Featured Report: 40 Hot Tips for Improving Your Marketing

Inside this free report are 40 hot ideas for increasing the effectiveness of your marketing. These ideas have been drawn from a multitude of sources over time. They are the results of campaigns conducted by various leading advertising agencies and marketing companies.

How were the comparative results obtained in some of these examples? 

By using split run tests. Only ONE element (e.g. offer, headline, photo) is changed in the campaign in any one test. By isolating a feature like this, marketers can accurately track which version worked better and by how much.

A note of caution...

These results should be taken as indicators only of what might occur if re-done right now, today. Human nature doesn’t change, but lots of other variables do. And the test results apply to a multitude of different campaigns and products. So, take the results more as guidelines as to how you might trial changes to your own marketing, to lift response. That said, I'm sure you will find great value in reading about these 40 elements that have been tested, and how they have increased response rate time and time again.

Use the contact form below to request this free special report.  Ensure that you enter into the contact form the name of the special report so we know which one to send you.

How OUTRAGEOUS are you prepared to be in your guarantees?

When a client phoned me, he was obviously frustrated. "We’ve got the world’s best auto security locking system, but our ads barely pay for themselves” was his opening remark.

 

I just happened to have a copy of the magazine he’d advertised in, so I grabbed it. His ad had a good position, right hand page, early in the magazine.

The headline on his ad was ‘STOP THIEF’ (set under a big red stop sign). The copy then opened up with “No longer is your car at risk with the such and such security system”, followed by a list of bullet point features (incidentally I changed the name of the product for reasons you'll see below) …

Fairly standard stuff … features like: Easy to operate, self-locking, etc. But then, ‘hidden’ in the third bullet point was the statement: ‘Ignition suppression which completely and totally makes it impossible to start the car when then system is activated.’

My first reaction was that the client had lost a powerful opportunity to sell his system. He’d fallen into the trap of trotting out a bunch of fairly standard features, while what I saw as his BIG benefit was hidden away in the third bullet point.

Interestingly, while he was on the phone, I started flicking through the other ads in the magazine. Lo and behold … there was another ad a few pages further on … and its headline was ‘STOP THEIF’, and it too had a bunch of bullet points. This second ad was for the much cheaper security device, a steering wheel lock. No comparison to Mike’s high tech solution, but because they both had similar bullet points, appearing to be a competitor.

I challenged him: “Mike, you claim it’s impossible to start the car?”

“ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE!” was his emphatic response.

“OK, here’s the deal”, I responded with my entrepreneurial adrenalin starting to surge through my veins. “I’ll write you an ad FOR NOTHING, and let’s see how it works. You run it and if it beats your old ad, and you continue to run it, then we can talk about a fee.”

It didn’t take more than twenty minutes to write the new ad. There was a man in a suit standing in front of a very expensive sports car … and the headline read:

I was convinced it would absolutely blitz the marketplace. Perhaps get him loads of PR too, as the media picked up on this outrageous guarantee. I was really excited with this ad, and eagerly sent it to Mike.

Now, for the real test. The only place that counts. The market.

So, how did my ad work against his original bland ad? Well, I’d love to tell you my ad with the totally outrageous guarantee statement did create an avalanche of orders. I’d love to tell you that … but I can’t. 

You see, for unspecified reasons … Mike never ran my ad. I’m still trying to figure out why. (I think I really do know!)

Still, this should serve as a challenge to YOU. Are your communications bland? Are your ads making the same ordinary statements that your competitors are making, that keep your great product or service in mediocrity?

Think outside that box! What are your compelling guarantees? What COULD they be that’d set people’s imaginations on fire? What sets your product or service apart that will bring prospects to you in big numbers? What is it about your product or service that takes the focus right off price, and has people knocking at your door, saying “I WANT THAT!”?

Taking advantage of a marketing opportunity...

This blog entry will pick up where the last blog entry in the white paper series left off, and give you one more example analysis to get your 'creative marketing juices' flowing.

Example 4#: A white paper that was created in a matter of days to capture a 'window of opportunity'

I was visiting our UK office just when the Global Financial Crisis was beginning to gather momentum in the media.  Businesses were going into panic mode and yet I knew I could give them very simple, basic ‘survival’ guidelines that would help insulate them from the downward spiral.

So on the flight home, I wrote a special report called the '10 Proven Strategies to Boost Your Sales and Profits (& Recession-Proof Your Business)’.

Essentially the white paper was a temperature check for the prospect's business, with strategies, statistics and case studies that clearly articulated how not only to 'weather' the GFC storm, but to grow and profit despite it.

In reality, this white paper would have probably been a great tool for our prospects at any time, but because of the media attention around the GFC, it really struck a nerve.  We were being inundated with online requests – consistently up to three or four every day in the early days.

After the initial flurry, we stopped actively promoting the white paper. Yet we still get requests coming in, and have over 370 new prospects on our database since we have made the report available. And while I was involved in creating a new venture and not looking for ‘consulting projects’ per se, I think you’ll agree it would have been a very fertile field had I been seeking them.

Here's a sample of the white paper:

This is the final blog entry in the white paper series. If you'd like help with crafting your own red hot lead-generating white paper, call me on (+617) 3300 6909, or simply use our Results Corporation contact form to drop us an email.

You also might want to request our own new white paper - '21 Tips on Creating an Effective White Paper'.

Marketing and the Pareto Principle

The Pareto Principle, or 80/20 Rule is not new.  In 1941, Joseph Juran named it after Italian, Vilfredo Pareto, who’d observed that 80% of the country’s income went to 20% of the population.

