I’m sure glad I didn’t forget today!

Seeing that my Active Rain profile was in sad need of updating, I took the time this morning to do it. Then I checked to see what it looked like.

I have no idea why or where it came from, but at the top of each section there were at least 100 lines of “gobbledy-gook.” I went into the HTML editor and got rid of them, but if I hadn’t checked, all a visitor would have seen was – yuck.

After that was repaired I checked all the links and they’re fine.

But earlier this week, one of my links wasn’t fine. When I posted the blog about the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act, I included a link for agents to use in requesting a letter I’d written. For whatever reason, the first attempt at creating a link didn’t work – it led to an error page.

So… Check and double check. Sometimes strange things can appear when you upload – and links you thought were fine can be broken.

In this dream, I was thinking about the keywords for the post and writing things about potatoes. Then suddenly I thought “What am I doing?” This post isn’t about potatoes!

No, what it was about was customer satisfaction, customer service, and delivering what you promise. It was about consumers being able to have some faith in the quality of the merchandise they buy. Maybe even about integrity in marketing, since those bags of awful potatoes are labeled “#1.” (I don’t want to think what #2 or #3 look like.)

So, when you write a blog post (or any other content) stop and think about the “core idea” of your message.

For instance: You may be writing about a celebration coming up in your community, but what you’re really writing about is the fact that your community is a good place to live. Here you’ll find good things to do, involved citizens, etc.

Whatever your core idea, be sure to include it in your copy – and in your keywords.

Image courtesy of Dreamstine.

Today’s message was a reply to the test message. I knew what it would be, but thought that “just in case” it was important, I’d better check into it.

First, the email said he had a secure message, so needed to click and go to myhealth.va and access secure messaging.

OK, got there. I don’t see anything that says secure messaging, so I’ll sign in. That’s another click.

Now, I’m in. So where is it? Hunting around, I found a little button at the top. We’ll go there now.

Oh good. It says there’s a message. But first I have to click again to see it.

I did it because it was from the VA and might have been important. (It wasn’t.) But if that had been an advertiser wanting me to go see what he had to offer, I’d have been gone after the 2nd click.

Think about that …

***Does Facebook marketing fail?***

“Like seven-year old soccer players, we insist on chasing the
ball in a pack. The latest ‘ball’ of course is social media,”
says Ian Percy.*

But, according to Ad Age, a six-week study of Facebook’s Fan
pages showed a mere 0.45% of fans engaged in any way beyond
clicking “Like.” This indicates that Facebook fan bases and
actual engagement aren’t the same thing.

The average engagement for the 10 brands with the largest fan
bases (like Harley Davidson, Nike and Porsche) was 0.36%. The
highest engagement was in the alcohol category and the lowest in
laundry detergent, social platforms and apps.

In other Facebook marketing news, my colleague Brian Croner
reports that “world famous Sun Valley Ski Resort here in Idaho,
invested their entire $950,000 ad budget in Facebook advertising
in 2011 and it bombed. It bombed so bad in fact, they fired
their marketing director. Last year they had more snow than they
knew what to do with and still couldn’t pack the hotels after
using FB exclusively.

“Starting last fall and into 2012, I saw ads running in Ski
magazines and on television. And despite it being a weak
snow year, they had good crowds and full hotels. There’s been
a large score of so called marketing/ad agencies trying to push
FB and other Social Media as a primary and not as a
supplemental media. And it’s sad how many companies have
taken the bait.”

*Source: Jeff Davidson.

Again: “This article appears courtesy of Bob Bly
Direct Response Letter.”

Why? She’s brilliant at accounting, and I’m not at all embarrassed to admit I need her help figuring out debits and credits. I’m also not embarrassed to hire a mechanic for my car or a professional to cut my hair. I didn’t study those things and have no talent for them.

So what?

Unfortunately, too many people who think they “should” be able to write go ahead and do it. They write their own sales letters and ad copy – with results that are often detrimental to their success. A poorly written letter can be worse than no letter at all.

Realtors often have a second problem: time.

In addition to thinking they should be able to write, some people suffer from thinking that they should be able to write a good letter on the first draft, or turn out a winning ad in 15 minutes — and they should be able to do it in between other tasks that have their minds spinning seven different directions.

When they’re running from one appointment to the next and trying to take care of client details in between, that might be all the time they have to devote to the task, but it just doesn’t work that way.

The truth is good copywriting takes time, study, and plenty of thought. And after that it takes proofreading. Depending upon the subject matter, one simple sales letter could take all day to write.

One postcard could take several hours. In fact, sometimes the shortest copy can take the most time, because each word is so important. Copywriters spend a lot of time considering words and their impact and trying to choose exactly the right ones to evoke the desired emotions in their readers.

If you’ve been writing your own copy and not getting the results you want, try finding a good copywriter. Do the job you do best — such as selling homes, staying in touch with people, and tending to all the details involved in a closing — and let a professional write the copy that will bring you more customers.

Quit feeling guilty because you’re not a professional copywriter, web designer, auto mechanic, hairdresser, or accountant. Instead, keep on being the best expert you can be in your own field and be thankful that you don’t have to do everyone else’s job in addition to your own.

By the way, that thankfulness is a good trait to practice!

I see it online. I see in in print ads. And it’s not just real estate people telling it – it’s everyone from our local accountant to garage mechanics to insurance salesmen to building contractors.

It annoys me first because it’s a lie. It annoys me second because it’s a lazy way to advertise your services.

What is this lie?

“I can handle all of your needs.”

I wrote about it in this week’s real estate marketing ezine, but the same principle applies to any business.

