Category: Monday Mash-Up

Monday, June 3, 2019
MarketVolt’s Monday Mash-Up

Website Development Tip
Use a Honeypot to Reduce Garbage Email Signups

If you have an email signup form on your website, you might suffer from fake signups, generated by automated bots. Adding a CAPTCHA field (i.e. “enter the letters you see to verify you’re human…”) helps prevent this, but this approach can clutter the appearance of your site. Another option is to add code to your web form to create a Honeypot that will detect the automated, fake sign ups. Honeypots are not foolproof, but they’re effective in most cases. Here’s an article that describes how Honeypots work and how you or your web developer can add one to your web form.             

Quick Read
Seth Godin on Culture

I love this short blog post from Seth Godin about culture.

Marketing Tips
How to Get Your Business Listed Online

My friend Will Hanke shared some great tips about how to get your business listed online (and tools to manage your listings) at a recent meeting of Experts For Entrepreneurs in St. Louis. Great advice. 

Recommended Viewing
Aretha Returns to Her Gospel Roots

Aretha Franklin was the daughter of a preacher. She first performed publicly in her father’s church. In January 1972, with eight Grammy Awards and 12 Billboard Top-10 hits under her belt, Aretha returned to her gospel roots. Over two days, she performed live at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles’ Watts neighborhood, backed by the Southern California Community Choir. Audio recordings were released later that year as the “Amazing Grace” album which many consider to be Aretha’s greatest. But video footage from those concerts was never released — until last month. The film “Amazing Grace” is now playing in theaters nationwide. I saw it last week. I highly recommend it. 

Here’s the trailer. 

Here’s a fascinating article about the concert and the history of the film.

Here’s something Aretha said about music (it helps to explain why I like to share music in the Monday Mash-up:

“Music does a lot of things for a lot of people. It’s transporting, for sure. It can take you right back, years back, to the very moment certain things happened in your life. It’s uplifting, it’s encouraging, it’s strengthening.”

Any reading, listening, quoting, resourcing that you think we should share? Send us a tip.

Until next time, enjoy the rest of this week and the weekend.

Tom

Monday, May 20, 2019
MarketVolt’s Monday Mash-Up

Relevant Data
Must-See Stats re: Email Marketing

Here’s an interesting article from the Convince&Convert website:
13 Email Marketing Statistics That Are Shaping 2019 and Beyond
             

Business Tips
Tear Down the Silos

We see it often: Businesses that separate business functions into separate silos. Here’s an excellent article from Marketing Week that explains why this is such a problem: Why silos are the enemy of effective marketing. 

Great Infographic
How to Put the Customer First

I love this graphic that is loaded with great ideas and case studies from businesses that market more effectively by putting the customer first: Your Guide to Customer-First Marketing.  

Recommended Viewing
Jazz Great Delivers Great Commencement Address

I’m a proud papa. On Saturday, my daughter, Maddie, graduated with honors from Kenyon College in Ohio. Jazz great Wynton Marsalis delivered the commencement address. The speech was fantastic — full of relevant insights and advice for all of us, not just graduates. Here’s the video.                

My favorite excerpt from that speech:

“Be aware of where you are in time and space, and mind how you experience and digest events, because: Things happen. Little things you repeat every day that slowly make you into yourself with every repetition, like practicing an instrument, or playing your favorite videogame, or having your morning coffee; big things that you choose, like getting married; big things you have absolutely no choice in, like health issues or natural disasters; things that you think are glorious, but they aren’t — like what you liked, that everyone liked, when you are at any age that a lot of people like the same things together, and y’all feel that your sheer numbers will make it significant, but it won’t (like the latest fad); and then there are earth-shaking things that will never happen again, but you don’t know it until it’s too late, like the last time you saw a close friend who then passes away. Things happen, and it’s just not possible to pick and choose a menu of experiences you would like to have from the arc of your life journey. Some of the most profound things that will happen to you won’t be your choice.

