A big part of the reason many advertisers have a hard time communicating effectively is because of the society we live in. Stated simply, our society has turned us into a bunch of communication zombies. Don’t think so? See if this scenario sounds familiar. When you get home from work, your spouse asks you how your day was. What do you usually say? Fine. Okay. I’m tired. Great. It stunk. Basically, you come up with a one to three word description of your day and leave it at that. But do these words actually communicate anything? No! They’re just obligatory niceties. Now let’s say you see someone you know at the store and you say, “Hey Bob, whatcha doin’?” like you really care or can’t just tell by looking. Bob says, “Fine,” which is actually the answer to the other question he was expecting, which is “How Ya Doin’?” Come on, you know that’s happened to you – lots of times. The reas on we react this way is that we are a society of lazy communicators…we are on communication autopilot. Don’t think, just talk. We’ve been brought up this way in this country for some reason. Ask any little kid how he or she is doing and they’ll almost surely give the universal kid’s answer to that question. “How ya doing, Billy?” What’s the answer? That’s right, “Fiiiiiine.”

We learned at a very young age that if we give the communication autopilot answer to routine questions, it saves us from having to actually think and put any effort into a conversation. It’s a useful shortcut. And that serves us well in many situations. Just think if you had to honestly and accurately answer every question that anyone ever asked you. It would be a complete nightmare:

How ya doin’, Rich? Well, let me tell you how I’m doing. On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d say that I’m at about a 2 and a half. I left the house this morning and forgot my briefcase, which turns out was okay because I ran out of gas and had to have my wife come bail me out, so she just brought the briefcase with the gas can. When I finally got to work, there were two people out sick and the reports that I needed for my client weren’t done and then I got a call from a major account with a major problem and…  Well, I think you get the point.

Communication autopilot can serve us well in many situations. Don’t think. Don’t reason. Just talk. Ever heard this one before? You say to a guy, what’s happening? He says, “Same old, same old.” What a great answer! “Same old, same old”? Or maybe he says “Different day, same stuff.” Ever heard that one? No thinking involved.

The problem is that these lazy communication habits spill over into marketing and advertising all the time, where they can kill your chances for success. Show me 90% of advertising and I’ll show you a huge jumble of hyperbole, fluff, platitudes, and yawnably unbelievable, black hole nothing words. Words like cheapest, professionalism, service, quality, speedy, convenient, and best are promiscuously littered throughout advertising with reckless abandon. These empty words are the tools of the lazy communicator; they do absolutely nothing to communicate why you’re the best deal. Why you’re an exceptional value. Why or how you solve the problems that nobody else solves. They build no believable case for your product or service. Regardless of your product or service, you must build a case. But the fact is most businesses go on year after year spewing out the same junk that does noth ing more than get their name out there, if that. They just create NOISE that adds to the confusing mass of information flooding consumers.

Advertisements written using lazy communication are what I call “same old, same old” ads or “different ad, same stuff” ads. You’ve probably written a few of them yourself. Heck, we all have. You have to learn how to overcome these lazy tendencies. Start by writing effective headlines. The headline is the ad for the ad. It’s what makes a person decide if he or she wants to invest any more time in your advertisement or not; it’s the single most important part of any advertisement. You also have to judge whether or not the “things” in your advertising are powerful. Most of the time you will find that they are not. You also have to understand the nuts and bolts of effective ad writing like word choices and punctuation. Avoid the tiresome junk that English classes force students to endure – instead meticulously choose words that sell, educate, and eventually make you money!

In order for your advertising to be illustriously effective your ads need to be properly structured. From a selling standpoint, they need to achieve the highest impact. When you go to write an ad, you probably ask yourself, “What should I talk about? What selling points should I bring out – given my time or space restraints…and my competition that I’ve identified?” Well, what you need to do is build a case for your product or service based on the competition that you’ve identified. Let me give you a quick analogy.

Think about your marketing and advertising strategy this way: Your product or service is on trial. The consumer is the jury. You are the attorney and you must prove to the jury that they should buy your product – and it’s a life or death sentence. Your job is to come up with all the proof and present it in a way that the jury believes you. You must present evidence.

If you look at the way most businesses advertise, they build no case at all. Instead, they just mindlessly spout off the same old stuff that all of their competitors are saying. A perfect example would be an ad for a franchised auto repair facility. I’ve had work done on my cars at this place before and I can tell you that they’re pretty good. But listen to what their mailer says: “We do it all, our hours are designed around your hours, we use high quality parts, we have friendly professional technicians, and we give free estimates.” Does that build a case? Let me ask the question differently. If you were in the market for auto repair, has their mail piece convinced you that you’d be an absolute fool if you took your car anyplace else? I don’t think so. There’s no claim, no proof that they’re any different or any better than any other place – just the same old mindless advertising babble. No argument, no evidence, no proof…no nothing. Their only hope is that their ad happens to arrive when you’re in need of auto repair. Their entire strategy is based on luck.

You need to build a case for your product just like an attorney would. Just imagine what it’d be like if an attorney did as poor a job arguing a court case as most advertisers do. Remember the OJ Simpson trial? I know it’s been a while, but it was a high profile enough case and it dragged on for so long that most people remember it pretty well. What if OJ’s attorneys stood in front of the jury and said, “Come on…he couldn’t have done that! He’s OJ! The Juice! He runs through airports! He’s the 2,000 yard Buffalo Bill! He’s an actor! Everyone loves him! There’s no way he did it!”?

As ridiculous as that sounds, that’s about as good of a case as most advertisers ever prepare to defend and sell their product. It’s better, we’re cheaper, we’re professional, we’ve got better service, and so forth. Look what OJ’s attorneys DID do. They researched and prepared all kinds of forensic reports, alibis, expert witnesses…and everything they needed to prove that he couldn’t possibly have done it. Remember how strange that case got? They found a guy who was a glove expert and another guy who was a blood splatter expert? “This glove couldn’t possibly have fit OJ; it’s too small. If OJ had stabbed somebody, their blood would have splattered in that direction, not this direction.” Where do they get these guys? Who knows? Maybe glove experts and blood splatter exerts make good money. They probably have a lot of free time between cases though.

So here’s what you need to do in terms of your advertising strategy. You have to determine what points your case is going to be built upon. There’s a three-step method for building confidence. Step 1: find out what they want. Step 2: give it to them. Step 3: say it in a believable way. That’s what we’re back to again when building the case. Building the case = building confidence. See the parallel? Let me give you another example.

If you’re going to build a case, you need to know what points the case is built upon. When the attorney begins the trial, he or she addresses the jury and says what? “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, in this trial, I will prove to you that so-and-so committed such-and-such crime. I am going to prove to you beyond a reasonable doubt that this occurred and I’m going to do it based on the following evidence, 1, 2, 3, and 4. I am going to bring out three witnesses that all concur that it happened in this fashion. I will present 2 expert witnesses that will testify that these things happened this way. When you have seen this evidence, you will have no option but to conclude that he is indeed, guilty.”

Again, remember the comparison. Your customers are the jury, your product or service is on trial, you are the attorney, and it’s a life or death sentence. Here’s a way to find out what your customers need to know when doing business with you – the points that your case will be built upon.

