John E. Fike Copywriting & Content

The Marketing Power of Enthusiasm

2009-11-17T09:04:00.000-08:00

One of the things you hear a lot in copywriting circles is that it doesn’t matter what you think about the product you’re selling, what matters is what the customer thinks. There is certainly a lot of truth to that, since the customer is the one doing the buying. On the other hand, I find it is extremely helpful to not only like your product, but to be enthusiastic about it and share that enthusiasm with your customers.

Enthusiasm gets attention. If you are excited about your product or service and display that excitement in your marketing, then people want to know what you’re excited about. Then you get a chance to explain why you’re excited and enthusiastic about your product or service; you get the opportunity to tell them how this incredible product or service you have will change their lives or improve their business. And that’s where the selling gets done.

As a copywriter, I find it ten times easier to write copy for a client who is enthusiastic about his or her product or service. Enthusiastic people like to talk about the thing they’re enthusiastic about—they want you to see the light and get enthusiastic too. So they share everything about it. When I ask one question of an enthusiastic person, I get an answer that might take 10 to 20 questions to get from someone who is not enthusiastic.

A client who is enthusiastic about their product or service also tends to get me interested in that product or service. When I’m interested in something, researching and writing about it seems almost effortless—words just sort of pour out onto the page. Of course, the reality is that I’ve gathered a lot of information about it and developed a plan of attack to write about it and put a lot of work into it. But like any work that is enjoyable, writing about products and services that capture my interest just doesn’t seem like work.

And it will seem that way to your customers too. If your enthusiasm helps capture the interest of your customers they will be driven to find out more. They’ll research your product or service, they’ll ask questions, they’ll look for reasons to buy, and they’ll do it because they’re interested—because they caught your enthusiasm.

Now here’s the caveat. I’m not talking about being bubbly or faking enthusiasm. I’m not talking about using hype and hyperbole to seem enthusiastic. Those are just tricks that your customers will easily see through. I’m talking about a genuine, deep-down belief that your product or service provides great value to your customers and that people are missing out if they don’t buy from you.

When someone has this kind of enthusiasm for your product or service, whether it’s you, your copywriter or your customer, it causes them to ferret out all the details and look at all the different ways that product or service will benefit someone. These details supply the support and evidence that your product or service is as awesome as you say it is. The result is great marketing copy and high-volume sales to customers who are excited about your product or service.

In essence, your marketing and sales copy will go much better if you first sell yourself on your product or service and become an enthusiastic believer before you try to sell others on it.

FITNESS PROS & ONLINE MARKETERS: Get a high-quality custom ebook w/ full resale rights & limited competition

2009-10-28T10:57:00.000-07:00

I knack for writing really high-quality fitness e-books. Not the kind you can get written for a few hundred dollars from someone on eLance or one of those that you can get off resale sites for $50. My e-books are really detailed, accurate and informative e-books complete with photos, detailed exercise descriptions and layout. Good examples are Sure Victory and Secrets of a Turbocharged Metabolism.

The problem is that I find most fitness pros and many marketers don't have the resources to hire me to write an e-book of this quality even though they'd very much like to. The last time I wrote one of these ebooks I was paid over $3,500 and it was only 50 pages.

If you don't have a sure-fire online sales system set up to sell an ebook, that kind of price tag can be a big gamble. Yet fitness e-books sell great online and are a good way for fitness pros to get their business online. If you already sell info products online, then you're probably always on the lookout for another good product to bring in more profits--and, of course, the less you pay for that product the better your profits are.

So I started thinking; what if wrote one ebook and offered the resell rights to 10 people and customized the e-book for each person so they each had a unique product. By splitting the cost up, it would be more affordable for each person and yet they get an e-book of the highest quality that they can sell unlimited quantities of without paying royalties or anything like that. And by limiting the number of people who can buy it, the competition is limited so the market is wide open.

Now I don't have a lot of details right now, because I'm just trying to get a feel for how many people would be interested, but here's what I'm thinking so far:

75-100 page e-book with detailed exercise descriptions, excellent photos (use yours or mine), routines, nutrition information, meal plans
Focused on weight loss and metabolism, which is a highly popular subject, and including heart health information. Depending on feedback, we could also go with muscle building or all-around fitness
Each person would get a unique title and cover and customized inside pages that could include their own photo and business name (for fitness pros who want to brand themselves).
Each person gets rights to resell as many copies as they want and even print it in hardcopy if they want to and sell it on Amazon or wherever.
Includes sales letters, lead-generator report and follow-up emails, possibly some Adword ads
Maximum of 10 people involved to limit competition and cross-over
I'm thinking the price range would be around $800 to include everything and the customization.

I'm open to other suggestions as well.

Like I said, I'm just looking to see who is interested and get some feedback so I can offer a product that you all really want. If you even THINK you might be interested, send me an email at john@fikoppy.com and let me know what you'd like to see in such an ebook.

If I get enough people interested I'll put together a complete outline and complete package details based on feedback I get. Then you can decide for sure whether you want to participate. THERE'S NO OBLIGATION TO YOU RIGHT NOW . . . just email me and let me know if you're even remotely interested. I don't want to plan this whole thing out if nobody is interested.

Again, if you're interested, email me at john@fikopy.com.

Case Study Fall Promo: Save money when you buy 2 case studies

2009-10-27T11:40:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, I've got a new promotion going on. Case studies are a great way to showcase your business to prospective customers and increase your credibility. To encourage you to use them I'm offering a special deal when you buy two.

Buy two case studies and your second one is half price!

1,500-word case studies (best for large brochure and dowloadable formats)

First case study: $500
Second case study: only $250

750-word case studies (best for tri-fold brochures, newsletters and static web page formats)

First case study: $250
Second case study: only $125

Here's the catch:
To qualify for this deal you must contract for the case studies by November 18, 2009, and at least one must be scheduled for completion prior to December 31, 2009.

This is a great way to kick off your 2010 marketing efforts.
Call TODAY and get your case study scheduled: 419-371-2302

Use a Case Study to Demonstrate Excellence through the Words and Eyes of Satisfied Clients and Boost Sales

2009-10-27T10:51:00.000-07:00

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Save $$$ on case studies for your biz when you buy 2--now thru Nov. 18, 2009. Click this link for details.
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Case studies can be a powerful sales tool for any business, but especially for service businesses and custom-order businesses in which it is difficult to provide samples or demonstrations. A case study highlights the best qualities of your product or service as seen through the eyes of a satisfied customer. It can help you to overcome objections from prospects by demonstrating how the issue is dealt with or really not an issue at all.

While a testimonial lends credibility to your company, service or product, a case study is much, much more. A case study is a detailed account of how your company serviced a customer with excellence and provided a satisfying customer experience. It can also demonstrate how you interact with customers and how you go above and beyond expectations.

Concerns and objections often raised by customers can also be dealt with in a case study and sometimes eliminate the concern up front. To do that, relate how the customer was concerned about something the beginning and how your company dealt with it or why it turned out not to be an issue after all.

While you can certainly write a case study yourself, hiring a professional writer is often a better way to go. Your case study should revolve around interviews with the customer. Interviewing can be challenging and often uncomfortable if you haven’t done them before. However, a professional writer knows what questions to ask and how to elicit better responses from the people being interviewed.

Your case study should start with a headline and lead that gets your prospect interested in reading further. Write your case study with a combination of good storytelling and effective sales techniques so your prospects see the advantages of hiring your company or using your products. A professional case study writer knows how to apply those techniques effectively and write a case study that is interesting, appealing and informative.

Conducting interviews and writing a case study can take a lot of time and distract you from other important tasks. Hiring a writer frees you to do what you do best, while getting a more effective case study written.

