We Goofed! (Warning! Don’t Let Your Marketing Go Wrong)
by David G. Johnson | Filed In: Rants, Small Business Marketing November 10th, 2009
Whoops... I Goofed.
Today I had to eat some crow.
And I know you’ve been there too, so you know it just isn’t any fun. But I had to apologize today to thousands of people for completely dropping the ball.
In hindsight, it all seems very simple. People we’ve met through webinars we’ve done, relationships we’ve built, perhaps even those who have visited this very blog… they were all supposed to be getting our content via e-mail.
As it turns out, it simply wasn’t happening. We were building huge databases of people who should’ve been hearing from us… and they were getting absolutely nothing.
As you might imagine, it’s embarrassing for this to happen to someone whose business is built around helping other people develop communication strategies.
“Deliver value! Consistently! Develop a plan to stay in touch, and implement it!”
And while we certainly have been doing that… there were huge gaps in our business where it just wasn’t happening.
So… today, I have owned up to it, taken responsibility, and apologized. And we’re fixing the business processes that weren’t working properly so that it won’t happen again.
Perhaps you got an e-mail from me. If so, thanks for visiting here. I’m looking forward to having you join us for that exclusive webinar I told you about. If you feel the need to tell me how terrible it is that we goofed up, please leave a comment. I don’t delete even the negative ones (unless you’re just a spammer). Of course, all responses are welcomed.
If you’re here and you aren’t receiving e-mails from me… well, then I encourage you to sign up today. Not only will you receive valuable information on how to grow your business in this (or any!) economy, but I’ll also make sure you’re invited to our next private webinar.
Increase Your Response: Make ‘Em an Offer They Can’t Refuse
by David G. Johnson | Filed In: Small Business Marketing September 22nd, 2009Here’s #5 of 5 Ways to Increase Your Response just by changing the words you use!
5. Make ‘Em an Offer They Can’t Refuse
In the spirit of Don Corleone (and with your best hoarse Godfather voice) think about what motivates — no, drives — them… then give ‘em something to do.
Discounts are good, but remember #4 (you gotta pass the “So What!” test). In this economic climate, your discount offer may be a bit more interesting than usual, but even then… really don’t be boring. Irresistibility counts.
Free information is good, as long as it helps them solve their biggest problems. A free trial, free sample, money-back guarantee, free report, “hidden secret,” or something else useful and interesting is key here.
Regardless of the substance of your offer, don’t make the mistake of skipping your close. You know what I’m talking about… you’ve either done it or seen it. A salesperson has a great presentation, then wimps out and doesn’t ask for the business.
In your marketing, your clear call to action needs to be (or seem) irresistible to the right person. It’s your job to know who they are and what they want (notice, I didn’t say, “what they need!”). But when you know it, think up a way to craft an offer that they simply must respond to.
For many small businesses, this means getting creative. Regardless of whether you can or should offer a discount, you can create something useful for them.
One of the more memorable examples of all time was the “Secret of the Golden Box” campaign used by Columbia Record Club when they were testing out television. The campaign was created by legendary direct marketer Lester Wunderman. He knew that just “creating awareness” or “improving brand recognition” wouldn’t maximize the return on investment for the expensive medium of television. So… he told the viewers (usually late at night when the ads were cheaper and the right audience was watching) that Columbia Record Club would send them any album of their choice from the Columbia catalog if they could find the “gold box” on the ad in Parade or TV Guide.
Who was Columbia looking for? Music addicts. What would be irresistible to a music addict? A free hit, of course.
You too can craft irresistible offers tailor-made for your ideal customers. Is it easy? No. If it were easy you would’ve done it by now. Your competition would have done it, too.
But it’s highly effective.
Now go get busy.
Should You Use Social Media to Market Your Business?
by David G. Johnson | Filed In: Get Strategic, Small Business Marketing August 19th, 2009We’ve already tackled the question about YouTube for Marketers recently, and I’ve been a big believer in it for a number of years. In fact, business owners and entrepreneurs in our 21st-Century Strategic Marketing Program have heard me beat the drum of not just YouTube, but also social media outlets (including Facebook and Twitter) since the program’s inception in early 2008.
Clients are now asking about social media more than ever before, particularly as we help them develop comprehensive marketing and communications strategies that they in turn get busy implementing. In my opinion, the number of businesses who should not be using social media is rapidly diminishing. If you own a small business, if you are a salesperson, or if you in any way are responsible (or rewarded) for bringing customers or revenue into the company you work for, then you need to have a social media strategy.
No one has said it better than the creator of this video:
For help developing your 21st Century Marketing Strategy, or to find out more about our low cost, high ROI training programs, contact us today. You’ll be glad you did.
