Christmas
Is it related to writing?
Of course it is! Many writers drew some of their best and-or earliest inspiration from a variety of holidays, most notably Thanksgiving and Christmas. From Dickens' "Christmas Carol" to Earl Hamner, Jr.'s "The Homecoming" which became the basis of "The Waltons" television series, writers galore have drawn their inspiration for certain stories from Christmas. Myself included, in some early amateur press material.
I haven't yet made a story of it: not enough 'percolating' time yet; but I did want to share my lovely Christmas Eve experience in the blog.
I had decided a week or two ago, having recently qualified conditionally for the local transportation service for elderly or disabled people under certain circumstances, to go to the parish I had belonged to during a prior tenancy to the place I'm living now. One of those qualifications was distance; so the trip automatically qualified as long as I could pay the minimal fare.
The pastor had gotten the inspiration some weeks back not to hold the 4:00 p.m. Christmas Eve Mass at the church: overflow had been a problem even with two Mass venues in the past. He had arranged with the local high school to use their Field House for the Mass at 4:00 on Christmas Eve.
A lovely Mass it was, too. Of those visible, and one suspects there were those who weren't visible, I figured there were at least 112 people actively involved in presenting this Mass. Between greeters and ushers there were probably thirty. Two priests, a deacon, two lectors, at least one altar server. An adult choir with at least 12 members; children's choir about the same number, and about twenty kids ranging from about six to about sixteen years of age in a silent skit.
The organizers of the liturgy had arranged for the Gospel to be read (by the Deacon) in four segments. In between the segments, the combined adult and children's choirs sang an appropriate verse of a well-known Christmas song. As they did, other young people in costumes processed down the center aisle and took places in front of the altar: Mary and Joseph with a baby doll placed in a lined cardboard box, shepherds, a sacristan with a star on a pole, a troop of angels, and finally the Wise Men.
The venue made for a relaxed atmosphere wherein the youngest children could walk around or gather for ring dances while being far enough away not to distract the clergy on the altar.
It was a beautiful and very spiritual service. Everyone was in an appropriately spiritual mood.
Even the pastor was a bit "blown away." [His words.] Though he had anticipated a crowd sufficient to book this venue, he had not anticipated a crowd of the size that actually did turn out. Some of which may have been overflow from the neighboring parish, which turns people away when it becomes a fire safety issue of overcrowding.
The estimate of attendees was about 1500; and having not estimated that much there was standing room only for about 400 people, since it was too late to lower the bleachers on the side of the stadium that they had not done in advance. Even with bleachers on one side and seating on the floor for about 400 people unable to use bleachers, they still had about 400 people in SRO status: although any of those could have chosen to sit Indian-style on the floor for which there was plenty of room.
What a superbly spiritual way to start out a Christmas Day!
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Friday, December 20, 2013
Time (Past Time) for an Update
Obviously, I’ve not done well keeping up with this blog once
again. I’ve had a number of situations
going on in my life dating back about a year, and it’s kept me from getting to
everything I should get to.
Some of the things I’ve been involved in, writing-wise, have led me to decide that it’s going to be to my advantage to update this blog before another weekend begins.
In that sense, I’m effectively getting a jump on my ‘New Year’s
resolutions’ process. I decided that the
thing to do is get at least an update entry on the blog, and then spend part of
the weekend going through my at-home resources looking for other possible
topics for this blog to write up for posting over the course of the next few
weeks.
I don’t actually do, per se, New Year’s resolutions. What I do is what I call a “look back/look
ahead” where I try to evaluate where I’ve been and where I’m headed at the new
year (approximately) compared with the previous start of the year. It’s often a journaling based exercise, and
if often takes a month or so to do thoroughly.
One of the easiest blog entries to do, of course, is some sort of book
or website review on a topic related to writing or the teaching of writing
skills. At this particular time, I am
exploring some opportunities to do such reviews for websites that pay for guest
posts of a review nature. Not every book
I’ve encountered lately is likely to be suited for submission to such markets,
of course, but I need to spend some time looking through what I have and sorting
out what to review for which website – including this blog.
I hope to do that this weekend, as well as some other activities that I
hope will lead to additional blog posts for this blog and other ideas for
various other websites I hope to participate with in the upcoming weeks. For me, in a sense, this harkens back to my
earliest days as a ‘working’ writer:
which in this case means writing in ‘professional approach’ manner to
get my first few credentials as a writer.
I’ve always been one to look at what I have to work with and set some
goals based on that, then follow through on the production and submission
aspects of that.