Whether you hire a professional to write your case study or decide to do it yourself, publish your case study in a way that is attractive to customers and easy to use. Popular formats are full-color 8 ½ x 11-inch brochures, a glossy one-sheet format, PDF format for downloading off a web site, Flash presentations, and as a static web page. Sometimes a case study can be formatted as a press release for distribution to media outlets both online and offline.

After publishing the case study, verify that sales reps are sharing them with customers to make sure they’re being put to use. Don’t forget to put a teaser and link to the case study in a prominent location on the home page of your web site. Monitor online viewing and downloading.

NEXT STEPS:

Review a report on how Washington Correctional Industries uses case studies I wrote to promote their company and head-off serious objections about their workforce: http://www.fikopy.com/case-studies/CI-case%20study.pdf.

Take a look at several case studies I’ve written for other clients:

http://fikopy.com/Portfolio/Fike-HRS_Case_Study.pdf
http://fikopy.com/Portfolio/Fike-TCE_Case_Study.pdf
Washington Correctional Industries case studies

E-mail or call me to talk about getting a case study done for your company: john@fikopy.com 419-371-2302

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Save $$$ on case studies for your biz when you buy 2--now thru Nov. 18, 2009. Click this link for details.
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"Is Your Marketing an Empty Envelope?" RT@actionplan.com

2009-09-10T05:58:00.000-07:00

I received this article in an email from Robert Middleton. It made such a clear statement about clear, targeted marketing messages that I had to post it. FYI: I have no affiliation with either Robert Middleton or Samantha Hartley.

"Is Your Marketing an Empty Envelope?"

Imagine you're walking along one day in a park. You look down and see an envelope, which you pick up. It's fine quality paper with a logo on the back and full postage on the front. Impressive.

To your surprise, however, the envelope has nothing written on the front - no recipient's name, no address. And you can tell, on closer inspection, that it's empty.

This envelope, I'm sorry to say, is like most small business marketing. All the investment is spent on the vehicle or marketing strategy, represented here by a nice, stamped envelope. This is like purchasing advertising, web sites, brochures, Chamber memberships and trade show booths.

But, what's missing is a target market (address) and a message (letter inside the envelope). Who should get this envelope? What do you want them to know?

In marketing terms, this missing piece is a differentiated brand message stating who your services are for, and why they need to purchase from you. Without a brand message, you may as well toss your money out the window, because your marketing strategy is doing nothing for you.

Not having a brand is like sending out sealed, stamped envelopes without addresses or anything inside.

This is why so many small business owners find marketing expensive, difficult and a waste of time. If they just did Step #1, things wouldn't be this way.

Marketing Strategy #1: Identify Your Brand Value

A brand is the unique identity of a business. It's not just what we communicate; it includes all the impressions and beliefs your target audience has about who you are and what value you bring them.

Well-branded businesses attract attention with clear, compelling, authentic messages. This can actually shorten the sales cycle, because prospects more quickly understand why they should do business with you. They also appreciate your value, so you can charge premium prices and expect both repeat business and referrals.

No Brand? You're Not Alone.

If your client attraction marketing strategies aren't working, you're not alone. Recent polls I took of large audiences at my seminars consistently showed less than 10% of the business owners felt confident they knew who their ideal clients were and how they were different from their competitors.

Frankly, I was horrified. Over ninety percent of them were wasting money on marketing strategy, sending out sealed, stamped envelopes without addresses or anything inside!
 Your Edge in Any Economy: Brand Your Business

Before you waste another dime implementing strategies that deliver NO message, invest in identifying your brand. Here's what you need to do:

1. Develop a Vision of where your business is going, and the role your brand will play in getting it there. If you can describe what success will look like, it'll be a lot easier to build a bridge to it.

2. Assess the alternatives to your brand. When people don't choose you, what do they choose? How, why and for whom are you actually the better choice?

3. Define your target market. Exactly who needs what you offer and will most value how it helps them?

4. Identify your specific point of difference or Unique Selling Proposition. In other words, what's your special sauce or secret ingredient? Whatever you choose, it must be clear, compelling, authentic and consistently communicated.

5. Package your differentiators, verbally and visually. Here's where you create your audio logo, saying who you're for and what you do that no one else can do as well. Develop a look- and-feel for your brand, too: a logo, color scheme and visual style, imagery and a "voice" to use in your marketing communications.

6. Select the marketing strategies you'll use to deliver the message of your brand to your target market. Great ways to emanate your brand message include writing articles or speaking on signature topics, networking and blogging.

7. Finally, cascade your brand through all your "touch points." Every place your brand is seen or experienced by your target audience should be consistent with your core brand identity.

Well-branded businesses attract more prospects with less effort, get superior, charge higher prices and enjoy more profitable and joyful businesses.

If creating your brand right now seems like a luxury you can't afford, consider the money you're currently wasting on ineffective marketing strategies. Why wait any longer?

So, How's Your Brand Doing?

Stuff your envelope with a unique brand message that will differentiate your services, attract perfect clients and build the highly-profitable business of your dreams! There's just a few days left to enroll in the Enlightened Marketing Branding Action Group.

To find out more about Samantha's Group, please go to the link below:

http://tinyurl.com/branding-action

Overcome Your Targeted Marketing Reservations

2009-09-08T08:49:00.000-07:00

The evidence is conclusive. Marketing and copy that targets specific segments of your customer population gets significantly better results than marketing and copy that targets "everybody". This is because marketing that targets "everybody" is so generalized and non-specific that it actually targets "nobody".

If marketing and copy don't speak to the issues and motivating circumstances that influence an individual, then that individual can't be motivated to buy. But everyone has different issues and circumstances than everyone else. While it's impractical to hand-craft sales and marketing to target each individual, we can successfully group customers according to what they have in common.

So, while both the stay-at-home mom in rural America and the Silicon-Valley CEO both have need of email, they have very different uses for it. You can't write a sales copy for your email service that will address the needs of both without significantly watering down your response--you'll lose many potential customers in both markets. But you can run one campaign for the stay-at-home mom and folks with needs similar to hers and another campaign for the technology CEO. The result will be a better response from both sectors.

Why we don't get it. . .
Despite the clear-cut advantage to running multiple targeted campaigns, many marketers are still trying the shot-gun approach and trying to hit "somebody" by aiming at "everybody".

For a handful of marketers that occurs because they're not aware of the advantages of targeted campaigns. But for most it's an issue of perspective. Running multiple campaigns targeted at different market segments requires more work and more investment than a single campaign. Therefore multiple campaigns appear to be an unnecessary waste of time and money. Therefore, we need to re-examine the perspective.

There are three main reasons that targeted marketing is a smart financial move:

A non-targeted campaign typically costs more to acquire a certain number of customers than a targeted campaign, because you have to shoot wider and market to a higher number of prospects in order to make your sales goal. With targeted campaigns you can usually reach your goal with smaller outreach. So you spend less to acquire the same number of customers.
It's usually also true that different campaigns often share resources, so your second and third campaigns don't really cost as much as the first campaign. For example you don't really need to develop a whole new web site for every customer segment, just and additional page or two. Both of these factors mean you get a better return on investment by running multiple campaigns at targeted segments than you do by trying to hit everyone.
Lastly, targeted campaigns help you identify the most profitable market segments. Once you identify those markets, you can focus your marketing resources on those segments and decrease your cost per sale because you're acquiring a higher-percentage of profitable customers.

Does sedgmenting your marketing involve higher costs up front? Probably. But it also yields higher returns and profit margins on the back end. A good way to start segmenting your marketing is to keep your non-targeted campaign going while you target just one segment of your customers with a small campaign. If you see success with that campaign, you can increase its size. If you don't see an advantage to targeting that segment, you can target another. As you identify market segments that yield a higher ROI than your non-targeted campaign, you can cut back on the non-targeted campaign and put those resources into your targeted campaigns and increase your overall customer acquisition rate while decreasing your cost per sale.

