marketing

New trend in advertising is to sound as if you are cursing but aren’t

October 1, 2013 by Art of Eloquence

There is a new trend in advertising to sound as IF you are cursing, but aren’t actually using those words. This greatly bothers me. For example, here is a booking.com commercial.

Here’s another one from Fresh and Easy Market:

They can’t think of a better creative way to market their products without using obvious substitutes for curse words? This commercial is on during family time. What is this teaching our children? Do they think they don’t get it? Shame on them!

Now, I’m not one who says all words that take the place of swear words are bad. Most of those words don’t bring the image of swear words. They are creative and fun alternatives to saying whoops! Like oh snap, fiddle sticks, etc. But this is blatant, obvious and while creative, not very inventive.

What say you?

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Filed Under: Communication Reviews Tagged With: ads, Advertising, Booking.com, curse words, foul language, Fresh and Easy Market, marketing

Would you spend $997 for an unexplained product?

June 29, 2012 by Art of Eloquence

As you can see by the categories I’ve selected, this post covers a lot of ground, but it’s nothing if not a Friday Funny. You may have noticed that, the more I get my dander up, the more sarcastic I get and nothing does it as well as a Communication Pet Peeve! Here’s what happened.

My dh gets a bunch of emails from various Marketing Gurus each day. Every so often they invite him to a free seminar where they give away a small amount of free information about marketing your business and then ask you to spend anywhere from $374 to $1997 for thier eBook, software product or consulting services.

We’ve been to so many of these the formula is obvious. It begins with 15 minutes of the host telling you why the speaker guru is so great, followed by 15 minutes of the Speaker Guru telling you how wonderful his life now as compared when he was a homeless, wifeless convenience store operator. The next 15 minutes is where you pay attention because this is where the Speaker Guru tells you about his eBook, software or consulting services designed to make you drool. The final 15 minutes is devoted to the “pitch.” This is where they tell you the product is really worth $900 bagillion, but today ONLY, you can get it for a pittance ($374-$1997), but you have to act now because they will only sell (insert smallish number here) total at that incredibly low price!

By the way, the entire seminar is done in sketchy video or with a professional looking slide show screen where the slides consist of a white screen and the EXACT words being spoken by the Speaker Guru. Sometimes you’re in for a treat as they do show you the product or pictures of insanely happy people who are now so rich they could buy Brazil with their pocket change. Normally, the Speaker Guru does an atrocious job of speaking, stammers over his words and can’t spell the words on his slide show.

So last week we settled in for what we thought would be a predictable pitch as we awaited any tidbits of info that might be helpful and to determine if his product might be something worth our time only to find a goldmine of humor and an idea that will help YOU become better communicators!

The hour seminar was EXACTLY on schedule except for a few rather obvious attempts to mask the schedule executed by very poor actors. The seminar began exactly on the hour with the host telling us that the Speaker Guru was so incredibly busy he had a last minute consulting call he had to attend so the host proceeded to take this opportunity to tell us how wonderful the Speaker Guru is. In between he “let it slip” that there were 1000 people on the call and over 6000 waiting for one of us to get disconnected so we better close down all other computer programs in order to avoid that terrible tragedy.

At exactly 15 minutes in, the Speaker Guru, suddenly got free and began to tell us how benevolent he is to be sharing this info with us and how far he’d come in life due to this incredible system. At exactly 30 minutes past the hour, the Speaker Guru asked for a “volunteer” from the audience that wouldn’t mind making a bunch of money for nothing tonight. The slide show turned from the title that had been on the screen for 15 minutes to a “live picture of his brand new ClickBank account” that, after exactly 15 minutes had been refreshed to reveal that he had made $647.16! Amazing, huh?

At exactly 45 minutes into the seminar we learned how much he wanted for this software, but what we didn’t know is this:

1. What did it do exactly?

2. What did the “volunteer” from the studio audience actually sell to make $647.16?

3. Why would selling to more than 20 people (at $997 each) dilute the system for everyone and end the world as we know it?

