Never forget why you have your freedom...

I personally think it’s immoral to abandon a dog. Someone else thinks its no big deal. But this isn’t about dogs…

It’s about marketing, and things you can do to promote yourself and your business.

I just read about a business that donated 150 tuxedos to a charity for disadvantaged young people being honored for their academic success.  Whether those kids needed tuxedos or not, it was a grand gesture, and it got his business mentioned on Oprah.

Wow… that’s the kind of publicity that would cost far more than those tuxedos!

It was a generous gift, but he didn’t do it in secret. He did it in a way that would boost his business.

Some believe that’s immoral. That it isn’t really charity or generosity if you give with the expectation of publicity. They say you’re getting far more than you gave, so the generosity doesn’t count.

What do you say?

Is it OK to support the local youth groups if your name goes on a banner next to the baseball field? Is it OK to present a check to the food bank if you’ll get your picture in the newspaper as a result? If you buy 6 cartons of books for a literacy group, do you have to give in secret for it to count?

I know what I think, but what do you think?

But, earlier today I offered you a link to a one day sale and all it did was take you to a page with a picture of the banner. That was fun.

The strange thing is, I sent the same link out in an email and that one worked.

So… learn from my mistakes. Even when you KNOW it works, check it anyway.

It had a few good articles and he always chuckles over the personals page, but this time it had a guest commentary that he had to show me because it was so pompous.

He said he was still trying to decide which side of what issue the guy was on, because it shifted positions and subject matter several times throughout the 1,000 or so words of copy.

But just as damaging to its clarity was the fact that it was written in “Academic-speak.” Here are a few lines from the copy:

“Disabuse ourselves of the delusion that U.S. civilization is immune to the maladies that have eviscerated other civilizations. Whether it be from ethno-centrism, ignorance of history or denial, this ahistorical thinking is the first paroxysm of dying civilizations.” (Notice – first sentence lacks a subject.)

It turns out the writer was a “U.S. Presidential Scholar Distinguished Teacher” at a local high school. I pity his students if he spends all his teaching time trying to impress with big words rather than trying to convey a clear message.

However, I don’t think a teacher’s one-sided political views belong in the classroom, so it’s fine with me if they don’t have a clue what he’s trying to say.

One of the first things anyone learns when studying how to become a copywriter is to write like people speak.  One of the rules is “Never use a $100 word if a $5 word will fit.”

In other words, good copy conveys a clear message and draws no attention to itself. No one should ever read your message and go away thinking “I wonder what that word meant?” And no one should read your message and think “Boy that was good writing,” unless they are looking at it to see why it prompted them to take action.

Readers should go away thinking about the message – or in the case of sales copy, they should be on their way to the order page!

To heck with trying to impress anyone with how many words you know!

I came across this story on a forum today and thought it was special. So I wrote and asked permission to share it.

This year, when so many are worried about money and about how to buy enough gifts to please their friends and family, it seemed especially touching.

So… Here is Angie’s story…

It’s said that you can never have too many friends, but Christmas was just a week away and I had five people to shop for on my Christmas list and only three dollars to my name.

How do you tell you mother, brother, and three friends that you can only spend sixty cent on each of them?
“Let’s set a price limit on our gifts this year,” I suggested to my best friend, Joanie.
“That’s a good idea,” Joanie agreed. “How about nothing over five dollars?”
“How about nothing over sixty cents?” I felt like the biggest cheapskate in the world.
“I guess this is where I’m supposed to say it’s not the gift, it’s the thought that counts,” Joanie smiled. “But don’t blame me if all you get is a stick of gum!”
It is almost impossible to buy anything for under sixty cents, so it was going to have to be very small gifts with very big thoughts. I’d  never spent so much time or effort trying to come up with the right gift for the right person. Finally, Christmas day arrived, and I was worried how people would feel about my “cheap” gifts.
I gave my mother a scented candle with a note that said, “You are the brightest light in my life.” Shoe almost cried when she read the note.
I gave my brother a wooden ruler. On the back of it I’d painted. “No brother in the world could measure up to you.” He gave me a bag of sugar and had written on i t “You’re sweet.” He’d never said anything like that to me before.
For Joanie, I painted an old pair of shoes gold and stuck flowers in them with a note that said, “No one could ever fill your shoes.” She gave me a feather and a Band Aid. She said I always tickled her funny bone and made her laugh until her sides ached.
To my other two friends, I gave one a paper fan and wrote on it, “I’m your biggest fan.” To the other, I gave a calculator that cost one dollar and I painted a message on  the back, “You can always count on me.” They gave me a rusty horseshoe for luck and a bundle of sticks tied with a red ribbon because “friends stick together.”
I don’t remember all the other gifts that I got from people last Christmas, but I remember every one of the “cheap” gifts.
My brother thinks I am sweet. My mother knows she is the most important person in my life. Joanie thinks I’m funny and I made her laugh, which is important because her dad moved away last year and she misses him and is sad sometimes.
I was worried I wouldn’t have enough money for Christmas gift, but I gave to five people and still had twenty cents left over. We all still talk about our “cheap” gifts and how much fun it was to come up with a gift that cost pennies but told someone how we really felt about them.

