Understand Your Buyer’s Pathway

I really wonder how many marketers and other business people really understand the entire chain of decisions potential buyers make, leading up to the point of their final decision to do business.

Every sale is different, but usually this chain begins with a problem. Either the potential buyer knows about this problem or needs to be educated about the problem and its consequences.

In all likelihood, few of your competitors have entered the chain at this point, so if you are able to provide some diagnostic tools, such as a simple checklist, or a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), you could turn all of them into also rans right from the start.

When a potential buyer becomes aware of a problem, he seeks out information. He may ask his doctor, his lawyer, his cousin Ernie or go to the web. If you have not only posted a lot (let me repeat, a LOT) of free information on your site, but you have also provided lots of free content on the subject to other sites, with links back to your site, this buyer will find you.

This person is not yet looking for a sales pitch. He needs information. Information he can understand and use. Think of this person at this stage as an information sponge. At the same time, think of yourself as a solution provider. Your job at this point is not to sell, but to show the way to a solution.

Behind the scenes, the buyer is also looking for credibility. And by showing the way to a solution rather than go-for-the-throat-selling, establishes credibility far beyond anything else you can do.

Sit down today and map out your buyer’s pathway, from problem to you. Note every decision, every question, every want and every doubt the buyer might have before he finds himself at your door. You can remove a lot of the stumbling blocks along the buyer’s way when you know the path he will be taking.

COPYRIGHT © 2005, Charles Brown

One Simple Idea

Right now, no matter what time of the day or night you are reading this, someone’s website is making money –a lot of money- using one simple idea.

It’s an idea you should be using to increase the profitability of not only your website, but every aspect of your marketing efforts as well. And even if you are using this idea to some degree, even small improvements can produce huge gains on your return on investment.

What can this idea do for you?

• It can create a large list of people who identify themselves as being interested in your product or service.
  
• It can also produce a list of people who ask to receive your marketing materials.
  
• It eliminates forever the problem of sending out untargeted junk mail that does not get opened or read.
  
• It generates repeat traffic to your website as long as you keep producing fresh and useful content.
  
• And most important of all, when your marketing message is requested, welcomed, expected and read by interested prospects; your sales rates increase exponentially.
  

What is this simple idea? No doubt you’ve already guessed it is Permission Marketing a phrase coined by Seth Godin when he literally wrote the book on the subject.

Mr. Godin defined Permission Marketing as the very opposite of Interruption Marketing, such as the telemarketer who calls right in the middle of your supper. The Permission Marketer instead obtains your consent to market to you often with the offer of a free booklet or some other free product of value.

As I mentioned last week in my article on , The Magic Free Offer, a free offer “lowers the bar” for a reader to respond and it subsequently enables you to build an ongoing relationship with that person. The whole idea behind Permission Marketing is that it breaks through the clutter of all the other messages bombarding your prospects every day.

Godin calls this getting the prospects to “raise their hands” or volunteer to participate in your marketing. Thereafter, any marketing message they receive is by consent, and they can “opt-out” at anytime they choose, so their involvement is always with permission.

Godin sums up the concept of Permission Marketing as, "turning strangers into friends, and friends into customers." If you aren’t already using Permission Marketing along with your other marketing strategies, you need to get this ball rolling right away.

If you already have some aspects of it in place, keep improving, it will be the best investment you will ever make.

And finally, if you haven’t read Seth’s book, Permission Marketing, I just cannot recommend this book enough. It WILL make you money.

COPYRIGHT © 2005, Charles Brown

Make Your Web Content Search Engine Friendly

Lately I’ve been noticing a lot of website operators who are missing out on a very important opportunity whenever they post a new article or new content to their websites. Sure the new content may be very informative, and well written, but it often neglects one crucial nuance unique to writing for the internet: search engine optimization.

Most new visitors find a site from search engines like Google, Yahoo and their brothers. Your job, whenever you are adding new content to your site, is to make it easier for these search engines to find you and lead visitors to your site.

Hopefully, you all ready have a list of keywords your visitors will be using to look for your site when they start their searches at the search engines. (If you don’t, you have a lot of work to do before you are even at square one. I would start by looking at your competitors’ websites and identifying the keywords they are using).

