You’ve spent $4,000,000  for 30 seconds: What would you say? 

In just a few weeks, it will be Superbowl Sunday, the single biggest sporting event in the United States. Millions of Americans will be glued to their television sets as the spectacle unfolds.

I’m looking forward to some entertaining moments, some embarrassments, and some truly colossal wastes of money.

I’m not talking about the game itself. I’m talking about the advertising.

This year, a thirty second commercial during the Superbowl costs up to a cool $4 million. Oh, and all of the commercials have been sold and there is a waiting list.

Consider that for a moment. If you were to spend $4 million to get 30 seconds to promote your business, what would you say?

In the past, some advertisers have used their 30 seconds to promote farting horses, sex change operations, and lemmings.

No. Really. I wish I were making this up.

One of Budweiser’s Superbowl commercials began with a couple having a romantic evening in a horse drawn carriage. A farting horse, whose flatulence hits a candle and torches the woman’s hair, ruins the ride.

This was an effort to sell beer.

Holiday Inn presented a scene where the “hot” woman at the high school reunion turned out to be a classmate formerly known as Bob. This transitions into a last minute mention that equates her sex change with Holiday Inn’s recent renovations.

This was an effort to sell staying at a chain of hotels.

Just one year after the Macintosh was introduced with one of the most memorable commercials ever created, Apple ran an abstract commercial that included a spooky version of the tune “Heigh-Ho” and office workers walking off a cliff.

This was an effort to sell the Macintosh Office. (After this debacle, Apple didn’t return to advertising during the Superbowl for another fourteen years.)

So why do otherwise intelligent companies end up spending millions to do a lousy job of selling products?

They confuse entertainment with selling.

What is missing is a clear understanding of the fundamental of advertising. Advertising is supposed to sell something. The only valid measurement is: did it produce results?

I’m going to let you in on a dirty little secret of the advertising business.

To validate if an advertising person is any good at their job, many people turn to awards.

Most of the awards given in the ad business are given to creative types by other creative types for (you guessed it) creativity. They don’t evaluate the bottom-line results that were created.

Creative awards are used to get new clients who fund other creative ads, which in turn win awards that lead to getting other new clients who fund other ads that…you get it.

When advertising people talk about “impact,” “buzz,” or use the term “breakthrough,” it usually means they don’t have any measurable results from their work.

If they could show how an investment of $100,000 generated $500,000 in sales, they would.

The root of the problem is that many creative types enjoy being “creative” but never embrace selling. Deep down, they fear actual selling. They don’t believe selling is sexy. It is much easier to avoid selling and to go for glamour and entertainment.

Effective advertising rarely wins awards. It just quietly produces results and makes the client a lot of money.

Effective advertising touches the right nerve to get people to say to themselves: “I want that. I need that.” And, it gets them to pick up the phone and respond to an offer.

Let’s go back to the Superbowl. One of the recent ads considered “worst” by the media who judge Superbowl ads by their entertainment value was done by Salesgenie.com.

Salesgenie is an online subscription service that provides sales leads. Their ads were simple, inexpensive animations. In comparison to the big budget mega ads, they were plain and boring, maybe even annoying.

However, they correctly targeted the right audience—business owners and sales people. Their ads conveyed the benefits of how Salesgenie helps businesses get more sales. Most important, they had a strong offer – 100 free sales leads.

More than 30,000 people visited the company’s website the evening of last year’s Super Bowl. That generated as many product trials as the company usually earns in a month. In addition, Salesgenie.com’s website market share spiked by more than 500 percent after its first Superbowl commercial debuted.

So while you’ll probably enjoy many of the commercials you’ll see during this year’s Superbowl, ask yourself: If you were going to spend $4 million and had just 30 seconds, what would you say?

Would you tell a joke?

Or would you give people some very strong reasons to do business with you?

Enjoy the game.

To Your Business Success,

______________________

Are you looking to raise the effectiveness of your marketing? The first step is to have a conversation. (800) 595-1288 to schedule a no-obligation telephone meeting. Or, simply send an e-mail.

Want to learn more? Access the Marketing Rocket Fuel Archive Library.

______________________

Reading a forwarded copy? Get your own free subscription to Marketing Rocket Fuel at www.sentium.com

Richard Wilson is the Founder/Chief Marketing Strategist for Sentium Strategic Communications which helps companies craft the right message for extraordinary results. Over the past 33 years, his clients
have ranged from startups to major technology companies.

© 2011 All Rights Reserved. All people who are looking to dramatically boost their business should read this rezone. Don’t even think about reproducing this document or its contents without written permission from Richard Wilson. But feel free to forward this or e-mail it to all of your friends. For reprint permission please call 800-595-1288.

1,000 Baby Sea Turtles and How They Can Help Save You in this Crazy Economy

 One of my greatest heroes growing up was not a sports figure or a movie star. It was a skinny old Frenchman named Jacques Cousteau.

He was a naval officer, explorer, ecologist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author, and researcher who studied the sea and all its myriad forms of life.

He also invented the aqua-lung. (If you have even been scuba diving, you owe him a debt of gratitude.)

I wanted to be Jacques Cousteau when I grew up.

Cousteau created a series of special television documentaries. It was a special event whenever one aired. Of course, I was glued to the television watching every detail.

It was while watching one of his specials that I learned an important life lesson that I know is critical for business success.

An image that amazed and horrified me

One particular special was about sea turtles. Did you know that while they live in the sea, they lay their eggs on the high beach in the sand? When the eggs hatch there is an amazing spectacle. Hundreds of newly hatched baby turtles crawl up and out of the sand to begin their race to the water.

The critical forty yards they must cross are literally the difference between life and death.

