Epiphany Marketing's Strategic Marketing Blog

Here’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.

Here’s the 4th of 5 Ways to Increase Your Response just by changing the words you use!

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!

Here’s the 3rd of 5 Ways to Increase Your Response just by changing the words you use!

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!

Here’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:

1. You’re only interested in yourself
2. 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…)

You’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!

Looking 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.

1. Use a Headline
2. Make a Bold Promise
3. Write from “Me” to “You”
4. Pass the “So What?!” Test
5. 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.