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Posts Tagged ‘marketing’

The 5 W’s Of Effective Copywriting

Monday, July 13th, 2009

We recently welcomed a new Creative Consultant to our staff, and as part of the training process, we staged mock client interviews. I was asked to role-play as the representative from a local credit union, and the new colleague called me to discuss what should be in their next On Hold Messaging update.

In a post-call review, I came up with a list of suggestions for this kind of interview. Just like our journalistic brethren, we copywriters should ask, “Who, What, Where, When and Why,” but with a focus on marketing goals. With this in mind, here are my 5 W’s Of Effective Copywriting:

WHO can you target for a special focus in this piece? (For the credit union, it could have been prospective car buyers, college students in search of a tuition loan, shoppers looking for a better deal on a credit card, homeowners needing an equity loan, etc.)

WHAT product(s) or service(s) can you spotlight? (i.e., auto loans, checking accounts, online banking, financial planning services, etc.)

WHERE can you direct your audience in a call to action? (i.e., stop in today and talk with us, stay on the line and ask for more information, visit our web site to apply, watch for our mailer, fill out the form that’s coming in your next statement, look for our ad, etc.)

WHEN will any other marketing pieces or promotions be running that can work hand-in-hand with this copy?

And with every topic you should always ask:

WHY should your customers care about this? If there’s not an obvious answer — or you can’t find an angle that’s important to the customer — it’s probably self-serving and should be dropped.

Tags: copywriting, marketing, on hold messaging, training
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13 Steps To Get Started Marketing With Twitter

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

So everyone’s telling you to get started marketing with Twitter. Easier said than done, right? Actually, it is easy when you use the 13-step approach offered here courtesy of Debra Ellis and her MarketingProfs.Com article on how to Use Twitter to Attract Prospects and Engage Customers:

1. Create 50-100 tweets that fit your brand and objective. Keep them to approximately 120 characters so they can be easily retweeted (re-posted by others). In the case of the gardening example, tweets could range from planting times to frost warnings.

2. Open your user account with your business name as your user ID. Complete the profile, including the bio, and include the names of all those who post. People connect with people best. You want a personal connection. (Don’t panic. This doesn’t mean that you will be having tea with your followers… unless you want to.)

3. Add an avatar. Some choose to use their corporate logo, whereas others use their own photo. Choose what feels right to you and fits your brand.

4. Create a unique background that represents your company. There are services available to do this, but you can do it in-house. You want it to have the same look and feel as your corporate website. Make sure that the background-text details are visible on different types of monitors. Not everyone has the latest and greatest technology.

5. Determine the best days to tweet. These would be the days that your customers or prospects are most likely to be online. Select a scheduler to post your tweets. Remember that the world is open 24/7. As Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett remind us, it’s five o’clock somewhere. Running the tweets for an 8-12-hour cycle and then repeating them expands your coverage.

6. Make sure that some of your tweets have links back to your website. Make it easy for people to find you. Don’t expect them to go to your profile for your link, and don’t overdo it. If every tweet has a link, people resist following you.

7. Start the Twitter test. Consistently tweet for a minimum of 30 days (90 is better). Watch your traffic and sales to ensure that you’re receiving a return on your investment. At the end of the trial period, decide whether to continue or quit.

8. Don’t be a hit-and-run tweeter. Check in periodically on the days that your messages appear for comments, retweets, and new followers. Respond when appropriate. The idea is engagement, not blasting.

9. Resist becoming addicted to Twitter. Your objective is to create and enhance relationships, not be tethered to an electronic device.

10. Always remember that your tweets are a reflection on your brand, and they are permanent. Twitter has a delete option, but the tweets still show up in a search.

11. Don’t worry about the number of people following you. Think about the quality. When I first started acquiring followers, most were “get rich quick, let me tell you how for the low price of” marketers. I noticed that if I didn’t respond to their tweets, they stopped following me within a week. I’m sure that those who follow me will always include similar folks, but my focus is on the people who read my tweets and connect with me.

12. Have fun. You are meeting new people, broadening your horizons, and hopefully gaining new customers. If that isn’t fun, you are in the wrong business.

13. Ask for help if you are unsure how to proceed. There are people available to guide you.

Tags: marketing, MarketingProfs, tips, Twitter
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Company Differentiates Itself from Major Retailer by Detailing Customer Experience

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

You probably know the latest round of Best Buy commercials by now — the Best Buy employees are telling the stories of how they’ve interacted with customers to make their dreams come true. The latest commercial in the series kicks it up a notch and takes Wal-Mart to task.

