KickAss Copywriter

Are you still plunking down money on marketing that doesn’t, directly, put money in your pocket?

That won’t seem like a silly question to direct response copywriters and marketers, but it may feel a bit vague to some business owners.   
For those of us, who have discovered and highly believe in direct response — offline or online — we try to help our clients to always spend advertising and marketing dollars on the kinds of marketing you can truly measure.

If you just pay for a glitzy ad to be written and designed and then pay for the space in a spiffy publication, without making a direct offer to buy, you’re not doing direct response.

By its very name, it’s the kind of marketing/advertising that asks for the sale.  So, you can judge the success or failure of it by how many orders you get, right?

This, IMO, is the only kind of marketing that makes any sense to any business, unless perhaps you’re Coke or Microsoft.

Why does anyone care about ‘image’ or ‘branding,’ anyway?  Making profits is not about you, your business or your products.  It’s only about your customers!

No one really cares about all the techno-babble about how your widget is built.  All your prospective customers care about is, “What will this product do for me?”

So, in all of your marketing, tone down the features of your newest widget and focus on how it will alleviate the pain of your customers.  Or how it’ll make their lives easier, sexier, faster or more fun.

You’ve probably all heard it before, but it’s still true.  The only station a consumer is tuned to is:  WIIFM.

Always do these Things in your Marketing … 

1. Answer their question, “What’s in it for me?”  (WIIFM)

2. Tell them why they should believe you.

3. Tell them how much it costs.

4. Tell them how to order right now. 

5. Tell them they only have a limited time to order.

6. Tell them you only have a limited quantity.

7. Then, tell them you’ll refund their money, if they don’t like it.  

Tell them these things in everything you print or put online!

If it don’t bring in the bucks … don’t do it.

If you need a kickass copywriter and marketing strategist to help you out with these kinds of things that SELL … I know where you can find one.

Here’s to making the phone ring, the server crash and the cash register ka-ching!

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

I think the only thing that’s certain in life is this:  Change.

Good times come, good times go.  Bad times come and they also go. 

As a wise one once said to me, “And it came to pass.”   Different from, ‘this, too, shall pass.’

What he meant by that had a much more profound meaning than simply saying, ‘this, too, shall pass.”

He meant that it came, in order to pass … or, so it could pass.  The experience came, it was here, it was good or bad — and then it was gone.

I think his message was most profound!  And it jives with many other mystical or Eastern philosophies. 

Perhaps a good metaphor could be a hub and a wheel.  As the wheel goes round and round, the hub stays constant.  Life’s circumstances and experiences change, going round and round, but the constant within me never changes.

So, the question I must ask is: 

Do I choose to identify with lifes ups & downs, good and bad times … or do I choose to identify with the constant, never-changing Self?

A case in point — in the space of 2 weeks, I secured and lost about $13,000.00.  Now, I don’t know about you, but to me, that’s a LOT of money!   
When it looked as though the money was a definite, I was very happy.  But when each project fell out, one-by-one, and for totally different reasons … I wasn’t very happy at all.

Truth be told, I was downright depressed.

Then, I reflected on what a wise teacher from long ago used to say … “and it came to pass,” so I asked myself what was the lesson here for me to get, gall dern it!

OK, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and asked for the answer.  The answer came …

Be the hub.

Be happy and content, despite what befalls me.  Good, bad, acceptance, rejection … it’s all just part of the wheel of life, going round and round, collecting some debris (bad); then washing it off in the next rain (good).

Hard to do?  Oh yeah.

In case you’re interested … part of the money I lost was due to a marketing guru-type, who just flaked on me.  I spent an inordinate amount of time with him, jumping through his hoops.

I justified it, because it would likely lead to a lot more work and even a revenue share.  Never again.

The next one, the client had a falling out with their investor and was put on hold.  OK.

The third one was due to my fee being too high.  Oy vey …

Now mind you, I qualified him on the 45 minute phone-con.  I even asked if he had a budget for the project, because I didn’t want to write a thoughtful proposal, if he didn’t have enough money to spend. 

