Hey gang,

You are here so you may have noticed my Valentine’s Day-themed subject line – Love is in the Arrow

That should be Fedex’s Valentine’s Day promo email subject line – you know because they have that arrow in their logo?    You didn’t notice?  Well it is there, go look.

It seems I always have ideas (trust me, I know that doesn’t mean they are good ones) for other companies email subject lines.  So from now on, when I write a newsletter subject line, it will be for a different company.  You’ll have to open the email to find out what company it is – warning, 77% of the time it will be a bad pun.

My kids have Valentines Day coming up and they are excited, but they wouldn’t be if they grew up when it was actually any good.  They can’t bring in candy (even those heart shaped kind that are almost always stale and break your teeth) and can’t put specific names on the cards ‘because it takes too long to sort’.

We have become so efficient that we can’t even use people’s names on Valentine’s Day cards.  We should just teach our kids to say, ‘hey!’ and point at people so they provide both visual and auditory cues which are more efficient.  Then when they fall in love and go to get married, they will be able to use other people’s names for the first time during the wedding ceremony (despite the inefficiency of making the pastor learn their names).  That first time, first name usage is going to be so romantic.  Speaking of which, I may have just pitched a rom-com set in a dystopian future, have they made that already?

I go so long between sending emails like this these days that I wouldn’t blame you for assuming I’m not doing any work.  The truth is, I’m just lazy about sending quasi-boastful emails – but that ends now.We began working with the Watercolor Society of Indiana towards the latter part of 2017.  While their website launched in October or November, I’m still thinking about it.  It was so cool to work on a website that truly had some stunning original art pieces to showcase.  I loved that we were able to use such bright colors in contrast to the more neutral colors we use for corporate websites.  If you are into watercolors, check out the nonprofit – they are fantastic!

Other Stuff

I leave for Boston later today.  I’m going with my dad, who is awesome, and we are just going to hang around the town.  I’ve been asking folks that have been there what we should do and I have a few bars, restaurants, sites, etc. on my list.  While we won’t be there long, we are going to make the most of it.  Let me know if you have any ideas.

One More Thing

I totally redesigned Sharp Guys’ website towards the beginning of 2018.  It was a pretty big endeavor and while it still isn’t exactly how I want it to be, but it is a vast improvement.  I measure the improvement the same way I tell my clients to measure their websites – by leads.  Since going to a completely different design, I have increased the number of leads coming in each week by 125%  I plan on writing up a blog on what changes I made that I think helped but in the interim, take a look at this old blog where I talk about the importance of measuring leads/revenue.

Thanks for reading,

Cody