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

The Drawer Monster Ate My Ad

The dreaded drawer monster is on the rampage...

If you use offline marketing like direct mail, flyers or some other kind of physical ad, do you know what happens to it?

I deal with a lot of small businesses selling locally on a small budget. They send out mailers or they get in a Val-Pak or some other ad that gets delivered to their target market.

I am amazed how some of these business owners show happiness in saying "we are still getting calls from our ad from 8 months ago".

My first question is always- "how many calls did you get when you delivered the ad?". Whenever we create ads and have them delivered there absolutley needs to be accoutability. More so if there is a small advertising budget.

People that call months after an ad is put out are incidentals, not response that can be counted. Direct response devices like direct mail are to do what? CREATE A DIRECT RESPONSE! That response tells you what you need to do for your advertising so you can get on track, fast.

If you mail 2000 postcards and get 5 responses you know exactly what you have. Those 5 customers may have been worth it depending on what you are selling and the lifetime value of the customer.

Ideally you want at least a 1%. Let's face it, if you can get 20 new customers out of an ad you got 5 from in a previous attempt, wouldn't you do it?

There is only one way to get that percentage higher, immediate and trackable results. The faster you get the results the quicker you can asses your marketing.

Here are a few things you can do that make tracking easy:

• Deadline- Every ad must have an offer with a deadline (I like 2 weeks from delivery)
• Use a code if you have several ads. i.e Call now and use "summer slowdown" for special
• Write/type the results! Too many of you take mental notes on results. Almost always 100% wrong

I can't tell you how many times a business will mail an ad and get a rush of calls from their Google ads. The business owner assumed that the mailing was the source. I have had this happen several times to me.

We are resistant to find out the real results sometimes. I know it sounds counter intuitive but we do not want to know the real results (unless they are great).

Why do you think small companies put out terrible ads over and over? You have seen the ads, you see them all the time.

Nothing will help your business grow faster than marketing smartly. Instant results are your best friend. Instant results help you to make more money. Instant results help you demolish your competition.

These results are your future

Go get some

Paul

Onslaught Marketing

Contact me today if you need some help on your marketing

You Don't Know Your Competition, Do You?

I bet you look at Google ads, websites, yellow pages, direct mail and any other ad your direct competition has out. I bet you think that is your main competition, and you would be wrong.

Sure, your competition is like products or services for people actively looking, but not those not looking.

When you utilize direct response vehicles such as mail, space ads (on and offline), flyers or whatever... your competition is massive.

Now you are competing with everything from a new car to a new pair of shoes. When these people get your offer they were not sitting there thinking about it, they were thinking about something else. Something they want.

You have the incredible task of blasting through those other wants and replace it with your product or service. You literally need to scramble their thinking.

Most of my clients (and it is safe to say almost all business owners) never go beyond getting their product or service in front of people. Most think that people seeing their name over and over creates customers down the road... which is horse dung.

I know Budweiser very well, yet I never drink it. I know Ford very well but never owned one in 40 years. Why is that? If Ford and Bud can't get me to buy spending billions on ads how is your teeny ad going to convince me?

To eliminate the ego ads and redirect your ads from comparing yourself to similar products or services, you should be more worried about Nine West.

In this economy people do think more than they used to. Most control their splurges. You need to make your offer very appealing from a point of view they can relate with.

To illustrate the point I found this massively successful ad (it has not been beaten in more than 25 years!). It shows a different angle on how ads can be created. It is an ad that brings people into the the thing being sold.

When creating ads keep it in mind. Here is a snippet of the very successful ad for a newsletter about offshore real estate-

You look out your window, past the gardener, who is pruning
the lemon, cherry and fig trees...amidst the splendor of
gardenias, hibiscus and hollyhocks.

The sky is clear blue. The sea is deeper blue, sparkling with
sunlight.

A gentle breeze comes drifting in from the ocean, clean and
refreshing, as your maid brings you breakfast in bed.

