Scarcity: Are You Scaring Them into Buying?

For Whom The Bell Tolls

"I like this offer. I could really use that right now. I will bookmark this page and come back to it later…"

Do you ever think about that? Do you know how often that happens in all forms of advertising? Think about how you handle interesting product or service offers.

How many times have you ended up with 50 expired grocery store coupons in the junk drawer? (aka Drawer Monster). How many times have you got a flyer or postcard for a local service and filed it somewhere to call later?

How many times do you stumble across something online and click away even though you are interested?

Far too many businesses pussyfoot around closing the sale

So many of us worry about the graphics or the presentation that we overlook an immediate reason for them to not wait another second. How do we avoid the bookmark or the drawer?

Scare them!

You have seen the deadlines on ads, normally buried and unnoticable. Sometimes they are bold but uninteresting. If the deadline does not get their attention or the freebie for acting sucks, you’re sunk.

A believable deadline is something that makes the offer the most important part of the ad. Think about the stuff you wanted before and shelved it to come back to later. I bet there are MANY of these.

Life is happening. Not only do we have a nationwide crisis we also have our own personal crisis every day. I am astounded that we think that people will be dreaming about our offer. Most have forgotton it totally 10 minutes after it is out of sight.

Again, look at your own past behavior.

Get them to act now

• Time- Put a real date the offer ends and make sure they see it
• Dates are good, but quantity is effective also- "Only 47 ebooks will be given out", "We will only be able to offer this service to 25 people due to time constraints, act now"
• Tell them what they will lose if not acting by that date. Give a dollar value to each item

Make the deadline sound authentic by giving a reason, not just a date. Why are you only giving out 47 ebooks? Maybe you are keeping the saturation low so more money can be made with a bigger market. If you offer a service, this is easy. Could you handle 1000 calls and give them immediate service? Not likely.

It may also be very possible that even 50 calls at once would be a lot to deal with. State that! It makes sense on the other end.

You can do this with any product or service, just make it bold and believable.

Go get some

Paul

Vampires: Your Ads Are Sucking the Life Outta Me

You likely own a business. You likely do your own advertising. You are likely driving me nuts with your crap ads. What is a crap ad you ask?

A crap ad is a sales letter, postcard, website, flyer, banner towed around by a plane or any other device shoved in my face without meaning.

You spend money to bother me and all I get to see is crap.

Do you know why you bug me? Because you don't spit out anything I care about. I have posted in my blogs many times about not generalizing and realizing what your service is not what I want to buy, the result is.

Do you listen? Why do I still get business owners who read this still sending me scratchy toilet paper? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?

(deep breath) It's okay, you can still change your blasted ways quite easily. I will take you by the hand and walk you through a basic concept.

Let's say I hire you to do whatever it is you do. You show up and do it very well. Now tell me what the customer is seeing/thinking/feeling after you're gone.

Have you ever really thought about what happens once you are out of the picture? There is no doubt you focus on things like doing a great job or having integrity and pride with what you left behind... that is not what they are feeling. They likely are not thinking about you at all if you did well.

They are in the moment. They are enjoying the fact that their carpets don't smell like dog. They feel more comfortable financially after meeting with an adviser. They love that their lawn is plush and greener than their neighbors.

They are not thinking about you, but that is good. What they will do is connect that plethora of positive emotion to what you did for them. Those are what you use in your ads. Take the focus completely off of your company.

I am not saying don't mention any specifics about your company but you need to get them emotionally involved with your ad first. Get them to want to know who you are.

When your ad shows up NOBODY wants it. They were not getting ready to contact someone offering your service on the way to the mailbox. Simply announcing you and your service will waste massive amounts of possible revenue over time.

You know the processes of your business very well and that is why you normally focus your ads on that. Nobody cares at first about how you do whatever you do, they care about what they get from what you do.

You need to convey that IMMEDIATELY. 80% of people read the top of an ad without reading the rest. If that headline, caption or image does not connect, they are gone.

If you are not quite sure how people feel about what you do, find out! ASK THEM. I know it is a strange concept but if we don't take in new information we don't learn.

Simply ask your customer/client what they liked about your service. Try to get as many as possible and then start creating your ads using those insights as the theme.