Here’s an easy way to come up with these points to build your case. I’ll assume that you already know quite a bit about whatever it is that you’re selling. Fair enough? So now let’s say that one of your best friends is considering buying what you sell and they’re asking you for advice on how to evaluate their various options. What kinds of things would your friend need to know to make the best possible purchasing decision? What things would you tell your friend to look out for? What specific pieces of information would your friend need to possess to make a fully informed buying decision?

Whatever these things are, those are the points for your case. For instance, Let’s assume you want to hire contractors to rebuild your fence. You may not know a thing about fences except that your spouse keeps bugging you to replace it. So finally, after months of putting it off, you break open the ol’ yellow pages and call around using the usual ridiculous process – asking for bids. You get bids from about 4 different companies and the prices vary from about $2,500 to $3,300. So who do you go with? The lowest price, right? Well, that depends.

You call back one of the contractors – the lowest priced one – to ask about their time schedule and tell him that you have bids from 4 companies and that you are strongly considering using him. He then proceeds to give you a short but thorough education about what you need to know about building a fence. He says to make sure, when comparing bids, that the price includes pressure treated rails and posts, that the rails were 2 by 4s instead of the standard 2 by 3s, and that the gates would have 4 hinges each instead of just 2 or 3.

You are impressed with the information so you call back each of the other 3 companies and find that none of them have quoted you on pressure treated rails or posts, 2 by 4 rails or 4 hinges per gate. They all want an extra 300 to 400 dollars for those “upgrades.” Guess whom you would buy the fence from?

The company that has the ability to delineate what things are important when building a fence is the one that gets the business – the company that builds a case.

Uncover what’s important for your customers. Evaluate their options. Then say it well in your marketing!

Written by: Randy Martinsen – Accelerated Marketing Group

I’m going to give you the most important tip I can give you right here, right now. Ready? Here it is: Make sure your writing style is simple and conversational. Don’t write like an English professor; write the way you talk. This is the biggest trap of all for most people – they start writing and all of a sudden all these big, fancy, flowery words start coming out all over the place. They use words that they wouldn’t normally use in everyday conversation in a million years. Complicated sentences and weird words make it sound like you’re intelligent, true enough. But on the other hand, they don’t sell.

Rosser Reeves, one of the great advertising minds of the mid 1900s said it best, when talking about many advertising copywriters’ fondness for writing flowery prose instead of straightforward copy that sells. Reeves gives this little analogy: “Let’s say you’ve got $1,000,000 tied up in your little company and suddenly, for reasons unknown to you, your advertising isn’t working and your sales are going down. And everything depends on it. Your future depends on it, your family’s future depends on it. Other people’s family’s futures depend on it. I walk into this office and sit down in this chair to write your advertising. Now, what do you want from me? Fine writing? Do you want masterpieces? Do you want glowing things that can be framed by copywriters? Or do you want to see the #!@%$* sales curve stop going down and start moving up?” I couldn’t have said it better if I tried. Do you want the sales curve to stop going down and start moving up? That’s the bottom line here. And in advertising, you’ve got to divorce yourself from the idea that was drilled into your head in high school English class about writing. Go against everything you learned and make your writing style simple and conversational.

To give you a better idea about writing in simple terms, let me take you on what might at first seem like a strange tangent, but you’ll soon find out will be very helpful in your learning to use plain talk. I want to teach you a little bit about how to speak Chinese. That’s right, Chinese. The founder of the MYM System spent a couple of years in Taiwan, and during that time, he became extremely proficient in speaking Mandarin Chinese. When most people hear that he can speak this exotic language, they are impressed and think he must be really smart. After all, Chinese is one of the most difficult languages in the world, right? Well, that’s right and wrong. It’s true learning to read and write all those funky little Chinese characters is very difficult. But speaking Chinese…learning how to say the words and sentences, on the other hand, is actually surprisingly eas y. Why am I telling you this? Because the very elements of Chinese that make it easy to learn to speak – once you understand them – will help you become a better writer of English. If you could apply the Chinese way of talking to our own language then – without much effort – you could form the habit of simple, clear, picturesque talk and, ultimately, your simple, Chinese-like writing will help you make more money. Are you game? This will only take couple of minutes, so let’s do it.

I’m going to assume that right now all you know about Chinese is kung fu and chow mien and you’re probably not too interested in adding to your Chinese vocabulary. So we’re going to do the next best thing: we’re going to study Chinese from the outside, so to speak, and get a basic idea of how it’s put together. That will then bring us a long way closer to plain English. That may sound odd to you. Chinese, to you, is an exotic language, written in weird kanji characters and spoken in a sort of sing-song. It’s true that the meaning of spoken Chinese words depends on musical “tones,” which does add one element of difficulty to learning how to speak Chinese. Chinese is hard to approach; it has a sort of Chinese wall around it.

But if you looked a little closer, you’d find that Chinese is actually really simple. Think of other languages and what makes them difficult: conjugations, irregular verbs, subjunctives, genders – and a whole host of other nasty grammatical nightmares. I took two semesters of Spanish in high school; it was all I could do to figure out all those dang conjugations. If you’ve ever studied any language other than Chinese, then you know that it’s grammar that makes learning them hard.

That is the beauty of Chinese. It is known as a “grammarless” language. The list of the things it does not have is unbelievable: it has no inflections, no cases, no persons, no genders, no numbers, no degrees, no tenses, no voices, no moods, no infinitives, no participles, no gerunds, no irregular verbs, and no articles. There are no words of more than one syllable, every word has only one form, and all you have to learn is how to put these one-syllable words in their proper order. To make it even easier for you, this proper order is the same as the usual order in English: subject, predicate. You may wonder how it is possible to talk in such a language so that other people understand you and maybe you think this must be the most primitive, uncivilized language of the world. It would be a common error: up to about a hundred years ago all language experts agreed that Chinese is the “baby talk of ma nkind.” They were wrong: it is the most grown-up talk in the world. It is the way people speak who started to simplify their language thousands of years ago and have kept at it ever since.

Thanks to research, we know now that thousands of years ago the Chinese language had case endings, verb forms, and a whole arsenal of unpleasant grammar. It was a cumbersome, irregular, complicated mess like most other languages – including English. But the Chinese people, generation after generation, changed it into a streamlined, smooth-running machine for expressing ideas. It’s just like that camera commercial: it’s so advanced, it’s simple. This isn’t just a figure of speech: the main principle of modern Chinese is exactly the same as that of modern machinery. It consists of standardized, prefabricated, functionally designed parts.

In other words, Chinese is an assembly line language. All the words are stripped to their essential meaning and purpose and put together in a fixed order. Word order is as all important as the order of operations on the assembly line: if you line it up in any other way it doesn’t work. If you wanted to say, “I am going to go home” in Chinese, you’d say “WO HWEI JYA” which literally means “I Go Home.” That’s it. You wouldn’t even have to say “I” because it would be understood. You could just say, “HWEI JYA” or “Go Home.” And everyone would know exactly what you meant. There are no filler words. If you wanted to say, “I will be going home,” you’d still just say, “WO HWEI JYA” which, again, is literally “I go home.” If you wanted to say “She has six books,” you’d say, “TA YOU LEO GE SHU” which literally translated means “She have six book.” What’s more, the she doesn’t even mean she. In Chinese, it could mean he or she or it. There’s only one word for all three of them. The meaning is determined by the context.

