|
March 11, 2010 -
In this issue:
Free
Resource- Chief Marketer
Report
Main Article
-
Walking in Their
Moccasins...the Key to Success
Related Article
- Amping up your Marketing Copy
Featured
Event-
Sound from the Past...Jethro Tull comin' this way
.
Impact Marketing Newsletter - Sent to 635 business readers every 2nd
Thursday of the month.
Welcome to the 7 new readers.
Free
Resource - Chief Marketer Report
 If
you're a marketing professional, here's a good resource. This weekly
e-newsletter covers everything top marketers need to know to improve their
marketing strategies and stay up-to-date with the latest trends: marketing news,
economic developments, global marketing, online marketing and e-commerce,
consumer demographics, incentives, and more.
Additionally, Chief Marketer Report provides news and analysis on
specific marketing disciplines like CRM, direct mail, advertising and event
marketing, as well as high-level business challenges including measuring ROI and
improving customer service. Get your free
subscription here.
Walking in their Moccasins
Knowing what your prospects
and customers are thinking
is the key to marketing
You've heard the
expression...one needs to get in the other person's skin in order to understand
them...to see things from their perspective...to walk a mile in their moccasins.
The golden rule, which is endorsed by all
the world's religions, is "do unto others as they would have done unto you".
Far be it for me to try and improve the golden rule...but why not take it a step further and say,
"do unto others as they would have done for themselves?
The Fortune 100 companies
have millions of resources to discover what their customers want including focus
groups , trials, and elaborate surveys. But small businesses just don't
have these kind of resources. That's not to say that they can't or
shouldn't.
How important is being
able to predict your target market's behavior? If you could predict what
they want then you can shape your products, your services, your approach around
that. Being able to predict this behavior and respond accordingly is
invaluable to your business.
Remember the TV game show
Family Feud? The idea was to guess how many respondents out of 100 would
choose a certain answer. The winner was able to accurately predict what
the large majority thought. If you're able to predict what most of your
audience thinks, or will do...you're at a huge advantage.
The truth is that smaller
businesses have an advantage when it comes to collecting customer
information.
The best way to really know what a market thinks about something is to
simply ask. Run the idea up the old flagpole and see what kind of response
you get. That is, during the course of the day, take some time to ask
prospects and customers what they think. They'll actually appreciate this
as everyone likes to share their opinion.
I recommend getting 3 or 4
existing customers who you consider to be ideal to give their ongoing opinions
about your services, promotions, etc. Offer them some incentive and
they'll be more than happy to give you their opinion. And listen to them.
Their opinion is typically more valuable than the image you've developed, which
may be slightly "off", over the years.
The other idea is
surveys. Fortunately, the internet has made the traditional processes of
surveying even easier. Today, it's not about filling out a piece of paper
and mailing back...it's about simply going through some questions and clicking
the most appropriate answers.
The simple
process can assist the smallest of businesses to tap the
collective wisdom when trying to
make even the simplest business decisions. By asking
your clients everything from how much should charge to the best color
for your logo, you can effectively test your assumptions before you push something
out to the market.
Surveys are also a great way to monitor how you are doing in the eyes of your
customers. Creating simple satisfaction surveys and serving them up to each
individual customer allows you to find holes in your customer service and
collect comments, good and bad, from the street.
Several email marketing services have begun to offer survey tools that are part of
the overall communications strategy. Emails with interactive components like
surveys stand out and engage the reader more effectively than static content.
Planning what your readers would like to hear more about in your next five
newsletter issues is as simple as proposing topics in a survey. Then you can
better prepare the content your readers want to read the most.
Journalists love survey results and will often take great interest in the
results of a survey conducted by an industry expert – that means you! Conducting
some basic research about trends and habits in your industry is a great way to
add some expert status to your brand and could land your results in a
publication or two about your industry.
Sharing your survey results with prospects is a great way to help educate them
on important information that may impact their buying decisions.
Survey tools come in several flavors and a broad range of prices from free to
not-so-free. Online stand-alone versions like Survey Monkey and Survey Gizmo are
nice options for the small business.
Email marketing services like iContact and Constant Contact also offer survey
tools right inside their core offerings.
Whatever feedback method
you prefer, I encourage you to start using it and allow it to become part of
your marketing activities. A small amount of effort here will save lots of
time and money over the long haul.
Featured Event -
Jethro Tull
Yep, Jethro Tull. In the mood for a little
renaissance music? Jethro Tull is coming to town. The band that moved from
blues, hard-rock, and folk-rock and always keeping that trademark flute sound is
bringing the show to the Tabernacle on May 7.
Hear all the classics...Aqualung, Locomotive Breath,
Mother Goose. If you missed them the first few times around, then here's
your chance...and the Tabernacle's a great venue in which to see them.
152 Luckie Street
Atlanta, GA 30303
|
Amping up your Marketing Copy
 Ever
had this experience? You decide to place some ads, send out a sales letter or
put up a new Web site, so you spend hours agonizing over what it should it say.
Then you spend even more time designing the layout, or you fork over the cash to
have a graphic designer do it for you.
Finally, you’re pretty happy
with the end result, so you put it out into the world. And what happens?
Absolutely nothing. Or, at best, not enough. All those people you were sure
would be banging down your door are nowhere to be found.
What went wrong?
Chances are good that a big part of the problem lies in the copywriting.
What, you ask, is copywriting (or copy for short)? Fundamentally, copy is
writing that is designed to sell. And having effective marketing copy is
critical to the success of your business. Because whenever you can’t be there to
speak to clients or prospects in person, it’s your copy that does the job for
you.
In order to write good
copy you have to know a good bit about the art and science of copywriting.
Otherwise, it’s really hard to develop the kind of marketing materials that grab
people by the eyeballs, keep them reading, and inspire them to take action or
buy from you.
Luckily, there are a some simple tricks you can use right away to improve your
own copy — and the money-making ability of all your marketing materials.
1) Step
into their shoes. See the article to the left. Once you're able to
get into the position of your target audience, a lot of this comes naturally.
2)
Grab their attention — Always
use benefits-oriented headlines, subheads and copy that speaks directly to your
ideal customer’s wants, needs, problems or goals. Skip the cute or overly clever
wordplay.
3) Write like you speak — The best copywriting reads like a one-to-one
conversation between the reader and the writer. Not like a textbook or term
paper.
4) Keep it simple — The truth is that billion dollar ad agencies purposely write
at an eighth- or ninth-grade level at best. Why? Because it works. Instead of
“preferable”, say “better” instead.
5) Make it skim-friendly — Believe it or not, half the folks out there skim.
Keep paragraphs brief (four to five lines) and most sentences short (18 words or
less). And don’t list more than three items in a sentence or paragraph. Create a
separate list of eye-catching bullet points instead.
6) Add "oomph" — Whenever possible, choose powerful action verbs over static
verbs. For example: Use “act” or “acting” instead of “to act,” “grab” or
“grabbing” instead of “to grab.”
7) Ask for the sale — Don’t assume people will take the next step; include a
“call to action.” Invite customers to call you, ask them to send in a coupon,
tell them to click here for more info. Once you’ve asked them to take action,
make it easy…Always include your contact information or link right there with
your call to action — even if it’s listed elsewhere on the page.
Featured Resource -
Ultimate Marketing System- Need to
develop a marketing program on your own? Then here's the answer-- Duct Tape Marketing's
Ultimate Marketing System. Click for more-
|
