For many people, summer reading isn’t an escapist romance or potboiler, but has to do with your business– whatever your passion is. But summer reading is also about taking it easy and unwinding. In that vein, here’s a great summer read for people who want to know more about marketing and advertising:

The Age of Persuasion: How Marketing Ate Our Culture, by Terry O’Reilly and Mike Tennant, Knopf Canada, 2009

If you are a regular listener to CBC Radio, chances are you’ve heard of Terry O’Reilly and The Age of Persuasion. It’s an entertaining half hour radio show that talks about various aspects of advertising and marketing, as told by a giant in the Canadian marketing scene. O’Reilly is a radio writer and producer by trade who runs Pirate Toronto. He, with partner Mike Tennant, inform and entertain the listener as they discusses the ins and outs of the industry from an insider’s perspective. (It’s a co-written show, but uses the first person.)

Now O’Reilly and Tennant have published a book of the same name with the same style. It’s entertaining, yet very insightful as it discusses branding, endorsements, new media, demographics and much more from the beginning of advertising to the present.

With a style that has tongue firmly planted in cheek, the authors talk about what they term the unwritten social contract. This is a concept that says consumers tolerate advertising if they see they are getting something in return for their attention; a TV show in return for ad spots, a newspaper in return for ad space, or an ad in any medium if it entertains or adds value in some way.

So get yourself a favourite beverage, pull up a lounge chair, put on your shades and relax with a good book. Enjoy the summer.

Do you have any books to recommend? Join the conversation. Leave a comment.

Any time you send promotional e-mail messages (a.k.a. e-mail marketing) to someone without their permission, you are a spammer. Yes, you!

You join that shady group of people who try to sell us designer rip-offs, cheap pharmaceuticals and sex sites.

Buying lists doesn’t make it better. Nor does using the membership directory of an association you joined, unless members give explicit permission for that to happen when they join. That is not very common. In fact, many associations salt their directory with phony listings just to catch spammers.

But, you say, you still need to have as many eyeballs as possible reading your message. I want to challenge that attitude. Wouldn’t it be better if the people receiving your message are the people who WANT to receive it? Qualified prospects are a lot easier to convert than the random people you reach by adding spam to their inbox. Personally, I have a policy of not doing business with someone who spams me. If those are their tactics to get my business, I question how they would treat as a customer.

The question then becomes, how do you get more qualified people on your e-mailing marketing contact list if you need their permission first?

Ask them. It’s that simple. Here are five strategies for growing your e-mail marketing campaign:

1. Ask at all networking events you attend
   
2. Ask visitors to your web site (give them a simple sign up form)
3. Ask when you make sales calls
   
4. Ask your current subscribers to ask other people for you: make it easy to forward subscription details to people they know
5. Ask in your marketing literature.
   

But remember, you need to give subscribers value in return for them saying yes to letting you into their inbox. It may be information about sales or special offers, updates and success stories or it may be useful tips and tricks (which can also show of your expertise).

In the end, you will find that those people who are on your mailing list are more open to receiving your message and more likely to respond positively. And that’s what e-mail marketing is all about.

What do you think? Join the conversation.

Recently we were asked by Bus Stop Bible Studies to design a series of bus ads. In the process, we also re-designed their logo. The content was developed by marketing students of Centennial College.  Recently the ads made the news because of their controversial nature (religion). This news item appeared on 100 Huntley street. (Click through to watch the video in this post)