by Jeff Midgley

Your not going to believe this headline was published.

Spelling and grammar mistakes? We all make them.

When I say “we,” I’m of course referring to advertisers, bloggers, publishers and content creators. But I’m especially talking to the writers out there—you know, the people who first bring those little words to life.

Oops. We was not paying attention.

The problem is, we sometimes publish our mistakes for everyone to see. Hubspot pointed out the spelling mistake on the political campaign app above produced for Mitt Romney. Dozens of people must have seen this dyslexic spelling of America during the production process, but perhaps just not a proofreader.

The tweet below was posted in response to the creative spelling of America in the app. If you’re not looking closely, you can still completely miss the error purposely duplicated in the hashtag.

Remember to excercise good proofing habits.

Well then, let me admit one of my own mistakes. (Sigh.)

At one of the first agencies I worked for, we misspelled the word exercise in a fitness equipment catalog—for a fitness client no less—typing in the extra “c” that obviously doesn’t belong. I say “we,” because it’s not always the writer who makes the mistake.

In this case, the designer incorrectly typed the word exercise into a logo. The mistake was caught and the logo (which had seven color variations and appeared on almost every spread) was updated. But this is where mistakes can still come back to haunt you. You see, since the files had already been sent to a third-party vendor, new files were sent.

Adding to a series of unfortunate events, the vendor then attached the wrong (original) art files when they were collected and sent off to the printer. During the press check, another individual and myself missed several more last chances to remedy the error and the incorrect logo made its way onto thousands of printed catalogs.

The client was not happy.

Quality checks are a part of eveything we do.

Here’s another example on a Reebok ad where everything is correct except “everything” (credit to bMedia for finding this one, and who rightfully suggests not trying to write copy in a New York minute).

Once a mistake makes it to press, it’s not just the embarrassment that must be lived down. The files need to be updated and put into production again, adding major costs that the client might not want to pay for. With digital work, fixing the problem may be less costly, but still takes time and added effort.

Lets weed out those mistakes...

What can you do to prevent errors from making it out the door, like missing apostrophes, for example? Start by implementing some of the following best practices:

  1. Run spellcheck every time you close a document. (Yes, every time.)
  2. Spellcheck doesn’t catch everything, so also proofread your work.
  3. Make sure you haven’t made common mistakes like mixing up your/you’re, there/their, it’s/its or losing/loosing.
  4. Ensure art directors and designers copy and paste content (instead of keying in copy directly).
  5. Create a workflow that ensures edits are approved by the right people (editor, proofreader, subject matter expert, etc.).
  6. Follow the workflow you’ve established.
  7. Version your documents, keeping track of changes made in each round of edits.

So yeah, we all make mistakes. Just make sure you catch them before it’s too late.

by Jeff Midgley

Shooting an agency Star Wars spoof on Utah’s Antelope Island.

Dave Thomas, TA’s CEO, plays the part of Luke Skywalker.

A Star Wars fan from my youth, I was elated to write and direct a short Star Wars spoof video. This five-minute production gave me my one chance to be George Lucas and fulfill one of my childhood fantasies.

The video was to be shown internally at a ThomasArts agency employee appreciation event. The part of Luke Skywalker was played by agency founder Dave Thomas, who with his silver-whiskered beard looked like he could definitely pass for the real Skywalker.

Medicare for everyone. Including Jedis.

Based on the final scene of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, our plot weaves in a few inside jokes for employees to pick up on. For starters, when Rey ascends the island peak and finally confronts Luke, she doesn’t hand him a light saber. She instead hands him a Medicare enrollment late notice rolled up in a scroll.

Turns out while he was in hiding, Luke missed the deadline for applying for his age-in enrollment into Medicare (an inside joke, since the agency does a lot of Medicare marketing for its healthcare clients).

Episode VIII: The Last Jingle?

As the conversation continues, Luke shares his aspirations for starting over and trying something new—like maybe going into advertising. This is also an inside story since Dave Thomas actually got his start in the advertising business by writing musical jingles.

His character then asks Rey if she wants to hear one of his jingles. The scene fades out from a drone shot with Rey walking away baffled as Luke stays behind eagerly belting out a few of his prized creative jingles.

Finding the right location.

