Marketing
The Words that Sell To Women
May 10, 2009
Next time you’re writing sales copy, consider this when you’re marketing to women or men, specifically …
As a marketing professional you obviously know your product well, so you’ll know that the needs of your men clients are different to those of your women clients. And salespeople, you’ll know that when you’re selling in a face-to-face situation you’ll highlight certain features to women and other features of the product to men – that goes with the territory.
You’ll probably know too that the same goes when you write sales copy … Read the rest of this entry »
The Teddy Roosevelt Approach To Selling And Copywriting
April 15, 2009
It’s irritating. Ask most people how they feel about being sold to and this is the answer you’ll probably get. Today, more than ever, people don’t like being told what to do. That’s why sales tactics of a decade ago simply aren’t working today. And that’s also why sales people and copywriters today are approaching the sales process in a different way.
When Theodore Roosevelt was New York Governor he achieved what many people believed to be the impossible. He managed to develop a great relationship with political heavyweights, yet at the same time manage to get these same political heavyweights to vote for a number of sweeping reforms that they were often bitterly opposed to.
What was his secret?
The Sales-Killing Mistakes That Small Business Owners Make On Twitter and Facebook
April 15, 2009
By now most people have seen all the “hoo-ha” about employees being fired over negative comments they’ve made on Facebook. But the even crazier thing is small business owners don’t seem to have taken the hint and continue to post very damaging tweets of their own.
I was initially reluctant to write this article because I figured that these mistakes were being made by a minority of people, but considering how frequently I’ve been seeing certain tweets pop up, I guess I was wrong.
This article is written in the hope of helping small business owners preserve their relationships with their clients in the future.
Tested Copywriting Sentences And How to Penetrate the Cloud
April 13, 2009
Sales “scientist”, Elmer Wheeler was an absolute master of understanding how buyers think and understanding how to really connect with a buyers’ hopes and fears, conversationally.
In the following article, Mr. Wheeler talks about “penetrating the cloud”. In other words, it doesn’t matter whether we are walking down a street or scanning through a newspaper, we are all walking around in a fog. It’s then the job of an advertisement, to penetrate that fog. If it doesn’t, your advertising dollar has been wasted. If it does, you have captured their attention and you’re one step closer to generating a sale.
Here’s an excerpt from our “College of Copywriting” Freelance Copywriting course where Elmer Wheeler talks about this in detail …
12 ways to Spice Up Your Yellow Pages ™ Advertising
April 7, 2009
1. Inject your personality into everything you write including your Yellow Pages ™ ad.
You’ll be amazed at the response. No-one wants to read boring and stuffy legal-ease. It makes them switch off. But – if your copywriting is engaging to read, your reader will read it, even if it is on the wordy side.
2. A friendly copywriting style builds a warm and lasting relationship with your prospect.
People like dealing with people they like and won’t deal with people they don’t like so make them like you.
3. Write as you speak
When writing your Yellow Pages ™copy, tell your reader what’s in it for them. Your readers are selfish. They really don’t care who you are. They just want to know how you will improve their lifestyle. So …
4. Describe the features of what you’re selling as benefits.
Some benefits could be that they’ll save money, they’ll save time, they’ll be envied by their friends… the list goes on.
In your copywriting, paint a picture of how your product or service will transform their lives. Spell it out.
How to Dramatically Improve Your Yellow Pages ™ Advertising Results
April 6, 2009
Each year businesses spend a small fortune on Yellow Pages advertising. It’s perhaps one of the largest single investments you’ll make in advertising all year so it makes sense to ensure your ad packs the biggest punch — and gives you the very best return on your advertising dollar.
Doing this is simple if you know the right formula. I’ll share this formula with you inside this article.
Unlike with press advertising, people looking in the Yellow Pages are ready to buy right now. While on the surface of things that’s great news, the challenge is that you need to ensure that your prospect sees your ad first and acts upon it … amongst the sea of competitor’s ads.
How To Write a Powerful Headline
April 6, 2009
There are so many elements that play a very important part in every ad, sales letter, brochure or any piece of business communication that you write. And one of the most important elements is the headline.
