2008 June | Solve the Marketing Mystery

How to “Borrow” Credibility in Your Marketing Materials

June 25, 2008 Leave a Comment

If you’re lacking in good, results-driven testimonials, one alternative is to use “borrowed” credibility to build the case for your service. Here are five ways for doing that:

1. Research and Statistics. Studies and numbers that support the soundness of your approach will go a long way in convincing buyers of the viability of your services. Of course, the more prestigious the source of the research, the better. For example, a cause marketing consultant might say: According to research by Cone Inc., 87% of customers are likely to switch to a similar product that is associated with a good cause, as long as price and quality are equal.

2. Articles in A-list General or Industry Media. Ink or air time discussing the value of your type of service or a key element of your approach also carries weight with your prospects. An image consultant might include: As a recent Wall Street Journal said, “Smart dressing involves sending subliminal messages, particularly when a serious job is at stake. This is something that even high-ranking business leaders can underestimate.” [Read more...]

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Sales Letter Strategies–Send or Opt-In for a Freebie?

June 23, 2008 Leave a Comment

Last week, I was writing a sales letter for a client and suggested that we have interested recipients opt-in for a checklist on buying the type of insurance that she was selling—the things they really should look at to make sure they’re getting a policy with good coverage. She loved the idea of the checklist but asked why we didn’t just send it with the letter?

Makes sense, right? If you’ve got something free to offer just send it along. But it’s actually much more valuable if you don’t.

I started my response with simple economics—there’s no point in printing and mailing something that a large number of recipients may not be interested in. But moved on to the real reasons I advocated this strategy: capturing email addresses.

1) The first and foremost marketing goal of any business should be to build a list you can market to over time. Unfortunately, many business owners don’t find out how important it is to build a good list until they go to sell their business—-and the buyer suddenly loses interest because they haven’t bothered to build one. [Read more...]

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Direct Mail and Email—Two Great Tools That Work Great Together

June 18, 2008 Leave a Comment

Direct mail in the mailbox Wait—wasn’t email supposed to kill direct mail? Despite the dire prophecies in the early days of the internet world, direct mail is NOT dead.

In fact, with everyone else focusing their efforts online, your message sent via old-fashioned “snail mail” now stands a better chance than ever of getting read.

Email is definitely an important tool for the marketing tool box. For keeping in touch with prospects and clients, email’s cost effectiveness can’t be beat. So you can reach out to your audience often, without reaching too far into your wallet.

But direct mail has its advantages as well. Three big advantages are the potential to…

Generate higher quality leads. A study found that that prospects who respond to a print mailing are 10% to 20% more likely to convert to a qualified lead than email responders.

Target a market more precisely. Obviously, it’s much easier to do location-based targeting with physical addresses. But these mailing lists also offer more demographic and buying data, which makes it much easier to home in on exactly the type of prospect you want.

Capture a prospects’ attention. If recipients don’t recognize your name in the “From” line, they may not even glance at the email. But an eye-catching postcard or envelope can’t be missed when they’re sorting through the mail.

But together, email and direct mail are an unbeatable combination. In fact,customers spent 25% more when businesses used both direct mail and email in their marketing, according to research by Royal Mail. [Read more...]

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Twitterberry vs Tiny Twitter for the Crackberry

June 13, 2008 9 Comments

So when you’re one of the few in the world who don’t text message, what do you use to get your Twitter fix? I tested both Twitterberry and Tiny Twitter this week and my verdict is I wish they would merge. Twitterberry is easier to DM people and it also gives you the character count. It also lets you just get just replies instead of a whole timeline. But I could never get the timeline to update–it’d give me one set of tweets but never a second.

The two downsides to Tiny Twitter are that the DM option is located back on the tweet page instead of the timeline–you type the tweet first and then look for who to send it to. Very odd. And it doesn’t count out the characters for you. But Tiny Twitter shows the entire tweet, instead of making you click to get more than 3 words. And most important, it’s easy to get updates. So until something changes, my vote is for Tiny Twitter.

Looking for more posts on Twitter? Check out…

A Round Up of Twitter Resources

One List is Not Enough Anymore

Using Twitter for Business

More on the Value of Social Media for Entrepreneurs

My Top 10 Reasons for Using Twitter

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How Much Is Your Time Worth?

June 11, 2008 Leave a Comment

Time is the one commodity no one can buy more of it, not even Bill Gates. And as an entrepreneur, the two most profitable ways to spend our time are serving clients and marketing. If we’re serving clients we’re making money and if we’re marketing or creating new products and services then we’re working on things that will make us money. But most everything else actually costs us to do it ourselves. Want to see how much?

The most realistic way to calculate the value of your time comes from Dan Kennedy’s book, No BS Guide to Time Management, because it factors in productivity. Let’s face it—no one is truly productive for eight hours a day. In fact, he cites a study of Fortune 500 executives who said they averaged only about 28 minutes of productivity a day. (Of course, they have someone paying them whether they’re productive or not!). But for the purposes of this exercise, he suggests estimating that one-third of your time will be productive.

