MarketingMoment

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Do you struggle with your marketing? Or perhaps you need to increase the response of your advertising or your website?

Well, take a leaf from Socrates’ book (or clay tablet, as it was centuries ago)…

Socrates was perhaps the greatest master of persuasion. His tactic was to get people to agree with him, or concede their side of the argument, belief, or debate, by getting them to say “yes”. He would do this by asking questions that people would simply have to answer in the affirmative. And he’d do this over and over until they agreed with him!

How does this help you?

By getting your prospects to agree with your statements or questions, then each time they do they are one step closer to becoming a buyer.

Why not try this ‘Socrates Method’ in your advertising and marketing, and see what happens? Oh, and feel free to report any findings here.

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Here’s a question I received from reader Latoya Pennant, which, along with my answer, I though you might find helpful:

Question: “How can I write clearly and concisely?”

Answer: I cover this in detail in my TeleClass Better Writing Skills 101 – Write Your Way to Blockbuster Results and BOOST Business to Boot. Basically, it’s about using simple language (not using ‘utilise’ or ‘employ’ when ‘use’ will do, for example), writing short sentences and paragraphs, and sticking to one main point in your communication.

For example, compare this sentence: “High-quality, high-yield learning environments are a necessary precondition for facilitation and enhancement of the ongoing learning process.”

With this: “Students need good schools if they are to learn properly.”

The latter is much clearer and to the point. As a result, it’s also a LOT easier to understand than the gobbledygook in the first sentence.

Almost anything or anyone can be written about using plain English. That doesn’t mean you have to ‘dumb down’ your writing. Rather, just make sure you really think about the message you wish to impart and keep things simple. Don’t just write words willy-nilly. You have to make every single word count.

Also, make sure you write in logical sentences and paragraphs that can be easily understood. That way, your writing will be much better received … and more effective.

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Picture by ‘Alan Cleaver” via Flickr

Now that the initial dust has settled on the budget it is time to take a serious look at your cash flow. Yes, granted some of the measures introduced –– higher rates of tax, reductions in relief, increased employer NICs –– raise the anxiety barometer, but there are specific tactics that can help keep your business afloat (and help reduce your blood pressure):

1. Cut Debt via Efficient Invoicing. Most companies have a monthly bill cycle, but if you were to invoice as soon as projects are completed, then you could effectively improve your cash flow by 30 days. Better still, offer an incentive to bill a client at the beginning of the project. Try to better manage late-payers, too. Invoices should be re-issued a limited number of times, and if payment still isn’t forthcoming then consider a more serious course of action.
2. Attract More Customers. If you rely heavily on just one or two major clients and you suddenly lose them, then your income may well go below zero overnight. Your business will be much safer if you have a large client base. That way, if a client goes bankrupt and can’t (or won’t) pay and  that represents 10 per cent of your income, you still have a heart-relieving 90 per cent of left.
3. Encourage Long-Term Retainers. Not every job need be a one-off. Charging a retainer fee for a regular type of work –– such as blog ghost-writing, SEO or website maintenance –- can give your business security when it comes to cash flow. Clients may be encouraged to work on a retainer basis with you if you offer them a discount on your usual fees on account of the fact that the work will be consistent. Most people charge up front for retainer work (ie, in advance at the beginning of each month).
4. Prioritise Your Workload. Organisation and time management is a challenge for any freelancer or small-business-owner, but to keep your cash flow healthy you need to keep focused AND prioritise the ‘high-yield’ income earners. This means doing the work that will bring you the most cash in the least amount of time first BEFORE you check your blog or Facebook page. Completing billable work is always your cash-flow’s best friend.
5. Outsource. Taking on someone with the skills and experience of a good copywriter, say, as an employee is prohibitively expensive. This is especially true as copywriting isn’t your typical day-to-day, full-year activity for most organisations. Which is why outsourcing to a freelance or self-employed professional makes sound financial sense. By varying the type and amount of services you buy in, you’re paying only for the actual skills needed. Additional benefits include no overtime, sick or holiday leave to pay, no PAYEE or national insurance to fork out for, no recruitment or training costs and no paying for people sitting at their desk twiddling their thumbs when there’s a shortage of projects.

