KickAss Copywriter

In the June, 2008 issue of Direct Magazine, I read something pretty interesting about the way business is coping in the current recession. 

It’s no secret to anyone, except the Feds, that the U.S. is in a recession. The economy is slowing, consumers are spending less and (as the article points out) firms are deliberating more over purchasing decisions.

What we’d expect to see happening in times like these is for direct marketers to focus on their existing customers, right?  But they are, in fact, spending more on prospecting … according to Direct’s annual forecast survey.

They say consumer firms allocated 72% of 2008 direct mail (DM) budgets to acquisition.  That, compared to 63% in 2007.  The article said B2B marketers were holding steady at 58% of their budget being spent on acquiring new customers.

The survey showed that marketing dollars are allocated to search engine optimization and other online marketing … trying to build their in-house lists.

The article said that financial services are doing more with house files than in years past … meaning, they’re not renting new lists, but just mining the ones they have.

It seems that a lot less testing is going on, for print media anyway, with 1Q08 showing a 25% drop in catalog tests, 12% drop in testing for publishers and 10% drop for nonprofits.

More companies are using email marketing to both existing customers and to prospects in 2008 than last year.  And SEO and SEM are also being used more than in 2007.

No matter what marketing method is employed, copywriting will always be vitally important.  Whether a company markets offline or online, the message still has to be right on target. 

One degree off in any direction — and missfire!

 So, whether you need an online sales letter, email campaigns, PPC ads, landing pages, squeeze pages or even postcards … it needs to sizzle. 

 The copy sells the product.  So, in these recessionary times, cut back on whatever you have to.  But whatever you put out there, make sure the copy scorches!

http://www.kickasscopywriter.com

As a copywriter (translate marketer), one of the things I do is to present my clients and their products or services in the best light possible.

Sometimes, I must confess, I have to look pretty hard to find anything genuinely distinguishing about them.  It’s sometimes a challenge to isolate one or two things that can provide something special — if not truly unique.

Many times, though, it’s only a matter of talking about an aspect of a product or service that’s not so unique, really.  But, instead, we focus on something common among all the competition … but they’re not talking about it.

The copywriter and advertising pioneer, Claude Hopkins, told this great story about how to build preeminence in his book “My Life In Advertising”…

He said:  Schlitz Beer was another advertising campaign which I handled for J.L.Stack. Schlitz was then in fifth place.

All brewers at that time were crying “Pure.” They put the word “Pure” in larger letters.

Their claim made about as much impression on people as water makes on a duck.

I went to brewing school to learn the science of brewing, but that helped not at all. Then I went to the brewery.

I saw plate-glass rooms where beer was dripping over pipes, and I asked the reason for them. They told me those rooms were filled with filtered air, so the beer could be cooled in purity.

I saw great filters filled with wood pulp. They explained how that filtered the beer.

They showed me how they cleaned every pump and pipe, twice daily, to avoid contaminations. How every bottle was cleaned four times by machinery.

They showed me artesian wells, where they went 4,000 feet deep for pure water, though their brewery was on Lake Michigan.

They showed me the vats where beer was aged for six months before it went out to the user.

They took me to their laboratory and showed me the original mother yeast cell. It had been developed by 1,200 experiments to bring out the utmost in flavor.

All of the yeast used in making Schlitz Beer was developed from that original cell.

I came back to the office amazed. I said: “Why don’t you tell people those things? Why do you merely try to cry louder than others that your beer is pure?  Why don’t you tell the reasons?”

“Why,” they said, “the processes we use are just the same as others use. No one can make good beer without them.”

“But,” I replied, “others have never told the story. It amazes everyone who goes through your brewery. It will startle everyone in print.”

So I pictured in print those plate-glass rooms and every other factor in purity. I told a story common to all good brewers …

but a story which had never been told. I gave purity a meaning.

Schlitz jumped from fifth place to neck and neck with first place in a very few months.

That campaign remains to this day one of his greatest accomplishments.  And it’s given many copywriters a very good model.

So, if your business has a product or service that isn’t really so different from others just like it … maybe you could simply tell a story about, precisely, how your product is made? 