Once you have your list of keywords, You can use them each time you write new articles or new content for your website.

• Place the list of keywords in front of you each time you write new web content. Whenever appropriate, salt these words into your article. For example, if your site is selling an instruction video on improving a golfer’s golf swing, and your key words are, “better swing,” “longer distance,” “increase distance,” or “improve your swing;” then you will want to scatter these words and phrases throughout the text of your article.
  
• Use sub headings whenever possible. Search engines seem to pay particular attention to headlines and subheadings, even more than to regular text. So don’t pass up the opportunity to use your keywords whenever you have a headline or subheading.
  
• Search engines do not read graphics, they only read text. Very often your carefully-placed keywords are wasted in the midst of a graphic. When this happens, the search engine skips right over it and fails to record its existence. Many highly skilled web designers are simply not aware of this. Their strength is designing nifty-looking graphics and artistic lettering. Unfortunately, there has not been a search engine made with an appreciation for art. Search engines only read text.
  
• Incorporate links to other relevant sites. Particularly sites that utilize your chosen keywords in their names. Not only do useful links make your site a valuable reference for your visitors, the search engines also pick up those links and the keywords in the other sites’ names.
  

Now whenever you write an article for your website, you can also use it to attract the attention of the search engines, and by extension, new visitors. As long as this new content is within the same general theme as the rest of your site, you should have no difficulty salting the new content with the very same keywords you are using to establish your site’s identity.

Good luck! Now go forth and get visitors.

COPYRIGHT © 2005, Charles Brown

Get Your Reader To Act Now

A big part of the battle when writing marketing copy on your web site, your print ad or your direct mail piece, is to get the reader to act right now. If they delay, you have probably lost them.
So how do you get someone to stop what they are doing, pull out their credit card and buy your offer immediately? Let me share some of the formulas I use when writing marketing pieces:

• Scarcity. Nothing motivates like limited availability. When the next Rolling Stones concert goes on sale, you know that it will be compeltely sold out within hours, so you must act fast if you want to hear Mick and the boys do Jumpin Jack Flash.
  
• Premiums. Remember the old Ginzu Knives commercials, "but wait, there's more" ? They kept adding on one extra after another if you acted right now. By the time they had added on about three or four extras, you felt that you couldn't afford not to order right away.
  
• Deadlines. Put a time limit on your offer and you will seldom fail to see an increase in your response rates.
  
• Discounts for fast responses. Have you ever received an offer for a seminar that gives you on price if you pay at the door, a lower price if you pay two weeks before the seminar and an even lower price if you pay two months early? Guess what, early bird discounts work very well with all kinds of offers.
  

Next time you need to bump up your response rate (and when don't you want to increase the number of responses?) try one of these ideas to increase the urgency of your offer, and get them to act now.

COPYRIGHT (c) 2005, Charles Brown

The Magic Free Offer

I’m always amazed at how little original thought many advertisers put into their ads. And how they consequently throw away money. Right now I am looking at several full-page Yellow Page ads for local law firms. These are mostly general practice firms who handle the usual plaintiff’s cases: personal injury, personal bankruptcy, family law and criminal defense.

They aren’t blue chip firms on Wall Street, their business is on Main Street. There is a need for these types of firms and they don’t appear to be ambulance chasers. But there really is nothing about their ads that set them apart from their competitors. In fact, each ad says essentially the same thing as the next ad: 1) a laundry list of the cases they handle, 2) how much experience they have, and 3) grim, no nonsense photographs of lawyers who mean business and are ready to go to war on your behalf.

One thing is for certain; all of these full-page ads cost these firms a lot of money. But what if they could greatly increase their response rates from these ads, and make their ads outperform all of their competitors’ ads, without spending an extra dollar?

Here’s how: By offering free information. Free information lowers the bar for a person to respond to your ad. Instead of having to call, set an appointment and meet with a lawyer, the person can just call or send an email for a free booklet (or you can send a free white paper, a free ebook, a free audio CD, a free DVD, a free tip sheet, a free interactive software program or anything you like as long as it is genuinely informative).

