Do It! Marketing Blog: Marketing for Smart People™

One of my marketing coaching clients asked me last week, "David, are there rules for writing copy? I've written a ton of material about what we do and I never know what's going to work..."

This is like asking, "Are there rules for romance?" YES, as a matter of fact there are. Check out http://1001waystoberomantic.com/

Are there rules for writing marketing copy? Hell yes. My go-to guy on this is the incredible Bob Bly. Check out http://bly.com/

And the best book on the subject is The Copywriter's Handbook.

But I'll do you one better - you don't even need to buy a book.

Here are 17 rough and ready rules that will make you a better copywriter in 10 minutes or less.

Zero guarantee of completeness. Your mileage may vary. Proceed at your own risk...

1. Write like you speak.

2. Speak like a person, not a marketing moron or a sales robot.

3. As you write, ask yourself - if this next sentence is the last thing they read, is it worth writing or do I have something more important they need to know? (You can write a 3-page sales letter this way that will sell like crazy!!)

4. Use short paragraphs.

5. Use action words, not learning words (nobody wants to learn, find out, or get information... they want to BUILD, BOOST, CREATE, INCREASE, SLASH, REDUCE, ELIMINATE)

6. If you start to sound like a late-night infomercial, stop. Ease it back just about 10% - that's where you need to be. 70% substance with 30% sizzle. Articulate your value, your outcomes and your benefits assertively - not aggressively.

7. Take them on a journey - your copy should have a beginning, a middle, and an end.

8. The four most powerful words in marketing are:
  a. YOU
  b. YOUR
  c. BECAUSE
  d. SO THAT

9. It is TOTALLY impossible to overuse testimonials and third-party social proof. Do you have 100 written testimonials? Great - find a way to use them. Do you have 50+ video testimonials? Ditto. Do you have two fistfulls of scanned in endorsement letters on letterhead? Post them. (Examples of each are here for you.)

10. Engage, engage, engage... appeal to the senses. Make the experience of working with you as 3-dimensional as you can. What does it smell like? Taste like? What's the overall experience when people walk in to your store? Hire your accounting firm? Bring you in as their architect?

11. What frustrates the hell out of your prospects and clients? Talk about that - show that you understand their heartaches, headaches, pains and frustrations at the deepest levels.

12. Your copy needs to convey TWO and only two ideas:
  a. You know what they are up against
  b. You can fix it

13. Stop selling YOUR crap and start solving THEIR problems. Yes, even before they buy.

14. Call to action is key. What's the very NEXT step you want them to take? Is there a free offer? A bonus gift to download? A free assessment? A no-strings phone consultation?

15. Make sure your call to action is a GIVE and not a GET. An example of a GET is "Click here and a member of our sales team will contact you within 24 hours." Stupidest damn thing I've ever seen. Useless.

16. Show them how to go from ZERO to HERO. Paint the picture of the current gap - the missing piece - the shortfall - the misfires - the problems - the glitches. THEN show them success stories, solutions, fixes, wins PLUS the specific ways that people who bought from you are better off, richer, smarter, happier, sexier - or all five.

17. Your copy should deliver three things at the end - the acronym is giving your prospects a big HUG:
  a. (H)ope - to improve their condition
  b. (U)rgency - to solve their problem
  c. (G)ameplan - to start exploring your solution

You can do this - it's a lot easier than you think. (H)

In fact, if writing copy is a challenge, you may want to join our next SIMPLE MARKETING SUCCESS 10-week program which starts September 26. Early bird savings are still on - but not for much longer! (U)

If a group program is not a fit for you, I totally understand. Let's start with a no-strings, no-BS  Marketing Assessment. We'll talk for 20 minutes and you'll get 2-3 ideas you can use right away to grow your business whether we decide there's a next step or not. (G)

There - you've just been hugged. See what I mean?

What do YOU think? Share YOUR advice and experiences with writing marketing copy for YOUR business in the COMMENTS area below...

Once or twice a month, I get interviewed, featured or quoted by other experts, the news media, or my mom. (Hi Mom!) 

How can you do the same?

You won't get coverage from my mom but you WILL get major media from PRLeads.com like I do. Try it - it's your best deal for public relations bar none.

