Four Keys to Marketing That Rocks
August 18, 2009
1) The offer
Have a great one. What's an offer? It's what the reader/listener gets by responding. It doesn't have to be a direct sale or a discount. It can be a free e-book, or a Webinar, or a teleseminar. Call it "7 Cost-Saving Design Secrets," or Turn Your Dull Exhibit into a Show-Stopper."
2) Information
There's a lot of arguing online and off about long copy vs. short copy. The answer is long copy is better. That's why QVC talks about a single camera for 20 minutes and why informercials are long. Give readers or listeners all the information they need to make a decision and take action.
3) The call to action
Many marketers miss this one. They'll have great words, a brilliant image, and never ask anyone to do anything. Don't assume your customers will know what to do. Tell them to "call now," or "click here."
4) A way to respond
That's the phone number, the email address, or the URL you want them to click. You can even say "click reply to send me a message."
Click on the link for one more important marketing key.
Five Things Your Web Site Must Have
July 15, 2009
1) A big, fat benefit on the front page:
"Cut Your Energy Bills 25%" or "Lose the Mess and Reduce Your Stress."
2) Clear reasons why your customers should use your services.
Explain what they'll get and how it will make their lives easier (hint: quality, price, and service don't count unless they're off the charts like Zappos or LL Bean).
3) A clear target audience.
Exhibitors at music industry trade shows? Green technology companies? You need to pick one and then tailor your message to fit those people (and those people only). Don't try to be all things to everyone.
4) Contact information.
Put your address and phone number prominently on the site. You're asking people to buy something from you; you'll need to look trustworthy.
5) Testimonials.
Use real words (and pictures, or video if you can) from real customers. Someone else's words are more powerful than anything you can say about yourself.
Find out more ways to improve your web site:
Three Steps to a Better Brochure
June 17, 2009
Have you put a lot of time and effort into a brochure or other marketing materials (online or off) without getting good results? Here are three ways to fix it.
1) Make a connection and build trust, rather than 'hard selling."
If you sell golf equipment, make your company the place to go when golfers have questions about how to drive the ball further or improving their putting skills. You'll be the natural choice when your prospects are ready to buy.
2) Turn it into something that directly helps the person who receives it.
Which would a golfer rather read, "All About Our Golf Clubs" or "Five Ways to Improve Your Swing"?
3) Sell to an "ideal customer."
Many businesses make the mistake of trying to sell to everyone. Instead form a clear picture of exactly who you're trying to sell to. If you have more than one, create different "buyer personas." Returning to the golf example, you might have one set of materials for older golfers and another for people new to the game. Each will have different problems, questions, and concerns.
Which is Better: Email or Snail Mail?
May 14, 2009
Email is a great way to keep in contact with current customers or prospects. Use it to share tips on how to use your product, or create an online course. If you sell accounting software, take new users step-by-step through creating accounts payable or accounts receivable reports. Sellers of video games can reveal strategies for how to get past the three-headed monster guarding the cave with the buried treasure. It's also a good way to send new offers or reminders about special occasions. What better way to interact with your customers than at the exact time they want to buy something?
How to write emails that make money
Use snail mail to generate new leads or for more complex products. Everyone looks at their mail, there's no spam filter, and everyone has a mailbox. It's also much easier to get snail mail addresses. If you're concerned about the costs of a large mailing, try a small sample first, check the results, and then send a larger mailing to the lists that got the best results. Another way to cut costs is to use postcards to send leads to your Web site.
Learn to write postcards that sell.
Five No-cost Ways to Market Your Business
April 15, 2009
Since the recession is cramping many marketing budgets, here are five tips for promoting your company, without spending a cent.
- Build a Google Pages Web site
- Write articles and send them to trade publications in your field.
- Create a Squidoo lens. It's a one-page Web site that focuses on a single topic. Share your expertise, and strut your stuff, but don't spam people with "me! me! me!."
- Answer questions at Yahoo! Answers and LinkedIn.
- Sign up for HARO - Help a Reporter Out. It's a free service with queries from reporters who need sources for stories.
21 more no- (or low-) cost marketing tips.
Simple Ways to Boost Your Email Response
March 11, 2009
The most important thing is the subject line. A poor one can get your message trashed, instead of read. It should be short and punchy (about 40 characters). Put the most important words at the beginning (Easy HTML Tricks or 5 Steps to More Clicks).
The first paragraph should summarize the benefits and the offer, have a call to action and a link. Talk about what's good for your customers (not about yourself). Skip the company history, the guarantee (unless it's astonishing), and the great service. Focus on what's remarkable about your product or service.
Flesh it out with benefit statements (not features) and bullets (interspersed with two or three more calls to action and links). People scan (not read), so make the content easy to digest. Break it up into small pieces, and use asterisks or dashes to highlight individual points. The whole thing should be about a page or a page and a half long (if you printed it out).
More email marketing tips
Love Your Solution, Not Your Technology
February 10, 2009
ony ran an ad two years ago with a headline that said, "It's not the first Blu-ray Disc Player on the market. It's the first Sony. (Isn't that the same thing?)"
