Archive for the 'Advertising' Category

Jul 25 2010

PROFILING

If your search engine sent

                                             

you here looking for a fight,

                                           

you’re in the wrong place!

                                                                                        

     . . . Uh, the post title — that’s “Profiling” as in filling out website subscriber info about yourself and your business.

Sorry. My apologies to all the rest of you (including lawyers of course) who’ve landed here  looking for a bunch of racial slur charges and counter-charges (hopeful no doubt of gathering ammunition for getting yourselves in an uproar about who is subjecting whom to bias and prejudice in which states, and why, and how awful it all is).

You know who you are: Anti-Arizona political types, NPR and network TV news desk occupiers, and fans of “Cops.”

Three messages for you: 1) The truth will out 2) Sorry to disappoint you, and 3) Click off of here and go yell at your search engine.

     Well now that we’ve cleared the air, and have sent the vast armies of contentious network news and incompetent government types packing, let’s get down to business.

     When you fill out a website profile, here are some good rules of thumb to consider that will help you present a more attractive picture of yourself and your business:

                                                                            
  • As a matter of PROCEDURE: draft it first; edit it second; edit it third; edit it fourth; save it fifth; cut and paste it into the window sixth. Not much creates instant panic as effectively as clicking “Save” a blink too soon. Take your time. Get it right.
                                                   
  • As a matter of FORMAT: Live with what’s provided. It will be a lot of years before subscriber websites are all up to speed with the latest options for type sizes, line and border spacing and special (color, shadowing, bolding, Italicizing-types of) accent treatments as you may be used to with your PC and Mac text formatting choices. What you get is what you get! When bullet and numbering options exist, use them, but sparingly.
                                                           
  • As a matter of CONTENT: keep it short and sweet. Conciseness counts! Suffice it to ask when was the last time you read a long wind-baggy profile? Don’t try stuffing your thirty-pound resume into some one-pound profile window. Use highlights as teasers to prompt a reader to want to know more. 
                                                            
  • As a matter of INTENT: Keep it honest; if you don’t you have my word it will come back to haunt you. You may even (shudder) lose Twitter Followers and Facebook fans! Think of your profile as a combination of your “brand” and your “elevator speech.” No matter what your intent is about what you say and how you say it, don’t allow yourself room for exaggeration to creep in.
                                                            
  • As a matter of EMPHASIS: don’t try to be cute; don’t write sales or advertising copy; if you have strong credentials, list them but don’t belabor them; if you lack strong credentials, don’t try to make weak ones look impressive. It’s a profile, not a sales pitch! You can deliver that after a prospect likes what she or he sees and decides to contact you. Humor? Doubtful it has a place in 99% of business profiles. If people want a laugh, they need only start hanging out with that other “profiling” crowd mentioned at the top of this post.
                                                                    

 www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You. God Bless America and America’s Troops. “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

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Jul 22 2010

TRANSPARENT MARKETING

Okay, before you buy it,

                             

here’s what’s wrong

                                                         

with our product!

                                                               

     The smaller the business, the closer it gets to practicing transparent marketing.

     The farmer at his produce stand will tell you that the corn wasn’t picked today, or that the peaches are maxed and need to be consumed within 24 hours, or that the berries may be tart because they’re not quite in season.

     The bigger the business, the more money that’s paid out in fees for ad agencies and PR firms to cover up product and service faults with retouched photos and exaggerated claims. Always intentional? No, not always, and especially not always on the part of the hired creative guns because clients often keep bad news locked up and intentionally mislead their marketing people.

     What kinds of product and service faults? HA! Start with air!

     Soap companies pump air into their bars of soap to give them bulk and make consumers think they’re getting bigger amounts and better dollar value. Note how many more bars of corporate giant soap you go through compared to homemade soap. In the end, the big brand names full of air cost more.

     How about big brand ice cream? Pumped in air? Of course!

     They can fill the containers with less product and make more profit. Do you think consumers ever think about weighing their ice cream? Maybe we should. Guaranteed that volume doesn’t correspond to weight anywhere near as closely as with homemade ice cream (and don’t believe any stories about the big boys using lighter ingredients!).

     And you thought just car dealerships, banks, and hospitals had a lock on dishonest representations?