Social Media: Answered Prayer for Marketers?

2009-09-01T08:20:00.000-07:00

I'm finding social media marketing to be an interesting animal in the marketing kingdom. It actually allows marketers to do what they've always wanted to do: engage the customer in conversation. Of course the end goal of the marketer's conversation is to sell goods and services. But to achieve that, the marketer needs to understand the customers needs, wants and aspirations.

Until now, the marketer could only guess at his customers' needs, wants and aspirations. Surveys, test runs, and other tools helped the marketer get as close as possible to knowing those things, but there was still a lot of guessing going on.

Now that social media has come along, the marketer no longer needs to guess. He (or she) can go out and find out exactly what people are thinking by what they say to each other and what they say to the marketer. Using Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and other platforms, the marketer can search out and find people who are talking about his product or service or about issues that his product or service addresses. He then has the opportunity to make an appeal to those people in the context of problems they are facing and show how his product or service provides a solution.

The beauty of it is that by engaging in this conversation the marketer is not only appealing to the handful of people that he is talking to directly, but also to all the people connected to those people--those who follow their tweets or posts. And those people can also share it with all the people they are connected with if they find it helpful or interesting. So it combines the personal conversation with a sort of mass media distribution. It's far more efficient and effective than traditional mass media or mass mailing advertising in which the marketer hopes he's connecting with the customer but doesn't know for sure until the sale is made.

One of the famed copywriter of marketing lore (I forget which one at the moment) said sales and ad copy should join the customer in the conversation he or she is already having. With social media marketing you really get an opportunity to do that. Additionally, you have the opportunity to customize your message to each conversation--something that cannot be achieved to the same extent through traditional advertising venues.

However there are marketers that don't understand that the key value of social media marketing is the conversation. They're trying to use social media, but they treat it like television or radio. Every tweet or post is a plea to buy from them. Or they send out link after link hoping enough people will check their profile or web site and eventually buy from them.

Let's put this as plain as possible: The value of social media in marketing is engaging the customer in CONVERSATION.

Conversation is an interaction--a give and take exchange of information and opinion. You have to go out and look for the conversations. No one signs up for Twitter or Facebook in order to get a stream of advertisements. Search for people and groups who are having conversations about your product or a topic related to your product. When you join the conversation, add value to it. Don't just show up and billboard your business. Answer and ask questions. Engage them. It may seem like a waste of time to engage one or two people in a conversation that touches your business, but there are hundreds or thousands of others who are witness to that conversation.

The more conversations you engage in, the more people will understand your expertise and come looking for you when they need your product or service.

So get out there and have some conversations.

Speak to Customers' Emotions--Allay Fears & Magnify Desires

2009-08-28T06:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was doing some research for a law firm client of mine. In visiting the sites of numerous law firms I noticed a key trend that many law firms fall into and probably causes them to lose many potential clients.

Most law firms feel they need to have a look and feel that reflects the justice system. They want to look professional and often give a feeling that they dominate the courtroom. You know the image. It's the image that comes to mind when you think of a good lawyer. And it's for that reason that lawyers tend to use that image--because it's one you recognize.

But hiring a lawyer can be an extremely intimidating event for most people. Most people don't interact with lawyers on a regular basis. And all that grandeur and posturing makes it even more intimidating. Lot's not forget the other image that comes to mind when you think of lawyers: money--lots and lots of it.

So people who are searching on the internet for a lawyer--especially those who are looking for someone to represent them in an accident case--are experiencing two negative emotions during their search: they are intimidated by law and lawyers and they are afraid of how much it costs. Many are probably also feeling hurt and betrayed by someone if they think they need to seek out a lawyer.

I think law firms would do much better on the internet if they address those fears and make an effort to allay them rather than play up the intimidating aspects of their industry.

One law firm, I thought, did a pretty good job of that. Take a look at www.lawyersgroup.com. The first words a visitor notices on their home page is "Injured in an accident? Get the money you deserve." This message does two things: 1) it identifies its clients--people who have been injured and 2) promises some relief from the financial strain of the injury. For some customers it may also connect with their sense of retribution if they thinks someone ought to ante up for their suffering.

But the site doesn't stop there. After you read the headline, your eyes immediately go to the column on the right where there is a simple form to fill out and a bold invitation to speak with a lawyer for FREE. That alleviates the concern about how much it will cost to talk to the lawyer--it's free. And it's easy; all you have to do is fill out the short form and click the button. Then the lawyer calls you.

Lawyersgroup.com immediately deals with two strong negative emotions their clients are dealing with: the intimidation (the headline effectively says, "We're on your side.") and the fear of high costs. The people behind this site are also smart marketers as they've included an automated way to add prospects to their lists. When people fill out the form, Lawyersgroup.com gets their contact info and can market directly to those people. And there is plenty of incentive to fill out the form because many people who have been injured want to know what their rights are and whether they have a case, and now they can find out without paying anything.

I think it's also a fairly friendly-appearing site, which makes it even more inviting to web surfers.

So the moral here is that your web site should be inviting to your clients. Who cares whether others in your industry are intimdated by you or whether you're the best at what you do if your client doesn't feel comfortable talking to you. Bragging and intimidation can give many people the feeling that you're likely to walk all over them even while trying to "help" them. Make sure your web site and other marketing materials are speaking to the people who are your customers and the emotions they are feeling when they first come in contact with you.

Everybody loves to spam. I find it disgusting.

2009-08-24T07:21:00.000-07:00

Social Media--the online phenomenon that was supposed to connect people on a real and personal level like never before--has become the new playground for spammers.

Most social media spammers believe they are doing what they're supposed to do. They believe they are supplying quality content by guiding their followers to useful articles and web sites.

That's fine--to an extent. When you come across a truly excellent article, tweeting about that on Twitter or posting a link on Facebook is fine. But make sure you do two things with it:

Give your opinion about it. Your opinion gives merit to the post or tweet and is the reason your followers follow you.
Do it OCCASIONALLY! If all you're doing is tweeting and posting all day long with links to other people's content, you're not displaying your expertise.

Posting links without giving your opinion, especially when you post 5, 10, 20 links a day, is just spamming. It's annoying and you're not adding any real value to it.

If you're using social media for marketing, you want to be perceived as an expert. To do that you have to add or provide value to your posts. Why should I read that article? Do you agree with it? What should I look for in it? What's the most important point?

Most of your posts should not be article links and retweets. If you're doing that, you're just an aggregator--not an expert. An expert provides his or her own content. Tell us what you know. Bottom line, that's how we know you're an expert.

Let's be honest; if you need a product or service, are you going to go to the person who sends you a link to an informative article related to what you need, or are you going to go to the person who actually wrote the article?

If you find a good article, go ahead and link to it, but write your own article that expounds further on it and link to it as well. This is a great way to showcase the depth of your knowledge and prove that you're an expert.

Advertising & Culture

2009-08-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

It doesn't take long for the wife of a copywriter to understand almost as much about copywriting and advertising as her copywriting husband--especially when they share the same workspace day in and day out. My wife, Erin, discovered an interesting article in Fast Company over the weekend and wanted to share her thoughts with you all, so I'm giving her the floor (or blog) today. I'll chime in with my 2 cents worth at the end. Here's Erin:

There are a few ads that I really love. Like Geico's Caveman that goes to a therapist. That makes me laugh, so I watch the commercial instead of channel surfing. I only have 30 years or so of advertising to remember, but advertising has changed a lot in that time. Meow Mix anyone? That one was memorable, at least, but there were a lot that were not.