The headline of your piece will either makes your reader so excited they’ll want to read the rest of your ad, letter etc. or it will make them switch off completely.
Here are some tips to help you do that.
The Art of Writing a Sizzling B2B Lead Generation Letter
April 2, 2009
So your sales force need to bump up this month’s figures. And to do that they need more appointments which means they need a killer B2B lead generation letter.
What do you do?
In direct marketing we live and breathe “salesmanship in print”, however the approach used for a great lead generation letter is different.
It’s more about “relationship building in print”.
A great lead generation letter doesn’t sell a product or a service. Instead it flirts with the reader … arousing them just enough to want to take that next step and find out more. The selling part is then up to the salesperson.
7 Customer Attraction and Copywriting Secrets to Attract More Real Estate Leads Than Ever
April 1, 2009
If you could wave a magic wand, what would be the one thing that would make a massive difference to your success as a real estate agent?
The answer that most people tell me is that they’d love an easy way to write copy that generates leads.
In fact, most people I speak with in the industry tell me that the way in which they generate most of their leads is through opens and through their branding on vendor paid advertising.
Is there a better way? Here are 7 secrets for attracting more real estate leads than ever.
The Surprising Maxim that Maximises Your Copywriting Results
April 1, 2009
Who was it that said, “Modesty is a virtue”?
Well, whoever it was I’m sure they weren’t referring to the field of sales, copywriting and marketing, where self-promotion is the name of the game … or were they?
Take a good look at anyone who is a roaring success in sales, in copywriting or in marketing and you’ll see that one of the secrets of their success is in being able to really connect with people one-on-one, on their level. Sure, that means developing a great rapport with them, being a great listener and being a great communicator and more. But there’s one factor that separates these greats from the wannabes …
It’s called the “Modesty Maxim”. The people who master this element of rapport, achieve mastery.
How To Write Sales Letters That Sell
April 1, 2009
Decades ago, one of the pioneers of the advertising industry, Claude Hopkins wrote the book “Scientific Advertising” in which he wrote of how advertising isn’t about being creative; it’s about following a precise formula to achieve a desired result. Mr. Hopkins words still ring true today.
Great copywriting is about remembering that advertising is nothing more than salesmanship in print.
Understand Your Buyer
Let’s say you consider yourself a pretty decent caliber of salesperson. You can uncover your client’s needs at the drop of a hat. You’re gifted when it comes to making them feel good about themselves and you can handle objections and gain commitment with the greatest of ease.
Selling on paper follows the same process only you need to be part psychic too.
At a client’s home you can interact with them in person. You ask them questions about what their situation is, what their needs are and then tailor your presentation depending on the outcome.
With direct mail you don’t have that luxury. Instead you need to use all your psychic powers to get inside the head of your audience, understand who they are, what they are thinking and then be able to use words that relate to their situation.
The Beginning
The opening paragraph is the most important piece of copy in your entire letter. It’s the piece of copy that will either capture your reader’s interest enough so they want to keep reading or, it will make them throw it away.
Here are some ways to capture their interest:
The Anatomy of a Hot Google AdWord Ad
March 12, 2009
A Google AdWords Ad has four lines:
Line 1: Keyword-rich benefit headline
Before we talk about how to write a great Google Ad, let’s just go back to basics and get inside the head of someone who is using the Google Search Engine.
Picture this … your website visitor is interested in finding something on the Internet so they type some keywords into the search engine. Up comes a search engine results page with a list of websites that matched their search terms.
4 Marketing Initiatives To Make This Year Your Most Profitable Ever
February 2, 2009
1.Establish Key Performance Indicators which measure a variety of financial areas within your business eg. cost per enquiry, cost per sale, profit margins, lifetime value of a client, average transaction value and so forth. That way you have some very clear benchmarks or yardsticks to base any future profit enhancement initiatives on.
Now, against each key performance indicator, write down 4 initiatives you and/or your people can undertake to improve these figures. From there, write down action steps and delegate the tasks. Naturally, it’s important that these KPIs be monitored on a regular ongoing basis to assess
performance.
If you’d like some hands on help, our strategic team can come up with specific marketing strategies and testing programs to help you boost these figures.