     How about beauty products? Dense creams used in many big name skin and hair care brands get watered down and sold as “Instant” formulas — as, for example, sprays instead of in jars –  using a fraction of the original thick ingredients from the jar version, and selling it at a higher price because now it’s “Instant.” Uh, that’s “Instant” as in instant profit rewards for adding the water.

     This could go on for a zillion blog posts, but I don’t pretend to be Ralph Nader or Consumer Reports. I’ve just experienced situations like these first-hand and have stories you wouldn’t believe about hot dogs, pickles, bacon, chicken, drugs, doctors, and all the electronic stuff that thrives on planned obsolescence. (And you needn’t go any further than the recording industry on that count!)

     The point is that none of us will ever live long enough to see totally honest transparent marketing (or leadership, for that matter), but the answer is NOT “if you can’t lick ‘em, join ‘em” because THAT is an evasive political response that’s routinely practiced by dishonest money-crazed government and big business, and WE are small business, right? (No, this is not a rallying cry!)

     We are 30 million strong in America. We are not all honest. We are not all willing to be forthright in our marketing, And we are not all beyond telling some white lies or committing errors of omission when they fit our purpose, but most small business owners are, I believe, basically honest about the products and services they represent and market.

     If you think you need to “pad” the wares you offer or the claims you make or the words that drive your marketing programs, perhaps you should consider re-evaluating where you’re headed with your business and where you see yourself going in life. If there’s not some genuine compatibility evident, you could be setting yourself up for disaster.       

 www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You. God Bless America and America’s Troops. “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

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Jul 21 2010

OUTSOURCING TO CONSULTANTS

Not getting quality from

                                                    

   consultants? This may be why…

                                                                      

     Right off the top, if it’s not a life-or-death surgical, ocean oil leak, or rocket science need to fill, stop with the panic attacks about finding a consultant with industry-specific experience.

     What you need is to find a consultant who can get the job done. Period.

  •      Give me a guy, for example, who sells railroad cars full of French fries and I’ll teach him what I need him to know about representing my fine linens products (or my precision computer parts, or my insurance policies). And he’ll do better at it than a fine linens (or microchip) manufacturing (or insurance) expert.
  •      As another example, show me someone who maintains an efficient warehouse operation, and I’ll show her how to manage a shipping schedule better than the head of any trucking company.

     Why? Because sales and organizational skills are lot harder, more time-consuming, and more expensive to teach than the ins and outs of your business.

     Learning how you manufacture and package and sell your products and services is easy. Learning how to think and act like a sales or traffic management pro is not easy because it’s often an issue of attitude.

When you’re outsourcing projects and looking for consultants who can get the job done, don’t be making yourself crazy trying to find someone who has extensive experience in your industry or profession.

     Look instead for someone who has extensive experience in her or his consulting specialty. A good solid marketing person or writer or web designer or trainer or coach, for instance, doesn’t need to have ANY expertise in your specific business or professional practice in order to help you produce a significant difference in sales, sales leads, CRM, or staff development.

The same principles and dynamics that work for selling hot dogs also work for selling precision parts, accounting and legal services, heart transplant specialists, or (aaah, entrepreneurship!) “Silly Bands.”

     The art and insight of writing an effective news release, advertising campaign, or website, doesn’t change in the slightest.

     The target markets change; the media selections change; the technical details change. But benefits are still what need to be emphasized.

     All products and services are purchased because an emotional buying motive is triggered — not because a laundry list of rational features has been presented. Skilled marketing consultants know how to plan and create and activate emotional buying motive triggers that get results.

     Your job is to teach them your business, be a sounding board for their recommendations, and help bring about action.

     You can follow the advice of headhunters and placement services and counselors and job trainers all you want, and puppy-dog behind every leader in your industry or profession, but I’ll put my money on you finding the best outsource consulting service teams and individuals based on your own instincts and your own judge of character and chemistry. It got you here. It works.

                                                                                       

Trust yourself.

                                                                       

     The minute you’re able to find people who can fill the role(s) you have in mind, who have a track-record of success in many diverse fields, don’t hesitate to engage her/him/them simply because you think your candy company is so unique that only someone who is a candy business expert can appreciate you and your business enough to do justice to it. A sweet idea, but unrealistic. 