Keep in mind if you are using images; make sure they convey the same emotional connection as the rest of the ad. If you do a home service don't plaster a picture of a home as that is meaningless. If they feel it is meaningless what happens? Yep, they're gone.

Once you start to know your customers this process becomes easy and you make more money.

Here is a final mental image I wish to leave you with-

You are asleep in your coffin in cold dark cellar. You wake to hear creaking boards but know that no one dare challenge you. The creaking stops and total silence once again puts you at peace.

WHOOSH! the casket flings open to see me standing over you. You mutter "Paul Van Helsing!" and I yell "TO HELL WITH YOU IRRITATING DEVIL! I'LL FINALLY BE RID OF YOU ONCE AND FOR ALL!"

Before you can react my stake centers over your heart, with a massive smash of my mallet I drive it into you.

Go get some


Paul

Your Ads Are Losing You Money!

I think there is an overwhelming dangerous way of attributing success or failure to our advertising attempts.

Most of us take in account what the ad costs. Most of us measure that against the end result. which is profit after cost.

Almost nobody sees the big picture

While we can call an ad successful if it makes money (or creates more customers at break even), we may be missing out on $1000’s. Let me explain-

Let’s say you do a very affordable ad in the form of a flyer. Maybe you spend a couple hundred bucks and write the ad and create the visuals. Now you distribute those and make a couple thousand dollars.

Now unless the cost of the product or manpower is very high, or your pricepoint is too low you should make a nice little profit.

Rarely do people think about what might have been. What if your same ad was written and presented very well and doubled the response?

Maybe you generate $4000 in sales without spending much more if anymore money.

What is written in your presentation is sink or swim, do or die. Your product or service will not sell nearly as much if presented as just a product or service. You could sell to those that happen to be in need, but far more are in need of their money.

Words need to fill your ad that invoke emotions. I see more ads focused on a price point or coupon more than what they are really tring to sell.

Far too many times people say to me “I sell lawn care dude, not message therapy”. That is where you lose big money! You communicate to yourself it is just _________. Who wants “just”?

By not digging into what people will feel once having their carpets cleaned or their house painted leaves a lot of money on the table.

When your ad finds it’s way to a consumer, they most likely do not want to see it (unless they found it by searching for it). If I am not thinking about getting my windows cleaned and an ad arrives that says-

Spit Shine Window Cleaning- Minneapolis’s #1 Choice

That ad is dead immediatley to those not already in a buying state for that service. It will go unread straight to the trash, no matter how great the offer. Most do not realize the importance of the first few lines and most lose out on LOTS of money and new customers.

There are a million ways to make the beginning of your ad more enticing without mentioning what you are selling. The key is hitting a button to get them to read more-

What Are People Saying About Your Home?

You do not need to go into a negative tirade about how bad something looks, in fact you don’t want to say that at all. You want them to think about it.

This headline could work for any home service. Since we are hitting a nerve with people and their pride and insecurity we have begun their journey into the rest of the ad.

I would likely use a curiosity type of first sentence-

“When looking around your greatest investment, do you notice this?”

Not positive or negative, be interesting. Most will wonder what you are getting at and keep reading. I would finish the paragraph with talking about the problems of have dirty windows/carpets, a brown lawn or paint color that is dating their home. They already notice this stuff, but sometimes mentally block it out.

Your goal in an ad is to create interest in what you are selling- nothing more. If you start to get into explaining out the features in a benefit driven manner, you will maintain their interest.

“With our Deep Clean Method we are able to extract dirt and bacteria festering in your carpets”

Most would simply say- “Truck mounted unit for deep cleaning”

Notice a difference? Now if I happen to get a flyer and I am not thinking about getting my carpets cleaned, which version do you think would make me stop and think?

How many of those people are you missing with every ad?

Here is the beauty of working harder and smarter on the ad (or hiring someone to do it right). You will get all of the customers your normal ads would get PLUS all the customers you are not getting.

In this economy I don’t know how anyone can afford to do it differently.

Go get some!

Paul

All the Windows in Your Home Cleaned- $50

Have you ever looked through craigslist at "companies" screaming how they are cheaper than everyone. How they will beat any price. I'll tell you what, I see legitimate companies having a fire sale every now and then too.

