Tom Ruwitch
Our company made a marketing mistake. I’m going to tell you about so you don’t repeat it. We sell email marketing software to many schools and school districts. So we recently ran a print advertisement in the membership directory for the Missouri Association of School Administrators (MASA). The ad included the address for our website…
Read More
My favorite marketing forum lit up yesterday when someone complained about Gmail putting the emails he sends into the “Promotions” folder. Several years ago, Gmail introduced folders (“tabs”) to organize incoming email into four categories: Primary, Social, Promotions and Updates. Most marketing emails sent through third-party software land in the Promotions folder. Yesterday, an unhappy…
Read More
In a recent Monday Mash-Up, I shared a blog post I’d written about misleading statistics. It struck a nerve with several readers. Margaret is one of those readers who told me the story of her run-in with garbage data. Margaret works as a fundraiser at a nonprofit. Margaret often wonders how best to reach older donors and prospects. Some…
Read More
As I entered a quick shop yesterday, I noticed a guy walking out who looked down on his luck. He stopped by the door and pulled from his shirt pocket a half-smoked, crooked cigarette butt. He bent it back into shape, lit up and took a long drag. When I walked out of the store,…
Read More
A few months ago, I asked my 21-year-old daughter to help me lug trash from the three barrels next to our house to the dumpster in the alley. She was home from college for a couple of weeks, and I thought she could pitch in. She shot me one of those looks that said, “Dad,…
Read More
My pal Adam Kreitman sent me (and everyone else on his list) a great email today that compared the current frenzy over podcasting to the California Gold Rush. Here’s some of what Adam wrote: “There were a few lucky folks who struck it rich mining for gold. However, the people who really made money during the Gold…
Read More
I had a good laugh today while reading an online discussion board for marketers. A puzzled marketer asked the community to weigh in on the best material for tote bags she and her husband would distribute at a trade show. She was leaning toward polypropylene (“feels like soft cloth” and “the cheapest way to go.”)…
Read More
Yesterday I received an unsolicited text message from someone pitching a local political candidate. I’m not sharing this story to publicly shame anyone. I’m sharing it because there’s a business and life lesson here. So I’ll change the names to protect the guilty. The text said, “Hi Thomas,” (that was the first clue this was…
Read More
Last week, my twin children turned 22. I’m still Dad, but my hardest parenting work is behind me (I think/hope). That got me thinking about parenting lessons learned. Here’s a big one: When the kid does something bad, that doesn’t mean the kid is a bad person. As parents, we need to help our kids…
Read More
During a new show broadcast after the Super Bowl on Sunday, CBS television wanted us to believe that a talent-show performer died in a tragic sword swallowing accident. The idea was to create high drama. Keep us viewers glued to the tube. I said, “To hell with this,” and I’ll never watch this rotten show…
Read More