Informed fresh perspectives don’t

    come from clones or ostriches.    

 

 www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You. God Bless America and America’s Troops. “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

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Jul 18 2010

Bankrupt Branding

A lesson from one

                                 

 of the masters . . .

                                                                                                                                    

     You run a business. You know that when you’ve got something good, you run with it, right? Wouldn’t you expect something better from one of the world’s leading brands than a half-hearted, slipshod application of their “signature slogan” theme line?

     On the heels (and after many years) of one of the most memorable slogans in history — “Leave the driving to us!” — the company came up in 2007 with one of the all-time worst slogans: “We’re on our way!” [Typical consumer response: "Who cares?"]

     “We’re on our way!” totally disregarded the surge in consumerism which rendered this kind of chest-beating as inappropriate and ineffective. (And to put the icing on the cake, Greyhound reportedly spent over $60 million trying to shove their braggadocio down consumer throats!) This move was so predictably bad that had they spent even one nickle on it, they would have been making a poor marketing and management judgment.  

     Ah, but there was a comeback. Almost. Greyhound finally did outdo itself by actually topping that “Leave the driving to us” classic with this more recent touch of brilliance [and I truly do mean brilliance]:

                                                                           

Greyhound. Stop Less. Go More. 

                                                                           

     Wow! What a terrific branding theme line. It says so much with so little. It’s customer-focused. I saw it on the side of one of their buses this weekend cruising down the New Jersey Turnpike. (Yes, it is true that occasionally one may be fortunate enough to actually cruise on this road that’s eternally jam-packed with Evil Knievel and Kamikaze wannabees.)

     But then a funny thing happened.

     A second Greyhound bus passed that, instead of the great ‘Stop/Go” theme on the side, had some very somber and unintelligible statement on the back that was an assertion of sorts about a business alliance with some organization whose name was replaced with a totally obscure logo that seemed about the size of maybe a golf ball or two. . . not terribly identifiable at 65mph.

     Awhile later, I noted yet another Greyhound bus that appeared to have nothing on it except their famous racing dog  logo.

     SO what?

     Here’s what. It makes no marketing sense whatsoever to have different vehicles from the same company displaying different graphics and not capitalizing on the proven importance of repetition in selling. Can you imagine spending millions of dollars to establish a theme line (or signature slogan as Greyhound calls it) and not have that line appear in every conceivable application?

     And is it a no-brainer to put it prominently on the sides of vehicles you operate?   

    Now this is no small-time company here. We’re talking about the largest North American intercity bus company, with 16,000 daily bus departures to 3,100 destinations in the United States. That ain’t hay. Yet the money they spent might as well have been hay.

     If giant corporate entities like this haven’t the sense to get the right kind of marketing input, just imagine the plight of small business enterprises.

     But small business can do what big business cannot. Small business can turn on a dime, be more innovative more quickly and capitalize on opportunities as they surface. Small businesses can also make the kinds of marketing-judgment and tweaking-help choices that big businesses can’t make without getting themselves too tangled up in politics.

     I have always thought Greyhound to be a great company with great service and a reputation to match, but in the instance cited, they have clearly failed at making the most of what they already have, to achieve their goals quicker and more soundly.

     Don’t waste your time, money, and effort trying to be too smart about too many things. Bring in a fresh, informed and experienced, outside perspective to turn what you have to say into a marketing message and approach that energizes employees and suppliers, and that — most importantly — stimulates and generates sales.

 www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You. God Bless America and our troops. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

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Jul 15 2010

ADVERTISING is not the problem.

When it looks, tastes,

                                         

smells, feels, and 

                                                        

sounds like garbage

                                             

 . . . guess what?

                                                                                              

     Many people think advertising is the root of all evil. You’ve heard the complaints. They think advertising is at fault for fostering and nurturing societal problems. They wag their fingers at the TV and scold the announcers for having such low-life values. They bang their fists on desktops when they’re overrun with email spam. They poke their pens through newspaper ads that they find offensive.

     Sound at all familiar?

     But advertising is merely a reflection of society. Think of advertising as a mirror. That’s all it is. That’s all it’s ever been.

