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Most people automatically think that marketing to kids as a way to get to their parents is slightly suspect - but there are ways you can do this that creates a win-win for everyone.

I was reading the Business Mums Magazine blog where they talked about having colouring in sheets for kids (branded with your logo of course). If they are different and the child enjoys colouring the picture, it is likely the parent will proudly put it on display.

Ideally have a graphic designer or cartoonist create some unique images for you - it makes your business stand out from the pack.

Having colouring pictures available for kids to colour in while their parents are in your business is a great way to get uninterrupted time with the parent.

Another client of mine gets great success from advertising in school newsletters. The school benefits from the income, the client gets new business at very low cost (the most expensive ad cost her $15) and the kids benefit from the school funding.

So - what opportunities could you be missing out on with low cost marketing to parents via kids?

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony - Freelance Copywriters

My local Red Rooster at Arana Hills and I have a chequered past. We stopped going to it about 12 months ago when we were served some desserts that were 3 months out of use by date and were met with some Basil Fawlty style of problem resolution by the manager.

Last night after hearing that Head Office had been in and had changed the Manager and been working on systems in the store we thought we would give them another go.

So about 7m, we pulled into the drive-through, wound down the window and ordered a chicken and chips family pack. “We don’t have any chicken”.

I was a bit taken aback by that. “Pardon”?

“We don’t have any chicken”.

By this stage I felt like I had joined a skit of Monty Python.

“So just to check - this is Red Rooster and you don’t have any chicken?” “That’s right”.

There was no offering of any other menu options, such as chips, chips and chips, chips chips chips and chips (Monty Python’s spam skit was starting to play through my head). There was no apology. No we are cooking some and it will be ready in 10 minutes, it was just “we have no chicken”.

So I did what I observed every other car do that night - drove through to the drive through and go straight to Hungry Jacks next door. Which is a whole other saga as that store had one frazzled team leader and the entire rest of the employee team were all wearing the little red badges saying “Hi I’m in training”.

On talking with one of the team members it was all of their first nights working there- so a 30 minute wait for the order gave us and all of the other customers time for a lovely chance to chat, bond, get to know each other’s children, get to know all the people from drive through coming back in the store after their orders were incorrect, sing a few verses of Kumbya and watch the cars drive quickly through the next door Red-Rooster drive through without stopping.  One of the returning customers mentioned that it was the second week in a row that Red Rooster had no chicken.

So what can businesses learn from this? Yes, all businesses sometimes run out of items. You can do it once and get away with it, twice is just getting silly and shows you are not learning from your business reporting.

You need to train your employees what to do in those situations - offer alternatives, discount vouchers or some other way to get people back when you do have your stock back in.

Oh yes … and never never never only roster trainees on a shift.

I now know why the local pizza shop is always busy!

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony - SEO copywriters

Many governments and business get music on hold for their telephones. Personally I hate Greensleeves chimes only slightly less than “your call has progressed in the queue and your call is important to us” as you know darn well that if they really cared they would employ more staff so you are not left hanging for 40 + minutes.

The other day I had to laugh when put on hold for the umteenth time for one Local Government office I was greeted with “Killing me softly with his song”. Either the programming company had a very wicked sense of humour or it was one of those delicious mistakes.

Have any of our readers had any other pet on hold hates or delicious mistakes they would like to share?

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony - SEO copywriter

Just a quick tip - when you do your business back-ups (daily of course), remember to also regularly add in backing up your blog and your website to your server. Websites can be corrupted, a wrong button may be pushed and accidentally deleted, it may be hacked into … a whole raft of things can go wrong. Having a back-up is added protection for those situations.

Most people assume their web host will automatically back-up their website for them, but they may or may not do this.  The only way to be certain is to regularly do your own back-up of your website and blog to your own system.

If you are like me and fiddle a lot with your site, then weekly site back-ups may work for you. At the very least a monthly back-up of your website will save you lots of hassles if something goes wrong.

My site met with one of those little “count to ten” moments last Friday, but thanks to the back-up I managed to restore the site as soon as I found the problem.

Talk with your friendly IT guru to help you work out how to back-up your website if you don’t know how.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony - SEO copywriter

After my time away I have been fascinated by what people do to relax and to make them happy.

Lately I have found a theme of people going flying - my IT Guru is off on a week gliding in the outback of NSW, and one of my favourite jewellers Annette from Under the Loupe is into aerobatics in small planes. Makes my reading and playing with the kids and pets seem somewhat dull in comparison!

But the good news is that I am the same as one out of every 2 women in my search for happiness.

According the Australian Happiness Index for 2008 released by the Leading Edge, this is what makes men and women happy.