I know it’s a lot to learn in a short amount of time, but what they’ve done in Chinese is strip all the words to their bare meaning and put them together in a simple, predetermined order. They’ve lost most of the filler words that don’t really mean anything.

So let’s see what we can learn from what you now know. You need to take the “It’s so advanced, it’s simple” Chinese philosophy and integrate it into your advertising writing. Why? Because when you’re talking to your prospects, you can’t bog them down with all the flowery jibber jabber that just takes up time, makes them use extra brain power, and doesn’t add any additional meaning to what you’re saying. You’ve got to strip your words down and use plain talk to clearly, concisely, and quickly communicate your point. The second step to powerful advertising communication is “Saying it well” – remember? Use plain talk and you’ll be well on your way to doing just that.

Written by: Randy Martinsen, Accelerated Marketing Group

Your advertisement should act like an army of tiny salesmen. Think about it this way. If you play a radio ad that is heard by 50,000 people, that’s 50,000 chances to give a sales presentation. It’s not some big nebulous blob of people, it’s 50,000 separate individuals all hearing your ad in a “1 on 1″ communication. Now think about this: if you had a chance to make a 60 second sales presentation 50,000 times to 50,000 individuals, what would you say to them during that one minute to give the most information, build the most confidence and the best case, and lower the risk of finding out more? What would you say? If you were there in person would you just say “we exist…come buy from us for no justifiable, rational reason”?

Like I’ve said before, most advertising you see is really pretty weak. Not even one advertisement in a hundred presents any kind of a case for a product – instead, most ads mindlessly rattle off features and benefits that serve more to proclaim “WE EXIST!” than to give a justifiable, rational reason why someone would want to do business with you. A good example of this sort of HERE-WE-ARE-SO-BUY-FROM-US advertising can be found in the yellow pages. Here’s a quick exercise for you…and pay particular attention if you advertise in the yellow pages. Flip the book open to any classification. Take moving companies for instance. Here’s what they all say in my book: “free estimates, packaging available, guaranteed pick up and delivery dates, local & long distance.” Every single ad says, plus or minus 10%, exactly – and I mean exactly – the same thing. It&rs quo;s impossible for a prospect to make an intelligent decision about who to call based on any criteria other than who’s got the prettiest or biggest or most colorful ad. Remember the confidence gap? The prospect doesn’t have the ability to determine if any of the products or any of the services are any better or any worse – or any different – than any of the competitors.

This situation is generally true for any medium. But realize this presents a tremendous opportunity for you – that is, if you’re the only one who knows how to exploit this opportunity. Advertising should be salesmanship multiplied. All that means is that your advertisements should make a case for your product or service just the same as a salesman would in a face-to-face selling situation. The only difference is that your ads can cover more territory…a lot more. Think of your advertisements as an army of tiny salesmen. You personally couldn’t give a sales presentation to 50,000 individuals, but you can let your army of tiny salesmen – the advertisements – present the same compelling message that you would in person.

So here’s the acid test: If you were talking live to a hot prospect, would you say the same thing your current advertisements say to convince him to buy from you? Or would you say something else instead? If you’d say something else, then you need to rethink your advertising strategy. Think about it. When somebody is considering buying something, the one thing they want is INFORMATION – useful, helpful, no-bull information. That’s why people are so resistant to the sales process. They expect the salesman to say whatever it takes to get the sale. People are more hands-off now. They want to gather information themselves. The more information you can give them in your advertisements, the better your chance to generate action. Make your advertisements work on straight commission, just like you would a regular salesman. If the ads can’t justify their own cost, then FIRE THEM!

Written by: Randy Martinsen – Accelerated Marketing Group

People say it all the time: “This advertising costs too much!” They practically go into cardiac arrest when they see how much the advertising for certain media in certain markets is going to cost them. It is pretty easy to get sticker shock when you see that a 60-second radio commercial on a popular Los Angeles station could cost you a thousand bucks – each. Or when you realize that radio spots on top stations in the San Francisco market cost as much as $2,500 – a MINUTE. Or when you realize that a newspaper ad in your city barely bigger than a Hershey bar will cost a couple thousands dollars. It’s easy to automatically think that’s a lot of money. Now here’s the important question for you, the advertiser: does the ad really cost too much?

So what’s the answer? The savvy advertiser will tell you that the cost of the ad is not the issue. What’s important is the return the ad will bring. If you were charged even as much as $40,000 for a 60-second radio commercial that generated enough sales to make you a profit of $50,000, then would the $40,000 be A LOT? The answer is NO! Of course not! You’d be a fool not to beg, borrow or steal the $40,000 so you could make the $50,000 profit! Try getting that kind of return in the stock market! How do you think that these big companies can afford to spend a two million for a 30-second TV commercial during the Super Bowl? They know that an enormous amount of people will see it – enough to make the return on investment a good deal.

The point is simple: you’ve got to figure out how much money an ad will make you before you draw a conclusion of whether or not it costs too much. So how do you do that? It’s actually pretty easy. Here’s a simple process for determining the Return on Investment, or ROI, of an ad. First, you’ve got to know how much profit you make on each sale. For instance, if you buy it for $50 and sell it for $100, your gross profit is $50. Second, figure out what your closing ratio is. If, on average, you close one sale for every four people who inquire, that’s a 25% closing ratio. If 9 out of 10 end up buying, then your closing ratio would be 90%. This is simple math. Third, figure out what your break even is. Do this by taking cost of the advertisement and divide it by the amount of gross profit per sale. Remember, we already figured out what your gross profit is a second ago. So how much do the ads cost? If the ads cost $1,000 and your average gross profit is $50, that means you’ve got to make 20 sales to make back the $1,000 – that’s your break even point – in this example, it’s 20 sales. Fourth and last, figure out the number of leads you need to generate from the ad if you are to break even. To do this, you’ve got to know your closing ratio, which we just figured out also. Let’s say it’s 25%, or in other words, you close one out of four people who inquire. So if you close 25%, and you need 20 sales to break even, that indicates that your $1,000 worth of advertising needs to generate 80 leads to break even.

Now I know that all sounds kind of complicated, but it’s actually pretty simple. We just calculated in the example that if the $1,000 ads can generate 80 leads you would break even. That’s a return on investment of 0. I’m not saying that your goal is to break even. I realize that you are in business to make a profit. But let’s start with breaking even; that’s the bare minimum you can accept when running an ad. At least you didn’t come up with a NEGATIVE return on investment! So let’s say your goal was to double your money. What would have to happen to your numbers? That’s right, you’d have to double your lead flow, or in this case, generate 160 leads instead of just 80. That means that if you generated 160 leads, you would generate a profit of $1,000 – again, on $1,000 spent. In other words, you’ve doubled your money. Your return on investment is 100%. That’s pretty easy to follow, isn’t it? By way of review, what we’re trying to do is calculate your return on investment for your advertising. Here are the four steps again. Think about your numbers in your business.