I watched the multitude of hatchlings begin their clumsy race to the water. But just as they began their descent to the water, a voracious flock of sea birds arrived and began picking off the turtles. As I watched the documentary, it seemed as though impossible numbers of birds were swooping in and snagging turtles at will.

The chaotic blur of birds feasting on turtles etched a vivid memory in my mind. I had an empty feeling as I watched helplessly trapped on my side of the television.

As the drama played itself out, I could see that some of the turtles made it to the water. But even then, those that didn’t get deep enough, quickly enough, were snatched by the hungry birds.

Fortunately, although nature repeats this event annually, enough turtles make it to grow to adulthood. They then return years later to lay their own eggs. Roughly two months later, new hatchlings emerge and the race for life repeats itself.

So how does this apply to your business?

To ensure that the various species of sea turtles survive, nature uses a strategy of producing 100 times the number of hatchlings needed. Only 1 or 2 out of 100 hatchlings survive the first year.

Interestingly, a one to two percent response rate — prospects who actually become customers — is a common point where many direct response campaigns become viable.

So that’s the lesson from the sea turtles: You need to be reaching approximately 100 times the number of prospects for every customer you want.

This is where most businesses’ new customer programs break down. They don’t reach enough prospects to effectively produce the needed number of new clients.

Before you begin to address subjects like response rates or advertising effectiveness, your first concern should be, are you reaching enough people?

Let’s look at an example. Suppose you want to double the number of sales you make. You are currently promoting to an e-mail list of 5,000 qualified prospects. The smart first step would be to increase the mailing list to 10,000 qualified people.

Of course, there are other things that can be done to improve your marketing yields. And, you should do all of them! But the first step should be to ask: “Am I reaching enough people to produce the results I need?”

This will give you a foundation for a successful new customer acquisition program.

This works no matter what is happening in the economy. You simply adjust the number of people you need to reach for the current environment. If fewer people are buying, then you need to make sure you reach more people. If more people are buying, then count yourself lucky and flourish and prosper. (And if you are a sea turtle, make sure you lay enough eggs.)

Improve your marketing results

Are you getting the results you want from your new business programs? Why not tap into the expertise that can get you more clients and make more sales?

The first step is to call Sentium at (800) 595-1288 and set up a phone meeting. This is a free, no-obligation meeting where we can discuss your situation and how to improve it.

And, if you are wondering how you can increase the number of people you are reaching, we can help you there too.

To Your Business Success,

______________________

Are you looking to raise the effectiveness of your marketing? The first step is to have a conversation. (800) 595-1288 to schedule a no-obligation telephone meeting. Or, simply send an e-mail.

Want to learn more? Access the Marketing Rocket Fuel Archive Library.

______________________

Reading a forwarded copy? Get your own free subscription to Marketing Rocket Fuel at www.sentium.com

Richard Wilson is the Founder/Chief Marketing Strategist for Sentium Strategic Communications which helps companies craft the right message for extraordinary results. Over the past 33 years, his clients
have ranged from startups to major technology companies.

© 2011 All Rights Reserved. All people who are looking to dramatically boost their business should read this rezone. Don’t even think about reproducing this document or its contents without written permission from Richard Wilson. But feel free to forward this or e-mail it to all of your friends. For reprint permission please call 800-595-1288.

A Public Relations Disaster

How saving $1,200 cost United Airlines 10,772,839 negative views on YouTube

It is a customer service nightmare. At the same time, it is a good lesson about how social media can impact your business.

Here’s what happened:

A singer/songwriter named Dave Carroll was flying from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Omaha, Nebraska, with a layover at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. As he was getting ready to get off the plane, he heard another passenger say, “My God! They’re throwing guitars out there!”

As Dave and the other band members looked out onto the tarmac where the luggage was being unloaded, they recognized the guitars. Their reaction was a blend of terror and disbelief.

Later he indeed discovered that his $3,500 Taylor guitar’s neck had been broken.

What followed was a customer service nightmare. Dave tried for nine months to get a claim processed with United. The response was a firm and consistent “no.” They claimed he had waited longer than 24 hours to process a claim, so he was out of luck.

He tried phone calls. He tried e-mails. He even went so far as to suggest that instead of money, United give him $1,200 in flight vouchers to cover the cost of repairing the guitar. United held firm. They said “No.”

So, what else could a singer-songwriter do?

That’s right. He wrote a song and produced a music video. The song was titled “United Breaks Guitars.” He put it up on YouTube and it went viral.

Now just in case you’re not up on this particular piece of internet slang, “viral” means one person sends it to ten of their friends, who send it to ten of their friends, who send it to ten of their friends, and so on. It follows the same pattern of how a bad cold gets passed around. (Hence the name.)

It also means that pretty quickly very large numbers of people were singing along to “United Breaks Guitars.”

As of this writeup, this video has had 10,772,839 views.

After 150,000 views, United contacted Dave Carroll and offered payment to make the video go away. He had changed his mind, however. It wasn’t about the money anymore. In fact, he suggested they donate the money to a charity.

United also discovered that “United Breaks Guitars” wasn’t just a single song. It was part of a trilogy.

So far, “United Breaks Guitars Song 2” has generated 1,322,582 views on YouTube. “United Breaks Guitars Song 3” has generated 405,790 views. All together, that’s over 12.5 million negative impressions.

That’s a lot of people listening to catchy tunes about United’s customer service.

Of course, the impact of Dave’s song went far beyond YouTube.

As “United Breaks Guitars Song 1” was becoming an internet phenomenon, the news media picked up the story. Soon newspapers and news broadcast media across North America were doing stories about the song. Dave became a sought after guest on many radio and TV shows where, of course, he retold the story of “United Breaks Guitars.” He did over 200 interviews in the first few months.

