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Hello,

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Route 66 Roadies are the BEST!

I am just getting back to my desk after a fantastic weekend at the official Route 66 festival held in Litchfield, IL. I meet so many wonderful people from the "Mother Road". I meet a one of a kind man know simply to most as "Tattoo Man" he has like 67 tattoos all but one represent some landmark along the famous highway. My son really liked getting to know him and suggesting future additions to his "collection".

We also met Jim Conkle, General Manager for The Route 66 Pulse publication and preservation society. He greeted me with a big hug from the first moment and informed me that that was the Route 66 "Secret Handshake!". We also meet a couple of radio personalities broadcasting from the event on the Internet only radio station www.bounceradio.net. They were from Kansas and very nice folks.

The kids and I also go to meet Mike Wallace, one of the contributors to the movie "Cars" and most recognizable as the voice of the "Sheriff" in the movie. I was able to attend the awards banquet on Saturday night and heard Mike speak with passion about our great American highway. I especially liked how he spoke of the road being about the people you meet along the way. Authentic American folks who care about you even though they may never see you again and you are a long way from home.

I could go on and on about the wonderful people me and my family got to know. My kid's can't wait now to travel and experience life off the speed ways! What a great adventure awaits!

I also want to take a moment to congratulate Tom Wanko on planning a great event. They are lucky to have you! And to congratulate "The Ariston" on winning "Business of The Year".

For more info about Route 66 go to: http://www.route66pulse.com/

Thanks,
Terri Miller

Four essential ingredients for email newsletter success

The Recipe for Excellent E-Newsletters
Four essential ingredients for email newsletter success

By Amy Black, Constant Contact Editor, Hints & Tips e-Newsletters

Email newsletters have amazing potential. When done well, they keep you connected to the people who mean the most to your business or organization and help to build their confidence in your brand. In addition, great e-newsletters help drive repeat business, new sales, event attendance, donations, and more.

So what makes an excellent email newsletter? There are a number of essential ingredients.

1. Include relevant, valuable content

Relevancy is the number one ingredient for a successful newsletter, but according to eMarketer, 44 percent of marketers see coming up with relevant content as their greatest challenge. Here are a few tricks that make it easier.

Ask for information. The best way to know what your readers want is to ask them. Send a survey to find out what information they are most interested in receiving and the topics they want to learn about.


Study your reports. Monitoring the behavior of your customers is a key way to understand them. Your click-through will show you what topics they like best.


Consider what they need to know. There are times when the people on your list need information that they won't know to ask for. In these cases, they will thank you for passing on valuable knowledge.


Plan and prepare. An excellent newsletter requires some prep work. Two hints to help: 1) Create an editorial calendar so you know what topics you will cover in advance. 2) Start a swipe file (a folder for relevant articles) so you have the inspiration you need for upcoming issues.

2. Showcase your brand

With an email newsletter, you can establish and reinforce your organization's brand. It can show and tell "who" your organization is and help readers come to trust you and what you offer. Here are a few tips for building your brand with your newsletter.

Find your voice and use it. How would you describe your company? Professional, warm, friendly, helpful, or knowledgeable? The attributes that define your organization should set the tone for your newsletter and help you find a writing style, or voice, that consistently communicates your brand.


Incorporate your logos, colors, and fonts. What does your brand look like? Pull that style and format into your email newsletter so that it corresponds with your website and provides your readers with a consistent brand experience.


Include a headshot and signature. If you are the brand, give readers a face to connect with your name. Additionally, a signature in the opening gives an extra personal touch to the newsletter.

3. Create a reader-friendly format

You've worked hard to create valuable content, so make sure to put it in a format that is easy to read. Here are a few things to keep in mind when building your email newsletter.

Include a table of contents (TOC). When you include a TOC up top, your readers can quickly scan the topics and go directly to the areas of greatest interest.


Balance text and images. Using images to support your topic is a good idea, but because many people have images turned off, make sure your newsletter communicates equally well without them. Hint: To test, turn off your images in your email client, send yourself a sample, and see what it looks like.


Leave plenty of whitespace. Resist the urge to fill every nook and cranny of your newsletter with content. Whitespace allows the eyes to rest between the various segments. With it, your readers can skim with ease through your newsletter.


Watch that length! For a shorter newsletter, include a teaser then drive readers back to your website for a deeper experience. This approach enables you to get valuable click-through reports that show the level of interest in a topic.

4. Engage your readers

Successful newsletters provide quality content, look great, and encourage a dialogue. Use your newsletter as a springboard for further conversation with your readers and to get them talking with each other. Here are a few ideas on how to do it.

Offer an email address or webform. Invite your readers to contact you to further connect with them and establish yourself as a reliable expert. Just make sure you are prepared to respond in a timely manner.