Men

1. Entertainment 61 per cent

2. Rest and relaxation 60 per cent

3. Digital entertainment (internet) 52 per cent

4. Quality time with partner 49 per cent

5. Sex/intimacy/romance 48 per cent

6. A family meal 45 per cent

7. Pets 39 per cent

8. Helping out a friend, enjoying great food and wine, physical exercise 37 per cent

9. Drinking with friends 36 per cent

10. Learning something new 35 per cent

Women

1. Rest and relaxation 66 per cent

2. Entertainment 61 per cent

3. A family meal 55 per cent

4. Quality time with partner 54 per cent

5. Pets 51 per cent

6. Playing with children or reading a good book 48 per cent

7. Helping out a friend 43 per cent

8. Eating comfort food 41 per cent

9. Sex/intimacy/romance 40 per cent

10. Digital entertainment (internet) 39 per cent

How can you use this information? Think about your client base - are they men or women? How can you reflect what makes them happy in your marketing?

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony - SEO copywriter

It is that time of year again - where businesses are working out what are the best corporate gifts to give their clients.

I discovered this great Xmas ornament gift from Piktorize that would also be great to add your corporate logo to and “Merry Xmas from …”.

The ornament is in high gloss porcelain so looks great. Most offices have Christmas trees - so this way you would be remembered every year when they decorate their office tree.

What other great Christmas corporate gifts have you heard of?

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put businesses into words

Heart Harmony - Freelance Copywriter

Last week I took a week off and visited family and friends in Sydney. We had a brilliant time and thanks to technology most people didn’t know we were away. I also cut my physical work time down to less than 1/2 hr per day so I actually had a break!

So how did it all happen?

• I pre-loaded my blog posts to keep on posting while I was not here
• I wrote my newsletter early and again set it to deliver while I was away
• I approved blog comments using my smart-phone on the many train and bus-trips around Sydney
• I advance scheduled work with my writers - all waiting to be reviewed on my return
• My main office phone was diverted to my mobile so my PA could also take a break and I returned calls once a day

It made me realise how virtual offices (and holidays) are definitely possible with the right technology.

It also made me realise that smart-phones have their limits for responding to emails and I need another small laptop just to keep on top of my 120 or so emails a day!

So if you see me tapping away on my new laptop at a coffee shop or beach near you - I am probably testing out my virtual office!

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony - Freelance Copywriters

Many businesses try the old “put a girl in a bikini” approach in their marketing as a way of getting the attention of people. But does it work?

A number of scientific studies have looked at this issue and have come up with some surprising results.

1. If you are advertising on TV during a sexy show - you can expect the recall of your ads to be much lower than during a family show (so even though it has higher ratings you are wasting your money)
2. If you place a bikini babe in a print ad then the studies show that men make worse decisions (which includes buying decisions) rather than more neutral ads.
3. The only place where it works is at the point of sale where you WANT the male to make a non-thought through decision such as to buy your product.

The other point to consider is that women find the gratuitous bikini shot off-putting and are likely to avoid your product if you go that way (I have yet to find studies that assess the impact of shirtless hunky males on female buying decisions).

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony - SEO Copwriters

I have been reading a brilliant book called “Behind the Bestsellers” by Jenny Bond and Chris Sheedy. This book looks at the people who have written best-sellers throughout the generations - where they came from, what made them tick and how they came to write their best-selling novel.

The book chronicles everyone from Stephen King to Jane Austen. It covers Jackie Collins through to Fyodor Dostoevsky and is one of the most fascinating reads I have had in ages!

Many authors were surprise successes - even to themselves! A number only ever wrote one book in their life like Harper Lee with “To Kill a Mockingbird”.

Some people had lots of help such as Dan Brown in the “DaVinci Code” - whose researcher was his wife Blythe Newton who undertook all the detailed research, helped sketch out the plot and did everything except hold the pen that wrote the book.

While others never saw the fruits of their work such as Michael Johnson who was the author of one of the first English dictionaries and Noah Webster who wrote the first American Dictionary of the English Language.

So what is the one thing behind every best-seller?  Not one of the people they covered came from a life that was all rosy. Every one of the writers had some challenge or trouble in their childhood or life. Every one of them had faced things that many other people would have crumbled under - and they drew the strength from their experiences and brought those elements into their story-lines.

When you are having one of those days or when you get stressed about the economy - maybe you need to just rethink it as “There is a best-selling book in this experience!”.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony - SEO Copywriter

In the past I have had the odd challenge with my computers as Mick my trusty IT tech can attest.

Which is why I loved the post by my friend Donna-Marie where she highlighted a pile of computer error messages that really made sense.

I particularly liked - User error, replace user!

Now if we can just get Microsoft to load some of them …

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony - SEO Copywriters