Helpful Resources

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.

People Versus Spiders

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Denny Hatch wrote another brilliant article this week.

“Search Engine Optimization is the current rage—grabbing the attention of spiders and crawlers in the hopes that the message will surface all over the Internet.

Yet it’s flesh-and-blood people that want information, spend money on goodies and give to charity—not emotionless, pre-programmed electronic robots.

Go ahead, fascinate robots. But if your message is a bore, you are a mouse click away from oblivion.

Call me Luddite or troglodyte, but I will continue to write headlines and copy for people, not robots.

And I’ll study the work of the great copywriters, such as Mel Martin.”

Hatch then goes on to talk about the “greatest copywriter you’ve never heard of.” He describes Martin’s career, successes and genius, along with a few evidences that he was a mere mortal just like the rest of us.

Go read “Are You Writing for Spiders? Meet Mel Martin, Master of Fascinations.” This is the kind of stuff copywriters like me just can’t get enough of.

The Oldest Webinar Promotion Advice Yet

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Webinars are becoming increasingly important as communication and marketing tools. How many webinar invitations or notifications are sitting in your inbox right now? I bet there’s more than one…

One of the big challenges webinar promoters have is getting people to register for their webinars.

In my first post on Roger Courville’s blogsite, The Virtual Presenter, I reach back a few centuries to unearth principles of persuasion from a seemingly unlikely source.

If you’re struggling to get your audience to sign up for your webinars, read “Aristotle’s Advice.”

Actually, the concepts apply across all manners of influence. You might want to read the article even if you never intend to host a presentation online.

Self-Identity Is the Key

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“You cannot perform in a manner inconsistent with the way you see yourself.” – Zig Ziglar

This quote by the master salesman and motivator also applies to how your potential customers make purchasing decisions.

They cannot buy brands, products or services that are inconsistent with their self-perception. This lesson will benefit anyone involved with selling or promoting their businesses or ideas, and everyone interested in communicating effectively and persuasively.

I discussed this concept in the Ophiuchus Effect and 5 Judo Moves Every Copywriter Should Know. Here’s an excerpt from the latter:

“…how many millions of dollars does Nike make selling equipment to people who are athletes? How many more millions do they earn from those who dream of being athletes?

“Find out how your customers identify themselves. Use the insights you gain from that research to make your business and your offers more relevant to customers.”

2011: The Coolest Number I’ve Seen in Years

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From Lawrence Bernstein’s InfomarketingBlog:

“The definition of a prime number (in case you were out smoking during math class) is a number that can be divided evenly only by 1 or itself.

“The number 2011, it turns out, is the sum of 11 consecutive prime numbers: 2011=157+163+167+173+179+181+191+193+197+199+211.”

Is that cool or what?

(Even though it has nothing to do with business, marketing or copywriting.)

Fair Warning

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I’m working on the December edition of my newsletter.

I feel the need to warn you. If you aren’t subscribed to the newsletter, you’re really going to miss out on a powerful lesson this month.

I don’t want to spoil the surprise, but let me say this: the information I’ll be expounding on would not usually be free. In fact, I’ve never shared these insights before at all. Nor have I heard them expressed anywhere else.

Frankly, I’m glad that my subscriber list is fairly small. Can’t have too many people walking around with this kind of info.

Nevertheless (always-the-more), if you really want to cram some dynamite into your salesmanship skills, you won’t want to miss this.

This will impact your ability to persuade, influence and sell

  • face-to-face
  • online
  • in print
  • over the airwaves
  • even from the stage.

See the subscription box on the right side of this page. Scroll down just a little bit. There you go. Just be aware that if you enter your email address, I fully intend to rock your world.

Headline Analyzers? Do These Things Really Work?

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A discussion in one of the groups I’m a member of on LinkedIn brought an interesting tool to my attention. It’s the Advanced Marketing Institute’s Headline Analyzer. This tool will take a look at the emotional value of the words in your headline and give you a score.

From the site:

This score indicates that your headline has a total of ***% Emotional Marketing Value (EMV) Words. To put that in perspective, the English language contains approximately 20% EMV words.

And for comparison, most professional copywriters’ headlines will have 30%-40% EMV Words in their headlines, while the most gifted copywriters will have 50%-75% EMV words in headlines.

A perfect score would be 100%, but that is rare unless your headline is less than five words.”

Let me post my response to the group on this topic:
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There’s another pretty cool tool, the Carlin Ad-Speak Calculator, which will tell you if your headlines sound to “salesy” or “hypey.”

Maybe the two could be used in combination

It probably goes without saying, but I’d like to note that it’s impossible for a computer to “know” the emotional power of any given headline. Human psychology can’t be broken down into logorithms.

No one really knows how words will hit home. Headlines will affect different groups of people differently. Current events, whether national or personal, will also determine the impact words will have on an individual. For example, the “foreclosure” is a pretty compelling word for many of us.

To add some perspective, I tried the AMI Headline Analyzer, just to see what happens.

It appears to simply add the “emotional value” of the individual words in the headline.

Example: Having an idea of a couple highly emotive words, my first attempt was “Free Money Now.” Guess it was too short, because that didn’t get a result.

So I tried “Get Free Money Now.” Guess what? 50% EMV. Not bad, eh? My personal analysis would be that there may be some power in that headline, but a lot of skepticism would accompany it. Who could believe it?

Next, I added the most powerful word in any language. “You Get Free Money Now.” The score: 60% regardless of where in the sentence the word “you” is placed. “Get You Free Money” got the same rating.

Finally, for whatever reason, I removed “get” from the headline. “Free You Money Now” scores at a full 75%!

(Incidently, each of those headlines scored low [less than 2%] on the Carlin Ad-Speak Calculator that I promoted myself.)

On the other hand, “Stop Your Foreclosure Now” only produced a 25% emotional value?

Those are the scores you want. But the limited ability of tools such as these is demonstrated.

Your best bet is to bring your writing prowess to the table, coupled with an intimate knowledge of exactly who you are speaking to.

What do you guys think?
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I mentioned the Carlin Ad-Speak Calculator on in an earlier post, which you can see here.

$50 Thousand in Free Publicity and the “Mystery Briefcase”

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Here’s another great article from an outstanding resource.  Lawrence Bernstein is a brilliant marketer, and his InfoMarketing Blog is an amazing source of knowledge.

$50 Thousand In Free Publicity And The “Mystery Briefcase” is a case study about the attempted sale of a $17.5 million house on Ebay.  You’ll learn how to:

  • leverage the “newcomer’s advantage” in a field you’re trying to break into
  • build a competitive advantage
  • grab the attention of the world’s richest men (in this case, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim)
  • use the media to increase the impact of your marketing
  • and more.

Don’t miss this information packed article, $50 Thousand In Free Publicity And The “Mystery Briefcase.”

Ben Franklin’s 13 Virtues

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Check out this awesome post from the Give More blog on Ben Franklin’s 13 virtues from his Autobiography.

Just a couple:

  • Temperance
  • Frugality
  • Industry

Franklin lived an amazing life and became one of America’s greatest legends.  These 13 virtues are part of how he made his life great.