“You see, though we all envision our future and work towards it, the present is all we can actually experience. And it is often pressurized, chaotic and overwhelming. In response, popular pastimes distract us from a terrifying reality: the future is always now. So I ask you: Please be present today for your friends and loved ones, and allow the presentness of today to develop into a daily presentness throughout your adulthood.”

Any reading, listening, quoting, resourcing that you think we should share? Send us a tip.

Until next time, enjoy the rest of this week and the weekend.

Tom

Monday, May 13, 2019
MarketVolt’s Monday Mash-Up

Sales Tips
The Art Of The Email Introduction

Email tools like MarketVolt are great for mass mailing a list — or delivering targeted follow-ups to people who respond to your mailings or other content. 

But what about those one-to-one emails that you send to cold leads or other prospects? How do you break through the noise, get someone’s attention and get them to act? 

Here’s a great article from Forbes with some excellent tips: 
The Art Of The Email Introduction: 10 Rules For Emailing Busy People
             

In Case You Missed It…
False Opt-Outs Can Kill Your Email List

Last Wednesday, I sent this email to you and the rest of my list to describe how email security software can accidentally, automatically click opt-out links in the emails you send. This means people who don’t want to opt-out may be unsubscribing from your list. I describe how you can test whether this is happening to you and what you can do to correct the problem. 

Happy Belated Mothers Day
SNL Sketch Captures Challenges and Insecurities of Motherhood

Being a mother is hard work. No mother is perfect — even though they strive to be. This sketch, The Perfect Mother, from two nights ago on SNL, is hilarious and spot on. 

Recommended Viewing
Darkest Hour Portrays Churchill at a Critical Moment in History

On this day 79 years ago, Winston Churchill delivered his first speech to the British Parliament as Prime Minister. Known as the “Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat” speech, it’s a famous, inspirational statement in which he promised “victory at all costs” for a country on the verge of war with Nazi Germany. Here’s an audio recording of that speech. I also recommend that you see Darkest Hour, the film starring Gary Oldman as Churchill. Oldman won the Oscar for best actor.               

On that very same day as Churchill’s speech, Bruce Chatwin was born in Sheffield, England. He went on to become a celebrated novelist and travel / adventure writer. His book In Patagonia is one of my favorites, a classic of travel / adventure literature.


. . He said this: 

“Man’s real home is not a house, but the Road, and that life itself is a journey to be walked on foot.” 

Any reading, listening, quoting, resourcing that you think we should share? Send us a tip.

Until next time, enjoy the rest of this week and the weekend.

Tom

Monday, April 29, 2019
MarketVolt’s Monday Mash-Up

Marketing Tips
Excellent Lead Generation Ideas

Here’s an excellent article from Unbounce: 10 Creative Lead Gen Examples Sourced from Marketing Legends. 


Unbounce is a great service for building lead-generation landing pages. The service integrates with many email engines, including MarketVolt’s.  

Bold Marketing
Beer-Maker Acknowledges Shortcomings to Promote a Rebrew 

Carlsberg Beer has launched a bold, risky advertising campaign to announce it has reformulated its pilsner brew. 

Faced with lagging sales, the company has taken its old slogan — “Probably the best beer in the world” — and turned it upside down. 

In one print advertisement, Carlsberg revises the slogan to: “Probably NOT the best beer in the world” and adds, “So we’ve changed it. Introducing new Carlsberg Danish Pilsner. Rebrewed from head to hop.” 

In this video ad, Carlsberg promotes the same idea by having its employees read aloud insulting twitter reviews about their beer. 

I have no idea whether this campaign will work, but I like it.

Recommended Reading
What’s in a Color

Here’s an interesting article about the color green, the emotions and meaning it evokes and its role in marketing. I learned a few lessons I may apply to my marketing from this article. 