Then the copy cats and parodies started. There are now countless add-on videos that others have posted on YouTube. They range from a parody called, “United Breaks Guitars – Inside Response from United Airlines” to “Hitler Finds Out United Breaks Guitars.”

Add a few million more views to the discussion about United.

How has the public felt about this portrayal of United Airlines? When you look at the “United Breaks Guitars Song 1,” 51,327 people voted that they liked it against 1,012 dislikes. That’s roughly a 50-to-1 ratio against United.

A recent Google search of the term “United Breaks Guitars” returned 2,690,000 results.

Remember the offer from Dave to accept $1,200 worth of travel vouchers as compensation for the repair costs? Compare that to millions of people singing along to songs about how they wish they’d “…flown with someone else….or gone by car…because United breaks guitars…”

One story out of Newark, New Jersey describes an entire shuttle filled with passengers who spontaneously began singing “United Breaks Guitars” while traveling between terminals.

This tsunami of bad public relations has certainly had an effect on people’s decision in choosing an airline. The BBC reported that United’s stock price dropped by 10% within three to four weeks of the release of the video – a decrease in valuation of $180 million.

United is clearly the loser.

Not everyone did it wrong

Taylor Guitars, the people who made the now famous guitar — and who are referenced in the video — had their own response.

They gave Dave a new Taylor Guitar. But that’s not all.

They created their own YouTube video. In it, they stated how unhappy they become when any guitar gets damaged and reminded people about their repair services. They also offered free information about how to travel safely with guitars.

This quickly produced two-minute video has generated 562,777 views.

They came out an unanticipated winner in this adventure by taking positive action.

What does this mean for your business?

We live in a world where YouTube videos can get a following overnight. A website such as www.your-business-sucks.com can be set up and operational in about an hour.

Having a philosophy of doing the right thing is more important than ever. Information now travels at the speed of the internet. Sadly, bad news seems to travel faster than good news.

But don’t just approach the idea of “doing the right thing” because of its public relations value. This philosophy is rightly the foundation of any sound, successful business.

Deliver exceptional service and high quality products. Turn your customers into raving fans. Use that base of support to get positive reviews on social media sites. The way to counter an unhappy customer’s one-star rating is by having ten five-star ratings already in place.

So first, earn the positive reviews from your customers. Next, encourage them to share those positive reviews with others.

And try to avoid antagonizing anyone who can create a catchy music video.

Building an excellent reputation

Building an excellent reputation is a process. It’s not a single event.

An excellent reputation is the result of many positive actions over a period of time. There are, however, some strategies that can accelerate the process.

The best time to implement them is now, before anyone starts singing songs about you.

If you’d like to explore your options, call Sentium at (800) 595-1288 and we’ll set up a phone meeting. This is a free, no obligation meeting where we can discuss your situation and how to improve it.

In the meantime, check out “United Breaks Guitars Song 1” on YouTube.

To Your Business Success,

______________________

Are you looking to raise the effectiveness of your marketing? The first step is to have a conversation. (800) 595-1288 to schedule a no-obligation telephone meeting. Or, simply send an e-mail.

Want to learn more? Access the Marketing Rocket Fuel Archive Library.

______________________

Reading a forwarded copy? Get your own free subscription to Marketing Rocket Fuel at www.sentium.com

Richard Wilson is the Founder/Chief Marketing Strategist for Sentium Strategic Communications which helps companies craft the right message for extraordinary results. Over the past 33 years, his clients
have ranged from startups to major technology companies.

© 2011 All Rights Reserved. All people who are looking to dramatically boost their business should read this rezone. Don’t even think about reproducing this document or its contents without written permission from Richard Wilson. But feel free to forward this or e-mail it to all of your friends. For reprint permission please call 800-595-1288.

Which Ad Was the Winner?
Can you spot which ad out performed the other?

There are a lot of people in the advertising industry who hate this.

It’s the same as students who hate tests or athletes who don’t want to look at the scoreboard.

Some people don’t like the accountability of measured results. Many advertising types prefer to talk about vague terms such as “creativity” or “visual impact.” Bring up the subject of results and they often look like scared rabbits.

Frankly, I love measured results. Sue, it can be tough on the ego at times. But it eliminates a lot of guesswork and helps assure that campaigns are effective. After all, marketing should be a bottom-line activity.

Recently, we conducted some tests using local Facebook ads and I’d like to share the results.

The technique we used is called “split testing.”

Split testing is a powerful strategy for increasing the effectiveness of advertising. Two versions of an ad are created. One half of your target group see one version of an ad. The other half see the alternate version.

By tracking the number of responses you can determine which ad is more effective. You then use the one that generates the best results in your future advertising.

Split testing can help compare different selling appeals, prices, and just about any aspect of your product or service. By using Google or Facebook ads, you can get results quickly and with a minimum amount of money being invested.

In this case, the client was a dental practice looking to attract new patients. The service being offered was a teeth whitening program.

Test number one

For the first test, identical headlines and body copy were used. What was being tested was the image. In one, we focused on a close up of woman with an attractive smile. The second image was a close up of just a beautiful smile.

Which do you think did a better job of attracting people who wanted to whiten their teeth? Here are the two options that were tested:

Results: The ad with the full face pulled 400% better than the ad with just the close-up of the smile.

Test number two

The next test compared two different headlines. The first used the “A Whiter Smile For Summer” headline. The second used “Whiten Your Smile for $99.” Again, the only difference between the two ads was the headline.

Which do you think got better results?

Results: The headline “Whiten Your Smile for $99” pulled 53% better than the headline, “A Whiter Smile For Summer.” It appears that bringing the specific price up into the headline added a “deal” factor to the ad that made it more compelling.

This then became our new winner and the ad to beat. (This is called “the control” in direct response advertising terms.)

