Category: Direct Response Marketing

Online Marketing – Yes or No

Now this information makes you think….:

70% of the U.S. population regularly use the Internet
Over 1 billion people in the world are online
The average adult spends 3 hours more a day online than watching T.V.
These are all encouraging statistics for small business owners. It means you have a very large target market, and as long as you have a website, you have a better chance of being found online than in a phonebook, flier, or other advertisement.

But…
There are over 400 million active websites &
The average person only gives a website 10 seconds before deciding whether the site is worth their time.
Which means, you’ve got ten seconds (or less) to:

1) attract the viewer
2) declare your message &
3) get them to take action

IMPOSSIBLE YOU SAY.  Hell NO!

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Now that is Ad copy

I think I am like most people.  I get bombared each and every day with TV ads, direct mail pieces in the mail…etc. etc.  You all understand where I am coming from.  The think I hate most about these advertisements is that it is very rare to find one that engages me.  I am looking at it, I am reading them before they go into the trash.  Bloody Hell…someone get me excited about their product or service!  Enough already with the fancy pictures and the features and benefits.  Blah Blah Blah.  Where is the story?  Where is the excitement?  Where is the freaking call to action?

Enough ranting by me.  It is becoming a lost art.  Well someone sent me a couple of examples of advertisement copy and I just thought it was great.  So here you go.  I hope you steal some of the nuggets these ads have in them.

Good Ad – Oprea

Good Ad – Offer

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Would this Marketing Strategy work for you?

Direct Marketing ExampleEverything you read below is from Dan Kennedy.  If you have no idea who he is (have you been living under a rock).  He is probably the premier copy writers in North America.  The story below is an excellent example.

Create Marketing Fireworks by “SUCKERING EM IN”

“Sex.

Ok, now that I have your attention, let me talk to you about financial planning.”

This is an ad gambit as old as the hills. Call it whatever you like: lying, bait ‘n switch, trickery. You yell out one thing to grab attention, then switch to an entirely different subject once you have eyes and ears. Sometimes it works. More often it backfires because the people instantly feel cheated or conned, and either exit as quickly as they entered, or are loathe to trust you. When it does work, the switch needs to be to something pretty darned interesting itself, and leads to such an appealing offer that people with distrust still in their mouth, respond anyway. So, in the above example, it would at least need to go from the big SEX headline to “Slashing Your Tax Bill By At Least 33% (Guaranteed) Is Even Better Than Sex! – that’s what my top clients say.”

The ad shown below suckered Platinum Member Ron Caruthers in (and yes, that does say something about Ron). He saw it in the Entertainment Section (NOT the ‘churches section’) of an alternative weekly paper, “NewTimes,” in Phoenix. The ad IS for a church. Its “wild girls/ bad boys” referenced are characters in the Bible and, presumably, representative of the reformed sinners you’ll meet there, a more interesting crowd than at most churches. That, however, should have been said, and the ad does fail to capitalize on its very effective opening; after suckering you in with the promise of “wild girls and bad boys”, it fails to convince you that, if that’s you, you will meet kindred spirits at this church, you’ll feel more at home at this church than at traditional churches, that you should check it out even if you don’t like traditional churches. This is all IMPLIED – but that’s just not good enough. It also fails as a direct-response ad: no incentive offered to visit the web site, no free recorded message at an 800#. These things are easily fixed and this could be a really great ad, with “suckering ’em in” working just fine. The added virtue of this “Outrageous Ad Bill Glazer’d Love” is its potential to garner free publicity, by being talked about on radio and TV, written about in newspapers. THE QUESTION FOR YOU is: is “suckering ’em in” a strategy you ought to use? There’s no easy answer. It is best considered when one or more of these conditions exist:

1. Your core product/service/business is instantly rejected by prospects who will want to buy/patronize it if they hear the whole story.

2. There’s enormous competitive clutter in the ad media or marketplace, with many other marketers essentially saying the same things and looking too much alike.

3. You’re “tired” and “known” in your marketplace and people are immunized to your ad messages. You need to shake things up.

4. Your ‘control’ ads, mailings, etc. are wearing out and delivering diminishing results.

5. You want to get a double whammy; not just attract ideal prospects from your advertising, but create buzz, be talked about on a wider scale.

By the way, when he sent this to me, Ron said “I’m not sure what to file this under, except maybe to slap in the face of the next dummy who insists ‘but Dan, MY business is different!'” Yes, it does speak to that, doesn’t it? After all, this is a CHURCH. A lot of people wouldn’t be aware, but I was once a featured presenter at a multi-day “church marketing conference,” have had churches as clients, and we have quite a few church pastors as GKIC Members. This is a very good illustration of the fact that NO business is different; the fundamental needs and objectives to be met by effective advertising and marketing are EXACTLY THE SAME, which is why nearly everything in every Issue of this Letter does apply to every reader’s business – and if you think otherwise, the problem isn’t with the content here, friend, it’s with you!

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Stories Sell and Facts Tell

I took this line from Clayton Makepeace, but we truly believe in his words.  I was taught something similar a long long time ago – STORIES SELL and FACTS TELL.

“Nothing sells better than a GREAT story your customers can share on your behalf. And your job as the marketer is to find a signature story worthy of telling.

The ability to tell a great story is easily learnable, and is something you should consider a must in today’s business environment.”

Just take note the next time you read, listen or watch any online, TV, radio, magazine, newspaper ad. (or maybe just look at your advertising copy….opps did I just right that).  Are you telling YOUR STORY or spurting off facts.

Thanks for the nuggets (and trip down memory lane) Clayton.

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Who the Hell are We Targeting?

Was just reading a post from one of my favorite blogs.  They had a guest writer on you did a post on basically ‘Who the hell are you targeting with your marketing’.  He did an awesome job.  Great nuggets in the story!

With what we have seen in the golf market across North America a large percentage of courses could use some of these nuggets.  I don’t want to spoil the blog post so here is the link.  Enjoy!

http://www.john-carlton.com/2010/08/vampires-werewolves-zombies-choosing-the-right-weapon/

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