Thoughts on Marketing…

Before you head out to have fun this week-end, think about how many new people you might meet - and how every new person usually asks “What do you do?”

It’s as if we’re all defined by our jobs, so that’s the first thing anyone wants to know about us.

(No wonder the millions out of work now that the stimulus package has “worked so well” are having a tough time emotionally. They feel like they’ve become nobody!)

But I digress… back to this week-end.

Whatever you do, I’m sure you’re not Bernie Madoff, so you are helping people in some way. Put that firmly in your mind, so that you won’t feel hesitant to promote yourself to every new person you meet.

You don’t have to be pushy. Just write and rehearse an “elevator speech” that you’ll use for an answer every time someone says “What do you do?”

Be concise, so they’ll understand instantly. When I first turned to copywriting full time I used to say “I’m a copywriter.” Well, that was dumb - nobody knows what that is. If they guess, they think I do legal work to secure rights to books or music.

So  now I say “I write letters, emails, web pages, and other marketing materials to help other people build their businesses.”

Even though it feels silly, after you write your speech, tell it to the mirror, your kids, your spouse, your dog - until it feels natural and you know you’ll say it automatically when someone asks.

Next - put a handful of business card in your pocket. When you’ve conversed with someone about your work and their work (be sure to ask about them - show some interest!) then hand them your business card. Depending upon what they’ve said you can ask them to pass it along to anyone you could help, or tell them you’ll be glad to help them. Be sure to ask for their cards in return, and let them know that you’ll pass it along to anyone they can help.

This week-end’s good time could result in new business for you - so don’t be afraid to get out there and let new people know how you can help them.

Wishing you success,

Marte

P.S. As you plan for this holiday, be sure to plan for keeping your pets safe. When I worked in animal rescue the week after the 4th was a heartbreaker. So many people took their dogs along on a camping trip or left them at home in the yard - and never saw them again.

Pets are frightened by the noise and the lights, and they run, and run, and run… until they’re so lost that they never find their way home.

Keep your dogs and cats in the house, and give them a place to hide. If you’re going away for the week-end and won’t have a place to keep them safe, spend the money to put them in a kennel. They won’t like it, but at least they’ll still be alive and at home on Monday.

Yesterday I posted an ad on Craig’s List for a Duplex my son would like to sell. This morning I had two responses to that ad.

One was from someone promoting a company that’s “buying everything.” Yeah, sure they are - if you want to sell at a loss they’ll help you out. That one didn’t impress me much.

But the other one was an example of good marketing. It was a well-written letter from an Escrow Company, offering their services should we decide to sell the Duplex on a seller contract.

They outlined their experience and offered to answer any questions we might have about selling in that manner. I was impressed and wrote back to tell them so.

Would YOUR business benefit from watching Craig’s List or other on-line classifieds?

Think about it. Then go to Craig’s List and look around. You might get ideas just by browsing the categories and checking out a few of the ads.

The people who thrive in this economy are the people who are willing to explore new ideas and search for customers and clients in new places. Where are you searching?

Today’s newspaper ran a story about the high cost of insuring a vacant home. It told of the plight of homeowners who had to move before their home sold due to job transfers, and who were stunned when their insurance premium increased by eightfold.

The insurance companies claim that in addition to a greater risk of vandalism, a vacant house is prone to expensive repairs resulting from no one noticing things like a water leak or a door left open in winter.

The case study told of a couple who found the solution by getting a tenant who would cooperate with their Realtor on showings, etc. in exchange for a reduced rent.

Now, that may be a good plan, but I can see glitches.

For one thing, a tenant who is living in a nice home at reduced rent isn’t going to want the house to sell. Any of us who have ever rented a home or apartment know how difficult it is to find a good place at a reasonable price. So, while they might cooperate, they might ALSO do little things to discourage a sale.

I recall one gentleman whose house was always neat and tidy if you showed up on short notice - but if he had a day’s notice the dirty dishes would be all over the kitchen, the bed unmade, the living room littered with magazines, clothes, etc. and the toilet un-flushed!

Other tenants, insisting they had to be there to guard their possessions during a showing, would give potential buyers little “tips” about what was wrong with the house, the neighbors, etc.

While reading that story, it occurred to me that this could be an opening for an entire new industry. It would take a certain personality and lifestyle to pull it off, but with so many young people out of work right now, it just might work.

Instead of renting the house out to someone who may or may not keep it clean and ready to show, why not hire a professional to come in and “live there” one or two nights per week? The homeowner would have to leave a minimum of furniture in the home (including a refrigerator and stove), and leave the TV cable turned on.

An ambitious entrepreneur could potentially “live in” 7 homes at a time, rotating days and times of day at the home. Perhaps a visit to the home each day or every other day would be included, with one night per week of sleeping there.