Matching the scenery of the beautiful tropical island in the movie was not going to happen. Especially in the mostly desert state of Utah. But I did have one idea. Thinking of a place I had been to on Antelope Island, which is in the Great Salt Lake, I remembered that from the peak of Buffalo Point (yes, buffaloes really do roam the island) you can see water on both sides . This would allow us to somewhat capture the makeup of the real scene—although it’s not quite a lush, green paradise.

So I went on a drive to scout out the location and it was indeed perfect, though it was a short, yet steep hike to get to the top. But since we needed to shoot Rey making an uphill climb anyway, it worked out with our plans.

Our co-lead, Shona Kay Moyer (playing the part of Rey), and me on location at Antelope Island, The Great Salt Lake, Utah.

Star-struck fifth graders.

Our shoot happened to coincide with a small bus of schoolchildren who also hiked the peak. As they approached the top to see Luke Skywalker and Rey shooting a movie scene, a couple of the kids asked if this was a promo for the real Star Wars movie. Nope, sorry kids! But it’s always inspiring to see another generation of Star Wars fans!

It was a sunny but crisp October day for this agency shoot.
Our talent and crew: Chas Kelly (sound/editing), Dave Thomas (Luke), Bethany Cozad (props/gear), Shona Kay Moyer (Rey), and Rod Santiano (video/editing).

by Jeff Midgley

Microcopy. Small words tasked with big jobs.

Microcopy should never be an afterthought. Although just a few words strung together at important junctions of a website or app, they play a big role in the customer UX. But before talking about microcopy, it’s important to understand what microcopy is—and what it is not.

First things first. What is microcopy?

Bobbie Wood and Patrick Stafford do a great job of defining microcopy in UX writing versus microcopy, where they define the roles of content strategy, UX writing and microcopy. They identify UX writing as “the customer-facing communication at every point in a long customer journey, not just the bits of UI text that accompany components.”

Microcopy is therefore a subset of UX copy. It is the very specific copy (sometimes called UI text) associated with website, product or app components that come at key points of the user experience. Think of the overall content strategy and the broad UX writing as the roadmap and messaging that lead you to these critical decision points.

Microcopy has a job to do. Actually several.

You may be reading this post to answer the question, “What exactly is the job of good microcopy?” Glad you asked.

It’s not just one job. Microcopy tackles several important jobs, sometimes more than one at a time. In a Shopify blog on this topic, Microcopy: Why Tiny Words Matter, Nick Babich identifies five ways microcopy can improve the design or user experience. These include:

  • Alleviate the user’s concerns
  • Help users along the way
  • Set expectations
  • Bring delight
  • Boost engagement

As you can see, each of these tasks are important functions that good microcopy should accomplish. Each of these jobs help to promote a better user experience and propel the relationship forward.

This “how it works” microcopy from Dollar Shave Club not only helps set expectations, but also preps the user to make the next step.

Of these five types of microcopy, my personal bias is that Help users along the way is the most important function of microcopy. Why? Because this is the messaging that does things like tell the user how to get started or what to do next. Quite simply, it guides the user as to what actions they should take—and why.

Push the buffalo off the cliff.

Coming from a background of direct response copywriting, I appreciate how microcopy is sometimes a direct CTA, or call-to-action. You’re telling the reader what to do, why they should do it and helping them feel good about it. All in as few words as possible.

This microcopy, though brief, is a direct CTA that tells the user what to do next, a primary purpose of microcopy.

One of my first mentors, Peter Harrison (of the former agency Smith Harrison Direct), would always tell me to make sure to push the buffalo off the cliff. This of course means, don’t kind of tell the user what to do, don’t get the user most of the way there, actually tell them what to do—and get them to do it! Although microcopy is short, it can still be strong and to the point.

Four more traits of good microcopy.

Now that we’ve reviewed the purpose of microcopy, let’s look at other common traits of well-written microcopy. In the Adobe blog post, The Four Cornerstones of Writing UX Microcopy, Sheena Lyonnais explains that if microcopy is a puzzle, the four corner pieces are:

  • Brevity
  • Context
  • Action
  • Authenticity

As far as Brevity, I’ve already mentioned how microcopy is short. In fact, sometimes it’s only a few words. The point is to provide just enough instruction, reassurance and motivation to get the job done.