It’s a good time of the year to reinstate that habit. Hopefully, the result – or at least a part of
it – is that I’ll have some blog entries for readers soon.
Friday, August 23, 2013
Well, it's past time for another post to the blog.
Let's see how well I do on making them somewhat regularly over the next interval.
I went back through the blog to see what kinds of things I had covered with intent to do additional coverage to initial entries.
I found a couple of items that I might want to write some further detail on. Most notably, of course, is the series of pieces I wanted to do targetted to language learning for non-native speakers. However, I don't believe I have the available research time today to pull the next one of those together. Maybe next week.
And, I may have an incentive to do more on that, in that I met someone who teaches adult ESL learners who are at a very fundamental level and who has also shown an interest in reading my written work at many different levels. I'm sure she'd be interested to look at my prior entries on that subject, and some upcoming ones as well.
What I do have time today to address is something that I found interesting in a juxtaposition of some recent reading of mine (although I believe the book is at least five or six years old), and an entry I did some time back in this blog that dealt with factors in English language learning generally. The entry addressed the fact that as a general rule, children acquire greater English language proficiency sooner the higher the level of proficiency of adults (and older, such as teenage, children also in the home, as well) in their home environment. However, the salient point of that entry was that of a potential counter-current circumstance to that general rule. That factor was that children in a home environment in which the adults had a lesser English language proficiency than in another home environment, but the lesser proficiency language skills home atmosphere was one of valuing and encouraging communications would tend to produce higher English language skills in the children in that home than would result in the children raised in a home where the parents had higher language skills themselves but discouraged or even failed to actively encourage communications in their children.
I came across something in a book I've read in just the past few days, and which raises some interesting reflections for today's language proficiency development circumstances.
Another factor besides exposure and attitude that figures in the proficiency development of English language learners in terms of those learning the language as children.
It was, as much of my recent reading has been, a romance. I read both contemporary and historical romance; and this one was a historical.
The female protagonist, at the outset, earns her living as a traveling seamstress on the frontier. She basically sets up a route of families that she visits to help out with
the family sewing twice each year. She ventures out onto her route, and she spends about a week with each family, bringing not only her sewing skills at a more refined level than the frontier women can bring to their day-to-day sewing, but feminine companionship to isolated 'women of the home' for a brief interval, and news -- usually several weeks to months old -- from the various other outposts the seamstress has passed through on her route.
An interesting observation that the female protagonist of the book makes, and of which the underlying principle has pertinence to our day, is that what the seamstress has
discovered is that the literacy level of the children is at a higher level in frontier children living in near-isolation on remote farms and ranches than it is among comparably aged children in the larger cities.
This at first blush seems rather counter-intuitive.
After all, we would anticipate that the cities would have better schools, better teachers, and so on. Wouldn't we?
That is not, however, the essential factor.
What the seamstress has observed is far more fundamental.
In the cities, there are more opportunities for all kinds of activities. There are other children about to play with; and for the adults there are activities like sports,
concerts, and plays to attend.
To be sure, there are going to be exceptions based upon the values of an individual family, as a book like "Little Women" illustrates by portraying a family of young girls with very high language skills despite the fact that they live in Concord, Massachusetts which was then and is now a cultural mecca with a wealth of potential social and cultural activities. The parents in that family valued learning highly; and saw to it that it was given its proper due in the efforts of the four young girls in the family.
Yet, in terms of general populations, what the seamstress had discovered was that the reason that the literacy level among children living on remote farms and ranches was higher than it was among children in households inside the cities was quite fundamental.
They had more time, because they had fewer options about where to spend that time, and they therefore funneled more of that available time into their learning. And, associated with that, they had fewer outside contacts, so the parent-child communications interactions generally tended to be higher, also encouraging the children by ensuring that much communication back-and-forth passed between parents and children and as the family grew also between older children and younger children.
This ties into what writers with whom I have exchanged communications at various times and myself have observed.
Writers, after all, have a stake in having readers at least potentially available to read their material. So, literacy levels, cause and effect relating to literacy levels, and
similar issues have great interest to writers.
And I've been invovled in more than one discussion relating to the fact that in today's world there are so many activities, or potential activities, that distract from the time
given to learning effective English communications skills.
It's not always a lack of communication, but the style of communication. Texting shorthand is a primary example.
Texting is communication. But it discourages learning real proficiency. I've read more than one posting from employers trying to recruit referring to the employer being
utterly appalled at the level of "text speak" many candidates use today in their cover letters.
