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

Are You a Sinner? Part 1

Thou Shalt Not Try to Sell a Half Eaton Sandwich

Solutionless Advertising: Any ad including Web page, direct mail, fliers, space ads, PPC phrases- any ad needs to address a problem.

You may be saying to yourself- "duh, I know that". Do you? Do you talk about your commitment to quality and customer service in your ads? Do you talk about years in business? Do you talk about why you are better than everyone else?

What problem did you address? You did not advertise a solution, you advertised YOU. I don’t give a squirt if you have great customer service as I would need to be a customer first. How would that entice anyone? Has anyone ever called and said "I seen your ad about high quality and how much you love your customers, SIGN ME UP!".

I will guess 0

This happens both with people selling online as much as offline.

If I try to sell an ebook and talk about me through the whole sales page and end with BUY THIS NOW! What happens? click and goodbye (normally the click happens way before buy now). Many onliners need to learn the rules of direct response as much as the offline companies.

That smells good, who’s barbecuing?

You have likely heard the old advertising phrase "sell the sizzle, not the steak". People don’t usually arbitrarely buy stuff without some reason. There is an exception and that is in retail. There is a reason why items are placed in certain areas. There is a reason why tabloids litter the checkout line. Did you notice the easy to grab candy and gum for the kids to hound you about?

Every minute you are in that line the chances of grabbing something you had no intention of buying increases 10 fold.

That does not work when selling a service or a product outside of retail. I can easily look past your postcard and long winded boring Web page. If you add some sizzle buy addressing a problem I have or did not know I had and have a solution, that’s gold.

Your ONLY goal in an ad is to turn that need into a want. People will pass on stuff they need all the time, but they buy what they want. You do not need to be a master copywriter or ad wizard. You need to be a problem solver and state it that way.

People do not need or want YOU. They may need and want what you can do for THEM

You don’t want to miss Sin #2. Bookmark my blog or follow me on Twitter and I will alert you when a new post is up.

Go get some

Paul

Feeling Business Pressure? Stay Strong, Be Smart

I know you are feeling the pressure from running your own business. Everyone is.

In these uncertain times it is important to stay focused. Your business success or failure does not depend on your next ad (I hope), it depends on your plan.

What is your plan for the future?

I have a very motivated train of thought. It is very hard for me to stay focused on one thing. I find that nothing has helped me more than planning. I don't mean a business plan or a 10 year forcast, I mean a daily plan.

Look at your situation right now. What are the things you are lacking to get your business running smoothly? It could be getting your marketing in order to making sure your taxes are in order.

You need to first write down what you need to do. We all procrastinate and that level depends on how we internalize the issue. The more you have built up the matter in your mind dictates on when and if it ever gets done.

Instead of waking up and going through the day doing things you don't mind doing, creat an itinary for the day. You may be running your business for 10 hours but you need to spend some time working on your business.

After you look at what needs to be done, start scheduling those things on your daily schedule. If you need to get your website optimized you sit and complete that task. I am not saying that you need to learn SEO or how to create a website. You figure out how you will take care of the issue and have a completion date.

You may do work on it yourself or you may research who can do it for you. Get the time or costs calculated and schedule that in your planner.

The important thing is to DO IT!

When I write out my schedule it looks something like this:

Tuesday

6am-7am : Create postcard for Joe

8am-10:30am: Work on my website

You get the idea. If I do not write these down for some reason it all becomes optional. I am not kidding, I will pick what I want to do instead of what I have to do.

For some reason when I have it scheduled I see it as a task to be completed and it has less 'think time'. I don't really build up a lot of bs emotions like I do when I just go through the day doing whatever.

Guess what else, use this to get things done for YOU. Maybe you want to learn a new language or get better at something... SCHEDULE THAT TIME TOO!

I absolutely promise you that you will get more done doing this. This is SO valuable to your future. You will make more money and waste less of your life.

Owning your own business is toughest because it takes massive discipline. We don't usually hold our time accountable, we're the boss.

You absolutely need to teach yourself this technique. All the marketing in the world will not help you if everything else is half-assed.

You had the balls to start a business now use your brains to grow it.

Go get some

Paul