Depending upon the level of service he (or she) wanted to offer, he could take care of yard maintenance, forward any mail that still shows up after the owners move, etc.

An individual, or even a couple, with no pets and no children might find this to be an interesting add-on career and could charge a reasonable fee while being freed from the cost of rent and utilities.

What would a homeowner pay to know that someone was keeping an eye on their property while reducing their insurance premiums from about $4,000 per year back down to the former premium of about $500?

I don’t know, but at $100 per month they’d save $2,400 and be able to stop paying when the house sold. My experience with insurance policies is that they’re heavily weighted toward the front end. If you cancel after 8 months you might get back 10% of the premium - not 25%.

It’s something to think about. If anyone you know is already doing this, write and tell me - I’m really curious.

Face it - the only people who want someone who is “new” are the ones who are so hoping to get a low price that they’re willing to take a chance on you.

They might even offer to let you work for them for free in order to build your reputation, your portfolio, your experience, etc.

Phooey on that! If you love what you’re doing, and you’re good at it, you don’t need to work for peanuts. And you don’t need to give anyone a reason to think you will.

It’s true that you can’t cite years of experience or present a vast porfolio, so don’t talk about that at all. Talk about what you can do for your prospective clients, and how well you will do it.

The real estate agent who was licensed two months ago can still talk about her knowledge of the community, his dedication to returning calls promptly, her expertise in preparing attention-getting flyers and on-line home tours, and his listening or negotiating skills.

If you’ve just begun a business in graphic design, or copywriting, or landscaping, or dog obedience training, in addition to the schooling you took to hone your skills, you have something that came before that made you get into that business. Use that experience and expertise to show the benefits you’ll bring to your customers.

Each person has something special to offer - so concentrate on the value you bring, not on the fact that you’re new.

Always, always, always remember that your marketing message isn’t about you - it’s about the benefits you offer to your customers. The sooner you forget how to say “I” the better your marketing will be.

(Yes, with the exception of your “about me” page on the web… but even there, don’t go overboard!)

Good marketing!

Marte

Have you looked at many “About Me” pages? Do they confuse you? Some of them confuse me.

Talking about yourself isn’t easy - at least for most of us it isn’t easy. We’ve been conditioned since childhood not to do that. I don’t mean talking about events in your life the way we do with friends, I mean talking about yourself - especially telling good things about yourself.

Maybe that’s why so many “About” pages are messed up.

The writer starts out saying something like “Mary Jane can attribute her success to the fact that she always puts her customer’s needs first… ” and then half way through the paragraph the voice will switch and it will say “I love nothing better than seeing a young family moving into their first home and knowing that I helped them get there.”

It’s confusing. Is someone talking about Mary Jane, or is Mary Jane talking?

Most of my copywriting clients prefer that their about page be about them - but I don’t think it really matters which way you do it, as long as you stay consistent.

A personal message from the person to his or her customers does have some charm that the other lacks. The problem with it is that at some point, it will become necessary to use the word “I” and we all know you’re not supposed to do that in marketing copy. It’s all about the customer, after all!

But… the about page is different. Your customers go there to learn about you so they can decide if you’re the kind of person they want to do business with. That’s why I encourage everyone to include something personal.

You don’t have to tell your life history, but when you share the fact that you have pets, or your daughter just started college, or you volunteer for a certain non-profit group, you give those customers insight into who you really are and give them a way to recognize ways that you are like them.

People like to do business with others who are “like them” so the more opportunities you give them to find your “alikeness” the better.

By the way, you can combine the “about” and the “from” if you do it correctly. Just introduce your personal message with something along the lines of “Mary Jane says…” and then put your own words in quotations.

So before you write your about page, or before you edit and update it, decide who will be speaking. Is it you, or is it someone talking about you? Once you decide, stick with the voice all the way to the end.

If you’ve decided to pretend you’re someone else and talk about yourself, go back and re-read when you’re finished, looking for spots where you might have switched. It is way too easy to accidentally slide over and start “talking” to people in your own voice.

Tonight I took a few minutes to look at the statistics on my recent ezines - you may not know that I send out 3 different ones: One is general marketing, one for real estate agents, and one for fundraisers.

In going back over the numbers for the last year or so, one thing is consistent - the fundraising ezine gets opened more than the others. Usually there are about half again as many people, percentage-wise that read the fundraising ezine than the others.

Is that because people working for non-profits are more actively seeking information? Is it because they get less email “junk” and so a message to them is less apt to get lost in the avalanche?

I don’t suppose I’ll know the answer to that question, but I do find it interesting. It doesn’t seem to have anything to do with subject lines.