Here’s a “before” screen shot of a PayPal selection page. Although very descriptive, this microcopy seemed to cause confusion with users.
Here’s the “after” screen shot where the content was simplified to let users quickly know what the two options are and the total they will pay for each option.

Context goes back to setting expectations and helping users along the way. You’ll want to always answer questions like “Why am I here?” and “What does this mean?” And of course Action is about the CTA or “What should I do now?”

Authenticity speaks to microcopy that reassures the user or gives them information that is highly relevant to their current experience.

A final suggestion: Follow your brand voice.

It’s good to remember your brand voice and your overall content strategy for your site. Take time to make sure that microcopy stays within the brand. Microcopy can convey personality and even humor. Small efforts to maintain the voice will help make your customer journey more consistent.

by Jeff Midgley

How I almost named a new Mrs. Fields cookie as a marketing intern.

Mrs. Fields Hand-Dipped Peanut Butter Cookie. (Photo credit: MrsFieldsNY.com)

As I was nearing my college graduation from the University of Utah, Mrs. Fields was booming. The company had grown from a successful startup over a decade earlier, spreading like a chocolate-chip wildfire to just about every mall and shopping strip in the country. So here’s my story on how I almost named a Mrs. Fields cookie.

I was looking for a marketing internship.

When I approached local Salt Lake agency Fotheringham (today known as Richter7) for an internship, they said they had a great opportunity available with one of their clients, Mrs. Fields. They promised I’d still be able to attend the weekly agency meetings, but also work on-site at the client’s location in Park City.

I said yes. Not only would I be making a small wage at my first real marketing job, I’d be earning a redeemable voucher every payday, good for free Mrs. Fields cookies (this is also how I lost my college physique in only a few short months).

I started making the daily drive from Salt Lake City to ski town Park City, the Mrs. Fields headquarters at the time. I assisted the marketing director and marketing manager, working in the same office as founder Debbi Fields. Much of the work they did was promotional and point-of-purchase marketing. But they were also in the process of launching a new cookie.

The delicious new cookie needed a name.

To take on this task, the agenda item to name the new peanut butter cookie was brought up at the weekly agency meeting. We launched a brainstorm and started throwing out ideas for the name. To me, this was paradise. I was in an agency environment and taking part in a creative session.

After a few creative names for a peanut butter cookie dipped in chocolate were on the board, I thought a bit more about how the cookie actually looked, and how it was made. Then the idea hit me.

My brilliant idea? Peanut Butter Eclipse.

Just like the moon when half covered in a shadow, I thought the peanut butter cookie, half covered in chocolate, was a type of eclipse. So I blurted out a sudden, “How about Peanut Butter Eclipse?” Both my colleagues on the Mrs. Fields team and the agency people seemed to love the idea.

The marketing director actually said he would call Debbi Fields, who was traveling in Europe, and share the naming idea with her. This all sounded incredible. I had won the cookie naming lottery!

“Not so fast,” said Mrs. Fields.

Well, as you may have surmised by the title of this blog article, Peanut Butter Eclipse is not the name they went with. When the marketing director made the call to Debbi Fields, her response was that she already had strong feelings on how she wanted to name the cookie. What was her idea? “Hand-Dipped Peanut Butter Cookie.” (Pretty boring if you ask me.)

My cookie naming career was now in crumbles.

But the important part of the story is that I had taken part in my first brainstorm. I got to sit in with a client-agency meeting and work on a real project. This got my creative juices flowing and helped lead me into the beginnings of a creative marketing and writing career.

by Jeff Midgley

Hey Midge!

Today, I’m restarting my marketing blog. But with one change. I’ve rebranded it as “Hey Midge!”

Where does this phrase come from? I’m glad you asked. Well, it’s pretty obvious that my last name is Midgley. But there is a story here. At one of the first agencies I worked for in the mid nineties, we ran into some first-name confusion. It was a small Utah agency of fewer than 20 people.

Problem was, there were three Jeffs.

To avoid the confusion, we had to limit ourselves to one Jeff. Here’s how the Jeffs stacked up.

Jeff #1: The first Jeff was Jeff Smith. He was one of the partners, and the agency name, Smith Harrison Direct, included his name. Therefore, by longstanding agency tradition and general boss-subordinate etiquette, he had first claim to all Jeff-ness.