Test number three

For the next test, we compared an image of a pleasant older couple against our control. All other factors were kept the same. Would both a man and woman with great smiles generate more responses than a single woman?

Results: Again, the image with the smiling woman produced better results, yielding a 53% better response rate.

At this point we decided we should give the smiling woman a name. We decided on “Melissa.” It was much easier than constantly saying “the pleasant, smiling, blonde woman.”

Test number four

Next, Melissa had to defend her top spot against an attractive younger woman. Again, the only difference was the image. All other factors were kept the same.

Results: The new woman did quite well, out pulling all of our other tested ads. However, she was unable to do better than Melissa. Melissa out pulled the challenger by 57%.

So, as our “control” Melissa continues to run. We plan to continue to test her against other images, including; an attractive younger couple, an attractive man, and women of different ethnicities.

Testing – the key to results

One thing that becomes crystal clear through testing is that different selling messages and images get different results. If you are not tracking your results and testing new appeals, you are not getting the best yield from your marketing.

By using tools such as Google Adwords or Facebook, it is possible to get tangible results in days. They are very fast tools for measuring the effectiveness of different ads. By building on what works best, you can enhance the results your marketing generates.

In working with a wide range of clients over many years, our team has learned a number of proven factors that consistently make ads more effective. This allows us to get better results more quickly.

Remember, the greatest leverage point you have for growing your business is to enhance your creative selling message. The best way to know what works is to test and measure your results.

If you haven’t done so already, make testing a key part of your marketing strategy.

To your business success,

______________________

Are you looking to raise the effectiveness of your marketing? The first step is to have a conversation. (800) 595-1288 to schedule a no-obligation telephone meeting. Or, simply send an e-mail.

Want to learn more? Access the Marketing Rocket Fuel Archive Library.

______________________

Reading a forwarded copy? Get your own free subscription to Marketing Rocket Fuel at www.sentium.com

Richard Wilson is the Founder/Chief Marketing Strategist for Sentium Strategic Communications which helps companies craft the right message for extraordinary results. Over the past 33 years, his clients
have ranged from startups to major technology companies.

© 2011 All Rights Reserved. All people who are looking to dramatically boost their business should read this rezone. Don’t even think about reproducing this document or its contents without written permission from Richard Wilson. But feel free to forward this or e-mail it to all of your friends. For reprint permission please call 800-595-1288.

The Power of a Few Words

He sat on the sidewalk alone, the cardboard beneath him his only protection from the cold cement. Around him people talked. They laughed. They ordered coffee to go.

Occasionally, someone would drop a coin into the can at his side. The loud clank revealed that the can was virtually empty. A scrawled sign said, “I’m blind. Please help.”

A woman came walking down the sidewalk on her way to a meeting. Her clothes, her hair, her briefcase all said success. She walked past the man, and then something made her stop. She turned and looked thoughtfully at the man, the sign, and the empty can.

She stepped forward and grabbed the sign. She flipped it over. A pen appeared and she began to write.

The blind man reached out and touched her shoes to “see” the person he was hearing in front of him.

In a moment, the writing was complete. Without a word, the revised sign was returned to its place and the woman strode off to her appointment.

The scene on the street began to change.

Many of the people who passed the sitting man stopped to give a coin, or even a few coins. The empty clang in the can was replaced with the softer clink of a can filling with money.

A while later, the man heard the distinct sound of the woman’s steps returning. He reached out and felt the now familiar shoes to confirm it was her.

“What did you do to my sign?” he asked.

“I wrote the same thing as you, but with different words,” she replied.

“Thank you!” he said gratefully as she walked off.

What did the new sign say that had made all the difference?

“It’s a beautiful day and I can’t see it.”

I saw this story unfold in a short YouTube video recently. It is a powerful illustration of the difference between having an average selling message versus an exceptional one.

The difference was the rewriting of a few words. It was the same man, in the same place, on the same day, with the same can at his side. But with the creation of a new message, his world changed.

I see exactly the same result with the clients I work with. A small refinement of the selling message very often makes a substantial difference.

I was recently asked to resuscitate an e-mail campaign for my favorite regional theater company. Their show had opened a few days before. The reviews were out and they were glowing.

They were now in the critical period where either they would see ticket sales rise to make the show nicely profitable, or they would stay flat and take the show into the red.

The problem was that the number of people opening e-mails promoting the show were declining.

A promotional e-mail sent 12 days earlier had a 17.8% open rate. The open rate for the second e-mail slid to 15.45%. The third e-mail in the series saw the open rate drop to 14.89%

I needed to turn around the trend and there wasn’t much time to do it. With only nine shows left in the run, every day made a difference. The challenge was to send a new e-mail to the same list of 5,999 people, tell them about the same show, but get a higher level of response.

The only thing available to change was the message in the e-mail. That meant working with the subject line, the selling message, and possibly changing a photo.

I worked on it late into the evening. At 8:23 the next morning I hit the send button.

Less than 12 hours later, we had registered a 31.1% open rate. The number of people clicking through to the ticket website jumped 45.3%. Calls to the ticket office increased by 50.2%.

The difference was simply focusing and refining the message.

Having the right selling message is your single greatest leverage point for getting more return from your marketing budget. It costs just as much to run a poorly crafted ad as it does to run one that gets two to three times the number of responses.

So how am I able to get much higher than average response rates? No, it is not some mystical power, a lucky rabbit’s foot, or strange voices inside my head. It is decades of hard-won knowledge and study of what does and doesn’t work in getting people to take a desired action. Usually that desired action is buying a product or service.

Imagine what can happen when you get just 15, 25, 35% more responses to your marketing. That means more leads for your sales people. It means more new customers. It means greater profits at the end of the quarter.