Employers regard such usage as highly improper in business communications, yet many younger people today who effectively learned their most dominant English language skills in terms of "text speak" appear, at least, unable to make any distinction whatsoever between "text speak" and proper English. Even proper informal English.
Truly appalling, sometimes one even runs across people of this sort who profess an intent to go into some form of professional writing, including professional business writing.
They simply have spent too much time using "short cut" and "short hand" versions of communications in comparison to learning "the genuine article," so to speak.
Presumably, since you will find exceptions in children whose home environment still demands they dedicate appropriate time to learning correct English language skills, this is in part a default on the part of the parents who neither make themselves adequately available nor monitor their children's forms of language experience nor the outcome of them.
Apart from that difficulty, there are also so many other activities that form what writers describe as a "time suck" against the potential learning time the children might apply
to learning the correct forms of English -- both written and spoken.
Many of today's youth spend time participating in everything from sports, to music lessons, to video games, to extensive televison viewing.
Something has to give, and too often it's learning in general and English language skills learning experiences in particular.
There is, therefore, a lesson in the past from that fictional seamstress's experience that we can apply to today's language skills learning environment.
If we would have children achieve superior levels of English language proficiency, then those who influence those children's activities must ensure that the time required to accomplish that gets invested into the appropriate activities to make that happen.
Although other reasons are normally given among families who homeschool, I suspect that for some of them this is a significant factor in making that decision. By removing the children from the often frenetic social environment of a brick-and-mortar school, especially a public school, they remove some of the distractions and time drains that reduce the time and parental communications interest that otherwise can be more efficiently invested in learning activities geared towards enhancing the children's proficiency in English language skills.
Skills, that is, in "proper" English.
e8acaa094b68bf0b54bd3c343b4d20a76c1e4fcd82ca118186
Let's see how well I do on making them somewhat regularly over the next interval.
I went back through the blog to see what kinds of things I had covered with intent to do additional coverage to initial entries.
I found a couple of items that I might want to write some further detail on. Most notably, of course, is the series of pieces I wanted to do targetted to language learning for non-native speakers. However, I don't believe I have the available research time today to pull the next one of those together. Maybe next week.
And, I may have an incentive to do more on that, in that I met someone who teaches adult ESL learners who are at a very fundamental level and who has also shown an interest in reading my written work at many different levels. I'm sure she'd be interested to look at my prior entries on that subject, and some upcoming ones as well.
What I do have time today to address is something that I found interesting in a juxtaposition of some recent reading of mine (although I believe the book is at least five or six years old), and an entry I did some time back in this blog that dealt with factors in English language learning generally. The entry addressed the fact that as a general rule, children acquire greater English language proficiency sooner the higher the level of proficiency of adults (and older, such as teenage, children also in the home, as well) in their home environment. However, the salient point of that entry was that of a potential counter-current circumstance to that general rule. That factor was that children in a home environment in which the adults had a lesser English language proficiency than in another home environment, but the lesser proficiency language skills home atmosphere was one of valuing and encouraging communications would tend to produce higher English language skills in the children in that home than would result in the children raised in a home where the parents had higher language skills themselves but discouraged or even failed to actively encourage communications in their children.
I came across something in a book I've read in just the past few days, and which raises some interesting reflections for today's language proficiency development circumstances.
Another factor besides exposure and attitude that figures in the proficiency development of English language learners in terms of those learning the language as children.
It was, as much of my recent reading has been, a romance. I read both contemporary and historical romance; and this one was a historical.
The female protagonist, at the outset, earns her living as a traveling seamstress on the frontier. She basically sets up a route of families that she visits to help out with
the family sewing twice each year. She ventures out onto her route, and she spends about a week with each family, bringing not only her sewing skills at a more refined level than the frontier women can bring to their day-to-day sewing, but feminine companionship to isolated 'women of the home' for a brief interval, and news -- usually several weeks to months old -- from the various other outposts the seamstress has passed through on her route.
An interesting observation that the female protagonist of the book makes, and of which the underlying principle has pertinence to our day, is that what the seamstress has
discovered is that the literacy level of the children is at a higher level in frontier children living in near-isolation on remote farms and ranches than it is among comparably aged children in the larger cities.
This at first blush seems rather counter-intuitive.
After all, we would anticipate that the cities would have better schools, better teachers, and so on. Wouldn't we?
That is not, however, the essential factor.
What the seamstress has observed is far more fundamental.
In the cities, there are more opportunities for all kinds of activities. There are other children about to play with; and for the adults there are activities like sports,
concerts, and plays to attend.
