Smell
“Scratch- n-Sniff” is so yesterday—but today’s new mail is benefiting from state-of-the art micro-capsules that can be embedded in paper for an oh-so-realistic and yummy smells each time the paper is touched. According to “Whiff! The Revolution of Scent Communication in the Information Age” by C. Russell Brumfield, scent has the power to evoke images, memories and emotions like no other sense—yet marketers generally ignore it.

However, Royal mail of the UK sent out a “chocolate letter” which generated a whopping 80% recall among 6500 recipients—and a gardening center used the same technology to imbue a mailing with a “cut grass” scent. The technology ads 10 to 20 percent to production costs, but might be well worth it, depending on your product.

Hear Ye…Hear Ye…
“Web-enabled print” ads are tiny touchables can be affixed to a magazine page, direct mail or any print vehicle. Readers touch or click on them to make something happen, such as being sent a coupon or a free sample from the advertiser. Click here for a demonstration from a top developer of the technology, SpyderLink.

Hey, Honey…Taste This!
Mailing a bulky taste sample isn’t always practical, and it’s expensive, to boot. However, according to the Australia Post, companies down under are experimenting with wafer-thin Peel ‘n Taste® technology. A flavor of a product is replicated and applied to a dissolving, edible film strip (like those used for mouthwash) packaged in tamper-resistant sachets. Check it out at: www.firstflavor.com.

Who knew that technologies like these could help us “get back in touch” with our target markets by engaging their senses in print media? While there is no doubt that the rising costs of direct mail have given many marketers pause, these new technologies could breathe new life into their use—especially if they increase returns like the chocolate letter sample. Check out the rest of Crystal’s article at Inside Direct Mail Weekly.

Have you employed any of these tactics? Would you be interested in doing so?

Check out the following video for details. He’s running a limited time, half-off pricing for the event (you can even pay in 2 installments–and every little bit helps today). The price will go up soon, so if you want to come, I would jump on the half-off pricing. I did~!

Michael Stelzner, founder of SocialMediaExaminer.com explains the power of social media

I went to the summit last year, and it really took a HUGE bite out the learning curve for me–plus I made some great contacts with others across the world.

Don’t miss out on this–here’s the link for more information: Social Media Success Summit 2010.

If you’re pondering these questions, I strongly recommend an upcoming webinar (it’s free) called 5 Ways to Grow Your Business With White Papers and the 3 Mistakes You Must Avoid coming on January 20, 2010.  I know both  presenters and they’re great guys.

Bob Bly (author, White Paper Marketing Handbook) and Michael Stelzner (author, Writing White Papers)—are the world’s leading white paper experts, and they’re coming together for the first time.

Wouldn’t you like to  attract quality leads and grow your business? You can make 2010 the BEST year ever with the world’s number-one marketing tool—the white paper.

The free seats are limited, so be sure to go here and secure yours now before they’re gone: http://bit.ly/7bUmqW.

At White Paper Success Summit 2010—the only online professional development event of its kind—white paper thought leaders will serve an all-new menu of proven business-building tactics.

Michael Stelzner, organizer of last year’s sold-out inaugural White Paper Success Summit and author of the best-selling Writing White Papers: How to Capture Readers and Keep Them Engaged, says now is the time for white papers: “The old-fashioned way of selling—advertising, traditional press releases and product marketing—doesn’t work anymore. These days, educational marketing is much more effective and that’s where white papers come in.  And white papers are especially effective in a down economy.”

White Papers Influence Decision Making
A September 2009 survey by Eccolo Media supports Stelzner’s comments. In the study, which polled 501 executives involved in B2B technology purchases, 84% rated white papers as moderately to extremely influential in purchasing decisions. The survey also revealed that white papers are the most frequently shared type of collateral—with 89% of respondents passing them on to other people.

If you’re a marketer who is under the gun to produce quality leads in 2010, the masters of white paper marketing will share their secrets at White Paper Success Summit 2010.