Over the weekend, I read a profile of Lee Clow in the June issue of Fast Company. He's the Global Director of Media Arts for TBWA\Worldwide and#32 on Fast Company's list of the 100 most creative people in business. According to the profile, Clow took advertising beyond memorable to cultural. For any of us that are in the business of trying to get people to take a second look at a product or service, Lee Clow should be on our syllabus. He's responsible for Apple's "Think Different" ads that launched the iMac--and Apple's return to relevance. Some newer TBWA\Worldwide clients include Visa and Pepsi.

I went to TBWA's website, http://www.tbwa.com/ and discovered that the Visa "go" ads are theirs--including the aquarium ad that is perfectly backed by The Moody Blues' "Tuesday Afternoon." At that point my respect for an accomplished ad man became a full blown "advertiser crush." I love that ad, probably because of all the hours I spent listening to The Moody Blues in the car with my dad. As marketers, that's the kind of touchstone that we need to hit. In Fast Company, Clow says, "When advertising's done well, I think it can become part of our culture. When it's done badly, it becomes visual polution." If you're a wordsmith, the same is true for your words. Check out what Fast Company had to say about Clow here:

http://www.fastcompany.com/100/2009/lee-clow

OK, me again. Certainly Clow's ads are much more entertaining than most ads on television and are less likely to cause channel surfing. And, yes, the ads Erin mentions have definitely reached cultural icon status. However, I have a couple of beefs with the notion of advertising as culture.

First, becoming a part of the culture only comes AFTER a company establishes itself firmly. Too many young businesses fall for this trap of trying to become part of the culture--often referred to as brand advertising or awareness advertising. Brand advertising and cultural advertising will help perpetuate a brand, but young brands--especially those backed by young companies--do not generate revenue quickly enough to establish a brand and make it successful. Small companies and young companies must focus on advertising that directly increases revenue or they won't be able to run their ads long enough to become a cultural icon--they'll go broke.

Secondly, I question whether every product should become part of the culure. Here I'm going to pick on VISA. The Tuesday Afternoon ad Erin mentioned would not be very successful by itself--memorable, yes, but not successful. The ad is successful because it is backed by a huge mail order campaign. VISA is just about guaranteed that every time one of their mail pieces hits your mailbox you've seen that Tuesday Afternoon ad or one similar to it within about 48 hours. So as you open the envelope, you remember "Oh, yeah, if I have a VISA card it's easier to do things I couldn't do otherwise." And so you fill out the application and send it in. At least it works that way enough times for the whole campaign to be worthwhile.

Now this is a good example of how multiple marketing solutions work together for overall improved results. It's a good strategy. But consider these two points:

VISA and fellow credit card companies clog U.S. mailboxes and, subsequently, landfills with their envelopes, sales letters and response cards on a daily basis. They hurt the environment from both a deforestation and pollution perspective. Their campaigns could hardly be considered targeted since nearly every American with a postal address receives numerous applications each year. And they show no signs of changing their tune.
VISA and other credit cards are part of the predatory lending industry that has brought our economy to its knees. Should it be easier to go to the zoo on Tuesday afternoon if you can't afford to do so without a VISA card? Isn't that the kind of spending habit that has put us behind the eight ball?

Quite frankly, I'd have more respect for Mr. Clow if he showed more judgment in the clients he chooses to make part of the culture. In my mind, good advertisers, marketers and copywriters have a responsibility in who they choose to represent. Because success, especially success in becoming a part of the culture, impacts more than just the contents of our wallets.

Case Studies for Correctional Industries Instill Customers with Confidence

2009-08-14T10:52:00.000-07:00

Case studies are an amazingly effective marketing tool when written and used correctly. I like case studies because they are like demonstrating your services or sampling your product when demonstrations and free samples really don't make sense. From a case study, prospective customers can get a glimpse of what it's like to work with you and see just how satisfying your products or services are.

Download and read my case study on how three case studies I wrote for Washington State Correctional Industries helped them over significant challenges such as have a workforce comprised entirely of convicted felons. You can imagine the kind of prejudice and concern you have to overcome to successfully sell a product in that kind of circumstance.

Access the case study by clicking on the picture below:

WANTED: Heavy Metal Soundtrack

2009-08-13T06:10:00.000-07:00

I'm in need of a heavy metal soundtrack to go with fight videos and exercise videos on this site: www.low-budget-warrior.com I provide content for the sight and we need some music that we can add to videos without infringing on copyrights. If you play for a heavy metal band and would like to promote your music we'll be glad to add a promo to each video for you in exchange for letting us use your music. We plan to post at least one video every week; hopefully two. Instrumental is preferred, but a good, heavy song with clean lyrics is also acceptable. Please send me an email at john@fikopy.com if you're intersted. Thanks.

Here's an example of how we'd like to use your music:

Earn Your Social Media Following -- Great Content Earns Respect

2009-08-12T06:33:00.000-07:00

I've been on Twitter for just shy of two weeks now and I've noticed 3 main types of Twitterers (or is it Tweeters?):

1. People there to just have fun and get connected

2. People there to market their business and connect with potential customers

3. People there to annoy the (insert expletive of choice) out of everyone else by spamming links to blog posts and articles that provide no real value in hopes that enough people will click on their Google ads or buy their product.

Folks, if you're going to use Twitter or any other social media to market your business, you have to EARN your followers. Give them content that is of value to them. People will respect an occasional posting that useful more than they will respect hourly posts with links to re-hashed articles bought from an article factory that pays people in foreign countries $5 for every article they write. Who wants to read articles with English so bad you don't even understand what they're saying? Most of those articles contain erroneous information too, because the authors just dig up anything on the Internet to use as source material. These "writers" often copy/paste other writer's stuff into their own articles, which is why they seem so disjointed.

Take the time to craft relevant articles that reflect your personality and the kind of quality business that you do. You'll gain more respect, more followers and more customers by doing so. Plus, you'll respect yourself in the morning because you'll know that you've added value to the world instead of annoying the world.

*** SELF PROMOTION ***

If you need help crafting your articles or keeping your blog/social media posts going, shoot me an email at john@fikopy.com. I've written numerous articles that help marketers present a professional image of expertise and build a quality following they can market to again and again.

Info-Product Entrepreneur -- or Info-Product Huckster?

2009-08-11T07:43:00.000-07:00

Info-products, especially e-books and video courses, are everywhere on the Internet these days. A handful of them are excellent products in which the information is well researched, is very useful and is presented in a professional and attractive manner. Buying and reading one of these info-products is very rewarding, making you glad to spend the money and giving you confidence in the provider's expertise.

Unfortunately, most of the info-products out there are just junk. Research is minimal and usually limited to searching through internet articles. Information is often incorrect or not very useful. The writing and presentation is amateurish and sloppy. Purchasing one of these info-products is not only disappointing, but also leaves you feeling swindled.

The people who provide the first kind of info-product are true info-product entrepreneurs. They understand that a happy customer is a repeat customer. By impressing customers from the very beginning, these entrepreneurs create a huge market for additional products because their customers trust them and rely on them for good information. Their revenue streams continue to grow and grow.

The people who do a good job selling junk disguised as info-products are nothing but hucksters. They are like the snake oil salesman of lore who rides into town, sells all his bottles of tonic water disguised as a miracle cure, then leaves town never to be seen again. Info-product hucksters hire "writers" in India to write 50 pages on a topic for a $100 or so, then try to pass it off as the revelation their customers have been waiting for. They sell a few thousand copies, then move on to another popular info field and start again. They may or may not be around to dole out the many refunds that get requested.