To be sure, there are going to be exceptions based upon the values of an individual family, as a book like "Little Women" illustrates by portraying a family of young girls with very high language skills despite the fact that they live in Concord, Massachusetts which was then and is now a cultural mecca with a wealth of potential social and cultural activities. The parents in that family valued learning highly; and saw to it that it was given its proper due in the efforts of the four young girls in the family.
Yet, in terms of general populations, what the seamstress had discovered was that the reason that the literacy level among children living on remote farms and ranches was higher than it was among children in households inside the cities was quite fundamental.
They had more time, because they had fewer options about where to spend that time, and they therefore funneled more of that available time into their learning. And, associated with that, they had fewer outside contacts, so the parent-child communications interactions generally tended to be higher, also encouraging the children by ensuring that much communication back-and-forth passed between parents and children and as the family grew also between older children and younger children.
This ties into what writers with whom I have exchanged communications at various times and myself have observed.
Writers, after all, have a stake in having readers at least potentially available to read their material. So, literacy levels, cause and effect relating to literacy levels, and
similar issues have great interest to writers.
And I've been invovled in more than one discussion relating to the fact that in today's world there are so many activities, or potential activities, that distract from the time
given to learning effective English communications skills.
It's not always a lack of communication, but the style of communication. Texting shorthand is a primary example.
Texting is communication. But it discourages learning real proficiency. I've read more than one posting from employers trying to recruit referring to the employer being
utterly appalled at the level of "text speak" many candidates use today in their cover letters.
Employers regard such usage as highly improper in business communications, yet many younger people today who effectively learned their most dominant English language skills in terms of "text speak" appear, at least, unable to make any distinction whatsoever between "text speak" and proper English. Even proper informal English.
Truly appalling, sometimes one even runs across people of this sort who profess an intent to go into some form of professional writing, including professional business writing.
They simply have spent too much time using "short cut" and "short hand" versions of communications in comparison to learning "the genuine article," so to speak.
Presumably, since you will find exceptions in children whose home environment still demands they dedicate appropriate time to learning correct English language skills, this is in part a default on the part of the parents who neither make themselves adequately available nor monitor their children's forms of language experience nor the outcome of them.
Apart from that difficulty, there are also so many other activities that form what writers describe as a "time suck" against the potential learning time the children might apply
to learning the correct forms of English -- both written and spoken.
Many of today's youth spend time participating in everything from sports, to music lessons, to video games, to extensive televison viewing.
Something has to give, and too often it's learning in general and English language skills learning experiences in particular.
There is, therefore, a lesson in the past from that fictional seamstress's experience that we can apply to today's language skills learning environment.
If we would have children achieve superior levels of English language proficiency, then those who influence those children's activities must ensure that the time required to accomplish that gets invested into the appropriate activities to make that happen.
Although other reasons are normally given among families who homeschool, I suspect that for some of them this is a significant factor in making that decision. By removing the children from the often frenetic social environment of a brick-and-mortar school, especially a public school, they remove some of the distractions and time drains that reduce the time and parental communications interest that otherwise can be more efficiently invested in learning activities geared towards enhancing the children's proficiency in English language skills.
Skills, that is, in "proper" English.
e8acaa094b68bf0b54bd3c343b4d20a76c1e4fcd82ca118186
Saturday, March 30, 2013
What, Precisely, is the Point?
This post relates to the prior entry in an obscure way; and also the general idea of Public [i.e., Customer] relations and good marketing strategy.
In the sense of: "value."
I've been doing a great deal of looking for "value" lately, given my rather traumatic relocation circumstances.
This can be about buying a used car, or finding 'good stuff cheap.'
I've done well on what we might call 'higher end' or 'big ticket' items at one of the local chains of dollar stores.
However, in patronizing this chain [there are two locations in the city I'm now in alone, and several others in surrounding towns], something struck me when I went there for smaller and arguably 'more essential' elements such as food stuffs.
To me, when you go to a "dollar store" you expect a discounted price [and I mean by more than a few pennies] in comparison to what you would find in more traditional vendors of the product nearby the location of the dollar store you are shopping.
It struck me as I 'cased' the food aisle of the local dollar store: it seems to me in the long-ago-and-far-away days when I was shopping grocery stores for food for myself [all of twelve weeks back and two towns away] that the prices at the grocery store were little if any higher than those at this particular dollar store for the same or at least very similar items; but in some cases [such as those non-frozen 'tv dinners] the prices at the dollar store were actually a few pennies HIGHER than what I remember paying last at the local grocery store.