But that's not the point of this post.

The point of this post is... Balls.

Nerve.

Moxie.

Stepping up and asking for what you want. 

Just like my new friend Damian Niolet did when he asked me for an interview.

Damian could easily have succumbed to negative self-talk like "Oh, this David Newman character is a big deal and he'll never agree to an interview. I'm just a guy studying marketing who has a meager 50 Twitter followers. He's not going to waste his time talking to me..." and so on. 

Good news for Damian - he did not sabotage himself with any such nonsense. 

He asked. I said yes. We did an interview that totally kicked ass and - frankly - was a hell of a lot better than anything I've given to The New York Times, Philadelphia Business Journal (Hi Craig!) or FastCompany.com.

Here's the interview.

Listen online or grab a copy to download. 

Why is this interview valuable to you?

First, because Damian prepared thoughtful questions I've never been asked before. (Like the ethical code of marketing? Or how marketing affects our society? Wow... nice!) So the content will help you market smarter and generate more leads, better prospects and bigger sales. 

Secondly, this interview shows you how YOU may want to use interviewing as a marketing strategy yourself. Either purely for research OR to build relationships with your prospects and colleagues OR as a content development strategy to enrich your blog and establish yourself as an authority in your field. 

For your reference - and to make it easier to follow along if you listen in - here is the list of 15 questions Damian prepared for our conversation...

See if YOU can develop a list of smart, detailed and occasionally surprising questions like these for YOUR next interview: 

1. Can you provide a brief overview of your experience, to include education?  (Leading up to your marketing experience, unless you knew from the start you wanted to work in marketing, in which case you can speak to your experience working for other marketing firms)
2. What drove you to enter the world of marketing? (Your passion for marketing; Leading up to starting Do It! Marketing)
3. What drove you to start up Do It! Marketing? (Why and when)
4. What was the most difficult part of the start-up process? (How)
5. Did you have a marketing strategy from the start?  How did it evolve?
6. What is your view/opinion of how marketing has changed in the last 15-20 years?
7. Has social networking always been a big part of your strategy? (Dependent on when Do It! Marketing was founded)
8. What is the very first bit of advice you’d give to a client to get them started?
9. What is the very most important bit of advice you’d give to a client for whom you are building a marketing strategy?
10. What would you say to those who suggest that using social networks in a passive mode (as a conversation tool only) is time wasted because it does not necessarily focus on leads?
11. Is there a medium, other than social networks, you believe to be invaluable?
12. What company do you believe exemplifies marketing at its best?
13. Is there an ethical code within marketing?  Is this code debatable? 
14. The manner in which marketing is practice undoubtedly influences society at large.  Do you believe the marketing practices in America over the last 50+ years have had a positive or negative impact on society?
15. What will marketing look like in the future?  Are there near-term changes we can expect?  Is there another revolution on the distant horizon?

Catch up with the rest of Damian's blog and keep your eye on this guy. He's gonna do BIG things. 

p.s. We still have a few open spaces for the Simple Marketing Success 10-Week Virtual Bootcamp experience. The program is open by application only. Let me know you're interested (email or call me 610.716.5984) and I'll forward you the application materials and program guidelines right away. We start the program September 26, 2012.

I love business books.

It's a bit of an addiction really.

Some are good, some are so-so, and once in a while a great one comes along.

This is about a great one - Rules of the Hunt by Michael Dalton Johnson. Michael is the founder, publisher and editor of SalesDog.com which is THE go-to resource online for salespeople, sales management and sales success.

Let's cut to the chase and get you fully up to speed - first a video book review, then an in-depth 35-minute audio interview with Michael. (The audio also contains "The Magic Email" that was a featured story a few weeks ago in the SalesDog.com newsletter. It has a 100% success rate to get you back in touch with prospects who have gone dark on you. You'll love it!)

Here's my video book review:

And then I invited Michael to chat with me about some of the key ideas in the book.

Listen in here.

NOTE: The audio will take a minute or two to load in your browser. If you prefer, you can download the digital audio file: RIGHT-click on this link and choose "Save Target As..." or "Save Link As..." or "Save File As..." and save the file to your desktop.