The headline says nothing about what the customer will gain by buying the product. Will I be the first to own one? Does it install in minutes, without complicated instructions? Will I get cinema-quality sound and picture?
Whether your advertising budget is $50,000 or $1,000, it will be better spent if you take the time and effort to think about what your customer will gain from your product, rather than what you'll get.
How Does Google See Your Site?
January 14, 2009
If you're stumped for keywords, or wondering if google sees your site the way you want them to, try this idea. check your site, or just one page, against Google's free keyword tool. Just enter the URL in the search box. You'll get dozens of keywords, as well as graphs showing the volume of searches for each.
One client of mine, a company that runs executive leadership programs, discovered that Google thought their site was focused on vacations! There were too many references to the location of the events and not enough about the events themselves.
Got Benefits?
December 16, 2008
Last year, B-to-B magazine (April 4, 2007) reported the results of a study that found that 89% of ads reviewed failed to include benefits. So, if nobody is using them, why do you need them? And what are benefits anyway?
A benefit is something about your product or service that makes your customers' lives better. Some examples are a dentist with a treatment that promises instantly whiter teeth or a pizza place that guarantees delivery in 15 minutes. Highlighting benefits such as these in your advertising will make your product more appealing. If it's more appealing it stands out from the crowd of competitors. People will then want to buy it, so they too can enjoy those benefits (whether it's whiter teeth or hot pizza). Benefits can also help you stand out from your competitors. Imagine if you offered that guarantee and the people competing with you didn't. Which do you think your customers would choose?
******* Happy Holidays and a Happy, Healthy New Year to all of you.
Are You Making This Common Online Marketing Mistake?
November 23, 2008
A few months ago, the MSNBC Web site had an ad for a great looking pair of brown boots from Shoebuy. In the grip of a serious case of shoe lust, I clicked on the ad, and was sent to Shoebuy's home page, rather than a page with the boots I wanted to buy. I clicked on a link marked "boots", but I didn't know what style or brand they were, and couldn't find them anywhere on the site. I finally left in frustration. No sale!
In contrast, an ad from LL Bean for a winter jacket sent me straight to a special page with a big picture of the jacket, the price, and a headline, repeating what I saw in the ad. I could click on that to find out more, buy, the jacket, or look at the related items (gloves, boots, flannel-lined jeans) shown underneath it on the page. If you're using banner ads, don't send your prospects to your home page. Instead, create a page that repeats what they saw in the ad and makes it easy to respond. The easier it is, the more likely you'll get a sale.
Is Your Web Layout Broken?
October 21, 2008
A social networking site I belong to had a bit of a mishap recently. It's normally got a white background, black type, and splashes of orange. However, a minor update somehow returned the site to its default settings - leaving a dark green background, yellow type, and a site that was virtually impossible to read or even look at for more than a minute or two.
How does your site look? Is it legible? Easy to navigate? If you're not sure, have someone outside your company have a look at it. Ask what's wrong (not do you like it?). See what kind of feedback you get.
*****************************
I'm in Seth Godin's Tribes casebook! It's free at my new blog, Fix Your Broken Marketing. To get your copy, go to my blog and click on the picture of the fire.
Learn the Tricks of the Trades
September 16, 2008
What are the trades? They're specialized industry magazines and newsletters. Nearly every kind of business has them, from chicken farmers, to IT, to pharmaceuticals. You may read them yourself, and more importantly, your customers and prospects read them too. And, most of them are free to qualified readers.
You can use these magazines in several ways:
1) Keep up with what's going on in your industry and get information that will help you manage or build your business;
2) stay up to date with the challenges your customers (or potential customers) are facing; and
3) submit articles and get your name, and your business, in front of readers who are potential prospects. Just remember to offer information and solutions, not a sales pitch! To find out more about trade publications, visit http://kaplancopy.tradepub.com/
Speak English, not Gobbledygook
August 13, 2008
Last year, US BlackBerry users were hit by an outage that lasted several days. At the time, the company said, "The system routine was expected to be non-impacting with respect to the real-time operation of the BlackBerry infrastructure, but the pre-testing of the system routine proved to be insufficient." (Market Watch, April 20, 2007).
Huh? How about something like, "We had trouble updating our system. The backups didn't work correctly. We've fixed the problem and we're offering a month's free service to our customers to compensate them." It's easy to understand, and it's good customer service. So, skip the jargon and use plain English instead. Your customers will thank you.
What's In a Name?
July 10, 2008
A new produce store just opened near me. It's called "U Don't Know Nothing Produce". Do you suppose they only want dumb customers? Or are they trying to insult the neighborhood? Has too much text messaging caused them to forget how to spell?
When I questioned the workmen putting up the sign about the name, they said the store was owned by the same people who ran the "Amish Market" about 10 blocks away. I wonder why they didn't call the new store Amish Market Two, or something similar. What does the name of your company say to your customers?
|