And, in fact, having picked up a few for on-site lunches at my current on-site job, though I'm relying on memory I'm pretty sure that for that item my memory is fairly accurate.
Now, various things affect pricing and that includes that, counter-intuitively, stores in low-income neighborhoods tend to have higher prices than a location of the same chain
in a more affluent neighboring town might have [because of "shrinkage" due to high shoplifting rates], and I may have picked up my "prepared dinners" at the location halfway between here and the job site.
But I'm pretty sure I picked up at least one right here in town.
So, I'm wondering: if the pricing is the same as, higher, or so minimal in cost from the actual grocery store down the street for these kinds of products, what is the point of categorizing oneself as a "dollar store"?
Another of life's little mysteries, I suppose.
In the sense of: "value."
I've been doing a great deal of looking for "value" lately, given my rather traumatic relocation circumstances.
This can be about buying a used car, or finding 'good stuff cheap.'
I've done well on what we might call 'higher end' or 'big ticket' items at one of the local chains of dollar stores.
However, in patronizing this chain [there are two locations in the city I'm now in alone, and several others in surrounding towns], something struck me when I went there for smaller and arguably 'more essential' elements such as food stuffs.
To me, when you go to a "dollar store" you expect a discounted price [and I mean by more than a few pennies] in comparison to what you would find in more traditional vendors of the product nearby the location of the dollar store you are shopping.
It struck me as I 'cased' the food aisle of the local dollar store: it seems to me in the long-ago-and-far-away days when I was shopping grocery stores for food for myself [all of twelve weeks back and two towns away] that the prices at the grocery store were little if any higher than those at this particular dollar store for the same or at least very similar items; but in some cases [such as those non-frozen 'tv dinners] the prices at the dollar store were actually a few pennies HIGHER than what I remember paying last at the local grocery store.
And, in fact, having picked up a few for on-site lunches at my current on-site job, though I'm relying on memory I'm pretty sure that for that item my memory is fairly accurate.
Now, various things affect pricing and that includes that, counter-intuitively, stores in low-income neighborhoods tend to have higher prices than a location of the same chain
in a more affluent neighboring town might have [because of "shrinkage" due to high shoplifting rates], and I may have picked up my "prepared dinners" at the location halfway between here and the job site.
But I'm pretty sure I picked up at least one right here in town.
So, I'm wondering: if the pricing is the same as, higher, or so minimal in cost from the actual grocery store down the street for these kinds of products, what is the point of categorizing oneself as a "dollar store"?
Another of life's little mysteries, I suppose.
How NOT to use E-mail Marketing . . . . !
How NOT to use E-mail Marketing . . . . !
Naturally, as a writer who has an inclination to get into the marketing/sales/promotional writing area of the industry, I am going to notice what others do in this regard. Especially well-known outfits.
And, this post has something of a 'here we go again' element to it. This blog is called 'Writings, Etc.' Yet, in the relatively recent past, many of my blog posts have had to do with cars -- automobiles -- in one way or another.
Well, there are a variety of reasons for that.
From the point of view of a writer in general, things strike me when they are intriguing, sentimental, and other things of that nature [such as my posts on running across antique cars along the roadway in a few posts just about a year ago. And, for the record, I've yet to encounter that this year.]
From a personal point of view, I had of necessity not only to find a new vehicle when the prior one failed inspection for enough reasons for experts to recommend against putting the money into a car of that age, but -- for budget reasons -- to get something I could acquire without financing and on the cheap.
For what I paid for it, that car has served me well for a little over a year; but with another inspection due, the same sort of thing is coming up now: time to to upgrade at least by a few years, and hopefully a more reliable model as well.
Then, from the writing 'business' point of view: outside my writing as a Technical Writer and my work for the Demand Studios folks [which ranged over a dizzying number of different topics], probably a larger percentage of my freelance work has been in some kind of review writing than it has in any other kind of assignment.
In my observation, there are four primary markets for freelance writing of a 'review' category: 1) food-related, 2) entertainment-related [including books], 3) reviews of a specific industry or industry sub-niche as a whole, and 4) automotive related.
I periodically do book reviews on this blog [and also on Street Articles], just as a matter of personal and professional interest. I don't often have a chance to do food-related reviews, although I have sort of done that but more in a retail client than writing client circumstance. Some of my early freelance work either definitely qualified as "industry niche review" and additional specific articles bordered on doing so.
So, with the personal interest involved with dealing with buying a used car in as restricted circumstances as possible, and then managing the inevitable mechanical issues that followed doing so, an interest in the ins-and-outs of things automotive seemed natural during this past year.
