Blog Archives

Know How to Make the Perfect Post Card?

5/28/2015

Do you use direct mail?

Did you know that post cards are the up and coming way to reach clients?

Because of the inexpensiveness of mailing post cards and the way people respond to direct them, it is time to invest in them especially if you’re a local small business owner and professional.

This includes if you’re a lawyer, doctor, realtor, carpet cleaner, contractor, and more.

Postcard Uses

Postcards are best used as marketing to promote sales, store events, or special occasions at your small business. Keep your message short, your offer sweet, and use eye-catching images that make the card attractive.

What to Keep in Mind when Building One

There are a million things that one can do with a Post Card to make it successful, but like building airplanes, some were never meant to fly. Therefore, these are the things you have to keep in mind.

First…

Hone your Targeting

–        Target a neighborhood based on your ideal client

–        Make a yearlong campaign to this mailing list

–        Use Trigger Words to hit their heartstrings and make it personal

*Note –Rent a direct mail list from sites like hoovers.com, avention.com and infousa.com if you haven’t been able to build your own or use the Post Office’s EDDM Program.

Second…

Use one eye-catching graphic and a Nine-Word headline to grab attention and lead to your content

Third…

Make a Juicy Offer that they can’t refuse.

Such as…

–        Free E-Book that they would want to read

–        First Two Consultations Free

–        Waived Fees

–        Discounts

–        Coupons

*Note – Don’t forget to put the value saved in parenthesis to emphasize what they could be missing. ($99 value)

Ensure you create scarcity by having an expiration date.

–        Example - For One Time Only – Sale Ends 06/01/2015

Fourth…

Developing the content is important

–        Have enough relevant information so that it’s clear what the product or service is

–        Include information on how to respond. This is where you need to get creative

–        For better response ask a question, and bury the answer toward the end of the other side so they are enthralled in wanting the read the entire postcard.

*Note – The most effective direct-mail postcard mailers don’t attempt to sell prospects straight from the postcard. Rather, they compel your readers to take the next step in the purchasing process.

Fifth…

Design the card

–        Make the Post Card Bigger than normal to attract attention

–        Watch your justification - Justifying the left margins helps readers find the beginning of your copy. But if it is centered or justified on both sides, it becomes harder to read.

*Note – Get Creative. Do things to grab attention and never let go. For example, Flip-flop side A and B. Where A is reserved for your photo and headline, while side B contains the pitch along with the stamp and address. Do it to keep your prospects engaged.

Sixth…

Tracking the card

–        Link recipients to a landing page that is specific to the card.

–        Have a postcard specific promo code.

–        Or follow the red-lined link…

Seventh...

Trial Run

–        Run your card by your editor or a few people you know to ensure it gets the desired results

–        Follow the eyes, this is a good technique to see how the post card directs the eyes of someone who receives it. If they follow it through, great, if it has parts that cause the person to lose interest, you have a problem on your hands.

53 Comments

How Do The Most Successful People Create Billion Dollar Companies?

5/14/2015

5 Comments

They Bring People into Their World.

Questions.

Have you ever been sucked into another world?

Feeling it was so real, you escape the confines of this reality to feel like you were there?

Breathing it? Living it?

Escapism.

Statements.

This process and how you feel is what I like to call “Going to the Circus”.

Because whenever I went to the circus as a child. I would feel like I had wandered into an entire other world. The sights, the sounds, the smells. The five senses flayed alive to let me leave my old world behind. And grasp this new one wholeheartedly, even for just the day.

And the man who would help transport me there was the Ringleader.

The rhythmic rhyme of his voice and the way he caricatured the world I was entering, brought me full circle into the circus.

The Point

Now why is this important in your business?

Because albeit the circus is a bit off the cuff, it is still a business. And a successful one if the Ringleader can bring people into his world. As I would visit the circus again and again to get that feeling of escapism back. The feeling of “Going to the Circus”.

And if you think it isn’t that important, ENTIRE BUSINESSES are built upon this process of “Taking People to the Circus”, the oldest example would be the oral tradition of telling stories, having plays, or going to the opera. It has evolved since then into electronic forms such as movies, video games, and coming up virtual reality. As well as physical favorites such as concerts, live shows, and more. If anything these are limiting the true nature of “Going to the Circus” as any time people leave the thoughts of their reality and see themselves in another world can suffice.

People buy into these examples because they want "The EXPERIENCE". The experience of "going to the circus". Which is one of the 3 basic principles of why people buy.

The 3 Principals of Why People Buy

Needs – People need food, oil, water, and shelter. (Smartphones are currently debatable.)
Wants – People want to stylish clothes, nice cars, and big houses (All things to emphasize who they are.)
Experiences – People don’t want things. People want the experience those things bring. They want to have experiences so they can tell stories and when they die, have no regrets about who they were.

Point of Reflection.

Now you have to ask yourself.

Are you only appealing to people’s needs?

Needs that anyone can fulfill?

Or are you doing a bit better and going for their wants?

Their fickle wants that can change at a moment’s notice and leave you out of business?

Or are you creating an unforgettable experience that SURPASSES WANTS AND NEEDS and makes people want to be a part of your world?

Which is it?

The How-To.

But how do you take people there? How do you bring people into your world as a business?

The process is much more like a drama class than a business class. All of which will be revealed… here.

What was the last unforgettable experience that you paid for?

Share in the comments.