The EASY Factor And How it Drives Up Your Sales
February 1, 2009
The easier you make it for the reader to respond, the more responses you will get to your ads, your sales letters and all your marketing material – it’s as simple as that.
If you make the reader jump through hoops before they even hand over their cash, chances are they’ll be thinking to themselves, ‘If it’s this hard to deal with them before I become a customer what will it be like afterwards?’
Give people a number of options and more people will respond. Why? Simply because some people don’t like replying by telephone. Others like to order by phone only and the remainder like to deal person-to-person.
The Power Of Pillar Marketing
February 1, 2009
When you undertake a campaign you’ll experience a synergistic effect by promoting it via a variety of media. So, if you’re promoting your seminar in the newspaper and you also utilise direct mail you’ll get more responses than you would by running two campaigns promoting separate services.
Why? People may glance at your ad and think, “Mmmm…nah, that’s not for me.” But then they may also receive a direct mail invitation. Because they saw the ad in the paper first, they’re more likely to read the letter and vice versa.
Also, pillar promotion is very important in maximising your reach. For instance, certain people simply won’t read local papers but instead they may listen to the radio or read direct mail.
Posted in Marketing
7 Secrets of Business and Marketing Success
February 1, 2009
In my opinion, small business owners are true heroes. Not only do they employ over 60% of the workforce but they also have to overcome huge personal challenges to become successful. And lets face it, the odds are stacked against them with 90% of new businesses failing in the first 5 years.
But when you think about it, just about every large business can trace its origins back to one or two people with a good idea.
For instance, Henry Ford started the Ford motor company at around the age of 40 working from his kitchen table. The Google guys, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Michael Dell all started much younger and from their bedrooms or garages.
So what makes the likes of Henry Ford, the Google guys, Gates and Dell succeed like crazy when so many of their counterparts are slaughtered along the path in their pursuit of wealth and independence?
What’s Your Business Attraction Quotient?
February 1, 2009
At a seminar I ran on Customer Attraction Secrets we talked about the fact that the more attractive your business is, the more customers you’ll attract via word of mouth. We also talked about the Attraction Quotient being a key to that.
Let me explain…
Imagine owning a business that is SO attractive … that you have queues of people lining up out the front waiting to do business with you.
Marketing and the Universal Law of Attraction
February 1, 2009
By now, most people have seen the movie, “The Secret”. If you haven’t heard it, I’ll fill you in quickly. It focuses on the Universal Law of Attraction.
In simple terms, “like attracts like”. In other words, what you think about manifests. At a basic level, think great thoughts and watch great things happen in your life. Think insecure, unconfident thoughts and watch your results suffer.
The Law of Attraction comes into play a lot in marketing too.
Most people can remember times like these when you desperately needed to bring in more sales and for the life of you, you couldn’t manage to close a deal. And then there were other times when you went into sales presentations not really caring whether it came off or not, and it was like you had the Midas touch. Everyone wanted to buy.
The Key To Awesome Advertising Results From a TRUE Legend
February 1, 2009
Claude Hopkins is clearly a legend in advertising circles. He was the author of Scientific Advertising and also the creator of the famous Schlitz Beer campaign that sent their sales through the roof and illustrated the importance of thorough research.
Here is just one of the pearls of wisdom that Hopkins shared over the years.
“Almost any question can be answered, cheaply, quickly and finally, by a test campaign. And that’s the way to answer them – not by arguments around the table.”
“Ad writers forget they are salesmen and try to be performers. Instead of sales, they seek applause.”
“Whenever possible we introduce a personality into our ads. By making a man famous we make his product famous.”
4 Urgency Drivers to Maximize Marketing Responses
February 1, 2009
It’s a fact. Adding a sense of urgency to your copy will give your marketing responses a big boost. Here are four ways to do that …
1. At the end
Obviously, it’s important that you end an ad or letter by asking the person to respond.
2. P.S.
With direct mail or online sales letters, feature a P.S. that reminds them of the urgency of the offer. Also mention again (in a different way) what their lives will be like if they don’t respond to the offer. In both our Direct Mail and our Website Copywriting Courses we talk in depth about the power of the P.S.