1. What’s your gross profit per average sale?

2. What’s your closing ratio?

3. What’s your break even – in terms of number of sales needed? How many leads does your ad need to generate for enough sales to break even?

4. What’s your return on investment on any given number of leads that you generate?

Now realize something important here. What we’ve just done in this exercise is figure out how many leads you need to generate to break even on the cost of the advertisement and then calculate the ROI for how ever many leads your ads end up generating. That’s a good piece of information to have, but now I want to take it a step further. Let’s figure out what’s known as the Lifetime Value of a Customer. What if your average customer brings you a $50 gross profit per sale like in the example we just went through? Is that the only time that customer will ever buy anything from you? How many times does that average customer come back in the course of a month or a year? If your average customer shops with you one time a month and makes you $50 gross profit every time, that customer is now worth $600 a year – in profit. And if you know that your average customer stays with you for 3 years, now that $50 a month client is worth a tidy $1,800. So now how much would you be willing to spend to accrue that client? What if those were your average numbers, $50 a month for 3 years. Then in the example earlier, remember where we broke even with 80 leads and just 20 sales? Now those 20 customers would be worth an astounding $36,000 over the next three years. And it only cost you a thousand dollars worth of advertising. Now your break even looks a lot better, doesn’t it! If you could accrue a $36,000 annuity every time you ran a thousand dollars’ worth of ads, you should mortgage your house and spend as much money as possible on advertising!

Now, a couple of words of advice when figuring your return on investment for advertising. Always estimate your numbers conservatively, or in other words, on the low side. Always figure on getting a lower number of leads than you’re hoping for and expecting. Always count on a lower closing ratio than you’re used to. If you calculate your numbers using conservative figures, then you’ll do fine if your results are actually lower than projections and in the event that you do as well as you had initially hoped, you’ll just make more money than you expected.

Let me give you a real life example to better illustrate ROI. There is a company that was promoting seminars where they would attempt to sell a service that cost $8,000. When they were starting to do advertising to promote these seminars, the question of how much budget should they afford came up. They wanted to start filling seminars with about a week after starting advertising, so they decided that fax broadcasting would be the best way for them to quickly get the message out about the seminars. Faxing can be done for as little as 7 cents per page in some major metropolitan areas, and even with the new laws around “opt-in” and “relationship” faxing it seemed the most effective method to get directly into businesses with a target for the seminar, so they came back and said they wanted to send out about 25,000 faxes a week for the 5 weeks they would be doing seminars. When asked how many sales were they planning on generating, they said because of a unique financing plan that allowed them to sell their package on a low monthly payment basis, they thought they could sell at least 100 packages in that 5 week time period.

Well, 100 packages is a lot and they were told that they would have to do at least 100,000 faxes a week for the 5-week period to get the number of leads required to sell that many packages. The man got his calculator out and did some quick math and realized that he had to spend $35,000! 7 cents times 100,000 faxes times 5 weeks! That number – $35,000 – sounded so huge it caught him off guard. His idea was to spend just under 2 grand a week or a total of less than $9,000. Big difference. That’s called “sticker shock.”

So what he did was figure out the ROI, according to the steps previously explained. Again, first figure out your gross profit per sale. His was about $3,250. Second, figure out the closing ratio. He expected this would be about 20%. So then, how many sales would he need to break even on a $35,000 advertising expenditure? Well, 35 thousand divided by $3,250 gross profit per sale is about 11 sales. Just 11 sales to break even. So if his closing ratio were just 10%, he’d have to generate about 110 leads to break even. 110 leads on 500,000 faxes? Statistically this is easily attainable even with poorly written materials. The last thing to do would be to figure out how many leads he’d have to get to reach his goal. His goal is 100 sales and his closing ratio is 10%. That means he’d have to generate about 1,000 leads. On 500,000 faxes sent out, that’s like a two-one-thousandths of a percent response. That is very reasonable. He’d generate a total gross profit on the deal of $325,000 and if you subtract the $35,000 advertising cost, that’s still a healthy gross profit. His attitude toward the $35,000 changed instantly.

Do you see how this analysis can work for you? Just run through your numbers and you’ll know how much money is a lot of money when it comes to advertising.

Written by: Randy Martinsen – Accelerated Marketing Group

“My Ugliest, Stinkiest, Most Obnoxious Sales Rep Tripled His Sales In Just Two Weeks!”

After we published this newsletter the first time, several readers wrote in and commented at how offensive the headline was, I had to simply say to them, “It worked to get your attention, right?  We’re in the business of helping you learn how to get more revenues from your marketing, advertising and sales — so if we got your attention with this headline, you can see a perfect example of how the interrupt works.  We’re truly sorry if the story or the reference to ‘Fred’ offended you, but the marketing point is valid and salient.”  I also want to say that we’re not implying this story necessarily applies to your advertising salesman – there are a lot of good ones out there. Now, on to the point of the story…

How would you react if an ugly, stinky, obnoxious advertising salesman came into your office and tried to pitch you? I’m talking about a guy in his mid 40s with long, stringy, dirty hair – with yellow armpit stains and odor to match. I’m talking about someone who talks so loud that everyone else in your office has to shut their office doors just to hear themselves think. Would you buy advertising space from this man?

If you said yes, you’re in the minority. I honestly don’t know how he even kept his job – besides the fact that he’s a pretty nice guy. But, geez…it was hard for anyone to even want to see the guy to get to know him. You know the old line about first impressions, right? This is an absolutely true story, but for the sake of the stinky guy, we’ll change his name and call him Fred.

The company Fred works for publishes a business magazine, and like most advertising mediums, it relies heavily on salespeople to sell the ad space. But there’s a big problem with the out-dated sales rep way of selling: The marketplace is bombarded with so many advertising opportunities that it’s difficult to even get in the door to make a prospect even consider buying ad space. Even if you’re good looking, fresh smelling, and even tempered.

So when we got together with Bob, the publisher, we immediately suggested that they trash their old way of selling ad space and do things a little differently. The first place to start was finding a marketing message that would stand out in the clutter of ad space. We asked Bob if his advertisers had received good results from the ads they ran in the magazine. Bob assured us that most of the clients they did have were repeat buyers and they were receiving excellent response to their ads. So here’s the 64 million dollar question: “Would you be willing to guarantee the results?”

Bob and his partner agreed that they were interested only in the long-term growth of the magazine – a goal that could only be achieved if the ad space worked for the clients anyway. So Bob consented. We promoted the magazine as the only advertising medium that gives you a “Results Guarantee.” That was the easy part.

The next thing we did was identify a very specific target market. What kind of business would even want to be in this magazine? Why? How can we identify them and market to them in a cost-effective way? So they picked 500 potential advertisers and made a mailing list of those companies. But instead of mailing them anything, they instead hired someone to call every one of the 500 businesses and capture one critical piece of information: the fax number.

Once all the fax numbers were captured, they sent out a nice little 3-page fax that explained who they were and why their magazine was a wise place to spend precious advertising dollars. The results? Over 100 calls within one week asking for more information about the possibility of advertising in the magazine. Some people would call those HOT LEADS. Bob called them a godsend.