For service businesses, maybe telling your story about exactly how you do what you do would capture the essence of something or explains it in a slightly different way than your prospects will have thought about before.

By being the first to use this strategy in your industry — YOU will have done it.  So, anyone who follows as a ‘me too’ will never be the first.  You will!  

And that’s preeiminence.      :)

You can tell your story in print, on your site, or in your email campaigns.  And if you need a savvy copywriter and marketing strategist … I just might know someone.

Establish preeiminence in your market …

Then, everyone will listen and reward you, by giving you their business … because you took the time to educate your audience in a way that made sense, while your competitors ‘assumed’ they already understood — or wouldn’t care.

Till next time, 

Carolyn

http://www.kickasscopywriter.com

I’m sure there have been times in your life when you had to decide whether something was worth the fight … or best to just let it go?

In my personal and professional life, I’ve had many opportunities to watch this choice in action. 

For example, with my kids when they were little.  It was well worth the fight to teach them it wasn’t nice, nor acceptable, to hit each other. 

But, if they accidentally let the dog in, with muddy paws, I may have decided it wasn’t worth it to get my panties in a knot over … depending on what else was going on.

Many of the same kinds of scenarios, with partners or boyfriends have occurred.  Some things are worth fighting over/for – and others just aren’t.

In my professional life as a copywriter and marketing strategist, most of my clients are great.  Some have been a little testy, but I’ve been able to win their trust and calm whatever possible storm that may be a’brewin, with impeccable follow-through and a quality end product that accomplished the mission.

But sometimes, sometimes, you just gotta cut someone loose.  In the case of my kids, that wasn’t an option … well, not till they grew up anyway.    :) 

But, with a problem client (or customer), it’s sometimes the best course of action.

You can see where this is going, can’t you?

Yep, I recently had this lovely experience.  A new client, very intelligent.  Very well-known, popular and very good at what she does, yet I found it impossible to deal with her.

Actually, the red flags were there from the beginning.  You know how that works, in personal and business relationships, right?  In hindsight, we can usually see what we should have seen in the beginning.

I did see it, though, and she even admitted she was hard to work with.  Boy, was that an understatement.  And, she even said that her grown son had refused to work with her anymore.

Well, to make a painfully long story short … she didn’t understand the process or what she really needed, for that matter. 

To use an analogy of building a house, she only wanted me to paint it, before the foundation had been poured.  She simply wanted (or thought she did) me to write the copy for her site to make people buy right now, without knowing the direction, theme and audience.

Everything was wrong with the site, too, which I tried to help with.  She wanted suggestions, so I gladly gave them.  Because without them, the site would not convert.

I tried to build the foundation, before I started painting, but she had no way of appreciating that.  I could have gone ahead and grabbed some of the 2 x 4’s and started painting them, but the foundation and frame weren’t even up, yet.

Bottom line, I decided that I’d be willing to let this go, so I told her that I could only proceed under certain conditions.  And that I’d refund half the fee, if she would prefer to end the misery.

In all fairness, she wasn’t enjoying the process, either.  Process … she didn’t even realize there was a process!  
So, she chose the refund.  I was glad, because I don’t think there was any way to please her.

Sometimes, it’s just a whole lot better to part company than to keep beating your head against the wall.

5 Lessons in all this?

1. Listen to my inner voice in the beginning and follow it.

2. If someone is not really sold on their own project … run!

3. If they are a problem in the beginning, they’ll continue to be.

4. If they can’t see the amazing value in what I do — they can’t/won’t no matter how ‘on target’ it is.

5. If they nickel and dime me, they don’t understand the value of strategic thinking and copywriting that fulfills an approved strategy.  Run faster.

If you’re in business, have a web site that needs to convert better or have a list you need a killer email campaign to talk to, by all means hire a copywriter with a keen sense of marketing and the human psyche. 

And let them do what they do … SELL for you!

And remember, sometimes in certain situations … the fight just isn’t worth it.  Let it go.

Yours in higher octave marketing,

Carolyn

http://www.kickasscopywriter.com

Are you still doing any kind of marketing that can’t be measured? 

