The Six Biggest Marketing Mistakes (and How to Fix Them)
August 22, 2008
| Beyond Niche Marketing is pleased to offer a guest post opportunity to Jodi Kaplan of KaplanCopy. |
The Six Biggest Marketing Mistakes (and How to Fix Them)
1. Spraying and Praying
What’s spraying and praying? It’s closing your eyes, spinning around, and hoping to hit something with your marketing.
Here’s a true story. Mike and David each decided to start their own businesses. Both want to publish e-newsletters offering benefit information to US military personnel. Mike raised $7 million and used it for office space, staff, furniture, and ads on the sides of buses in Washington, DC. David spent $30 to run off 500 issues of the first newsletter on bright yellow paper and stood in front of the Pentagon handing them out to people as they left the building.
Mike burned through the cash in six months, went broke, and lost his house. David had 250 signups by the time he got home that first day, and built it virally to 300,000 subscribers.
Thousands of people saw Mike’s ads, but they weren’t necessarily military people – the target audience. David, on the other hand, figured out where to find his target audience, went there, and offered them something relevant.
If you want to catch trout, go to a river, not the ocean.
2. Believing your own hype
Sony ran an ad two years ago with a headline that said, “ It’s not the first Blu-ray Disc Player on the market. It’s the first Sony. (Isn’t that the same thing?) “
Nope. The headline says nothing about what the customer will gain by buying the product. Why is Sony better? What will this machine give me that other players won’t? Will I be the first to own one?
3. Talking about features instead of benefits
A benefit is something about your product or service that makes your customers’ lives better. Tell your prospects why and how your product helps them rather than what it looks like or how you package it.
A feature of a calculator is that it’s solar powered. A benefit is that you never have to buy batteries. To go back to the Sony example, what if they’d said, “Our system installs in minutes without complicated instructions. You’ll feel as if you have your own private movie theatre.”
Highlighting benefits such as these in your advertising will make your product more appealing. Benefits can also help you stand out from your competitors. Imagine if you promised (and delivered) easy installation and the companies competing with you didn’t. Which do you think people (especially non-technical people) would choose?
4. Succumbing to Super Bowl ad syndrome (splurging on one big ad)
It’s tempting to think that a big advertising splash can get you lots of attention. InfoUSA’s SalesGenie Super Bowl ads have become famous (maybe infamous). The company says that their ads target small businesses, sales people, and entrepreneurs. Lots of people watch the Super Bowl, but they don’t necessarily fit that profile.
For $2.7 million (per ad), they could have run an ongoing mail, email, and banner ad marketing campaign focusing on niche markets and small business magazines and reached ONLY the people they say are their target audience.
5. Judging your marketing based on what appeals to you, rather than your audience
Many years ago, the company I worked for was producing a brochure for a product aimed at Latin America. I went to the graphics department to take a look at it, and saw that the design was purple and black. I said, “We need to change it.” Now, I don’t like purple, but that wasn’t the problem. In largely Catholic Latin America, purple and black are the colors associated with funerals!
6. Talking about yourself
Many businesses make the mistake of talking about how long they’ve been in business, or how many stores they have. Your customers just want to know if you have something that solves their problems. Say “you” and “your”, rather than “I” and “we”. It’s about them, not you.
If you sell grass seed, don’t go on and on about the 10 years you spent hybridizing seeds and growing test patches. Instead, tell people they’ll get a beautiful, thick green lawn with very little work. Show pictures of happy customers in front of their lawns, with before and after pictures. Better yet, include testimonials about how happy they are with your product.
It’s not about your grass seed; it’s about their lawn.
| Jodi Kaplan fixes “broken” marketing. If your marketing is costing more money than it’s making and people leave your Web site without buying, your marketing is broken. If you’d like to fix it, visit KaplanCopy for free articles, marketing resources, and information on marketing services.To get your free 25-page Small Business Marketing Guide, visit http://www.kaplancopy.com/free_guide.html |
Expert Copywriting Tips from James Palmer
August 6, 2008
| Beyond Niche Marketing is pleased to offer a guest post by James Palmer of The Copywriting Blog. James is an expert copywriter dedicated to helping small business market their products and services more effectively. |
Bullets are one of the greatest weapons in a copywriter’s arsenal. They are those little benefit-laden tidbits that tease the reader into wanting to know more, and ultimately buy the product. But just like any other copywriting element, there’s a right way and a wrong way to craft effective bullets that compel your readers to keep reading—and ultimately buy your product.