What kind of free booklet? Let’s just focus on criminal cases for now. What if your ad offered the following free booklets:

• 10 Things You Must Do If You Are Accused of A Crime;

• Know Your Rights! What You Must Know If the Police Want to Search Your Home or Your Car; or

• What To Do If Your Son or Daughter is Arrested?

Before people make a serious decision they want to gather information. They may ask their friends or coworkers, they may do a Google search or they go to the library. If they see your ad offering free information, along the lines of the booklets listed above, while they are in the information-seeking mode, they will respond.

But guess what? Not only does offering information lower the response bar, it also generates a lead. Now you have captured an interested person’s name, telephone number, address and email address. You also know something about this person’s need, which enables you to recontact this person in the future. This means that you can turn that single exposure of the person skimming through the Yellow Pages into multiple exposures through your free booklet and your follow up letters or email messages. Your competitors won’t have a chance.

But most of all, the information you provide in you booklet (or article or white paper or ebook or whatever) enhances your perceived level of expertise in that person’s eyes. You have transformed yourself from an advertiser to an expert. And nothing could be better than that.

COPYRIGHT (C) 2005, Charles Brown

Web Site Questionnaire

I am beginning a series of articles on how brick and mortar companies incorporate their marketing strategies with their web sites. Some companies seem to do this seamlessly, while others stumble through the process. I would like to explore the best ideas with a series of surveys I will be conducting by telephone and email.

In some cases, I will make contact by telephone to ask the six questions listed below. But I am well aware that not everyone will be able to answer the entire questionnaire over the phone. So I may also forward this article by email. If you happen to receive this survey by email, you may answer the questions listed below, in your available time.

I am hoping to gather all responses before Christmas, so I can begin the articles around the first of next year.

In a few other cases, another recipient may have forwarded this survey to you because you are known to have particularly useful insights on this subject. I welcome any advice, information and insights you can provide.

The Questionnaire:

1. Describe the ideal visitor to your web site.
   
2. What strategies are you using to target these ideal visitors and get them to visit your web site?
   
3. What solutions are these ideal visitors looking for when they visit your site?
   
4. Does your site employ some sort of strategy to generate leads in order to recontact and build ongoing relationships with these ideal visitors?
   
5. What would you most like to improve about your website?
   
6. Describe some of the best internet marketing ideas you have discovered (whether you are using them at this time or not).

Clearly, this survey can apply to almost any industry. Even if you feel your company is not doing a great job of integrating your marketing efforts with your web site, your response is valuable to this survey. In fact, if you are not integrating well, your participation might be especially valuable to your own company.

Other Matters:





• Please send your reply by email to charbrow@gmail.com. If you have questions, my cell phone number is 817.715.3852. My blog address is http://www.bizwriterstudio.blogspot.com/.
  
• Answer the questions in as much depth as you can. No penalty for short answers, but of course the more thought-out answers are more likely to be published.
  
• If you want your responses to be attributed to “ANONYMOUS,” please let me know. Otherwise I will assume you wish proper attribution.
  
• I will automatically send articles derived from this survey to all respondents unless you advise me otherwise.
  
• Please, Please, Please. Feel free to forward this survey to other marketers who you feel may be able to provide insightful responses. Thank you in advance.
  



Thank you again for your help. I am looking forward to hearing from you and reading your responses.


COPYRIGHT © 2005, Charles Brown

How To Motivate Your Readers

Pop Quiz: List the two most powerful sales motivators in order.
Give up? Here they are: 1) Pain, and 2) Gain.

Every method you can use to motivate customers to buy or donors to give (depending upon whether you are running a business or a non-profit) falls under these two categories. Use them, use them often and don’t ever lose sight of them.

Whenever I sit down to write web content or ad materials for a client that is designed to sell or motivate people to get involved in a cause, I make a list of every possible “pain” or “gain” motivator I can think of.

Pain motivators can be problems to avoid or problems to escape from. They can be fear of loss, fear of being left behind or fear of being taken advantage of. Pain motivators can also be relief from a nagging inconvenience, expense or time-waster. They can also be virtual pain in the sense of depicting someone else’s pain if you are trying to get people to donate to a worthy cause.