This trend is nothing new and has been around forever. When we don't realize the value of what we are selling we can only look at how to cheapen it.

I have never really seen the "we'll beat anyone's price" work well in this business. Sure there are people out there looking to get their windows cleaned on the cheap, there are also Priests molesting children.

To try and win over a market of people that are void of finding true value and look for cheapest price; is business suicide. We are not selling products made in a third world country, we are selling our time and expertise.

Do you want a bunch of under-priced customers? How would you feel about your service after time? You must not be thinking it is worth very much which will lead to problems.

Most times we hit slow periods because of poor advertising. Some like to blame the seasons or economics or the planets alignment... maybe the ads suck. Maybe you are not putting out enough. I run a business cleaning windows in Minnesota and somehow got a 4% response on a flyer in January. Don't give me "it's winter". You just need more effort.

Most hate advertising as they associate it with ads that got no return. You will have flyers and postcards that stink. Insurance companies spend millions on campaigns that bomb, do you see them stopping? Do you see them going broke?

Start adding true value to your service instead of sucking it out. You can't possibly get away with "cheapest price, best quality". That does not exist and everyone knows it.

Raise your standards, build value, raise awareness and raise your price.

Go get some


Paul

Star Trek, X-Men and Window Cleaning?...

Hype, there is nothing quite like it. It is a superstition that hype is evil and that is obviously a crock of sh-t.

Star Trek and X-Men have been pretty hyped up. Luckily these movies are good so they live up to the hype (however X-Men let me down a little). These movies will continue to generate massive amounts of money on screen and in DVD.

In the case of these blockbusters the hype was a planned and thought out endeavor. Hype usually starts at the source. Sure we have a rare instance like The Blaire Witch Project, but that is not very often. The Blaire Witch Project generated hype from the audience (customers). Star Trek and X-Men started from millions of dollars, then by the audience.

What does this have to do with you? Likely you do not have or do not want to spend a relative version of millions of dollars on advertising. For some of you $500 is like a million dollars.

You are likely focused on postcards, flyers and web presence. You do have the ability to utilize your own subsidized version of hype- Testimonials

Just like The Blaire Witch Project where they had next to no advertising dollars, you can create some hype from what customers you have. A bad movie with big advertising will have one good weekend and be dead by bad hype the next.

Let's say you have 10 testimonials on your website telling how great you are. People read these and feel very secure hiring you, it is subconscious. Then you show up and leave streaks, water on the floor and you were gassy. What do you think happens then? A spark over a haystack that's what. Enough sparks and the haystack is ablaze... along with your rep.

I have seen angry customers start blogs about bad service! How would you like to find a blog about your company and you can't do a thing about it? I have seen people rant on craigslist MANY times about bad service.

The key is to have continuity with your service. Find what works and do it exactly the same for every customer. Mcdonalds became the juggernaut they are from continuity.

Now let's say your company does a great job all the time. It is possible you will not get many testimonials even if the customers are happy. You need to ask for them. Whether it be in an email after the service (for me this works incredibly), or sending them a response card.

Response cards will not work as well, so if you happen to have their email I advise that.

Testimonials a lot of the time get screwed up. Companies love to not use the full name of the customer. They feel the customer will get pissed. Why do you think they gave you a testimonial, to tuck under your pillow? Use their first and last name or do nothing at all.

Right now I have testimonials on EVERYTHING. I have 5 on my flyers, 5 or 6 on my site... I put them everywhere I can. I have received enough comments about "I seen what others said about you're service..."

Testimonials are free. All you need to do is supply a great service and then ASK for their hype. Never and I mean never stop asking for more. Ideally you want a variety of comments. You do not want them all to sound the same.

I have testimonials where people commented on how I put things back after moving them. I have people that commented on how careful and clean I was. I like to mix up the testimonials to cover as much ground as possible.

Likely you will get testimonials that have multiple accolades, I like to whittle them down if they hit on something I do not have yet:

"Thanks for the great job! My windows are so shiny they look like brand new. I especially appreciate you putting my nick-knacks back"

The first 2 sentences will be on many of my testimonials so they are useless, but I do not have that last comment so this is how I would shrink it down-

"Thanks for the great job! I especially appreciate you putting my nick-knacks back"

If you have a lot of "thanks for the great job" type of openers, I do this-

".... I especially appreciate you putting my nick-knacks back!"