1. What do you want to earn this year? (Aim high, within reason.) $_____________

2. How many days do you plan to work this year? ______________

3. Hours you plan to work a day ______________

4. Multiply lines 2 and 3 to get your total annual hours ______________

5. Divide line 1 by line 4 to get your base hourly rate $_____________

6. Productivity multiple (which is 3 if you use the 1/3 suggestion) _____

7. Multiply lines 4 and 5 to get your rate per productive hour $_____________

For example, if you want to earn $100,000 this year, assume 220 work days of eight hours a day, and one-third productivity, one hour is worth $175.16 to you.

Calculate this number and start evaluating everything you do against it. Does it make sense to keep doing those website yourself, when you could hire someone for $50 and use the newly freed-up hour to focus on making that $175? Or, is it that important to meet in-person, since the 20 minutes to and from the meeting is costing you $113 of time? The answer may be yes if it’s an important prospect or a friend you really want to see. But you’ll quickly realize which trips aren’t worth the time.

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Get Out of Your Head

June 11, 2008 6 Comments

When you’re writing to sell, facts and figures are great–as a supporting actor. But you can’t load down a letter, presentation or anything with numbers and think that will do the job. If you’re looking to persuade people to act, you need the other part of the Reese’s cup–emotion.

The movement to convince people to stop smoking is a perfect example. You’d have to be living under a rock the size of the Grand Canyon to say you’ve never heard that smoking significantly ups your chance of getting lung cancer. Anyone else remember those “don’t be a dragon lady” commercials from the 1980′s? Yet thousands of people are still lighting up their first cigarette every day.

Lately, anti-smoking campaigns have been making a dent with ads that show people talking about having lung cancer or a loved one with lung cancer, or even showing someone with speaking with a digital voice box. Facts are easy to dismiss–”It won’t happen to me.” But the emotional appeal makes it more real. And that’s true whether you’re trying to show the consequences or benefits of doing something. [Read more...]

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New CAN-SPAM Rules Have Good & Bad News for Email Marketers

June 8, 2008 Leave a Comment

Fun, fun–The rules to keep you from running afoul of the 2003 CAN-SPAM law continue to grow. Four new ones will go into force at the end of June 2008 and will apply to all “commercial” email campaigns, regardless of list size.

If you’re already trying to play by the rules, the rules do include one items many will be happy about. But one rule may cause big problems for affiliate marketing. Here’s the scoop based on a post CAN-SPAM New Rules Require Single-Option Opt Out by Christopher Knight over at Email Universe:

1. Recipients must be able to opt-out of a mailing with just a single action–either replying to the email, or clicking through to a single web page. No more clicking through to a page and having to get through several pages to completely unsubscribe. Or having to confirm your opt-out email you sent. [Read more...]

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How to Get (and Give) a Killer Testimonial

June 4, 2008 Leave a Comment

Testimonials are a high-octane marketing tool that can significantly boost sales. Have you noticed how many retail websites are adding customer reviews these days? That’s because people want to know “the real scoop” before making a purchase—especially for something as intangible as a service. And seeing proof of someone else’s satisfaction makes them much more confident about hiring you.

So it’s time to get over feeling shy about asking for a testimonial. If they’re a fellow business owner, it will actually help them too by spreading awareness about their business. And most happy customers really don’t mind providing one.

Killer testimonials are: [Read more...]

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My 10 Top Reasons for Using Twitter

June 1, 2008 Leave a Comment

In my post about the Triangle Tweetup yesterday, I explained a little about what it is and why it matters. But today, I’m sharing my top 10 reasons for using it. I like Twitter because I can:

1. Connect with people at all different levels of the entrepreneur world—including the gurus you’d usually have to pay to see speak.

2. Build a rapport with people I’ve met elsewhere, learn more about who they are and what they’re doing, and offer helpful suggestions.

3. Snag a last-minute opening to be interviewed on an internet radio show when the scheduled guest has to cancel.

4. Discover what people are really talking about—get great tips and links to check out. (Although you do have to be careful here about not losing track of time…) [Read more...]

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How to “Borrow” Credibility in Your Marketing Materials

If You Liked This, You May Like:

Sales Letter Strategies–Send or Opt-In for a Freebie?

If You Liked This, You May Like:

Direct Mail and Email—Two Great Tools That Work Great Together

If You Liked This, You May Like:

Twitterberry vs Tiny Twitter for the Crackberry

If You Liked This, You May Like:

How Much Is Your Time Worth?

If You Liked This, You May Like:

Get Out of Your Head

If You Liked This, You May Like:

New CAN-SPAM Rules Have Good & Bad News for Email Marketers

If You Liked This, You May Like:

How to Get (and Give) a Killer Testimonial

If You Liked This, You May Like:

My 10 Top Reasons for Using Twitter

If You Liked This, You May Like:

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