The extra time and additional money it takes to have a direct response advertising professional create your marketing can pay for itself many times over.

It can often mean the difference between success or failure in a product launch.

It is often the difference between a company that’s just getting by or flourishing.

Focus on getting the right message in your marketing efforts. While the difference may be only a few words, those words can make all the difference in the world.

To your business success,

______________________

Are you looking to raise the effectiveness of your marketing? The first step is to have a conversation. (800) 595-1288 to schedule a no-obligation telephone meeting. Or, simply send an e-mail.

Click here to get your own Free subscription to Marketing Rocket Fuel.

______________________

Richard Wilson is the Founder/Chief Marketing Strategist for Sentium Strategic Communications which helps companies craft the right message for extraordinary results. Over the past 33 years, his clients have ranged from start ups to major technology companies.

© 2011 All Rights Reserved. All people who are looking to dramatically boost their business should read this e-zine. Don’t even think about reproducing this document or its contents without written permission from Richard Wilson. But feel free to forward it to all of your friends. For reprint permission please call 800-595-1288.

The first secret of marketing success
As revealed on a fishing trip with Dad

There is a fundamental law that drives the sales success of your business. I had this illustrated to me when I was a nine year old kid.

It was early in the fall and my father agreed to take me trout fishing. We got up before dawn, fell into old fishing clothes and made the drive from suburbia to a stream in the woods.

I remember racing down to the stream, setting up my pole and line, and casting into the water. And then…nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

Later in life, I would have appreciated the beauty of nature. I would have enjoyed the quiet solitude. At nine, I was bored. I was so bored my skin felt itchy and if I didn’t get up and do something, I thought I would explode.

In the distance I heard a low rumbling sound. As it approached, I saw a huge truck with a logo that said Department of Fish and Game. It stopped about 100 yards upstream and backed up to the edge of the water.

The back opened up and suddenly, thousands of farm-raised, hungry, gullible trout were headed directly towards me.

Now I know that a true fishing enthusiast who watches The Outdoor Channel would have turned-up their nose and left. But at nine years old, I suddenly had a new definition of heaven.

I caught my limit in less than ten minutes. It had taken more time to get the fish off the hook and into the bucket than it did to get them on the line. It hadn’t mattered what bait I used. I think I could have gotten bites using bits of Hostess Twinkies.

You may be thinking that the moral of this story is that it’s easy to catch fish when there are thousands of fish in your stream. While that is true, it is not the moral of the story.

The moral is much more basic: I only caught fish when I had my line in the water.

The moment I reeled in my line, I stopped catching fish.

Sure, it helped to have a gazillion fish coming down the stream. But when I didn’t have my line in the water, I caught nothing. It didn’t matter how many fish were in front of me.

Had I given up and gone home before my personal fish fantasy was realized, I would have been eating a McDonalds hamburger instead of fresh caught trout.

The same is true for your business. If you don’t have your line in the water, it is very difficult to catch fish. You always need to be marketing your business.

Sure there will be some times when things are slow. You may want to give up and go home. Believe it or not, the correct strategy in that case is not to go home, but to become a better fisherman.

Change bait. Change locations. Put more lines in the water.

If you need to catch fish to eat, you stay focused and try new approaches or starve.

If you are in one of those wonderful situations where you are catching fish as fast as you can hook them and land them, be thankful for your good fortune.

And, know that the amazing run you are experiencing may not last forever.

(Recall the real estate market of a few years ago in California? Houses were getting multiple, above-asking price offers the day they went on the market. People were making money hand over fist. Then the bubble burst. It is a very different market today.)

No matter which condition you are experiencing, you can’t catch fish if your line is not in the water.

So here is what you should do: Review the marketing you use for your business.

First, are you actively doing something to get new business? Or, do you simply have it on your list of “things that I should do?”

If you are actively marketing for new business, does your program have a systematic process that moves people from being an initial prospect to a customer who buys from you? Does it have a method of continually nurturing people through the selling process?

And — even more important — are you keeping that process going continually?

Do you have your fishing line in the water?

A bit overwhelmed as to where to start? Not sure of the best way to create an effective marketing system? Take a deep breath. There is a simple and proven solution. Give Sentium Strategic Communications a call at (800) 595-1288.

We’ll arrange a no-obligation, telephone meeting where we can explore how to make your prospect fishing more effective. Of course, the meeting is free. You’ll pay nothing. But you’ll gain insight in how to improve the effectiveness of your marketing. I look forward to hearing from you.

To Your Business Success,

______________________

Want to increase the effectiveness of your marketing? Call Sentium to arrange for a free, no-obligation, one hour telephone consultation. (800) 595-1288. We’ll explore how you can get the results you desire.

Click here to get your own Free subscription to Marketing Rocket Fuel.

______________________

	Richard Wilson is the Founder/Chief Marketing Strategist for Sentium Strategic Communications which helps companies craft the right message for extraordinary results. Over the past 32 years, his clients have ranged from start-ups to major technology companies.
© 2010 All Rights Reserved. All people who are looking to dramatically boost their business should read this e-zine. Don’t even think about reproducing this document or its contents without written permission from Richard Wilson. But feel free to forward this to all of your friends. For reprint permission, please call 800-595-1288.

Forget the Economy – It’s time for a Popeye Moment

Heaven help you if you’ve been reading the newspaper or watching the evening news. By viewing life through the distorted lens of the media, it’s easy to become one depressed little puppy.

There is huge scarcity everywhere. There’s no money. No one is buying. There’s no end in sight to economic troubles. Doom. Gloom. A little more gloom. The sky is falling.

But imagine for a moment that what you were being told wasn’t totally true. What if there was something you could do about the economic problems impacting your business? What if it wasn’t all hopeless?

