However, from an email marketing perspective, they need to go back to the kitchen.

I got this in my email today, with the subject line of “Happy Earth Day!”

OK. Where to begin…

OK. It is earth day, it’s 4/22. They got that part right. Sadly, though, that’s where the good stuff ends.

Their call to action was

a) Buy our food.
b) Don’t get it delivered, but come and pick it up
c) Eat it outside.

What am I missing here?

Wouldn’t Pita Grill do better offering some kind of call to action that encourages me to go there not just because I remember how good their Steak Rice Bowl is, but rather, because they’re offering some kind of discount, or other incentive?

How about: “In celebration of Earth Day, help keep our planet green by walking to pick up your food instead of ordering it in, and , and we’ll give you ten percent off your order! And hey, since it’s a gorgeous day out, eat it at Hell’s Kitchen Park, a block away!”

Or, they could do what Seamless Web does, and tell me that if I bring my own silverware, they’ll drop a buck off my order. I’m actually kinda surprised they DIDN’T do this, since if you look, their back-end is RUN by Seamless Web!

All companies know that Green only works for them if it has a bottom line of money saved or made. And we also know that money earned comes better with targeted campaigns. So since you already had my contact info, why not give me a better reason to come to you today?

I’m already in their geographic area, since they deliver to me, so adding in the park reference would be a nice touch, since I didn’t even know such a park existed. (Thank you, Google Earth.)

The goal of any email campaign should be conversion, not JUST recognition. As such, a call to action must actually DO something, not just remind me of you. Give me a reason to eat there again when I hadn’t thought of it before, and I’ll come on in.

On the plus side, at least they didn’t tell me to print out the email and bring it in for a discount.

Fast forward to 2000 – An employee of mine told me that running was “like walking, but faster.” She also mentioned that “thinner people get more dates.” So I started running. And that led to who I am now. I run a LOT – I run because I like the solitude – only time of the day (unless I’m skydiving) where I’m not with a blackberry or mobile phone. I run for the endorphins – Beats Adderal. And of course, I run, so that occasionally, I can have this.

The Philly Slim's Widowmaker

Sometimes, at the end of the day, you just want a double meat, double cheese, Widowmaker sandwich from Philly Slim’s. And when that craving hits, you have two choices: Deny, or indulge, knowing that you ran a 10k run at 7am yesterday morning by yourself, or you’re running a half-marathon this weekend, just so you can.

And it doesn’t affect your training, and it won’t raise your caloric count specifically because of that.

And that makes it ok.

And it makes the Widowmaker taste just that… much… better.

Yum.

“The slower we move, the faster we die. Make no mistake – Moving is living,” he says. A great quote.

After seeing the movie again today for the fourth time, it occurs to me that he has a great point – “Stuff” does slow us down. And the older we get, the wealthier we get, the more “stuff” we seem to accumulate. There’s a law about it, apparently – The bigger our place, the more stuff we collect to fill it. It’s sad, in a way.

I’m as much of a victim of that law as anyone else. But today… I’ve decided I want to change it.

I found a blog a few days ago – A Paperless Life – Denise, a writer, talks about her attempt in 2010 to get rid of as much paper as possible.

I salute her – I’m going to attempt to mimic her and do the same. But there’s a lot more we can get rid of, isn’t there?

Photos? Slides? Scan in the best ones, store them locally and off-site for backup, toss the rest. (Or as Mr. Bingham says, “Photos? Photos are for people who can’t remember. Drink some Ginko and let the photos burn.”)

DVDs? Blueray discs? Good question. I can rip DVDs to an external drive and lose the discs – But can I do the same with Bluray? If so, can someone tell me how?

Which brings me to the question of storage… What should I use? What drive is big enough for 500 DVDs? For Bluray? If you wanted to buy the biggest, fastest external drive for your Macbook Pro, what would you get?

Clothing – How much do we really have that we don’t ever wear? Goodwill is getting quite the donation this week. Really go through your closets. Women: You’re really going to wear those clubbing dresses from 2004 again someday? Right. Guys? Not every t-shirt we get at a conference needs to be kept.

Food: Buy the staples – buy the rest on a per-occasion basis. Bonus: You’ll lose weight.

Travel: I’ve already mastered this. I go to the airport with my backpack and a carry-on. Anything bigger I have to take? That’s what FedEx is for, end of story.

I want 2010 to be simpler. I want to own less stuff. I want to have more space, and not have to fill it. That’s my mission.

Help me do it. Give me some other ideas in the comments. What else can I lose? What else don’t I need? What else can I make smaller? (And don’t say my cats.)

A little history… I’m on Twitter as @skydiver.The morning of December 24th, I figured I could kill two birds with one stone. I figured I could clean out my office, and by doing so, give away via Twitter all the “SWAG” that I’d collected over the year from loyal HARO members, advertisers, and the like. Seemed like a good idea.

