I’ve had a listing as a San Francisco Bay Area freelance copywriter on Thumbtack for a few months now so I was thrilled to be highlighted today on their site with this intro:

Effective “Business” Communication
It has been said that words hold the greatest of powers, and this rings true in running a business: they can make it or break it. Seasoned copywriter Gil Zeimer knows this very well, with over 25 years of experience under his belt and having worked with some of the world’s biggest multinational companies and ad agencies. Gil runs the website Zeimer’s Advertising Shoppe, where he offers freelance copywriting and other services (direct response projects, radio and TV commercial scripts, etc.) and posts article samples and professional portfolio, among many others.

“[Being immune to pressure] is most important with quick turnaround projects such as email campaigns, print ads or radio scripts that a client discovered is due tomorrow or next week. We ALWAYS meet our deadlines.”

Not only does it pay to be a good communicator. Competence is also the key. That’s probably what has made Gil stay strong in the business for more than two and a half decades. Over the years, numerous feathers adorned this copywriter’s professional cap such as the National Crystal Communicator Award for Radio Excellence, Gold Show TV Winner at the San Francisco Society of Communicating Arts, and Print Excellence award at the Dallas Society of Visual Communications, to name a few.

“I want to be known as a creative resource and problem solver who the clients can trust for any type of project. That’s how I’ve built my reputation as a copywriter and creative director.” Read more.

What’s New?

As a freelance San Francisco copywriter, here’s what I’ve been doing since my June 2011 newsletter:

• Freelance healthcare copywriting: Radio scripts and production for a lap-band clinic; revised copy for an oral care candy website in Japan; blogs, magazine ads and an e-newsletter for a vein clinic, plus a flyer for a sleep center.
• :60 Radio scripts and production for the Universal Ballet of Korea performances of “Shim Chung – The Blind Man’s Daughter” at SF’s War Memorial Opera House in July.
• http://www.pivotal-llc.com – Wrote/edited this 30-page site for a technology consultant who is currently President of BNI Embarcadero.
• http://www.safeteproducts.com – Editing for a handful of key pages for this “Safety Alert for the Elderly” system and monitoring device.
• Editing the website copy for another writer.
• Creating a direct marketing campaign with 10 different test cells for online meeting company.
• Freelance radio scripts for a fantasy sports site.
• Blogs for http://blog.intuit.com/, http://blog.gopayment.com, GroupPrice.com/blog, and http://mdveinprofessionals.com/blog/
• My Media Department has been buying doing freelance media planning and buying for radio for an auto dealership and a storage company, as well as creating media plans with print and online media for a technology company and an author.

Read past issues of Zeimer’s NewZletter: June 2011 • May 2011 • March 2011 • Nov 2010 • July 2010 • April 2010 • December 2009 • October 2009 • August 2009 • July 2009 • March 2009

Recycled Creativity

As a Certified Green Bay Area Business, I took a pledge to reduce my carbon footprint by using recycled products and services wherever possible. To that end, I’m recycling some of my past successes as a freelance copywriter in each of these newsletters.

Here’s an example: “Dinner And A Thousand Stars: Canyonlands by Night & Day, Moab, UT”  from Vagablond.com.

In all, I wrote over 1,400 articles for this luxury travel blog that covers food, wine, travel and shopping. This one in particular is one of my favorite articles. It begins: ”We pulled into Moab about 5 pm a few nights ago. We were hungry and anxious to see Canyon Country. A well-placed brochure afforded us the opportunity to do both — at night — with a Cowboy Style Dutch Oven Dinner followed by a Sound and Light Show aboard a jet boat on the brackish waters of the Colorado River. It was so spectacular that we ran out of adjectives.”

Read the article on Vagablond.com.

A Recent Success Story

As mentioned above, I recently wrote radio scripts for the Universal Ballet of Korea and its once-in-a-decade visit to San Francisco to present “Shim Chung, The Blind Man’s Daughter” at the War Memorial Opera House in July.

I wrote :15, 30 and :60 commercials that were produced by two radio stations: KCBS and KDFC. Ellen Young, a freelance media buyer and planner, purchased the time and negotiated the rates.

Listen to the :60 KCBS Radio Commercial. Read more.

Humor Is A Funny Thing

As a long-time golfer, I enjoy hitting the links once in a while with my brother and some friends.

While I try to make the most of my humble abilities, I also try not to think too much about all the different things I’ve been told by golf pros, well-meaning friends, or those who are skilled at executing all types of shots, such as: Balance, focus, tempo, the grip, swing down, rotate and release hands, don’t get handsy, drive down and through, flat left wrist = straight shot, et. al.

This sketch says it all and is titled “1.5 seconds of thought”. 

Ads I Like

This 30-second TV European commercial was supposedly banned because it poked fun at the age-old assumption that blondes are dumb. But it is very, very funny. Watch it now.

Why I Love Referrals

Last year, over 70% of my revenue came from referrals through Business Network International chapters in North America. The majority of my income came from my colleagues at BNI Embarcadero , the largest word-of-mouth referral chapter on the West Coast. We meet every Wednesday from 715 – 9am at L’Olivier French Restaurant, 465 Davis Court (between Washington and Jackson Streets), San Francisco, CA 94111. If you’d like to join us for a meeting, please contact me.

Speaking of referrals, I received some recently for possible projects with some potential clients outside of and within my chapter.

About Zeimer’s Advertising Shoppe

Zeimer’s Advertising Shoppe is an award-winning writing consultancy and ad agency. As a freelance San Francisco direct response copywriter, email and newsletter copywriter, website copywriter, and healthcare copywriter, I create content for ads, brochures, direct response/email campaigns, radio and TV scripts, White Papers, newsletters, and more. My Media Department offers freelance media planning and buying capabilities For more information or to receive an estimate on your next project, contact me via email or call 415.491.1058.

© 2011. Zeimer’s Advertising Shoppe. All Rights Reserved.

What’s New?

As a freelance San Francisco copywriter, here’s what I’ve been doing since my May 2011 newsletter:

• I’ve written 10 more articles for the Intuit Small Business Blog. The total now is 90 over the past six months.
• Wrote and edited the copy for a 30-page site for a leading downtown San Francisco cosmetic and general dentist, Dr. Michael Hack.(See below for more info.)
• Edited the copy for a local college advisor’s website with a wealth of information for any student or family with a high school junior or senior.
• Wrote four projects for a leading healthcare company through a Southern California direct marketing agency.
• Had an idea for parody song lyrics for our BNI Embarcadero weekly meeting to pass word-of-mouth referrals.
• Created a complete marketing campaign for an East Coast urgent care clinic.
• Wrote more posts –– now 50 –– for GroupPrice.com/blog, a site that’s like Groupon for small businesses by offering daily discount deals with savings of 30 to 75%.
• Plus, miscellaneous projects for friends and colleagues.

Read past issues of Zeimer’s NewZletter: May 2011 • March 2011 • Nov 2010 • July 2010 • April 2010 • December 2009 • October 2009 • August 2009 • July 2009 • March 2009

Recycled Creativity

As a Certified Green Bay Area Business, I took a pledge to reduce my carbon footprint by using recycled products and services wherever possible. To that end, I’m recycling some of my past successes as a freelance copywriter in each of these newsletters.

Here’s an example: KRON-TV NewsCenter 4, San Francisco

When I worked at Ketchum Advertising in San Francisco (now TBWA\Chiat\Day), one of our busiest accounts was KRON-TV NewsCenter 4. This full-page ad’s headline for Broadcasting Magazine grabbed the attention of readers about a horrific event. Since this ad was created before the days of computers and PhotoShop, Art Director Roy Omi hired S.F. photographer Armando Diaz, who had a helicopter pilot spray water over a rural field as he stood below.

The first two paragraphs read, “In the forest towns of Northern California, something was terribly wrong. The trees were dying. So were the crops and the livestock. And the babies.

“Phenoxy herbicide, sprayed almost indiscriminately for the past 10 years, was blamed. The herbicide contained the most toxic substance known to man: dioxin. Dioxin is more than 100,000 times more powerful a genetic deformer than Thalidomide. Dioxin, the key ingredient in Agent Orange, was also banned by the Pentagon in 1970 in Vietnam for causing grotesque birth defects in South Vietnamese children.”

This ad had three purposes: to let braodcasters know that this 60-minute special report was now available for syndication, to tell them that this documentary had won a prestigious Peabody Award, and most importantly, to alert the public that NewsCenter 4 had shined a spotlight so brightly on this problem that it generated 50,000 letters of outrage from Bay Area viewers who asked Congress to ban herbicide spraying. This prompted the U.S. Congress to investigate the situation. Download “Politics of Poison” Ad PDF.

A Recent Success Story

As mentioned above, I recently revised the content for a 30-page Website as part of a cosmetic makeover for a cosmetic and general dentist.

This project was a collaboration of the extremely talented BNI Embarcadero “Marketing Makeover Team”. Working closely with our client, we rebranded his site to “Dr. Michael Hack, Financial District Dental” to highlight the respected professional who has built his practice since 1972 in downtown San Francisco.

The team included a number of all-star veterans: a marketing guru, a terrific photographer, a talented art director, a proficient WordPress webmaster, a great publicist, a focused SEO expert, and an experienced copywriter (moi).

Humor Is A Funny Thing

This month, I’m highlighting the First Annual “Miss TSA” Calendar. It’s X-rayed, not X-rated and absolutely hilarious.

What I find amusing is that it uses women in high heels in the normal cheesy poses, but you only see their skeletons.

If I have to explain it further, it’s just not worth the visual jokes.

Ads I Like

This is a new section to my newsletter. Here, I’ll tip my hat to other creatives, from one award-winner to another.

A friend in Oregon sent me this YouTube link to a two-minute, 3-D TV commercial for Sapporo Beer.

I think it’s like watching an adventure movie with a satisfying, thirst-quenching ending. I strongly suggest that you view it in full screen with your speakers turned up to optimize your experience. Domo arigato!

Why I Love Referrals

Last year, over 70% of my revenue came from referrals through Business Network International chapters in North America. The majority of my income came from my colleagues at BNI Embarcadero , the largest word-of-mouth referral chapter on the West Coast. We meet every Wednesday from 715 – 9am at L’Olivier French Restaurant, 465 Davis Court (between Washington and Jackson Streets), San Francisco, CA 94111. If you’d like to join us for a meeting, please contact me. Speaking of referrals, I received some recently for possible projects with some potential clients outside of and within my chapter.

By the way, the Intuit Small Business Blog, several other recent Intuit projects, the GroupPrice.com/blog, and the two websites mentioned above were all the result of referrals from people in BNI chapters.

About Zeimer’s Advertising Shoppe

Zeimer’s Advertising Shoppe is an award-winning writing consultancy and ad agency. As a freelance San Francisco direct response copywriter, email and newsletter copywriter, website copywriter, and healthcare copywriter, I create content for ads, brochures, direct response/email campaigns, radio and TV scripts, White Papers, newsletters, and more. For information or to receive an estimate on your next project, contact me via email or call 415.491.1058.

© 2011. Zeimer’s Advertising Shoppe. All Rights Reserved.

When Chapter President Adrienne Dale asked, “What feeling do you get from BNI?”, here’s their answer, complete with lyrics using key BNI phrases like “Giver’s Gain”, “closed business” and “write a referral”.

The singers, left to right: Richard Reinholdt, Milla Lvovich, Daniel Joraanstad, Kathy Olberts and Joe Markert.

What’s New?

As a freelance San Francisco copywriter, here’s what I’ve been doing since my March 2011 newsletter:

• I’ve written another 17 articles for the Intuit Small Business Blog. Read any of my 80+ articles and feel free to comment!
• I wrote and edited the website copy for the owner of a recovery auditing firm in Arizona to showcase his decades of expertise.
• My colleague, Ellen Young, has planned and purchased a variety of  targeted media for Amdro Fire Ant, Valley Healthwide Centers, Insound Medical, Sonus Hearing Care Professionals, PODS and Kikkoman.
• I edited the copy for a three-postcard campaign for a leading San Francisco insurance brokerage.
• As the #1 listing on Google for “healthcare copywriting“, I created a :60 and :30 radio campaign for a Midwest pharmacy chain and more blogs for the nation’s leading vein treatment clinic.
• I updated the website for BookBankUSA.org, a local nonprofit that donates books and computers to schools worldwide.
• I continue to write posts for the GroupPrice.com/blog, a leading B2B site for small business daily discount deals with savings of 30 to 75%.
• Plus, miscelleaneous Websites and other projects for friends and colleagues.

Read past issues of Zeimer’s NewZletter: March 2011 • Nov 2010 • July 2010 • April 2010 • December 2009 • October 2009 • August 2009 • July 2009 • March 2009

Recycled Creativity

As a Certified Green Bay Area Business, I took a pledge to reduce my carbon footprint by using recycled products and services wherever possible. To that end, I’m recycling some of my past successes as a freelance copywriter in each of these newsletters.
Here’s an example: Porsche Newspaper Ad.

I was working at The Bloom Agency in Dallas. It was the day before we were making a new business presentation to Porsche Dealers of North America. While sitting on the throne, I saw a small blurb in the Sports section of the Dallas Morning News that Porsche had just won 8 out of 10 places at the 24-Hour LeMans Endurance Race.

A few minutes later, I wrote this headline, showed it to the Creative Director, and sat with an Art Director who sketched out the concept. The 8 Team Porsche drivers’ names and their times were circled in red in the original artwork. We didn’t win the account, but I’m proud to say that I created a terrific ad for an important agency presentation.

A Recent Success Story

The Spring/Summer bi-annual newsletters for three upscale Life Care communities just came off the press. They were for ongoing clients: The Sequoias – San Francisco, The Sequoias –Portola Valley, and The Tamalpais – Marin County through Northern California Presbyterian Homes & Services.Each six-page newsletter contains five stories, including “Residents Are Using More Technology, More Often”, an in-depth resident profile, a staff profile, a community feature, what’s new, and upcoming events.

Download PDFs of each newsletter:

– Spring/Summer 2011 Sequoias – San Francisco Newsletter;

– Spring/Summer 2011 Sequoias – Portola Valley Newsletter;

– Spring/Summer 2011 Tamalpais – Marin County Newsletter.

Humor Is A Funny Thing

Most often, clients change a few words of a page of copy before it gets produced as an ad, newsletter, radio commercial, web page, blog, or the like. But once in a while, they rewrite it themselves because a committee within the company decided they all wanted to say they had creative input.

To that end, a client recently sent me this quote to apologize for a committee rewrite of a project, which turned my proposed entertaining radio scripts into something far less fun: “A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled.” – Sir Barnett Cocks, British politician

For more advertising humor, here are some actual ads from the 1950s when vitamins were full of pep, doctors were promoting smoking, movie stars were telling you to send cartons of smokes for Christmas, and kids were used in gun ads. Download PDF of “Never to be Seen Again Advertising of Yesteryear”.

Why I Love Referrals

Last year, over 70% of my revenue came from referrals through Business Network International chapters in North America. The majority of my income came from my colleagues at BNI Embarcadero, the largest word-of-mouth referral chapter on the West Coast. We meet every Wednesday from 715 – 9am at L’Olivier French Restaurant, 465 Davis Court (between Washington and Jackson Streets), San Francisco, CA 94111. If you’d like to join us for a meeting, please contact me. Speaking of referrals, I received some recently for possible projects with a few technology companies, an insurance broker, and a financial institution. Gotta love those referrals!

About Zeimer’s Advertising Shoppe

Zeimer’s Advertising Shoppe is an award-winning writing consultancy and ad agency. As a freelance direct response copywriter, email and newsletter copywriter, website copywriter, and healthcare copywriter, I create content for ads, brochures, direct response/email campaigns, radio and TV scripts, White Papers, newsletters, and more. For information or to receive an estimate on your next project, contact me via email or call 415.491.1058.

In the growing social media family, LinkedIn is kind of like the bookish older sibling — it stays in to do homework while Facebook and Twitter are out having all the fun. The site’s professional nature makes it easy to forget that LinkedIn is, in fact, a social site. That’s largely by design: LinkedIn is strictly business. That means no baby pictures or status updates about your neighbor’s barking dog. The site is for professional networking, first and foremost; the personal stuff can (or should be) checked at the door.

Because of its relative niche, LinkedIn is sometimes overlooked by small businesses. Owners aren’t planning their next career move — they’re too busy planning the next decade (and beyond, we hope) for their business. So it came as something of an attention-grabber when news website Business Insider published a chart showing a massive spike in traffic sent its way by LinkedIn — or rather, not so much a spike as a straight line skyward in March and April. A LinkedIn exec told Business Insider that the increase is largely attributable to recent rollouts of a variety of news-related features.

Read more, including a mention of my April 12, 2011 article for the Intuit Small Business Blog for leveraging LinkedIn for your small business, which Kevin calls “recommended reading, particularly if your business has been more attuned to Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, or another branch of social media’s vast family tree.”

This article first appeared at blog.intuit.com on April 15, 2011.

I thrive on word-of-mouth referrals for my freelance writing services, as do most owners of small businesses or sole proprietors.

But what’s the difference between a referral and a lead? How do you know when a referral will become money in your pocket? And how do you revive old referrals?

If you want to be able to cash in your referrals, or to be able to give referrals that will result in business for your friends, here are some helpful hints that have guided my business over the past 15 years.

Where can you find a networking group?

Business Network International is the world’s largest business networking organization, with tens of thousands of members in dozens of countries globally. BNI offers a proven system for increasing referrals built around the “Givers Gain” philosophy. I belong to BNI Embarcadero in San Francisco and it’s far and away the focus of my networking efforts.

What’s the difference between a referral and a lead?
There’s a big difference! One is a “warm handshake” while the other is the equivalent of a cold call to someone who may or may not be receptive to you.

When can a referral become money in your pocket?

It’s a matter of being in the right place at the right time with the right experience. Not all referrals lead to business, but if you’re introduced to someone who needs your product or service now, there’s a higher likelihood that they’ll use you after you’re personally introduced to them with a strong testimonial.

How do you revive old referrals and turn them into new business?

For a variety of reasons, some referrals just take longer to become a reality. Every company has its own timeline, and as the outsider, you’re never really in the know on what that is. I check in with these potential clients every few weeks by phone or email to check up on their status.

Read more from the original article at blog.intuit.com.

This article first appeared at blog.intuit.com on April 12, 2011.

LinkedIn.com officially launched on May 5, 2003. At the end of its first month, it had a total of 4,500 members.

Today, the world’s largest business networking site gains roughly one million new members every week – the equivalent of more than one per second – and now totals more than 100 million members in over 200 countries and territories.

So how do you leverage the power of all those people to help your small business grow? Here are some tips:

1) Link, Link, Link – Your network’s size is essential. When your LinkedIn profile page shows photos, names and companies of “People You May Know,” there’s a high probability that someone you know is linked to them, or you may even know them directly. If so, click “Connect” and send them an invitation to join your network. Keep adding to your network to build up your contacts. Your network also relies on everyone else’s network: It’s better to connect with others who have hundreds of people over those with just a dozen.

2) Give Your Profile 100 Percent – First, make sure your LinkedIn Profile is 100 percent complete with name, industry, location, photo, headline, summary, current and past positions, your contacts, and a number of recommendations. Next, on your Profile page, click “Make My Public Profile Visible” to let people see everything you’ve created.

3) Ask For and Give Recommendations – If you hope to get business via your page, be proactive about trading recommendations with your colleagues. These endorsements give you credibility to people who may not know you and work as a static “word of mouth” recommendation.

4) Review Your LinkedIn Update Emails – I spend 15 to 30 minutes a week reviewing the names on my LinkedIn email update. Last year, I saw that a colleague from a company where I had worked 10 years ago had a new job at an ad agency. I invited her to join my network. Within a week, she hired me for to write the first of an ongoing set of projects.

5) Don’t Be Shy – If you want to meet someone who’s out of your network, ask for introductions to friends who are connected to them. This is always more powerful than an unsolicited invitation to link with you.

Read the other 5 tips.

This ad that I wrote pro bono for the American Red Cross of the Bay Area many years ago provides information about how to create a family survival plan when, not if, the next big one strikes. It only takes a few minutes to formulate a plan so I urge you to talk about it now. Download Ad PDF.

By the way, based on research conducted since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and other scientists conclude that there is a 62% probability of at least one magnitude 6.7 or greater quake, capable of causing widespread damage, striking the San Francisco Bay region before 2032. Read more from USGS.

Plus, there are seven faults crisscrossing the Bay Area, not just the San Andreas, which caused the 1906 quake.

How much of a food and water supply should you stockpile in case of an emergency like a major quake that can cut your electricity? Experts say three to seven days, depending on your comfort factor.

For more information, visit SFGate.com/earthquakes for links to Preparedness Resources, including your emergency supply kit, retrofitting tips, community information, SF City information, a preparedness quiz, and the American Red Cross of the Bay Area.