One of the first steps in determining truth is to consider the source.

Has the news media ever lied before? Have they ever reported things that were not correct? Have they ever only told part of the truth or put a slant on a story?

Remember, the media is all based on ratings and readership. Bad news gets ratings. That’s why one of the sayings of the news industry is, “If it bleeds, it leads.” (Meaning it gets picked to be the lead story of the broadcast or the headline on the front page.)

Everything may seem hopeless to you because you are bombarded by negative messages every day. But, just because a lie is repeated many times doesn’t make it true.

The next step in determining truth is to observe things for yourself and see if any of what you examine contradicts what you are being told.

Consider these recent facts:

- Tiffany & Co.’s second-quarter net income rose 19 percent on higher revenue as shoppers bought more of its high-end jewelry around the world.

- Apple recently announced financial results for its fiscal 2010 third quarter. The Company posted record revenues of $15.7 billion and a net quarterly profit of $3.25 billion.

- McDonald’s U.S. stores outperformed the industry by about 5 percent, and their second-quarter profit rose 12 percent, to $1.2 billion.

- A dental client of ours just had more new patients start in the last month than in any other month in that past two years.

- Sentium is having a record year.

So no, it’s not true that everything is bad everywhere.

Hmmm…businesses doing well despite the economy? Luck? A fluke? A magic lamp with a genie?

No. The difference is that these businesses have had a “Popeye moment.”

Remember the cartoon “Popeye the Sailor?” Popeye used to get pushed around and beat up by Brutus, the big bad guy.

Finally, Popeye would have his “Popeye Moment” and say, “That’s all Ize kin take and Ize kin take no more!” He would pull out a can of spinach and eat it.

Suddenly, he became powerful and strong. He would put a beat down on Brutus and win the day.

Feel the economy (like Brutus) is kicking you in the economic teeth? Here’s what you can do.

1. Grab your spinach and eat it. Shake off the overwhelming sense of helplessness that can happen.

2. Decide that you can (and will) do something about improving the condition of your business.

3. Stop listening to and watching the news.

4. Create a really cool offer that will make people say to themselves, “Self, that’s a really good deal. I want to visit/call these people right away!”

5. Get that offer out to as many prospective customers as possible.

6. Deliver an exceptional value to the people who respond to help make them customers for life.

7. Repeat steps 3 through 6.

8. Repeat steps 3 through 6.

9. Repeat steps 3 through 6.

The simple truth is that when you promote your business well, you get more customers. It doesn’t matter what the economic reports say. It doesn’t matter how well or poorly your competition is doing. It doesn’t matter if it’s raining outside.

Increase the amount of marketing you put out into the world and you will attract more business.

This is your antidote to a bad economy. Of course it only works if you actually do it.

Yes. It’s time to businessman-up and go into action.

(I know, that last comment was politically incorrect. I was going to say businessperson-up, but it just didn’t work.)

Almost any marketing activity is better than no marketing activity. It gets your business moving.

And yes, there are degrees of effectiveness. There’s walking. There’s running. And then there’s driving a well-tuned sports car.

There’s a technology to marketing and advertising. In the world of direct response advertising, there are many known success formulas.

Do them well and the phone rings off the hook.

Find a good copywriter who understands your marketplace and who can create effective advertising, and you have found a goose that lays golden eggs.

Not everything they create will be a wild success. Even the greatest copywriters have their duds. But by repeating promotions that get results and dropping the losers, you will soon have a marketing machine that produces a constant flow of new clients for you.

And that puts you in control over your economic destiny.

So, grab your spinach and get started.

To your business success,

______________________

Want to increase the effectiveness of your marketing? Call Sentium to arrange for a free, no-obligation, one hour telephone consultation. (800) 595-1288. We’ll explore how you can get the results you desire.

Click here to get your own Free subscription to Marketing Rocket Fuel.

______________________

	Richard Wilson is the Founder/Chief Marketing Strategist for Sentium Strategic Communications which helps companies craft the right message for extraordinary results. Over the past 32 years, his clients have ranged from start-ups to major technology companies.
© 2010 All Rights Reserved. All people who are looking to dramatically boost their business should read this e-zine. Don’t even think about reproducing this document or its contents without written permission from Richard Wilson. But feel free to forward this to all of your friends. For reprint permission, please call 800-595-1288.

How your marketing pieces may be unselling your prospects. Actually, it’s your third grade teacher’s fault

Here’s the truth of it. You can’t confuse and annoy people into becoming enthusiastic customers for life.

I know. It seems obvious. So why do so many companies insist on confusing and annoying people? Actually, it’s their third grade teachers fault.

“And then Bob hauled off and hit him”

One of the most annoying things for people is having someone purposely using words and names they can’t understand. Remember the first time someone around you started using Pig Latin?

I remember it clearly. I was on the playground at my school when Mike (I won’t give his last name because he still lives around the old neighborhood) started up with “Ouyay on’tday owknay atwhay I’mway ayingsay!”

Now Mike was one of those “I’m better than you,” “My dad’s a lawyer,” and “I get cooler toys at Christmas” kind of kids. To put it bluntly, he was amazingly irritating.

Bob, the target of these incomprehensible taunts, was no slouch himself. He, however, had a short fuse and the fists to back it up.

After one too many baffling barbs, Bob decided it was time to punctuate the sentence. He swore and then Bob hauled off and hit him.

Unknowingly, your marketing materials may be creating a similar effect with your potential customers. While they might not hit you, they are probably throwing your stuff in the trash.

Your teacher led you astray

There is a strange language that is taught in most schools. It is stiff, formal, and full of as many big words as possible. It is based on the false notion that if the writer seems highly educated, then the reader will believe whatever is being written.

