Posted by:
Gary Bencivenga
April 4, 2008
Issue #389
How to Find “Hot Pockets” of Customers
Eagerly Looking for What You Sell
Dear Marketing Top Gun:
A master salesman, one of the most successful in America, once told me that selling is simple, unless you make it complicated. He then taught me his greatest secrets for keeping it simple.
I found that his secrets worked like a charm in advertising as well, because advertising is nothing more than multiplied salesmanship — one good salesperson working his or her magic with thousands, even millions, at once. In fact, it’s this mighty multiplication factor that empowers advertising to rapidly enrich Top Guns who know how to use the simple secrets shared in these Bullets.
So let’s take a look at one of the greatest secrets this wise old salesman taught me. Just as I did, you’ll find it’s one of the easiest things you can do to increase your response. It seems so obvious, you may well think that you’re doing it already. But let me assure you of two things …
First, 98% of all marketers, even savvy ones who think they may know this, can do a much better job of applying it (most have barely scratched the surface). Second, once you do apply this in your market, you’ll be able to attract customers the way a large magnet draws metal filings. Or, merrily mixing my metaphors (I love doing that), you’ll be tossing your hook right in front of a ravenously hungry school of fish.
So what’s the big secret?
Well, the wise old salesman told me you’ll corral lots more customers by intercepting them wherever they are looking for someone like you.
Sounds simple, and it is, but we often complicate it to the point where we’re not doing this at all. Let me illustrate with an example I came upon recently, which I’ve dubbed …
The Fuzzy Dice Secret
My best "aha!" moment last year hit me when I learned the smartest way to sell just about anything online.
I learned it from Andy Jenkins, a super successful Internet entrepreneur who’s created a sprawling online empire of more than 80 sites that sell everything from information to specialized electronics to medieval suits of armor at $7,000 a pop.
For months, I had been trying to figure out for a business partner the best way to sell products online. Where to begin? What marketing strategy would work best? Should we create one big website selling all our products — in effect, an online catalog?
Or would separate websites for each main product be better? And how should we drive traffic — with e-zines, Google ads, search optimization, banner ads, blogs, podcasts, a little of everything, or what?
The marketing questions seemed endless, and the answers elusive … until Andy clarified everything by sharing what I have come to call "The Fuzzy Dice Secret."
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Posted by:
Gary Bencivenga
September 20, 2007
Issue #235
Dear Marketing Top Gun:
If I were on my deathbed about to wheeze my last breath, and you asked me to sum up in a single sentence the most important marketing secret I could bequeath to you before I kick the bucket (or bedpan), here is what I would whisper in your ear, hopefully without giving you anything contagious.
It’s a 9-word sentence I first read in the book Reality in Advertising by copywriting genius Rosser Reeves. He said that he had learned it from a legendary copywriter whom he didn’t name. This one sentence made fortunes for Reeves’ clients, as well as my own, and for scores of other marketers wise enough to apply it rigorously, as I hope you will.
Ready?
Bend close now as I whisper. Oops, let me raise myself up a bit first. OK, here goes …
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Posted by:
Gary Bencivenga
August 23, 2007
Issue #211
Perhaps the most effective
selling strategy ever discovered
Dear Marketing Top Gun:
When I was a young, inept copywriter, I felt acutely ashamed of my lack of skill. I craved respect in my craft yet reeked of mediocrity. I was determined to better myself by learning from the best.
That’s easier to do in New York City than just about anywhere else on earth because so many outstanding people in every field work in New York.
Reaching beyond my grasp, I applied for a job with the legendary copywriter and direct marketing agency boss Tom Collins. My interview with the great man took place in his office, after hours.
I can still see him now, so friendly and courteous to a copy cub so beneath his level. Leafing through my portfolio, he politely searched for something encouraging to say about my mundane samples. Finding nothing to compliment in my headlines, he plowed into body copy.
As he read, I glanced around his office and stared out his window, feeling that my future as a copywriter loomed as dark as the New York night. I had been rejected for other jobs with other masters, and the pattern was about to repeat.
Sure enough, he told me in a very considerate way that I wasn’t ready to make it in his agency. “Maybe sometime in the future,” he said, as he closed my portfolio and handed it back.
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Posted by:
Gary Bencivenga
July 19, 2007
Issue #181
Dear Marketing Top Gun:
The 7-letter word is SCAMPER.
Never heard of the SCAMPER secret?
Top Gun, that’s what I’m trying to give you in these Bullets, little secrets for exploding response you’ve never heard elsewhere, instead of the same old, same old.
This one is a real beaut. It will singlehandedly let you generate more breakthroughs than you ever imagined, and you’ll do so with an ease that will make others think you must have dropped your hair blower into the tub and zapped your brain to a higher level.
SCAMPER is an acronym created by Alex Osbourne, the father of creative problem solving.
Each letter stands for something simple you can do to get a fresh take on anything – a headline, offer, product, market, layout, anything. It instantly gives you 11 easy ways to multiply your number of new solutions.
Whenever you’re trying to solve a marketing problem, just start playing with each of the capitalized words in the following list:
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Posted by:
Gary Bencivenga
June 7, 2007
Issue #145
A little-known secret
for instantly accelerating your success
in marketing or any other activity in life.
Dear Marketing Top Gun:
Today I bring you a rare Silver Bullet, a secret so powerful, it can work a profound change in every area of your life, including marketing.
I learned it from Edward De Bono, regarded by many as the world’s top authority on creative thinking.
The secret is remarkably simple. In the next 60 seconds, it will empower you to open your eyes and see the world in a new way. It will let you uncover many of life’s treasures hiding in plain sight, and can be used to obtain anything you desire far more easily.
I call it…
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