The Big Fat Marketing Blog

The first article in this series about using the effective sales technique of StorySelling defined what StoryTelling actually is and what makes StorySelling more effective in your customer and prospect marketing communications. This article will deal with why StorySelling is such a critical driver in closing sales today and why you should be testing it sooner rather than later.

According to author and researcher George Bane, “Two decades ago, the average child under 18 spent about 15 to 20 hours per week digesting media content. Today, it has nearly tripled to almost 60 hours per week of unduplicated time. They now devote more time to media than to anything other than sleep.”

And, it’s not much better for those older. When I was growing up in the 1960’s and early 1970’s as a child, we had 3 TV stations and PBS. I can still recall when our first UHF station was added. Wow, was I ecstatic that I had another choice. Today, we have hundreds of TV channels, radio stations, satellite radio stations, newspapers and of course the internet. That’s added as much content and options as we can digest, including YouTube, Twitter, Hulu, and on and on… more

Last April, there was some speculation that Target Corp. was going to relaunch the Smith & Hawken website as a social community for gardening and outdoor enthusiasts.

It appears we were wrong. Target did reactivate smithandhawken.com, but as a page that redirects users to the Smith & Hawken boutique at Target.com. more

A few years ago we ran an article in Multichannel Merchant about The box step. This refers to the catalog box dance—the happy jig customers do, hopefully, when a catalog or web order arrives at their doorstep and they are getting ready to open the package.

The article covered everything from the appearance of the shipping box to inserts, packing material, branding opportunities, service strategies and more. “Every catalog or Web marketer shipping goods to customers has the opportunity to make magic when the order shipment arrives,” according to author Lois Brayfield.

I thought about the box step today when I received a parcel from web merchant OnlineShoes.com. more

My wife and I made a rare trip out with out four-month old son, William, with the intent of picking him up a Pack and Play type of Play Yard device. Being frugal shoppers, the first thing my wife and I saw when we entered our local Babies R Us store was what seemed like endless racks of clearance outfits and shoes. Those items were an additional 40% off, according to the printed signage. But a hand-written note on each sign indicated that deal was only good with a coupon.

So where could I get a coupon, and how could I save an additional 40% on a cleared-out size 18-month New York Giants football jersey? As we walked the aisles in search of other items, I went to the Babies R Us mobile site with no luck. So I asked a sales clerk, and she told me we would have either got the coupon in the mail (which we didn’t, even though we’re new parents with an active registry and my wife is registered in their rewards program) or via email (which my wife didn’t). more

In addition to death and taxes, there’s a third item we can put on the list of life’s inevitabilities: unsubscribes. No matter how relevant and fabulous your email content, there will always be some people who want to unsubscribe.

By law, you have to enable them to do so. But you should also try to retain some sort of relationship with them, or at the very least find out why they’re unsubscribing, so that you can possibly improve your email program going forward. Alas, most marketers seem to let their hard-won opt-in subscribers go with nary a blink of the eye.

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Mailer groups were generally pleased with the U.S. Postal Service’s just-proposed rate increase. They also welcomed what they saw as a greater willingness from new Postmaster General Patrick Donohoe for the USPS to work with the mailing community.

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