In addition to Stelzner, you’ll interact with an all-star team of white paper experts, including Bob Bly (The White Paper Marketing Handbook), Brian Carroll (Lead Generation for the Complex Sale), Jonathan Kantor (Crafting White Paper 2.0), Roger C. Parker (White Paper Design That Sells), Joe Pulizzi (Get Content, Get Customers), John Jantsch (Duct Tape Marketing: The World’s Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide), Jill Konrath (Selling to Big Companies), Ardath Albee (eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale) and Gordon Graham, to mention a few.

Tricks of the Trade
Here’s a sampling of a few of the Summit sessions, where the white paper pros will reveal the tricks of the trade:

* More Business Than You Can Handle: How to Achieve the Business Dream With a Single White Paper
* Supercharging Your White Paper Distribution for Maximum Impact
* Launching White Papers Like Products: 7 Steps to Boosting White Paper Performance
* Leveraging Social Media to Promote Your White Papers
* Proven Techniques for Using White Papers for the Complex Sale

In exclusive live forums at the event, attendees will pose questions to the white paper “professors” and use special LinkedIn groups to network with peers. If you miss a live session, no worries—you’ll have  access to recordings and transcripts of every one.

No need to book pricey hotel reservations, pack a bag and trudge off to the airport to attend this conference. You can relax and enjoy the online Summit from a comfortable chair in your home or office. The sessions are spread over an entire month so you can fit them into your hectic schedule.

Highly Successful Event
To say that last year’s White Paper Success Summit was a hit is quite an understatement—96% of attendees (including me) said they’d recommend the event to a friend. In fact, last year’s Summit was where I met Mike–and how I became his Apprentice!  Plus, the other folks like Jonathan Kantor, Roger Parker, Bob Bly and others who taught at the 2009 Summit are all very approachable, kind, and lots of fun to learn from.  I promise.

The 2010 Summit starts Tuesday, February 2 and runs through Wednesday, February 24.  Attendees can get tickets at significant discounts by booking early, but time is short.

Don’t rely on the same old sales pitches in the coming year. Attend White Paper Success Summit 2010 and learn how to generate a steady stream of leads by providing valuable business content with white papers. Now is the time—your business might depend on it.

“Without costly ads or fancy designs, white papers are saving businesses by establishing thought leadership, attracting steady streams of quality leads and helping businesses close deals,” says Stelzner. “Once a white paper is done, it can continue to reliably deliver leads for months or years to come.”

For more information or to register for the Summit, visit http://bit.ly/4IiJsC

If it’s been a while since you created your social media profiles, things have changed a bit. The industry is evolving, and it helps to stay on top of how your favorite channels can be optimized for better search results. In the next few blog posts I’ll share some of the tidbits I’m learning in my International Social Media Association (ISMA) certification course to help you make the most of your online networking efforts.

Today I’ll start off with LinkedIn, because it’s one of the oldest networks. Most of us set our profiles up long ago and then forgot them! Here are a few tips to polish up your info:

Develop an Updated Keyword List

You should use your keywords in as many places as possible in your social media profiles to take advantage of today’s enhanced search features. Take a look at your current list and update it to include phrases around your:

·        Industry

·        Job title

·        Offers

·        Products

·        Services

·        Clients

·        Company name

·        Client’s industry

You’ll want to keep this handy for optimizing all your public profiles. For LinkedIn, you can use these keywords to optimize your headline, content, updates and summary, so strategize a bit about those items, and use terms that your potential clients may be using to find your services.

Pull up LinkedIn’s People and Company search options and study the fields available, then do some searching on your own with a few specific keywords and see what you come up with.

You can also use those keywords when writing answers to industry questions in LinkedIn’s Answers tab—or when coming up with questions of your own.

Customize Your Profile Link & Website

To can edit your website name, which defaults to “My Website.” Just click the little [Edit] tab next to the field and change the name. Mine currently says Apryl’s Writing Website, but I’m thinking of changing it again. Also, it’s a good idea to change your public profile link (from the default letters and numbers) to a name that will be easy to remember and share.  There’s a handy “Customize Your URL” example right on the profile page before your summary.

Once you get started, you’ll probably find several areas in your profile that could use improvement —but that’s ok. Consider it a work in progress, and make a note to stop back in and make updates periodically.

Over the next few posts I’ll concentrate on Facebook, but if you’ve come across more items on improving LinkedIn, please share!