On my bookshelf, I still have a bag of sugar, a feather, a horseshoe, and a bundle of sticks. . . and they are priceless.

Remember, this isn’t just for first-time buyers any more – and first time buyers don’t necessarily have to BE first time buyers.

Oh such confusion!

Why they chose some consumers and excluded others is one of those “What were they thinking?” questions we ask about everything the government has done lately.

But they’re taking your tax dollars, not to mention your great-grandchildren’s tax dollars, to do it.  So if you qualify, you might as well go for it.

Come to Your Home Building Site and read all about it…

Some folks, especially those high-powered ad agency types, seem to have forgotten it. It is to create sales, which mean income, which hopefully mean profits for the business or individual. Period. That’s it.

All the other parts and pieces lead right back to that. Branding is done so consumers will gravitate toward that brand – to buy. Social networking is done to create relationships so that people will gravitate toward a certain person or establishment – to buy.

So with that in mind, have you seen the ad for metal roofing on TV?

There’s a young couple about to view a home for sale, and the real estate agent mentions a few features inside the home, and then starts on the roof. She tells them how that metal roof will keep them safe from fire, last forever, look beautiful, etc.

Then she says “So, ready to make an offer?” The potential buyer asks if they can look inside first and the agent looks at them and says “Why?”

I always get a kick out of it, but I don’t see it as an effective ad.

Will it sell metal roofing, or will it just make people laugh and talk about how dumb some real estate agents are?

More importantly, will it cause homeowners to go to that particular website to buy their metal roofing? I don’t think so.

First, the ad doesn’t give any reason why theirs is better than any others, which is a huge mistake. And, it doesn’t mention the brand name – or if it does I’ve been too busy watching the silly real estate agent to notice it.

It does include the “call to action,” which is a vital part of any ad, but with the “reason why” missing, I think this ad will do more good for the company’s competitors than it will for them.

If it has any effect at all, it might just be to make people consider metal roofing if they’re building, or re-roofing a current home. Then, my guess is they’ll call their local builder, and the local builder would contact a local source.

An effective ad needs to trip an emotional trigger, then offer some logic to justify the reader’s/viewer’s interest in wanting that particular product or service. And that’s where this ad falls short.

But I’d love to hear what you think about it.

Does this ad make you want a new roof? Does it make you want a metal roof? And will you go on line to order that roofing? (And, do they put some installers in the package with the roofing when they ship it??)

Does it make you think anything different about real estate agents than you thought before? If so, what?

I’m curious to see if your impressions and mine are similar.

Here’s to good marketing,

Marte

That’s pretty much what happened to me today, with the Real Estate Career Builder Course and with the Fundraising Primer. And I’m so fed up with Payloadz that I’m trying to figure out how to just get rid of them.

This morning I made a change on my Pay Pal account – and somehow that made Payloadz automatically cancel my account. When I saw the notice I started trying to figure out what happened, and wasted a good hour on the phone with people at Pay Pal who had no idea what was going on.

Finally I just “upgraded” my Payloadz account, but in the meantime they sent me letters informing me that people had tried to buy my products, but they told them to go away. Well, that’s not the words they used, but that’s what they did. And of course they don’t keep track of who those people were, so I can’t contact them.

Right now I don’t know what would happen if someone attempted to make a purchase – I may find more of those sweet letters telling me that my “salesman” refused to sell things.

Well, please bear with me. I think maybe I’ll go back to using straight Pay Pal because this is the second time that Payloadz has pulled this stunt. But with Pay Pal I’m never sure if people got what they paid for. Anyway, if you are one of those who was turned away, or if you try to make a purchase and can’t,  just write me and we’ll figure it out.

There must be a lesson for all of us here, but I’m not quite sure what it is.