So here’s how the ugly, stinky, obnoxious salesman did so well. Bob handed Fred a stack of 25 leads. Fred sent the 25 leads the information they requested and then followed up 2 days later and simply asked what they thought. This, by the way, was the first time they had talked to Fred personally. Eight people bought on the spot the first time Fred called them.

Fred’s sales jumped from a previous high month of $4,000 in sales to over $12,000 in sales in less than 2 weeks! But remember, Fred was a worst-case scenario. Other salesmen at the magazine were having similar successes. Sales went through the roof and extra pages had to be added to the magazine to accommodate.

Bob summed up the experience like this: “With your system in place, our whole business has changed. Little things. Big things. Everything has changed. My salesmen never have to ask for sales now. Prospects always come to them. Therefore, there’s no rejection. We never make cold calls anymore. Everyone returns our phone calls now – we used to never get calls returned from potential clients. My salesmen see twice as many prospects now…and when they see them, they’re picking up checks and signing the paperwork only. The quality of prospects has risen dramatically. We even save gas money. In the last 90 days we have doubled our sales volume and I’ve made an extra $40,000.”

The crowning moment came when a national bank called up and placed a $4,000 ad without ever talking to a salesman. They just said come over and pick up the check. Now that’s work that even an ugly, stinky, obnoxious salesman can do…. and do well!

Written by: Randy Martinsen – Accelerated Marketing Group

Sounds funny to say but that is exactly what you are doing when you build a website without a SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and marketing  plan in place.  You may or may not have heard of this, but this term (SEO) is used very loosely in the web design industry.  If you take a look at the article on google.com about Search Engine Optimization you will find that there are obvious benefits and possible downsides to how this is done.  Here is a simple set of questions that you should ask an SEO company before you chose to hire them from this article:

”

• Can you show me examples of your previous work and share some success stories?
• Do you follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines?
• Do you offer any online marketing services or advice to complement your organic search business?
• What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe? How do you measure your success?
• What’s your experience in my industry?
• What’s your experience in my country/city?
• What’s your experience developing international sites?
• What are your most important SEO techniques?
• How long have you been in business?
• How can I expect to communicate with you? Will you share with me all the changes you make to my site, and provide detailed information about your recommendations and the reasoning behind them?”

There are many unethical SEOs that exist and can actually damage your ranking and web reputation by their overly aggressive web marketing tactics.  If you read further in the article by Google you will see what to watch out for.

Another thing to be careful of when choosing your website design company is that they are designing on a platform that is supportive “out of the box” of SEO.  For example, the way that code is written on a website or web page can make a huge difference in whether search engines can find your site.  While these may sound like “technical details” they are very important to any good additional SEO work.

Many of our customers have come to us and said, “I want you to build me a website so that I can market my company.”  While there is nothing at all wrong with this want and desire there is more to it than to just “build a website”.  The above data must be taken into account as well as the actual function of the website.  Is it going to be an advertising hot lead generation tool, or will it be a functional site such as a bank website or a place where people interact with their own account that they have with your company?  Is this website a part of an overall marketing strategy or just the latest “bright idea” to bring “more business in”?  It is important that in choosing your website design company that they  have an understanding and the facilities to assist you in this additional marketing direction.  The thousands of dollars wasted on “bright ideas” without the use of proper survey technology to really find out what your customers need and want is the primary reason for this.  Many consider these marketing services as really expensive, and that they would “love to use them if they could afford them”.  For most of our customers, they have saved thousands by utilizing our marketing services in the long run.  Yes, it is more expensive to start off with but will reward you in terms of real ROI down the road.

For more info on this check out our home page.