Gain motivators can be improvements, increases in profits or new business and increase in status or recognition. Gain motivators can be how to get rich, lose weight, get a promotion, or become attractive to the opposite sex.

And guess what? Did you notice that Pain Motivators outrank Gain Motivators? That’s not a mistake. Studies have repeatedly shown that people are much more apt to respond to your offer to save them $1000 from rip offs, than to make $100,000 on even the most credible business opportunity.

So whether you are writing content for your web site, direct mail materials, a Yellow Page ad or a newsletter for your fund raising organization, be sure to appeal to every possible motivator you can.

COPYRIGHT © 2005, Charles Brown

Stories Sell

There is something powerful about stories. Man has been telling them around campfires since the first caveman opened his mouth and said, “It was a dark and stormy night…”

A story pulls us inside the events as they unfold before us. And a good story helps us to solve our own problems in real life. How? By allowing us to identify with the person in the story who made a decision and took action.

Consider harnessing the power of stories to promote your own business or non-profit. If you are at all capable in what you do, you should have files and files of successful cases in which you helped clients through a difficult problem.

Why not turn some of these real life stories into powerful marketing or fund raising materials? Here’s how:

1. Begin with a problem. The problem must be formidable with dire consequences if left unsolved. (OK "dire" is a relative term, but use it within the context of your clients’ situations).
   
2. Personalize the problem. Show the company, the individuals, the families or the communities beset by this problem and show the impact. This is where you twist the knife and pour salt into the wound. Make your reader feelthe pain, fear and desperation this problem causes. Show the consequences that will come upon them soon if they cannot find a way out of this mess. Don’t make the victims (i.e. your clients before they came to you) stick figures. Make them come alive for the reader and make them sympathetic. You want the reader to be cheering for these people to succeed.
   
3. Show the turning point. The turning point generally comes after some unsuccessful efforts to solve the problem. Now the problem has worsened, but something new enters the picture. They learn about your firm, they learn about a new technique or method. A new solution is presented to them. This causes the victim to make a decision to try the new thing. (This decision of course is to seek out your services or support your cause).
   
4. Resolve the problem. Once the decision is made to try the new thing, the pieces come together and the problem is solved. Show the outcome, show how the situation is changed for the better as a result of that decision.
   
5. Identify the lessons. This is where you sell your services, so don’t end right after the happy ending. Conclude with a list of tips, concepts, or practical applications. This is where you can show your reader that your organization is the solution to her problem, too. Show how you can deliver the same results for the reader as you delivered for the victim (client) in your story.
   

What have you got when this is completed? A case study. Use your case study as an article in an industry journal, on your web site, on an advertorial or as part of your publicity material. You will find that a well-written case study is a powerful way to promote your organization’s mission.

COPYRIGHT © 2005, Charles Brown

Does Fred Like Your Web Site?

Let’s talk about a guy named Fred. You don’t know Fred, but he is a first time visitor to your web site, and you have six seconds to capture his interest

First, Fred may still be using a dial up system, so if your site has a lot of nifty graphics with all the bells and whistles, chances are you’ve lost Fred before his browser even loads your home page.

“Click,” Fred has just moved on to another site that doesn’t take as much work.

Second, the first thing Fred sees when your home page does load, is your main headline. Does this headline appeal to Fred’s self interest? Does it offer to change something about Fred’s life that he is dissatisfied with? Does it offer to solve a nagging problem for Fred?

It doesn't? “Click” Fred is now looking at someone else’s headline.

Now Fred is looking at the first paragraph of your text. He is looking for information that can help him or make his life better. Have you dangled a few carrots in that first paragraph for him?

What about Fred’s curiosity? Curiosity is a powerful way to pull him deeper into your offer as long as you link it to his strong sense of self interest. So tie the unknown with some very strong benefit statements.

The job of the first paragraph is to make Fred want to read the next paragraph, and the job of that paragraph is to make him want to read the next. And so on. Are you motivating Fred? Are you answering his questions?

Never forget that Fred has millions of other sites that are just a click away if you lose his attention or interest for the briefest moment.

The content of many sites appear to have been written with the “spaghetti rule” in mind. The “spaghetti rule” states that if you throw enough spaghetti against the wall, some of it will stick. When writing web content, the spaghetti rule is evidenced by the densely packed information and clusters of self-congratulatory superlatives (like my all time favorite, “commitment to excellence”).