Jeff #2: The second Jeff was the creative director I reported to, Jeff Duncan. To support the issue, he decided to go by his last name, Duncan (sometimes shortened to Dunc). Soon enough, all long timers and newcomers alike knew him solely as Duncan.

Jeff #3: At the bottom of the totem pole was me, a young and eager copywriter. Since Jeff was now officially reserved for referring to the partner, everyone started calling me by my last name too. At first it was Midgley—but why fumble over two syllables when you can go with one?

So they called me Midge.

Working at a small agency, it’s acceptable to yell loudly enough across the open areas so everyone can hear you. So it was not uncommon for an art director to beckon for one of us with an irreverent howl of “Hey Dunc!” or “Hey Midge!”

And so it was. Midge. The name most people in the work environment would call me for years to come. It stuck when I moved to my next agency too.

And yes, I know that Midge is the name of a small mosquito-like fly often brought up in fascinating conversations with fly fishers. But that’s beside the point of this story.

Over the years, I’ve been paged with “Hey Midge!” a thousand times. Now I’m bringing it back as the title of this blog.

Me in my early agency days at Smith Harrison Direct (later Studeo).

by Jeff Midgley

Get a selfie of your best customer.

ID-100184512

Stock images at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Would you recognize your best customers? Do you know what they look like? Why not have them send in a selfie?

Okay, scratch the selfie idea. But even if they don’t send you a selfie, you should recognize their attributes and their value. The top 20% of your customers often represent 80% of your business. By recognizing who they are and what is important to them, you can strive to attract even more customers who look like your best customers. Here are a few ways to do it:

1. Clone your best customers. When choosing ad demographics or lists, choose segments that most closely match the demographics, interests and behaviors of your best customers. That way you can create “clones” that look like them.

2. Tailor content to your best customers. Find out what kinds of content your best customers like to read or view. Hit on the topics and types of content that they respond to most. This will also attract similar prospects.

3. Encourage other customers to be like best customers. Look at the behaviors and transaction frequency of your best customers. Identify customers who don’t quite behave like your best customers and feed them offers and incentives to act like your best customers. Use trigger dates to get them to visit or shop as often as your best customers.

4. Listen to your best customers. Do you survey your best customers? In addition to tracking their behaviors, it’s always a good idea to find out what they want by simply asking them. Find out exactly what their preferences are. Find out whether they are satisfied with your products or services. Also find out if they would recommend you to their friends.

5. Think like your best customers. Don’t forget to put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Try to figure out what you would want if you were the customer. Think critically. Try to predict what your customers will be asking for before they ask.

by Jeff Midgley

Email frequency: How often should you hit their inbox?

ID-100178869

Stuart Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

It’s a simple question: “How often should I send my marketing emails?”

Do a quick Internet search and you’ll see a lot of simple answers—once a week, once a month, etc.

Problem is, it’s not a simple answer. The first thing you need to ask is whether these emails are going to prospects, leads or customers. You’ll want a different communication strategy for each.

For prospects, you can certainly hit them multiple times over weeks or months. In fact, in this article, tEkk3 explains why frequency matters more than reach. In other words, mailing the same prospects multiple times can be more beneficial than mailing one larger mailing list once. But that doesn’t mean you can mail the same list forever. As pointed out in this MailChimp article, frequency and engagement are negatively correlated.

Now let’s think about leads. Someone has responded to you and provided their email and wants to know more. Perfect. Because this person has just asked you for more information, they are expecting it. In fact, you may have already informed them they you would be sending several follow-up emails at the time they opted in. So for this type of contact, communicating frequently in the short-term is okay, and expected.

There are actually many forms of lead nurturing, from a “drip campaign” to a “lifecycle campaign.” Marketo has a good Marketing Cheat Sheet about lead nurturing that goes into more detail on definitions, tracks and strategies. Take a look.

Depending on the type of product or service you offer, you may set up a lead nurturing track that communicates every few hours, days or weeks. You may have a 30-day nurture strategy, or a 180-day nurture strategy. Remember, with lead nurturing you can usually email frequently, especially in the first few days or weeks after they opt in.

Finally, you have your current customers. With this group, you may also have individual communication strategies for each segment of customers (new, active, win back, etc.). But overall, you’ll want to keep in contact with them as frequently as they would like you to. Once or twice a month may be appropriate.