The Writer’s Workshop: Learn How To Say It Well
The great business philosopher, Jim Rohn, said it best in his lecture about communications. He was talking about personal communications – not about advertising – but the principle holds true. He says to be a master communicator all you’ve got to do is follow this simple three-step process: first, have something good to say; second, say it well; third, say it often.
In terms of advertising, here’s what that means: having something good to say means that you’ve innovated your business sufficiently so that you’ve got something unique that’s worth advertising. Saying it well has to do with taking what you do well and saying it in your advertising in such a way that it gets people to notice and take action.
Here’s what you need to know about saying it well: advertising gives you great leverage on your dollars invested. The words you use and the way that you use them in your ads can make all the difference between an ad that works and an ad that fails. An ad that makes you money or an ad that costs you money. Those ads that you’re going to be running will cost you the same amount of money regardless of how well you say it. If you say it well and your ads make you rich, the price of the ads remain constant. If you say it crummy and go broke, the cost of the ads still doesn’t change. That’s why we’re going to spend so much time on the writer’s workshop and teach you how to say it well – so you can take advantage of the upside of the leverage that advertising offers you.
I don’t know if you’re planning on writing your own ads or not. Maybe you just want to learn how to evaluate whether or not your ad agency is doing a good job. Maybe you’d like to make useful suggestions to the people who write your ads. Or maybe you are the one responsible for putting it all together for your company. If you’re responsible for the results of your company’s advertising, you’ll need to know how to effectively write your ads.
Use Words To Create Mental Pictures In People’s Minds: Remember this one tidbit out of this program and it will be worth the time you’ve invested. The mind thinks in pictures. Not words, not ideas, not concepts, not abstracts. In Pictures. Hard to believe? Let me give you an example. For a moment, think of a killer whale. Okay, what came to our mind? The words and letters k-i-l-l-e-r w-h-a-l-e? No, of course not. You had a picture of a killer whale instantly pop into your mind. Now, think of the Eiffel Tower. What happened? Big, tall, pointy tower picture pops into your mind. The reason you mind throws a picture on your mental canvas is because you don’t think in words, you think in pictures.
Okay, you say those weren’t fair examples because they were both objects. It makes sense that you would think of an object by picturing the object, but you’re saying that you probably wouldn’t think of something abstract in a picture. Well, let’s see if that’s true or not. Here’s the next exercise: think of the word FAME. What happened? Did you think of the letters F-A-M-E? Or did your mind paint a mental picture of something instead? Maybe it was a flashback to the old movie Fame. Or maybe you got a picture in your mind of a famous person or even a collage of famous people. If so, who was it? A famous athlete? A movie star? Maybe your mental picture shows the flashbulbs that come from being photographed a thousand times by the media or maybe you saw your picture on the cover of a magazine. It’s different for everybody, but for everybody it&rsqu o;s a picture. Let’s try another: how about the word POLITICS? What picture did you get? What about the word RELIGION? Think for a second. What about the word CHARMING? SWEET? EVIL? FLEXIBLE? Get the picture? Your mind thinks in pictures.
So the next logical question you have is SO WHAT! What does that have to do with advertising? The answer: EVERYTHING. As and advertiser, your job is to create a mental picture in the minds of your prospects that will:
get them to pay attention to your ads,become very interested in what you’re selling, andtake action. You’ve got to be the artist that paints the picture in the brain.So you might think, “Hey, great. If the mind uses pictures, then we’ll just stick a bunch of pictures in our ads and that will do the trick. After all, as the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, right? We’ll put pictures in our ad that illustrate the points we’re trying to make and everyone will understand and take action.” Well, actually, that’s not exactly true. Here’s the problem with pictures in advertisements, generally speaking. Your interpretation of a picture and my interpretation of a picture might not be the same thing. The picture might be worth a thousand words…the question is: which thousand words?
So now you’re wondering…which is it? Pictures or no pictures? Here’s the key: you can use words to create mental pictures that will get attention and tell your story far more effectively than any illustration or photograph ever could. You’ve got to become a skilled wordsmith that can use words to paint pictures on the mental canvas. Let me give you a few examples.
First, let me tell you about a company that makes video game cabinets. A video game cabinet is basically the wooden box with a TV monitor that those games you see in the arcades are housed in. One of the biggest problems with the cabinets is that they have to endure a lot of abuse. Think about it: they’ve got 13 year old kids pounding on them all day long for months and years on end. The part of the cabinet that is particularly vulnerable to wear and tear is the control panel – the part about waist high on the cabinet where all the buttons, knobs, and joysticks are. Well, this company had engineered a cabinet that had several reinforcements on the control panel that made it very durable, extremely resistant to breaking even under the most abusive conditions. It was called the HS-27. People in the industry all knew what an HS-27 was. Okay, play consultant now: write a n ad that extols the merit of the HS-27 video cabinet with its new, improved, reinforced control panel. What would say? Remember, your job is to paint a mental picture for the reader. So what would you write?
If you ask around the factory, you will find out HOW they tested the durability of the control panel: they simulated the worst punishment the control panel could ever possibly face – they had somebody literally stand on top of it and jump up and down repeatedly. And just to make sure that the test was true, they had their service manager – Mike, who weighed in at 272 pounds – be the one who did the jumping. Ah ha! There’s the idea. Are you already starting to get a mental picture built in your mind? The headline was then written in big, bold letters. “We Had The Biggest, Fattest Guy We Could Find Jump Up And Down On Our HS-27 Control Panel For 12 Minutes…Just To Make Sure It Could Endure Any Punishment Your Customers Could Dish Out.”
Did that headline put a mental picture in your mind? Of course it did. You saw this picture in your mind of a big fat guy jumping up and down on a video game cabinet and the cabinet standing up to the test. And here’s the best part: every person who heard or read that headline got to paint the mental picture using images and scenes that were their own; that makes the picture more vivid and more believable. The company was a little concerned about using the “Fat Guy” ad. They thought it wouldn’t be politically correct, you know, to talk about a fat guy. What if people complain? I’m telling you, the words FAT GUY just have the ability to create a certain picture in the mind that no other words can. The results proved that it worked: the ad generated a ton of attention and skyrocketed the sales of the HS-27 video game cabinet.
Here are a few more examples. A company that does pre-employment screening and background checks wanted an ad that emphasized how effective they were at screening out bad employees. They debated about what people really wanted from a pre-employment screening company. “They want the checks done fast, they want the checks done accurately, etc.” But what people want can all be summed up in one headline: “Now You Can Avoid Hiring Weirdos, Losers, and Lunatics.” The sub-headline said there was a secondary benefit of “and get all the information you need in just six hours or less.” That one definitely puts a pretty graphic picture in your mind.
How about this for creating a picture in the mind? “We Go The Extra Mile For Our Clients.” Okay, that was a trick; I hope you caught it! “We go the extra mile for our clients” leaves your brain looking for something concrete to grasp onto. It leaves you visually numb. It does a poor job of creating a mental picture.
How about this one: let’s take the example of a photography studio that specialized in children’s portraits and senior pictures for high school students. For the last several years, they had done what just about every other photographer on the face of the planet did when it came to advertising. They sent out an oversized postcard with a bunch of pictures of beautiful people on the front with some kind of boring headline like, “Only the Best” or “Capture Your Style” or something that was trying to convey the message of “Come get your photo take here and you’ll look beautiful, too.” The only problem with that kind of advertising is that it DOES NOT create any mental pictures. And the actual photos on the postcard don’t mean anything since the person looking at them fully expects that the promotional picture would look good. Even a horrible photographer has a few decent shots that he shows his prospects. So instead, one photographer sent a postcard that contained only the following words: “You’ve Got The Ugliest Kids I’ve Ever Seen In My Life,” with the sub-headline “That’s What They’ll Say If You Get Caught Using The Wrong Photographer.” See how effective that is? See how that creates a vivid picture – a mental impression – in the mind? That’s the power of mental pictures. And you can create them for your product or service too.
Now, I’m not saying that you can’t use actual pictures effectively in an advertisement. You can. It’s been done lots of times…but here’s the key: usually the pictures are used in tandem with words. Why? The words are what create the MENTAL picture that describes the actual picture. Here’s an example: if you do a lot of meetings or seminars, you get a lot of solicitations from meeting facilities. There’s also a magazine called Meeting News. It’s one of those free subscription magazines with a bunch of shallow, token articles that exists solely as an advertising vehicle for resorts and meeting facilities. That being the case, you’d think that the advertisers would be trying really hard to say just the right things to make the phones ring. I mean, it’s a competitive environment in that magazine; almost every ad is selling the exa ct same thing: meeting space.
There was a full-page ad for Hilton Resorts that was dominated by a huge photograph. It was an aerial view of a big green lawn with a dog that had dug what looked like about a half a dozen holes. The dog was currently situated near the middle of the page and was in the process of digging another hole. Remember I said earlier that while a picture is worth a thousand words, the important thing is which thousand words? So what does the hole-digging dog say to you? What conclusion do you draw? Fortunately, Hilton was good enough to provide a headline to try to clarify. The headline read, “At Hilton Direct, we’ll find the perfect meeting location for you, whether it’s 2,000 miles away or in your own backyard.”
Oh, okay…the doggie’s looking for the perfect location to bury his bone. I mean, to plan his meeting. Does this make sense to you? The picture does a horrible job of getting to the point – which, by the way, still hasn’t been discovered. After a thorough reading of the ad’s text, you can find the point. Buried way down deep in the copy is this tidbit: they have over 500 properties all over the country, which, I guess, ensures that there’s one near you and by making just one call, you could presumably make your meeting plans for anywhere. So here’s the question: why didn’t they just say that? Maybe they should have used the headline “Only One Resort Lets You Compare And Price Out 523 Different Meeting Facilities Nationwide With Just One Easy Phone Call. That’s Hilton Direct.” Yes, there are probably better headlines they could use, but that one is better than the digging dog.
The place to paint the picture is in the mind. Not on the paper. Don’t draw a conclusion from the examples here that you have to use an inflammatory headline like the Fat Guy one or the Ugly Kids one or the Don’t Hire Losers one…although it can certainly help. Those are just examples to prove the point about creating mental pictures. Here’s what you need to know. Your ability to use words to create pictures in the minds of listeners will greatly enhance your chances of success. Most of the ads out there don’t effectively create mental pictures. Instead, they unthinkingly spew out verbal garbage. Instead of mental pictures, they create mental numbness. Why would they do that? Don’t waste your money that way.

NOW get the MYM 10-CD Audio Course for only $49.95 by download! Click the picture below…

Develop These Six Critical Traits…And Success Will Surely Follow.

