Paul Wallbank – Brilliant Communications

Category: marketing

  • email because you can

    Seth Godin studies two email marketing campaigns. One that obtained his permission before sending emails and another that didn’t. Guess which one works.

    This is a subject close to my heart. A loophole in the Australian Spam Act allows spamming if the sender has “inferred consent” which can be anything from giving your business card out at a network function to having an email address on your website.

    When I wrote about this on Smartcompany last year I was criticised by one reader and yesterday I started receiving emails from an office fit out company.  This goes to show some marketers and business owners don’t get it.

    People are swamped with email, they don’t want more unless it provides value. It’s highly unlikely an email they didn’t ask for will have any value at all.

    So don’t spam your client base. They don’t like it and it will hurt your business.

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  • Does your business need a blog?

    It’s fashionable to tell business owners they need to embrace every aspect of the web. But do you really need a blog in your small business?

    There’s no doubt a blog is worthwhile for many. It can give another perspective to the business and enhances their story. It can help smaller businesses cut through the noise to stand out in a crowded marketplace.

    A good example is Mark Fletcher’s Newsagency Blog which has publicised Mark’s software company and his associated newsagencies while establishing him as a leader in the industry.

    Not all businesses have Mark’s energy or some simply don’t have the time. For others, their markets don’t really care about blogs.

    Also a blog is not an end in itself. A newsagent with an interesting blog is still going to fail if they don’t  deliver service to their customers and the same applies for PR agencies, marketers and management consultants.

    If blog is going to distract you from your core business, then maybe it isn’t a good idea.

    Every business is unique and what works for one enterprise is not necessarily right for another. A blog is a business tool, just like every other aspect of the Internet, and you need to choose the right tools for your business.

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  • Integrity – Your most valuable asset

    Whether you’re a blogger, a journalist, a business owner or just a plain ordinary joe in the street, one asset stands above all others – your integrity.

    A Sydney advertising agency faking a story about a woman looking for the owner of a jacket is a good example of how forgetting this can backfire. 

    For Naked Communications this is particularly ironic given the headline Naked tells the Naked Truth at the time of their corporate takeover last year.

    An even greater lesson is the damage done to the fantastic “Best Job in the World” campaign with another lame stunt. It’s fairly safe to say overdoing things with a fake tattoo has destroyed much of this story’s goodwill which is a crying shame.

    There’s a temptation to dress this up as a new media versus old media story, but it’s not. Ethics have always been ethics and truth has always been the truth.

    Regardless of who you are and what your business is, integrity is everything.

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  • Being proud of your business

    Being proud of your business

    Too many businesses have bland “about us” pages featuring stock photos and generic corporate phrases, here’s two examples;

    We have many years of practical experience as sales managers, directors and business leaders.

    Our staff have a great deal of experience, having placed hundreds of candidates in positions at many different hospitals and clinics

    Both of these businesses have owners with fantastic experience, great staff and a terrific story to tell, yet from their web site you would never know this.

    For all the reader knows, they are just another anonymous branch of a multinational which is a terrible waste for these great teams.

    The web is one of the few ways a small business owner can tell their story without restrictions. So there’s no excuse to be shy about why you are so good at your job. Tell people who you are, why you are doing what you do and how good you are at doing it.

    And ditch the stock photos. Chisel jawed models in Italian suits playing with laptops are fooling no-one. Put your own photo up and be be proud of who you are.

    Potential customers visit your web site to find about you, they want to hear your story and why your businesses will delight them and meet their needs.

    So use that “about us” page properly, tell your story and introduce yourself. Don’t be shy, you should be proud of who you are and what you do.

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  • Survey Reveals Almost 50% Of Aussies Use Mobile Phone In Bathroom

    Is the title of this Microsoft press release not the dumbest one so far this year?

    The release itself is full of pointless and silly factoids which I’m not going to even bother repeating.

    What will be interesting is which media outlets will pick this up and run it as “news”.

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