Be realistic, the spaghetti rule doesn’t work when you are reading a web site does it? So don’t expect it to work when other people read yours.

This is why the first thing I do when I sit down to write web content is ask myself, “what would Fred want”? I find it helps to visualize an actual reader who wants certain problems solved, who wants certain improvements made in his or her life, or who want something changed. After all, I never want to hear that dreaded “click.”

COPYRIGHT © 2005 Charles Brown

Get Results From Your Newsletter

Newsletters are an excellent way to generate new and repeat business, or communicate with your employees, members or constituents. But it takes a lot of hard work to keep a newsletter from becoming dry and repetitious over time. Here are a few ideas to keep getting results from your newsletter:

• Explore what your readers really want to read about. What are they curious about and what changes and improvements do they want to make in their personal or business lives. Then target your newsletter toward those wants and needs. Otherwise your articles can degenerate down to the things you want to tell your readers and the newsletter will become optional reading (or worse) junk mail.
  
• Deliver the goods in issue after issue. In other words, try to fill your newsletter with useful, how-to information, advice, and case studies that readers will find worth keeping. The test of a good newsletter is if readers start telling you they are saving back issues. If you cannot envision them keeping copies, consider a complete makeover.
  
• Steal ideas from popular magazine covers. Look at how these magazines arouse curiosity and dangle “life changing” information like bait on the front. Cosmo has some variation of its “10 Ways To Drive Your Man Wild” headline on every issue because it works and because its readers want more. Find your own repeatable formulas based on what your readers want.
  
• Solve problems for your readers. Never forget that all of us are tuned in to, “what’s in it for me?” Whatever information or promotional material you wish to present must be packaged within a framework of solving your readers’ problems or they simply won’t read it.
  
• Involve and interact with your readers with case histories, Q and A sections and interviews. Whenever possible, gather this material from your own readers.
  

Launching a newsletter is a lot of work, but with these ideas, you should see some remarkable results.

COPYRIGHT © 2005 Charles Brown

Find The Benefits

I know you’ve heard this before: “talk about benefits, not features.”

And yet, all too often, even the pros get it wrong. That’s why you see even experienced marketers throwing perfectly good money away on advertising space with empty phrases like, “serving the community since 1951.”

I think the brain tends to short circuit the path from benefit to platitude. So the marketer truly believes that by saying he has been in business since 1951, he thinks he is saying, “we are reliable and we satisfy our customers or else we wouldn’t have stayed in business this long.”

So here is a list of ways I use to put my own eyes back on the benefits ball whenever I am writing an ad, sales literature, direct marketing piece or even web content:

• What problems do my prospects want to solve? How can my offering help relieve this problem or pain for the prospect? What proof can I offer to support this claim?
  
• What improvements do the prospects want to see in their businesses or personal lives (depending on what needs my service or product address). How can what I offer help them achieve these improvements?
  
• What changes do these prospects seek or want? How can my product or service help make these desired changes a reality?
  

Notice that these three questions all focus first on what the customer wants and needs. Only then does the attention shift to the service or product, but even then it is within the context of answering what problems the customer wants solved or the improvements or changes the customer wants to experience.

Whenever possible, ask real customers or prospects these very same questions. Sure you may have enough experience dealing with customers to be able to answer them yourself, but that is not the point. The real point is you want to look at what you offer through the eyes of what a customer wants to accomplish. To the customer, your product or service is a means to an end - to solve a problem, make a change or bring about a significant improvement.

The more you can see your business through that filter, the more you will understand what benefits are really important to that customer.

COPYRIGHT © 2005 Charles Brown

The Old Brochure Is Dead

In most cases I am not a fan of the traditional brochure. I’ve seen too many beautiful, expensive brochures gather dust and make zero impact on potential customers. I’ve also seen business people hand them out like candy, expecting magic results to happen once the prospect’s fingers touch the glossy page.

Sorry, business doesn’t happen that way.