Birthday Wishes
Willie Nelson Turns 86 and Farm Aid Turns 34

Willie Nelson was born on this day in 1933. In 1985, Willie, Neil Young, and John Mellencamp organized the first Farm Aid concert in 1985 to raise awareness about the loss of family farms and to raise funds to keep farm families on the land. Thirty-four years later, Farm Aid is still going strong. Farm Aid has raised more than $53 million to promote strong and resilient family farms. I think that’s cool. 

Jerry Seinfeld was born on this day in 1954. He said this: 

“Once you start doing only what you’ve already proven you can do, you’re on the road to death.” 

Any reading, listening, quoting, resourcing that you think we should share? Send us a tip.

Until next time, enjoy the rest of this week and the weekend.

Tom

Monday, April 22, 2019
MarketVolt’s Monday Mash-Up

Recommended App 
Record and Transcribe with Otter

Otter is a free app for Android and Apple phones that records and transcribes audio. The transcriptions are not perfect, but I’ve found them to be good enough. You get 600 hours of transcription per month for free. For $8.33/month (on an annual plan), you get 6,000 hours of transcription per month. 

Quick Read
Seth Godin on “Great Marketing”  

I love Seth Godin’s blog. Short posts. Big, useful ideas. Here’s a recent post that gets to the essence of great marketing. 

Recommended Browsing
EQ Offers Great, Unique Content for Business People

I was honored to speak (and then do some follow-up video sessions) last week at EQ Leadership Labs, a business conference in St. Louis. EQ covers the startup community in St. Louis, but you don’t have to be from STL to find value on the EQ website. EQ is “passionate about sharing the journeys and best practices of startups, entrepreneur support organizations and other individuals and groups.” Great articles and videos deliver on that promise and make this one of my go-to websites for business insight. 

Recommended Viewing and Reading
Tim Sanders Preaches the Power of Love

The keynote speaker at the EQ conference (see above) was Tim Sanders. In 2002, Sanders published his first (and still his most famous) book: Love is the Killer App. Here’s the video he released to promote the book and introduce the key concept: We find success when we help others

Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes died on this day in 1616. In his great novel Don Quixote, he wrote: 

“Virtue is persecuted by the wicked more than it is loved by the good.” 

Any reading, listening, quoting, resourcing that you think we should share? Send us a tip.

Until next time, enjoy the rest of this week and the weekend.

Tom

Tuesday, April 16, 2019
MarketVolt’s Monday Mash-Up

Sorry, I’m late.

Of course, I wanted to send this Mash-Up yesterday, on Monday. But time was not on my side over the last few days.

Speaking of Time…
Great Book Helps You Make Minutes Matter — and More

Mary Kutheis’ Making Minutes Matter is a great book. The Making Minutes Matter Method™ helps you set expectations, avoid distractions and make better decisions about how you organize each day. The outcome: Greater happiness and fulfillment.

Learn more and buy it here. 

Recommended Viewing
John Oliver on The Opioid Crisis 

On his HBO show Last Week Tonight, John Oliver offers biting — but hilarious — commentary on topics in the news. Of course, the opioid crisis is no joke. But Oliver’s take on this week’s show brilliantly uses humor to make some very important and serious points. You can watch it here. (Warning: Oliver uses lots of bad language and crude jokes). 

Marketing Tips
It’s Not All About the Numbers

In this great article, Ryan Phelan says: “Your job as a marketer is to serve your customers and to advance your brand story. Some might say their job is ‘I gotta sell my wares. I gotta drive my KPIs (key performance indicators).’ And I would say, ‘I have a responsibility to the people who gave me their email addresses because I’m in the inbox they check many times a day.’

We agree. There are lots of ways to drive the numbers. But some number-driving tactics are the wrong choice if you believe that you want to treat your subscribers with respect. 

Gender Neutral Pronouns — What’s the Right Approach

Imagine drafting a blog post or email with this sentence: “If you want to hire a blogger to write for you, it’s important that [PRONOUN] can provide you with relevant samples of [POSSESSIVE PRONOUN] writing.”