Of course all have the first and last name attached.

Long testimonials are not your friend if you have too many. Do not have 5 huge blocks of text that say the same thing as it may cause boredom. You could cause a disconnect with them and they subconsciously lose interest and leave.

I always hear about how everyone loves word of mouth advertising, I do too! The problem is that it is uncontrollable and even if we do a great job it may not happen. Be proactive and take what you have and spread it around rather then wait and see.

Those who wait end up old with regrets wishing they did more...

Go get some


Paul

Marketing Hoopla

You love you some you and your reasoning skills may be paralyzed

It is naturally inherent to be in love with our business. For us to start our own company is a big deal and there is a sense of pride that comes with that.

There is nothing wrong with our passionate love affair with our business, but it can be used against us. There are thousands of advertisers out there looking to offer us their addictive crack like candy. They feed on our drive to create an image... whether the image helps or not. They feed our ego.

How many times have we all heard the famed "get your name out there", or "get in front of people". That is what ego crazed businesses and advertisers love to say.

While it is vital to get in front of the right people, it is a little more complex than to slap your ad across a baseball jersey for little league team. Do you know what your logo on a jersey does? Makes you feel good. It is a very poor way to market your company and I will explain why. Surely you will think that parents will go find a pen and paper to jot down your number... sure they will.

As discussed in an earlier blog I talked about advertising and marketing being different from each other. Advertising for most companies is usually terrible. Since they use that heavily as marketing and they waste more than they gain. Most ads leech off of the profits but are usually lost in a marketing mix that is not being accounted for.

Most times we have 5 to 20 different types of marketing devices in play, rarely do most small companies keep solid records. Add denial too because we do love seeing our names.

A name on a jersey, a sign, a vehicle, a postcard or whatever means nothing to no one (but us). There are literally tens of thousands of names being shown to us daily. Awareness and image advertising is something a small business should avoid like the plague. (or I guess the Swine Flu these days...)

Your name is not a marketing device unless it's selling-

4 Rooms Cleaned for $98 Inc

While we could sit here and try to figure out descriptive names, let's worry about our current name.

I really get freaked out when I hear "well, it is only $500 to...."

Only $500!? How many "it's only" ads do we have? If you guys want to throw money away please send me an email to get my mailing address.

Ads should have a singular purpose- to make a sale. That is it. No bs image building or awareness goals. If your ads have a purpose that hits a nerve with people, guess what? You build awareness and make money. If your ads have meaning you will create an image.

Take a look at this and let me know what gets your attention more:

Onslaught Marketing
763-444-5555

or

Double Your Customer Base in 1 year- GUARANTEED!
Call now: 763-444-5555

Of course you adjust your ad to whatever you find out is important to your best prospects. There is NO universal solution. You can't appeal to everyone who has windows or carpets. Quality leads are what you want, nothing else.

Am I saying that you should not have your name on trucks, shirts, ads? hell no. But your name is the least important part. What you can do for the reader is all important. Why should they remember or write down your name and number, just because?

I use emotional triggers all the time. My highly praised and hugely successful ebook is proof of that (see my ad here). I walk the talk and I do this on all of my ads for window cleaning as well.

Most "marketing experts" are full of crap. Most write books and have blogs and have no home runs of their own. They have no data backing the latest article they read and manipulate to make themselves sound smart.

Nothing is more important than facts. Facts hurt as our beloved ego ads would need to be cut or redone to work. We start to fall out of love with ads that do not have our name blazing acrossed it. Most will sacrifice converting sales just to feel better.

Put your name out there, just make sure you attach meaning to it.

Go get some

Paul

The Curse of the Crappy Flyer

If you are like majority of service businesses you have made your share of flyers. Flyers are a wonderful vehicle for inexpensively getting your message out there.

I am not sure if we just like to copy what we see others doing or if it is genetic, but most flyers have the same layout.

• Company name
• Possibly a worthless tag line (i.e. we don't cut corners, we clean them)
  
• A long list of services (to make the ad confusing)
  
• Maybe the habitual and horrid 10% off
• Name again and phone number

Rarely and I mean rarely does anyone give a reason to use their service. The reason is usually 10% off. It is important to realize how non motivating that is. It is VERY important to realize that because there is no price to base the percentage on it becomes worthless.