5 Comments

Shadow Cows' Top 3 Marketing Techniques of the Week

5/7/2015

10 Comments

Don't fade away like the rest of the herd.

Its been ages since our last romp with techniques of the week so lets get crackin'.

This is my 8th Edition of “Techniques of the Week” which is an ode to simple writing and marketing techniques that can be used immediately with measurable results in the Before, During, and After of your sales process.

This time, we are twisting things up by having The During First, The After Second, and The Before last.

Now let’s be off this long and winding, forever dwindling, well-lit, un-furnished, parallel with trees and rocks, perpendicular to the Oregon Trail, tangent with the Emerald City, running under the Pacific Ocean, and back-around road.

The During

This technique to get more people to know who you are, your business, and actually showoff your service is called the workshop.

What exactly is a workshop, mind you?

A workshop is getting a group of people together to experience your product, service, or knowledge of your business. It can be paid or free depending on the type of prospects you want to attract. As free may give you more prospects, but paid will give you more qualified buyers as they are already proven they have no problem paying and continuing to use your product and service.

The main goal however is to attract, capture, and maintain a healthy number of lifetime new customers.

How does it work?

1.       Identify what you want to sell (Ensure you only give them a taste so they are left wanting more)

a.       Product – a physical product like acne cream

b.      Service – a physical service like a massage or repair

c.       Information – a teaser that gives people great information that entices them the buy the entire Infoproduct, like a book, class, seminar, etc..

2.       Identify how you want to sell it

a.       Give out free samples of what you do and ask for a follow-up

b.      Teach them how to do some of it themselves to see it work, but emphasize they still need the work of a professional

c.       Give out free information that they can use to see if it’s something they want

d.      Educate them on who you are, what you do, and your company goals

3.       Create the Event

a.       Build an outline of how you want to present your workshop

b.      This is theater so you will need to find what atmosphere you want to create

i.      Hype, Excitement, and eagerness to buy

ii.      Chilled, Laid-back, and a place they want to come back to relax

iii.      A place to have fun and let loose

iv.      A place to be entertained

v.      And many many more.

4.       Market it

a.       Find out where your target market hangs out and post ads to entice them to show up

5.       Have it

a.       Do your workshop and ensure you get all the numbers to see how successful it was.

6.       Follow-up

a.       Ensure all of your new qualified prospects become life-time customers

Workshops – Hold a “How to” workshop to bolster your network profile and land new clients

The After

Some products don’t have much value when they are sold. And the only real way to make a living on them is to service them afterwards. Which is why it is important to include it in your marketing. Because if your business model runs on this concept, you could find yourself wanting as your customer doesn’t know that you service your products. And instead of paying to get it fixed, they instead throw it away and buy a new one from a competitor. Leaving you out a customer.

Therefore you have to emphasize The Service After The Sale. You have to let your customer know that you have servicing of the product in place and it is readily available if they have trouble.

·         This could be a Servicing Card that is comes with the product and tells them how to get service, have a discount offer on it so they keep it, and finally thanking them for their business.

·         Or actually have the Call for Service Phone # right on the product. So if it breaks or malfunctions. They know who to call.

This is very important to maintain your customer relationship when it is in its most dire straits. As the moment your product breaks, is the moment where your customer is most at risk for abandoning your product forever.

The Service After Sale – Sell a product that needs service afterwards and make a living off servicing

The Before

The key to marketing is to know your prospect before you even meet them. You need to understand how they tick. What makes them zig and what makes them zag. A great blog post that goes over all the feelings and motivations that go into psychological triggers is here. Once you understand their behavior and personality, you can guide their emotions and actions through psychological triggers.

                So how do psychological triggers work?

All of us have been affected by what is around us. These influences can come from anywhere, but usually are passed down from our families and the surrounding community around us. And we are susceptible to these influences, especially during childhood. Which is why it is important to know where someone comes from as the individual will very well have the same beliefs and values as the community that raised them.

                And those beliefs and values are what is important to using psychological triggers. As one trigger will affect one person one way and another in another way.

                For example:

                A good psychological trigger is the American Flag.

If you use the American Flag on a piece of copy, it triggers the person reading it to start thinking of America and how proud they are to be an American. Or it could trigger resentment as the person may not feel happy about nationalism. All depends on your audience.

Which brings us back to what a psychological trigger is. It is a word, phrase, sound, or symbol that elicits a certain feeling from the audience. It could be persuasive like FREE or BENEFIT or entertaining like a video of Grumpy Cat or the iconic MGM Studio Lion. It simply sets the tone and mood of what happens next.

How to use them?

1.       Outline what you’re writing or acting out.

2.       Tag each section of the piece with the feeling you want the audience to feel as they read or watch.

3.       Find psychological triggers to put in each section to elicit those emotions from the audience to set the tone and mood for the journey you’re going to take them on.

Psychological Triggers – Use a symbol, word, or item to instill a undeniable thought, feel, or emotion from your client

And there you have it.

Three ways to get people so hyped about your products they will cause mass mayhem through the streets. All for a simple product and service.

So how do you get people hyped up for your business?

Let us know in the comments.

10 Comments

Know How to Make the Perfect Post Card?

How Do The Most Successful People Create Billion Dollar Companies?

Shadow Cows' Top 3 Marketing Techniques of the Week

Author

Archives

Categories

Monthly Newsletter?

Behind LT Copywriting