How, readers are wondering at this point, has this anything to do with the title of: "How NOT to use E-mail Marketing . . . . !"
Well, near the start I mentioned that I'm again looking for a car in circumstance where the chances are good it will need to be a cash sale -- though things have improved in various other ways in a little over the year since I bought the current model.
I started putting out Internet feelers as soon as I decided that the need for a replacement was on the horizon. [This being the fourth area mentioned in my immediately preceding post as to where my Interent time has gone in these last about 12 weeks.]
Mostly, I get only very 'canned' responses, with things like lists of various bargains around the area. And that's not the part I'm dissing, here.
I have opened a couple of those e-mails, and if I were ready to make a move right now [as opposed to a month or two from now], I'd be contacing those folks about some of those potential deals.
The series of contacts that set me off on this topic is a series of contacts from a local dealer.
A dealer who evidently can't keep any track at all of contact history with a prospect.
I actually went so far as to talk on the phone with them about what I wanted [a used ideally Toyota approximately 8 years old or less at a really good price; and probably cash but if they COULD get financing for me I'd do it].
That sales rep assured me that financing even unusual situations like mine was likely [I've heard THAT before!], and that he'd have a result of that inquiry by the end of that same day.
It was late enough in the day I thought next day was reasonable.
After that, I didn't hear anything at all from the dealership for about 6 weeks; and because I was wrapping up stuff with one client and ramping up with another client at the time, I didn't follow up.
A few weeks ago, I began getting e-mail marketing again from this same dealership.
I had gone from being interested in a used to a new Toyota; no one said anything about a financing decision, and the e-mails came from two different people with the second of them referring in the subject line to the guy who was going to look into the financing --
In other words, this dealership: 1) got EVERYTHING wrong, 2) didn't do the basic follow-up to a contact you expect as a minimal indication of competence from ANY vendor in ANY industry, and 3) looked as though they had never really communicated with me personally at all, when they had.
I've been in retail in a variety of capacities, including training in sales-oriented writing and some work as a telemarketer.
The purpose of e-mail marketing is to engage a prospect [at least one writer calls a pre-qualification prospect more of a 'suspect', actually.]
It's also a long-standing adage of salesworthy marketing efforts that goes back to door-to-door, Fuller Brush sales, days that the best and fastest way to lose such 'engagement' is to fail to put the prospect [and hopefully eventually customer] in a customer-centric, or priority, position.
Making the customer feel as though you haven't the most basic skills of tracking the history or your interaction with that customer during the marketing and sales process is a losing game.
As such, this particular local vendor precisely exemplifies the title of this blog post: "How NOT to use E-mail Marketing . . . . !"
Naturally, as a writer who has an inclination to get into the marketing/sales/promotional writing area of the industry, I am going to notice what others do in this regard. Especially well-known outfits.
And, this post has something of a 'here we go again' element to it. This blog is called 'Writings, Etc.' Yet, in the relatively recent past, many of my blog posts have had to do with cars -- automobiles -- in one way or another.
Well, there are a variety of reasons for that.
From the point of view of a writer in general, things strike me when they are intriguing, sentimental, and other things of that nature [such as my posts on running across antique cars along the roadway in a few posts just about a year ago. And, for the record, I've yet to encounter that this year.]
From a personal point of view, I had of necessity not only to find a new vehicle when the prior one failed inspection for enough reasons for experts to recommend against putting the money into a car of that age, but -- for budget reasons -- to get something I could acquire without financing and on the cheap.
For what I paid for it, that car has served me well for a little over a year; but with another inspection due, the same sort of thing is coming up now: time to to upgrade at least by a few years, and hopefully a more reliable model as well.
Then, from the writing 'business' point of view: outside my writing as a Technical Writer and my work for the Demand Studios folks [which ranged over a dizzying number of different topics], probably a larger percentage of my freelance work has been in some kind of review writing than it has in any other kind of assignment.
In my observation, there are four primary markets for freelance writing of a 'review' category: 1) food-related, 2) entertainment-related [including books], 3) reviews of a specific industry or industry sub-niche as a whole, and 4) automotive related.
I periodically do book reviews on this blog [and also on Street Articles], just as a matter of personal and professional interest. I don't often have a chance to do food-related reviews, although I have sort of done that but more in a retail client than writing client circumstance. Some of my early freelance work either definitely qualified as "industry niche review" and additional specific articles bordered on doing so.
So, with the personal interest involved with dealing with buying a used car in as restricted circumstances as possible, and then managing the inevitable mechanical issues that followed doing so, an interest in the ins-and-outs of things automotive seemed natural during this past year.