Percentage off is really a retail ploy. It is very easy to pick up a shirt at Macy's look at the price and take 50% off. It is all right there. You either think it is worth it or not. Now your flyer does not give them the comparison. Just 10% off.

Let's go back to Macy's for a minute. You pick up a shirt on a 30% off rack and the tag is missing, what do you do? Put it back and move on. Sure there is a select few interested enough to bring it to the cashier to figure it out but 100 others picked it up and set it down.

The point is there was interest and it was squashed. Most people will not run to the phone to try and find out how much 10% off would be for them. You will get some, but what about the other 100?

Now if you say "Take $20 off!" people understand that. If you add something like free screen cleaning make sure you put a value to it:

FREE Screen Cleaning ($50 value)

Be sure to give value to whatever upgrade or service you are throwing in the deal. If you do not give it value you cannot expect them to.

Never start out a flyer with your company name. View your flier as a magazine on a rack at the grocery store. You are next to People, Vogue, National Enquirer, Time. How do you get the attention of the steady stream of people scanning the covers?

Most magazines are impulse buys which means they do not have a strong relationship with their readers. People see something on the cover that made them toss it in their cart. Some of these magazines pay over $100,000 for copywriters to come up with headlines that stop people in their tracks.

They do not pay them that much because it does not work.

You are selling the invisible. You are selling something that does not have real value. You need to give it value and the more value you give it the more people will want it.

Your company name at the top will destroy a huge part of the readership. You may get calls but you would have got those calls PLUS many others if done right. Sometimes you need to keep in mind how many prospects you are losing as well as how many you got.

I have seen flyers build million dollar service companies. Flyers can be the most lucrative and cost efficient forms of advertising you do, take it seriously.

Your flyer layout should look like this:

• Headline
• Reason
• Offer (to include deadline)
• Restate reason (optional, but adds power)
• name/CALL NOW!/number

I get bombarded by people wanting me to look over their flyer. Sometimes I find myself saying "didn't you show me this already?" No they did not, it just looks like the 100 others I looked at.

Keep in mind all these people are not having me look over their flyer because it was working.

Don't be afraid to have some personality in your ads. Everyone tries so hard to be professional they make their company cold and disconnected. Flyers can be fun to play around with and a great way to experiment inexpensively.

Have fun with it


Paul

CNN Can Kiss My A....

Nobody is spending money? Obama's check writing has everyone freaked out?

Judging by my busiest spring in years I find these "facts" to be a crock of sh-t. When owning a business it is very important to focus on what is happening within your customer base. Your current customers not only let you know how you are doing, they let you know how external factors are effecting them... like fear propaganda being peddled by the news.

I own a window cleaning business and window cleaning is definitely a service people living with fear will sacrifice. Guess what? No fear

I wish I could sit here and tell you that my cutting edge and brilliant marketing is harvesting fields of customers. The fact is I have not even been able to advertise beyond my minor ads. The only thing I have used so far is my website (which is ranked #1 in my best keywords) and oddly, craigslist.

I have booked MASSIVE amounts of work off a site where people go to find a bargain. A site filled with "companies" screaming WE ARE THE CHEAPEST!

My heavy advertising starts next week with 5000 fliers going out every week. I will likely be booked for the month of May in a week if things keep going like it is.

For those of you on a shoestring budget there are things you can do to bring in customers for nothing or near nothing.

• Optimize your website using SEO (if you don't have one, GET ONE!)
• Write a good ad for craigslist and replace it everyday
• Call your current customers to sell them more

Most people think craigslist sucks and that is where all the bottom feeders hang out. If I told you I booked almost $2000 worth of work in one week ($1875 to be exact) would that change your mind?

The key to success against your competition rests on a few factors;

• You need a website (it not only legitimizes your company, it takes them away from craigslist)

• You need to have a wordy ad on cragslist. I know everyone thinks that people do not like to read a lot of wording and everyone would be wrong. Do you see 2 sentence books or newspapers selling well? People love to read something interesting.

I am going to place an example of my red hot ad here. I ask that you do not reproduce it word for word and it is protected by copyright.

