• by Jay Bower , February 14, 2008

Mark Twain once wrote "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."

As marketers, I think that rings particularly true for all of us. So in that spirit let me wish you all a prosperous year of testing everything you think you know for sure. You may find, as we often have, there are exciting new opportunities available.

Ok, enough business philosophy. Here's the latest:

What's working?

1. Short, conversational text for web sites. Communicate the way the best news sites do: provide a headline, a one sentence summary, and more content to link to. Let prospects decide how deep they want to dive.

2. Sitelets designed to convert specific pockets of web traffic. Sounds simple and obvious, but very few firms are doing this well.

3. Advisory boards. Invite your customers to tell you what to do. They'll love it.

4. Old-fashioned direct mail. Have you a noticed a big drop in mail volume as businesses quickly shift spend to online media? Well the smart, contrarian marketers see this shift as the opportunity it is.

5. Contextual conversations. Start conversations with and among your customers and prospects based on the many things they do and tell you. Stupid simple right?

What's not?

1. Talking about yourself (ironic, no?): Inside out, product- and feature focused creative messaging will turn off not only your prospects, but customers too.

2. Short copy in business-to-consumer email and long copy in business-to-business email and mail.

3. One-size-fits-all customer communications. You know what the differences between your customers is. But many don't incorporate these differences into creative.

4. Online image advertising without a loud and clear call to action (= digital wallpaper).

5. Pronouns (kidding...)

Bower is president of Crossbow Group, LLC in Westport, Conn. He can be reached at jbower@crossbowgroup.com