Career-Changing Takeaways… And Murphy’s Law

Have you heard of Denny Hatch? He wrote ‘Million Dollar Mailing$’.

And now Denny’s come out with a new book. I won’t bore you with what I think of it (judging by the excerpts, it’s pretty fantastic).

Here, check out a little of what’s inside the book:

(Can’t wait? Visit Denny ‘s site here www.dennyhatch.com)

1. Advertising

“Advertising is, actually, a simple phenomenon in terms of economics. It is merely a substitute for a personal sales force — an extension, if you will, of the merchant who cries aloud his wares.” —Rosser Reeves
………………
“Advertising is salesmanship in print.” —John E. Kennedy
………………
Here’s the secret of successful advertising: interrupting what’s going on in the front of a prospect’s brain with headline, graphics, copy and action that seize upon a lurking fear or desire and exploiting it.
………………
“It is easier to write passably effective sonnets than one effective advertisement.” —Aldous Huxley

“Every man is constantly holding a mental conversation with himself, and the burden of that conversation is himself — his interests, his loved ones his business, his advancement.” —Robert Collier
………………
These self- conversations are frequently interrupted: a baby crying, a kitchen timer going off, a dog barking, someone at the front door, a fire engine going by, a piece of direct mail or catalog, a TV infomercial or a
telemarketing call.

If the marketing effort is dull … if it does not interrupt and keep on interrupting… the interruption is interrupted … and we resume the conversation with ourselves. The marketer has lost money. If you can capture the prospect’s attention, it is imperative to hold it. Once the proposition is laid aside, chances are very high no action will be taken.
………………
“Advertising is the greatest art form of the 20th century.” —Marshall McLuhan

If your mailing piece or ad sends responders to your website, create a special URL that takes them to a page directly relating to the message that they have just seen. Many marketers simply list the generic home page, whereupon responders are consigned to roaming around Landing Page Limbo, and you have lost the order, donation or inquiry.

When was the last time you took a critical look at your home page/ landing page? Does that dog hunt? Or have so many people screwed around with it that it has become Landing Page Limbo?

Do your email promotions have a viral marketing option (e.g., “Please forward to a friend or colleague who may be interested in this opportunity.”)?

Do you have an action device where it’s obvious how to reply? Is it easy to reach a real person at your shop — either by email or phone? If not, why not?

38. Employee, Being One

“Become indispensable — take on jobs other people don’t want to do.” —Ivanka Trump
………………
“According to a 2009 Proofpoint study of 220 leaders at American companies with over 1,000 employees, 38 percent employ staff to read or otherwise analyze the content of outgoing email, compared to 29 percent  last year.

Why the big increase in surveillance? 34 percent said their businesses had been affected by the exposure of sensitive or embarrassing information, up from 23 percent in 2008.” —The Daily Stat, Harvard Business Publishing
………………
Emails are forever. Even though you have deleted or trashed an email, it lives — somewhere in your own  computer and/or in the company server and/or out in the Internet.

“‘Companies that do use email to notify employees that they’ve been laid off or fired “do it because it’s easy,’ said Frank Kenna, president and CEO of Marlin. ‘It’s not the right way to handle it,’ he said, especially for situations where a worker is being fired.” —Marianne Kolbasuk McGee
………………
Getting fired is never easy, even if you see it coming. But when a dismissal borders on insulting, it becomes the stuff of legends. —Sarah E. Needleman

46. Humor in Advertising

“Is your copy funny or cute? (Avoid humor at all costs.)” —Milt Pierce
………………
“For the Tufts School of Veterinary Medicine’s newsletter, Your Dog, I wrote a letter from the dean of the veterinary school emphasizing the credentials and expertise of their canine authorities. Then I added a second lift note — from a dog! — explaining why dogs hate the newsletter. (It makes their owners too knowledgeable, and teaches owners how to break dogs’ bad habits!)

Humor is usually risky, but in this case, proved highly effective. It added significantly to the strength of this control.” —Barbara Harrison

Note: Barbara Harrison used humor in a peripheral element — the lift note. It wasn’t the main piece of the effort.
………………
But cleverness and humor, traditionally, have no place in direct marketing. If the reader says, “My, isn’t this clever” or “Oh, how funny!” the thread of the argument is lost and so is the sale.

“Don’t use humor.” —Craig Huey

“Don’t be cute. Your advertisement can entertain a million readers — and not sell one of them.” —Andrew J. Byrne

“Your job is to sell, not entertain.” —Jack Maxson

• Be careful about cutting people, which are the most important assets. They can help you through tough times; they know your history. If you lose people now, when things pick up, you’ll have to hire new people and train them, which will impact productivity.