     The truly talented advertising creative and strategic planning people in this world all know that this is true. They don’t pretend to control anything. They don’t see themselves in the “agent of change ” roles that entrepreneurs play.

     They merely imagine ways to playback to society what’s going on in society.  

                                           

And we are living in angry times.

                                                          

Not for the first time, and not for the last, but we are clearly not a nation of happy wall-to-wall campers right now!

                                                                      

     Our economy sucks and even as we continue to hear daily claims of recovery and promises of improvement, it continues to get worse.

     We have a catastrophic oil spill in our backyard that any halfwit entrepreneur or small business owner would have pounced on and resolved by now, but delays piled on top of delays and indecision added to incompetency and inexperience have pushed us into a corner. These accumulated screw-ups – like the floundering economy and accompanying empty promises — offer us no end in sight.

    Instead of solutions, we have brinkmanship, excuses, and rhetoric.

     Instead of action, we have talk.

     It’s coming from our President, from our Vice President, from our governors, from our U.S. and state senators, from our congressional representatives and state representatives. Nonaction and ineffective do-nothing conduct festers wherever politics lives.

     It is taking it seems forever, but we’re finally starting to see media people becoming disconcerted. They’re starting to realize that they are rapidly turning into the vocal minority . . . and that posture doesn’t sell newspapers, or generate paid advertising revenues.

     So the next time you hear someone complain that advertising that’s filled with innuendos of sex and violence and racism is causing the murders, drug deals, rapes and disrespect of others, tell that person to just look around at what’s going on between friends and neighbors and regions and nations and to think about not adding fuel to the fire.

     Society creates society’s problems — not advertising. When times get better, so will the advertising.

     And guess what? There are actually three things you can do about it:

1)  Don’t endorse, buy or encourage others to buy products or services that are promoted with questionable and bad-taste advertising. This includes tasteless Hollywood and video game productions.

2)  Clean up your own act. Get someone with extensive business experience, who truly understands the impact of words, to put an eagle eye to your marketing themes and messages –all of it — sales presentations, news releases, website pages, email promotions, ads, commercials, business plans, mission statements. Get that person to tweak what you’re using to make sure you’re representing to your market and customers and employees and communities what you want to be representing.

3)  Do something to help see that new leadership is given rise to better representation of small business interests. There are 30 million of us! If every small business does SOMEthing, anything, it will make a difference. America was built on and by small business, and will only right itself by relying on the innovative pursuits of small business. Step up to the plate before November.  

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You. God Bless America and our troops. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

No responses yet

Jul 10 2010

Twitterdom and Twitter Dumb

Tweet it or beat it.

                                                        

     I write. Among many other things (mostly marketing, advertising, PR, sales, blogs, and websites), I write books.

     So the other day, when I received notice that some Southwestern-based “writing” business was a new Twitter “follower” of mine, I proceeded to do a quick check to validate their legitimacy and see if there might be some compatible interests.

     Unlike the quest to win popularity by amassing huge numbers of any “followers,” I have instead always pursued a course of selectivity. I choose only those followers who share interest in entrepreneurial leadership, writing, personal and professional growth and development and/or small business ownership and management ideas and issues.

     By sacrificing quantity for quality, I have of course -in the process- learned to accept the humility of trading off my options to compete in the who’s-got-the-most-followers type of confrontation with Ellen and Lady Gaga. But, hey, I cut my own mustard. Besides, some say I have better legs than both of them!

     Okay, back to business– so my little Googlization due diligence effort produces a website for these “book writers,” which I scan quickly and then decide to click back that I’ll follow them too. After all, their business, I discovered, like part of mine, writes and ghostwrites books for other people too. Hmmm, maybe I’ll learn a thing or two by watching their “Tweets.”  

     Now let’s sidetrack here a minute to explain for the benefit of all non-Twitterers (there are maybe 27 or 28 of you on the planet?) that some people who get new followers think they need to respond to each new follower with a direct message (DM) “thank you” note.

     Some think that because you have clicked on them to follow their little posts, that the flood gates are now open for them to to rush into your Inbox with some bombardment of sales spiels, like “Thanks for following. Now that we’re friends, here’s how to get 283,000 new followers by a month from Tuesday for three easy payments of just $29.95 plus tax and handling charges of $117 per order.”