If you are, I’d like to encourage you to stop it right now.

As the widely-acclaimed Dan Kennedy says, you should ask this question of your agency or marketing guru, “How will we know how many dollars were derived from this media or method?  If there is no good answer there’s only one good decision.”

If you’re still pumping money into branding ads or anything else that does not allow you to MEASURE results, you have no idea whether there even is an ROI or not, do you?

I’m a strong advocate of Internet marketing, such as email marketing, autoresponders, SEO and PPC.  Affiliate marketing, of course, allows the same kind of measurement.

And, if you don’t have a good in-house list of folks who have opted-in to receive interesting, relevant information, you may want to check out Tellman Knudson’s List Building Club.

When you’re at a place where you need specific, measurable marketing pieces, by all means hire a competent copywriter.  Whether you need B2B copy or B2C … find a good one and keep them!   

A real professional copywriter will get to know you and your audience very well.  She/he will learn all they can about your competition, too, in order to differentiate why/how you’re better.

She’ll craft your message to your specific audience, based on understanding the real reasons they want your product/service, and then she’ll compel them to take your desired action.

So if you have a web presence and sell products or services, you need an email campaign to drive traffic to a landing page that converts.  It’s as simple as that.    

Your email campaign, btw, can be just text or simple html.  Both can be successful.  It’s the sales message and the irresistible offer that matter most.

If you don’t have a viable autoresponder series in place, that automatically sends out a series of emails to new people on your list, as they come on board, you’re losing out on a BIG, measurable marketing opportunity.

And what about upsells?  Once you drive traffic to your landing page, via email, SEO or PPC and you get their ‘opt-in’ email address, in return for a valuable complimentary gift and …

are you also offering them some kind of compelling ‘upsell’ that makes sense to them?

If you’re not taking advantage of up-selling opportunities, you’re also leaving money on the table.

And, you must make sure that when you send out an html email promo, that the landing page they arrive at will have the very same graphics as the email.  (Congruence)

Studies show that the abandon rates are greater, when the landing page is not exactly like the email they just saw a second earlier. 

Yep, they say the responses are better, if there are some of the design elements repeated … just much better, when they’re exactly the same as they saw in the email promotion.

Why?  Readers will not even take .5 seconds to guess whether they’re in the right place.  If it isn’t immediately clear as glass, they’ll leave.

9 Steps to Ensure a High ROI on Measurable Marketing …

1. Know your audience.
2. Speak directly to their deepest, emotional triggers.
3. Make your message crystal clear & convincing.
4. Instill trust, credibility and believability in the copy.
5. Make your offer something they can’t live without.
6. Make your price very fair and believable.
7. Make the process/path they follow to buy very clear and easy.
8. Maintain the same graphic treatment everywhere.
9. Provide an excellent guarantee/return policy that makes sense.
10. Offer one or more up-sell items, when appropriate, and with good taste.

So, if you’re a business owner, CEO or in charge of marketing for a big corporation, I hope you’re using some of the highly measurable direct marketing avenues. 

I didn’t touch on direct response, using snail mail, which still does very well, of course.  (Just ask Dan Kennedy.)  You just have to wait a while to measure results, whereas with the Internet marketing methods, it’s much faster.

We’ve become so spoiled to the ability to test, evaluate and test some more online that some of us just can’t wait for the mail anymore.    
Here’s wishing you the BIGGEST, measurable marketing successes in 2008 and beyond.

Carolyn
The KickAss Copywriter
http://www.kickasscopywriter.com

Questions:
Are you a business, with a web site?

Do you sell a product or service on your web site?

Do you have a mailing list that you’ve collected, from site visitors, who have opted-in to receive information from you from time to time?

If you don’t have your own in-house list, have you rented an email list from a reputable 3rd party provider … and emailed to them?

Do you test your responses to various campaigns that you run to see which ones convert better?

Assessment:
If you are in business, with a web site.  And if you do have a product or service to sell …

then you should absolutely take advantage of the amazing results you can garner, with email marketing, if you aren’t doing so already.

