Archive for the 'Copywriting' Category

The Wizard Of Wealth On Advertising Online or OffLine - Must Do’s

Tuesday, October 30th, 2007

What Is Great Online and Offline Advertising Really?

Many business people have a mistaken idea about the distinction between sales & marketing. The common view goes something like this. “Market by advertising to get your name out there, so that people will be familiar with you. When they need what we’re selling, they’ll know who to call”. That’s the Advertising mans mantra. We Find this is what all the major companies do to “BUILD THEIR BRAND” but it’s not what the majority should do or could even afford.. :roll:

And off they go, to promote their company with image advertising that shouts to the world how great they are. They include their Best photo and a whole list of the Degrees and awards {if they have any that is} to impress upon the prospect why they should rush on in and deal with them. :lol:

They hope, and they prey that some how, some way, the message about their brand will stick in people’s minds. Never knowing if it does, or if it doesn’t. Or whether their marketing dollars are paying them back in increased sales. If you can’t measure the returns, the sales, the visitors you should not do it at all!!

Some even think a cool web site, or sexy flash demo is enough to get their phones to start ringing. Hahahahahaah Your website designer LOVES YOU…. ;-)

This all too common approach is a huge waste of time, and money. Never let an advertising rep tell you any different. :evil: Remember the get Paid for Selling YOU! and the bigger your spend the more they EARN!

Sales and Marketing are far more alike than most people realize. The sole purpose of marketing, and advertising is to make sales. Full Stop.

If you don’t know how many sales dollars your online/offline advertising is really bringing in, stop advertising until you DO! :idea:

Advertising must do much more than just get your name out there. It must educate, qualify, convince, & persuade.

Great Advertising is Nothing Less Than “Salesmanship in Print”! So unless you have Compelling Words On paper or Your website..you are not communicating with your prospect.

Think of it as a sales presentation that’s geared toward accomplishing a carefully defined objective, whether that objective is the actual sale, or a step toward it.

Most successful campaigns are in fact a series of graduated commitments, leading up to a transaction. It might start with something as simple as an exchange of information. For example, the prospects name & address, in exchange for some information about solving a problem. That’s always a winning formula. Prospects will respond very favourably to a Free report about your product or service and how it can help them.

When a prospect takes this step, they are actually qualifying themselves, persuading themselves, and giving you permission to follow up with them, all at the same time. And without any investment in personal selling. Permission marketing is the only thing that works today, the day of forcing people to buy buy with your foot jammed in the door is OVER.

After all, why should you waste your valuable time talking to a prospect that isn’t already highly qualified, and predisposed to buying from you? Attraction Marketing is the only way to get the Right prospects and Clients for your business.

The key to profitable sales, marketing, and advertising lies in the response. Yet 90% of businesses fail to ask for, and track incremental response in their advertising. The only thing they track are sales, and then wonder why their results are so abysmal. :roll:

Why Is Incremental Response So Important?

Because it tells you what you’re getting, so you can change what you’re giving, until you get what you want.

The majority of people need to be exposed to your value proposition more than once before opening their wallets anyway. Why not play an active role in the process, and track the response you get to each successive stage of commitment? Today People want to build a relationship before they will trust you enough to do business with you. Our records show that it can take anywhere from 5 - to as much as 25 approaches or contacts with offers to win over that prospect.

Think of a pyramid, with rows of blocks piled one on top of the other. The wider you build each row, the better your chances of getting to the top.

If all of this sounds just too simple, and you don’t believe it has the power to line your pockets with all the money you want, think again.

There are millions of businesses out there that just don’t get this.

Nobody knows for sure how an individual will react to a given message. But en mass, human nature is as predictable as the hands on a clock. If you broadcast a message, the collective response will consistently come back to you within an amazingly small variance. So measure your response, try things, and repeat. It’s that simple. the Most famous line even that increase sales way of the scale was “Rinse and Repeat”

Set up a few pay per click campaigns on google, track your investment in real time, and start experimenting to see what kind of desirable actions you can get your visitors to take right away when they read your sales message. You get instant feedback, and changes are no cost. The whole set up runs for about the cost of a few cups of coffee a day.

Think of it as your own personal marketing laboratory. When you find something that works, you can replicate it in other more costly forms of media. “Rinse and Repeat”

And remember, it doesn’t matter if you’re selling printed cars, make up, mobile phones, herbal remedies, information products, sales and marketing courses, or anything in between, the same principles apply. Click here To View the Full Course wow-cap-bullet1.gif The Wizard Of Wealth

The Big Bang Publicity Campaign

Monday, October 22nd, 2007

The Big Bang Publicity Campaign
by Anne Marie Baugh

Famous is as famous does and the famous get known through publicity. Yes, that’s right, fame doesn’t discover you, you create it through strategic campaigning. What’s more, the techniques for increasing your exposure are not as difficult to attain as you might think. A great publicity campaign starts with courage, then planning, and lastly, it succeeds through persistence. If you’re not sure why you should seek fame, consider fortune because the two go hand in hand.

Fame will bring your business into the forefront of your target audience faster than any advertising campaign can hope to do. It solidifies you as an expert and creates a deep, abiding confidence in the consumer. It makes you a shining star with infinite possibilities.

