CharlieMoger.com

Marketing and advertising advice for owner-operated businesses

Eat your heart out, James Bond

James Bond’s Aston Martin. Loaded with super-cool spy stuff, it kept him one step ahead of the bad guys and ever closer to romance. His endless array of gadgets left boys like me dreaming of getting our own. Now I have them, sorta….

My favorite five James Bond tools

Even though I didn’t get the Aston Martin (not yet, anyway), or grab private jet rides for globe-trotting adventure (coach seats are fine for me), I have amassed a set of tools to James Bond my way through my daily challenges.

Ian Flemming died in 1964, just as Bond was becoming a screen franchise. A parade of authors extended the story line (in varying levels of success) after Hollywood exhausted Flemming’s original novels. To celebrate the release of the 23rd post-Flemming Bond novel, “Carte Blanche” by Jeffery Deaver, here are some of my everyday-Bond tools you may find helpful:Continue Reading

End of an era, again

Mark Haines

Television news lost something big the day NBC News’ Tim Russert died of a heart attack at 58. Business television lost something bigger with the passing of CNBC’s Mark Haines at 65. Both became giants of their industry, in large part, due to what they didn’t do.

Both were authentic to a fault. They both asked direct questions and hung on to get direct answers for us. It’s said Russert’s interviews could be like talking to a clenched fist. Haines’ interviews, on the other hand, were more of a dry-witted slap-down—but only when deserved.Continue Reading

The triangle of combustion: why websites aren’t advertising

Ask any Boy Scout how to start a fire. He’ll tell you it’s a triangle: fuel, oxygen, and heat. Get enough of all three and you get a fire.

There’s a triangle of combustion like that in advertising: message, delivery, and engagement. Getting that triangle right will light a fire under your sales. Message is fuel, delivery is oxygen, and engagement generates heat. Ignition comes at the moment of conversion, when a visitor becomes a customer.Continue Reading

Three steps for creating effective videos

Your website is a two-dimensional experience of words and pictures. Design alone can’t add the third human dimension made possible when you add video.

Video opens a window into your business that connects you face-to-face with visitors. But, be warned: bad video is worse than none at all. Concentrate on these three basics to create a video that makes a positive contribution to your site:Continue Reading

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