Capturing attention / March Madness lessons for email marketers / Spend more on healthcare now to save later / McDonald's backers to Prince Charles: "burger off"

CAPTURING ATTENTION
One of the most perplexing elements of marketing is capturing the attention of the audience. No matter who your intended audience is, they are bombarded with information. The question of how to cut through the clutter and grab prospective audiences’ valuable and fragmented attention is paramount — without it, we have nothing.

One thing is for certain: you must capture your prospect’s attention before you can sell him anything, change his mind, or move him to act.

In order to understand, the brain has to focus on one source of information at a time.

Attention:
helps us screen out the irrelevant
helps us consider the appropriate response
chooses information that will enter in, and stay in, awareness

Your prospect’s mind works like your cat’s mind works, screening out all information it doesn’t consider relevant.

While not many of us know what all-consuming information (or lack thereof) is cluttering our pets’ minds, we know lots about what’s occupying our prospects’ attention. The following are a few of the many obstacles that must be overcome when vying for prospects’ attention:

The proliferation of available products and services
Increased competition
The multiplying methods of disseminating products and messages
Buyer sophistication
Information overload
People want instant gratification

You have to give your prospects a reason to pay attention. Stop and think ­— “is what we’re doing relevant enough to get past the filters of our prospects’ brains? With all the available information out there, is ours powerful enough to be chosen to enter in, and stay in, our prospects’ awareness?”

While I’ve got your attention, you might want to visit my Meaningful Marketing blog for further discussion on capturing attention, including the two main reasons most prospecting and marketing efforts fail to capture attention, and how to overcome them.

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MARCH MADNESS LESSONS FOR EMAIL MARKETERS
If you watched the NCAA basketball tournament last month, you probably weren't planning to learn about optimizing your email marketing -- but you could have been.

Study your competition
Scope out the email habits of others in your industry. Are they all sending email marketing, or are only a few? What cold you borrow from their strategy? Put yourself in a subscriber's shoes and ask yourself whose messages and what formats are worth more to the customer.

Keep your uniform neat and clean
You don't want your email efforts to look sloppy. Make sure your spelling and grammar are right on. Check your messages in a variety of clients and browsers to make sure they look good across the board. Be wary of higher-tech items like in-line Flash movies. Some email clients will have trouble with these, so you might be safer just providing a link to allow subscribers to view higher-end content in a browser.

You must make the easy shots
Some things about your email marketing are easy, like your welcome message. Also make sure to provide a clear way for subscribers to opt in and out. These little, easy things can make a big difference!

In email marketing, as in basketball, strategy and attention to detail can make or break you. Be sure to think about these things so that you can bring your "A" game!

Be sure to check out past issues of Marketing Tips for more information about website writing and email marketing.

Source: MarketingProfs.com

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SPEND MORE ON HEALTHCARE NOW TO SAVE LATER
In an era when companies are asking employees to shoulder more of the cost of healthcare, it may seem counterintuitive to suggest increasing pharmaceutical spending in order to reduce costs. However, this is exactly what some companies are starting to do.

Mohawk Industries, the largest floor covering manufacturer in the world, began an experiment in 2003 intended to reduce Mohawk's healthcare costs, which were rising by 10 percent annually. The program had diabetic and pre-diabetic employees meet with pharmacists to learn about their condition and how to treat it.

One reason for this program was to take some of the fear and the unknown out of diabetes for those who were facing it. People who develop diabetes are often confused about what lifestyle changes are required and sometimes feel the diagnosis to be a death sentence. Counseling with pharmacists, free supplies to monitor blood sugar, and regular check-ins allayed some of those fears and gave the employees back a sense of control, which ultimately will lead to better health in the long-term... and hence lower healthcare costs for Mohawk.

36 employees participated in the program. In 2002, before the program began, healthcare costs were $10,396 per employee. In 2004, those costs had fallen to $7966 on average for the people in the program, including the costs of drugs, supplies, and visits by an on-site pharmacist. In 2002, participants went to the hospital 25 times, and in 2004 they went 10 times. And most interesting, those 36 people missed 252 days of work in 2002 but missed only 14 in 2004.

Other companies employing this type of program have realized similar gains, so look for this to be a trend among employers looking to reduce healthcare costs -- paying more now to treat chronic conditions, in order to save money down the road.

Be sure to check out past issues of Marketing Tips for more information about healthcare incentive programs.

Source: Workforce.com

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MCDONALD'S BACKERS TO PRINCE CHARLES: "BURGER OFF"
It looks as if the British like McDonald's as much as Americans do. Recent suggestions by Prince Charles that the quickserve chain be banned in the U.K. sparked quite a bit of controversy.

While visiting a diabetes center in Abu Dhabi, and amid news of a British 8-year-old weighing 218 pounds, the prince asked a nutritionist if the United Arab Emirates had tried getting McDonald's banned. He said, "That's the key." The backlash from newspapers and public opinion was quick. The London Mirror told Charles to "Burger Off!" Other newspapers pointed out the the prince's line of Duchy Originals Cornish Pastries contain more salt, fat, and calories than a Big Mac.

Britain has been, and still is, McDonald's weakest market. The chain's efforts to promote its healthier menu items seems to be paying off in fighting its negative image, though, as European profits last year were up ten percent.

McDonald's operates 1214 restaurants in Britain, and younger members of the royal family have been reported patronizing some of them.

Be sure to check out past issues of Marketing Tips for more information about healthy quick-serve trends, quick-serve breakfast trends, and McDonald's marketing.

Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution