Steve Calder is a copywriter, consultant and interim manager specialising in digital and direct marketing communications. His clients originate primarily in the technology, transportation, travel and leisure, financial and professional services sectors. UK and Netherlands-based advertising and new media agencies, companies, and not-for-profit organisations turn to Steve for engaging, response-oriented advertising and marketing campaigns that achieve measurable commercial goals: ramping awareness, generating new leads, driving web traffic, educating and informing stakeholders, building brand loyalty and converting new enquirers into profitable repeat buyers.

The old rules still apply

With over 20 years’ direct marketing experience under my belt, you’d think I’d be something of a traditionalist. You’d be right. And with good reason. The direct marketing principles espoused by the likes of Rosser Reeves, John Caples and Herschell Gordon Lewis are, to my mind, more valid today than ever before – in Email marketing; in Landing Page design; in PPC… And, most notably, in Search which – were we to believe the ‘digital cognoscenti’ – is just two steps removed from alchemy. A black art indeed. Except… it isn’t really is it? Yes, yes, I know: good, clean coding – using headers, tags, lists and the like – gives us an edge. And I can’t deny that a plethora of inbound links will provide a fillip to our Page Rank (the importance of which, is, to my mind, somewhat questionable anyway). But the real key to consistently driving traffic through the search engines – and to converting that traffic, when it lands on our pages – lies not with ‘a suite of optimisation and analytics tools’. It lies with content. Fact is, if your copy is regularly refreshed, relevant and audience centred it will – by definition – include just the right amount of keywords. In just the right places. So, before you kick off your next ‘SEO campaign’, permit me to make a suggestion. First, read one of the seminal books on the topic. In particular, I’d recommend David Ogilvy’s Confessions of an Advertising Man. It was published in 1963.

Specialist Services

• Marketing campaign planning • Copywriting • Design direction • Project management • Website development • Search Engine Optimisation • Pay per click advertising • Email marketing • Social media • Radio, TV and press advertising • Magazine production • Direct mail • Collateral creation

Trade Bodies / Associations

Steve Calder is a Fellow of the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management and an active member of the Institute of Direct Marketing, the National Union of Journalists, the British Interactive Media Association, and the Association of Communicators in Business.

Trading Since

1996