So the night before, I posted this to Twitter. Within 30 minutes, I had over 400 new followers. Apparently, everyone retweeted, and people who’d never heard of me or HARO started following me in droves. “Cool!” I thought.

The next morning, I started giving away some stuff. Some soaps from SkinFree, a surge protector from TrippLite, even some travel goodies. The minimal cost of postage was, in my opinion, worth getting my office back and making a few people happy.

But then, something weird started to happen. All of a sudden I got a call from my friend Kelly, the PR rep for the very awesome Ogio line of travel gear. “Peter, want to give away a bag?” “Um, YEAH!” So I did. And all of a sudden, people realized that hey, I just gave away a $150+ bag to some random person who followed me on Twitter! Well, that got the word out.

By 3pm, it was clear that I’d have to do this again – not because I couldn’t get through all the stuff in my office, but because offers of “Hey, I’ll donate _____ as a prize for your next question!” were coming in around one every five minutes.

So in no particular order here’s what’s going to be given away tomorrow. This is a partial list, because prizes are STILL coming in. I’m going to have to ask a question every 10 minutes or something. What hath I wrought? I should also add, note the ski trips. SKI TRIPS!!!

Three one year memberships to Boingo (Two Left) Given Away!

A one-hour private phone consult on how business/journalists can use Twitter, compliments of Laura Fitton, head of Pistachio Consulting. Given Away!

Guy Kawasaki is thowing in a copy of his newest book, Reality Check Given Away!

Eight (yes, eight!) Bags from Ogio (Two left)

Two Gift Certificates to an introductory Blacksmithing Class (How cool is this!) Check it out here. Given Away!

SanDisk is throwing in five 8GB SanDisk Mobile Ultra mobile phone memory cards and USB 2.0 compatible MobileMate readers (One left)

Two months of Business Coaching ($1,200 value) from Mattison Grey at Greystone Guides Given Away!

A gift Certificate for a custom snowboard, ski or skateboard graphic from FreshPow.ca Given away!

Four Stainless Steel Water Bottles compliments of CynerGreen Given Away!

A free Peek Email Device with 3 months free service! (Hot!) – Given Away!

Sleek MedSpa is giving twelve (yes, twelve!) $100 gift certificates to their spa, located in NYC, Boston, and South Florida. (Sweet!) (Eleven left) Given Away!

Two Child Safety Packs from My Precious Kid Given away

A fine art print, up to 16×20, from the Italy Collection of Jen Barnett Given Away!

Two bottles of Double Cross Vodka, ($50 per bottle value!) (one left) Given Away!

Four $25 Gift Certificates to Blue Ridge Gypsy Studios Skin Care Line, including Free Shipping (2 left) Given Away!

A pair of one-day adult lift tickets to Park City Mountain Resort, in Park City, Utah! Given Away!

Ten T-shirts from TeeCycle.org Given Away!

3 sets of two 22 oz bottles of Bosco Chocolate Syrup. Remember Seinfeld? Given Away!

A $50 Gift Certificate to Hooray for the Underdog Given Away!

A Reno/Tahoe Winter Escape for 2: 4 days 3 nights lodging in either Reno, Sparks, North Lake Tahoe or South Lake Tahoe, a meal or two, three days skiing with two interchangable lift tickets, and tons of swag, bags, camelbacks, etc. (How cool is this?!)

Two $25 vouchers to Razoo, an online charity donation platform. Given Away!

A gorgeous pair of Earrings ($80) compliments of Ojai Style Given Away!

A LIFETIME subscription to PearBudget, the online budgeting tool. Given Away!

Cinzia is tossing in a gorgeous pair of sunglasses ($260) Given Away!

Deb Lee is throwing in Two Hours of Professional Organizing Services to anyone in the DC Metro Area. Given Away!

Four pairs of Monkey Toes Shoes Given Away

A free candle, every month, for a YEAR, thanks to ImageGlow Candles Given Away!

A limited edition lip gloss and fragrance set from Mary Kay cosmetics, thanks to Kat Rosati

Three Doggie Shirts, compliments of Garmutt, Rock Apparel for Dogs. Hee!

Myles Abernathy of 399 Retouch drops in a photo retouching, which he swears “will make you look good.” Given Away!

A Signed Copy of Beth Sheresh’s new cookbook, “Picture Yourself Cooking With Your Kids“ Given Away!

A Bronze Web Hosting Package, thanks to JTF Associates Given Away!

A Hip Chanukah Prize Package, compliments of Sara at Pop Judaica. Given Away!

Three Subscriptions to the Dream of Italy Newsletter, thanks to Kathy McCabe.

Three free tickets to any workshop at the Are You Socially Acceptable Conference Series

Two bottles of Rare Olive Oil thanks to Farmstead Wines Given Away!

Lots more coming in today and tomorrow morning – yes – even on Christmas day!