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Author Archives: Michael Endy
Michael Endy, Associate Creative Director/Copy
Make it Easy for the Reader
In the classic text, The Elements of Style, William Strunk, Jr. pleads for simplicity and clarity in language. It’s a noble crusade and one we should all join. As marketers, it’s our job to help our readers – our target audiences – clearly understand our messages. Normally, we write in language that’s familiar to our [...]
Tags: business writing, copywriting, writing 2 Comments
Beyond Digital
It’s easy to immerse ourselves in the comforting clarity of ones and zeroes. After all, the outside world is ambiguous. Its infinite gray scale is hard to pin down. But the world isn’t digital. And the insights we need as marketers don’t always come from a computer. The world sometimes seems digital. Facebook has 3 [...]
Attract Your Target with Content Marketing
All over the web, users seek information: “I want what I want and I want it now.” To attract the right target audience, we need content that’s interesting to them. And that doesn’t always mean information about our products and services. We turn on a TV program or open a magazine because we’re interested in [...]
Tags: content marketing 2 Comments
Creating the Perception of Value
Most of us depend on getting paid for the work we do. Our clients, customers and employers appreciate the products and services we provide, and pay us for them. But what’s our work really worth? Ultimately, who creates the value? Do we determine the value of our products and services? Do they have inherent value? [...]
Five Keys to Connecting with Employees
Professional communicators and marketers often struggle when talking to internal audiences. Our job is to communicate the organization’s message. We sometimes assume that employees are a dedicated group of people, hungry for information from higher up. That assumption can get us into a lot of trouble. Here are a few ideas that may help:
Negative Ads: Short-Term Gain, Long-Term Loss
We made it! We have been released from the torrent of negative political ads that poisoned our airwaves from coast to coast. Actually, it’s worse than that. Negative advertising taints our faith in government. When candidates and their supporters stretch, mangle and spin the truth to justify outrageous claims against their opponents, there are no [...]
Tags: Advertising, Marketing No Comments »
Selling Fear
What are you afraid of? Losing your job? Becoming insignificant? Facing something you’ve never done before? Falling out of (or in) love? Threats to your family’s safety? Becoming old and alone? Read that paragraph again. Most of us have a strong emotional reaction to those threats. That reaction causes physical changes. Our pupils dilate a [...]
Tags: Advertising, Marketing 1 Comment
Marketing Lessons from the World Cup
The biggest sporting event on earth – the World Cup – reveals two distinctly different approaches to soccer: the German style, with its tight structure, strong defense, short passes and low risk; and the Latin style, which is much more individual, free-wheeling and creative, but susceptible to dangerous counter attacks. Maybe I need to get [...]
Tags: Marketing No Comments »
The Death of Spin
Like a wobbly top teetering toward collapse, the use of “spin” is slowly winding down. We’ve seen too much infomercial hype, too many politicians twisting the truth, and too many tabloid claims to believe everything we’re told. Sixty years ago, we were naïve enough to believe that cigarettes were good for us. Today, we take [...]
Tags: Advertising, Brand, Marketing, Social Media No Comments »
Sustaining the Season of Wonder