You will need a good email service provider (ESP).  I use aweber, but there are many others out there, like Constant Contact, getresponse, Campaigner, etc.

It’s vital for you to use one of these services because they are SPAM compliant.  And the last thing you want is a spam complaint.

You can format the emails properly, so they look very professional and they use an unsubscribe link.

You can also put the entire campaign into one of these systems and set the dates for the sequence. 

If you have 5 emails in one campaign, you can set the first one to go out on day one, the second one to go out 2 days after that one, etc.

Research tells us the days to avoid are Thursday and Friday.  Best days are Sun, Mon, Tues.

Subject Lines:
The most important part of your campaign is the subject line.

If your emails don’t get opened, they won’t get read.  And your links won’t get clicked on.  Makes sense, doesn’t it?

Never, ever use the word, “FREE” in your subject lines.  The spam filters hate that word, as do most recipients.  It screams of spam, even if it’s from a legitimate company.

Don’t make huge, bold promises that sound too good to be true.  Again, spam filters hate this … and they’re real smart nowadays.

The Body:
You can use plain text or html, with good success.  Studies show that simple html emails have a bit better open rates.

One thing to remember is to use a gripping headline right at the top of your emails, before the salutation.

The reason for this is that so many people access their emails from mobile devices and some email clients have preview panes these daze. 

So, with a compelling headline, it’ll show up and they’ll be more apt to open it.  (A little known tip.)

Make every word count and don’t allow any typos.  Period.

Be very conscious and respectful of their time.  So, please don’t try to sell shoes to a list of people interested in dog clothing.  You’ll get spammed.

Always remember that whatever you’re selling, the reader only cares about one thing:  WIIFM.  (What’s in it for me.)

They aren’t that concerned that your running shoes are made for 100% pure silk innersole … unless you tell them that they’ll feel like they’re running on air. 

They’ll be able to run in these shoes twice as long, without any discomfort at all.

The way you connect with the reader is most important.  They must feel that you feel them.  They’ll need to know that you know what they need and you care about them.

Find an expert email marketing copywriter for this job.  It’s deceptively easy.  But it takes a master to do it right and to persuade them to buy.

The Offer/Close:
Give them an offer they can’t refuse … and they can’t find anywhere else.  Always offer a no-brainer guarantee as well.

Build in scarcity, by giving a time limit on your offer.  Like:  This special offer is only for the first 2,000 orders, so hurry!

Give them links to your site, where they can buy these fabulous shoes.  And make sure your order form maximizes conversions.

Finally … remember, it’s the number of conversions that matter and not the number of visitors to your order page.

http://www.kickasscopywriter.com

If you’re looking to build traffic, in order to increase
conversions — will social media traffic really do that?

I recently read an interesting article, by ETR’s Patrick
Coffey, concluding that getting exposure on social media
sites like, Digg, Stumbleupon, Reddit, Del.ico.us, Myspace
and Facebook …

Does NOT convert to paying customers.

You may get lots of hits, but limited conversions.

His definition of HITS:  How Idiots Track Success.   
It’s simple really.  Do you care how many people visit
your site or how many buy from your site?

He says that one of their natural health e-letter sites
got a ‘boatload’ of traffic from Stumbleupon.

But, of the 28,000 social media visitors to their site,
only 80 bought their newsletter … 

That’s a whopping 0.2% conversion rate.

They are used to conversion rates of up to 50%, by using
email marketing, PPC, website ads, SEO and even direct mail.

So, in conclusion, these types of visitors are resistant
to advertising and tend to zip in and out quickly. 
They don’t buy.

Maybe CPM Advertising Model Would Work?

If you had advertisers on your site, paying a CPM, then
driving this kind of otherwise useless traffic (eyeballs) to your
site may make some sense.

To me, I think the best way to think about social media
is for back links (one-way links). 

To the extent your blog or article is tossed around on
other sites, you’ll get more links to your site and,
therefore, it’ll help with your SEO.

So, if Google finds you ‘relevant’ enough, with all the
links to your site, you’ll come up better in the SERPS …
which will, in turn, lead to more buyers or subscribers.

