My friend and bilingual voiceover talent Liz deNesnera recently achieved one of her written goals from Faffcon 3 which was to redesign her web site and rebrand her company.

Take a look for yourself but I think she did a very nice job.

Here’s a thought: I was just checking the stats on my Christmas card email blast.

That one email blast with a Christmas card drawing by my daughter was clicked through 830 times (that equates to 830 individual email addresses). That not the impressive statistic.

The impressive statistic is that is was VIEWED as of this writing 1,574 times.

Many people viewed it once but almost 300 people viewed it between 2-17 times!

It’s just a Christmas card right?

Actually, it was more than that…it was creative (all my daughter’s doing) and it was sincere.

Does this make me brilliant? No. I’m sexy, not brilliant….please get that straight. (j/k)

What those numbers (which could be exponentially bigger or smaller depending on your database) represent is people’s willingness, free will and desire to experience something creative…different. And honest.

So real quickly, let’s consider a missed opportunity.

You know what I DIDN’T get in the email once this holiday season? A Hanukkah card. Nobody sent me a Festivus card either.

Did they think I would be put off because that’s not what I celebrate? Heck, someone who thinks enough of me to send me a card for any happy holiday that is so special to them that they want to share it with me I will gladly accept. Wouldn’t you?

What about a St. Patrick’s Day card? Or a Canada Day card? Why not?

(Cue blowhard voice, deep. bellowing and full of gas) “Why Peter, it’s not professional! It might offend!” You know, this may be a personal bias (what offends me might not offend you and vice versa) but for example a Polish person who finds a special, fun, family tradition in Dyngus Day and who wants to send me a note telling me about it so that I might share in that happiness, does not offend me. I am honored even though it’s not my celebration. And I think “that’s different”.

If I saw a $5.00 coupon with that same note, I might question the sincerity of the sentiment

Don’t sell, just be sincere, be unique, be creative. Don’t include a press release, or holiday office hours or anything that screams “Me!” There’s a time and a place for that and certainly it’s still acceptable. But think different. Let’s your prospects become people and let those people see you as something other than a vendor.

Let them see you as a person.

How about we forget cards for a second…what else can you create for folks in your audience that just let’s them know you’re thinking about them?

What can you create that screams “Them!”? That you are thinking of them. Or that you just wanted to share this “fun” or “silly” or “special” something…just because they mean something to you as a person, as a respected individual.

If it were easy, anybody could do it. But you’re not just anybody.

What have you done that really made some client or prospect say “wow” in a good way? Or what ideas are now percolating inside you?

Email blasts are not new…for my Christmas card to audio’connell Voice Over Talent clients and friends I sent out over 2,500 emails in a single click (“faster than a locomotive, able to leap tall building in a single bound!“). I’m sure you do the same thing…it’s cheap it’s fast and you can capture briefly the attention of a lot of people when ever you feel you need to do that.

But where I think we end up lacking in our collective email blasts is in creativity. Should we tell one story, should we tell multiple stories? Should we microtarget the list or will buckshot do? Most of us don’t drill down very deep. Well at least I don’t.

The above example from my friend and vendor Don Papaj of Marketing Tech shows some simple yet I think effective creativity. (Editor’s note: Yes, I have used his company’s services for direct mail postcards and no this is not a paid nor expected {certainly not expected by Don} commercial). What you cannot see in this graphic is the animation that Marketing Technologies of Western New York includes in this .gif. The buffalo is sleeping on the treadmill and his belly goes up and down with the beer on it (very Buffalo).

I don’t know if there is a holiday that goes by where I don’t get a Marketing Technologies email and that bison isn’t doing something with some kind of logical tie in to a service Don and his team offer. All it takes is a little planning, maybe a bit of technical knowledge (or a vendor who can help provide that technical knowledge) and your email blast can be memorable too.

To be sure, it doesn’t have to look like Don’s….but what about what your are doing in your email marketing is memorable? Why does a recipient want to read your stuff? I mean, you may like the content but do your customers?

I do my own creative on my email blasts – mine aren’t nearly as nice as Don’s stuff but for better or worse the emails are infused with my personality. I try and add SOMETHING that’s different, helpful or funny. I want it to resonate with my audience.

