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Taking a fresh slant

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Interactivity is the sweet treat that lures repeated visitors to your site earning you increased impressions.
The degree to which you’re willing to cede some measure of control to the consumer will be reflected in their level of commitment to you. This is the new reality.

When you’re able to interact, you’re creating something all your own. When you allow your customers to do so, every experience of your business becomes a custom-tailored one. Whether it’s an option to arrange the page in a way that suits them, or create a customized landing experience for returned visits, user-crafting creates a sense of connection and ownership.

There are ways to begin a dialog that don’t require major surgery to your site. By co-opting existing resources available on the web, you can create a hipper user experience. For instance, visitors can’t resist a poll. They vote, they see their result. And, you get constituent credibility by asking their opinion.

There are resources for creating your own online poll. We like Survey Monkey. It’s clean, easy to use and provides easy-to-read results–even for the math challenged. (like moi) You can use it free and try it out; for a full functionality you’ll have to subscribe.

I found a new little gem you can embed on your site: slanty is still in beta, but has great promise. It’s slick looking and returns immediate feedback to the user. And, because it’s as easy to embed as a YouTube video, integrating it into your web experience is a piece of cake. Here’s an example:


There are dozens of resources like this out there. I’ve tested many and narrowed down to some I find effective without diminishing your messaging alignment. Creating a shared experience is only the most important thing you can do to build results on your site. Let me know if we can help.

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Click now or the dog gets it

Picture_5 Carnival barkers stand outside tents along the midway calling out, luring you to just step inside and see…
"Click bait" is their cyber-equivalent. It’s a website link that gets attention, piques curiosity and draws you to click through just to see what’s on the other side.

News sites like CNN and USA Today are rich with click bait. So much so that someone has created a blog of some of the best examples. WTFCNN is funny on the surface and illustrative on a deeper level. This is what it takes to draw people into and through your site.

It’s easy to scoff at click bait, the same way you laugh at Dancing With The Stars–after watching it all season. The purpose of your site is to draw visitors into a deeper relationship. Using click bait helps that happen if, for no other reason, to satisfy their curiosity. Understanding what makes visitors click and writing with that in mind magnetizes your copy, bringing your core messaging into alignment.

Have a laugh. Learn a lesson. Are you baiting visitors? Or, simply giving them choices.

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Choose who to lose

A white-knuckled fist coming toward you tends to make other things vanish from your thoughts. In that moment, nothing else really matters; avoiding injury is paramount. You choose to lose other thoughts and get really focused.

Good advertising is a white-knuckled fist that pushes other thoughts and ideas out of your head. And just like swinging a fist, you can’t hit everyone all at once. You have to choose who to lose: one fist, one target. It’s as much about who WON’T get hit as who WILL feel the blunt-force trauma of your message.

Mike Huckabee gets it. Oh my, does he get it. Wrapped in sweetness, warmth, and divine love, his message cuts through the clutter by uttering the ultimate code word: Christ. With six letters, he takes direct aim at his core.

Your ad should be this good. It’s not flashy. It’s just flat good. Watch it and learn:

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Hanging up pay phones

Payphone
Soon the only place you’ll see a coin-operated phone is in the past. AT&T has decided to ditch the business at the end of 2008. The total number of pay phones have halved since 1998 when BellSouth exited. Today, AT&T owns and operates public pay phones in 13 states. Cell mobility is the culprit. Cell use has quadrupled in the past decade and about 80 percent of people in the U.S. now have mobile phones, according to CTIA–The Wireless Association.

While the overt loss in vanishing pay phones means increasing use of cell phones, a more discrete change is the growing shift toward "third screen" content: advertising and entertainment content targeted to cell phones. Third-screen messaging has all the advantages of online marketing with the added impact of personal delivery on a mobile device.

It’s been over 118 years since the first coin-operated phone was installed in Chicago and only a few groups are showing any sign of concern; the Justice League of America calls it "a national crisis." Maybe someone should give those folks a quarter to call someone who cares–if they can find a pay phone.

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Your intrepid correspondent

I head both MogerMedia, Inc. and Wizard of Ads Gulf Coast, based in Houston, Texas. We develop winning advertising strategies and creative for the best clients on earth.

Grooveyard of posts past

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