“No,” came the answer.   No budget.  He wanted me to send a proposal, elaborating on what I would do, and we’d go from there.

I complied, and he was floored!   Why not just tell me what he thought the project was worth to him in the first place?  Amazing.   
I think I learned something from this:  Always, always get a client to tell me what they *think* a project is worth. 

If it’s waaay off … I’ll just walk.  Or, if I tell them what I would charge and they agree to it, then I’ll write it up.

I was happy.  Then I was sad.  Then I decided to be happy, despite what happens on the wheel of life. 

These last 3 episodes were just too close together to be coincidence.  Aahh yes, but I don’t believe in that anyway.  “Coincidence is where God chooses to remain anonymous,” I read somewhere.

So, if nothing happens by accident, an awake person looks for what’s really going on here, methinks.  For me, for now, at least one of my lessons is:

Don’t let my happiness depend on what I label good or bad.  Because, as sure as shootin’ … it WILL change. 

So, I choose happiness, despite what befalls me. 

To help ensure your happiness with your marketing efforts, devote a proper budget, keep your word and have rock-solid funding before calling in a marketing strategist and copywriter. 

That way, we’ll all be happier, and you’ll get kickass marketing, with a high ROI!  

Carolyn

http://www.kickasscopywriter.com

Monday morning blues … I think it probably resonates to most folks, at least in America, don’t you?

I don’t know about other cultures, but in ours I think it’s a pretty common malady to wake up in a fog on Monday mornings, wondering what happened to our weekend?   
Maybe, today feels particularly ‘premature,’ because my dog got sick on Saturday and ended with an emergency hospital visit in the middle of the night on Saturday.

She’s OK.  Apparently, she had an allergic reaction to something.  What, I don’t know, but her eyes were very swollen and she had hives all around her snoot, with at least one that we found on her body.

After an antihistimine injection, along with a steroid, she was much better the next day, thankfully!

This is the best dog I’ve ever had in my life!  She’s also a therapy dog, who gives love to so many.  So, when something happens to her, my whole world is put on hold … until she’s recovered.

I wonder, then, if the real meaning behind Monday morning blues is that we have to ’snap out of’ our real, important life of just being with family and friends – and re-enter the world of commerce, where we have to get into our business-mind and get out of our being-mind?

I’m fortunate enough to work from home, and I still feel the MMB!   
This week, I commit to combine my being-mind with my business-mind and to remain in a state of calm and flow. 

Do you have anything to share about Monday Morning Blues?  What do you think it’s all about?

If you’re a business owner, and your marketing seems like it’s about as exciting as the MMBs — seek out a marketing strategist and copywriter to give your marketing a swift kick in the pants!

Oh, blue Monday, I accept you and all that you represent.  I now transform my thinking to include you as a welcome guest.  Today is today.  It’s all I have.  I will bless it as the opportunity it is.

Here’s to the enjoyment of Mondays!

Carolyn

http://www.kickasscopywriter.com

Did you see the deplorable ‘presidential’ debate on ABC last week?  Have you seen the fallout?

Maybe you don’t think ABC’s Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos acted more like lame ducks than respected TV news journalists …  but I found it deplorable!

With our nation in dire need of new leadership, due to the mess our current illustrous leaders have gotten us into, and for the billionth debate … shouldn’t they at least attempt to get Clinton and Obama to talk about something more important than a lapel pin?

 As I sat stunned on my couch, I was hoping against hope that Obama would stand up for right … and refuse to wallow in the pettiness of such idiotic questioning.

But he didn’t.

Was it political correctness or the response of a genuine gentleman?