How, readers are wondering at this point, has this anything to do with the title of: "How NOT to use E-mail Marketing . . . . !"
Well, near the start I mentioned that I'm again looking for a car in circumstance where the chances are good it will need to be a cash sale -- though things have improved in various other ways in a little over the year since I bought the current model.
I started putting out Internet feelers as soon as I decided that the need for a replacement was on the horizon. [This being the fourth area mentioned in my immediately preceding post as to where my Interent time has gone in these last about 12 weeks.]
Mostly, I get only very 'canned' responses, with things like lists of various bargains around the area. And that's not the part I'm dissing, here.
I have opened a couple of those e-mails, and if I were ready to make a move right now [as opposed to a month or two from now], I'd be contacing those folks about some of those potential deals.
The series of contacts that set me off on this topic is a series of contacts from a local dealer.
A dealer who evidently can't keep any track at all of contact history with a prospect.
I actually went so far as to talk on the phone with them about what I wanted [a used ideally Toyota approximately 8 years old or less at a really good price; and probably cash but if they COULD get financing for me I'd do it].
That sales rep assured me that financing even unusual situations like mine was likely [I've heard THAT before!], and that he'd have a result of that inquiry by the end of that same day.
It was late enough in the day I thought next day was reasonable.
After that, I didn't hear anything at all from the dealership for about 6 weeks; and because I was wrapping up stuff with one client and ramping up with another client at the time, I didn't follow up.
A few weeks ago, I began getting e-mail marketing again from this same dealership.
I had gone from being interested in a used to a new Toyota; no one said anything about a financing decision, and the e-mails came from two different people with the second of them referring in the subject line to the guy who was going to look into the financing --
In other words, this dealership: 1) got EVERYTHING wrong, 2) didn't do the basic follow-up to a contact you expect as a minimal indication of competence from ANY vendor in ANY industry, and 3) looked as though they had never really communicated with me personally at all, when they had.
I've been in retail in a variety of capacities, including training in sales-oriented writing and some work as a telemarketer.
The purpose of e-mail marketing is to engage a prospect [at least one writer calls a pre-qualification prospect more of a 'suspect', actually.]
It's also a long-standing adage of salesworthy marketing efforts that goes back to door-to-door, Fuller Brush sales, days that the best and fastest way to lose such 'engagement' is to fail to put the prospect [and hopefully eventually customer] in a customer-centric, or priority, position.
Making the customer feel as though you haven't the most basic skills of tracking the history or your interaction with that customer during the marketing and sales process is a losing game.
As such, this particular local vendor precisely exemplifies the title of this blog post: "How NOT to use E-mail Marketing . . . . !"
Catching Up
Well, due to circumstances, I'm going to do two -- maybe even three -- posts one right
after the other, after a prolonged absence from this blog.
The third will depend on if I have time on public computers before everyone closes for the Easter holiday.
The first is the 'catch up' that gives some information on my absence since my last post. This has been more necessity than desire (such absence.)
And, this post will not go into detail, because that gets more personal than I feel comfortable with at this time.
The bottom line is that I have just moved to a new location. Indeed, I have only nominally 'moved,' since circumstances necessitated getting into a location without the benefit of things like furnishings or even a budget for such appointments to the new place. I have some minimal things, but minimal they are.
I have actually been displaced from my prior location, living in a series of different temporary quarters, for approximately 12 weeks, during which time I had immediate access to Internet from a, so-to-speak, 'home base' only for the first two or three weeks.
So, I have been relying on public computers. Fortunately, the general community location where I am offers a variety of such public locations where I can do so.
Combined with that, much of what time I did have available on computers went into work search, housing search, and dealing with communications with paying clients or potential paying clients, and a fourth area we'll leave for one of the two posts I have planned as immediately following this one as possible.
On the up side, I'm happy to report that I currently have full-time or near-full time project work, and three freelance clients [two in writing and one in merchandising] with varying levels of activity needed by each of them.
Overall, the relocation circumstances have been rather traumatic, and I haven't had time or energy to work through that aspect as yet. I don't want to go into detail, but suffice it to say there are some legalities involved in the overall situation.
It is nice to finally be in a place where I can relax, unwind, do some cooking, and that sort of thing.
This year, that was a nice Easter bonus.
I will be online directly at home soon, and in the interim and able to access several different facilities with public computers sufficient to my immediate needs for my existing clients.
However, it will be a couple more weeks or so before all that gets fully squared away.
after the other, after a prolonged absence from this blog.