Discover how to grow your writing business (in any economy) at Copywriting Success Summit 2009–an online professional development conference for freelance writers coming up soon.

Presenters include bestselling authors and copywriting experts such as Peter Bowerman (Well-Fed Writer author), Steve Slaunwhite (Start & Run a Copywriting Business author), Michael Stelzner (Writing White Papers author), Marcia Yudkin (Persuading on Paper author), Nick Usborne (Net Words author), Chris Garrett (Problogger author), Casey Hibbard (Stories That Sell author), Chris Marlow (the original copywriter’s coach), Pete Savage and Ed Gandia.

Learn how to qualify for a $200 savings (expires Sep. 24) to this live online summit. Visit Copywriting Success Summit 2009 and get an immediate gift valued at $42 entitled “How to Be a Highly Paid Copywriter as a One-Person Business.”

During my writing career, I’ve learned a lot from one-on-one coaching from the likes of Peter Bowerman, Chris Marlow, and (most recently) my “apprentor” Mike Stelzner. Now they’re all coming together with other powerhouses in the writing community in one place, and you can pick ALL their brains!

I highly recommend attending this summit–I’ve attended two of Mike’s summits in the past, and really–there’s no better way to get energized to move forward in your career.

Got questions? Just let me know…

I spoke to Dave regarding the release of both videos. He explained his reasons for writing the songs in the first place—and a little about what he (as well as United) has learned from the experience.

“The first video was born out of my frustration,” said Dave, “It wasn’t a tactic to get money out of them.” In fact, he refused the payment they offered him a week after the video came out, and told them he hoped they would offer the money to another customer who needed help with a problem.

The Taylor Story

“It was a beautiful guitar, and I remember the day I bought it at Steve’s Music in Ottawa,” said Dave. “It was the only Taylor cedar top in the shop, and when I picked it up and played it—well, it had such a wonderful, warm tone that it really stood out. Over the years I developed a sentimental attachment to it. In fact, it’s the guitar I used to write all the important songs we’ve created over the past ten years. It became an old friend.”

The damage to his beloved instrument was extensive. The plug for pickup on the guitar was driven into the sound board, leaving a long, narrow gash “that you could stick 3 or 4 fingers into” and separating the body from the neck. Even with $1,200 in repairs, it doesn’t quite play the same.

“It picks ok, but strumming doesn’t sound the same,” Dave lamented. “I’m told that kind of damage isn’t really repairable, and I haven’t taken it on the road since.”

United did give $3,000 to The Thelonious Monk Jazz Institute (a youth jazz program) in an effort to make amends with Dave (albeit late), and have been using the first video internally to educate employees, which Dave said is a good first step. However, he promised the airline when he first spoke to them that he would release three videos, and their actions won’t change that. “I wanted to make three songs that were unique and entertaining, as well as to send a message,” said Dave.

(scroll down to view video)

The first creative expression of his frustration, “United Breaks Guitars” went viral very quickly (over 5,000,000,000 views since its release). Its success got United to pay attention and brought Dave and his band almost overnight recognition. But something else has been brought home not so much by the video, but by the immediacy of social media—the beginnings of positive change in customer service on all airlines.

Dave is happy that the videos seem to be having the intended affect. In fact, a passenger in an airport recently shook Dave’s hand and thanked him for helping all customers get better service: “He felt that the airlines he travels on are now more sensitive to improving customer relations—‘Keep up the good work,’ he told me.”

What Social Media Was Used?

I asked Dave what he did to promote the YouTube video, and was surprised by his answer:

“Not much…we had a FaceBook page when the first one came out, and my fans were great at disseminating the video and chatting about it. We now have a Twitter account, and lucky to have over 3500 followers, who are already tweeting about the second video. I find it ironic that what others may think was a brilliant move on my part to use social media on this really wasn’t my idea at all. I attribute all that to my fans, which are much more Internet savvy than I am. I know nothing about how to use this (other than producing the video). It just developed a life of its own, really. I’m really just one ant in a very big colony.”

Dave says that a number of university professors have contacted him about the social media aspect of this story. “It’s a classic case study, and I’ve had several from Canada, Europe and the States who want to use it in the classroom to highlight the value of using social media as a customer service tool —even write textbooks on the subject for business majors.”