Something else that’s interesting - if I find a product that I think will help people and send a special message to tell about it, or if I offer a sale on one of my own products, I always get a few unsubscribes.

This week I offered my Real Estate Career Builder course at less than half price: 6 lessons for $47, with a full money back guarantee. And that made a couple people cranky enough to unsubscribe.

Maybe they were agents who have all the business they could possibly want and don’t want to be bothered hearing about how to make more sales? I suppose I could write and ask them why, but I don’t suppose I will. They have a right to unsubscribe without being hassled by me.

Life, and the internet, is full of puzzles. And while we can track results and tweak things in response, none of us can ever really understand what goes on in someone else’s head. We just have to keep trying, if we want to be successful marketers. That does include asking questions if we can do it without being intrusive.

Enough of my puzzles… onward.

Everyone knows that building a list is one of the keys to successful marketing on line. And with that in mind, I’d like to direct you to one of my favorite internet marketing Gurus. David Risley seems to have it all figured out when the subject is how to make a good living with a blog - and his recent article about Viral Landing pages is one I saved to put to use. If you’re trying to build a list, you might want to read it.

You know all the copywriting rules say that before you can market to someone, you have to know what motivates them. You have to know what they really want - what they really think.

When I was first studying copywriting (which I still do, because there’s always more to learn) there was one phrase I read so many times I got sick of it. That was that you had to know “What kept them up at night.”

In other words, you had to know what scared them, so you could tap into that fear and offer the solution with your product. That does apply to a lot of goods and services - not all, of course. Hardly anyone lays awake at night wondering if they’re going to buy the right deodorant or bath towels.

Well, at least I don’t think very many people would lay awake worrying about that. I could be wrong!

Anyway… yes, fear is one motivator. But there are many others. Desire for something better is another. Not because they HAVE to have it, but because they want it. They think they’ll be happier if they have it.

But we still don’t know which person wants which thing. And most of us don’t have the big dollars to hire some kind of survey firm to find out. So what’s the next best thing?

Think of someone you know who uses the product or service you sell - and talk to them. Hopefully, you can think of someone who likes you well enough to sit down over coffee or a drink and just talk about it.

Ask them why they use that particular product - how they hope to benefit by using it - what made them choose this one over that one. If it’s a service you provide for them, or could provide for them, ask them what’s important about it, and why.

If you can think of several people, try to talk to all of them. And take notes.

Let them know that they’re helping you with marketing, and that their opinions are valuable to you. Everyone likes to be valuable, you know!

After each meeting, go home and write up your notes. Add any feelings you got - any subtle hints about a deeper “want” that they may not have spoken out loud, or that came out in conversation before or after you talked about your product or service.

For instance, you might learn that while your friend Janie thinks she wants to buy your Tupperware products because they do a good job, deep down she wants to have the “name brand” product in her kitchen because her sister-in-law can’t afford it.  She needs a little ego boost, but she isn’t about to come right out and say so!

When you’ve talked to as many people as you can, go back over all your notes looking for common themes - and then keep those wants and needs in your mind as you write your marketing materials. If you have a photo of one of those friends, stick it up by your computer so that you’re thinking about that person, and writing TO that person when you work on your promotion.

Remember, your marketing is always to one person. You may want to sell to thousands, but one person at a time will buy.

And yes, that does mean that you use the word “You” rather than “some of you,” or “all of you.”

Have you thought that it would be fun to add a favicon to your website? (That’s that little icon up in the title bar just before your site name - all the “big kids” have them.)

I thought it would be fun, and I read about how to install them, but didn’t have a program to create a graphic with an .ico extension. I spent part of one day looking around and then decided that I didn’t need it after all.

So, yesterday when I saw a Tweet on Twitter about how to install a favicon on Wordpress, I followed the link. And there - at the end of the article - was a link to a site where I could create one.

Such fun!

I went there, created the favicon, and installed it on www.marte-cliff.com per instructions. It worked perfectly, but I decided I didn’t like it. My favicon was purple, but my website is mostly blue.

So I tried to change it - and so far, I can’t do that. Is this strange, or what?

I even deleted the favicon entirely, removed the coding from the page and sent it out again. But when I refreshed my page, the purple favicon is still there. And when I replaced the coding and sent the new favicon out, the original one is still there.

Not being a web tech, I can’t figure out how this can be. If I change something else on my site and send it back out, it changes. Why not this?

The bottom line is - this works. But be sure you have the image you want before you send it out because you might be stuck with it. Here’s the link for creating your favicon: http://www.prodraw.net/favicon/index.php

You’ll need an image to upload before you get there. Remember this is a tiny thing - 16 X 16 pixels, and choose your image accordingly. You can have anything you want, because you choose an image from your computer to upload.

