Talon Mailing & Marketing

561 Acorn Street
Deer Park, NY 11729

(631) 667-5500

www.talon-mailing.com

Welcome to the Talon Mailing & Marketing September 2020 Newsletter.

To view this newsletter using your Internet browser click here:

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Five Ways to Use Metaphors to Create Irresistible Copy

By Brian Clar, Copyblogger.com

Headlines whiz by in a blur of mundane language, until you hit a heading that stops you dead in your tracks and plants a visual in your brain that prompts you to investigate further.

That's the power of a metaphor in a headline.

Let’s take a look at five examples of how you can use metaphorical expressions to spice up your writing.

Metaphors can turbo-charge just about any element of an article, from the title down to the close. You might even design an entire piece of content around an ongoing metaphorical theme.

1. Headlines

Imagine yourself blazing quickly through your news app or email inbox.

Article titles and subject lines whiz by in a blur of mundane language, until you hit a heading that stops you dead in your tracks and plants a visual in your brain that prompts you to investigate further.

That’s the power of metaphor in a headline.

For examples of titles that employ both metaphor and descriptive beneficial copy, one only has to look at best-selling business books:

• Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
  
• Duct Tape Marketing: The World’s Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide
  
• Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant
  

3. Themes

One might even make an entire post metaphorically themed, from the headline through the close.

In Stefanie’s post, How to Write 16 Knockout Articles When You Only Have One Wimpy Idea, she uses multiple metaphors to compare creating winning content over time to training to be a boxing champ.

You can see how a theme was created around a simile in Weak Email Marketing and Nickelback Have Less in Common than You Might Think.

4. Proof

You know that you should back up your beneficial promises and assertions with hard data and specific facts when attempting to persuade.

Nothing speaks louder than the numbers, and yet the full force and effect of those numbers is often lost on the reader. Metaphors make the numbers relevant, concrete, and memorable.

• How much is a trillion dollars? It’s a stack of thousand dollar bills 67 miles high. (Ronald Reagan’s early 1980s illustration of the national debt — that stack is significantly higher today.)
• We lose one acre of rainforest every second. Imagine a giant invader from space, clomping across the rainforests of the world with football-field-size feet — going boom, boom, boom every second — would we react? That’s essentially what’s going on right now. (Al Gore’s vivid characterization of rainforest loss.)

5. Closers

Metaphors make for great closers because, when well constructed, they provide powerful summaries and clear recommendations.

If applicable, you can follow up with a specific call to action that tells your reader what to do next.

If Talon is your vendor, you can sleep better at night. We've prepared for minor and major disasters and challenges by identifying potential problems and implementing solutions.

Disasters such as our building burning to the ground, most probably will never happen, but some problems can and probably will occur. A computer virus, the loss of a key employee, even hardware damage will occur - it's just a matter of time. Rest assured - Talon is ready!

Listed below are potential problems and how we have prepared. They are laid out in the order of most probable to occur to least likely.

Talon has installed two power generators. Should power go down we can run our computer center. We even can run our high-speed inkjet and inserting equipment.

#5 Computer Equipment Destroyed:

Talon has a special insurance policy that covers replacement costs for each machine. Additionally we keep equipment offsite. If both of our buildings were destroyed Talon has the resources of third party vendor, which keeps a disaster recovery data center located in nearby Farmingdale. All data is backed up three times and one set is kept off site in a secure location.

#6 Client Inventory Lost In Fire or Flood:

Have you ever stopped to think what would happen to your catalogs or other printed materials if your vendor's building was flooded or destroyed by fire? Our insurance policy covers all of our clients' inventory - automatically, from the moment it is delivered or picked up by our drivers.

#7 Building Destroyed:

Our insurance policy specifically covers all of the costs of getting jobs processed and mailed should our building be destroyed. If it took an extended period to rebuild our location, our insurance would pay for us to set up a temporary location and/or subcontract out our work.

#8 Biohazard Terrorist Attacks:

A few years ago our nation was terrified by Anthrax in the mail. Our insurance carrier has helped us create procedures to protect our buildings from unauthorized personnel entering our production areas. With the new procedures in place, we're insured against someone placing biohazard materials in our mailings.

We have worked hard to make sure we are ready for just about anything. In addition to these safeguards we also have insurance which allows us to be bonded and we have an errors and omissions policy.

For additional information or if you have questions you can call Michael Borkan at 631-667-5500 x 11 or by email at mb@talon-mailing.com.

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By Murtaza Jaffer, Lvb.com

Direct Mail is making a comeback because individuals are inundated with too much digital content.

It’s no surprise that in a digital age, email and social media are the most-used form of marketing. The world moves quickly and many times, things are expected to be done now, making digital marketing beneficial. However, direct mail is making a comeback in an effort to reach individuals who are inundated with digital content.

Check the last time you sent an email marketing campaign; how many people opened the email? There is a good possibility that emails are getting deleted before being read. On average, 121 business emails are sent and received per day, and that doesn’t include emails on personal accounts.

Many employees are now working from home offices due to Covid-19, so it’s the perfect time to re-invest in a direct mail strategy.

While it may sound daunting, direct mail advertising is fairly simple. Here’s how to get started:

1. Set a goal. First and foremost, determine the purpose of the campaign. Is the business trying to reach current customers or expand their reach to new ones? Setting this goal will help determine what type of item to mail. For example, if the business’s goal is to reach current customers, a thank you card with a special gift might be a nice gesture, but if the goal is to reach new customers, a coupon might get them in the door.

2. Create your mailing list. There are two options available to businesses sending direct mail:

• Company provides the list: business owners have the option to provide their own list, which may include their current customer base or a small portion of it. As long as the company is keeping proper records, exporting the information into an excel spreadsheet is quick and easy. (This is the best option if trying to reach current customers.)

• Utilize USPS’ Every Door Direct Mail targeting. The postal service offers Every Door Direct Mail, or EDDM, to target the right customers. You can use their online tool to map zip codes and neighborhoods, as well as filter the results by age, income and household size. Write down the areas you want to target and keep it handy for when you are ready to mail. (This is the best option if trying to expand the customer base.)
  

In this Issue:

Talon welcomes the following new clients this month to our growing roster of customers:

• The Salvation Army

• Meredith

• 3 New Lists From Various List Managers and Owners

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Mike's Favorite Apps & Links:

Some interesting things to check out...

AI Image Enhancer - AI tools to remove photo noises and enhance color & contrast, Automatic and free.

Dropbase - Turn your CSV and Excel files to live databases, instantly.

Newsbreak.com - Very useful website. Get local news, traffic and Weather.

Libraryofscroll.com - A collection of the very best reads they've curated over the years. They choose gems which delve into themes ranging from digital marketplaces to BTS, from the growth of platforms to Murakami’s running habits.

Workomo.com - Show up to your meeting ready! Workomo provides you with everything important about People, just before you Meet.

Limus - An amazing app that will show your screenshot at different angles. Very useful for making screen shots look more professional!

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Work Samples:

Did you know Talon offers the following services? 

Click on the links below to see samples.

• Color Laser Personalization
   

• Bulk Email Blasts
   

• HP High Quality Inkjet (near laser quality)
  
  

• Insert and Postcard Mailings
  
  

• Catalog Mailings
   

• Data Entry (from 100 to 100,000 names and addresses)
   

• Polybag and Shrinkwrap Services
   

• Merge/Purge services with comprehensive reports that can instantly be retrieved from the Internet

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Direct Mail Humor!

Click on image below to enlarge.

Do you need help marketing to your clients?   Talon can help!  Call Michael Borkan at 631-667-5500 x 11 to learn how to increase revenue.

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