4. If there really were 18 people who purchased this software before the seminar ended at exactly on the next hour…

Needless to say we didn’t fork over $997 for something we didn’t understand. Would you? But it did spark a new passion inside me to provide even more in depth information to my customers during my seminars. I’ll be announcing my new seminars very soon, but be assured that they will NOT follow this tired model. I think this seminar spent about three minutes telling us about the software and what it could do for his customers and about 57 minutes telling us how wonderful, generous, caring and rich he was! Actually, I think I will follow this model. I’m going to spend no more than three minutes giving a bit of background to the topic and 57 minutes sharing in-depth, valuable tips for solving that particular communication issue for my customers.

Have you ever been to one of these marketing guru seminars? What was your experience?

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Filed Under: Art of Eloquence News, Ask JoJo Tagged With: guru, marketing, pet peeve, seminar, slide show, speaker, workship

Word Wednesday Contest

June 15, 2011 by Art of Eloquence

June is Effective Communication Month so, to celebrate, Art of Eloquence is hosting a contest here on the blog where you could win free Art of Eloquence studies of YOUR CHOICE! Here’s how it works:

CONTEST RULES/HOW TO ENTER:

1. Submit a family-friendly, funny or sweet story of miscommunication. The story could have happened to you in “real life,” you could have heard about it happening to someone else OR you could write one out of your own imagination. It can be funny like a Foot in Mouth Man episode or a sweet and inspirational story. Preferably just a few sentences or a paragraph, but there is no limit to the length if it’s a good story.

2. Post them here as a comment on this blog post making sure to leave a valid email address and name so we can contact the winners at the end of the contest.

3. Enter as often as you like, but each entry (a different miscommunication story) must be posted in a separate comment!

4. At the end of the month, I’ll post a few of the best stories of miscommunication and ask my readers to vote for their favorite in each of the two categories: Fun and Sweet.

5. It is understood that submissions may be used in future Art of Eloquence marketing.

WHAT YOU CAN WIN:

1. Winners will receive a free Art of Eloquence product of their own choosing!

2. The more entries we have, the more winners we will choose so please pass along the link to this blog post and ask others to enter!

NOTE: Contest is now closed. No more entries will be accepted. We will be asking our readers to vote on the winners in the next few days!

If you liked this post, make sure to subscribe to our RSS Feed so you don’t miss one and SUBSCRIBE to our newsletter: for even MORE communication fun, FREE gifts, Book of the Month Club and exclusive excerpts and offers we don’t share with ANYONE else but our subscribers!

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Filed Under: Contests Tagged With: blog, communication, contest, contest rules, effective communication, free, June, marketing, submissions, Subscribe Here!, Wednesday, word

Business Communication Seminar Today

March 28, 2011 by Art of Eloquence

If’ you’re a Christian working a small business, you need to join me this morning!

You may not realize it, but almost every aspect of your business involves communication skills. The more effective you are, the more success you’ll have in your business.

Jill Hart of CWAHM and a sampling of Christian Work at Home Moms join me this morning (9am PST/12pm EST) to share tips and techniques for better communication with your customers, co workers, suppliers, employees and more. We’ll discuss tips for customer service, sales, marketing, your blog, website, dealing with co workers, social networking like Yahoo groups, Facebook and Twitter.

Join us via your computer:

http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/19736

Or call in to the show:

Phone Number: (724) 444-7444 Call ID: 19736

The audio will be available immediately following the show, but if you listen in to the live seminar, I’ll be sharing a voucher code to purchase Say What You Mean When You’re in Business for HALF OFF!

*SUBSCRIBE HERE*: for More Communication Fun, FREE Gifts and Exclusive Offers!

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Filed Under: Art of Eloquence News Tagged With: blog, business, Business communication, Christina Work at Home Moms, co workers, communication, customer service, CWAM, employees, Facebook, Jill Hart, JoJo Tabares Art of Eloquence, marketing, sales, seminars, suppliers, Talk Shoe, Twitter, website, Yahoo groups

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?

*SUBSCRIBE HERE*: for More Communication Fun, FREE Gifts and Exclusive Offers!

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

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?

*SUBSCRIBE HERE*: for More Communication Fun, FREE Gifts and Exclusive Offers!

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

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

Should advertisers know their place?