Once again, you get what you pay for, yes? 

If you want targeted visitors … the kind of folks who
have an interest in what you offer … pay for effective
email campaigns, text link or solo ads and/or PPC advertising.

If you don’t have your own email list, you can rent lists.

If you need a copywriter to write your ads, articles or email
campaigns … I may know of someone to recommend.

http://www.kickasscopywriter.com

Which category does your email marketing effort fall into?

Do you think you do a pretty good job, a good job or is your email marketing prowess the VERY best it can be?

The Nov. ’07 issue of Direct Magazine, included a roundtable discussion among some ESPs (email service providers).

The execs of Silverpop, Lyrsis, Responsys and StrongMail Systems weighed in on some of the biggest issues facing email marketers today.

These are the folks, who provide the systems we’re all using and who stay in constant contact with the ISPs … trying to adapt to their ever-changing rules.

 Here are some of the major issues discussed: 

• Deliverability

As Bill Nussey, CEO Silverpop, said, “Deliverability’s getting funky again.”He learned in his talks with ISPs, that they intend to really step up authentication over the next few quarters.  But, of course, to complicate things further, each ISP has a completely different technique and requirement.

So, the goal of these ESPs is to invest in the technology and implement the techniques for their email marketing clients.

Content

How important is content as it relates to the spam filters?  You’re probably among the 90% of email marketers who think it matters a lot, right?

But, all the studies show only a tiny amount of filtering is done on content nowadays.  What, then, is the BIG factor for spam filters?  The answer is … reputation. 

Ouch, that puts it right back on the email marketers’ shoulders, doesn’t it?  That means YOU!  The ESP vendors can ensure the technology side is as optimal as possible, but they insist they cannot ensure delivery when their clients (you and me) are responsible for variables, such as their list practices. 

So, how good is your list?  Is it a quality opted-in list from your own site?  Did you buy the list from a reputable 3^rd party, whose names asked to hear from companies like yours?

Whomever you email, make sure they want to hear from you and also that you speak as specifically to their wants/needs as possible.

Blow up your List

This refers to re-opting your list and getting rid of people on your list, who don’t respond.  And surely, you’re already purging those bounce-backs (bad addresses)!

Segment your List

This is mandatory for larger concerns, with huge lists, whose buying patterns are different.  For the most part, email ‘blasts’ are a thing of the past.

But for every email marketer, the watchword is about your reputation.

Every email marketer must be sensitive to your readers.  If you aren’t, and you talk to them in terms that are too general, they’ll just block you or get off your list. 

Keeping happy customers equals higher ROI.

Multi-Channel Integration

This notion was first employed by tying email marketing with direct mail … and the results were very good.

Taken a step further, now marketers are tying their web analytics and email systems together, rendering …

Behavior-based Targeting

No one doubts the intelligence and results of this sophisticated form of segmenting/marketing.  However, it’s too expensive right now, according to Silverpop’s Bill Nussey.

As more ESPs make this technology available in their toolbox, the more it’ll penetrate the market. 

As technology is being developed, some day we’ll be able to control real-time offers, based on what the visitor is doing on your site. 

This new, automated technology is being called, ‘offer management.’

Strategy

The experts think that email marketers need to spend more time on the strategy behind their message.

They also think there should be a more cohesive strategy to integrate this channel with others and to optimize the channel.

Adopt a Program Approach

This is more than a campaign.  The email execs said their most successful email marketers are the ones who’ve adopted a ‘life-cycle program approach.’

What this means is that you’d send out your initial campaign.  Then, you’d send another email to those who didn’t respond in a set timeframe.  And maybe even another.

Then, a print-on-demand piece would be sent out and some decision is made after that.

This is a program across the life cycle as opposed to an old school approach of:  Target segment, infer results and target segment again.

So, whether you’re just doing a pretty good job, a good job or a great job with your email marketing efforts, chances are very good that new technology will soon be allowing for more and more targeted, timely email communications.

Here’s to the continued evolution of email marketing!

http:www.kickasscopywriter.com