Here's to closing out your week with MORE Leads, BETTER Prospects and BIGGER Sales.

WOOF!!!

How to use Direct Mail effectively...

My friend Jose Palomino from ValueProp.com recently did some web research and collected these dozen or so smart tips from the two resources linked below on increasing your results from your direct mail campaigns. 

Consider this a direct mail crash course for small business owners, entrepreneurs and indepent professionals. 

A. Write a letter? Cheap and inexpensive, but how?

• Your letters should sound as if they were written by a human being.
• One-to-one and conversational is usually best. Forget corporatese, it’s snooze-inducing.
• Try a live stamp, even better, try two live stamps.
• Try to find common ground. One of my favorite first lines is “I don’t know how you feel about (whatever), but I …”
• Test a lot of different approaches and lengths.
• Offer something they can get only by responding to your letter.
• Ask for the order and make it easy to reply.

B.  Direct Mail Tips

• Use only direct response direct mail campaigns – Direct response refers to what the name implies; all mailings should have a ‘call to action’ or request a direct response.  There is nothing that sabotages a direct mail campaign more than to not give the recipient a ‘call to action’.  Tell them what to do next . . . . call, write, pick up the phone, etc.
• Make Your Mail Peer-To-Peer Personal - Consider sending a personalized direct mail letter "written" by your CEO, CFO, CIO, etc. on his or her corporate stationery to his or her counterpart. Play up the commonalities both people share, the business and professional challenges they face that only someone in their position truly understands. I call it "honcho-to-honcho" marketing and it can be very effective. For example, one organization had success with a simple peer-to-peer letter bearing its CEO's name, personal telephone number and a brief description of what the company offers.
• Follow a formula when writing copy - there are a number of formulas that you can use to produce effective copy, but the easiest one out there and probably the simplest to use is the tried and true AIDA formula.  AIDA is an acronym for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. If you follow this formula when writing your copy, you will produce better copy.
• Test your copy – always test your mailings with a small number of mailings before sending out “the” campaign.  A simple method to accomplishing a test is the A/B split test.  This is where you have a small sample size of say 200.  You mail 100 hundred of your target market a mailing with one headline; and the other 100 a mailing with a different headline to see which mailing will get a better response.  An important note for you to remember.  If you use the A/B split testing method, you can only change one element of your direct mail piece at a time so that you can determine what factor made one piece more effective than the other.  The three parts of your mailing you may want to test include the headline, the call to action or the P.S.

There you have it - all you need to know to kick some serious ass with direct mail.

Is creating a series of sales letters or direct mail postcards one of your to-do items that you've been putting off for WAY too long?

p.s. Crafting some solid direct mail pieces may be one of several things you might want to get DONE during our next DO IT DAY.

Check it out - it may be exactly the boost of accountability you've been looking for to help you make significant progress in ANY part of your business - all in one super-focused day! 

As a marketing coach for business owners, entrepreneurs and solo professionals, I'm often asked some variation of the following questions:

• What's more important - a focused marketing plan or consistent marketing activity?
• Do I need to change my marketing strategy? 
• What should I be doing more of - and less of - to get more clients? 
• How do I know the kind of marketing that will work for what I offer? 
• How can I stop spinning my wheels and do a FEW simple things consistently to generate leads, prospects and sales?

Here's my answer in very sophisticated and technical marketing lingo:

"Wow, man... I dunno."

Now before you dismiss me as a complete marketing moron, let me put that insightful statement into some context for you.

If you don't know where you are, who you're marketing to, what they want, what they're willing to pay for, and how to position yourself as the "Ah - at last!!" solution they've been looking for, then all these questions will do is: 

• Confuse you
• Scare you
• Piss you off

And the bottom line is that it's tough to be a successful entrepreneur when you're running around confused, scared and pissed off all the time. 

So stop it. 

The first thing you need to decide is - which do YOU need more of? A revised and refocused master plan? Or some healthy ass-kicking to DO what you ALREADY know you need to do?

Follow the Teddy Roosevelt principle of "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." What does that mean?

That means you need to STOP GETTING READY TO GET READY until...