Whatever it is that you do, take the time to tell your readers. They know you can’t do it “all,” so don’t make them guess about what you can do.

“Excessive Adjectives – too Much of a Good Thing.”
Blame Your English Teacher
Blame Your Mom
Blame Fear of breaking the law
You aren’t addressing your prospects’ concerns”

Now that you know where to place the blame, you can start to do something about it.

That starts with taking the time to write. No good copy is written in an instant.

Begin with getting it all out on paper, then sort, re-arrange, and delete anything that doesn’t add to your main topic.

Next, tighten it up. That means getting rid of “fluff” and extra words that serve no purpose except to fill space. Replace long words with short ones and long sentences with short ones.

Eliminate any words that any person in your target audience might not understand. Even if you use terms like “experiential,” “protracted,” and “tertiary” in real life – get them out of your copy.

And if you can’t overcome the reasons why or don’t have the time to write effective marketing copy, get in touch.

Writing to help you succeed is what I do.

And yet, amateur marketers still pay too much attention to the rules their High School English teacher taught. The result is dry as a bone, stiff copy.

And you know, nobody reads dry words until they’re required to do so.

At the same time, being too casual makes you sound a little demented. And I HAVE seen it done. In fact, I’ve received emails with a subject line that went something like: “Like You Gotta Dig This!”

Uh – no, I like don’t gotta.

I thought that “like” habit had fallen out of fashion years ago – but I was wrong. I not only heard it in the grocery store this week, I heard it on a television commercial tonight.

But there are a couple of other common errors that I’m seeing more and more lately.

One is the over-use or mis-use of commas.

Look how difficult it is to read this:

By now, you know, that following instructions, from your high school English teacher, will cause you to write dry, dull, uninspiring copy.

This one is SO easy to avoid. Here’s the trick:

After you write a sentence or a paragraph, read it out loud. Pause at every comma. If it sounds like normal conversation – great. If it sounds choppy or clunky or halting (as if you were really not sure about what you wanted to say) get rid of a few commas.

The other is the over-use of descriptive words and phrases.

Take this sentence from a property description one of my ezine readers found on an agent website: “Well-favored uncommonly modern kitchen equipped with top-of-the line appliances and unpredicted materials.”
(No, that’s not a typo. It said “unpredicted.”)

Sadly, all those words draw attention to themselves and away from the message they were meant to convey.

Keep it simple – and communicate.

First, show them how the law of supply and demand dictates that rents will continue to rise. In some communities it is already cheaper to pay a mortgage payment than a rent payment. If foreclosures continue, so this trend should also continue.

Get the numbers for your own community and show them the comparisons.
Then talk about the fact that mortgage payments build equity for you while rent payments build equity for the landlord.

But here’s what’s really important:

As long as you don’t plan to move, it doesn’t matter if your home increases or decreases in value over the next couple of years. If you want pride of ownership, love the home, and can comfortably afford the payment, that’s what matters.

Next, when you own your home you don’t have to answer to a landlord. You can paint the walls, change the light fixtures, and drive nails to hang pictures. You can even move a wall if you really want to.

On top of that, when you own your home and have a fixed rate mortgage you don’t have to worry about the monthly cost going up or being evicted because your landlord failed to make payments (or wants his kids to move in, or sells to someone who wants to live there themselves.)

Of course there are tax advantages. I found a website that shows how much tax you pay after deductions – and it can be eye opening.

For instance, for the year 2011, a married couple filing jointly will pay $22,372 on an after deductions income of $100,000. Pretend for a minute that they have $16,000 in deductible interest and no other itemized deductions. After eliminating the standard deduction of $11,400, they’d still have an additional $4,600 in deductions for income tax purposes. Their tax bill would drop to $16,100. That savings of $6,272 comes to $522 per month that could go toward a house payment, savings, vacations, or whatever else they liked.

And of course, if they have other itemized deductions, such as employee business expense or medical bills that would normally be swallowed into the standard deduction, their savings will be even higher. And this doesn’t consider state taxes – if you have those, they might save there as well.

Check out that website I found, and use it to show your fence sitting buyers how much they’ll save.

http://www.moneychimp.com/features/tax_brackets.htm

Your business card should do two things:

• Reveal both your name and your face – so that people who don’t remember your name can connect your friendly and helpful attitude with your face.
• Reveal what you do. If you sell real estate, say where or specify your niche. If you’re an engineer, tell what kind of engineer. If you’re a writer, let them know what kind. For example: Novels, poetry, news, or marketing copy.

Once you have that informative card – give it away to as many people as you can. Here are some ideas:

Start with people you meet in social situations. You don’t have to be pushy about it, just hand them a card and say something friendly and non-threatening. For instance, “Get in touch any time you want to know what’s going on in our market.”

Do the same for people you chat with when you’re shopping or doing errands. For instance, the grocery store checker, the bank teller, and the pharmacist.

And then…

When you pay a local bill by mail, put a card in the envelope.

When you leave a nice tip – leave your card with it.

When you volunteer to help with a project and will need to be in touch with other volunteers, give each of them your card. You don’t even have to mention your business, it’s just the easiest way to give them all the contact information they need.

When you meet with your child’s teacher, give him or her your card. Again – it’s a good way to provide your contact information.

Give your card to the providers you pay – like your doctor, dentist, hairdresser, mechanic, dog groomer, and veterinarian. And remember the people who mow the lawn, clean the house, service the pool, and wash the windows.

Every one of those people is a potential source of business, and you should never assume that they know what you do for a living.