In Denny Hatch’s, Business Common Sense, he captured my sentiments exactly.  To Mr. Gibson’s question about the lapel pin, Barack Obama replied …

SEN. OBAMA: Well, look, I revere the American flag, and I would not be running for president if I did not revere this country. This is—I would not be standing here if it wasn’t for this country.And I’ve said this—again, there’s no other country in which my story is even possible; somebody who was born to a teenage mom, raised by a single mother and grandparents from small towns in Kansas, you know, who was able to get an education, blah, blah, blah …Among Barack Obama’s many attributes is that he is a gentleman.I was not in the mood for a gentlemanly rejoinder. I cringed with embarrassment at the question and Obama’s failure to serve a high hard one back into ABC’s court.

The Exchange I was Hoping for
SEN. OBAMA: Excuse me, Mr. Gibson. Are you going to also ask Senator Clinton why she does not wear an American flag pin on her lapel? Or around her neck? Or in her hair?

MR. GIBSON: Uh …

SEN. OBAMA: Because, Mr. Gibson, people are dying all over the world in wars and acts of violence. The price of food is skyrocketing and millions are starving in Haiti, in Africa and places in between.

MR. GIBSON: Senator Obama …

SEN. OBAMA: Let me finish. Forty-seven million Americans have no health insurance. We are involved in two endless, unwinnable wars that are costing over $20 billion a month—wars that are bankrupting our military, our country, and our children and grandchildren.

In the city of Philadelphia, where we are right now, more than one person every day is murdered. Every month, thousands of illegal immigrants are pouring unchecked into the country, bringing with them drugs and crime.

The Middle East is turning into a vast cauldron of sectarian violence, and the United States is regarded as a pariah all over the world as the invader and occupier of a Muslim nation. The price of oil is $110 a barrel and rising.

These are just some of the huge issues facing the next president of the United States, and you have reduced them to a quarter-inch-square piece of jewelry that you claim is missing from my lapel.

And, the story continues on the next page, getting even better!

Personally, I’m an Independent.  But, so what?  I still don’t have anyone to vote for out of all 3 of the candidates.  And I know I’m not the only one, who feels this way!

With America teetering on the brink of too many disasters to even list … why can’t someone step up to the plate of ‘right’ and tell it like it is!

I fear, with all of my heart, that we could very well be on the verge of a revolt.  When the people do not have sufficient leadership in Washington to run the country for the good of the country (middle class?), but rather sell-out our country to special interests, other countries and wage war under the guise of ‘freeing another country’ (after WMD didn’t work) …

a revolution may soon be the only answer.

How applicable might these immortal words, of Thomas Jefferson in 1787, be today, I wonder?

“What country before ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion? … The tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.  It is its natural manure.”

There may not be a helluva lot we, as individuals, can do about this runaway train, headed for disaster right now.  But, in our own lives, as mothers, fathers, sons, daughters … at school and in our work with each other and our customers … let’s stand for right every chance we get.

In business, let your word be your bond.  Let your marketing messages be transparent, without hidden traps that set out to trick, rather than honestly communicate your sales/marketing message.

I think when we stand up for the little things, they’ll accrue to the bigger things.

And, if your marketing calls for a “higher octave” copywriter, I know where you can find one!   

Standing up,

Carolyn

http://www.kickasscopywriter.com

If you haven’t bought Eckart Tolle’s new book, “A New Earth,” you’re missing the most valuable piece of writing to come along for a long time.

Mr. Tolle, and his new book, has turned into an “Oprah World-wide Webinar.  It’s attracting millions of people around the world … live every Monday night.

His other book, “The Power of Now,” was a New York Times Best Seller.

To fully understand where I’m coming from, you’ll need to consume the book, like a ravenous lamb.  It IS life-altering.  It embodies the highest truth available to us all.

That truth is that we already ARE that which we seek.  There really is nowhere to go outside ourselves to find it.  That “it” is the truth of our own identity.

It is found, without seeking.  It’s as near to us as our next breath.  It is beyond thought.  In fact, the very act of thinking is what separates us from a direct experience with this IT.

He expresses thoughts or the mind as many spiritual teachers have done, throughout the ages, as EGO.