February 28, 2011 by Art of Eloquence

So far this year, we have discussed several aspects of the importance of communication in every day life. Where most people only think of communication as speech-making, we discussed that the most important communication is in our relationships. Well, so far, we have only discussed this in general terms. Starting this month, I’m going to begin our discussions on specific areas of life. This is a discussion so I encourage you to share your thoughts and feelings on the issues I’ll post the rest of this year.

This month is Business Communication Month here at Communication FUNdamentals, as is this month’s AoE Seminar Panel with Jill Hart from CWAHM.com (Christian Work at Home Moms) and her readers.

So to start off the month I’m going go in depth on an article I wrote a while back called, “12 Deadly Communication Sins of Advertising.” I’ll post on each of these marketing techniques during this month so that we can dissect it and discuss it in depth.

Since today isn’t March yet, I’d like to take this opportunity to post the beginning of the article to get you started:

12 Deadly Communication Sins of Advertising by JoJo Tabares

You don’t have to be a marketing genius to be able to spot a bad ad. Every consumer can pick them out; they are the ones that annoy us. They interrupt our day and waste our time. So why should we even have a discussion about bad ads? Because identifying a bad ad is what our customers do. We on the other hand are often oblivious to the miscommunication a bad ad can send to our customers!

As small business owners, we spend an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out what a good ad is. Finding the best possible combination of words, concepts and persuasion for each audience/venue is a daunting task and I don’t even pretend to be a marketing expert. However, as a communication expert, I know well the consequences of annoying a customer with salesy hype at the most inopportune time. By following some simple rules you can avoid making some of the most common business communication errors.

Error #1. Being an Uninvited Guest
Generally an ad, sales pitch or sales call is an unwelcome interruption for our customers. Even if they sign up for a double opt in eNewsletter, they are interrupted by their daily email to find our communication awaiting their immediate attention. We small business owners need to be sensitive to that. If we are to persuade this potential customer to take a look at our wares, we must communicate that what we have to offer is worth the interruption. Our first mistake is merely assuming that all of our customers are eager to see or hear what we have to say. When we understand that we are merely an unwelcome interruption to their day, we can begin to tailor our message accordingly. First we need to capture their attention in the headline. This headline must be tailored to the specific group of potential customers to whom you are speaking. Make sure that it addresses their needs! In an effort to sell more widgets, we small business owners tend to want to appeal to a wide range of customers. Think about how you like to be addressed. Do you like to be spoken to as if you are one of the masses? Or do you appreciate it when someone takes the time to find out what you need? We will discuss the body of the ad later on.

Another common error of being uninvited is to post an ad on an email group like Yahoo inappropriately. Many groups do not allow ads at all. Some groups allow ads only on specific days. To post an ad on a non ad day is almost an unforgivable sin. Spam is a big issue for people these days. It is vital to get to know your groups before you begin posting in order to avoid making a very bad first impression. Most of these ads don’t get read at all. These ads are quickly deleted and sometimes members will email the moderators asking that *justice be done*. 😀 Be careful not to leave a bad taste in your customer’s mouth or you will not eat of the fruit of success. Bad press travels ten times faster than good news and about a hundred times as often!

Along these same lines is the dreaded sales follow-up phone call during the dinner hour. If you call your customer on the phone, always make sure to call at a convenient hour. Don’t call during dinner! Yes, you will be sure to catch her in, but an old sales proverb goes like this: Hungry customer with dinner waiting is not in the market for whatever it is you sell!

Have you ever encountered a sales message that didn’t understand that presumed too much? One that didn’t understand that it was an unwelcome interruption and demanded you drop everything to attend to it? Perhaps it was a phone call? What happened and how did it make you feel about their offer/product? Please share!

*SUBSCRIBE HERE*: for More Communication Fun, FREE Gifts and Exclusive Offers!

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Filed Under: Communication Articles Tagged With: advertisers, business, Business communication, know their place, marketing

Vote for your favorite FIMMpersonator!

August 9, 2010 by Art of Eloquence

Foot in Mouth Man (FIMM) is our lovable mascot here at Art of Eloquence. A bumbling miscommunicator who sticks his foot in his mouth each month for your amusement and “confusement.” He does it so often that he has Athlete’s Tongue! However, there are some people I have encountered recently on social media and blog sites who are vying for the coveted title of FIMMpersonator of the Month and I thought I’d give it out to one lucky winner.