If you're going to go through the trouble of creating a product and creating a market for it, you might as well create a quality product so that you don't have to start all over again to build your market. All the best info-product "gurus" tell you this: Most of your profits do not come from your first and main product; they come from the second, third, fourth, and fifth products. That's because it costs a whole lot less to market to a group of people who are already loyal to you than it does to reach out and find a new audience that may be interested in your product. Less marketing expense means more profits

The additional products are also more profitable because they can carry a larger price tag. When you've proven reliable on products with smaller price tags, your customers are less hesitant to buy more expensive products from you--because they know they can trust you. Of course, you have to prove yourself again and provide a product with the quality to support that higher price tag.

If you're in the info-product business--or want to be--plan to be a long-term info-product entrepreneur--not a short-term huckster. Life is easier that way, and more profitable.

***SELF PROMOTION***

I've written many top quality information products for entrepreneurs who are making excellent money online. Shoot me an email today at john@fikopy.com or call me at 419-371-2302 and we can talk about what it will take to make you a successful info-product entrepreneur with a reputation for being an expert in your field.

Be Clear on Your Goals

2009-08-06T06:01:00.000-07:00

Reading a recent entry on Seth Godin's blog: Are we solving the same problem? It struck a chord with me. Everyone sees things through a different perspective. When you ask someone to solve a problem or give their opinion without defining the desired result or the kind of opinion you're seeking, then you get an answer based on the person's own motivations.

For example, I recently wrote an award entry for a client. They are trying to win an award based on a project they completed. When I finished with the first draft, my contact with the client passed it out to everyone who worked on the project to get their opionion. There are several things wrong with that approach, but the biggest one was that my contact didn't qualify the kind of opinion they were looking for. What we needed was a review of the facts to make sure nothing was misrepresented or forgotten. What we got back were largely comments on the literary style of the entry. And one crew leader was just about outraged at how little of his crew's "passion" for the project came through.

While grand literary style and a story of "passion" would make a great magazine article or short story that would attract readers, that wasn't our goal. We had to win a contest based on four distinct criteria. The entry would win only if we showed how my client excelled in all four criteria. Unfortunately for a certain crew leader, "passion" wasn't one of the criteria. It certainly was an important part of what made that project important to the client and their customer, but it wasn't what the judges were looking at.

Actually, the draft that was passed around at my client's office was the second draft. The first one I wrote with the kind of style and grandeur that makes a good profile or story. Unfortunately it came out twice as long as the contest allowed. So what got cut? Everything that didin't directly support my client's case for winning according to the criteria. That meant that some of the literary grandeur that folks in the office would have liked to see got sacrificed. I kept the language simple and easy to understand so that judges could clearly understand the excellence of the project, but to get all the facts and supporting information in there it wound up reading more like a hard news story than an article fit for The New Yorker magazine.

It's not that the feedback we got was "wrong". It's just that they didn't know the criteria by which they needed to judge the piece. Once I reminded the client of the particular goal we were trying to achieve and what we needed to do achieve that goal, we found that we were actually on the same page.

So, the lesson is, when you are asking for feedback, opionions or solutions, make sure that everyone understands what the goal is and what is required to get there.

Don't Fog Their Vision: Be Clear About the Commitment Your Customers are Making

2009-08-05T06:11:00.000-07:00

My wife and I are investigating online charter schools as a way to educate our children. All the programs we've looked at tout the value of parental involvement and the flexibility of working online. But they fail to answer two of our most basic questions: 1) how much time is likely to be required of us, and 2) Will our child have to be online at certain times for scheduled activities?

It all comes down to one question: "If we sign up with you what is our commitment?"

No one should be expected to do business with someone until they know the answer to that question. That goes for online charter schools; that goes for copywriters (that's me) and that goes for you and your business.

Most of us know that we need to talk about the benefits of our products or services, but how many of us talk about what our customer's commitment is?

Our customers' commitment isn't just price. For retail, often the commitment is obvious or simple in that they have to follow instructions for the product. But have you ever bought something and found out it needed an additional product in order for some of the features to work or that you had to assemble it, but didn't realize it? Those sorts of things cause frustration.

This is even more true in service fields. Will your customer have to fill out a questionnaire? Will they have to meet with you? How often and for how long? Will they have to train their staff differently to implement your service or recommendations? Will their be costs besides your fee?

Don't suprise your customers. Be up front about the amount of commitment required on their part.

Will that scare some customers off? Occasionally. But remember: a satisfied customer tells 5 people about you, but a disappointed customer tells 500 people.

Announcing: Our Who’s-Afraid-of-the-Big-Bad-Wolf-Anti-Recession Event to Celebrate 5 Years in Business

2009-08-04T14:53:00.000-07:00

Get up to $1,000 in FREE Copywriting, Content, Multimedia or Marketing Services from John E. Fike Copywriting and Fikopy.com

Copywriter John E. Fike is celebrating his fifth year in business by helping fellow businesses market better and market more to overcome effects of the current recession.

For August and September 2009, all customers of John E. Fike Copywriting and Fikopy.com will get $250 in free services for every $1,000 purchased. This Who’s-Afraid-of-the-Big-Bad-Wolf-Anti-Recession Event is ongoing through September 30. Customers must buy a minimum of $1,000 in services to qualify and each customer will receive a maximum of $1,000 in free services.

“Being in business is a good thing and staying in business is even better,” Fike said. “This Anti-Recession event helps other people stay in business by multiplying the effect of their marketing dollar. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate this 5-year benchmark of success.”

A Better Way to Combat Recession than Downsizing or slashing budgets
Downsizing puts more pressure and more stress on your remaining employees, which inevitably leads to decreased efficiency that hurts profitability. It also leaves a business unprepared for post-recession growth. Slashing budgets, particularly the marketing budget, leaves a business with fewer resources for acquiring more customers and slows growth rates.

But taking advantage of John E. Fike’s Who’s-Afraid-of-the-Big-Bad-Wolf-Anti-Recession Event boosts your marketing power and sets your business up for growth in three ways:

Stretch your marketing dollar: You get 25% more free—so you get more services for your money (up to a maximum of $1,000 in free services).
Your marketing is more effective: John Fike tackles every project, from advertisements and sales letters to web sites and white papers, to generate better results than your previous marketing efforts.
Refocus on higher-profit markets: John Fike can show you how to target markets and product lines that will widen your profit margins rather than shrink them—even during a recession.

All Services Apply
Do you have a writing, marketing or multimedia project in mind, but don’t see it listed here? John Fike says, “Give me a call and tell me what you need and I’ll tell you how much more you can get.”

John E. Fike Copywriting Services was launched full time in June of 2004. The Fikopy.com brand was launched in the spring of 2008. John E. Fike and Fikopy.com deliver high quality writing, marketing copy, online content, custom publications and multimedia services designed to increase the success of your business. John Fike has experience serving a wide array of businesses and industries, but places particular emphasis on the following industries:

· Health & Fitness
· Healthcare
· Nutrition
· Personal Growth & Development
· LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health And Sustainability)
· Education
· Wealth building
· Business Building
· Christian Spirituality
· Sustainable/Green Lifestyles
· Sustainable/Green Business

###For more information about John E. Fike Copywriting Services and Fikopy.com, please call 419-371-2302 or send email to john@fikopy.com. We are also available online at http://www.fikopy.com/

Don't Spam Your Customers: Keep Marketing Messages Relevant and Targeted

2009-04-08T07:27:00.000-07:00

Great article by David Cross on Internet Rant about what is really spam and what isn't. It's all about relevancy. If your readers are interested in what you have to say, then it's not spam to them regardless of whether they asked to get your email or not. Meanwhile, even if the reader signed up for your email, if your message is irrelevant he or she will think of it as spam. This is not the legal definition though, so don't try to defend it in court if you send unsolicited email.

However, this concept is not limited to email. If your advertising is irrelevant or not of interest to the people who read it, then it is just noise and clutter. Make sure you're targeting all your advertisements and promotions to people with an interest in your product or service and keep your messages relevant and interesting.