• You get your next professional certification...
• You finish writing your book...
• Your kids are a little older...
• You build your updated website...
• You have a few more clients...
• You start making more money...

Hello?

Can you SMELL the stinky pile of rotten excuses suffocating you with their disgusting stench?

DO YOU NEED A ROCK SOLID MARKETING/BUSINESS STRATEGY? 

The short answer is a screaming YES with racing stripes and flames coming out the tailpipes.

Do you need a 60-page marketing/business plan with charts and graphs and financial projections for the next 5 years? No you do not. 

You need some flip charts, markers, paper, plenty of wall space and at least half a day to map out: 

• Your business and marketing objectives and strategies
• Your current and future revenue streams
• Your thought leadership strategies (speaking, publishing, social media)
• Your business systems and processes
• Your current and future staffing and outsourcing game plan
• Simple templates and scripts to operationalize your plan
• Your pricing structure including new ways to monetize your expertise
• Your marketing action plan with daily, weekly and monthly tasks 

I do this with my clients all the time - it's called a VIP Coaching Day and the process and the output look something like the flipcharts and action notes you'll see smack in the middle of this page.

DO YOU NEED TO FOCUS ON AND EXECUTE YOUR ACTION ITEMS?

The short answer is a screaming YES with racing stripes and flames coming out the tailpipes.

Do you need a 1,000% laser focus with a non-stop implementation mindset? No you do not. That's not realistic and it's never going to happen. 

You need a calendar, just a little bit of focus, some serious accountability for a short period of time, and your to-do list (which probably contains some long-overdue "big ideas" which you've simply never gotten around to doing even though they might be the exact things you need to FINISH so that you get out of your rut, find your groove and grow your business significantly!)

What kinds of to-do items might you tackle on such a focused day of implementation?

• Rewrite the home page of your website
• Record a series of videos or audios that showcase your services
• Do some writing to better articulate your fabulousness
• Create a few simple tools to help you generate more leads
• Clean up your office or empty your inbox to streamline your daily work
• Develop (or refresh) your consulting or service/project offerings
• Optimize your social media profiles so that more prospects find (and contact!) you
• Draft the outline for your book, product, or signature program
• Map out your proactive referral and networking strategy (who, what, where, when)

I do this with my clients all the time too. It's called a DO IT DAY and you can find out more about them here. Sign up for the next one - I'd be honored to do a little ass-kicking with YOU over a single focused day... and cheer you on as you cross the finish line on what YOU need to get done. 

What do you think? Use the COMMENTS area below to talk about your experiences with strategy vs. implementation for YOUR business...

My marketing coaching client was redoing his website. (Can you FEEL his exhilaration?)

He just got his fresh, minty business cards back from the printer. (Can you SMELL those new cards?)

During our next conference call, he asked me, "David, what should go in my email signature file?"

A-ha! Trick question. 

What followed was my mini-seminar, pocket rant and micro-manifesto on email signature file Do's and Don'ts. And we'll throw in a few examples of the good, the bad and the ugly to keep you entertained along the way.

After reading this post, you will be armed and dangerous in the email signature file combat zone. Suit up, soldier - we're going in HOT!

1. Don't NOT have one. An email signature file is FREE marketing. If you send 50 emails a day, that's 50 marketing opportunities wasted if your emails don't have a signature block. You wouldn't go out in public naked - so don't let your emails do it, either!

2. Don't make it about YOU. "Read my blog" - "Buy my book" - "Hire me" are all incredibly juvenile, self-centered, and (frankly) REPULSIVE ways to close an email. This approach is completely devoid of value for the reader - and you're actually REPELLING prospects because you smell desperate and needy.

3. DO include a Call-to-Action focused on VALUE. You do want people to take action - but you want to also give them a good "reason why." Here's an example from a signature block I've used successfully in the past. Pay attention to the "So What?" factor that gives people both the ACTION to take - and the VALUE/BENEFIT to THEM: 

_____________________________
David Newman :: Tel 610.716.5984
http://www.doitmarketing.com

President, National Speakers Association Philadelphia Chapter
National Speakers Association "Member of the Year" 2009

Three FREE resources you can grab right now:

1. Subscribe to get fast, brave, and smart marketing ideas: http://www.doitmarketing.com/blog

2. Follow me on Twitter to get cool micro-ideas to grow your business: http://twitter.com/dnewman

3. Let's connect on LinkedIn so you can tap into my 2,000+ connections:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjnewman

4. DO include your phone number. It's a real basic point but you'd be amazed at how many business owners and entrepreneurs forget to include their phone number in their email signature block. This is becoming increasingly important as 40% of emails are now read on mobile devices, primarily smart phones. And some of your prospects, clients and colleagues simply PREFER the phone. So make it easy for them to reach you that way.