Free Webinar: How To Dominate Your Marketplace Using Social Media
UPDATE: Join us for a free webinar Thursday, September 10th at 9PM Eastern.
Guerrilla Social Media Strategies for the Small Business and Sales Professional
Trying to make sense of Twitter? Befuddled by Facebook? Not sure where to start?
In this informative 90-minute webinar, David G. Johnson will be talking about how to decide which social networks make the most sense for your business, how to get started, and how to ensure that your precious time and resources aren’t wasted.
Whether you’re an experienced social networker or not even sure whether to stick your toe in the waters, you can’t afford to miss this valuable educational event!
In addition to lots of great instruction, there will be a Q&A session at the end which allow you to get your questions answered by the expert!
Space is limited.
Reserve your spot here.
David G. Johnson is the founder of Epiphany Marketing, LLC and has been helping businesspeople just like you establish highly profitable, cost-effective marketing strategies that leverage technology for the past 11 years.
Increase Your Response: Pass the “So What!” Test
by David G. Johnson | Filed In: Get Strategic, Small Business Marketing July 21st, 2009Here’s the 4th of 5 Ways to Increase Your Response just by changing the words you use!
Bored Customer
Bored Customer
Pass The “So What!” Test
One of the biggest contributing factors to the dismal results that small business marketing tends to get has to do with the value and sequence of your content. Again… it doesn’t matter what medium you’re using (direct mail, e-mail, print, radio, TV, etc.), your customers simply don’t care until you catch their attention and answer their question, “What’s In It For Me?!”
So… to get practical right away: Put all your best benefits right up front. You managed to get their attention with a bold promise written directly to them about them in your headline. Now keep it up.
It’s your job to prove to them that they should continue to pay attention.
Some people think you should “save the best for last” and give ‘em some great stuff at the end of your ad. The only problem with this is that the vast majority of people will never make it to the end. They already said, “so what!” and moved on.
Pretend that the reader/listener/viewer of your ad is a 5th-grader with ADD/ADHD whose Mom forgot to give ‘em their Ritalin today. This forces you to keep their attention. I’m not saying you should treat them as though they’re ignorant (or worse: stupid!), but just assume they have as much to do today as you do.
But That Takes Work!
Yes it does. This means that you need to sit down and focus your efforts on knowing enough about your prospects and customers to really understand what they care about. (Hint: there’s most likely difference between what you think they care about and what they really do, in fact, care about.)
It also means that you need to invest the energy into categorizing, prioritizing, and re-phrasing the benefits of your product or service until you’ve found a way to push the top benefits out in front of your audience first and foremost.
Remember: marketing (even in the “conversation” of Web 2.0) is largely a “broadcast” art & science. This means that you can’t pretend to be a lawyer making an argument in front of a jury and try to finish with the big key point at the end. The lawyer has the advantage of seeing the whites of the eyes of the jury and gauging their reactions and adjusting accordingly. You must come right out and play your Ace right up front.
Bottom Line: Don’t be boring. You can’t afford it.
Up next in this series, we’ll be taking a lesson from Don Corleone. Subscribe right now so you’ll get it first… and get yourself a free gift!
Increase Your Response: Write From “Me” to “You”
by David G. Johnson | Filed In: Get Strategic, Small Business Marketing June 15th, 2009Here’s the 3rd of 5 Ways to Increase Your Response just by changing the words you use!
Hey You!
Hey You!
3. Write From “Me” to “You”
I have a shocking revelation for you: Your future customers don’t care about you.
That’s right. I said it. I’ll say it again.
They don’t care about you.
Why, then, is so much of our marketing material all about us?
When we put it so bluntly as this, it seems so obvious. But somehow we get stupid when it’s time to create the ad, write the e-mail, or put the content together for the website. And we make a massive blunder: we make it all about us.
Your audience only cares about themselves. They’re incredibly selfish. But who can blame them? They’re busy. They have things to think about. Stuff to do. If you don’t answer the question right off the bat:
What’s in it for me?
…you’ll lose ‘em faster than a 2-year-old watching C-SPAN.
So… one way you do it is talk to them about them. Put a picture of your best customer in front of you (a person, not a company) and write to them as if he or she were the only human being on the planet.
This means you use a lot of words like
- you,
- your, and
- yours,
and not much of
- we,
- us,
- ours,
- they,
- them, or
- theirs.
What About Writing in the 3rd Person?
If there’s a faster way to put an audience to sleep, I’m not sure what it is. So… just for the record: don’t do it.
Now of course there are exceptions to every rule. But remember: effective marketing is about starting or cultivating a relationship. This happens one person at a time. It happens one-on-one with your marketing–whether you’re speaking to an enormous crowd or sitting across your prospect’s desk. You would never talk about your company or yourself in the 3rd person while face to face, would you?
