Helpful Resources

Inception in Real Life

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As a marketer or copywriter, can you imagine anything more powerful than the ability to plant an idea directly into the minds of your prospects? An idea they think is their own? One that makes selling your product or service effortless?

I remember when I first heard about the movie Inception, this thought came to mind. Inception, if it were possible, would be the ultimate tool for marketers (not to mention politicians, teachers, lawyers, etc.). But I couldn’t see any real, practical way for it to work in real life. After seeing the film and reading some of the commentary, I see that I was dead wrong. Not only is inception possible, but it’s happening every day.

Continue reading “The Art of Planting Ideas” on the Kauai Design Graphics blog.

Joe Sugarman, Drayton Bird and Me

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A couple weeks ago, I had the great pleasure of speaking at length with Joey Bushnell about copywriting, marketing and finding ways to get your business through tough economies like the one we’re facing right now.

There are two reasons this interview was special:

1) You know it’s hard for me to stop talking once I get started. Joey gave me a full hour to speak my mind.

2) This chat follows interviews with some of the greats in our industry: Joe Sugarman, Bob Bly, Drayton Bird, Ted Nicholas, Chris Marlow and others. I was humbled to be named among these legends.

During the call, we cover

  • why unique selling propositions (USP) can be bad for your brand – and what you should replace them with
  • 4 ways many businesses are sabotaging their own marketing
  • the reason most people struggle to persuade others and plenty more.

Check out the interview, Compelling Marketing Messages, over on Joey’s Web Marketing Inner Circle site.

It’s free to listen to. You don’t have to give your email address or anything, and there’s nothing for sale. Just sit back and see how much you can learn.

Enjoy!

30 Minutes to More Trust: An Interview with Charlie Green

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Warren Buffet famously said “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it.” But is that really true?

Earlier this week, I had the distinct privilege of speaking with one of the world’s foremost experts on building trust, best-selling author Charles Green. Boy, did I learn a lot!

During our 30-minute interview, Charles talked about

  • why trust is absolutely essential to your success in business
  • specific ways you can create more trust in your relationships
  • specific ways you might be sabotaging your efforts to gain the trust of your prospects and customers
  • popular myths about trust
  • how long it really takes to start building (or rebuilding) trust
  • and more

I was blown away by simple, yet profound truths Charles shared. I think you will be, too.

Don’t forget to visit TrustedAdvisor.com to further develop your ability be the trusted provider in your industry.

Expect Resistance and Overcome It

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Selling is hard.

Rather, selling can be hard.

Each of us has certain built-in psychological resistance to “being sold.” The challenge marketers and salespeople face is circumvent that resistance.

In a 2-part series on the Diamond Website Conversion blog, I’ve gone into detail about several specific forms sales resistance takes on, and more importantly, ways you can bypass it.

No matter what you sell, no matter what field you work in, these obstacles exist in all of your prospects to varying degrees. Do you know how to overcome them?

Overcoming Your Prospects’ Hard-Wired Conversion Obstacles
Part 1: Skepticism, Inertia and Reactance
Part 2: Cognitive Biases (confirmation bias, normalcy bias, etc.)

If Your Marketing Stinks…

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Please join the inimitable Andre’ Harrell and me for what promises to be an exciting and insight-packed conversation on sales and marketing at 7pm ET tonight.

The show is called “If your business marketing stinks, so will your sales.”

Check us out at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/aharrell2000/2012/08/28/if-your-business-marketing-stinksso-will-your-sales.

Or stream it below:

No opt ins, no sales pitches. Just marketing, sales and persuasion concepts you can put into practice right away to improve your business results.

7 Defensive Copywriting Strategies

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In Scientific Advertising, Claude Hopkins teaches us that “any … attempt to sell, if apparent, creates sales resistance.” This is as true for copywriters as it is for door-to-door salespeople. If you’ve written sales copy, you’re already familiar with the truth of this principle.

To circumvent this resistance, you have to take a different approach. Applying the defensive perspective makes a lot of sense.

Here are 7 defensive copywriting strategies that will help overcome obstacles to closing the deal. They may even prevent those hurdles from entering your readers’ minds.

1) Express genuine interest in and empathy for your prospects’ desires/needs. This can be challenging. You may have to edit until you get the tone and language just right, but it’s possible.

This goes a long way to removing the resistance to being sold. Your reader feels valued by you; you think of him as a person, not a customer. Major distinction.

Read the other 6 tips on ProCopyTips.

Tactics Vs. Strategy

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What do you think is the biggest difference between successful people and businesses, and unsuccessful ones?

  • Wealthy parents/investors?
  • The right connections?
  • Positive thinking?
  • “Luck?”

While any of these could have a significant impact on one’s future success, none of them fit the bill.

The more experience I gain and the more I learn from high achievers, the clearer it becomes that strategic thinking paired with sustained action is the gamechanger in business and life.

Continue reading “The Noise Before Defeat”  on the Evolution Magazine website.