Today I’d like to share a few tips for crafting effective, compelling bullets.
Expert Copywriting Tip: The 4 U’s
Michael Masterson teaches this concept in his AWAI copywriting courses, and with good reason—they work! If you can make your bullets fit just three out of the four U’s, you’ll be well on your way to making some serious moolah!
Here’s how they work.
The first U stands for Urgency. A good bullet must communicate urgency, a reason for your prospect to desire the benefit now instead of later.
The second U is for Useful. The promise or claim made in the bullet must be useful to the reader, or else why should they care if your product has that benefit or not?
The third U is Unique. The benefit should be unique, as in one particular thing instead of a group of things. A unique thing is real and concrete, which lends credibility.
The fourth U is Ultra-Specific. To be compelling, your bullets must be extremely specific, not boring, hum-drum and mediocre. Include numbers, lengths of time, how much weight was lost, how much money was earned, and how long it took.
Let’s check out the 4 U’s in action. Here’s a bullet I wrote for a client recently.
3 simple secrets developed by “the world’s greatest car salesman” that you can use to gain almost instant access to over 250 potential prospects for your product or service.
Does it meet the 4 U’s? Let’s see . . . I don’t know about Urgency, but it’s definitely Useful, and I think “the world’s greatest car salesman” is certainly unique. The 3 secrets and 250 prospects make it Ultra-Specific. Well, two out of three ain’t bad!
As long as you hit on most of the 4 U’s, you’re good to go. So what are some other tips?
- “The answer may surprise you”
Reword a claim as a question followed by the phrase, “the answer may surprise you”.Example: “Should you really drink 8 ounces of water a day? The answer may surprise you.”
- Create a Villain
With this technique, you simply paint the opposition to your solution as the enemy.Example: “Tax secrets the IRS doesn’t want you to know.”
- Think Timely
Writing a bullet based on current news is a powerful way to make them more compelling, as long as it fits the product. Here’s an example of mine from the same promotion:What’s in your tomatoes? (Hint: It’s not salmonella!) The hidden potential dangers lurking in your tomatoes, corn, soybeans, even your favorite ice cream, and the 1 thing you can do to avoid them.
- “How to”
The phrase “how to” works well in bullets, as it does in headlines, especially when combined with uniqueness and specificity. Just don’t overuse it.“How to look good naked.”
“How to make $500 a week working part-time from home.”
- “Secrets of . . .”
Everyone loves a secret, especially if said secret comes from an unusual (i.e. Unique) source.“Secrets of a one-armed golfer . . .”
“Secrets of a multi-millionaire . . .”
- Challenge the Reader
Get the reader involved in the copy by testing their knowledge.Example: “20 common health problems that can be alleviated by losing weight. Can you name them all?”
- Tell the Reader Where They Can Find the Information
Example: “How to turn your blog into a money-making machine. Page 66.”
Remember, when you’re writing a long string of bullets, you’ll want to vary your technique for each of them. List some short bullets along with longer bullets like my “world’s best car salesmen” example above. This will keep your copy lively and hold your reader’s interest.
Now, go write some killer bullets that keep your prospect’s reading all the way to the “Buy Now” button!
| James Palmer is a freelance direct response copywriter who specializes in creating online sales letters, landing pages, and other marketing material that make people money. He has written for Bob Bly, Early to Rise, and a wide variety of businesses both large and small. Please visit his blog at The Copywriting Blog. For his free report, “6 Copywriting Mistakes Online Marketers Make That Absolutely KILL Response,” sign up at http://www.jamesmpalmer.com/newsletter.htm. |
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