Being marketing consultants allows us the opportunity to encounter almost every business situation imaginable. These businesses vary from start-ups to turn-arounds to already highly profitable businesses.

We deal with people who are sharp as tacks, and with people who couldn’t sell their way out of a paper sack. We’ve designed and implemented marketing programs for print shops, banks, retail stores of all kinds, multi level marketers, real estate companies, churches, politicians, famous seminar leaders and personal development coaches, and anything else you can think of.

One major conclusion: The marketing function for every single business or organization — plus or minus 5% — is exactly the same.

Which makes us laugh when we get asked the inevitable question: “How can you walk into my business that you’ve never seen before and figure out a detailed strategy in just 9 minutes. How in the world do you do this?”

The answer is simple: We aren’t so smart. We just know how to do a few key things that any one can do with a minimal amount of training. Here now, are the six traits to mastering marketing. (Don’t be disappointed that you’ve heard everything here before. I already told you that we’re not smart. This stuff is really simple.)

Trait #1: Notice Your Own Buying Strategies: Pay closer attention to what everyone else in the world is doing to try to sell you something.

You’ll find that there are already lots of good ideas out there that you don’t have to invent again. I actually watch the commercials. I listen to the ads on the radio. I get on every mailing list I can to see what kind of  “junk” will show up in my mailbox. I interview those jerk-o telemarketers that interrupt my dinner to see how well their pitch is working with other prospects. I love junk fax. I read all billboards. I go shopping just to see how the sales clerks treat me. I read the paper and magazines for advertisements, then if I have time I read the articles I do. I read the yellow pages for fun (even though 99.99% of the ads stink). I respond to every “free” offer under the sun. Then I check to see how well the company follows up.

So you say, “But you’re a marketing consultant! I would expect you to behave this way! I just run a (fill in whatever you do here)…what does all that have to do with me?” Our business is making money. Period. What’s yours? If you ask me, it too is making money. I don’t care what you do. You are in the business of marketing something in an effort to make money.

If you will constantly monitor what turns you on; what ads keep appearing week after week; what makes you like something or hate something — you will start to find things that you can incorporate into your business. Then we can talk about Trait #2….

Trait #2: The Ability To Cross-Pollinate Ideas: This isn’t a botany lesson. All it means is to take an idea that works well in one industry and use it in another.

Borrow ideas from everywhere.

We helped a piano dealer learn how to sell grand pianos the way most car dealers sell cars….by giving away a huge package of free stuff with every purchase. We helped a foundation repair and plumbing company sell the way a realtor sells houses…with a metal sign in a yard with a “take one” tube on top. Get yourself out of your paradigm of

“what you do”

and realize that, as long as it’s legal, moral, and ethical–if a given idea makes money, it’s worth pursuing.

Trait #3: Be Specific: I don’t want to go into my entire discourse about how people in general are lazy communicators. Just suffice it to say that 95% of what’s said in marketing and advertising is useless, non-compelling, non-specific, non-definitive, amorphous FLUFF. They say things like tastes best, highest quality, biggest selection, best service, and lowest price. But think about the impact of these types of statements have on your prospects.

Your prospects fully expect you to claim that you’re great. Who ever heard of a promotion that said ” Our prices are high, our service is terrible, and our quality is marginal at best!” To set yourself apart from the competition, you must quantify all claims made into specific, compelling terms.

Instead of saying largest selection, say “15,400 square feet divided into 5 showrooms, with over 5,220 items from 327 manufacturers, in 2,022 styles and 460 colors, in price ranges from $.99 to $27,000.” Which do you believe? Instead of saying qualified mechanics, say “Most auto repair facilities have one or two certified mechanics. We have 11 ASE certified mechanics on staff with an average of 16 years experience…including 4 mechanics who have passed the coveted “L-1″ test, and two who are double master certified.” Where would you rather take your car?

Trait #4: Ability To See From The Customer’s Perspective: If you’ve ever bought a diamond, you know how confusing that process can be. The problem is that most people rarely buy a diamond, therefore most people have no clue how to judge a diamond’s worth. They have to rely on that guy at the jewelry store to tell them. Don’t worry that he’ll say anything to make a sale because he’s going to starve if you don’t buy. He’ll probably be perfectly honest with you.

I met a man that sold diamonds out of his huge, beautiful home at wholesale prices straight to the public. He understood his customers’ perspective…that was “HELP! We know nothing and we’re afraid we’re going to get screwed!” He would sit prospective customers down in a nice, leather chair and explain to them the history of diamonds, from volcanoes, to mines, to cutting, to polishing, to wholesale buying and selling. He used a myriad of books, charts, and pictures. He explained exactly what someone needed to know about diamonds before making a decision. And oh, by the way, if they wanted to look at some diamonds, he had some of those, too.

His process was so disarming, and so educational, that he sold 80% of the people that sat in that nice, leather chair. Compare that to the usual jewelry store: they shove 63 rings on you finger in 12 minutes and try to pressure you into buying the big, ugly, yellow one that has a huge commission because its been in their inventory for so long. The average jewelry store will sell less than 10% of the people that sit in their cheesy, velvety chairs. (Bonus question: How could you cross-pollinate this sales method to other businesses? Hint: it has nothing to do with the nice, leather chair.)

Traits #5: Innovation: Unfortunately, we’re almost out of space. But we’ll touch briefly on the last two before we quit. Innovation is simply creating a business that offers the customer “THE BEST DEAL.” It’s about creating a business so perfect that the customer knows he’d be a fool if he shopped anywhere else. Our 10CD Audio Course goes into more detail about HOW to make this happen.

Traits #6: Systemization: Systemization is the process of making decisions about your marketing in advance so that you are always doing what you need to be doing. As opposed to trying to create everything as you go. Or flying by the seat of your pants.

Written By: Randy Martinsen – Accelerated Marketing Group

*Monopolize Your Marketplace (MYM) is a marketing system owned by Richard Harshaw, and licensed to AMG, a BOSS Business Systems partner for implementation of all MYM methodologies.

Guesswork – Headlines

In his classic book Think And Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill says that one of the major causes of failure is that people “prefer to act on opinions created by guesswork or snap-judgments rather than facts”. Advertising decisions based on what you think will work rather than what the marketplace wants is the main reason advertisements don’t work–and that businesses fail, for that matter. Your livelihood depends on your ability to determine which messages will effectively attract new customers and entice your current customers to come back for more.

You can make these determinations by putting every important marketing and advertising question to a vote by the only people whose ballots count: customers and prospects. This “voting” takes place in the form of small, inexpensive tests. An advertising test is different than a questionnaire, a survey, or a focus group. These things don’t necessarily reflect your prospects’ willingness to put their money where their mouths are–and the results are usually skewed toward what the participants think you want to hear. Or what they think they might do. Testing, on the other hand, allows you to find out definitively which headlines, offers, prices, etc. the market will respond to–and cause them to buy– before you spend a fortune on advertising.