I really go out of my way to legitimize my business as people get a little guarded to hiring someone that will be in their home. Remember I made almost $2000 in 1 week with this so it is a proven winner. Do not allow your judgment to cloud reality.


April 21st, 2009

Dear Homeowner,

You can finally be rid of those hazy dirty windows. Your window cleaning options with us come in 2 easy to understand packages. You get to choose the exact type of
service you need. We know after many years that one size does not fit all.

Along with these excellent window washing options you also have our satisfaction guarantee-

Try it Before You Buy it Guarantee

That's right, we don't want your money until you love your new look. Just like going to the department store to get some fancy duds, you try it on and buy it if you like how it looks.

After we are done transforming your dull dirty windows into clean vibrant windows, you can take a look around and make sure you like what you see.

You get more than what you pay for with our service, every time- Guaranteed!

Why choose us?:

* Expertise- More than 100,000 windows cleaned
* Protection- Feel safe knowing we are insured to 1 million dollars
* Choice- We offer you great options
* Price- We are a family owned business and we make sure our prices are family friendly
* We love pets!- If you have pets you can be assured we are very careful and kind to them
* No risk- You have a 100% satisfaction guarantee

We helped help thousands of Minnesota homeowners just like you easily solve the eyesore of dirty windows. You have 3 convenient ways to get a no obligation, totally FREE quote.

You can call Paul- 763-458-4400
You can simply text us your address- 763-458-4400
You can reply to this posting (we do not list our email here anymore because of massive SPAM)

You will have a quote within 24 hours

If you get your FREE quote before April 25th and accept that quote, you can take $20 off a interior and exterior window cleaning. You
must get a window cleaning quote by April 25th.

Please feel free to check out our website for more information. Deciding on who you want walking around in your home should be carefully considered.

We service Minneapolis and ALL surrounding suburbs.

A Pane in the Glass Window Cleaning
1107 Monroe St
Minneapolis, MN
763-458-4400

Please visit our website- www.apaneintheglasswindowcleaning.com

© Copyright 2009 A Pane in the Glass Window Cleaning


Go get some


Paul

Need some help with your marketing?
onslaughtmarketing@yahoo.com

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This letter is estimated to have brought in $1 billion in sales. When writing a sales letter (or any ad) you should look at extremely successful letters/ads.

Notice how personal the letters tone is. Also notice how it starts with a story. That is gold! (to the tune of one billion bucks)

Go get some

Paul

Learn From Infomercials

If you watch a lot of TV you will see many channels with infomercials. If you don't see those you certainly see the mini versions. (like the "Snuggie" or the "Clapper" commercials).

Most of you may not realize what the difference is in these type of commercials over other products advertised. The difference is one is a direct response commercial and the other is brand awareness.

Your companies sole focus should be on direct response and not brand awareness in your ads. Do you know what builds brand awareness? people buying your service. Your goal is to entice as many people as possible to sign up. I don't care how much money your competition is throwing at display ads, a fleet of painted vehicles or whatever. You can beat them and profit more than they do.

It is VERY costly to try and go the branding way and it is not a measurable marketing system. You will have no idea why people call or when they will call. It could take years to establish your presence and many thousands of dollars... plus you need to do it right or it wont work anyway.

If you build it they wont come without a good reason.

Do you know why infomercials work so well (and believe me they do). First they slam you with wonderful benefits of the product. They show you people enjoying/using the product (that is a psychology tactic) and after all of that they give you some great free gifts if you run and CALL NOW!

If you sit and watch infomercials with a pen and paper and write down what catches your interest, do that to your ads. The best direct response marketers in the world are hired to make these commercials. You can glean a lot from them.

Look for infomercials that are on all the time (that means they are killing it and making amazing $). Scribble down notes from what you see at the very beginning (that is when they pull out their hooks to grab viewers) to the free gift at the end. Those hooks and "limited" freebies are what you need for your ads. Notice how the commercial builds momentum totally reeling in interested prospects, then they hit them with the offer.

You can use this exact method in your advertising, more so if you are still putting your company name at the top of the ad. The sooner you realize it is about them and not you the faster, easier and cheaper you will notice a real brand awareness.

Most of you will not do this. Most of you will flounder with your current efforts.

Success is not given, it is earned

Go get some!


Paul