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Author Archives: Jeff Foley
Humanizing copywriting
I’m on a constant quest to stop people from talking like they think marketers are supposed to talk. Many others have done more than I to highlight the perils of biz-blab, gobbledygook, and buzzwords. But it’s easy to tell people what they’re doing wrong. Can you catch people doing what’s right? In my mind, it’s not enough to write copy that’s clear. It needs more than clarity… it needs excitement. Pull. Something to hook your audience emotionally and bring them into your pitch. Here are a few simple examples. Continue reading
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From the Customer’s Perspective
Encountered a classic mistake this morning. I read about buywithme.com, a new startup competing with Groupon and other buyer-aggregating deal sites. The first time you hit their site, you see a nice simple starting web page that has a place for your email address, a drop-down for your location, and a huge button that says SEE TODAY’S DEAL. Clicking on that button led to a sobering example of how to fail to design for the user’s perspective. Continue reading
The Pantheon of Bad Management Clichés
Engineers often accuse marketers of speaking in some strange language. It’s true; any role has its own jargon that must be parsed through. But there’s a different kind of jargon, that both engineers and marketers hate. A friend and I call it the Pantheon of Bad Management Clichés. Here’s a helpful reference and translation guide. Continue reading
A look at iPhone competitive promotional campaigns
Geoffrey James’s “The Sales Machine” blog recently devoted several posts to Apple and its poor competitors, including one about the poor marketing done by the iPhone’s competitors. It’s a good read, though I disagreed with a few points and have a few takeaways myself. Continue reading
Posted in Dark Side, Force Training
Tagged advertising, evaluating creative, marketing failures, marketing strategy, messaging
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Day two of Force Training for 500 Dark Jedi
Another day of convening with fellow Dark Jedi marketers, and discussing how to work well with the bounty hunters in sales. You Light Side engineers are already bored, right? Just remember the basic premise of this blog–namely, engineering and marketing are not as different as you’d think. Both involve very similar problem solving skills, even if the weapons are a bit different. Here’s my takeaways from Day Two. Continue reading
Posted in Bounty Hunters, Dark Side
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