So what are the steps you ask? Well paste a gold star to your forehead and let’s get started.

1. Press Releases:
Increase awareness through a press release. Yes, I know, press releases have become quite the popular little tool around cyberspace with releases being blasted hither and there, but are they working? Probably not. Blasting your press release will bring blasted little results. Instead, thoughtfully put together a very dynamic one-page press release and target publications that would be most interested in you and your business. Don’t drone out the details, make that press release sing your praises. Then send it to a real live editor and follow up with a phone call. In other words, let the press release be the invitation to your follow up phone call. Begin making connections with the media. Be polite, be excited, and be patient.

2. Create A Press Kit:
A Press kit is basically an exaggerated press release turned into a package. It’s more complex, tells more about you and your company, and is all pulled together into a nice neat folder. Of all the questions I receive, first is, what is a press kit? Simply, it is a folder of information about you or your business. It should contain:

A. An Introduction Letter
B. One or Two Press Releases
C. A Fact Sheet
(This contains the facts about you or your business.)
D. Bio Sheet
(Which is a biography of you and your accomplishments.)
E. Copies of Published Articles
F. Company Literature
G. A Business Card

Send your press kit when an editor, publisher, or producer wants to know more about you.

3. Newsletters Offline.
Don’t forget that a whole world exists offline. Locate newsletters or smaller print publications offline and submit articles. This can be a very dynamic way to increase your exposure as well as add to your press kit. You can locate newsletters in your subject area by visiting the local university library reference section. Ask for a directory of trade newsletters and do your research. Once you have been published, it’s easier to step up to the larger publications. Fame starts small and then snowballs onto itself.

4. Speak Up!
Yep, that’s right. Start giving speeches on your area of expertise. Start locally at civic clubs and local educational programs. Then find the local talk radio shows and make your case to the producer. It’s surprising how many talk radio shows are actively looking for new speakers. Once you have achieved Talk Radio, the opportunities will start coming to you.

5. Publicity Pitches:
Put together several dynamic article ideas. Just the ideas, not the actual article. This is called a Publicity Pitch. Take those ideas and then pitch them to editors of targeted publications. This can work very well as it saves Editors time and puts the outline right into their hands. As a past Editor I know how well this works. Editors love ideas, especially ideas that are completely outlined and correct for their readership. This means don’t send pet article ideas to cooking magazines. Send pet articles ideas to pet publications. Seems like a no brainer, huh? But you’d be amazed at what editors see that don’t apply to their own publication.

Fame comes from planning and persistence. It has its rejections, but if you can learn not to take it personally, it will eventually work. Remember, once you start, keep going. Once you stop, you have to start all over.

Copyright © Anne Marie Baugh
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About the Author:
Anne Marie Baugh Is The Owner Of Write-Promotion.com, Which Offers 12 Years Of Hard Hitting Internet Marketing, Publicity, and Promotional How-To Experience To Help You Build Your Online Business and Free Resources For Promoting Your Website.

Need Help Getting Your Articles Published? Submit Your Articles To Our Free List Of Article Directories And Ezine Publishers. Free PLR articles to help you start your articles! Visit Us Today For Valuable Free Give-Aways To Help Your Business Succeed At: http://www.write-promotion.com

Sunday, October 21st, 2007

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~~ The Outstanding Results in Marketing ~~

Leading Small Business Marketing Newsletter

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Welcome back to Outstanding Results in Marketing!

In this issue:

The best kept secret of postcard marketing with difference - revealed!

1. Golden Rule #14 of Successful Advertising.

2. Introduce Yourself To Your Customers Even Before You Open Your Business!
Business Booster #3

3. “I spy with my little eye - great marketing ploy” Today you’ll see 2 brilliant marketing angles
implemented by real businesses in real life - no BS.

Word count for this issue: 1161 Approximate time to read: Less than 4 minutes.

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1. Golden Rule #14 of Successful Advertising.
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You must test every advertisement, sales letter or marketing campaign before betting your Shirt (or your business’s future) on it. Don’t be seduced by the media reps or the list brokers with promises of huge readerships and hot buyers lists. Test everything on a small scale before you commit large amounts of your money to it.

What the large (and successful) companies always do is test a campaign in one region, city, suburb or newspaper first. If it works they expand it. If not, they change it until it does work.

This way even failures can make you rich. Because when the 8th, 9th or even the 10th test you run is a winner, you just keep on repeating it. And will it more than make up for the failures. And this is what you have to do if you want to make money.

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2. Business Booster #4 - Introduce Yourself To Your Customers!
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Introduce Yourself To Your Customers Even Before You Open Your Business. Politicians do it –
going door-to- door, shaking hands. Does it work?
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Well a Chinese restaurant owner dressed up in a suit and went to all the real estate agencies within 3km of his restaurant with a sample of his food and a menu. He dressed in a suit and personally introduced himself as the owner of a new restaurant.

He said”I’d love to have you come in and here’s a sample of our food.” He also gave them a menu to go with it. Within 30 days he had a booming lunch and dinner trade. Another example is a chiropractor who wanted to set up in an area already over serviced with other (well established) chiropractic services.

