Quote for the day: Donna Karan on Design.

Design is a constant challenge to balance comfort with luxe, the practical with the desirable.” – Donna Karan

Not Just Another Marketing Piece.

“Dear ____________,

Recently, I asked the Marketing Department to create a list of our ideal customers; the types of people and organizations we were most interested in having as customers. Your name appeared on that select list. However, I noticed that it has been a while since you last ordered from us. Since you are the caliber of customer we want most, this concerns me. So, I have to ask: Did we do something wrong?

Deeper Than a Headline.

We’ve talked about writing effective headlines before, but obviously there’s more to writing great web copy than just that.

This article about web copywriting hits on some really great points, and takes its own advice in the process.

The steps outlined are:

Say Less.
* People are much less patient on the web than they are when reading other mediums. Most of the time they want to get in, find what they’re looking for, and get out.

Art Direction is Like Steak Sauce.

You can add it on at the end to correct the flavor, but the final product will never be as good as a dish done correctly from the start without it.

Customer Service in all its Forms.

Side Story: Our phone rang a few days ago, and on the other end was an unhappy person. He claimed he had just called our offices, and whoever answered the phone was extremely rude to him. (There were only three of us in the office that day, and all three of us can verify that not only had the phone been silent for the past hour, but none of us had any similar conversation.) Obviously he had dialed the wrong number. However, the caller was upset and wasn’t going to be convinced he’d done anything wrong. What did we do once we realized this? Apologized for any misunderstandings regarding the previous phone call. We knew it wasn’t our fault, but trying to convince them of that wasn’t going to get us anywhere. Once we apologized, he accepted, and the original point of the phone call was revealed… then business as usual. He just wanted to be right, and know that someone was listening to him.