Welcome Message
What’s New
A Success Story
I’m #1 in SEO. Are You?
DM Sales Statistics
Humor Is A Very Funny Thing
Why I Love Referrals
Advertising Trivia

Welcome Message
Hi there,
After years of writing dozens of email, printed, and Web-based newsletters for my friends, colleagues and clients, I’m finally taking the time to create my own.

Each issue will share some insights into the advertising industry, share a success story, some marketing facts, a smile, and more.
Cheers and best regards,
Gil Zeimer

What’s New?
It’s 2009. As the economy begins to slowly pick up steam, we’ve all been busy sustaining our own businesses. To that end:

• Have you noticed a geometric increase in LinkedIn, Facebook, Plaxo and other social networking invitations over the past month?
• Have you seen yourself taking more time to support your friends and colleagues through these challenging days?
• Are you remaining positive throughout it all, knowing that a “glass half-full” persona will attract more flies than a half-glass of vinegar?
• I’m not worried about any of this because a Nigerian prince has emailed me to offer a suitcase of money for helping him out with a small loan.

What I’mve been doing:

• Teaching workshops at First Bank offices in the Sacramento area and San Francisco on “How to Market and Promote Your Business During a Recession.”
• Writing articles entitled “When The Going Gets Tough… Advertise,” “The Branding Name Game” and various stories for Dive New Zealand Magazine. You can read these at Zeimer’s Zlog: https://zeimer.com/category/blog/
• In Q1 2009, I completed a radio campaign for Circus Ponies Notebook Software, multiple direct response projects for Wells Fargo Home Equity Loans/Lines, a monthly newsletter called “Mental Floss” for my dentist, a quarterly newsletter for an upscale senior community in San Francisco, an ad for Spirit Rock Meditation Center, and I’m working on a variety of small to large Websites.

A Success Story
In each newsletter, I’mll share a copywriting success story. Some of my projects, like 40-page Websites, take months of work with multiple revisions to dozens of pages. Some projects take a week of intensive scrutiny to choose the perfect word for an ad or a postcard. And some just take a few hours.

The Problem: Last week, a friend and colleague asked me to write a few subject lines and an email for a new product on his company’s site. The product had been sold out worldwide after being mentioned on “Oprah” for a few months.

The Solution: I took a limited quantity approach in the email, listed some of the products benefits, and added that this would certainly sell out quickly.

The Result: The client said, “Gil, You rock! 40% of the people who got your email made a purchase on our site! This is probably too good to even tell your clients about. Who would believe you? And if they did, you’ve set the bar pretty high. I’m glad we finally got to work together. You’ve been a great source of advice and ideas. Thanks for the fast turnaround and amazing results.”
— Jeff Fenigstein, President, http://www.mypleasure.com

So note that even a small project can pay big dividends.

I’m # in SEO. Are You?
As a copywriter who’s created content for about 100 Websites, I’mve become a Search Engine Optimization expert. In fact, several of my own site’s pages are listed at the top of the search engines.

Google the phrase “healthcare copywriting” and see who’s #1 of the non-sponsored links. For “san francisco freelance copywriting” I’m third and for “financial copywriting” I’m listed sixth.

Contact me if you want to get the same kind of visibility for some of your Web pages. For a more extensive project, I also work with savvy SEO firms who specialize in analyzing your pages, creating the SEO keyword lists, and submitting them to the search engines monthly to retain your high rankings, as well as managing PPC campaigns.

DM Sales Stats
As a direct marketing writer, I know that it usually takes 4 to10 “touch points” for someone to respond to an offer, whether it’s from a bank for a credit card, a software company for an upgrade, or another type of product. After all, the more times someone receives, hears or sees a solicitation, the more opportunities someone has to buy it.

Here’s a very interesting sets of stats I saw at www.SendOutCards.com :

• 48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect
• 25% of sales people make a second contact and stop
• 12% of sales people only make three contacts and stop
• Only 10% of sales people make more than three contacts
• 2% of sales are made on the first contact
• 3% of sales are made on the second contact
• 5% of sales are made on the third contact
• 10% of sales are made on the fourth contact
• 80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact

Humor Is A Very Funny Thing
This is one of my favorite quotes: “Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.”
— Joseph Heller

Why I Love Referrals
A referral is a warm handshake, an introduction, a word-of-mouth testimonial from someone you know or who have worked with. As a member of BNI Embarcadero, I love the philosophy of “Givers Gain” —- when you give to others in referrals, you’ll get back many times over.

I’mve recently completed two projects that were third and fourth tier referrals, meaning that someone who I met through a referral then referred a friend who referred yet another friend. In fact, my business is 95% referral-based. That’s why I’m so active in my BNI Embarcadero networking chapter and have become an Ambassador to other BNI groups.

So if you know of a project that would be a great fit for my copywriting talents, please refer them to me c/o [email protected] or 415.491.1058.

Advertising Trivia
Every issue, I’mll ask a few questions about Advertising Trivia. The first correct response will win a Gift Card.
1) What was the name of the actress in Wendy’s “Where’s The Beef” TV commercials?
2) What was the dog’s name in the famous RCA logo, “His Master’s Voice”?
3) Who was the voice actor for the Jolly Green Giant?
4) Who was the voice actor for Capt. Crunch cereal?

INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPOND:
1) Go to: https://zeimer.com/contact
2) In “Other,” type MARCH TRIVIA QUESTION
3) In the Message Box, type your answers in the box.
4) Click “Send Email.”

© 2009. Zeimer’s Advertising Shoppe. All Rights Reserved.

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