This might seem like a subtle nuance. But I guarantee you that if you keep in mind the end goal (the relationship) and you intentionally incorporate the “me to you” approach, you will get significantly better response.
Up next in this series: “So What?!” Subscribe right now so you’ll get it first!
Should You Use YouTube to Market Your Business?
by David G. Johnson | Filed In: Small Business Marketing June 4th, 2009One of the questions I am frequently asked by people exploring their online marketing options is:
Should I be using YouTube as a marketing tool?
The answer is 100% “Yes!”
In fact, we recently trained the members of our Strategic Marketing Program on this very topic:
Not yet receiving valuable training on marketing your business in the 21st Century? Click here to learn more.
Increase Your Response: Make A Bold Promise!
by David G. Johnson | Filed In: Get Strategic, Small Business Marketing May 27th, 2009Here’s the 2nd of 5 Ways to Increase Your Response just by changing the words you use!
2. Make a Bold Promise
Ultimately, marketing is about promising something to your future customer (or your existing customer… if you’re working toward repeat business). What you promise and how you fulfill it is completely up to you, but nevertheless, you’re making a promise.
So… since you’re already making them a promise, why not make it boldly?
Why not grab their attention and shake ‘em up a little? (or a lot?!)
Be daring. Get creative. Let them know you are different from the competition.
Recently, I asked a member of our training program to read me the headline from his brochure. This brochure is the primary piece of advertising he uses. He sends it out via direct mail and gets it into the hands of prospects or “suspects” as often as possible. He and I were on the phone during one of our training sessions and so I said to him,
“Eddie, read me the biggest boldest thing on the front of your brochure.”
Can you guess what was there? It was the name of his company. Right up at the top.
Yawn.
That’s what readers do when they see it…
When you spend that valuable piece of real estate on the name of your business, it communicates 2 things to the reader:
- You’re only interested in yourself
- You’re boring
Never, ever, make your name, your logo and/or your photograph the first, most prominent thing the prospect sees. The only possible exception to this is if you already have enormous name recognition as an expert with the audience in question. And let’s be real about this. If you already had that kind of name recognition, would you be publishing said marketing piece? (The answer is… it depends. But chances are, you’re not Zig Ziglar, or President Barack Obama, or Gandhi. So don’t do it.)
By changing what he does with that valuable piece of print “real estate,” Eddie could multiply his results. What about you?
We’ve already talked about the importance of using a headline, since it serves to catch the reader’s attention. Making a bold promise is a great way to not only capture their attention, but get them thinking about doing business with you right away!
Up next: how to write your content… If you haven’t yet, subscribe right now so you don’t miss out!
And if you are President Barack Obama or Gandhi, let’s talk! (Oh wait… Gandhi’s no longer with us… and Obama already won the election…)
Increase Your Response: Use a Headline!
by David G. Johnson | Filed In: Get Strategic, Small Business Marketing May 20th, 2009You’re on your way to getting better results with the 1st of 5 Ways to Increase Your Response just by changing the words you use! (You may want to take a moment and read that introductory post if you haven’t already.)
1. Use a Headline
Without question, this is the single most important place to focus your efforts first. Some people estimate that as many as 70% or more buying decisions are made from the headline.
What? You’re not using one?
Hmmmmm… could be a clue. Get started. And do it today.
In our work with clients and students, we routinely analyze marketing efforts that aren’t performing up to par. And it’s very common for us to run across great marketing copy that’s absolutely bombing.
The simple fact is: no one will care about (or even read) the rest of the brilliant stuff you write about if you don’t get their attention and pull them in right up front.
- In your e-mails, the headline is the subject line.
- In radio and TV spots, it’s the first phase or sentence the audiences hears or sees.
- In print (and on the web), it’s the 1st, boldest, biggest element of your copy.
It’s your job to sell the reader/viewer/listener on why they should pay attention. And this means that you need to know what’s going on in their world. You need to understand their needs… and more importantly, their wants. You need to understand how what you have to offer them — regardless of what it is — addresses those needs and wants.
And then you need to find a way to use the most compelling, attention-getting words you can muster in order to stop them in their tracks.
If you’re already using a headline and you’re not happy with the results, then it’s time to implement one of the cardinal rules of effective marketing: test everything.
This means write a new headline and test it. In fact, I write dozens… sometimes hundreds of different headlines before deciding which one to test first. And then… even if I’m getting great response, I will test another one. If the response goes up, then guess which one I keep? If it goes down, we go back to the other one. Either way, I’m always testing. Just remember to only change one thing at a time (don’t test a new headline and a different color scheme, for example).
Devote some time to your headlines today. And watch this space for more ways to get more effectiveness out of your marketing!