     Still others respond to your (no doubt brainless) decision to follow them by replying with a (shudder) robot message that thanks you profusely and may offer a “gift” at a website that usually sounds like http://UBmybestnewtwitterfolloweronearth.com

     Then there’re the hard-sell follower guys: Hi. Thx for follow. When U need to clean your pipes or fix your drip, call Flushoff Plumbing at 800-Brown-Down. Starting to get the picture? Twitter kinda has it all.

     So what to my wondering eyes do appear within minutes of my click to be a follower of this book writer business but one of those DM thank you notes that says:

                                                                                          

“Who do you than needs to write a book?”

                                                                                         

     Huh? I’m not thinking you guys are going to be on my shortlist of likely collaborators or some shing star stable of literary talent I might refer others to. What’s it add up to? An unforgivable screw-up with no second chance at a miserable first impression.

     How careful are you and your people with the wording in your messages? If even a self-proclaimed book-writing business doesn’t use Spellcheck. chances are that many companies which have nothing to do with writing or publishing, don’t use it either.

     A word to the wise is that using Spellcheck makes you look good –especially to prospects and customers. Not using it makes you look unprofessional and dumb. Sloppy messages communicate to the recipient that the sender doesn’t care enough about her or him to bother with ensuring clear communications. 

     Sloppy messages may work for friends, but not for business. 

Happy Twittering!

                                                   
www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US 
Thanks for visiting. God bless you and God bless America.        “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance”- Thomas Jefferson.         Go for your goals and make today a great day for someone!

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Jul 06 2010

Click Through or Delete?

WORD DIFFERENCES

                                                     

MAKE A DIFFERENCE

                                              

     Small subtle “TWEAK” changes in your website wording can make a monumental difference in your site visitor traffic, the all-important numbers of “quality” visits, search engine rankings, inquiries, sales leads, revenues, revenue streams, and profits.

     First of all, talking about “small,” here’s some free advice that should be obvious, but it is obviously not:  human beings older than 30 do not like to have to squint to read a sales pitch. Period. A gift certificate or love letter, maybe. But not a sales pitch.

     Your website’s job one is to make it as easy as possible for prospects to become customers.

     Tiny text? Unless you’re building a family practice in ophthalmology or optometry, give it up! And don’t let some artsy techie convince you that people are used to reading .7 size type, and that the smaller it is, the more space that’s available for design impact.

     If you need more design space, cut back your text. Most sites talk too much anyway.

     Now, here’s the biggest difference you can make a difference about, that word differences make:

                                                                                                       

     Get rid of all language that could even be remotely associated with being a distant relative to your Uncle Braggadocio! This means killing any words in any marketing materials, broadcasts, news releases, traditional media, websites, emails, banners, billboards, sandwich boards, matchbook covers, skywriting . . . you get the idea . . . that suggest, sound, or look like:

I~ME~MY~MINE~

WE~OUR~OURS~US

                                                                                                

     Oh, sure, well that’s easy. Easy, perhaps, depend-ing on where you live, but not in most places on this planet! Pull up any ten small business website home-pages. Odds are good that the text content language contains more than a couple of these kinds of references. In fact, there are probably as many strewn across corporate giant sites as well, come to think of it.

     The point is this: NOBODY CARES how great you are or how great you think you are so stop talking about yourself and lock into answering each prospect’s and customer’s only concern: “What’s in it for me?”

     RE-phrase your messages to instead emphasize words that suggest, sound, or look like:

YOU~YOUR~YOURS~

YOU’D~YOU’LL-Y’ALL  

                                                                                                  

     Instead of “Our team of trained professionals,” try “Your team of trained professionals.” Instead of “Our program is designed to help our clients…” try “Your program is designed with your needs in mind… “ Instead of “We analyze your needs,” try “Your needs are assessed based on the results you seek.”

     Instead of “You can count on us,” try “You can be certain.” Instead of “My paintings will look great over your mantle,” try “Your friends will envy your great taste when they see the paintings you select here.” Instead of “We work as your partner,” try “You get a partnership attitude, not just a sales pitch.”