Go get some

Paul

Direct Mail Gone Wrong

I do a lot with offline advertising. Most of my clients get customers through direct mail, fliers or space ads.

I have noticed that most of my clients are a little over confident in their direct mail. Some figure that if they send out massive amounts that even a small return would be profitable.

Then there was Mike in Minneapolis

Mike runs a service business and he has done pretty well. He has a good relationship with his customers and his service is top notch.

Mike decided to upgrade his usual mailers (postcards mailed bulk) to a sales letter mailed to specific demographics. Mike decided to create the letter himself. Mikes only experience with writing ads has been his postcards (which averaged .5% return).

Mike went big. He put all of his chips on the table and looked the dealer in the eye and said; "hit me".

He mailed 10,000 letters at a cost of $30,000 (notice I said cost). Two weeks after sending out the letters he got 1 phone call. That was the last call.

I have in my years rolled the dice and got burned. I have never been scorched like Mike but I had second degree burns.

Mike thought that because his postcards got around .5% that if he did close to that he should make $60,000 after costs. He made zero. The one call he got had to cancel for some reason.

Mike should have done what almost no small business does- TEST! If Mike mails out a 100 letters and gets no calls something is wrong. So now he finds out for $300 rather than $30,000.

I believe that before sending out any mass ads, you should test it first. Even postcards or fliers. It is not only the cost of the piece you need to keep in mind, it is the money you are losing that you could have had if the ad was better.

Your service or product may sound great, but your offer may be crap. Maybe your offer is great but you poorly described the benefits of your service. Maybe you mailed a great piece to the wrong people. I promise you that you do not know without testing.

Direct mail is a wonderful form of advertising (my favorite), but it can eat you alive if not handled with care.

Go get some

Paul

Don't Be the Best, Be Different

Here it is on a cloudy and cool Tuesday afternoon. This is the time of day I like to go through emails and work on some of the million things I need to do online.

Every now and then people send me a flyer, postcard or some kind of ad for my opinion. With these I also collect local business ads to examine. (it's kind of a fetish)

When I see the ads sent to me or the ads I collect I notice one common theme, generalized facts. Most small businesses do their own marketing which includes writing the ads. The problem with that is obviously we as the business owner know about what we are selling. We sometimes state things that are obvious to us but a riddle to those not involved.

When we fall in love with our business and lack any real sales skills we can get tunnel vision.

Since most ads in the postcard or flyer format look the same, the consumers stop paying attention; then the ad "fails". Usually when the ad fails we create an ad filled with more useless generalities with a better coupon.

What are useless generalities? Let's take this postcard in front of me- here is their focus as these are the words they used:

Experienced, Dependable, Professional and Detailed. This card is for window cleaning but it really does not matter.

Likely all of you use some variation of the words above. Now tell me what those mean to me, the consumer. I suppose you would say "well it is obvious". I will tell you it looks like all the rest and I would barely glance at it on the way to the trash.

When ads show up and have the exact same formula we stop paying attention. We have fell to sleep 10,000 times before reading this crap.

What you need to do is take a hard look at what it is you are selling and answer one simple question- why. These words- Experienced, Dependable, Professional and Detailed along with best, quality and affordable are meaningless drivel. You said everything that everyone else says.

So why should I pick up the phone and call? Don't tell me, you are counting on the offer/coupon to win the battle. It likely escaped you that people will not read your offer. They see those all the time also.

You may be thinking that most companies in your business basically do things the same way, and you're right. Maybe you are emulating a successful competitor hoping some of that gold will land in your pan.

You will likely help your competition by spreading the same basic message. In order to carve out your niche you need to focus on that niche. Instead of "anyone can use this" you need to boil it down so you can speak to your ideal reader.

I don't care if you are cleaning carpets or own a restaurant, you need to pinpoint whom you want to do business with. Maybe it is young families. Maybe it is seniors. There is no way to advertise to them both effectively.

It can also be said that wealthy people think and buy differently than the middle class. There is no way you can advertise effectively to both. A person that can justify purchasing a $80,000 car does not think the same as the person with the $25,000 Chevy.