In 1979, American Airlines identified that just 80,000 of their 25 MILLION travellers (3.2%) were generating 65% of their business!  This revelation saved them millions on wasted advertising.  

In fact, that revelation changed the face of marketing for airlines and many other industries with “frequent buyer” clubs.  

Savvy businesses reap huge profits by focusing on their ‘A’ clients who spend the most.  Hard to believe with this knowledge, the vast majority of businesses still don’t even segment their clients into A/B/Cs, let alone tailor communications to the ‘goldmine’ 20%.

Sales Letter and Copywriting Clinic

Before I start, let me say this is an example from our archives.  So if the ‘technology’ references seem somewhat archaic, bear with me.

You see, the copy structure and approach is the message.

This was an actual sales letter (left) inviting me to attend the release of a new software product.




You will I trust get value from being an observer to the marketing blunders this company made.

Not surprisingly, I changed the name of the company.  The REAL company is one you’d recognise immediately.

Before you go on, scan the letter they sent out to who knows how many thousand ‘prospects’.

The Curse of Assumption

Okay, so the REAL company is a big brand.  You'll know it.  But does that mean you know as much about their XANADU 3000 as they assume you do?  And will you care?

A huge mistake in writing a sales letter (or any communication) is assuming that the prospect will care about the business, the service or product, or that they'll even stop what they’re doing long enough to try to peak their interest.  They won't!

Your reader is at the wastebasket 

Write your letter picturing the prospect reading your letter by their wastebasket.  Or they have their finger poised on the delete key.  You have to create a letter that makes it impossible for them to discard it.

And DO NOT assume that because you live and breathe your business, and your products and services, that someone ‘out there’ in the marketplace will too.

Most likely, when your prospect woke up this morning, they were NOT thinking about you!  And they’ll go through the day and go to bed at night, and chances are, they won’t have given your business a thought.

Coming at your communications from that perspective, it makes you realise that you have to work many times harder to grab their attention and keep it past those critical first few seconds, and then to motivate them enough to ACT on what you want them to do.

Turn the table on yourself ... 

How many sales letters have you binned?  How many emails have you instantly deleted?

Are your sales letters stopping your prospects in their tracks and commanding their attention?  Or are they rambling on about how good your company is, or that your computer division was established in 1984?

Now, just in case you feel this letter example ISN’T a sales letter, and that it's an invitation … and therefore doesn't need to 'sell' ... rest assured its objective IS to ‘sell’ something.   Its objective is to ‘sell’ the reader on giving up two hours to come to an event, reorganising their diary, and braving the traffic snarls to get there.  It IS a big sales task.  And that's not even the first sale.  The first ‘sale’ is getting your reader to stop and read your first paragraph.  Make sense?

The 'WHO CARES? test'

Whenever you write anything, make sure you give it the ‘WHO CARES? test' first.  If it doesn’t compellingly grab the reader’s attention, hold it with riveting advantages and benefits that demonstrate how you will help them to save money, increase productivity, look younger, feel fitter, get more sales, increase their profits, or whatever, then it WON’T pass the 'who CARES' test.  Don’t waste your time sending it until you’ve re-worked it massively.

How to fix this letter

Here’s the irony.  The XANADU 3000 may indeed be some amazing new innovation that will revolutionise your entire working environment.  It may quadruple your productivity.  It may cut costs by 48%, or enable you to cut three weeks off your delivery schedules ... or any one of a myriad of benefits.

But from that letter, you ’d sure NEVER know it.

The letter suffers from ‘product peddling’.

That is, it is ‘we’ focused.  It’s all about the writer’s fascination with their company and their product, NOT what that product will do for you or me.

As well, the letter suffers from bland generalisation syndrome.

It sounds impressive; ‘… addresses the changing data capture environment by delivering the highest level of applications flexibility, without the usual penalty of performance degradation.’

But what does all that mean?

The key to powerful communication is to be SPECIFIC.

If your product delivers a 48% cost cut, don’t just say it will ‘cut costs’.  Say it will cut costs by 48%.  If customer surveys have shown that it cuts 21 days off delivery times, say so.  And go on to say that, for the average user, this translates into over $40,000 a year in savings from stock control efficiencies.  And that 27 of the users have attributed winning new contracts worth a collective $4.7 million because of their faster delivery times.

Can you see where I’m going with this?  Once you learn how to write in this compelling, benefit oriented way, you’ll truly revolutionise your communications.

You’ll win more business.  You’ll increase your profit margins.  You’ll begin to gain an unassailable hold on your niche market.  And your competitors will wonder what you’re doing.

Does that sound like something you’d like to take on board?  If it's made you feel that way, it’s because I simply did what the letter above failed to do.  I focused on what’s in this ... for YOU.

Simple, isn’t it?

If you want to learn a whole lot more about how to write amazing communication pieces, I've developed a complete writing e-program, 'Write and Design your own Ads, Sales Letters, Brochures, Flyers and Sales Presentations'. 

For more great articles, examples and tips like this, subscribe to this blog.

Can you communicate with your customers TOO often?

Most people would give a resounding YES to that. To be honest, we too are very protective of the frequency of mailings we do to OUR clients.

It's interesting to note that one of America's most successful stationary mail order companies used to mail its customers 50 TIMES a year.

The guiding rule must be... only mail someone when you genuinely believe you're offering something they'll appreciate receiving. It's RELEVANCE that matters more than frequency

If you'd like more strategies for business success in this global recession request our free Recession Proofing white paper here.