He went around for 3½ months, 10 hours a day introducing himself to people. He knocked on over 12,000 doors and spoke to over 6,350 people inviting them to an open house at his clinic. In his first month he earned over $71,800 and saw 233 patients.

Who else could do this? Plant nurseries, car repairs, dentists, accountants, lawyers, convenience stores, in fact anyone who gets business from their local area. Once you’ve gone around you could always follow up with a letter saying . . .

“Dear Friend, As you may recall I came to your house a little while ago to introduce myself to you. Well my (your type of industry) business is now open and I’d like to offer you a (free offer) to see you come in and try my service. Please bring this letter with you to get this offer. Regards, John”

Beats spending thousands of dollars on advertisements, or just sitting there for 2 years, paying dead rent, hoping people will come in, doesn’t it?

And now long awaited secret being reveled DRRRRRRRRRUMS

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3. “I spy with my little eye”
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Postcards increasingly become the tool of choice when it comes to successful marketing promotion. One of the reasons for this is that one doesn’t need to open it - the postcard is already opened. There’s no other option for the recipient to glance over it and here comes the next step - your post card should have a great benefit driven headline that appeals to your target market.

Let me explain - say you are in the business of fitness, you are running a busy gym and you wanted to make use of the direct marketing postcards. For the purpose of this exercise let’s assume that your intention is to help people to loose weight. So the target market description would be anyone who’s concerned with excessive weight…

A great example of post card marketing with the twist.
Not only they appeal to their target market - people who are concerned with excess of weight, but they also made the card - so that it prompts action, that you “win”… in this example I “won” half price joining fee.

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The postcard is a great tool to keep in touch with your existing customers, ask them to buy more while keeping your name in the front of them:

This is a great example of joint venture postcard marketing
Do you realise that this business paid nothing for this promotion - why because they have approached their suppliers - Jane Aredale and asked them to provide the cards as well as postage for promoting their products. Clever isn’t it? Want to learn more techniques like that?

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More to come. Stay tuned, sell more, prosper and most importantly - have fun!

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In Next issue:

1. Golden Rule #15 of Successful Advertising.

2. Business Buster #5 Secrets of designing irresistible
offer that sell to your best customer.

3. More of “I spy with my little eye”

Thursday, October 18th, 2007

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~~ The Outstanding Results in Marketing ~~

Leading Small Business Marketing Newsletter

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Welcome back to Outstanding Results in Marketing!

In this issue:

1. Golden Rule #13 of Successful Advertising.

2. Use “Multi-Selling Channels” To Get New Customers - Even If You Have Little Or No Money! Business Booster #3

3. “I spy with my little eye - great marketing ploy” Today you’ll see 4 brilliant marketing angles
implemented by real businesses in real life - no BS.

Word count for this issue: 1574 Approximate time to read: Less than 6 minutes.

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1. Golden Rule #13 of Successful Advertising.
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Nobody has been able to show a relationship between advertising recall and actual sales. The
standard form of measuring the effectiveness of an advertisement by mainstream advertising agencies and media representatives is by recall. Or how many people actually remember the advertisement after it runs for a set period. This has to be considered as is really stupid.

The only thing that should count from your point of view, is not how many people remember your advertisements - but how many actually went and bought your product. If all you want is recall, just run advertisements featuring chimpanzees dressed in a swimming costume. Sales is where it’s at, so don’t get bamboozled by fancy words and advertising jargon.

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2. Business Booster #3 - Use “Multi-Selling Channels” To Get New Customers - Even If You Have Little Or No Money!
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This has to be the best kept secret of the mail order industry. If you are marketing products directly through TV infomercials (half hour commercials),newspaper advertisements and mail order … you will sell 8 times more again if you also get the buyers into your retail store. In fact, the really switched on retailers and corporations (including banks), are jumping on the direct mail and direct response marketing bandwagon like hungry fleas jumping on a dog. All hands on deck so to speak.

So before we can look at different ways to sell your product, we need to look at what most people in business are doing … and that is, in most cases, they are only selling their products through one “selling channel” - a retailer will only sell in a shop, a wholesaler will only sell to retailers using agents or sales representatives, a mail order merchant will only sell using mail order, and so on.

If you compare your business to a building that is only supported by one foundation pillar (the selling channel), and the building gets bigger and bigger, that’s OK as long as that pillar remains strong. However, if for any reason that one pillar weakens, your whole building comes crashing down. If, on the other hand, you build your business on many pillars (selling channels) and one of them weakens due to economy or whatever … your business still stands firm.

In other words, the more ways you sell or distribute your product the more solid your business. Joseph Cossman - a self made millionaire - used this multiple selling channel technique to sell millions of dollars worth of products over 20 years! In his opinion …

>> 25% of your success is product

>> 75% of your success is in the

selling and promotion of that product He used this procedure dozens of times and it never failed him. So now we use the same process for selling our information products.

We’ve sold our products using direct mail, faxes attacks, magazine and newspaper advertising. We’ve used retail and online bookstores and wholesale distributors. We have sales people selling our products and we have been participants in trade shows and even sold by seminar selling methods. We’ve licensed other people to reproduce and sell our products.

