If I was more ambitious, I’d send that childhood chant to a few websites I visited today.

But I’d better begin at the beginning…

This morning at 6:23 a.m. my telephone started ringing. It took me a few seconds to wake up and realize what that noise was, so the answering machine came on. No one left a message, but the caller ID gave me a phone number.

So I decided to find out who had called.

Do you know that there are dozens of “FREE” reverse look-up sites on the Internet? One of them even gave me the initials of the person who owns that phone number. They all told me it was a cell phone in Palm Beach, Florida.

ALL of them demanded a subscription before they’d give me a name.

I don’t know about you, but if someone tells me something is free and then demands money for it, I’m not buying.

If the ad said “Reverse phone book – Find any name for only $4.95,” I’d do it if it was important. But when they lied to get me there, I wouldn’t consider it. And I also wouldn’t consider clicking on any of the affiliate banners on their sites.

Would you?

What do you think of this practice?

Right now there’s an ad for skin cream running on TV. I’ve been noticing it for at least the last two or three weeks, and every night it says the same thing: “This offer ends at midnight tonight.”

You can see the same false urgency tactic used on Internet sites. Just a small bit of script changes the date in the copy so that no matter when you visit the site, the offer ends at midnight on that date.

If the ads were true they’d be effective. But they’re not true, so they make the marketers look like exactly what they are – liars.

They also make them look like fools – or people who think their customers are fools. Do they seriously think that each potential customer will see their ad or their website only once and hurry to take action?

Another false urgency tactic I’ve seen has much the same effect.

In this scheme, the marketer sends an email offering a special price on their product for a few days – usually a week or so. Then each day they send a reminder email telling you that the deadline is getting closer so you’d better hurry to order. And then – on the last day they come up with some reason why they’re going to extend the deadline.

Maybe it was on Sunday and they know many of their customers only access the Internet at work. Maybe they had some kind of computer glitch. Maybe there was a snow storm in Florida.

But a couple of companies have used this tactic so often that everyone knows their deadlines can’t be taken seriously.

Again, it erodes their credibility and causes people to trust them less and less.

False scarcity is just as bad.

If you really do have a limited supply of an item, scarcity is a good selling point. But don’t make the mistake that one Internet marketer did.

He used scarcity to promote an e-book! Perhaps if he’d used different words it would have worked. He could have said “I’ll only sell 10 copies.” Instead he said he only had 10 copies left to sell. And that, of course, exposed him as a liar.

If you’re selling a physical product that you’re going to ship, your customers aren’t likely to know if you tell them you only have 20 and really have 2,000.

However, they’re likely to be suspicious if you keep advertising the same 20 for days and days. In fact, they’ll either assume you’re lying or they’ll decide that since nobody else wants what you have to offer, it probably isn’t worth buying.

Use urgency and scarcity carefully, and only when its true.

Unless you want a very short career in marketing, your reputation is one of your most important assets, and you’ll destroy it by telling obvious falsehoods.

But… when I write a letter for a non-profit I do expect that the letter will supply many more times the dollars to spend on the cause than they paid me for the letter. I think that most other fundraising copywriters have that same goal. Many of us charge lower fees when writing for a non-profit because it is our way to contribute to the cause.

There are, of course, other costs involved – costs such as printing, postage, and maybe even the purchase of a list. But even with those costs added in, the bulk of money coming in should benefit the cause.

That’s why I got so cranky today when I went to Charity Navigator and investigated a cause that I almost supported.

It started a couple of weeks ago when I got a phone call from the American Veterans Relief Foundation. Since I had not heard of it before, I asked a lot of questions about what they do and how they benefit veterans. The man said they helped with mortgage payments and medical bills and sent packages to patients in VA hospitals.

I told him to go ahead and send me the materials – whereupon he gave me a stern lecture about mailing costs and how important it was that they not waste any of the money going to our Veterans. If he sent the package, I must be sure to send money. It was one of those “guilt trip” lectures.

Yesterday the package came, so I went on line and Googled the organization.

I learned that of every $100 they collect, 58 cents goes to aid veterans. During one 4 year period, they raised 3.6 Million dollars, and paid out just $21,000 in grants and assistance to veterans. Three million went directly to the fund raisers, while the balance went for other “administrative costs.”

Looks to me like instead of sending these turkeys $500 you could just go find a veteran and give him $2.90.

I cannot imagine being a telemarketer and telling people blatant lies. What a terrible way to make a living.

Anyway, I’m glad that we have websites such as Charity Navigator where we can go check up on a charity before forking out our hard-earned money. There are plenty of non-profits that spend money wisely, so no shortage of ways to contribute to causes that matter to you.

But guess what? We didn’t find anything for 50% off. Everything was 25% off and a few select items were 30% off – but no 50. When we asked the clerk she said there were a couple of small items – nothing anybody wanted. They only included those little items so that claiming 50% off wouldn’t be a lie.

In other words, the advertising was intended to deceive.

After I got home and looked at my purchases I was disgusted again when I saw that I hadn’t paid good attention. I had purchased several items that were made in China, and I’m trying not to do that!

I’ll have to say, trying to avoid Chinese merchandise saves me money. I nearly bought a new pair of winter shoes in another store. They were a bit pricey, but I really could use new winter shoes. I was thinking hard about buying them until I turned them over and saw: Made in China.