What pronoun do you choose? “He?” “She?” “They?” 

Which possessive? “His?” “Hers?” “Theirs?”

That’s the question posed in this post from ProBlogger. 

Please read it and let me know your opinion. 

Basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was born on this day in 1947. He said:

“I think that the good and the great are only separated by the willingness to sacrifice.” 

Any reading, listening, quoting, resourcing that you think we should share? Send us a tip.

Until next time, enjoy the rest of this week and the weekend.

Tom

Monday, April 8, 2019
MarketVolt’s Monday Mash-Up

Great Marketing
Heinz Gets the Story Right

I often tell business people they don’t sell products or services. They sell the outcomes those products and services deliver.

Here’s a great example of marketing that gets this right: A new ad campaign from Heinz that celebrates “150 years of clean plates.”

Here’s Marketing Week’s article about the campaign. 

History Lessons
Hank Aaron’s Quest to Pass Babe Ruth

Forty-five years ago today, Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run, passing Babe Ruth to become the all-time long-ball king. I was nine years old at the time, and I remember it well. What I didn’t know at the time was the hell that Aaron went through as he neared the milestone. 

He endured racist taunts, death threats and other mistreatment from people who couldn’t stand the idea that an African-American was going to break Babe Ruth’s record. 

Here’s an article from a few years back that tells the story. Warning: The article contains some rough, racially-charged language.  

Buzz Kill
Marketoonist Mocks TikTok Frenzy

TikTok is the shiny new thing on the internet — a social network that has some marketers scrambling to cash in. Time will tell if there’s anything to it. 

Meanwhile, cartoonist Tom Fishburne, whom I wrote about a few weeks back, has captured the irrational frenzy around TikTok in this funny cartoon.    

Gender Gap in Marketing

We’re hearing a lot these days about the gender gap in various industries. The marketing industry is not immune. Here’s an interesting article about the gender gap in marketing. 

Kurt Cobain died 25 years ago this month (April 3). Here’s something he said that I like: 

“I’m not well-read, but when I read, I read well.”       

Any reading, listening, quoting, resourcing that you think we should share? Send us a tip.

Until next time, enjoy the rest of this week and the weekend.

Tom

Monday, May 6, 2019
MarketVolt’s Monday Mash-Up

Privacy Protection
Google Chrome Simplifies History Deletion

When you surf the web, your browser stores a log (history) of where you’ve been and archives (caches) images and other content for re-use later. Some sites also drop files (cookies) on your computer to detect that you’ve visited their site (for a variety of reasons, including delivering online advertisements to you). 

It’s a good idea to delete your browsing history regularly. Your history consumes lots of space on your hard drive, it can create security issues and it contains private information that you may wish to protect. 

Deleting history is usually a manual process. Good news for those who use Google Chrome as your browser: You’ll soon be able to set the browser to delete history automatically. Here’s an article that explains this. 

Marketoonist Mocks Podcasts About Podcasts

I love this cartoon. 

Recommended Reading
More on Heinz Great New Marketing Campaign

A few weeks ago in the Mash-Up, I told you about a great new marketing campaign that Heinz has launched to celebrate “150 Years of Clean Plates.” Here’s a new post from the MarketVolt blog in which I describe in more detail why this campaign is so brilliant. 

History Mystery
Hindenburg Air Ship Exploded on This Day

On May 6, 1937, the world’s largest dirigible airship exploded and went up in flames as it approached its landing field in New Jersey. Thirty-six people died. Eighty-two years later, mysteries about the disaster remain. 

Here’s a great article (with videos) about the disaster and its unanswered questions. 

Sigmund Feud was born on this day in 1856. He said this: 

“The first requisite of civilization is that of justice.” 

Any reading, listening, quoting, resourcing that you think we should share? Send us a tip.

Until next time, enjoy the rest of this week and the weekend.

Tom