The third will depend on if I have time on public computers before everyone closes for the Easter holiday.
The first is the 'catch up' that gives some information on my absence since my last post. This has been more necessity than desire (such absence.)
And, this post will not go into detail, because that gets more personal than I feel comfortable with at this time.
The bottom line is that I have just moved to a new location. Indeed, I have only nominally 'moved,' since circumstances necessitated getting into a location without the benefit of things like furnishings or even a budget for such appointments to the new place. I have some minimal things, but minimal they are.
I have actually been displaced from my prior location, living in a series of different temporary quarters, for approximately 12 weeks, during which time I had immediate access to Internet from a, so-to-speak, 'home base' only for the first two or three weeks.
So, I have been relying on public computers. Fortunately, the general community location where I am offers a variety of such public locations where I can do so.
Combined with that, much of what time I did have available on computers went into work search, housing search, and dealing with communications with paying clients or potential paying clients, and a fourth area we'll leave for one of the two posts I have planned as immediately following this one as possible.
On the up side, I'm happy to report that I currently have full-time or near-full time project work, and three freelance clients [two in writing and one in merchandising] with varying levels of activity needed by each of them.
Overall, the relocation circumstances have been rather traumatic, and I haven't had time or energy to work through that aspect as yet. I don't want to go into detail, but suffice it to say there are some legalities involved in the overall situation.
It is nice to finally be in a place where I can relax, unwind, do some cooking, and that sort of thing.
This year, that was a nice Easter bonus.
I will be online directly at home soon, and in the interim and able to access several different facilities with public computers sufficient to my immediate needs for my existing clients.
However, it will be a couple more weeks or so before all that gets fully squared away.
Monday, January 14, 2013
GMC/Buick
GMC provides an example of a U.S. Based automobile manufacturer that during the 2012 and into the 2013 calendar and model years that has taken a streamlining, and more focused approach within the line overall.
The company made news during 2012 with one of major steps in this process. GMC eliminated three of its sub-lines of vehicles. In what initially came as a surprise move to industry observers, GMC dropped the Pontiac, the Oldsmobile, and the Saturn vehicle brands.
While the remaining GMC sub-brands all generally seemed to benefit somewhat degree from this streamlining of focus within the GMC line, the bulk of advantage seemed to go to the Buick brand vehicles in general and to a couple specific models in particular.
Buick, in comparison with other automobile brands – both foreign and domestic – made limited technical changes to its existing models between 2012 and 2013 model years. So far as Buick did make modifications to the vehicles, the streamlined focus as evaluated by automobile industry professional observers went into improvements in two primary areas and most of those improvements focused on the interior of the vehicles. The emphasis in terms of modification to existing Buick models went primarily towards improvements in passenger comfort and improvements in passenger safety elements of the vehicles.
Industry observers, in trying to retroactively figure out GMC's objectives in eliminating three brand families and re-directing the company's more narrowly defined focus in the the Buick family vehicles, generally concluded that GMC had a coherent vision of its overall objectives in linking its improvements to a definable market strategy.
The two Buick brand models that benefited the most out of the streamlining within the GMC family of vehicle brands involved the Enclave and the Verano.
Automotive industry observers classify the Enclave into the category of a luxury, mid-sized, SUV. Industry observers classify the Verano into the compact category of vehicles. While it would seem that this category determination would put the Enclave closer to the earlier roots of the Buick line that traditionally incorporated luxury level models, that's not altogether the case. Observers make note that that Buick has designed the compact Verano model more as a somewhat scaled down Regal luxury model vehicle than a somewhat scaled up Cruze compact model.
Overall, the GMC streamlining and Buick brand vehicle model modification strategies revealed the general marketing and sales objectives for the Buick brand line. GMC and the Buick sub-brand sought to obtain market share in two particular consumer categories: attracting purchasers in a younger age demographic and attracting purchasers away from competitors, or what professional industry observers refer to as “conquest purchasers.”
Towards the end of 2012 and into the start of the 2013 model and calendar years, the sales figures suggested that the GMC brand streamlining strategy combined with the Buick brand modification and marketing strategies had begun to show precisely those types of sales results.
For more information on Buick's or GMC's currently available models, or to take a test drive of any Buick vehicle, contact our local dealership such as South Florida's Williamson Buick Dealership.
Reference:
Buick Enhances Enclave, Verano for 2013, Car Review Soup, http://www.carreviewsoup.com/buick-enhances-enclave-verano-for-2013
[Other references gathered in too many bits and pieces to include.]
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