The employee is telling a story about a customer who calls in asking very specific questions about televisions. The employee asks the customer where they are calling from, and the customer replies Wal-Mart. See the whole spot here. (It starts at about the 14-second mark.)

Major ouch for Wal-Mart. Not only are they being portrayed as not being experts in electronics, but also as shoddy at customer service.

The sad fact for Wal-Mart is it’s true. I had the same experience when I went shopping for a new flat screen LCD television. I priced models at Target and Wal-Mart. Target was too expensive, and I couldn’t find anyone to answer my questions. At Wal-Mart, the prices were great, but I had questions. When I tried to ask the sales associate on the floor, not only did he initially brush me off, but when he finally got around to talking to me, it turned out that I knew more about the televisions than he did!

So I, like the customer in the commercial, went to Best Buy. I didn’t know about their price-match promise, and truthfully, it wouldn’t have mattered. The sales person (yes, I had to wait for a bit to speak with one, it was a busy day in the store) was attentive, answered all my questions, and actually talked me out of buying the more expensive set I was considering because their store brand had all the same features, and was manufactured by the same company, it just didn’t have the big name attached to it.

Score one for Best Buy.

I don’t know why I didn’t go there first… probably because I was fixated on Wal-Mart’s low prices. But I’m proof that people are willing to pay a little more for personal attention and great advice. And that’s a lesson we can all use when running our businesses. Counsel your customers/clients. Provide them with great information and honest feedback. This brings more value to their experience than you know, and it will be worth more to you in the long run with a satisfied, loyal customer who may one day turn in to your biggest cheerleader.

Tags: consulting, customer experience, customer service, marketing
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Communicating With Your Customers

Monday, May 4th, 2009

A recent study by Mindset Media reveals that personality is a more effective predictor for media consumption behavior than traditional demographic signifiers like age, gender and income.

As reported by Beth Snyder Bulik for AdAge, Mindset surveyed over 5,000 people using 21 elements of personality including leadership, openness, perfectionism and dynamism, as well as traditional demographics. The findings were interesting. See the full article here.

What happens after you’ve combined traditional demographic data and personality indicators to determine your marketing direction? You spend a lot of your marketing budget trying to get consumers to call, click or visit. But what happens to your marketing messages after that?

That’s where Point-Of-Entry Marketing comes in.

A point of entry is any portal through which people access your business or organization, such as your telephone, your website, and your front door. Point-Of-Entry Marketing picks up where your mass marketing leaves off and provides a smooth transition into your business or organization.

No matter what demographic or personality profile your customers fit into, you can reach them with your most important messages at a time when they are ready to buy – when they’ve called you, visited your website, or come to your location.

And the best part is, it’s cost-effective because you already own the medium. You don’t have to buy air time on your phone lines; there are never any competitors’ messages playing in your lobby or your store; and no one else can put their sale information on your website.

Learn more about Point-Of-Entry Marketing here.

Tags: advertising, budget marketing, low cost media, marketing, marketing on a budget, media, messages on hold, music on hold, newspaper, on hold music, radio, telephone, television
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The ABC’s Of Effective Marketing

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

Recently, a health care client was reviewing an On Hold Messaging script and sent me an email regarding changes. “Keep the item about ENT from the previous production.” Simple enough, but could I find that in the old script? No. There was no sign of an “ENT” anywhere. So, I confessed my ignorance and asked for clarification.

She apologized in her reply, saying that ENT stands for “Ear, Nose and Throat.” Sure enough, there in the previous script was the item about doctors joining the organization who are “Ear, Nose and Throat specialists.”

There are plenty of mea culpas to go around when it comes to using initials that are less than universally understood. It’s common for writers to use terminology, acronyms and “jargon” that we are completely familiar with, under the false assumption that everyone else knows what we’re talking about. Full disclosure: the BusinessVoice web site recently underwent a cleansing of acronyms like OHM, POP and WAM. And no, those aren’t mantras or cartoon sound effects. In my world, that’s “On Hold Marketing,” “Point-Of-Purchase” and “Web Audio Marketing.”

The lesson here is to remember the “ABC’s” of good writing — Always Be Clear. Don’t assume an acronym will be understood. Avoid any “industry-speak” unless your audience is comprised exclusively of insiders. And while we’re handing out suggestions for clearer composition, why not take it a step further and check to see if the writing is too sophisticated.