     As many words as you use to tell your story and deliver your message, there are that many opportunities to tweak what you have and make it work better. If you see your son consistently stepping out of the batters box as he swings for strikes instead of hits, wouldn’t  you want to see a knowledgeable experienced person help him adjust his stance and his attitude at the plate?                                   

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  
Thanks for visiting. God Bless You. God Bless America. Go for your goals. Make today a GREAT Day! “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

2 responses so far

Jul 04 2010

JULY 4th SPARKLERS

If you seek

                                      

sales fireworks,

                                      

check your sparklers!

                                

     Business owners constantly want more sales results than they’re typically ready to put their shoulders to the wheel for, in terms of the marketing words (their “sparklers”) that they’re using.

     The average response to meeting the need for coming up with the right sets of words to represent business products, services, and ideas is a lazy one. Either wing it, delegate it, or hire some fancy high-priced group of self-proclaimed experts.

     None of these work.

     When you wing it, it’s like not fastening the screws that hold your product parts together, or not providing the terms of the services you offer.

     You are not in business doing what you’re doing to be a great marketing writer any more than you’re in business to be a great lawyer or accountant (unless of course your business is a law or accounting practice!).

     So why waste time and energy (and ultimately money) trying to be something you’re not, when you have the option to be driving your business to a successful destination?

     Okay, so you won’t wing it; you’ll hand it off to that assistant instead . . . someone who’s always writing some book, or poetry, or funny Facebook posts. When you delegate the task, regardless of what you think might be signs of talent rising up from someone on your staff, you should expect to get the inadequate results you get.

     I can assure you after seeing hundreds of these dynamics, what you get back will simply not be professional enough a representation of your business strengths put into the customer benefits language needed to succeed at producing the sales results you seek. What you get, in fact, could very well end up undermining your other sales-building efforts.

     When you hire a fancy group — advertising or marketing or PR agency — you are probably playing about 85% odds that the group you hire will be very skilled at not letting you know that they are more preoccupied with winning themselves some type of marketing, advertising or PR award than they are with helping you make sales.

     When “getting sales” is what’s important, being “pretty” and having the best designs don’t always count for much.

     Odds are also that they will be fantastically talented at not letting on that they don’t really know how to help you make sales. Ask them if they’re willing to work on a expenses plus performance incentive basis. That question usually separates reality from fantasy.

     If the words you’re using don’t sparkle enough to spark action, find a wordsmith. Do some homework and scout around for an experienced individual who has a proven track-record in writing words that get sales results for clients.     

     You need fireworks? Start with someone who knows how to spark sales with sparkler words . . . words that attract attention, words that create interest, words that stimulate desire, words that bring about action, words that prompt satisfaction.

www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You and America and Our Troops. “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

No responses yet

Jun 26 2010

Rice Krispies for Business?

Does your marketing

                                      

Snap, Crackle and Pop?

                                     

     Do the words you’re using for your marketing pieces and programs toss off enough zing and sizzle to get through the clutter?

     Are you using the right words in the right ways? In other words, HOW you say what you say is at least as important as WHAT you say!

     Canadian educator/philosopher/futurist Marshall McLuhan, considered the first father and leading prophet of the electronic age, taunted us 50 years ago with his proclamation “The Medium is the Message!” Certainly there is no greater proof of that today than the Internet. Considering how visual the medium is, it’s astonishing that words stand alone as king of Internet sales.

     Or do they?

     If your homepage is still using lame old words like “Welcome to” and “Now introducing” and “Announcing” and “Therefore” and “However,” your Internet efforts are not king of much worth talking about; you might need to chat with some teenagers.

     You definitely need to throw down your walker and start listening to what the world’s most successful marketers are saying: NOTHING RUNS LIKE A DEERE and I’M LOVIN’ IT are about as close to self-talk back-pats as you’ll find.

     Take this YES/NO Test . . .