Testing Headlines

You can test the effectiveness of certain parts of your ads on small but representative samples of your market, and you can learn what works and what doesn’t. The results are reliable because each advertising question is answered with cash, check, or a major credit card. So ultimately, the purpose of testing is to demand maximum performance from every marketing and advertising dollar you spend. You will find that one approach will often times substantially outperform certain others. But unless you test, you won’t know which approach is the best one.

You might think that this concept of testing sounds so obvious, so simple, that everyone must already be doing it. Well, are you doing it? I mean, are you really testing? And just running an ad and saying, “Dang, it! That didn’t work!” does NOT count. The fact is ALMOST ALL businesses haphazardly run whatever advertisements “seem to be pulling well lately.” If you methodically test and calculate your advertising efforts, you’ll shred your competitors’ advertising to pieces, and win you their customers in the process. In short, every aspect of your advertising can and should be tested—advertising mediums, placements, headlines, prices, offers, packaging, formats, type fonts, sales pitches—everything. These are the specific components of an advertisement that we’ll discuss.

Test On A Small Scale, Because Guesswork Can Cost You A Lot Of Money.

We worked with a client in the early days one time, which, after 25 years in the retail jewelry business, retired and sold diamonds at true wholesale prices directly to the public from his home. Because his prices were so low, he managed to sell several diamonds a month based solely on word-of-mouth advertising. But as for his advertising and marketing skill, well, he didn’t even have a clue. One day he hatched a brilliant idea. He decided to start a company to sell lower-end jewelry and collectibles on a nationwide basis using newspaper advertisements as his marketing medium in the Parade magazine. He would place advertisements in newspapers that looked exactly like the Franklin Mint’s. The only thing different would be his company’s name and address at the bottom of the ad. He sharpened his pencil and figured that if his ads could pull a measly 6 responses out of every 10,000 placed, net profits would triple the ad cost. If he could only muster 3 responses per 10,000 and he would at least break even. Hey, if Franklin could do it, why couldn’t he?

On the strength of projections and his reputation in the community, he raised over $200,000 from local investors to launch the first product, a gemstone ring. The initial ad cost over $60,000 for complete coverage in the Los Angeles Times’ Parade Magazine. Since the paper was delivered to several million homes, he figured to be extremely rich very soon.

To make a sad story short, the product bombed. He tried a different product the second time, and still another the next time. Finally, after all of his capital was depleted, he was forced to quit. His investors were not happy. How could this have happened? All he needed was a measly 6 responses out of 10,000. Instead of blowing the whole budget on a couple of unproven ideas, he should have taken the time to run some tests in similar magazines with smaller circulations. These relatively inexpensive tests would have told him which ad concepts worked, which prices pulled the most orders, what kinds of terms his customers found most convenient, or anything else he needed to know before rolling out a huge, expensive campaign. Moral to this story: It’s better to find out what works and what doesn’t work when there is $60,000 at stake. Testing will ensure you never make a major marketing mistake again–ever.

Like I said before, when you test one marketing variable against another, you will find that one always out pulls all others by a significant margin. A price of $19 may out pull $21 by three times. A certain headline in a newspaper ad might out pull another one by as many as 5 or 10 times! That’s 5 or 10 times the result with no increased expense. Remember, we just stated in the last section that advertising and marketing offers your business the greatest source of leverage. But you have to continually test to take advantage of that leverage. As you test different approaches, carefully analyze and tabulate the results. When you find something that out pulls everything else, that becomes your “control”. Once you know what works best, you can test other variables in your advertising mix.

For example, once you find a headline that works well in a magazine ad, you can then start to test it in different magazines, or different placements in the magazine, or in different sizes. Just be sure not to test more than one variable at a time, though, or you won’t know what effect changing each one of the variables has. If you go changing the headline, the publication, and the format of the body copy, you won’t have any idea which component accounted for the difference in results.

It’s Not What You Say, It’s How You Say It.

Another wholesale diamond seller I worked with found that his business became increasingly profitable the more he tested his advertising. His main selling point had always been lower-thanretail pricing. He had successfully run ads in the university newspaper with the headline “WHOLESALE DIAMONDS” for several months in a row. I encouraged him to test three or four other headlines based on low prices, including this one: “If you’re planning on spending $2,500 on a diamond engagement ring, I’ll send you home with either a ring worth $3,800–or $1,000 still in your pocket.”

This simple re-articulation of the selling point “low prices” graphically illustrated just how low the prices were. It brought the ad alive to the readers. Inquiries and sales immediately increased by over 60%. We’ll talk in detail later about the power of the headline. But this story doesn’t end there. The advertisement with the headline I just mentioned, “If you’re planning on spending $2,500 on a diamond engagement ring, I’ll send you home with either a ring worth $3,800–or $1,000 still in your pocket.” became his “control”. We then tested some other concepts against the low price one. One of these concepts was based on the observation that people usually knew that wholesale diamonds were less expensive, but that they were leery of buying from a dealer that didn’t have a big, fancy showroom. Basically, the customers’ confidence in wholesale dealers was not very high. Remember, the advertiser’s job is to raise confidence and lower risk. In this case there was high risk and low confidence.

The next newspaper ad to come out combated this concern head-on. The headline read “Most peoples’ greatest fear about buying their diamond engagement ring from a wholesale jeweler is that they’ll be fooled into paying too much for an inferior diamond.” The ad went on to explain how this wholesaler never considered any sale binding until the customer had the diamond appraised by a certified gemologist of their choice. It also described in detail the “better than money-back guarantee” that ensured total customer satisfaction. See how that lowers the risk and allows the customer to take specific steps to raise the confidence level.

The huge increase in response this ad brought in drove home the importance of testing to this client. No advertiser has the right or ability to tell the market what it will respond to. Experience can show you what types of things tend to work best, but only testing can empirically prove what works best in every single situation.

Start immediately to test every ad you run against another one with a different headline or price or layout. Send two relatively well-matched salesmen out with different pitches and see which one works best after a week. Test new and different ways to articulate each of the points of your case until you find one that works best. When you find approaches that are making you money, keep testing to find out, “ How High is High?” You never know how high is high, how fast is fast, how far is far until you’ve tried several different things.

Yes, it takes longer to test than it does to not test. But by scientifically testing every facet of your marketing, you’ll find that in the long run your advertising will be more effective, make you more money, and help your business grow more rapidly. Let me give you a few specific ideas about how you can use testing to your advantage. Here’s one: Do what’s known as an A/B split. What this means is to run two different ads, both at the same time. Let’s say you’re sending a mail piece. Instead of sending one piece to the entire list, try sending one piece to half the list—that’s piece “A”—and a test piece to the other half of the list—that’s piece “B”. See, it’s an A/B split. You can do this with other media besides just mail. It works great with fax broadcasting and telemarketing as well. Some newspapers and magazines may be able to actually print every other copy with a different ad. This allows you to see which ad pulls better in a real live situation. Anyway, the point of all this is to test, test, test. Become a test-aholic. Don’t just fly by the seat of your pants. You’ll find it to be very rewarding in the long run.

Written by: Randy Martinsen – Y2 Marketing Reprinted with permission by AMG

*Monopolize Your Marketplace (MYM) is a marketing system owned by Richard Harshaw, and licensed to AMG, a BOSS Business Systems partner for implementation of all MYM methodologies.