You probably started developing this habit somewhere around third grade when your teacher gave you a thesaurus and encouraged you to “use the big words.”

The reality is that the more the writer tries to impress, the fewer people who can understand the message.

“Excessive verbosity inadvertantly becomes an inhibitor of concept communication.”

(Translation: Too many fancy words can make your message confusing.)

No normal person talks in this stiff, affected, overly scholarly way. But it is how most people learned to write in school.

It is also why many of the marketing materials you see are incomprehensible.

This has evolved to a new baffling language I call Corporatese. This is the art of saying very little with the maximum number of words possible.

Another symptom of Corporatese is ignoring what is important to the reader and stating everything from the viewpoint of the highly self-important corporation.

(The board of directors love this stuff. It is the poor customer who suffers.)

Here are some real examples. (No. I didn’t make these up.)

“… is an international marketing solutions provider with over 40 years of experience and success. We provide unsurpassed data and solutions to assist in any sales and marketing endeavor.”

In reality, they sell mailing lists.

“Whether it’s a new way to manage social media, a unique licensing concept, or a radical idea for a product launch, we believe fresh thinking is what’s critical for consumer engagement and often what’s missing from today’s barrage of messages.”

This 40 word run-on sentence was from a website of a major Los Angeles ad agency. Ironically, this tested out as being written to a PhD level. Pity the poor reader with only a Masters Degree.

“… is an ISO 9001-2000 and ISO 14001 certified company with a focus on the development and manufacture of state-of-the-art environmental and workplace monitoring instrumentation through its `CEL` and `Monitor` brands.”

This is from an engineering firm. If it didn’t make sense to you, don’t worry. This tested out as needing 26.55 years of education – beyond a PhD – to be understood.

If any of these three examples were said on my childhood playground, Bob would have hit them.

You wouldn’t talk this way to a friend

If you tried to talk with your friends this way, they would think you’ve flipped out. You would quickly find yourself alone on the weekends when everyone else was invited to the Sunday barbeque.

And, they would be right.

If your goal is to communicate effectively, stop with the stiff, formal, academic way of writing.

You can’t confuse and annoy people into becoming enthusiastic customers for life.

Here’s what to do

First, make sure that your marketing materials are clear, direct, and understandable.

Stop using industry slang or technical terms. (If you need to use them, define them the first time they’re used.)

Read your piece aloud. If it starts to sound like one of your oral reports from high school, simplify it.

There’s another solution. Simply have a skilled professional write your marketing messages. There are a number of techniques that a can be used to make your marketing pieces more effective. A results-oriented professional can make a huge difference in your results.

At this point, you are probably expecting me to tell you about the impressive results the Sentium team has gotten for clients. You may expect me to tell you about how 30+ years of learning what works in advertising makes a difference for our clients.

I’ll save that for another time.

What I will say is that you should look at your marketing pieces with a fresh viewpoint. Are they infected with an academic tone or corporatese? If so, you now know what to do.

To your success,

______________________

Want to increase the effectiveness of your marketing? Call Sentium to arrange for a free, no-obligation, one hour telephone consultation. (800) 595-1288. We’ll explore how you can get the results you desire.

Click here to get your own Free subscription to Marketing Rocket Fuel.

______________________

	Richard Wilson is the Founder/Chief Marketing Strategist for Sentium Strategic Communications which helps companies craft the right message for extraordinary results. Over the past 32 years, his clients have ranged from start-ups to major technology companies.
© 2010 All Rights Reserved. All people who are looking to dramatically boost their business should read this e-zine. Don’t even think about reproducing this document or its contents without written permission from Richard Wilson. But feel free to forward this to all of your friends. For reprint permission, please call 800-595-1288.

Appealing to the two voices inside your head. Why effective selling messages must communicate on multiple levels.

Remember the cartoons you used to watch when you were a kid? A character would need to make a decision. Suddenly a little devil would pop up on one shoulder saying, “Come on! Do it! You know you want to!” A moment later, a little angel would pop up on the other shoulder saying, “Oh no! You shouldn’t!”

Similar voices pop up in the minds of your prospects every time they have to make a buying decision. Knowing how to get both voices in agreement is a skill that can make a dramatic difference in your marketing efforts.

Here is the basic principle: People decide to buy things emotionally. But they also need to justify the decision analytically.

You can see this in automobile advertising. The images in the television commercial show sleek contours as they pan across the front grille. There are shots of the car power sliding around turns and on stretches of glossy highway. There are slightly blurred images as the car goes past so you know it is very, very, fast.

I know, this is all guy appeal. It probably has to do with watching too many action movies and having testosterone in our systems. But it does make the pulse quicken. It is designed to make a man think, “Oh baby, I want that!”

(In the name of full disclosure, I will confess that I’m not immune to this, even if I do understand the techniques being used. There is a new Jaguar out that shows up regularly in my dreams.)

So that’s the first buying trigger. It’s emotional. It’s “I want it.”

Don’t think this only applies to guys and cars. It applies to virtually all purchases. All effective advertising taps into an emotional need first.

Life insurance buying decisions tap into the emotional desire to protect the family and their future.

Computer network buying decisions tap into the desire to have the organization doing better because a smart decision was made.

Diamond buying decisions tap into the desire to demonstrate love, affection, and worth.

And, if you don’t think that women’s shoes can elicit an emotional response, spend some time in the shoe department of a large, high-end department store with really good designer shoes.

Once the “I want that” trigger has been tripped, the second selling job begins.

The second selling phase consists of giving the prospect enough information to be able to justify why buying the product or service is a good idea.

Here’s where facts and figures come in. It’s why certain cars claim they are “the best engineered car in the world,” or they “have the highest resale value of any car in its class.”