Microsoft Word has built-in tools to measure the readability of your writing, measured in terms of school grade level. There are also online tools to measure readability that allow you to cut and paste your copy and get an instant ranking. Or try this aptly-named Gobbledygook Grader from Hub Spot to see if you’re using any of the worst jargon.

What you’re reading here ranks at about an 8th grade level, but you should aim a bit lower. Start by using shorter sentences, and don’t worry about “dumbing-down” the work. It’s an exercise in clarification, and the clearer the marketing message, the easier it is received by your audience, who can then act on it.

Tags: copywriting, focus, marketing
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Words Not To Live By: Once Powerful Words Now Meaningless

Monday, April 20th, 2009

There are many words floating around out there that no longer have any meaning. At first mention, they seemed visionary, powerful and capable of generating very specific emotions. Now, they sound hollow, meaningless, and they cause our eyes to glaze over.

If you are going to use them in your marketing, make sure your message is clear, valid and appropriate to your audience. Just because you’re packaging an offer that will save people money, doesn’t mean you have to pitch it as a “recession special.” Give the message an emotional appeal instead, and relate to the struggles your audience is facing. Real dialogue will have a much bigger impact than throwing out buzz words like “stimulus.”

And if you can, use these words in positive speech. I probably wouldn’t mind hearing the word recession so much if someone would tell me how we’re going to get out of it.

Recession

Slowdown

Stimulus

Bailout

Economy

Layoffs

Unemployment

Crisis

Downturn

What words are you tired of hearing? How would you use these words to give them new life?

Tags: advertising, business, economy, marketing, words
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Those Who Fail To Plan Should Plan To Fail

Monday, January 26th, 2009

During these challenging economic times when companies are being forced to do as much or more with less, marketers can’t afford to be wasteful. And that doesn’t apply just to dollars. We can’t afford to waste time, ideas, or opportunities either.

A local private school recently took advantage of our Marketing Consultation service. During the initial meeting, our client revealed that they typically take a shoot-from-the-hip approach to marketing, sporadically using only traditional venues to increase their recruitment of K-8 students. They had, to that point, neglected to recruit from their current “customers” – parents of the children who already participate in their pre-school programs. That’s when the light bulb went off over our heads.

It is drastically less expensive to KEEP customers you already have than to always look outward to find and win new customers. By deepening existing customer relationships you also build a more stable – and maybe even more recession-proof - customer base.

That’s where strategic planning comes into play. Have a solid plan to follow. Have goals and benchmarks to measure against. Without a clear focus and an arsenal of tools, marketing becomes more difficult, especially when the bottom drops out of the economy.

Once finished, the successes – and shortcomings – of the strategic plan can be evaluated. Did the increase in on-site promotions bolster sales of the featured product? Did posting to the company blog on a weekly basis increase web traffic? These are just a few of the “cause & effect” examples that can be measured after a strategic plan is put in place.

Tags: consultation, customer retention, economy, marketing, strategic planning
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Strengthen Your Brand By Boning Up On Your History

Tuesday, December 30th, 2008

Roberto Ramos of The Vox Collective is asking you to blow the dust off your old history books and take another look. In a recent Adweek column, Ramos puts forth four key lessons from FDR’s New Deal, with additional ideas on how they apply to marketing in today’s economy.

In this era, where past headlines seem taken straight out of this morning’s paper, it’s good to know that FDR can teach marketers a lesson. And why shouldn’t we at least pay some attention? Having served four terms in the White House, he is the granddaddy of longevity, a core objective for most brands today.

Take a few tips from our 34th president and give the article a read.

Tags: AdWeek.Com, history, marketing
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Capitalization On Call Girls

Wednesday, March 19th, 2008

The marketing industry as a whole can be an unfriendly place. Shops are criticized for decisions on spokespeople, underlying messages, and judgements are made within seconds by the public. But after reading this article in AdAge concerning Georgi Vodka’s clamoring for former Governor Spitzer’s call girl’s “butt,” I can’t help but feel those same negative feelings.

While this is not nearly as repulsive as the capitalization on tragedy that we saw with purchasing Internet key words in relation to the Virginia Tech shootings to boost website traffic, it certainly doesn’t bode well for us. Pushing the envelope is one thing; getting folks to think outside the box is evolutionary; but toying with the idea of launching a Vodka Brand titled “No. 9″ after Spitzer’s designation by the call-girl service? Putting a twenty-something escort who has come to be associated with lies and betrayal in the American political scene on the back of buses and tops of taxis? That’s low.

Tags: ethics, marketing, Web
Posted in Marketing Thoughts | 2 Comments »