So from first hand experience, we can confirm that this “multi selling channel” approach really works. We’ll take a look at the successful formula that Joseph Cossman and many other successful business owners have used, but before we do so, you’ll need to develop a couple of selling tools to promote your new product.

Tool 1: Promotional Article; A new product is likely to be sold through several “selling channels”. To be able to do this you’ll need a “promotional article” or a catalogue sheet, written about your product. This sheet should have a photo of your product and a good description of what your product is and how it’s to be used, plus what benefits the customers will get by using your product. Keep this sheet low cost - black and white will do fine. This selling tool will be used to give to your distributors, to accompany press releases, used at trade shows and so on.

Tool 2: A Testimonial Sheet;This should be from your satisfied customers, end users, distributors and dealers. Testimonials sell and give your product credibility. The best way to get them is to audio-tape your happy customers telling why they liked using your product or doing business with you. That way you can use the testimonial in a transcribed form (on paper), or on audio-cassette. And If your products are expensive enough to warrant it, you can even do the testimonial using high quality on video which is really effective. Today you can actually most of them on DVD because the costs are so low and easily accessible using very low cost tools.

Tool 3: A Good Sales Letter (Or Two) This is what will accompany the first two selling tools. A good sales letter will open many doors for you and your products, when you are selling to wholesalers, distributors, retail and business customers. Now that we have the necessary “selling tools”, lets look at how we can use them to sell your products. Obviously, not all of these will apply to every product or service, but with just a little imagination I am sure you’ll be able to make some of them fit whatever you are selling.

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3. “I spy with my little eye”
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Today you are in for a real treat. I’m going to share with you not one, not two - but FOUR great marketing concepts.

You know that in order to sell more you need to be different, so that other people will take notice of you and your business. But how I can be different if I sell safety equipment - how exciting this is? Well let’s see… here what can be done:

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Now if you really wanted your business to be noticed by your prospective customers, not only that but also remembered.
Besides - make people REALLY want to know what a heck is this.
Click bellow to find out…

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Did you know that one of most effective methods to reach your target customer is to send them a postcard? Why is that you may ask - well for starters - it’s already open. When a person gets it from the mail box - they have to read it. So you get their attention - now what - a good headline will help, indeed. See for yourself a great example:

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Finally the easiest way to attract new business is to SAMPLE your product and service. The strategy must be simple to execute, follow and understand. The cost of attracting a customer will be only your cost of product or your time. See for yourself how this clever business did it:

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More to come. Stay tuned, sell more, prosper and most importantly - have fun!

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In Next issue:

1. Golden Rule #14 of Successful Advertising.

2. Business Buster #4 Secrets of designing irresistible offer that sell to your best customer.

3. More of “I spy with my little eye”

Are You Ignoring Your Customers’ Requests Part 2

Monday, October 8th, 2007

Are You Ignoring Your Customers’ Requests Part 2
by Willie Crawford

Let me share with you a few more insights that you probably already have but are not using.

1) The easiest way in the world to make more money from a proven, profitable niche is to “go deep.” Produce multiple episodes or versions of the product. That’s what movie producers do. That’s what traditional book publishers do. Look at the “Chicken Soup For The Soul” series! That told me that if I produced additional versions of my cookbook, it would sell. My list members also “told” me that.

The way that I will apply this is by re-labeling my first cookbook “Volume 1″ during the next printing. Then, I will introduce “Volume 2″ and as many volumes as the market will bear over the years. Labeling the original “Volume 1″ tells my customers to look for additional volumes. It sets up collectors to collect the complete series.

Speaking of collectors, another version of your product that you can release is a limited collectors’ edition… if appropriate for your marketplace. The co-producer and host of the television cooking show that I’ll tell you about later is doing just that. At my prompting, he’s released a “Limited Edition Autographed Version” of his cookbook, “The Devotional Cookbook.” You can see how he did that with my help at: http://Chitterlings.com/devotionalcookbook.html

What will make the limited editon of the cookbook, in the example above, sell out really fast is the fact that it really is only being released in a very limited quantity, and that a television personality is autographing copies. Ask yourself how you can apply a similar idea to your product. I’ll admit that this idea isn’t something that I dreamed up… it’s somethings that I heard a speaker use as an example at a seminar. All I did was have my client APPLY the idea!

2) Go deep by offering more versions of your basic product. For example, with my cookbook, I offer it in PDF, print, and on CD. In a few months many of my recipes will be available on DVD since I will share them on a television cooking show that I’ll be co-producing.

My mentors long ago told me that I needed not only a cooking show, but a full line of spices and sauces. Instead of listening to them, I went off in search of more exotic markets… largely ignoring the hungry market that I already had (pun intended).

It took one of my clients, coming to me with an idea for a cooking show that he had, to get me into the television business. When you really think about it though, producing a cooking show is just repackaging the information that I already have into a different format.