5. DO include a testimonial. Or three. You do great work, right? Your clients and customers love you, right? Why not PROVE that point with every email you send out? ESPECIALLY prospecting and new client outreach emails. My nickname for testimonials is "punching people in the face with proof." (My other violent metaphor is content marketing, which is "punching people in the face with value." Maybe I should've been a boxer.)

6. Don't feel limited by ONE signature file. Have 2-3 different versions ready to go based on who you're writing to, what product or service you're writing to them about, and how you'd like to frame your positioning. In my own business, there are two main types of clients I work with - speaking and seminar clients and marketing coaching/consulting clients. Thus I have a speaking signature file that includes my value prop tag line and 3 speaking client testimonials. And I also have a marketing coaching/consulting signature file with the same contact info but different value prop statement and an awesome testimonial from one of my consulting clients.

7. DO seduce - DON'T solicit. Here's what doesn't work in an email signature file (or anywhere else in your marketing) - brute force solicitation. "Buy my crap" is a pretty lousy marketing message. Rather, focus on seduction - pull rather than push. Two specific marketing recommendations to make you more seductive (in emails and everywhere else, too!) are: 

a. Offer value ("Here's a resource - idea - tool - article - recommendation")

b. Invite engagement ("What do you think?" "What's worked for you?" "How can I help?" "Let's discuss this soon...")

Soooo... (wait for it)... What do YOU think? What's worked for you? How can I help? Let's discuss... like right here in the COMMENTS section below!

And then leave a comment below with your questions, thoughts, and advice on the ideas above.

Are you a DO IT freak? Welcome to the club!! Please use the social media buttons at the top of this post to share it with your network. YOU are a rock star!

As a business coach, I love tools, strategies, templates and exercises that help small business owners sell more, more easily and more often. 

After reading this post, YOU will be able to build yourself one of the most powerful sales tools I've ever seen. (And I've seen a LOT of marketing/sales tools in my 20+ years in business.) 

Because of my involvement in the National Speakers Association (NSA) and the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (CAPS), I've been fortunate to develop personal friendships with some of the smartest and most successful business speakers, sales experts and marketing gurus in my field.

One of these folks is known as Canada's Sales Coach - his name is Tom Stoyan and he is also a member of the Speaker's Hall of Fame (HoF). When Tom and I were co-presenting at a convention almost three years ago, he kindly participated in a small part of my program and I participated in his. We thought we'd compare notes and both learn a thing or two.

Tom picked up some ideas around social media and inbound marketing and I picked up a Million Dollar Idea called the "Why People Buy from Me" worksheet.

It is a structured process that walks you through 5 key questions - which require 10 (ten!) answers to each, giving you an arsenal of 50 selling points. You can use these in your marketing materials, sales conversations, website copy, phone calls, emails, and anyplace else you need to PROVE to your buyers that buying from anyone else would be a HUGE mistake.

At the risk of being self-serving (get over it - it's an example, OK?) here is mine for the marketing coaching part of my business.

Note I cheated on Question #3 because I did this exercise from a personal perspective, not an overall company perspective. If you work for an organization larger than yourself, DO NOT SKIP Question #3. Seek help from your boss and co-workers to answer it - or call Tom Stoyan and he'll help you answer it as part of his program!

