Using a Brand-Building Campaign
Using Measurable Marketing
In this issue:
-
The 4 reasons they won’t read your sales copy – and what 2 things you can do immediately to make sure they do
-
The rarely discussed truth in the direct response business, that “branding” style ad agencies love to gloat over (but can potentially kill your small business).
-
Why the conversion rate number may be the least important one you should be concerned with (and the real numbers that do matter)
- How to fix a good ad gone bad – or how to make a bad ad turn good
- And Much More!
Fellow business builder,
Skepticism is a part of life – and business.
People don’t trust you at face value – it is completely up to you to earn their trust. With my services, I hear it ALL THE TIME. Excuses why it won’t work for them … because their business is “different”. They tried it before and it failed – so there is no way it will work now.
“Direct Marketing Doesn’t work”
There are really 2 forms of marketing at play … measurable results marketing … and non-measurable results marketing.
The kind you cannot directly measure (in terms of dollars generated from a specific campaign or marketing action) is commonly called image or brand marketing. The purpose of these kind of campaigns is to build general awareness of your offering and your message … and not about specific results on a day-by-day basis.
There have been many multi-million (and billion) dollar empires built exclusively on this form of marketing (firms that never used direct marketing techniques).
BUT … the average entrepreneur
doesn’t have deep enough pockets
to sustain image-only advertising.
They need to know right now what ad is working or sales letter is pulling in clients – and which aren’t.
Without this knowledge – entrepreneurs like you and I will quickly go broke.
When they know which ad, placed in which media publication or website, works and makes them money – they then have a system they can repeat until it stops working.
They can measure exactly what each new lead costs them to generate – and how much they need to invest in each real lead to convert them to a paying customer – and then how much to convert each one-time customer to a repeat buyer.
This knowledge is pure gold
when you know it.
And yes, direct marketing DOES work – and can be proven right down to the penny how well it does work. You cannot say that about image or brand awareness campaigns (the exact amount it made for the business can never be measured as they have no way of measuring it).
“No one will read all those words – people are different now and don’t read as much”
There is truth in that people are increasingly lazy.
BUT, and this is a big but, are your clients in that group? If you are trying to sell to a bunch of A.D.D. 13-somethings – then long copy sales letters with zero graphics probably won’t work all that well.
If you are trying to sell to the boomer or senior market – they want to know what they are buying and will research what you are selling until their fears are alleviated (that is assuming you kept their attention throughout the copy).
The key is to balance the copy
with supporting visuals.
And then to match this balance
with your exact target market.
Lots of people (including myself) are testing shorter copy websites that have people clicking through to specific things they want to see – rather than asking them to scroll down through a 25 page sales letter.
People won’t read all those words if they are boring … or if they are not the right target market … or if the visual appeal is downright hideous … or if the offer makes no sense or the claim sounds ridiculous.
You have to test and find out what the balance should be between words … graphics … message/market match … and the offer.
Only through testing will you know
what the right amount of words is.
And assuming you know is the surest way to kill your marketing results. You don’t know what your clients want – until you ask them (through marketing tests). They will often tell you they want one thing, but will show different responses when tested.
It is completely up to you to find the perfect match.
“There is a magical percentage conversion rate”
This is quite common. “I need a 2% conversion rate – anything below that is unacceptable.” My question to them is “WHY?” Any person familiar with marketing 101 knows that the real money is in the backend products and services you sell to your clients.
If you are selling a $25 book – you will never get rich without something else to sell. You MUST have something else – at a much higher price point – to sell.
And if you know that 10% of your book buyers will buy your $1,000 backend offer – who cares if you lose money or break even on the book sale.
In other words – concern yourself
less about the conversion rate
– and start worrying more about
the PROFIT you make.
If you don’t have a system in place to up the profit you make after the initial sale (to a new client) then a 3% conversion rate (which is very good on it’s own) means nothing other than the fact you are going broke fast selling your $25 book.
Do you honestly think that a company selling million dollar, ocean front, and gated community homes is concerned about a 1% response rate to their mailer?
They are more concerned with the quality of people they attract and the follow-up system they use to make sure the lead buys.
They may only get a 0.1% response rate to their mailer – but it makes them a million dollars.
“Hiring a professional marketer or copywriter
is guaranteed to make you a million dollars
the first time you run the promo”
HA! If you were guaranteed to make a million from a simple letter campaign – do you think any sane copywriter would price his services below … say … $500,000 per letter campaign?
Of course not.
The only guarantees you can expect from your copywriter or marketer is that they will find the approach that works best with your clients and your offer. They should be willing to stick with you, and rewrite, until the perfect combination of client – offer – and media is found.
Also, if there was a “magic” guarantee and formula that worked every time – there would only be a need for one book or training course on it – right?
The guarantee is more about
the persistence of your team members
to do whatever they need to do
to make the promotion work.
Direct marketing is a field few understand – and those who don’t understand it like to bash it.
Remember, many people use direct marketing in their business and see exceptional results – and it can work for you too if you give it a chance and have some patience. The perfect combination of message – market – media and you will have a winner. But to find the combination, it may take time, money – and lots of patience.
Direct marketing DOES work … if you know how to work it.
What can you do when a "good" ad goes bad?
It happens to all of us. Either you write a great advertisement or sales letter that kicks butt for a while … then goes lame. Or, you write (what you think) is a great ad or letter – and it completely BOMBS.
Either way, you have to go into emergency mode.
Why?
Because your time and money is fully vested in the project!
You can’t be wasting either.
If it performed strong then died out:
- Did anything change in the media (magazines, papers, trade newsletters)? If something happens to your media and readership changes or drops – it can affect your ad. Start looking around for any significant changes – then find places to replace them with.
- Ads do tire out if the readership remains stagnant and they keep seeing the same old ad from you every month – test a new headline and lead. Try a new offer or close or price (they will not remember how much you charged in the last ad, trust me).
- Have you tested other media forms with your message? It’s like calling yourself an "Internet marketer" only. Severely limiting your potential profits. The Internet is just another form of media. Your sales letter that kicks butt online may do even BETTER in print. Or on a postcard. Or on a teleseminar. How would you know if you don’t test it? Try the exact same sales message in other formats – and see how it performs there.
If it was a bomb right from the start (which everyone writes – I know I still get them – almost every writer does):
- Take a serious look at why it went wrong. This is tough if you wrote it yourself … you need to step back and look at it from someone else’s eyes. Your customers’ eyes! Is the headline targeted at them? Is it compelling? Does it promise specifics rather than generalities?
- Do the pictures support your approach in the ad – or do they take away from it? The photos must work with the story, hook, or angle you are presenting. They must prove credibility … and they must help move the prospect through the piece to the end.
- Is the ad following all sound direct marketing principles? Consider it like a "greased" slide. When they jump on the slide at the top (your headline) – it should take them on a fast ride to the end (the order). No bumps along the way – or any reason to stop sliding. A fun, fast ride that gets them to the bottom.
- Have you read it out loud? Does it flow? No stumbling?
Try changing those things … and you may find the small differences that mean the success or failure of your marketing campaign.
Please let me know your thoughts, and if you have any further topics on this you would like to see discussed.
To your success,
Troy White
Editor, Small Business Mastery
Supplement to THE TOTAL PACKAGE
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A Final Note:
If you have specific subjects you would like addressed, or have any comments on what you have seen here, please submit a comment below and I will see how I can help.
"Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.”
–Napoleon Hill
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