For today, to attempt to focus on a take-away-lesson to be applied to our business lives and, more specifically, to our marketing, here’s the question …

Do you think too much about your marketing, instead of ‘allowing’ the way to just bubble up for you?

That bubbling up is the inspiration or direction that comes from a much deeper, more dependable place (awareness/consciousness) than from thought.  (mind)

This may sound quite contrary to many people, but I know many others will ‘get it.’ 

Many others are getting it around the world.  And, to the extent to which we use this amazing principal in our marketing efforts, the efforting will actually disappear.

What do I mean by that?

I mean there is a higher/deeper intelligence available to us, when we get out of our own way … out of our egoic minds. 

Being in a state of ‘no-mind,’ one can tap into (connect) an intelligence that is running the show.  We, also, are that same intelligence; but rarely recognize it.

As you can imagine, when you are able to access infinite intelligence, it’s no longer you (ego’s idea of you), but the information is coming from a very BIG source, through you.

It doesn’t matter whether you call it Source, God, Atma, Alla, Jehovah, The All That Is, Divine Energy, Infinite Intelligence, etc.  It’s all the same.

It is beyond thought. It’s just the “Is-ness.”

I’m suggesting to you today that each of us is able to tap into this intelligence, but without the vehicle of thought.  In fact, you can’t get there from here!  (Using thought.)   :)  

OK, you may be saying, “How do I do that and what does it give me?”

Good questions.

The simple answers are: 

1.  How do I do this?  You do it thru by-passing the mind/thought and by being awake, aware and open to the answers from the depths of your being.

2.  What does it give me?  It gives you answers that your mind could not find.  They’re dependable, because they come from the unfiltered, direct repository of truth. 

Because this repository of truth is the same for everyone, you don’t have to wonder if you can trust it or not.

Assuming, of course, that your business actually does provide a beneficial product or service, then you need only to genuinely and authentically ASK to know what it is, exactly, that your prospective customers want from a product or service like yours.

This is like tapping into an inner gold mine of revelation.  The long-awaited gems are right there for the taking/embracing.  They aren’t even outside of you … they’re right there, inside your very being.

The answers to your marketing questions are ever-present … hiding in  plain sight, when you know where to look.

Ask your inner guidance this question:  What do I really need to know, do or be for my customers to respond to me?

EXPECT the answers.  And they will come. 

Don’t force the answers.  Don’t think and logically predict the answers because the mind is too slow, too dense, too filtered to ‘get it.’

If this doesn’t make sense to you, don’t feel bad.  It’s a little esoteric to some, but becoming more mainstream as a result of those like Eckhart Tolle and his forerunners, like Jesus, Buddah, et al.

Said another way, don’t force-feed your prospects or customers what you ‘think’ they want or need.  Connect with them, genuinely, and sense what they want/need.

May I humbly suggest that if you’re open to knowing more about how to be one of the quiet leaders in this “forward-non-thinking marketing mode” … find a marketing person, who is practicing these concepts in his/her everyday life-work.

Marketing, advertising and the copywriting that gives it a voice has always strived to touch the heart-strings of the people they seek to sell to. 

But from my marketing/copywriting experience, there’s always a hint, if not a heavy handed, mind-manipulation.  This has never sat right with me and still doesn’t to this day, even though I’ve fallen prey to it as well.

In light of higher truths of who we are … that being the same as everyone else … I feel there is a higher ground presenting itself that we, as marketers, can embrace.

Higher Octave Marketing … are you open to operating from a higher, more conscious and all-embracing state of being in your personal, business and marketing lives?

I sense this is the time for business, as well as personal lives, to transform and transcend mind-based (egoic) behavior. 

Will you join that leadership?  (See Co-Conspirators, a mastermind group.)

Will you grow your business, by feeding your customers what they genuinely want & need – rather than trying to convince them they want something just because you have it to sell?  Just do the right thing for the benefit of your customers.

Will you vow to discover their real wants/needs from the inside out, (their perspective)rather than from your mind-focused, external place?