  • What are your marketing messages all about? Are they busily pounding chest with repetitive references that use THE 6 KILLER WORDS: I/me/my/us/we/our?  (Instead of focusing on “you” and “your”?) ___YES ___NO
  • Do your ads, brochures, web pages, on-hold phone messages, news releases and direct mail beat the drums with braggadocio about “how great we are”? ___YES ___NO 
  • Is the message emphasis on how much we can do for you, why / how we earn our reputation, how reliable (trustworthy / attentive / respectful / courteous) our exceptionally trained and experienced professional people are? ___YES ___NO

     If you answered “YES” to any of the above, your website and the rest of your marketing program are positively not working for you in a way that’s even close to achieving your potential. In fact, they are likely to be working against you!

     Unfortunately for most business owners, this whole world of promotional text and copywriting, website content, branding, slogans, jingles, public relations news releases, mission and vision statements, ebooks and feature articles, might as well be the makings of another Harry Potter book . . . Cauldrons of Text Turmoil perhaps? 

     So what’s the answer? How can you give your business a “Snap, Crackle, Pop” dose of Rice Krispies to make more of what you already have, and to keep costs within reason? Start with using AIDAS as your yardstick. Do your marketing words attract Attention? Do they create Interest? Stimulate Desire? Bring about Action? Deliver Satisfaction?

     Where are they weakest? Now you have the groundwork for maximizing the creative development time and energy of an experienced, qualified business writer. Spell out what you need, and agree to terms. This is MUCH smarter than hiring and giving free rein to a marketing, PR or ad agency/group who will feed you many unnecessary and expensive steps to (maybe) get to the same ends.

     The medium IS the message. Don’t let service providers run you around in circles to discover the truth of it!

  www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  
Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless:  You, America, and Our Troops. “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

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Jun 24 2010

WRITING for business results.

Ask Any Writer . . .

THE BEST WORDS

                           

DON’T FALL

                           

FROM THE SKY!

                                                             

     Making a sale and marketing a business requires having and using great words. Results-driven words. And just in case someone may have led you to believe otherwise, great “results-driven” words don’t fall from the sky, or march single-file out of some closet an hour or two (or even overnight, as some misguided car dealers believe) after brewing, steeping, or incubation.

     Great results-driven words are only born of great word craftsmanship.

     Do you think someone at General Electric locked her or him self in a sealed room with a jug of Red Bull and couple of pastrami sandwiches, only to fling open the door after half a day and burst forth into the waiting throngs of anxiously pacing top executives, and proclaim: “Aha! I’ve got it! Listen to this:

GE…Progress Is Our Most Important Product!”

     Well, do you? Right.

     And so next, the CEO no doubt stepped forward and said:

“Yeah, terrific! Now get back in your little dungeon. And while you’re there, why don’t you work up a follow-up line like “GE…We Bring Good Things To Life” — okay? And, by the way, hustle it up will you; we need this stuff for a commercial we’re filming in another hour. Uh, how’s your Bull and pastrami holding out? Got enough mustard?”

     Sure. It’s that simple. Of course, you will need the concentrated caffeine drink and concentrated salt-processed meat just in case you get stuck on a word. Hmmm. Maybe the slogan should be more like, “Innovative New Technology Is The Best Thing We Produce.”? Nah! That doesn’t really cut the pastrami mustard, does it? Or maybe, “GE…We Give Your Things A Charge!“? You get the idea.

     Though many of us would like to believe that the wordsmithing process is quick, simple, and so pain free that our good-for-nothing, 40-something brother-in-law could do the task with his hands tied behind his back because he watches 12 hours of TV a day and — by now — must be able to crank out great winning slogan and jingles faster than the Energizer Bunny on Viagra.

     Unfortunately for tightwad impatient bosses, none of this happens like squirting lighter fluid on burning charcoal. Neither is it something that’s methodically built on reams (flashdrives) full of research. But be-cause all of us watch TV, read ads and surf the Web, we think it’s no big deal to write magic marketing words.

     That, however, is like hanging around a gym for 20 years, watching, and then deciding you can use what you’ve observed to bench press 200 pounds. Good luck! You may want to have a cardiologist and chiropractor on your speed dial.

     Writing (and the magic ingredient: RE-writing) takes skill, and is best left to those who do it for a living. If you’re looking for some writing insurance, find a writer with in-depth business experience. 

 www.TWWsells.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  
Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless:  You, America, and Our Troops. “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

No responses yet

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