5 Ways to Increase Your Response
by David G. Johnson | Filed In: Get Strategic, Small Business Marketing May 15th, 2009Looking to get better results out of your website, e-mail, direct mail or other advertising and outreach efforts?
Over the years of working with and training the greatest businesspeople on the planet — small business owners and their teams — I’ve found that this is by far one of the greatest opportunities for growth available. You can significantly impact your bottom line relatively quickly by devoting some attention to this area.
And for the record, I’m not talking about buying more advertising, sending more pieces or redesigning your website. In fact, I’m not talking about spending more at all!
What I am talking about is this:
Change the Words You Use
We all recognize to one extent or another that the words we use — whether they’ll be read, heard or both — have an impact on our results. After all, no one would remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s speech if he called it, “We Might Eventually Improve Something.”
But since most of us in the world of small business don’t think of ourselves as great orators or great writers, we tend to approach creating our marketing pieces a bit haphazardly. Ask any web designer which phase of a web project tends to drag on endlessly and they’ll undoubtedly tell you, “waiting on content from the client.” Why? It gets done last because we dread it and pay as little attention to it as possible.
A seasoned marketer, on the other hand, approaches things differently. In fact, I train our clients and students that content comes first — right after you’ve figured out who the target audience is for a given piece. Outreach methods, colors, designs and everything else come last.
So the question becomes:
How Can I Increase Results Just By Changing the Words I Use?
I’m so glad you asked!
Here are 5 key ways you can improve your response from your existing efforts.
- Use a Headline
- Make a Bold Promise
- Write from “Me” to “You”
- Pass the “So What?!” Test
- Make ‘Em an Offer They Can’t Refuse
These are cardinal rules of getting results with your marketing. If you’re not doing these each and every time you touch a prospect with any form of marketing or advertising, then you have room to improve!
And over the next few posts, we’ll tackle these elements one at a time. You’ll have lots more detail to work with. So… if you haven’t subscribed yet, do it right now! I’ll personally notify you right away when these get published.
Should You Change Your Pricing Strategy in this Economy?
by David G. Johnson | Filed In: Small Business Marketing March 26th, 2009
One of the questions many business owners are grappling with right now has to do with pricing strategies. We frequently hear it this way:
Should I lower my prices as a response to shrinking demand?
Conventional wisdom in most cases says, “Yes.”
But I want to challenge you to think this through carefully before indiscriminately squeezing what may be left of your profit margins. Naturally, this question is quite involved and far too complex to address comprehensively in a single article. But there are some important considerations that we can highlight here to help you start to create a framework for your decision-making process.
First Things First
Let’s be clear. In this rapidly-changing economic environment, price is not the issue.
Oh I know it seems like it. Your salespeople and front-line staff may even be telling you that your prices are high. Your customers and clients may even be telling you that price is a big factor in their decision-making.
But this is almost always less than the truth.
The real issue is value.
So… to begin with, you must get to the bottom of what your customers’ needs really are. And if you’re working from data that are more than a few weeks or a few months old, you’re already out of touch.
Sadly, most businesses aren’t working from any real data at all. “Gut hunches,” sticking your finger in the wind to see which direction it appears to be blowing, and looking at your own sales numbers don’t count.
For this answer, you’ll have to get your hands dirty. You’ll have to make some potentially uncomfortable phone calls — perhaps even personal visits — and initiate the dialogue with your customers like this business owner did.
Your customers are likely not making decisions purely on price. Granted, there are always exceptions, but our tendency is to assume that our own businesses are automatically in that category when a remarkably few actually are.
The fact is that your customers’ needs and wants are changing faster than ever. And while you can’t afford to repackage products and services every single day, this is quite possibly where you need to start once you have a legitimate idea of what your customers really need and want.
Perhaps they need more confidence that their investment in your products and services will have a larger (or longer) payoff. In that case, extended warranties or different complementary products and services should be offered.
In some cases, your customers simply need more of a personal touch. Some buying decisions are being prolonged — not because resources aren’t available, but because confidence has been shaken. Don’t mistake hesitance for inability. But also don’t make the mistake of assuming that the drivers and motivations of your customers are what they were last year.
Assumptions Are Evil
Priority 1 for us when working with our clients and coaching group members is to put in place systems to measure what’s actually happening in their businesses. From a marketing standpoint, this means that your message — that thing that actually connects you with your target market — must be tested. I’d say that it needs to be tested more than ever before, but the fact of the matter is that it always needs to be tested. The money that you were leaving on the table a few years ago because your message wasn’t “spot on” was something you may not have noticed. Today it could be the difference between survival and failure.
The time is now to turn your entire organization into an aggressive listening machine.
What you learn will surprise you.
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