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Despite the official end to the recession, the UK’s economy is still wavering and the immediate future looks anything BUT bright. So it’s little wonder if you’re feeling like most people in business; looking over your shoulder, wondering if you’re next in line to lose your job. If you own a business, then it’s likely you’re worried about the latest ’sales slump’. One thing is for sure; you can’t afford to be complacent right now. You absolutely MUST continue to market … perhaps more aggressively than ever before. (See my blog post, Business Survival Tools: Don’t Get Left Behind: http://TwitPWR.com/au6/)

The lead article in MediaMinister’s latest newsletter, Communiqué for Success, shows you how you can promote yourself in new, creative and low-cost (or F.R.E.E.) ways to bring customers through the door in ANY economy.

To read the full article and gain *hidden links* to recent CfS newsletter editions, you’ll have to become a subscriber. (That’s a good thing, by the way, or so CfS readers tell me!) As well as being FREE, you’ll receive a business-building report and audio CD that can dramatically improve sales simply for signing up and trying it out.

Subscribe here.

(You can unsubscribe at any time, and I NEVER abuse my subscriber’s email address. Your details are safe with me.)

Recent CfS newsletter issues cover:

Subscribe here.

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If you read copy written by someone other than a copywriter, chances are it will scream Features! Features! Features! OK, features are a very good thing indeed and, yes, readers do need to know about them. But not all of them. And NOT right up front.

Instead, you need to do what every good copywriter 
MUST do in order to educate or make the sale: turn features into benefits, and put those benefits at the beginning of your copy.

These benefits must be tied into your readers’ desires, needs and wants. So, when you solve your readers’ problems, they’ll go looking for the features — meaning they WILL bother to read the rest of your marketing message.

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What can make all the difference between so-so marketing and great publicity?

Good-old-fashioned customer testimonials.

Positive feedback from your customers or clients are one of the strongest, most compelling forms of credibility any business can use. And on top of that, they are brilliant at substantiating any claims made about your products or services, thereby lessening doubt, cynicism or even premature ‘buyer’s remorse’.

Strange then that most business-owners don’t seem to make much use of testimonials. Some don’t bother to use them at all! If they do, they depend on average testimonials, unaware of the fact that if they put in a little bit of effort to get riveting, convincing testimonials, then more sales and profits are a likely result.

To read more on testimonials, including how to get great ones, point your mouse to:

• http://marketingmoment.wordpress.com/2007/03/29/let-your-clients-sell-you

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When I used to work at the largest consumer-magazine publishers in the UK, the one thing that used to really grind away at the section editors was time-wasters. Specifically, people who would send in long, meandering, non-newsworthy or just totally unfocussed press releases. Rather than try to make sense of the tens of releases like this they would receive each day, they simply went into the ‘reject’ pile…

So if you truly wish your release to stand out and make sure it has a future, take note of the the ‘press release wish-list’:

1. Do your homework. Get to know your editor’s audience, and make your release appeal to that audience. How? By studying at least several of the latest issues of the publication in question.
2. Make sure you have something newsworthy to say. Although it sounds obvious, you’d be surprised to learn of just how many releases I saw that did not make this crucial grade.
3. Place your news at the beginning of the release, preferably in the headline or at the very least in the opening sentence.
4. Provide nuggets of information the scream “must be interviewed”. Be fresh, be original.
5. Include a short yet compelling bio (aka boilerplate) at the foot of your release. Ideally, your USP, or point of difference, should be here, too.
6. Finally, proofread your release for errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar. On the magazines I mentioned earlier, if we spotted more than one error in the first paragraph, we’d throw the release in the bin (unless it was a REALLY great story). If people couldn’t take their work seriously, why should we have?

