Marketing Blogs

for your small business
how to write a product category that doesn't suck

How to write product categories that don’t suck in 6 steps (copy included!)

Here’s a guide to writing e-commerce product category descriptions with a twist. Every single tip is backed up by real e-commerce website copy that I just worked on. Every business relies on words. But how does an e-commerce site get the words right while focusing on suppliers, sales channels, markets, currencies, legal requirements – and […]

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Shakespeare monkeys mural

Shakespeare Monkeys : That time monkeys were funded to type the works of Shakespeare.

Back in 2003, Plymouth University students received £2,000 from the Arts Council to give six monkeys one computer for a month. After six months, the Shakespeare monkeys had failed to produce a single word of English, broken the computer and used the keyboard as a lavatory. They pressed a lot of S’s,” researcher Mike Phillips […]

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milkshake duck

What is a Milkshake Duck and why is it 2017 word of the year

Milkshake Duck – The phrase so famous you never heard of it. Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary has awarded “milkshake duck” its 2017 word of the year. On June 12, 2016, Australian cartoonist Ben Ward tweeted it to describe our tendency to foist instant celebrity on some person and its inevitable backlash. In Ward’s tweet, the cuddly duck is accused […]

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smart aleck

Call anyone a 19th century pimp lately?

Called someone a smart aleck lately?  Well, you just compared them to a 19th-century pimp. Turns out that Smart Aleck was a real person – and not one you’d like to meet down a dark alley. Or any kind of alley. Missouri professor Gerald Cohen writes that the term is derived from a real-life person. Alexander Hoag was […]

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mobile phones

Why we should treat ourselves as well as we do our mobile phones

Mobile phones have become an extension of ourselves. How often you check your phone depends on when you were born… Were you born in the 1980s and 1990s? You probably get anxious if you haven’t checked your phone in 15 minutes. Those born between 1965 and 1979 are more relaxed. Only 42% tend to get uneasy […]

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marketing directory

The Cynic’s Marketing Directory or what marketing terms really mean

Here are some gems for a real world marketing directory. Content calendar What we’ll do if everything works perfectly, you pay on time and nobody has a day off.   Content. Lorem ipsum Polyfilla to anyone except the harmless drudge who has to write it.   Best Practice. What everyone else pretends to do. Or, […]

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one-sentence pitch

The one-sentence pitch : can you explain your startup in one sentence?

Well, this guy nailed it.     Can you describe YOUR startup in one sentence? The one-sentence startup pitch or high concept pitch is easily mocked. In fact, there’s a Facebook group dedicated to doing just that. Members suggest hilarious one-sentence descriptions for real (and how-it-not-a-thing) companies. Most pitches follow the “Tinder for____” formula: A […]

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