Benchmark also has some good suggestions on how often to send email, as well as when to send it. Once every week or two is the most common. For high frequency emailers, your customers may be okay with two or three emails a week.

Remember: Keep your type of recipient in mind, build a contact strategy for each type, and then be consistent.

by Jeff Midgley

Text and image restrictions for Twitter and Facebook ads.

We’re all well aware of Facebook’s 20% rule, where the image in a promotion cannot be more than 20% text. But do you know about all of the restrictions on images? I was a little surprised when a fitness client of mine had their promote page ad rejected for showing a male and female model with well-defined abs.

CoverImageSample

Image declined for Facebook promotion.

Apparently, this breaks one of Facebook’s rules:

Images may not be overly sexual, imply nudity, show excessive amounts of skin or cleavage, or focus unnecessarily on body parts. (See Facebook’s full list of ad copy and image restrictions here.)

In the past, I’ve used Facebook’s Promote Page and Boost Post features to successfully gain fans and boost engagement. And yes, anytime you have a situation where there’s too much text in your cover image or post image, you run into the 20% rule issue. But once you figure out and get a feel for the balance of image vs. text, it’s smooth sailing. However, Facebook’s image standards seem a little foggy. It seems that some ads that should perhaps be fine are rejected.

Admittedly, I haven’t done as much with Twitter advertising. Though I ran across this recent article on Twitter advertising basics from Social Media Examiner—How to Build a Winning Twitter Ad Campaign. Much like Facebook, you can choose to create ads for specific purposes, like gaining new followers or increasing website hits.

After jumping onto Twitter and going through the guidelines, it seems Twitter’s guidelines are more expansive than those on Facebook. They also appear to be more specific and less confusing. You can read the Twitter Ad Policies here.

You’ll also find specific Editorial guidelines for advertising on Twitter. For example, you can’t use “excessive or unnecessary capitalization or punctuation to draw attention” and you must use “correct grammar and spelling.” Naturally, language that could “offend or shock your audience” is also prohibited.

by Jeff Midgley

The opposite of loyalty: Dealing with unhappy customers.

Yesterday, the host of a local radio show exposed a family secret. While growing up, his father did not put up with inferior customer service. In fact, anytime he felt wronged by a company—a hotel, restaurant or retailer—he banned them for life! He not only cut off his complete patronage of the company, he also asked his kids (including the one telling the story) to do the same. To never set foot in that business again.

Today, customers who don’t feel the love, not only share their ill feelings with the store manager or sales rep, they share them with the world.

As marketers, we need to help clients understand how to identify unhappy customers instead of failing to recognize those who raise their hands and say “I had a bad experience with your company.” We need to react to early messages, either directly or on social media, with empathy and special treatment.

An unhappy customer could always mount a campaign that you might call “the opposite of loyalty,” making sure that everyone he/she knows is aware of his/her poor treatment. Several prominent cases exist in this social age, where customers used the power of the Internet to bad mouth companies for years.

Many articles like this one from Social Media Examiner, explain how companies can use channels like Twitter to respond to customers quickly with good customer service. That’s a much better option.

by Jeff Midgley

Building University of Phoenix leads through a student referral program.

University of Phoenix was looking for a way to build more referrals from current students. To achieve this, Rastar Digital Marketing was hired to build a program that captured referrals, tracked referrals through to enrollment and registration, then rewarded students.

I was the communication strategist and lead copywriter on the project. I wrote content for a microsite in which students could become educated about the program, enroll in the program and then submit referrals. Once referrals were submitted, they went into the University of Phoenix database to ensure the lead did not already exist. Once validated, an email confirming the submission was sent back to the student.

Due to privacy rules, only a limited amount of information could be shared with the student as far as the progress of their referrals. Once students hit each milestone, a status email was triggered. The students were rewarded with pre-paid gift cards for each referral that enrolled, registered and began their first class.

The success of the project was amazing. To get the program off the ground, links to the new student referral site were placed on the University of Phoenix student site. Within days, thousands of referrals started to pour in. The number of student referrals submitted quickly moved it up the ladder to the lowest cost of new leads for the highest quality of lead. The program ran for three years until regulations surrounding student referrals changed.

University of Phoenix Referral Program

Email Jeff