These facts don’t make you want the car if you don’t already want it. But it does an important job of giving you the justification necessary to sell what is basically an emotional decision for buying the car to someone else, or even yourself.

Just about everyone “reports” to someone. It may be a business partner or a boss. It almost always includes a spouse.

There are not many men who would say, “Honey…I just spent $90,000 on a car so I can speed around corners sideways and pretend I’m 25 years old again.”

Or, there are not many employees who would say, “I decided to go with this printing company because I like the sales person much better and they treat me nicely.”

Ask any good realtor, and they will tell you there is a moment when a potential buyer decides “I love this house!” After that, all the logical, analytical information must be sorted out to support the decision that has already been made.

If the first trigger of “I want it” is not tripped, there will be no sale no matter what you do or say.

If this isn’t followed with enough solid buying information to justify the decision, the sale doesn’t happen.

I recall a friend of ours who stopped by after a shopping spree to show off some new clothes and accessories. (This was a result of seeing that the department store was having a sale.) I remember her saying, “Aren’t these great? I saved $450 by buying everything today!”

I didn’t bother pointing out that if she had stayed home, she would have saved even more. For her, the justification of getting a deal was all that was needed to support her desire to get new clothes.

So, how does this apply to your own marketing? Realize that you must include both levels of appeal in your sales messages. First, develop the emotional side to trigger the “I want it” desire. Then provide the analytical reasons to support why buying now is a good idea.

Realize that this is true if you are selling to individuals. It is also true when you are selling to businesses. Both steps need to occur to a get a response.

Certain advertising writers can consistently get a higher response in their promotions. It’s because they know the techniques for creating pieces that appeal to both sides of any buying decision. It’s a hard-won skill that’s worth mastering.

Take a look at your current marketing. Does it communicate on both of these levels? If not, call Sentium to arrange for a free, no-obligation, one hour telephone consultation. (800) 595-1288. We’ll explore how you can integrate this approach into your marketing and give you better responses from your marketing budgets.

To your success,

______________________

Click here to get your own Free subscription to Marketing Rocket Fuel.

______________________

	Richard Wilson is the Founder/Chief Marketing Strategist for Sentium Strategic Communications which helps companies craft the right message for extraordinary results. Over the past 32 years, his clients have ranged from start-ups to major technology companies.
© 2010 All Rights Reserved. All people who are looking to dramatically boost their business should read this e-zine. Don’t even think about reproducing this document or its contents without written permission from Richard Wilson. But feel free to forward this to all of your friends. For reprint permission, please call 800-595-1288.

Does Long Advertising Sell?

Quick! What do these three things have in common?

1. The world is flat.
2. Man will never be able to fly faster than the speed of sound.
3. People never read long advertising copy.

You’ve got it: they’re all basically false ideas that were disproven a long time ago.

The funny thing is that there are still a lot of people who hold on to the idea that advertising with a lot of information simply won’t be read. When I talk to people about this, I usually hear, “I get lots of emails and I see lots of ads that I just don’t bother reading. People just don’t read long advertising copy.”

Here’s the difference: people don’t take the time to read things that are not relevant to them or which is incredibly boring.

In fact, statistics show that people are reading more now than ever. I challenge you to visit any large national bookstore chain and tell yourself that people are not reading. In fact, the internet has compounded this, resulting in more people reading more information than ever before.

When someone becomes highly interested in buying something — like a new camera or a new car — they literally become information sponges. They’ll read reviews. They’ll search online. They’ll buy product magazines. They want to know a great deal about the desired product. In other words, they read like crazy.

If your advertising offers a strong benefit that’s relevant to the reader and you provide them with good, solid, in-depth information, they’ll read (and hang on) every word. You have their interest, you have their attention, and they want to know more. What could be better?

If, however, you have a wrong appeal – or even worse, no direct appeal – you’ll find that people will glance at your marketing materials for about two and a half seconds and then drop them in the trash can. Also realize that not everyone who actually sees your ad or gets your mailing is interested at that particular moment. That’s okay. What you are targeting is a segment of your potential group who is interested now; who do want and need your product. What you’re working for is to bring them to an even higher level of interest than they already have. This is what sets them up to become customers who buy from you.

Realize that long copy sells. Irrelevant or boring copy does not. In fact, one of the maxims of the direct response industry is: the more you tell, the more you sell. Direct marketers know that every word matters in converting a prospect into a customer.

So don’t be afraid of providing lots of good information once you have a prospect’s interest. They want your information.

A number of years ago, a client told me, “long copy in an advertisement never works. No one will read it.” “Really?” I responded. “I will bet you $100 that I can go home tonight and write a 3,500 word ad, and that you will read every word of that ad.” He looked at me rather skeptically. I added, “I even know what the headline is right now! Do you want to hear it?” He said, “Sure.” “The headline is: All of the Wonderful Things You Should Know About George Liu.” George smiled at me, and said, “You’re right. I’d read it. I’d read all of it.”

So, in your marketing materials, look for content that is of interest, make sure it is communicated in a strong and informative way, and you’ll find that your prospects will hang on every word and your sales will increase accordingly.

(By the way, George offered to pay the $100. I couldn’t take it. After all, I knew it was a sucker bet.)

To Your Business Success,

______________________

Click here to get your own Free subscription to Marketing Rocket Fuel.

______________________

	Richard Wilson is the Founder/Chief Marketing Strategist for Sentium Strategic Communications which helps companies craft the right message for extraordinary results. Over the past 32 years, his clients have ranged from start-ups to major technology companies.
© 2010 All Rights Reserved. All people who are looking to dramatically boost their business should read this e-zine. Don’t even think about reproducing this document or its contents without written permission from Richard Wilson. But feel free to forward this to all of your friends. For reprint permission, please call 800-595-1288.