In Case You Missed It: USPs and More

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Yesterday, I had the distinct privilege and wonderful pleasure of being interviewed by Yasmin Razaq for her Explode Biz Profits event.

We talked about:
– how recessions are good and USPs are bad
– possibly the dumbest advertising sign I’ve ever seen
– two foundational principles for writing copy that people will respond to, and
– how to keep your messages out of email jail.

I also shared how you can get my ebook Stealth Selling gratis.

Go check out the replay at http://businessmarketinggirl.com/explodebizprofitsreplays/. I’m not sure how long Yasmin will keep this page open, so if you have any interest at all, don’t wait too long.

Update: If you’re interested in hearing the recording of this hour-long interview, I’ve got it right here. If you’re interested in getting a copy of my book, send me an email and we might be able to arrange something.

A note on Unique Selling Propositions
Theodore Levitt said that selling focuses on satisfying the needs of the business, whereas marketing works to satisfy the needs of the customer.

With that in mind, the USP is inherently focused on the company, product or service itself. Even a benefit-rich USP can be off-base.

Feature-focused USP: “Our product is awesome. It’s made from the strongest steel ever produced.”
Benefit-focused USP: “Our product is awesome. It’s more durable than other products, so they don’t have to be replaced as frequently, saving time and money.”

Sounds good, right? But even the benefit-driven USP can be improved upon. These are selling points, rooted in the needs of the one who needs to make the sale. What if you moved into the realm of marketing defined by Levitt?

Unique Value Proposition: “Our customers are awesome. They save time, money and headache by using with the most durable product available. It works more reliably, for longer periods of time and with fewer replacements needed.”

The wording is purposefully corny, but you see the difference, don’t you? It may seem like a tiny distinction, but even the tiniest change in perception and approach can create a big change in results. A slight edge makes all the difference in the world.

Don’t make your audience dig for the value they’ll get from you. Sure, they might be able to figure it out by your statements about how great your product is. But why not make what’s in it for them obvious?

Are You Sabotaging Your Own Marketing?

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On Thursday, I have the privilege of participating in Yasmin Razaq’s Explode Biz Profits teleseminar event.

Every day this week, business growth and marketing experts will be sharing their best insights into attracting more customers and clients, strengthening your personal or business brand and improving your overall profitability.

I’ll be talking about “5 Ways Businesses Sabotage Their Own Marketing.” Some of the topics we’ll get into are:

  • the mistake most businesses make when creating their online and offline marketing materials — actually, I’ll probably talk about at least 3 big ones
  • how recessions can be good things if you know how to weather the storm, and
  • the truth about Unique Selling Propositions (almost everyone I work with gets this wrong)

Go over to http://www.businessmarketinggirl.com/explodebizprofits/ to find out more about this week’s sessions. Plenty of good content is on the way. If you see anything that might help make your business better, register and attend the talks that appeal to you.

Each speaker will also be giving away a special freebie after the call.

Why not take a look right now? As I mentioned,  I’ll be live at 12 noon Eastern on Thursday, March 29th.

I’d love for you to get your hands on this high-quality content.

**UPDATE**

Listen to the interview here.

Maple Syrup Marketing Trick

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I haven’t had maple syrup in a very long time, and I’m willing to bet that you haven’t either, no matter how often you eat pancakes or waffles.

The American companies that make syrup aren’t being very upfront about this fact.

I didn’t realize it, but the syrup I’d been using for the longest time is imitation maple syrup. There isn’t one drop of real maple in it. After a follow-up investigation at the grocery store, I found that the same seems to be true about all the popular brands.

How long has this been true? Why didn’t anyone tell me?

Real maple syrup (the stuff that comes out of trees) is available, but it’s three times more expensive.

Now, I don’t suppose there’s anything wrong with selling a knock-off as long as you’re honest about it. But like I mentioned, not everyone sees the value in honesty. Observe:

Aunt Maples

See what they did? A little mind trick. This brand is for sale at Aldi stores.

This particular syrup maker chose the name “Aunt Maple’s” so they could sell “Maple’s” syrup. Rather than saying “Maple-flavored” they chose “Original” and stuck the word at the bottom of the label.

Sneaky!

This tactic reminded me of one used by a student of Gary Halbert to increase the readership and credibility of his newspaper advertisements.
If you ever look at magazines and newspapers, even search engine results, you’re familiar with the “Advertisement” label that tells readers what is editorial content and what’s an ad.

One marketer innovated a  clever way to make his paid ads look like regular articles (Joe Polish goes into detail about the concept here). Take a look:

Paid Ad BufferUsing what are obviously ads, he created a buffer between the advertorial piece and the “Paid Advertising” label. This technique improved the response to the ad by an impressive 750%.

Perception is powerful.

I was upset to find out that the syrup makers pulled a fast one on me. (Maybe I should have been mad at myself for not noticing sooner) Dishonesty is not something I advocate, but it’s hard to be mad at the creative approach they’re taking to position their product in the minds of consumers as real.

Do you need to improve your customers’ perception of the products/services you’re marketing?

I’d love to talk with you about it.