1. Why should I buy your product/service?

1. Because you're terrible at marketing
2. You don't make time for marketing
3. You've read too many books yet implemented too few ideas
4. Because without proactive marketing, you're the best kept secret at what you do
5. Because you don't need marketing information - you need marketing implementation
6. You don't know what you don't know about marketing your services
7. You're tired of throwing money in a marketing black hole
8. You want to regain control of your marketing and sales results
9. You're tired of spinning your wheels and you're ready to commit to marketing success
10. You realize that for every marketing dollar you spend, you should get at least $3 in return

2. Why should I buy from YOU?

1. Because of my brilliant testimonials from some of the top entrepreneurs and consultants in the US
2. Because I've been the talent, bought the talent, and sold the talent so I've sat on all three sides of the table!
3. Because I give you the strategies, tactics, and guided implementation you need to generate results
4. Because my materials, advice, articles, and presentations are splattered all over the web! (You've already heard of me so I must be doing something right - what if YOU could do the same in your prospect base?)
5. Because I've been quoted or featured in the New York Times, Investors Business Daily, Fast Company, Selling Power, Sales & Marketing Management, Business 2.0 and Entrepreneur Magazine (with a picture!)
6. Because I'm the author of 3 books on marketing and professional services, including The Manager's Pocket Guide to Using Consultants (HRD Press, 2007) Do It! Marketing (AMACOM, 2013) and 21 Secrets of Simple Marketing Success
7. Because I've delivered over 600 presentations since 1992 and I've worked with 44 of the Fortune 500
8. Because I have an application process that you must go through before we work together - I don't work with any warm body with a checkbook
9. Because my programs are consistently among the highest rated at national conventions and association chapters nationwide
10. Because I have over 40 video testimonials on YouTube so you can see I'm the "real deal"

3. Why should I buy from your company?

My company and me are one and the same. See reasons above.

4. Why should I buy your price?

1. Because I have a 1000% guarantee as follows: "I'm better than anyone who's cheaper; and I'm cheaper than anyone who's better."
2. Pay one price for unlimited coaching - I'm more concerned in getting you to your destination than running the meter.
3. The fee is the fee - and if you're not making back 3-10x my fee after our work, one of us is not doing his job... and it's not usually me.
4. Everything is too expensive until you want it* (*T. Stoyan, 2012)
5. People won't spend $50 to fix a $5 problem. But they will spend $1 million to solve a $10 million problem
6. If you're not comfortable spending big money with me, why would you expect your prospects to spend big money with you?
7. If you ask anyone I've worked with, 90% of them will tell you that working with me was some of the smartest money they ever spent. The other 10% didn't do the work. 
8. You shouldn't work with me if marketing and growing your business is not a serious priority for you
9. You shouldn't work with me if your business is struggling - get sales coaching first (I'm serious!)
10. You can spend less and you'll get less - and you can also spend more and you'll still get less. I over-deliver like crazy (see testimonials) because once you're "in" with me, I have nothing more to sell you and we can get to work!

5. Why should I buy NOW? ("Now is a relative term" -- T. Stoyan, 2012)

1. Because it's rare that I have openings in my client roster - you can get in now or typically wait 3-6 months.
2. Because the longer you delay getting your marketing house in order, the longer you'll be in a state of confusion, inaction, and overwhelm
3. Because "waiting til my business picks up" to invest in marketing is like saying "I'm sick as a dog but I'll wait til I feel better to go to the doctor." It's never going to happen
4. I've never seen a marketing plan that starts with "Generate enough sales to afford marketing plan"
5. Maybe you should never buy - and you might not qualify to work with me.
6. What would it be like if your next year's revenues were much like your last year's? If you're OK with that, there's probably no reason for us to work together.
7. Are you sure you have a marketing problem and not a sales problem? Maybe Stoyan is a better fit for you. Would you like his number?
8. Because the money you're NOT making week after week, month after month, is a larger number than the money you'd be investing to restore your revenues to where you'd like them to be
9. Because you want to stop the "feast or famine" revenue cycle and get a proactive handle on your marketing process before you hit your next dip
10. Because someone you know and respect recommended we chat and I'm the answer to your prayers. (In addition to... I'm one of the most humble people you know!)

See? I told you it was self-serving.

Until now.

Because NOW - it is YOUR turn. Here is your assignment:

And then leave a comment below with your questions, thoughts, and advice on the ideas above.

Are you a DO IT freak? Welcome to the club!! Please use the social media buttons at the top of this post to share it with your network. YOU are a rock star!