Maybe I’m being unfair to the Americans who are earning a living buying and distributing those goods. But I feel like trying not to buy them is my small way of supporting American manufacturers who hire American citizens and pay them a living wage. It means paying a little more for goods – but that’s OK too, because I really don’t need all that “stuff” to move around and dust. If any of us needed all that extra junk there wouldn’t be yard sales everywhere all summer long.

Anyway… back to the marketing. You can bet that hundreds of drivers turned in to check out the prospect of buying merchandise at half off. Especially the ones who have regularly shopped at that store. Not finding the promise fulfilled no doubt made a lot of people cranky and they won’t go back for more.

That’s OK in this instance – the store is going out of business. But I’ve seen other stores make the same kind of promise, not keep it, and expect to stay in business! Not too smart.

A big promise is a good thing – but only if you keep it!

Then I read the whole article. I read part of it twice, because the truth was buried in the middle and skipped over quickly.

That truth was that revenues are still projected to be higher than the budget for the current 2 year period – the shortfall refers to the increase that the Governor wanted to include in the new budget.

In other words, the cuts aren’t cuts. They’re reductions in the increase.

There’s a marketing message in here – but I’m not sure it’s a method we should try to copy. It is, after all, deceptive.

It’s kind of like selling a weight loss product. If you promise that taking your pill means the consumer can eat anything and everything without gaining weight – but you really mean “Instead of gaining an extra 20 pounds this year, with our product you’ll only gain 18 pounds,” then I think any customers who bought the product might be a bit miffed.

I think in the current economic and political climate we all need to look past the headlines and try to get the truth of the story. I have no idea why the media is pushing fear and panic, but we’ll all be better off if we don’t buy into it – and instead just keep on doing our work well.

Yours for prosperity,

Marte

The reporter quoted one man who said that nearly every other home on his street had a for sale sign, and some real estate brokers are actively advertising that they have dozens of foreclosure properties for sale at bargain prices.

Some say this is definitely a buyer’s market. Not being involved in real estate sales any more, I don’t know if that’s actually true yet.

When I was the local broker for Fannie Mae and a couple of mortgage companies, the REO properties were always listed higher than my market analysis indicated – then came down in increments over the following months until they really were bargains. I’ll never forget Fannie turning down a good offer early on and then 12 months later selling the house for quite a bit less than that first offer. Meanwhile, they were paying for maintenance. So silly.

Anyway, back to my question. Where have all the people gone?

If thousands of families have lost their homes and those homes are now standing vacant, where are those families living? Are rental units suddenly full to overflowing? Are families moving in with friends and other family members while they try to regroup after this blow? Are some of them literally out in the street?

I hope not, especially here in our climate where the high today promises to be about 45 degrees.

I think I join with millions of other Americans when I wish our government would help the homeowners instead of the mortgage companies. I realize all were at fault – people should have read the fine print and should not have signed mortgages they had no hope of paying. But so many of the mortgage company tactics were deceptive that I really believe many did not realize that their payment would double or even triple after the first 3 or 4 years.

Their marketing was superb – but dishonest.

I trust that none who read my blogs or articles would engage in such trickery in their marketing efforts.

And as for letting company executives walk away with millions as a part of the bail out – boy do I wish I had the power to put a stop to that! They’re being rewarded for making bad decisions based on greed.

Do you agree? Disagree? Have some thoughts on the subject? Know where the people have gone?

Post your comments!

Back soon,

Marte

How about you? Will you keep on clicking that buy now button just to see how much it is – and be drawn in to the next step in the letter to get you buy, buy, buy?

I remember a LONG time ago reading some of the rules for promotion. I mean the rules beyond giving the prospect a good reason why they should buy, appealing to emotions, being conversational, and remembering to include both some proof and a call to action.

These rules had more to do with ethics, or perhaps common sense, if you want your prospects to trust you.

One was to give your name and a way for would-be customers to contact you. Don’t hide behind your copy and hope no one finds out who you are.

Another was to be up front about the price. I think maybe the final was to be honest – but hopefully that’s a given.

Anyway, right after I read that, some of the “big guns” in internet marketing started leaving the price out of their promotions. It made me cranky then, and it makes me more cranky now.

So – add that to my New Year’s Resolutions. No price, no curiosity. Just delete.

I’d love to hear your opinion!

Marte
writer@marte-cliff.com

So far, in spite of the big hype that’s been showing up in my in-box, my research tells me that these are scam techniques. I think the concept of “truth in advertising” has entirely escaped these folks.

But I’m willing to be open-minded about it if someone can tell me about sites that actually DO pay people to take surveys – without asking them to spend a bunch of money first.

I started out doing research to help a client who is writing a book on debt relief – and to offer information to subscribers to my “More Money” ezine. And now, a couple of weeks later, my in-box is flooded with dozens of ways that I could spend money. What I’m spending instead is way too much time hitting “delete” and “unsubscribe” links!

Ever see those promos – “Get a $500 gift card from (fill in the blank)” Then you only have to subscribe to a bunch of offers from various companies to get it. I have no idea how many in total, because I didn’t do it, but now I understand that cartoon/ad I saw about the princess kissing the frog.

I did see some offers asking you to pay $6.95 and then after you fill out the survey, they’ll give you back $26.95. Has anybody done those? Are they for real?

Everybody likes more money, and surveys can be fun to do. I do 2 or 3 that don’t offer to pay me, just because it’s fun. So, if you know of any sites that are really for real, please share the information with your fellow blog readers!

Thanks,
Marte

P.S. My $7 reports are now available. I’ll tell you more later, but for now, if you’d like to see what kind of good information you can get for $7, just go to www.mynewcareersite.com.