Listening to my market, will not only allow me to triple my book sales, it will also generate millions when the show is nationally syndicated. The show is just beginning production now, but will grow rapidly. You can follow our progress, and learn from the process, by frequenting our blog at: http://TheDevotionalChef.com/blog

You can also see how I develop and market a full line of cookbooks and related products by visiting my cooking site at: http://Chitterlings.com Go ahead and join the mailing list, as this is where I announce new products and site news.

A few people may ask why I share so much of what I’m doing in my cooking niche with you here. You may wonder if I’m not afraid of competition. The fact is that there are MILLIONS of webpages out there offering free recipes, yet I earn six-figures selling them. The fact is that there are thousands of people who have written cookbooks and are having difficulty selling them. I don’t have to worry about competition because by studying Internet marketing I have learned how to dominate my niche.

What should you do with the information that I’ve just shared with you? Ask yourself how you can apply it in your niche. Ask yourself if your site visitors and subscribers aren’t already telling you what they want to buy!

Once you discover that your product is a hit with the marketplace, listen to them as they tell you how to improve the product, and how to sell more things to them. Instead of going off looking for new and more glamorous markets, serve the one that you’ve already mastered. Apply the many marketing techniques you already know to your existing niche. It will pay off handsomely!

“How to Sell Your Products and Services Now!”

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007

How to Sell Your Products and Services Now
by Diana Barnum

Need some ideas to kick-start your sales? Or maybe you’re looking to increase them or add some pizzazz to your campaigns? Try some of these ideas!

1. Make your reader visualize they have already bought your product in your ad. Tell them what results they have gotten and how it makes them feel. They’ll already become emotionally attached before they buy.

2. Turn your ad into an article. It could be a story, or how-to article. This will lead them into your ad without them knowing it’s an ad. They’ll already be interested when they get to your sales pitch.

3. Make sure you show your reader that they are getting a bargain. Tell them the usual price you sell your product for is $99. Then tell them if they order today they can buy it for $69.95.

4. Direct your ad headline to your target audience. Your readers will feel important and belong to a select group of people who buy your product. For example; “Attention! Accountants, Discover A New Way To Increase Your Client Base!”

5. Tell your reader how fast they can receive your product or service in your ad. Their buying decision may be based on how fast they can receive your product. They may need it by a certain deadline.

6. Use bullets to highlight your product or services benefits. Benefits are the key to selling anything, make them standout in your ad. You can use dots, dashes, or circles to highlight them. Learn lots more tips from correspondence courses at American Writers and Artists Institute; then get some help putting what you learn to use: http://www.presssuccess.com/specialty.html

7. Give a money back guarantee that surpasses a normal one. Instead of the normal timed guarantee, give them extra back. Tell them they can keep the free bonus. Add their bonuses right in your site’s shopping cart. Get ideas for shopping cart set up, with a 30-day trial, plus some product subscriptions sites offer product you can sell by visiting: http://www.presssuccess.com/specialtyB.html

8. Tell your reader they’ll receive surprise bonuses. Raise your reader’s curiosity and make them want to buy, so they can find out what the surprise bonuses are.

9. Let your reader know this specific package will not be offered again. You must create urgency so people buy now. Package your products and services up with something new each month to offer variety and a reason to invite prospects, clients and new site visitors to take a look. For example, add new content from an affordable monthly ebook wholesaler who offers two new ebooks each month complete with their own web pages with content and graphics for a quick, simple, professional choice. Get more ideas here: http://www.presssuccess.com/specialtyB.html

10. Give readers a couple tips in your ad copy that will help them with their problems. This will give your business credibility and gain your readers’ trust to buy your products or services.

No need to reinvent the wheel, either. Get affordable help along the way. Take your cyber-tour today and check out the Work Stations at: www.movingaheadcommunications.com . And you’ll find that help is as simple as ABC! Or You can Buy The Whole Course at www.onlineofflineinformationmarketing.com

Sunday, September 30th, 2007

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~~ The Outstanding Results in Marketing ~~

Leading Small Business Marketing Newsletter

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Welcome back to Outstanding Results in Marketing!

In this issue:

1. Golden Rule #12 of Successful Advertising.

2. Test Different Marketing Ideas, Headlines And Prices Business Booster #1

3. The 3 Most Important Elements Of Any Marketing Campaign

4. “I spy with my little eye - great marketing ploy”

Word count for this issue: 1033 Approximate time to read: Less than 5.5 minutes.

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1. Golden Rule #12 of Successful Advertising.
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Client testimonials increase credibility - - and sales. Like a referral, a testimonial is a
third party endorsement and therefore is much more believable.

If you say something about your product or service it may sound like boasting. If someone else says it, it’s more believable.

Hardly anyone (except mail order companies) uses testimonials. Use them in all your advertisements, letters and brochures. Why? Because …..They work.

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2. Business Booster #1 - Test Different Marketing Ideas, Headlines And Prices
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Recently we had a new idea for a product, so to test it, we did 8 different promotions with 4
different headlines and 2 different prices. We tested 1,000 of each and here’s what happened:

2 promotions got 0 response
5 promotions got between 1-5 responses
1 promotion got 20 responses

This means that the best headline/price combination got 20 times the results of the worst. Imagine what would have happened if we only tried one, or if we didn’t monitor what we did. Chances are it would have been a big flop. Now we are going to take the winner and test it
against another 4 different ways. Then, once we’ve confirmed the best promotion, we’ll test 5,000 or 10,000 of that one. If successful, we’ll continue the ‘roll out’ at 20,000 to 30,000 a week!