Use an online poll. Polling is a quick and easy way to engage a reader around a specific article. You can add an online poll to the webpage the article lives on, enabling readers to give feedback immediately. Or use a poll to ask your readers to vote on next month's topic.


Include a survey link in each issue. Get ongoing feedback on each newsletter issue by including a link to a survey. Ask simple questions such as "How satisfied were you with this issue?" and "What topics interested you most?"


Invite readers to comment on a blog or online forum. Invite your readers to join the conversation on a blog or in an online forum. If there are interesting discussions going on, reference them in your newsletter to foster further engagement.

While there are enough email newsletter tips to fill a book, if you implement the hints provided in this article, your email newsletter will be an even more powerful marketing tool for your organization.

A Comparison of 9 Major Media

Once again another great article from the "Wizard of Ads". Enjoy!!!

A Comparison of 9 Major Media
The Medium is Not the Message

Marshall McLuhan’s famous line, “The medium is the message,” is at best a Japanese koan (ko-ahn.) You know, “What is the sound of one hand clapping,” and all that? I’m sure I’ll get a thousand ranting emails about this, but I’ve always felt koans to be a silly attempt to sound profound.

McLuhan’s koan is at the top of my list. It was originally published in his 1964 book, Understanding Media. Nearly half a century later later, his disciples are still trying to explain what he meant.

Enough.

The medium is the medium.
The message is the message.

Ad campaigns don’t fail because someone chose the wrong media. Ad campaigns fail because someone chose the wrong message.

The job of the media is to deliver your message.
Your job is to give the media a message worth delivering.

Each media has its own strengths and weaknesses. And because I’ve spent the last 20 years talking about message, today we’ll glance at media:

Signage: Expensive signage at an intrusively visible business location is often the cheapest advertising your money can buy. Intrusive visibility is the quality that separates landmarks from scenery. You’re intrusively visible when the public sees you without looking for you. Do you have an intrusive location? Have you maximized your signage?

Outdoor: Billboards reach more people for a dollar than any other media and they’re geographically targetable. In other words, you can reach specific pockets of your city with them. Their weakness is that they become invisible after just a few sightings in the same location, so be sure to move your boards every 30 days. Additionally, the average driver is unwilling to look away from the road for longer than eight words. So if you can’t sing your song in eight words or less, billboards aren’t your best bet.

Direct Mail: Like billboards, direct mail lets you target geographically and in theory, psychographically as well, assuming the right member of the household sorts the mail. The problem with direct mail is that most of it gets thrown away unopened. And the costs of printing and delivery have skyrocketed.

Television: Television delivers the highest impact of any media, but unpredictable viewer habits make it difficult to reach the same viewer a second or third time within seven nights sleep. If your message needs repetition, television is even trickier to schedule than radio. And the cost of production is extremely high for an ad that won’t embarrass you. But if you’ve got the cash and it’s not the off-season (summertime,) TV can be a powerful ally.

Radio: Sound is neurologically intrusive and radio feels like a friend. The problem with radio is that most ads are written in such a way that they’re easily ignored, so your ad will need to be presented repeatedly to the same listener. This need for repetition makes scheduling easily botched. Most campaigns are scheduled to reach the largest possible number of people. Consequently, these schedules deliver too little repetition. Be careful you don’t make this mistake. The good news is that radio is the great equalizer. Unlike magazines, television and direct mail, radio ads don’t require a big budget to be world class; radio requires nothing but word skills and imagination.

Newspaper: Newspaper ads need a visual trigger, a picture of your product. This trigger will attract the attention of customers who are consciously in the market for your product, but those who aren’t in the market will fail to see your ad. Consequently, newspaper ads often deliver immediately identifiable results, but these results fail to get better and better over time. In the short run, newspaper wins. In the long run, TV and radio win.

Yellow Pages: Like newspaper, the yellow pages reach people who are consciously in the market. But while newspapers promote products, the yellow pages promote services. The highest goal of a service business is to be the name that immediately comes to mind when the public needs your services. This can be accomplished with Radio, Television, Signage or Billboards. But if your budget doesn't permit you to win customers before they need you, make sure you sing loud in the yellow pages.

Magazines: Perhaps the ultimate tool for psychographic targeting, magazines ads tend to be expensive. Another downside is that most are delivered with very poor frequency, often just once a month. But when your message fits the readership, magazine ads can be awesome.

Internet: The advantage of the internet is that it lets you reach the whole world. The disadvantage of the internet is that you’re competing with the whole world. How will you drive traffic to your site? If your small business has the ability to drive traffic through mass media, a website is often the perfect half step between your advertising and your store. Let your prospective customer get to know you online.

It’s worked well for me.

Roy H. Williams