My 2011 Christmas card has at present (with many folks still on vacation since I sent it last Friday) a click thru rate (those who opened it) of 32%. My regular quarterly blast gets about 28% click throughs. Now with email marketing, alot of a blast’s success depends on the list, time of year, messaging…lots of variables…but mine are getting read and I usually end up getting 2-3 calls on new business, the timing of which I can attribute to the email blast. “Aren’t I great,” he said, thumping his chest. No I’m not and that’s not why I offer those stats.

Much like government statistics, answers vary on what the median average is for an email marketing click thru rate. A very quick scan of Google showed “experts” who say 4-6% click thru is great. Others say a median percentage runs between 12-18%. So I’m scoring well but I never feel like it’s good enough.

I should play with the lists, target a bit more specifically and…and…and…oh hell, I got a business to run here and it ain’t a direct mail house. My point is kick up your creative and your blasts may be more explosive…in a good way.

What do you see in the picture above?

LOOK at it. Now study it.

If what you see are two guys from the Salvation Army collecting money on a holiday Saturday at Rockefeller Plaza when it was OMG! crowded…you’re not studying it.

Now it may be easier for me to understand what I saw since I saw it in person and experienced the movement and the sound so I’ll give you the correct answer:

Passion. In their words AND actions…people understand these fella’s passion for the Salvation Army. The people around them can feel it and appreciate it.

These Salvation Army representatives have a little speaker under there Kettle playing upbeat Christmas music. With their bells and props they are dancing and singing to the music and having a marvelous time. So are the people around them who have stopped to watch…and donate.

In the midst of the absolute chaos that is a Saturday at Christmas around maybe the most famous Christmas tree in the world, these gentlemen are garnering attention and securing donations.

They are SELLING!

They are so passionate about what they are selling, they believe in their mission so deeply, that they will joyously sing and dance in celebration of their job and they outcome that the Salvation Army provides. This is not your Father’s Red Kettle Campaign.

And they don’t even own the Salvation Army.

As a business owner, are you THAT passionate about your business?

Are you a true believer in your business the way these guys are?

What would be the equivalent in your business of dancing and singing in public?

Are you doing it now? I’m guessing not.

You don’t have to sing or dance in your sales or marketing but you DO have to convey a kind of wonderfully infectious passion for your business that makes people do what these guys did –dance along with them! (I kid you not, I saw it)

What can you do in your sales and marketing that will cut through the kind of clutter these guys did (oy, was it an ungodly sea of people) and get your audience’s attention?

Some may call their kind of public support brave but it isn’t bravery when you believe soooo strongly about your business.

You probably strongly believe in your company too…but you need to break out of your comfort zone sometimes to make sure other people feel just as passionate as you do.

Any ideas on how to do that?

Combining my love of typography with my sincere enjoyment of Conan O’Brien, I really enjoyed watching this and I hope you do too.

And I was watching Vimeo because I just uploaded my first video to it – my new commercial demo.

This is a copy of a recent audio’connell Voice Over Talent print ad I designed for an association newsletter I had space in – whaddya think, clean and crisp or too artsy with no real message?

I have been sooo darn remiss in my logo blog posts. I know most folks here like my voice over posts but I have aligned yet varied interests…logos being a weird obession of this guy who can’t draw a straight line.

So earlier this week, the CBS Television Network celebrated the 60th Anniversary of their “Eye” logo – with their wordmark, its a logo I have always liked.

Here is a nice piece by CBS News’ Charles Osgood on the history of this world famous icon.

I was supposed to be producing a video featuring my new commercial demo but while I was brainstorming this I came up with this video idea based on a design I created for my audio’connell Voice Over Talent business card.

So I made this video first. And no I have no earthly idea what to do with it except post it on YouTube. Maybe I can integrate it into a trade show display. Oh well, it’s not art but it’s harmless enough. Wonder if it’s too late to buy a spot in the Super Bowl?

Of course, that’s assuming I had ANY style to begin with.

Which (outside of voiceover performance) I really don’t.

My thanks to Ann Hackett from aHa Designs with her help on the web graphic.

What you think is inconsequential is not always so.

What may be invisible to you has more meaning than you realize.

Take a minute to appreciate the art in all this – I did.