Here’s the link with instructions for adding it to Wordpress: http://techravings.info/2009/06/easiest-way-to-add-favicon-to-a-wordpress-blog.html

I haven’t tried that one yet. I did start, but when I saw that it was going to take several steps I decided to leave it for another day. This Hughes Net connection takes so long to open new pages, and I’m so tech illiterate that I could see it taking me an hour or more.

If you have high speed and are technologically literate, it might take the 10 minutes “as advertised.”

Oh, and if you happen to go to my website and YOU see a blue favicon, let me know would you? Maybe this is just something about my computer that makes the purple one get “stuck.”

We all know that before we sit down to write any kind of marketing piece, we need to know who the prospective buyer is.

Once we know, we’re supposed to form an image of that person, consider what matters most to them, what they worry about, what excites them, what motivates them, and more.

But do we really know?

Do most marketers realize that overall, in American society, most of our buyers are women? Even when it comes to products made especially for men, women are apt to be the ones pulling out the checkbook and making the purchase.

According to Martha Barletta, author of Marketing to Women:

Women influence 95% of all purchases and control 80% of all household spending.

We’ve gone beyond responsibility for choosing food, clothing, and household goods. Now we not only influence men’s choices in everything from computers to motorcycles, to boats, to new cars, we’re buying a lot of them on our own. We also buy or influence the decision to buy insurance and other financial products.

In addition to influencing decisions made by a spouse, 27% of all households in the US are headed by single women - who buy everything her household needs.

Any marketer who ignores women, or who assumes that when the purchase is a high-ticket item the woman will have to get permission from a man before she buys, is making a huge mistake.

I think back to a time about 15 years ago when I decided I wanted a new car. My husband had been happy with the service of a certain sales person in a neighboring town, so my son and I set off to see him. When I told him what I was looking for he took us for a walk out to the lot, but didn’t offer to let us drive the car. He did say I should come back when Carl was with me.

I said “Phooey on that guy” and we went on. Over the next couple of weeks I visited several car dealerships with much the same results. In one, I walked all around the showroom reading stickers and looking at cars while ALL the salesmen stood leaning against the wall, arms folded, just watching me. Not one even offered to talk to me. Maybe if they’d had a saleswoman I’d have gotten service?

Finally, I walked into a small dealership just a few miles from home - a place where I had taken cars for repairs several times. When I walked in they greeted me by name and asked how they could help. And even though they only had about 3 to choose from, they had what I was looking for, so I bought a car.

I was kinda glad it all turned out that way. The dealership I bought from was a small, family run business and I liked the people. It was good to spend money there instead of with a faceless corporation.

Of course, depending upon your product, you may be selling to men. But don’t automatically assume that you are. Do some research, find out who buys products like yours, and then market to them. In addition to trying to get “inside the head” of the end user of your product, you need to get inside the head of the person who will make the purchase.

Have you considered buying a software program that guarantees to make dozens of new articles from just one - by changing some words to other words with the same meaning?

If so, you may get more comedy than content.

This morning I got a google alert that one of my ezine articles had been picked up by someone. When I read the little blurb that came with the notice I started laughing, so of course had to go see what the article looked like.

I suppose I should have been upset, because my name is on it. But instead I laughed until I had tears in my eyes.

This was an article about buying or building in a subdivision, subject to conditions, covenants, and restrictions.

Here’s some of what I found:

A paragraph that said:

Associations protect property values by restricting things like junk cars in the driveway, and give you percs such as access to a fitness room, golf course, or pool. Some even take care of your yard maintenance.

Came out like this:

Associations protect concept values by restricting things same fling cars in the driveway, and provide you percs such as admittance to a shape room, sport course, or pool. Some modify verify tending of your field maintenance.

Another one that said:

You may also learn that you’re restricted in the kind of roofing and siding you use - and if the house is to be painted, the color of that paint.

Ended up like this:
You haw also see that you’re limited in the category of roofing and railroad you ingest - and if the concern is to be painted, the colouration of that paint.

But the reason I’m still laughing is the description that came on my google alert. The actual resource box read:

Marte Cliff is a freelance copywriter - a former real estate broker, and the wife of a retired home builder. Over 20 years experience in dealing with both new home construction and clients who were financially damaged over land purchases and home construction projects led her to write two consumer e-books on the subjects.

But when I read it on Google it said:

Marte Cliff is a worker copywriter - a past actual realty broker, and the spouse of a old bag builder. Over 20 eld undergo in handling with both newborn bag cerebration and clients who were financially dilapidated over realty purchases and bag cerebration projects led her to indite digit consumer e-books on the subjects.

I’ve been calling my husband an “Old Bag Builder” all day, and I’m still laughing…