Reaction to the Videos

“I’ve talked to United a few times [since the first release] about other customer service issues—and the conversation has been quite cordial,” Dave reported. He’s been in contact with officials in both public relations and customer solutions at United. “They wanted to come to the release of our second video in Halifax, but unfortunately got stuck in bad weather in Chicago,” said Dave.

Public reaction to the new video has been “awesome,” with 300-400 reviews so far, 99% of which have been positive. He wanted this one to be fun and quirky—and it really is. Ms. Irlweg (the United employee portrayed in his first video) plays the tuba with him at a picnic and throughout the piece. “Nothing says ‘funny’ to me like a tuba,” he laughs.

His favorite scene involves “secret service types” who protect the United CEO by strong-arming Dave to the pavement, shoving the CEO into a limousine and whisking him away (inspired by the assassination attempt on President Reagan in 1981).

Throughout the video Dave’s mustachioed band members wear German lederhosen and play horn instruments, and all the “extras” in each scene join him to help sing the chorus parts. Even his 88-year-old grandmother, Doreen Daley, has a cameo role, singing enthusiastically with the rest.

“It was a much bigger production, but as with the first video, everyone connected with it volunteered their time and services,” Dave noted. “It was filmed on the grounds of the Waverly Fire Hall where I’m a volunteer fire fighter, and even the use of the 40’ scissor lift used to film the overhead shots was donated. People have just been overwhelmingly generous.”

Lessons Learned

Judging from his conversations with United, Dave thinks there is some enthusiasm on their part to learn from this: “They already use the first video as an internal tool for their handlers, and they’ve told me that they’re concentrating on doing as much as they can with problems they have control over, like helping people with flight delays and baggage issues. The fact that they tried to come out to view the release of the second video says a lot. I’ve told United that if they really show an effort—make a substantive change in their policies and how they handle customer service—I’ll write about it. The third video is basically a blank page at this point.

As for Dave, he found out that even one person does have a voice, and that it pays not to become angry, but to use inspiration to solve problems. “We can make a difference if we work together,” said Dave. “I think I voiced that in the second song—there’s no reason we can’t be friends.”

How United reacts to the second video could be another social media lesson for large corporations. Embracing Dave Carroll’s efforts could be a huge public relations success for the airline, but time will tell. Hopefully they’ll use this chance to wise up, turn lemons into lemonade—and collaborate with him on the third song.

Here’s a link for more info on the Boot Camp: http://snipr.com/nn4xt. But even if you can’t be there, Mike is having the event recorded, so let me know if you’re interested in the videos.

This is my first trip to sunny CA, and I hear the weather is absolutely gorgeous! And to top it all off, my great friend and copywriting coach, Chris Marlow, is going to join us from lunch onward.

Chris and I have also cooked up an informal networking event for attendees after the workshop. We’ll be meeting up at the Mission Bay Hyatt Swim Bar (doesn’t that sound yummy?). In addition to just relaxing and hanging out after an intense day of learning from Mike, people can sign up for our newsletters and find out more about Chris’s powerful, one-on-one coaching program. Chris chose me as one of her assistant copywriting coaches, too, and you can learn more about that here: Marlow Marketing Method.

I’ll be making a report (or two) after the White Paper Boot Camp, so stay tuned for updates. I’ve had a lot of  help in my copywriting career, but Chris and Mike are two of  my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE mentors, so this trip is going to be fun, Fun, FUN! I’m sure I’ll come back inspired and ready to share, so stay tuned…

In today’s Social Networking environment, bad news travels at the click of a mouse to millions across the world. United Airlines learned this the hard way, and may have a tough time overcoming their latest customer-service snafu.

The short of it is that over-enthusiastic baggage handlers smashed a rather expensive Taylor guitar owned by Dave Carroll, a Canadian musician who was flying with them. Repeated attempts to get satisfaction from anyone at United were met with a “talk to the hand”  attitude.  That is,  until the musician fought back with a music video posted on YouTube that you just have to see.

This is a good lesson for any business–not just the big airlines. Use Social Media to monitor your reputation, expand customer service, build and protect your brand.  And mind your P’s and Q’s—cuz everyone’s watching.