• Survival comes first.
………………
“People use the word ‘guru,’ because the word ‘charlatan’ is so hard to spell.” —Peter Drucker
………………
“Be a people person. Answer your own phone. Wander around the ballpark. Be at the gate to say good night to people.” —Bill Veeck
………………
“You’ll never have to apologize for giving people some fun.” —Bill Veeck, who sent 3-foot-7 stunt man Eddie Gaedel to pinch hit for the Cleveland Browns in 1951

62. Marketing

“Always underpromise and overdeliver.” —Marilyn Black
………………
“Marketing is only as good as the supporting infrastructure.”
—Dick Benson
………………
Creating a product or service is easy. It’s the marketing that’s difficult, time-consuming and expensive.

Put another way: It’s easy to make a football. Getting it into the end zone is tough.

With any new business — or existing business — start with the customer and work backwards from there.
————————————————————————————–
For more about Denny Hatch visit his site
here www.dennyhatch.com
————————————————————————————–

73. Murphy’s Law

According to numerous websites, Edwards Air Force Base was the site of the birth of Murphy’s Law. (“If anything can go wrong, it will.”)

In 1949, Capt. Edward A. Murphy was a project engineer who discovered a transducer wrongly wired. He said of the technician who was responsible for the goof, “If there is any way to do it wrong, he’ll find it.”

Murphy’s comment was noted, and he became world famous. Other laws:

• Nothing is as easy as it looks.
• Everything takes longer than you think.
• Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
• If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.
• Corollary: If there is a worse time for something to go wrong, it will happen then.
• If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway.
• If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a procedure can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop.
• Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.
• If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
• Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.
• Mother Nature is a bitch. 
• It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
• Whenever you set out to do something, something else must be done first.
• Every solution breeds new problems.

………………
“Corollary to Murphy’s Law: Everything takes twice as long as you think it will take — and then double that. Everything costs twice as much as you think it will cost — and then double that.” —Irvin Borowsky

Before taking such action, think through every possible scenario and potential collateral damage.
………………
“Very often the art of public relations is the art of private relations.” —Albert Lasker

85. Public Speaking

“PowerPoint makes us stupid.” —Gen. James N. Mattis

“Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.” —Edward Tufte

Many (inept) speakers use PowerPoint badly. They fill the screen with small type that can be read only by people sitting in the front row, and they proceed to read their speech off the screen.

A read speech is a dead speech.

If you do use PowerPoint, limit the amount of text on the screen, and make it large enough for those in the last row to read.

Obey the 10-20-30 Rule of PowerPoint: no more than 10 slides, no more than 20 minutes and no type smaller than 30 point.
………………
People come to a presentation to listen and take notes, not to read along with the speaker.
………………
President Obama uses the invisible glass Teleprompter system on the right and left side of the podium, so eye contact with the audience can be maintained while the speech is being read. I am not sure if he has a printed speech on the podium as a back-up, but most likely he does.

President George W. Bush and members of his administration were “Of my two ‘handicaps’ being female put more obstacles in my path than being black.” —Shirley Chisholm

“Remember no one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” —Eleanor Roosevelt

“I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.” —Rosa Parks
………………
“I do the very best I can to look upon life with optimism and hope and looking forward to a better day, but I don’t think there is anything such as complete happiness. It pains me that there is still a lot of Klan activity and racism. I think when you say you’re happy, you have everything that you need and everything that you want, and nothing more to wish for. I haven’t reached that stage yet.” —Rosa Parks

99. Writing

Below are Ted Nicholas’ four rules I follow when I start to prepare copy.

1. Clear your mind. For some persons, this might mean lying down for a few minutes before going to work. For others, it could mean jumping in the pool or jogging around a track. Frolic, spend time with someone you love or go dancing. Do whatever comes naturally to you in order to have a clear mind for creative purposes.

2. Never write when you’re tired. You’re not going to try to drive or operate machinery when you’re tired. 

3. Never write when you’re busy. If there are other demands pressing on you, tend to them first. I don’t think anyone can write well when they are watching the clock. Don’t try to write if you have appointments later in the day or errands to run.

4. Don’t write in bits and pieces. Once you’ve turned on your creative energy, you need to keep it flowing. I don’t stop until I complete a draft. I try not to stop even for meals.

Want to know more?

Go here and check it out.

That’s not an affiliate link. Denny books are excellent and I just wanted to give him the publicity he deserves.
Go get it. You’ll like it.

Best,
Rezbi
www.directmarketingcourse.com
www.hotbuttoncopywriting.com
www.commonsensedirectmarketing.com

How To Monetize Your Little Monsters

Have you heard of Lady Gaga?

How could you NOT hear her name these days?

At yesterdays Grammys, she just won:

Pop Vocal Album: “The Fame Monster,” Lady Gaga and…

Female Pop Vocal Performance: “Bad Romance,” Lady Gaga

In just a few very short years (light speed in the music business), Lady Gaga has become an international sensation—selling millions of albums, breaking Billboard’s record as the first artist to have her first six singles reach number one. She’s won four Grammys, and has sold 15 million albums and 51 million singles digitally worldwide
She is everywhere… on TV…on YouTube… on Twitter… at the Awards ceremonies… everywhere.