Read the article by David Cross: One Man's Meat Is Another Man's Spam

Paying only for results makes sense in tight economy--and ANY economy

2009-02-13T10:41:00.000-08:00

Marketing group Econsultancy just released a report stating that business-to-business advertisers are planning a significant increase in spending on performance-based online ads this year.

Specifically, about 78% of advertisers are planning to spend more on CPA (cost-per-action/acquisition) and 67% plan to spend more on cost-per-lead (CPL) ads. A smaller percentage (less than half) plan to spend more on cost-per-click (CPC) ads. By contrast, less than 30% of advertisers report a planned increase in online display advertising spending.

What I see here is a smart trend among online advertisers that should have begun long before the recession. CPA, CPL and, to some extent, CPC ads are forms of advertising in which the advertiser only pays for results. The advertiser pays only for people who respond to the ad, as opposed to display advertising for which the advertiser pays every time their ad is displayed.

In a tight economy, it makes sense to only pay for results that you can track. With this kind of advertising, you know exactly what your advertising dollar is giving you, so you can do more with a tighter budget. With display advertising, on the other hand, advertisers are left crossing their fingers and hoping they get enough responses to pay for the advertising.

But does performance-based advertising make sense only during a recession? Hardly. Whatever the economy is, advertisers should insist on performance-based advertising whenever possible. Especially in online advertising, where tracking response is simple and easy, view-based display advertising doesn't even make sense, except possibly for those advertisers trying to drive traffic to a brick & mortar store. Why would you pay for advertising with mystery results if you can buy advertising that guarantees results for every dollar spent? Performance-based advertising gives the advertiser more control and better results for every dollar spent.

Responsible media groups, who genuinely have their advertisers' interests at heart are moving more and more toward performance-based advertising opportunities. This is a good thing. As this trend continues, the media groups and advertising consultants will become more proficient at fine-tuning advertising to drive results, which will mean media groups can charge more, but advertisers will also get more bang for their buck.

This is a lesson that broadcast media needs to learn as well. Up till now, most broadcast and cable media have charged for air time regardless of how effective the advertiser's ad is. This means each advertiser is on his or her own to figure out what kind of ads get results. When traditional media finally starts offering performance-based advertising, as I think they must eventually do to compete with online advertising, those media groups will finally start paying attention to what gets results for advertisers and how to track those results. And then they'll help their advertisers fine tune ads for better results.

This would be a win-win situation for both media and advertisers. Media groups can charge more for each minute of air time and attract more advertisers who used to view traditional media as risky. Meanwhile, advertisers are guaranteed results for the money they spend.

Here's a link to the news story where I learned of this report: http://www.marketingvox.com/performance-based-ads-to-rise-in-09-043169/?utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_source=mv&utm_medium=textlink

Direct Mail/E-mail Secret #5: Deliver an Excellent Product or Service That Excites Customers and Offers Many Benefits

2008-08-27T05:32:00.000-07:00

Although this secret is last on our list in this series, it’s really the very first thing you should think about. Every successful marketing campaign begins and ends with the product or service being sold.

This may seem obvious and you may be wondering why I’m even bringing this up in a series about direct mail and e-mail campaigns. After all, you probably already have your product or service, right?

But I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked to write killer hypnotic copy to sell a product of poor or ordinary quality, that has little or no unique qualities, and that won’t really benefit customers in any significant way. Somehow, I’m supposed to write copy for this stuff that is supposed to make the prospect believe that he or she just can’t live another day until they’ve bought it.

It can’t be done—not without lying, which is obviously not a good idea.

Good copy—copy that sells—is easier to write when the product or service is truly unique and truly benefits the customer. The more benefits your product or service offers, the easier it is to develop a successful campaign for it. Plus, a quality product or service gives your company a positive reputation that encourages future purchases from your customers.

It is true that just about anybody can be sold once. But few people will buy again if the product or service doesn’t live up to the promises in the copy. Most successful businesses thrive on repeat sales and the best way to ensure repeat sales is to deliver a product or service that gets the customer excited and enthusiastic. That sets them up to buy more from you and the next time you send out a mailing or e-mail blast, your customers will look forward to seeing what new thing you have to offer.

If you’re about to launch a new direct mail or e-mail marketing campaign, take a good look at your product or service. What makes it better than the competition? What makes it better than what your prospects have right now? What makes it unique? How will it benefit your customers—does it make their life easier or get them closer to their goals?

Is there anything you can tweak or add that would add value without adding significant cost? Is there a way you can make it more convenient or easier to use? Software packages are a good example of this. Most software comes with very poor instructions. If you can add a tutorial package or have a particularly easy-to-use set of instructions, you can advertise that fact to improve sales and your customers will be more satisfied with the product than if they have to struggle and figure things out on their own.

The bottom line is that the more value you can pack into your product or service and the more you can differentiate your product or service from your competitors, your offer will be better, your copy will be easier to write and your campaign will be more successful. So, before you do anything else with your campaign, take a good look at your product or service.

That’s it for this short series on Five Secrets to Generating Huge Response and Outstanding Profits for E-mail and Direct Mail Campaigns. But don’t forget to check back here each week. Upcoming topics include:

How to Use White Papers, Reports, E-Books, and Other Custom Publications to Generate Interest and Cultivate Your Prospect List.
Emotional Hype vs. Fact-based Persuasion in Copy—How to Sell Without Getting a Bad Reputation
What to Test in Your Promotions to Improve Response Rates
Your Marketing Circle of Influence—You Know More People than You Think You Do

Talk to you then.

John E. Fike
www.fikopy.com

Direct Mail/E-mail Secret #4: Include a Response Mechanism That Tracks Response for Testing and Follow-Up Promotions

2008-08-13T07:52:00.000-07:00

This component is highly critical in any promotion, but it’s the one that’s most commonly missed.

In this series I’ve been talking about essential components of successful direct mail and e-mail campaigns. But I’m going to expand this installment to include all promotions, because you can include a response mechanism with any promotion—even commercials and print ads!

So, what is a response mechanism and why do you need one?

A response mechanism is anything that allows you to tie the activity of your prospects and customers to your promotion. A response mechanism allows you to track which promotions and ads are working and which are not. This will save you money, because you can stop running promotions or ads that aren’t generating an acceptable response. You can also determine whether a certain mailing or e-mailing list generates better response so that you only spend money on the more successful list.

You can also improve your promotions by testing headlines, leads and other components. If you see that a new headline generates better response than your old one, then you can start using the new headline on all your promotions and, ideally, improve the return on all your mailings.

In a direct sales package in which the customer is asked to place an order via order form or phone call, the response mechanism is built in—it’s the order form or phone number. You can track how well your direct sales promotion does by counting the number of orders you receive. In a direct e-mail campaign, your response mechanism is the link they click on to place an order.

Outside of direct sales campaigns, including a response mechanism is a little trickier. Well, it’s not exactly trickier, but it’s less obvious. If you’re trying to get customers to come into your store or office, including a coupon or promotion code number directly tied to a discount or other offer is a very successful response mechanism. If you’re trying to drive traffic to your web site, include a unique web address that takes the prospect to a unique page on your site. In a commercial, you can include a phone number or a web address (make sure it’s one that’s easy to remember).

In order for a response mechanism to work, you need to have the following four components:

A reason to contact you—This is everything from placing an order, to requesting information, to entering a sweepstakes. Make sure that your prospect or customer gains something of benefit or potential benefit by contacting you.
A call to action—If you don’t tell your prospect to call, fill out a response card, or go to your web site, then they won’t. Your prospects won’t take any action that you can track if you don’t have a call to action.
A method of contact—This is the phone number, order form, web link, etc. that I talked about above.
A unique identifier—You need to be able to identify each promotion individually so that you can track results accurately.