Need more structured help in finding the right story angle, hook, even publications for your release? Powerhouse Publicity – How to Profit from the Media and Get FREE Publicity is a step-by-step system offering ‘tried-tested-and-proven’ techniques that, when followed, can give you the tools to publicise you, your company, your product or service! It’s packed with facts and tips that you can start applying straight away, too.

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There you are sitting at your desk sneaking in a quick game of WordTwist on FaceBook / cleaning your keyboard for the 15th time today / reading blogs, Tweets, websites, anything but tend to the actual task in hand. You know you SHOULD be writing content for your first email newsletter. But somehow you just can’t get motivated. That blank screen beckons. Another game? Help!

Don’t panic!

There are a number of ways – ranging from the ridiculously easy and quick solutions, to the more involved.

One of the first options is to start with what you have to hand.

Have you kept any interesting emails – either from customers, quizzes, quotes, competitions or even junk mail? How about questions from clients, prospects, colleagues, friends, etc?

Think about what came through the door today – is there anything you can share with your readers? What about industry news, statistics or trends? Perhaps you have new products or services to offer. You can write about those. How about a ‘subscriber only’ special? An interview with your marketing director or an industry leader?

All these nuggets – and more like them – will form great fodder for your newsletter. They could take the form of articles, news, events, competitions, ads, interviews, tips, and so on. I’ve written pieces on how social media impacts on business, the secret to turning a postage stamp into a stampede of customers, the significance of proofreading a business document, how to write good headlines and so on.

Excerpt from ’Newsletters that Build Customer Relations AND Fill Your Inbox with Orders‘ – my step-by-step  MasterClass home-study system shows you just how easy-peasy it can be to create or polish a so-so newsletter that reflects your business in the best light. Chock-full with useful tools and specific examples on how to set-up, write and send out your business-building newsletter, it really does remove the pain from newsletter publishing. Get the full scoop here.  

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The grammatical cousin of the bored teenager, the apostrophe can often be found hanging out in all the wrong places. Or just being plain useless. Worrying or confusing everything that crosses its path.

Take, for example, the following as a case in point:

“Choose from 1000’s of DVD’s…”

Or:

“Visit Brighton, for refreshing sea view’s…”

Both are not as innocent as they seem on the surface.

Incorrect use of punctuation – and here, we are specifically referring to the humble apostrophe – can weaken your writing and your message, as well as trip up your reader.

So here are some dos and don’ts in the world of apostrophes:

• And it’s all right, now…

Ah, yes, the king of confusion – ”it’s” is a contraction of “it is”. However, it’s often presented as “its”. This is bad. And should be avoided. Unless, of course, you mean “its” in the possessive sense of the word. For example:

“It’s about time it showed its true colours.”

Here “it’s” means “it is” and “its” (without the apostrophe) indicates that something belongs to “it”.

• Ps and Qs, Dos and Don’ts…

You do NOT need an apostrophe to pluralise. OK, it’s tempting to slip in a quick apostrophe, but that would be mere folly. Apart from the obvious one – “don’ts” – which is correct in this instance.

There is neither a contraction nor a possessiveness connected with numbers, abbreviations or the “dos” in the world.

So the following are correct:

“There are 100s of them out there.”

“You only ever saw two PCs, but that was in the 1970s.”

“The MPs had 1,000s of complaints.”

So remember, only use an apostrophe for a missing letter or, in every other case apart for “its”, when something ‘owns’ something else. (“It’s amazing to think that the project’s deadline was met.”)

Please send me any ‘grammar gaffes’ via the ‘comments’ section here, and I’ll pop them in a future post on this blog.

Picture by Sceptre via Wikipedia

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Just made my first ever video. It’s called “The BIG Question…” and you can watch it: http://bit.ly/do6wUg

Or here on this blog:

Would love to know what you think. (Be gentle!) 

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