If, indeed, we’re all ONE … then, doing bad things to each other actually hurts the perpetrator of harm as well as the harmed.  We’re all familiar with the old refrain, “what goes around comes around.”  It’s true.

For enlightened business, marketing and copywriting, let us all commit to a Higher Octave, in our dealings with self and other?

Yours in higher octave marketing,

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

Another jewel from The Daily Guru:
 
“The truth is what it is.
It’s neither good nor bad.
It’s simply reality.

Tailor your concepts to fit reality,
instead of trying to stuff reality into your concepts.
No matter what you believe,
it won’t change the facts.”

I think there’s a BIG lesson in this for us, as marketers, and I want to talk a bit about it today.

Most savvy marketers understand that the path to secure a purchase and, hopefully, a customer for life is to talk in a way that resonates with them,  and to give them what they want; not necessarily what they need.

But I still see a lot of clients, who think they can somehow ‘change minds,’ and convince their audience to think differently about what they have to offer.

No you can’t!

As marketing professionals, we must tap into what they’re thinking, wanting and feeling and to empathize with them in a way that’s genuine and authentic …
BEFORE we try to sell them something.

We all know that no one likes to be sold anything, right?  We all want & do buy things all the time, but we want to make our own decisions about what, when, how – and from whom, don’t we?

So, when you’re selling something, you have to do some or all of the following …

11 Things You Simply Must Do, In Order to Sell Something:

1. Connect on a level your audience/prospects can feel.
2. Tap into their wants, desires or pain.
3. Talk to them the way you’d talk to your best friend.
4. Don’t undermine their intelligence, please.
5. Address their wants/desires; not yours.
6. Build trust and credibility; TELL the truth.
7. Tell them how your products will provide the solution to their problem
or pain, in the same way it did for x, y, z person.
8. Make them a genuinely valuable offer they will want immediately.
9. Take away their risk, with a 100% guarantee.
10. Make it clear and easy to order.  No hoops or circuitous routes..
11. Stay in contact with them, after the sale, creating a customer for life,
and keep offering them more valuable products/services.

The lesson? 

Don’t try to bend your prospects or customers to your thinking, but rather tap into what they’re thinking, feeling and wanting. 

To the extent you can genuinely FEEL their pain, sorrow, desperation or frustration, to that extent they feel your sincerity and want to buy from you.

So it would benefit you greatly to find a marketing strategist and copywriter, who iterally feels what others feel. 

Find a writer, who is naturally empathetic … and your audience will feel it, too.

Perhaps an elaboration is in order here …

In my opinion, a great copywriter is really a great humanist.  Bob Bly touched on this in a teleseminar last night, in fact, saying this ability places an enormous premium on a copywriter’s worth to their clients. 

Find one who understands human behavior and has a strategic marketing focus, and one who’ll first help you establish/clarify your own marketing objectives.

A great copywriter will also be able to help clarify/fashion your offer, according to his/her understanding of human behavior – and not what you think they’ll respond to.

So find someone with a divergent background … someone who’s been in the trenches and who understands the human psyche. 

Find a marketing strategist, who has worked for all manner of clients and industries. 

Find one, who also just happens to know how to write in such a way that deeply connects with your prospect, because she really knows how they think and feel.

It’s a tall order, but they’re out there.

To your continued marketing success!

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

In Clayton Makepeace’s blog today, he expertly points to how Washington politicians pretty much write their scripts, as they go along.

Never mind whether it’s legitimate or has any real bearing on the facts, mind you … oh no, it’s not about that at all.

As a very accomplished copywriter, Clayton used Washington’s political mess as a good example of what NOT to do in marketing.

He says …
 “If any of us did the things Washington does, we’d be promptly picked up and packed off to prison. Justifiably so!”

 He goes on to say, “When Barrack, Hillary or John lie their pattooties off to sell the public on voting for them, it’s called ‘campaigning.’”