Let’s talk about that last component a little more, because this is something that most marketers miss.

It is impossible to know whether a particular promotion is successful if you include the same phone number, web link, order form, or promotion code on every promotion. What if you want to test whether one headline works better than another or which publication gets the best response with your ad? If you place the same ad with the same promotion code, web address or phone number in five different publications, you won’t know where the responses are coming from. In direct mail and e-mail you could keep track of which addresses and e-mails you send different promotions to, but it’s a lot easier to track this information with a unique identifier of some sort.

A unique identifier is as simple as assigning a unique promotion code or web address in the advertisement, on the order form, or in the letter/e-mail. A unique phone number is particularly effective if you have the budget for it, because you can hide the unique identifier (most people won’t check to see if you are using the same phone number on each promotion, they’ll just call the number in front of them).

In an e-mail campaign or online campaign, most service providers who handle these campaigns will automatically include unique trackable links. If you’re handling the campaign in house, ask your web programmer set up trackable links in your e-mail, banner ads, or AdWords ad.

However, in print ads or snail-mail campaigns, it’s a little trickier. Many marketers solve the problem by using the company’s main web address followed by a slash and a unique page name or identifier code. Here are two examples:

http://www.proclaimstudios.com/Fikopy/johnefike.html
http://www.ironballwarrior.com/?affid=8434

However, your prospect may think it’s too clumsy to type in a long URL like that and either not bother or just type in the main web address without the tracker information. My favorite way to deal with this is to spend $10 on a unique domain name and forward that domain name to a campaign-specific landing page.

For example, I might use “www.FikopySolutions001.com” for a promotion that gets people to download my Marketing Solutions manual from my web site and I would forward that domain name to a special sign-up page on my web site. If I wanted to run a test and see if a different subject line gets better results, I would use something like “www.FikopySolutions002.com” for the test promotion.

Another way to handle long links is to use a short URL generator like www.tinyurl.com, which creates a short URL that forwards to a web address that may be excessively long. For example, I’ve shortened http://www.proclaimstudios.com/Fikopy/fikopy.html to http://tinyurl.com/5pajnk.

All right, that should give you a good idea of how to use a response mechanism in your promotion and get better results. Next time, we’ll look at Direct Mail/E-mail Secret #5: An Excellent Product or Service That Excites Customers and Offers Many Benefits.

Talk to you then.

John E. Fike
www.fikopy.com

Direct Mail/E-mail Secret #3: An Outstanding Offer That Is Difficult To Reject

2008-08-05T18:22:00.000-07:00

No matter how good your copy is, a bad offer will kill response rates.

Your offer is not just the end of your letter or e-mail where you tell the prospect how much the product or service costs. Your offer is everything you are giving your customer and everything you are asking your customer to give you or concede to you in return.

Don’t make the mistake that thinking the only thing your customer is giving up is their money. They are also giving you their trust and, in many cases, their time. Many customers, especially in the B2B arena, are also putting their credibility or reputation on the line when they recommend your product or service to someone else, like a boss.

Your offer includes both the tangible and intangible.

Most marketers do a decent job of including the tangible elements of an offer, such as price and features. But only exceptional marketers also include the intangible elements—the things that can’t be measured or counted.

The key to a good offer is providing more value than you are asking for in return. The mistake most people make here is believing that they have to slash their price point or give away the house in order to accomplish this. But that is not the case.

Fortunately for you the biggest elements of value are intangible and don’t have to impact your price point or cause you to give away more than you can afford to. Let’s take a look at the principle components of an offer:

KEY COMPONENTS OF AN IRRESISTABLE OFFER
Risk Reversal
How can you make your prospect feel that they have nothing to lose by trying your product or service? What are you willing to risk instead? The money-back guarantee is the most popular form of this, but you can eliminate risk in other ways as well. For example, my unlimited revisions policy states that I’ll revise your copy as many times as you require so long as it doesn’t constitute a change in assignment. It assures customers know that they will get what they want. The tangible benefit is that their money isn’t at risk, but the intangible benefit is peace of mind knowing that I’m not going to stick them with copy they don’t like. Don’t underestimate the power of peace of mind.

Price point
The price you’re charging for your product or service is a key point of value for many customers. But instead of lowering your price, show how you offer more value per dollar than your competitors or show how much lifetime value you offer and how small your price is by comparison. For example, a client of mine who is a coffee retailer sells coffee in 1-pound (16 ounces) bags while her competitors sell it in 12-ounce bags. Her price is higher, but only because she sells more coffee in a package. I recommended including this phrase on all her bags: “LOOK! FULL 1-POUND PACKAGES! Leading competitor only 12 oz. Pound-for-pound, KaffeeScape gives more value!”

Unique Selling Position
What sets you apart from your competitors? What will your customers get from you that they can’t get anywhere else no matter what the price? Sometimes just being different or having a name that’s associated with a particular concept is enough to ensure the sale—that’s part of a good branding. But if there is something unique about your product or service that addresses a real need creates even more value. A great example of this is Market Leader Solutions. This executive and sales headhunter takes a step beyond its competitors by guaranteeing the performance of new hires for an entire year instead of just 90 days.

Payment options
How many ways can your customers pay for your product or service? How can you make payment easier for your customers? Internet retailers usually find that sales go up when they offer purchase by both credit card and PayPal (or similar), but sales are pretty meager for Internet retailers that only accept check or money order—it’s a trust thing. Another option that works well for high-ticket items is offering a payment plan. If customers frequently turn away because they can’t afford a lump-sum payment, try breaking it into monthly or weekly payments.

There are many more ways to add value to your offer, but these are the key points to consider when working on your next campaign.

If you’d like to talk about ways to increase the value of your offer, I’d be glad to schedule a FREE, no-obligation 15-minute consultation. Just give me a call at 419-371-2302.

Next time we’ll move on to Secret #4 in the Secrets to Generating Huge Response and Outstanding Profits in Direct Mail and E-mail Campaign series. Secret #3 is A Response Mechanism that Tracks Response for Testing and Follow-Up Promotions.

Talk to you then.

John E. Fike
www.fikopy.com

Direct Mail/E-mail Secret #2: Research That Identifies the Desires and Fears and Uncovers A Fresh Marketing Approach for Your Campaign—Part II

2008-07-24T05:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I explained that good sales copy in direct mail and email campaigns requires research to be successful, because it provides details that your prospects need in order to make a purchasing decision and it reveals fresh, unique marketing angles.

Today let’s talk about what kind of research you should be doing and what you should be looking for in order to achieve these objectives and motivate more customers to buy.

Features & Benefits
One of the first kinds of research I do in preparing for a direct mail or email campaign is uncovering all the features and benefits of the product or service that I’m selling. Features and benefits help the prospect understand what your product or service does and how his or her life will be improved by it.

Features include all the technical details of a product or service, including shape, color, functions, purposes, who made or provides it, how it is made or provided, how it does its job, how or why it was invented, etc. Benefits are all the ways these things make life better, easier, simpler, or more exciting than it is right now.

Uncover the features and benefits of your product or service by looking at the product or service itself and experiencing it with your hands, eyes and ears (and any other sensory organs that may apply). You can find additional features and benefits by sifting through customer feedback, examining how it is made or provided and why it is made or provided that way.

If you sell computer software, for example, your features are all the things the software does and the experience that it provides. I’ll use Achieve Planner by Effexis Software for an illustration. Two of Achieve Planner’s features are that it allows time mapping and automatic product scheduling (based on the estimated time it takes to complete the project). The benefit of these features is that the user can organize and take control of his schedule by designating certain times of the day for certain kinds of activity, such as client work or marketing efforts. Then the user can easily see how long it will take to complete a project based on how much time is available for the type of activity that the project falls into. It cuts down on scheduling confusion and reduces estimation errors so the user experiences fewer headaches.