If you want to get and keep your ideal customers attention you need to figure out what it is about what you have they want. A great way to get ideas is to ask your great current customers what they like most about what you provide them.

Let's take a carpet cleaner that uses biodegradable products. Let's say his ideal customers are young up and coming families. To simply state he uses green products is not enough. He needs to push that he uses green products. I will show you an example of how an ad might start-

Does Your Home Have Healthy Carpets?

...find out 5 reasons why getting your carpets cleaned can make it worse


With this as my hook I would surely add a picture of a baby sleeping with his face on the carpet. Paint that mental image and provoke emotion. It is very rare you see ads that stop you in your tracks, right? This would jolt a mother who glanced at the ad- guaranteed.

What you don't want to do is deviate from the theme by getting general. You pushed a button now you need to build up a concern they did not have 5 minutes ago. You then need to follow up that concern with a solution to that concern.

Take some of the features and make them a little more interesting and bullet them- (don't go from a headline into the bullets. In this case I would explain 5 things most carpet cleaning companies do/use they should know about)

Here are some of your benefits when we take care of your home:

• EPA approved products (100% safe for your children and pets)
• Truck mounted unit (for a deep down clean and faster drying)
• No worries (Insured to $1 million for your protection)
• Accountability (your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed)

Notice all the "your" in the copy. Keep them involved by not generalizing

There are many, many companies in all different businesses using the "green" angle. I bet you have not seen one doing it right which means it can be exploited. There is no doubt things in your business you are overlooking.

I can do this type of ad for any business. The way I approach it is really take a good look at everything the company does and uses. This is really hard for the owner of a company. You must really step back and see it all.

Go get some


Paul

The Wal-Mart Effect is Making People Crazy...

I am going to address an issue I have been seeing getting taken out of context. It seems a lot of of small business owners are looking to go the way of Wal-Mart and go "lowest price".

Before you end up on craigslist selling your service for $25 an hour, you better realize that will not save your business. In fact it will likely kill it.

Most of us who give homeowners a service like window cleaning, house cleaning or carpet cleaning don't usually service Wal-Mart folks. I can tell you right now I would be surprised if any of my customers shop at the discount juggernaut. Go sit on the bench by the door and count how many of your type of customers walk through. I could sit there all day and not see one.

People are saying "but Wal-Mart's sales are steady while Target's sales have dropped". Yep, that is true. The misleading part is that Wal-Mart is not taking Target's customers, Target's customers are just buying less in these uncertain times. There is also FAR more low income shoppers that have to have cheapest price to live.

We want to target consumers with disposable income. Sure they may be holding their money a little tighter, but that is okay. Just stay patient and keep your price elastic.

How do you not become a bottom feeder?

• Instead of cutting prices, offer limited specials.

The Financial Aid Deal

While our country is working out the economic crisis,
we are offering you the best price we can.

For a very limited time you can get 20 windows cleaned
inside and out for only $179 (normally $199)

Expires May 15th, don't forget- Call now!

If you do not give a reason and deadline you risk not being able to raise prices back up. If your competitors come down in price, now the entire industry standard drops. Quality will fall, customer service will fall. The only thing that will increase is frustration and hatred for your business.

Another thing you can do instead of lowering price is add on a freebie. Build value into the offer rather than decrease dollar amount.

The Stimulus Package

Sign up today for a full interior and exterior
window cleaning and receive gutter cleaning for FREE!

This $79 service is your FREE if you call now!

Offer expires May 15th, call now

Of course these are just made up prices and service add ons. Look into your business and see what kind of add on service or product you can give away to maintain your price. Don't focus on what the freebie is costing you. When your phone stops ringing you will not be selling much of either, you might as well sell one for full price now and sell as many as possible.

By doing this you really do not lower the price of the freebies regular price or your main service price. Once the market bounces back you are golden.... and your competition has to figure out how to raise their prices back up without losing all their customers.

Until next week

Go get some!

Paul