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3. The 3 Most Important Elements Of Any Marketing Campaign
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Always Test The 3 Most Important Elements Of Any Marketing Campaign.

a) The list (or who you target).

b) The headline of any advertisement, the opening statement of your letter, or the first thing you say person-to-person over the phone.

c) The offer (or how you package what you are selling).

Recently I developed a new product promotion and tested 3 headlines. The best one got 12 times as many orders as the worst one. I’ve listed them below. See if you can pick the winner. The answer is at the end of this business booster.

Headline #1: Labour Law Warning To Employers: Don’t Hire Any Staff Until You Read This Sub-headline: New Report Reveals Shocking Truth About Unfair Dismissal And Sexual Harassment Laws

Headline #2: Are You Having Sex At Work? New Report Reveals How To Protect Your Business From The New Unfair Dismissal And Sexual Harassment Laws

Headline #3: How To Protect Your Business From Unfair Dismissal And Sexual Harassment Claims.

Great marketing is nothing more than the scientific process of elimination. It’s like a tennis tournament really. You start with a field of 16 starters and pit them against each other until you get the winner. The good news in marketing is you may often get several winners, but you must follow the basic recipe I’ve given you here. The offer might mean that if you sell beds you
test by offering 6 months interest free payments, or a set of sheets and a pillow with each bed.

If you sell swimming pools you may offer 12 months free maintenance or a year supply of chemicals. Or you may vary the payment terms. Or you may try different prices and financing packages. Or servicing contracts and so on. And of course the list (who you target) is the most important part. The customers must want what you are selling and must be able to pay for it Remember this:your existing customers are always the best prospects for any promotion you run.

Headline Question The answer to the headline question is that No. 3 beat No. 2 by 1200% - that’s 12 times as many orders!

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4. “I spy with my little eye”
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You know that in order to sell more you need to be different, so that other people will take notice of you and your business. You may ask yourself “But how can I be different, I am selling toilets - how exciting is that?” Well let’s see here what can be done:

Simplicity is the key. Saving money can be a factor too.
What if you have the premises and wanted to fence it - why do boring old fence - try real…

More to come. Stay tuned, sell more, prosper and most importantly - have fun!

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In Next issue:

1. Golden Rule #13 of Successful Advertising.

2. Business Buster #2 Secrets of designing irresistible offers that sell to your best customer.

3. More of “I spy with my little eye”

www.onlineofflineinformationmarketing.com

“Step into the Web-World Wide Web That Is!”

Friday, September 28th, 2007

Networking University
Presents
Step into the Web

By Paul Gillin

For small business owners, the benefits of blogs, podcasts, online video and social networks are so compelling-at such low costs-that you owe it to yourself to look at the opportunities.

You don’t have to be a technology geek or a professional writer to take advantage of these new tools. You do need to be passionate and informed about a topic and have the time and commitment to write frequently about it. For most small businesses, that means an hour or two a week. Here are some quick steps to get started.

Find out what others are already saying about your area of expertise. Sites like Technorati and Google Blog Search will get you started listening in on the conversation. Set up some Google Alerts about topics that interest you and start getting regular updates on what others are saying. While you’re at it, set up an alert on your own name to see when others mention you.

Once you find writers with similar interests, carve out a special niche for yourself. It could be your topic, your writing style or the approach that you take. Differentiating yourself is a matter of figuring out how your voice can stand out from the others. Even in crowded markets, it’s possible to be distinctive.

Go to a free service such as Blogger.com or WordPress.com and start your blog. It’s easy and you’ll be publishing to the web in minutes. Contact bloggers with similar interests, introduce yourself and let them know what you’re writing about. Link to them and ask for a reciprocal link. This is critical to building traffic.

Experiment with other media. Grab a cheap digital camera and take pictures of your prospects and team members in action. A fifty-dollar microphone and free editing software such as Audacity can have you producing Internet audio in no time. Annotate a PowerPoint presentation with voice commentary and post it for people to download.

Get yourself registered on the top search engines and blog directories. Technorati and BlogPulse are two services that show who is linking to you. MasterNewMedia has a huge library of directories and search services with instructions about how to submit your site to each one. It’s fun to watch your blog climb the rankings!

Comment on other people’s blogs and link back to your site. Be courteous and humble. Don’t sell or deceive. Focus on helping your visitors do their jobs better. They’ll quickly see the value you have to offer.

Don’t get discouraged if you don’t see immediate results. The most successful bloggers have been at their craft for two or three years. It takes time and commitment but the rewards are substantial. You’ll never spend so little to get so much in return.

“Junque” Mail

Thursday, September 27th, 2007

“Junque” Mail

If you don’t get Denny Hatch’s newsletter, you’re missing a real treat.

Denny was the founder and of Target Marketing magazine, Who’s Mailing What (Now called Inside Direct Mail) and several great books, including Million Dollar Mailings and Method Marketing.