That’s sort of an obvious example of features and benefits. A less obvious example is how Achieve Planner is delivered to the customer. The feature is that Achieve Planner software is downloaded off the Internet immediately after purchase. The experience-based benefit is that the customer doesn’t have to wait for a CD-ROM to arrive in the mail and can immediately begin experiencing the product’s benefits, like reduced scheduling stress and fewer headache-causing errors.

Don’t ignore features and benefits that are shared by competitors. Copywriter Claude Hopkins took Schlitz beer from the fifth best selling beer to the first by being the first copywriter to describe why Schlitz beer was pure. All the other brands claimed to be pure and made their beer pretty much the same way. But Hopkins’ Schlitz ad was the first to explain it all. By providing proof that it was pure, Hopkins gave Schlitz the competitive advantage.

Use the features and benefits of your product or service to prove the claims and promises that you make about it.

Identify new marketing angles
I’ve already covered this a bit in the Schlitz example above. In researching your product or service, you can uncover new ways of thinking about it that will increase your prospect’s interest. Hopkins’ ad got beer drinkers to think of Schlitz as The Pure Beer because Schlitz can prove its purity.

Going back to the Achieve Planner example, most of Achieve Planner’s features are available in other software-based planners. But those planner systems typically sell for $250 to $300, while Achieve Planner sells for only $89 (at the time of the posting). So Achieve Planner is positioning itself as the planner system that delivers $300 of value for less than $90.

So far we’ve talked about research involving the product or service and how it is produced and/or delivered. Another way to uncover new marketing angles is to research your prospects and their needs and desires. This assumes you have good information on who your prospect is. As mentioned in a previous post, you probably aren’t going to sell Omaha steaks to a vegetarian.

Let’s assume that you do sell steaks (not necessarily Omaha steaks). What do your customers want out of a steak? They probably don’t care that the steak is delivered to their door by truck. In fact, that feature may seem a little weird—wouldn’t it be easier to just drive to the market rather than wait for a truck to arrive? Wouldn’t the meat be fresher that way, the customer thinks.

But your customers probably do care that their steak is thick and juicy and so tasty that it practically melts in their mouth. Perhaps you found a survey or series of customer testimonials that support this idea. So you’ll play up the thick, juicy and tasty aspects of your product. You could also use this desire of your customers to eliminate the weirdness of having steaks delivered by truck by explaining that the only way to get a steak so fresh tasting and mouth-watering is to deliver it directly from the farm to the customer’s door.

Lastly, do research outside of your product/service and market as well. Keep abreast of headlines and surf the Internet using key words about your product/service. While this is harder to systematize, many times an unrelated topic can give your product or service a fresh marketing angle that none of your competitors had thought of previously.

Just yesterday I read a sales letter for a wealth-generating information product that compared Houdini’s failure to escape from an unlocked safe to the close-mindedness people often have in regards to wealth-building schemes. I won’t say that this is the best example, because it didn’t get me to buy the product. The letter also had some other issues that prevented it from being successful. But you can see how tying in an apparently unrelated topic can put a fresh spin on your marketing.

So, research is absolutely critical in developing fresh, unique marketing angles that get your prospects’ attention and proving to your prospects that your product or service actually lives up to the promises and claims that you make about it. Without the research, all you have is hype.

All right. Next time we’ll move on to Secret #3 in the Secrets to Generating Huge Response and Outstanding Profits in Direct Mail and E-mail Campaign series. Secret #3 is An Outstanding Offer that is Difficult to Reject.

Talk to you then.

John E. Fike
http://www.fikopy.com/

Direct Mail/E-mail Secret #2: Research That Identifies the Desires and Fears and Uncovers A Fresh Marketing Approach for Your Campaign--Part I

2008-07-22T07:11:00.000-07:00

We’ve been talking about the 5 Secrets to Generating Huge Response and Outstanding Profits in your direct mail and e-mail campaigns. Today I want to address secret #2—which really ought to be secret #1, because this is the thing that is lacking from 99% of all unsuccessful direct-response campaigns: RESEARCH.

There is a lot of copy out there that relies on an over-abundance of emotional superlatives and shock-factor headlines to sell products and services. Emotional superlatives are words like Awesome, Great, Fantastic, Out of This World, Dynamic, etc. They are supposed to make the prospect feel that the product or service is so wonderful that they absolutely must buy. Unfortunately, it rarely works. Audiences are becoming immune—no, they’re becoming annoyed by these marketing tactics and choose not to buy.

While shocking headlines and superlatives have their place in their copy, they cannot be relied upon to make the sale. Without facts, figures, details, and other ingredients that prove you can deliver on your promise, all you have is hype. Once upon a time, hype was fairly successful at making sales. Today, however, your audience demands to know why you think your product or service is so great.

Research does two things for your copy that will dramatically improve the response you get from your campaign:

Research provides the information your prospects need to understand why your product or service is exactly what they need and why yours is better than better than any competing products or services.
Research helps you identify a fresh, unique marketing angle that eliminates the need for hype and shock and hard-sell tactics.

Ok, that’s all I have time for today. Next time I’ll get into more about what I mean by “research” and what kind of research you should be doing for every marketing campaign. After that, I’ll get into how to use that research to develop a fresh marketing angle.

So long for now.

John E. Fike
http://www.fikopy.com/

Direct Mail/E-mail Secret #1: A Highly Targeted List to People Who Desire Your Product, Service or Information

2008-07-18T07:31:00.000-07:00

A short while back I wrote an e-mail campaign for one of my clients in the personal development industry. The campaign was for a 5-day promotional campaign and involved a series of e-mails leading up to the promotion, several e-mails to send out during the promotion and, of course, a special sales page just for that promotion.

The first day of the promotion the web-based sales page converted 19% of all visitors to paying customers. That’s an incredible conversion rate for any campaign.

Although I’d like to say that my brilliant copywriting deserved all the credit, no copy—no matter how good—can generate a 19% conversion rate when sent to just anyone. The copy was good; so was the promotion plan, the offer and the product. But what really sent that conversion rate soaring was the list of people my client sent the e-mails to.

My client had a list of people to whom he was sending his weekly e-zine to—people who had previously expressed interest in the very product he was promoting. He didn’t buy a list from a list broker or hire a distribution company to distribute his campaign e-mails. He carefully cultivated his list over several years and now has a list of e-mail addresses of people interested specifically in what he has to offer.

The first secret to a highly successful direct mail or e-mail campaign is to send your promotion only to people who have demonstrated an interest in your product/services or similar products and services. Of course, the best list is one that you cultivate yourself, as my client did. But purchased lists work almost as well as long as they are highly targeted.

When purchasing a list, whether for traditional mailing or for e-mailing, make sure the list you purchase fits your target demographic, including age range, income level, gender, and buying habits. Most of all, make sure the list contains only people who have previously purchased products and services similar to or related to the product or service you are promoting. It’s no use trying to sell Omaha Steaks to vegetarians. Your list broker should have that data on file. If he/she doesn’t, find another broker.

So there’s Secret #1 on Generating Huge Response and Outstanding Profits from your next direct mail or e-mail campaign. Next time we’ll discuss Secret #2: Research that Identifies the Desires and Fears and Uncovers a Fresh Marketing Approach for Your Campaign.
If you’d like to learn more about how to generate your own list of highly-targeted prospects, give me a call at 419-371-2302 for a free 15-minute consultation. I can show you dozens of tools to help you generate your own customized list of targeted prospects.

John E. Fike
http://www.fikopy.com/

P.S. Just for the record the client named above is Effexis Software, which produces the best time management and project tracking software available for its price range. Find out more here: http://www.plimus.com/jsp/redirect.jsp?contractId=1647673&referrer=johnefike