“If you so much as accidentally and unintentionally “mislead” prospects with your sales copy, the Federal Trade Commission will make sure you spend the next ten to twenty cozying up to Bubba in a six-by-nine prison cell.”

Again, do NOT think like Washington, with your marketing!

As a copywriter and marketing professional, I must be an advocate for my clients’ prospects and customers.

It’s really the only way to be a good copywriter.  I must find the value in any product or service I’m writing about and respect the intelligence of the readers I’m writing to.

If, indeed, there is something inherent in my client’s product that will most certainly save their prospects or customers time, money or make their lives better in some way … I’m doing a great service, by telling them about it and providing all the facts and an easy way to buy it.

The politicians don’t care a whit about what is really going to help American citizens.  All they care about is getting elected, so they can continue the same ole business as usual for the power elite.

And finally, as a copywriter, I strive to tell the truth.  And Washington? What a joke!

So, as we all get to see the politicians ‘making it up as they go along,’ just to get elected … let’s all commit to never, ever be like Washington, with our marketing!

Instead, let’s be real. 

Let’s genuinely connect with people, like people, and talk to them in a genuine heart-to-heart way.  Some will buy and some won’t.  And that’s the way it would be anyway.

Committed to genuine marketing,

Carolyn
The KickAss Copywriter
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

What’s your idea of success?

There are many ways to look at success, from physical, emotional
or spiritual health perspectives — to a financial health POV.

I’m one of those people for whom my physical, emotional and spiritual conditions are SO important that I’ve had to actually earn the importance of having a robust financially healthy life.

Then I finally realized that creating financial success is not the antithesis of ‘being spiritual’ at all!  But it took me a long time to get here.   

Growing up in a small town in Texas, in a strict fundamentalist religion, I was taught “… it is more difficult for a camel to enter the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Now keep in mind, this notion was held true, right along with segregation and that “if God wanted us to be together, He’d made us all the same color.”  (Actual quote from my Dad that I heard from childhood through teenage.)

Oh my, the amazing lies and bigotry we have to overcome in this world to come out a whole, loving, tolerant person who embraces everyone as ONE!

So, it doesn’t take a genius to understand how the idea of being successful in the area of money, (root of all evil) was extremely difficult for someone like me to get my head around.

I also know this has been true for countless others, who’ve had the unfortunate experience to be taught such nonsense.

What Do I Think Now?

I think, feel and know that we ALL deserve ALL the good in life, including having money.

While all the money in the world can’t replace the other areas of success, it can sure augment it, don’t you think?

Success in Business …

So, I’d like to use the rest of this post to talk about business success.  Do you ever find yourself holding back, believing somehow you don’t deserve to have monetary success in your business?

Do you, like me, have to constantly battle the ancient negative voices inside your head, echoing some long-lost ideology forced on you, when you were an impressionable child?

Well, just in case you do, this post is for you, while also being for me. 

My answer?  Just DO it!

Be with the unworthy and undeserving thoughts … and just DO it anyway.  I suggest you don’t focus any energy on these two handmaidens of doubt. 

Meaning, just let them sit there, but don’t focus on them, by trying to force them away … that just feeds them and gives them power.
 
5 Ways to Transcend Unworthy or Undeserving Thoughts:
1. Notice they’re there.
2. Don’t give them any power, by focusing on them.
3. Don’t try to make them go away, either.
4. Reprogram deserving thoughts all the time.
5. Just DO what you know to do to achieve monetary success.

Do the Right Thing …

Armed with the knowing that we deserve all the good, including money, then make sure we do the right thing with it.

In our personal and business endeavors, let’s always, always be a good steward with our money.  Never, ever use it to hurt another.  Be true to our word and deliver on our promises.

And, may I suggest if you should need help with marketing strategy and copywriting services that will assure your prospects and customers feel you are genuine and trustworthy, choose a copywriter who also operates on these higher principles.

Your customers will respond favorably to the genuine energy they feel from you, I promise.

Yours in business success!

Carolyn
The Kick Ass Copywriter
http://www.kickasscopywriter.com