MarketingMoment

I recently advised one of my marketing clients to offer his prospective customers a free white paper. This is because although he has a great product, it is fairly complex and its use (extremely widespread, as it happens) seems at first fairly limited.

The argument for the white paper was that it would a) provide helpful information about the product and its many uses, b) show how it can overcome a problem shared by my client’s prospects, and c) serve as a ‘bait piece’.

At first he objected. Quite vehemently, it has to be said. The reason? “People have had enough of ‘free’. Besides, they already have too much to read. So they won’t even look at my white paper.”

I can understand where he was coming from. A study by the Columbia Business School concluded that, even in an age of information overload, educational marketing still work. And very well, too.

The study, which focused on politics, found that getting a lot of information out to the public, especially in the arly stages of a campaign when many voters are ambivalent, is an effective campaign strategy.

Quantity is more important than quality, the study found, because ambivalent individuals are open to persuasion from a variety of sources, and accept messages regardless of the source’s perceived reliability.

This can easily be applied to the business arena. Which my client now happily appreciates.

Source: Columbia Ideas at Work

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Sometimes, it can seem as if the world is conspiring against you and your marketing efforts. But not if you use a time-tested powerful headline.

In the world of marketing communications, both online or offline, your headline can lead to marketing success … or failure. Copywriting and marketing pros alike turn to certain headline formulas that they know will always work well.

In the lead article in MediaMinister’s latest newsletter, Communiqué for Success,  I present my favourites, and show you how you can use each one in your own marketing. To read “Top Proven Headlines to Boost Sales” as well as the rest of the ezine, please sign up first. (You can unsubscribe at any time, and I NEVER abuse my subscriber’s email address. Your details are safe with me.)

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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

Copyright, T L Dooley. All Rights Reserved.

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1. Work out how often per week, month or year you are going to send out your newsletter, and then stick to this schedule. Consistency and regularity are key.
2. Provide quality content that is relevant to your target audience and is worth reading.
3. Hold competitions. People love the opportunity to win prizes, and a good competition can make your ezine ‘viral’.
4. Don’t overpopulate your email newsletter with ads.
5. Be patient. It takes time for newsletter marketing to work.

First published in Communiqué for Success newsletter:

http://www.mediaminister.co.uk/marketing_cfs_newsletters.htm 

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You book your car in for its annual MOT, so why not your business words? (Are you sure they’re giving the right impression? Do they reap the desired results? Is your message being compromised by sloppy copy?)

While we can all ‘write’, copywriting involves so much more than simply penning a few well-crafted words. Before she or he writes, a good copywriter will spend a considerable amount of time researching the intended audience. They’ll make sure they understand buyer behaviour and how to craft your message in such a way that it really makes a splash.

Good copywriting can make confusing policies crystal clear. It can keep inter-company communications running smoothly through the careful use of words. And it can effectively ’sell’ a company’s products or services to its customers.

So if you’re not sure your copy is quite right, email me a paragraph (up to 200 words) of your poorly prose and the “Word Doctor” will nurse it back to life. Think of it as a ‘Try Before You Buy’ offer. Then you can decide whether to give me the go-ahead if you have any text that requires editing, copyediting, rewriting, proofreading, indexing or researching.

Don’t have the time or the inclination to write your own copy? I can do it for you. Just follow this link and you’ll soon be on your way to owning copy that gets results.

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Yesterday, I came across an advert for a copywriting job. Part of it read: “We won’t pay you much to start with but the prospects for successful writers are very good.”

Tell you what, I’ll tell the restaurant owner: “I’ll pay fifty pence for my three-course meal, but if I like it I’ll pay a bit more next time. Okay?”

(Excuse me while I duck the flying plate of pasta!)

Just as cooking isn’t a hobby for restaurant owners, writing is NOT a hobby for freelance copywriters. Rather, it is part of a viable business, so please give them the respect (& fees) they deserve.

Paying a professional anything less will only serve to haunt you. As famous ad man David Ogilvy once said: “Pay peanuts, and you get monkeys.”

And he show know: Not only did he own and run one of the most successful advertising agencies of all time, he also generated millions of pounds in profits for his clients.

OK, so what specifically does the monkey reference have to do with business?

Well, there is a current trend to outsource skills, including copywriting and editing, to the cheapest service provider.

Nothing wrong with that, you may be thinking. After all, we operate within a global marketplace, don’t we? And the struggling economy at large is putting a lot of pressure on companies to cut the cost of business, right?

Sure, but going after price rather than value can have dire consequences.

I should know. It happened to me…

I’d hired a so-called ‘professional’ writer with a seemingly good portfolio via one of those service providers like Elance to write a 30-page report for me.

On top of her taking almost three times the agreed time to do this, the quality was poor. She was so off brief it was scary. There were typos everywhere, and some of the language used was very suspect indeed.

Worse, having already collected the bulk of the payment due as a deposit, she disappeared. No contact. No one to put things right. No brief fulfilled.

Later, I found out she had passed off other peoples’ samples in her portfolio as her own.

I ended up out of pocket for that project. And you can imagine the frustration and disruption caused to my business. Which is what happens to a lot of business owners who think they can save money by going after cheap.

So, please, listen to experience. Honour the core values of your own business as well as that of the service provider you’re hiring … otherwise, you’ll be left with monkeys if you pay peanuts.

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Many of my clients and newsletter readers have taken advantage of my ‘heads up’ on the price increase of MediaMinister’s Using Online Marketing to Your Advantage home-study system. Some also wrote in asking for an extension on the ‘old’ price, before I revamp it into the fully ’supped up’ version. You’re still sorting out post-Christmas debt, you said, and would like a little longer.

No problem! I mean we all need the help we can get, especially with the news that we’re not that far out of the recession as we’d been led to believe AND inflation is set to go up — again.

So you’ve got until March to buy the original at the original price before it goes from £50 to £85 for the CD or downloadable transcript and from £60 to £97 for the whole package. If you’ve been meaning to get it, *here’s where you can read more about it, and get yours at the ‘old’ price.*

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Want to use this in your ezine, blog or website? No problem! Just let me know. I’ll send you a short resource box/bio to include.

The lead article in MediaMinister’s latest newsletter, Communiqué for Success, shows you how to get make sure 2010 starts off on the right path for your business. To read “2010 and the Top Marketing Insights For Business” as well as the rest of the ezine, please sign up first. (You can unsubscribe at any time, and I NEVER abuse my subscriber’s email address. Your details are safe with me.)

Subscribe here.

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Want to use this in your ezine, blog or website? No problem! Just let me know. I’ll send you a short resource box/bio to include.

The lead article in MediaMinister’s latest newsletter, Communiqué for Success, shows you how to get the ‘X factor’ for your business and ensure that YOUR products or services stay in demand. To read, please sign up first. (You can unsubscribe at any time, and I NEVER abuse my subscriber’s email address. Your details are safe with me.)

Subscribe here.

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Want to use this in your ezine, blog or website? No problem! Just let me know. I’ll send you a short resource box/bio to include.

The lead article in MediaMinister’s latest newsletter, Communiqué for Success, is a must-read before you waste any more time or money running poor-performing ads! It will also give you some ideas of getting more out of your marketing materials. 
To read, please sign up first.

Subscribe here.

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