He’s an amazing guy – and his recent newsletter had an article so good, I asked for permission to share it with you, in it’s entirety.

You can subscribe free at www.businesscommonsense.com
- just please mention my name.

Here’s Denny’s article:

* * * * * * *

Let’s get this out on the table right now—I love junk mail.

Compared to spam—the ultimate time sucker—a little daily junk mail (which can be opened over the recycling bin) is dream stuff.

And by the way, I love the term, “junk mail.”

Years back, any mention of the term “junk mail” in the media brought huffy letters from members of the direct marketing community demanding an apology from the offender.

When the great West Coast copywriter, the late Bill Jayme, was asked what he did for a living. “I write direct mail solicitations for magazines,” he said, “such as Atlantic Monthly, BusinessWeek, Civilization, American Heritage and many others. High-class junk mail. I call it “junque mail.’”

Jayme went on to say people love junk mail—and junk.

“Vintage car buffs love junk yards,” Jayme once said to me. “Antique collectors love junk shops. For a brief period, Wall Street had a love affair with junk bonds. Vacationers love to head for the Caribbean with a pile of junk fiction. And what would a Hong Kong fisherman be without his j**k?”

General agencies hate direct mail because it is accountable and for years have tried to persuade their clients that it is the ugly little step-sibling of advertising.

Junk mail—direct mail—is in fact the aristocrat of advertising.

Pankaj Shah’s Master Plan

Pankaj Shah is founder and CEO of GreenDimes, a company that is hoping to put direct mailers out of business by generating anger at unwanted mail and its alleged destruction of trees and damage to the environment.

One of Shah’s citations is the WildWest Institute’s statistic that 100 million trees are destroyed each year to produce 4.5 million tons of junk mail, with 44 percent of that thrown away unopened.

(For the record, more than 90% is thrown away unopened.)

According to the crawl on Shah’s Web site, he has stopped 1.6 million pounds of junk mail, planted 320,000 trees and saved $4 million gallons of water.

Shah—with 50,000 members and 16 employees—has a dream: to stop 95% of all junk mail.

Actor Matt Damon, who sits on Shah’s board, did the talk show circuit to promote the GreenDimes Web site. Included on his rounds: “Oprah,” who mails tons of junk mail solicitations to get subscribers to the magazine that bears her name.

Oops.

“Everybody gets junk mail, and nobody likes it,” crusader Shah told The New York Times.

A Look at the Numbers

* Stop 95% of all junk mail and a First-Class stamp would cost somewhere between $5 and $10—maybe more.

* Because of junk mail, the United States Post Office is in business, reaching every address in America every business day.

* Does nobody like junk mail? According to the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), direct mail generates $700 billion in sales.

That seems to me a lot of people like junk mail and happily spend money as a direct result of it.

When I tell people that my career was spent creating junk mail, more often than not the response will be, “I hate junk mail.”

“Do you hate catalogs?” I ask. “No, I love catalogs.”

“Then you don’t hate junk mail.”

In addition, nobody likes an empty mailbox. If I receive no mail (it very seldom happens), I get a brief pain in my gut. Nobody cares about me. My letter carrier is the one person from government who touches me every business day and lets me know the system is still working. Did he have a heart attack and die? Or is the system busted? Has the government run out of money? In short, mail is a good thing.

Junk Mail—Its Exquisite Efficiency

The DMA currently estimates that in order to generate $700 billion in sales, marketers will spend $56 billion on direct mail and catalogs this year.

That translates to every $5.60 in marketing costs bringing in $70 in sales—a glorious return on investment (ROI). The biggest expense is postage. Of that $5.60, maybe $1.50 is the cost of paper.

What about the destruction of trees?

Every paper company and saw mill spends a fortune on reforestation—planting multiple trees for every one cut down. The result, according to the American Forest & Paper Association: The United States has 20% more trees than it had on the first Earth Day celebration more than 25 years ago.

“Trees are a crop that must be harvested slowly,” said Rush Limbaugh.

And unlike toilet paper, paper towels, cups and napkins, corrugated shipping containers, computer paper, stationery, throw-away diapers, airline and movie tickets and shopping bags, the paper used in junk mail creates wealth and jobs.

Junk Mail—the Aristocrat of Marketing Media’

* Direct mail is the most precisely accountable of all advertising methods, measurable down to 10th and 100ths of a percent.

* Contrast this with what the general agencies do—try to create awareness by spending millions of dollars of television airtime and space advertising (for which they get fat commissions) without a clue as to its effectiveness.

* Unlike spam, direct mail is the rocket science of marketing. It requires enormous skill and discipline for one reason only: the cost. At roughly 50 cents a mailing—and up to $1 or more for a catalog—it does not take much direct mail sent to the wrong people or containing a poor offer to result in rivers of red ink.

* In the international marketplace where theft and piracy are rampant, direct mail is the best secret medium to use for testing the efficacy of a new product or service. If you announce a new product in a magazine, newspaper or on television, it becomes public knowledge instantly and fair game for the world’s thieves and weasels that never had an original idea in their lives. They will steal it, manufacture it and sell it worldwide for less than your cost within a few weeks—or less.