Communication doesn’t break down significantly if someone has a typo or two and, as my editor knows, I can’t spell my way out of a paper “bagg” so I’d never complain if someone had a grammatical error or a misspelled word here and there. THESE FOLKS, however, make FIMM look like Hemingway!

Please leave a comment with your vote for this month’s Favorite FIMMpersonator. The names and other identifying remarks have been changed to protect the FIMMpersonators.

1. Our first contestant is Twitter Twit: This follower wanted me to follow “him”. His Twitter name is a marketing company, but he has a picture of woman’s chest with wet hair down her front, enough to see that she is “well-endowed by her creator.” He posts articulate thoughts such as: “Built your success with one focus thought and massive actions” and his bio reads: “Candy, love pink color and eating. Socialised and hangout with friends,clubbing and entertaining.” I’ll just bet (s)he’s got some fabulous thoughts on marketing, no?

2. Next up is Facebook Faux Pas. There were a few men who sent me a direct message on Facebook like this one:

Hello Dear I am looking for friendship.i am an easy going i am good listener. i like long conversation. communication is an lost art now a days. I am a very sincere person who like to treat a lady like a queen,lol.I guess you can say “OLD FASHIONED, I enjoy opening door’s, giving flowers, taking long walks, candle light dinners,i will like to know you more……..Donald.

Can you believe it? Donald is single, ladies…but I’m not! Apparently Donald never read my bio where I share that I am a Christian WIFE and mother. Donald also never bothered to send a friendship request. I guess he figures if he gets a girlfriend, she’d probably send him one! ;D Donald has nothing posted on his wall, has no friends and no information in his bio except what is listed in his direct message.

3. Our next FIMMpersonator, Pastor Potty Mouth, also hails from Twitter. I was following what seemed to be a nice young man on Twitter whose bio said he was in seminary to become a minister. I hadn’t been following him long when he posted about how he doesn’t appreciate something. He told his follower where they could go. Of course, he used other, shall we say, more colorful language which included a word brought to you by the letter “F”.

4. Last, but definitely my favorite, is Blog Blunderer. Our final entry was a comment found in my spam folder on my FortheLoveofPurple.com blog.

“Ilike to assert without any backing evidence whatsoever that the post author is [insert slur for homosexual here] simply because this commenter does not agree with the post author and is unable to articulate a cogent argument, let alone a coherent sentence”

Blog Blunderer is apparently not articulate enough to insult me, your humble post author, but has eloquently insulted HIMSELF! By the way, this comment was posted on a blog entry that simply had a picture of one of my purple projects. I guess he REALLY doesn’t like purple! He gets my vote for FIMMpersonator of the Month!

Vote for yours! I’ll let you know who our winner is tomorrow!

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Filed Under: Ask JoJo Tagged With: Facebook, FIMM, foot in mouth man, marketing, Twitter

Are you an author or want to be?

April 12, 2010 by Art of Eloquence

Authors just need to know how to write, right? Well, actually writing is a business just like any other. It requires various skills including communication skills. An author needs to be part of the marketing process even if he or she has a publisher: book signings, selling his next novel to the publisher. And an author needs to know how to be a great guest on a radio or tv show!

My friend Felice Gerwitz over at Media Angels is hosting a series of seminars for authors on the various skills needed to be a successful author these days. I’ll be teaching about the communication skills an author needs on Thursday, April 15th at 8am PST/11am EST. Her seminar on 10 Things Authors Must Know starts at 12:30pm EST that day!

This series will become an audio series for sale on her site, but 12 people may be lucky enough to make it into the live recording for free! That’s how many are able to be at the live events. Click here to read more details of how to join in the live show!

It’ll be a great opportunity for authors! See you there!

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Authors, book signing, business, communication skills, marketing, Media Angels, publisher, seminars, writing

New trend in advertising is to sound as if you are cursing but aren’t

Would you spend $997 for an unexplained product?

Word Wednesday Contest

Business Communication Seminar Today

Whine and Please Marketing

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!

The Type is Ripe with Hype!

Should advertisers know their place?

Vote for your favorite FIMMpersonator!

Are you an author or want to be?

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