sounding stories so that kids wanted to learn to read. These hype marketers use fun sounding concepts to attempt to make people want their system. However, Dr. Seuss was much more talented and his motives were much more noble.

Have you ever been sent an ad that is ripe with hype? How did that make you feel? Doesn’t it make you suspect ANY ad you see that even remotely resembles a Seussical approach? What say you?

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Filed Under: Communication Articles Tagged With: 12 deadly sins of advertising, ads, Dr. Seuss, hype, marketing

Is Grace a Two Way Street?

April is Grace Month

P.P.P.P.P.S. and Hide & Seek Ads

Whine and Please Marketing

Trite Right: Fancy Ads That Say…Blah!

FREE Sample!

INCREDIBLE Results!!!

Fantastic DEAL!!!!

Does Speling and Badly Grammar Count?

Vote for Long or Short Ad Copy

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!

3rd Deadly Sin of Advertising: Feigning Ignorance

The Type is Ripe with Hype!

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