* By contrast, a wee 20,000 test in four states will go unnoticed, as will the confirming tests of 200,000 and even 2 million. By the time savvy marketers have a fix on the ROI—thanks to judicious direct mail testing—they can go out via more direct mail, inserts, space ads, television, phone calls, the Web, billboards and skywriting. The market will be creamed before the rascally copycats can get an RFP out to their man in Taiwan.

* A consultant e-mailed me with the following question: What do I tell my clients who are upset when customers complain about receiving so many catalogs? The response:

If I had a store in your neighborhood, I would know when you are ready to buy because you would come in and make a purchase. As a cataloger, I don’t know when you want to buy, so I have to periodically send you my “store” to alert you about new products and offers. You are able to shop my catalog from the comfort and convenience of your home without spending money for gasoline or wasting time going from store to store looking for just what you want, only to find the store is out of stock. My entire reason for being is to be able to get you what you want and save you time and money. I am honored that you are a member of my family of customers. Thank you.

What Goes Around Comes Around

Twenty-one years ago some sensation-seeking jerk like Pankaj Shah dumped on junk mail, and I ran a column much like this one in Peggy’s and my cranky little newsletter, WHO’S MAILING WHAT! (now Inside Direct Mail). It triggered the following letter from Bill Jayme:

Apropos of your excellent defense of junk mail in your September issue, here’s another that we did back in the early 70s for the DMA when Congress was threatening to withdraw Third Class preferential rates. Change “dime” to “quarter” for that phone call and everything still holds, no?

I found the mailing Jayme sent me—a stylish and persuasive 9” x 12” personalized mailing to every member of Congress that contained a ringing defense of junk mail sent out by the DMA (which, at the time, was called the Direct Mail Advertising Association Inc.). It was written by Jayme and designed by his partner, Heikki Ratalahti, under the direction of [Chris] Stagg, [Bob] Dale and [Dick] Archer.

WWW.COPYWRITINGWIZARDS.COM

“What’s Your Self-Image in Selling Like?”

Wednesday, September 26th, 2007

Self-Image in Selling
By: Brian Tracy

Why Your Self-Image is a Key Part of Your Personality
Your self-image is the way you see yourself and think about yourself. It is often called your “inner mirror.” You look into this mirror in every situation to see how you should perform on the outside. You always behave on the outside in a manner consistent with the picture you have of yourself on the inside.

How Do You See Yourself
For example, if you see yourself, as calm, confident and competent in any aspect of selling, when you are engaged in that activity, you will feel calm, confident and competent. You will be positive and happy. You will perform well and get excellent results. If, for any reason, it doesn’t go well at that time, you will throw it off and dismiss it as a temporary situation. Your self-image is clear. In your mind’s eye you see yourself as good and capable in that area, and nothing can interfere with your mental picture.

Change Your Self-Image
The most rapid improvements in sales results come from changing your self-image. The moment that you see yourself differently, you behave differently as well. And because you are behaving differently, you get different results.

My Own Story
Some years ago, when I was selling club memberships from office to office, I would end my presentation by giving the prospect a booklet outlining the membership benefits and encourage him to “think about it.” My self-image was such that I could not bring myself to ask the prospect to make a buying decision. All day long, I would go from office to office giving my presentation and leaving a little book with descriptions to read. And as you might imagine, I was not making any sales. When I called people back after they had time to think about it, they would invariably say that they were not interested.

The Turning Point
I was getting desperate. I was living from hand to mouth at the time. Although I was seeing lots of prospects, I was making very few sales. Then I had a revelation which changed my career at the time. I realized that it was my fear of asking for the order that was causing all my problems. It was not my prospects. It was me. I needed to change my self-image and thereby change my behavior if I wanted results to improve.

Make A Decision
The very next morning, I made the decision that I would not call back on a prospect. The size of the purchase was small and, when I had completed my presentation, the prospect would know everything that he needed to know to make a decision. There was no benefit or advantage of leaving material behind or giving the prospect several days to think about it. At my very first call, and I still remember it, when I had finished my presentation, the prospect said, “Let me think it over.” I smiled and told him that I did not make call backs because I was too busy, and then I said, “You know everything you need to know to make a decision right now. Why don’t you just take it?” I remember him shrugging his shoulders and saying, “OK. I’ll take it. How would you like to be paid?”

Double Your Earnings
I walked out of that office on a cloud. That very day I tripled my sales. That week, I sold more than anyone else in the company. By the end of the month, they had made me the sales manager with 42 people under me. I went from making one or two sales per week to making ten or fifteen sales per week. I went from worrying about money to a large salary with an override on the activities of all my salespeople. My sales life took off and, with few exceptions, it never stopped. And the turning point was that conscious choice to modify my self-image and make it more consistent with the results I wanted rather than the results that I was getting.

Action Exercises
Now, here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, begin to see yourself the way you want to be. See yourself as strong, confident, competent and professional in every way. The person you see is the person you will be.

Second, identify an area of selling where your own ideas about yourself and the situation are holding you back. You always perform on the outside the way you see yourself on the inside.