Here are a few alternatives I think you should consider first: Number one is your web site. A well-written, interactive web site can draw people’s attention much better than mere words on colored paper, no matter how attractive your graphics may be. Make your site a wealth of useful information-literally a resource-to your prospects and it will have a much more powerful impact.

But there are times when a prospect needs to hold and read a physical, tangible object. In these cases, let me encourage you to consider a simple, but attractive, folder with preprinted materials inside.

The key benefit to the folder is it can be customized to the recipient’s needs. Does your prospect need to get his widgets to retail stores faster? Include a FAQ sheet on how your firm can arrange timely shipping, tracking and just-in-time delivery of goods. Is your prospect beset with confusing government regulations? Include a case study on how your law firm solved another company’s administrative law headaches.

The folder can include a capabilities sheet targeted to the different industries you serve, reprints of news articles about your firm or about the problems your firm addresses, FAQs and even client testimonials. In short, the folder’s contents can be interchanged, updated and precisely focused to arouse any recipient’s interest.

On top of all these other benefits, you can print many of the content pages on your own laser printer without having to have it professionally printed.

The key to either your folder or web site is to show that you solve problems or help make wanted changes for your clients. Spend minimal time telling people how long you’ve been in business, or lavish superlatives about your, “commitment to excellence.” Deliver only the goods and leave the fluff out.

COPYRIGHT © 2005, Charles Brown

6 Steps To Free Publicity

If your job is to promote your organization, develop new business or attract new clients or customers, write down this name: “Marcia Yudkin.” Ms. Yudkin is the author of a number of excellent business books, one of which is 6 Steps to Free Publicity.

My own copy of 6 Steps is dog eared with multi-colored highlighted passages, contains many margin notes in my scratchy hand writing, and I have nine index tabs marking pages of particular interest. In short, I cannot recommend this book enough.

One topic Ms. Yudkin develops extremely well is her chapter on how to match your goals with the needs of the media. She advises the businessperson to understand that the fundamental question in the mind of any editor, reporter or producer is, “Why would our readers (or listeners or viewers) be interested in this story now?”

Sounds terribly basic doesn’t it? But Ms. Yudkin takes this question far beyond the mere elementary level. For example, she gives a fully developed list of 10 Ways To Be Timely, such as, “What is new about your business or organization?” This might include, new products, new developments or new ways of solving old problems.

She also presents other ideas like sponsoring an award or contest related to your organizational goals, or publicizing a company event like an employee talent show or educational project. Ms. Yudkin even has a miscellaneous list of idea-joggers on how to be newsworthy.

If your advertising is not producing the return on investment you want, perhaps the right mix of publicity along with your ad campaign could do wonders. And remember, not only is publicity free, your potential customers will find it far more credible than your own advertising.

And finally, be sure to check out the link I have posted to Marcia Yudkin's website. Not only does she provide tons of great information, but you can also subscribe to her excellent weekly email newsletter, Marketing Minute, or buy her book.

COPYRIGHT© 2005, Charles Brown

Three Steps to Persuasive Writing

Are you working on a writing project that needs to persuade? Is your audience skeptical or do they even hold the opposite point of view?

Try these three steps to maximize the power of your argument:

STEP ONE: Acknowledge the arguments against your position. The worst thing you can do is act as if they do not exist or have no merit at all. Instead, lay them out for all to see. Not only do you demonstrate your fairness and willingness to consider a contrary point of view, this step conveys to the reader that you have nothing to fear from the opposition's strongest ammunition.

An easy formula to use for this step (at least when writing your first draft) is, "Although..."

STEP TWO: Rebut the opposing argument. Lay out your position, point by point against the contrary position you have just acknowledged.

An easy formula for this step is, "Nevertheless..."

STEP THREE: Prove or support your argument. Provide evidence, examples, logic or supporting information that demonstrates why your point of view wins out over the opposition.

An easy formula for step three is, "because...." As a general rule, you should try for at least three "becauses" to give your reasoning credibility, but use your judgment and avoid over doing it.

After you have written your "Although...Nevertheless...Because..." draft, you may rewrite it in a less cumbersome manner. But by putting your initial thoughts on paper in this way, you will find that you have constructed a very persuasive argument.

COPYRIGHT (C) 2005, Charles Brown