Why?

Hint: It’s not her music.

She does have a very strong voice, but the rest of it will not change the music industry forever.

She is an incredible marketer…and we should be taking notes watching what she does and how she has captured the attention of the world stage.

So hang on to your thoughts about her music, her dress, her looks, her lack of clothing… and look at what she has done to go from no where to a world famous star in record time.

Pay VERY close attention to her outlandish outfits, her bizarre big-eye makeup, her wacked out videos.

You will start to catch a glimpse of some of her secrets of success… plus… you WILL (no maybe here) catch a glimpse of some other things she doesn’t worry about keeping private.

That’s her entire point.

She WANTS to stand out… and be extreme. She WANTS eyes watching her every move. She WANTS critics speaking out against her.

It’s all part of the package.

Look at the Grammys – she was HATCHED out of an egg during her performance – bizarre? Yes?

Wickedly free media attention her “egg” debut got… millions upon millions of dollars in free advertising!

What you may not have thought about was her genius marketing ideas.

Those are the key…and what she wants most?

Fans… millions upon millions of them.

And she has them.

Her one best selling song, Bad Romance, has… get this… 344,761,267 Youtube viewers! On MySpace, Gaga has had 491.5 million plays of her songs.

Love her or hate her – that is an amazing feat that we should be paying attention to.

Lady Gaga, formerly known as Stefani Germanotta, was an obscure go-go dancer who worked burlesque bars in Manhattan.

But, she had music in her blood and was playing piano by age 4 and was accepted at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts at 17.

She was once performing at a bar filled with drunken NYU students. No one was watching or listening to her until, fed up, she began stripping down to her lingerie. “I started playing in my underwear at the piano and I remember everyone was all of a sudden like ‘Whoa!’

And I said, ‘Yeah, you’re looking at me now, huh?’ ”

She found a guaranteed way she could get the attention she needed to break into the music scene.

A few of her customer loyalty secrets:

1) Give your customers a special club they can belong to. Lady Gaga doesn’t like using the term `fans`, so she started calling them her `little monsters`. Taking it a step further, she had `Little Monsters` tattooed on herself. Even in her videos you can see the Monster mentions.

After Tweeting her tattoo picture to her MILLIONS of Twitter followers, the Little Monsters started getting their own tattoos and sharing them with the world as well. All of her albums have a monster theme to them as well

Take away: what special club or name could you give your clients? Many of the best loyalty type programs and continuity programs do this… shouldn’t we all?

2) Gaga also recites a “Manifesto of Little Monsters” at her concerts. Her Little Monsters see this as a dedication to them, that her fans have the power to make or break her.

This is the Manifesto of Little Monsters:

There’s something heroic about the way my fans operate their cameras; so precisely intricately and so proudly; like kings writing the history of their people. It’s their prolific nature that both creates and procures what will later be perceived as the “kingdom.” So, the real truth about Lady Gaga fans, my Little Monsters, lies in this sentiment: they are the kings, they are the queens, they write the history of the kingdom, and I am something of a devoted Jester.

It is in the theory of perception that we have established our bond; or, the lie, I should say, for which we kill. We are nothing without our image, without our projection, without the spiritual hologram of who we perceive ourselves to be, or rather to become, in the future.

When you’re lonely, I’ll be lonely too, and this is The Fame.

Take away: Shouldn’t we all have some form of manifesto that shows who we are and where we stand with our customers? It wouldn`t take much to do, and it certainly can make an impact with those who pay your bills.

3) Special Recognition for a Special Monster. During her live stage shows, Lady Gaga will place a call to one of the Monsters in the audience. Her fans have already given up their cell phones to her (another lesson on mobile marketing) and she chooses one, dials it from stage, and waits for the screams. When the Little Monster shows themselves and their phone, they are put up on a big screen, and invited backstage after the show for a drink.

Take away: What one thing could you do monthly to pay special homage to one of your clients? Something random that would give them exposure to everyone else in your world, and make them feel fantastic at the same time. It could be a special write up about them that you send to your entire database. Make it like an editorial style and send them one in a nice frame ready to be hung on their wall. You could have a photo with you and them done up and sent out to your entire list on a postcard or greeting card. It could be special mention on your website, on your blog, the possibilities are truly staggering.

4) Have a secret code or sign. Fitting with the Little Monster theme (album titles, tattoos, songs, etc), she also has a claw that she forms with her hand while on stage. The clawed hand is part of the choreography in the video of her song “Bad Romance.” She first got the idea at one of her concerts while watching two of her fans greeting each other this way…and an idea was born.

Take away: You may not have a secret handshake or claw for your business, but you may have a special acronym or formula you share with your clients. Give them something that is unique and proprietary to your business, make sure they understand that it was designed just for them, and encourage them to use it frequently (again, with pictures, mentions, etc).

5) Leverage social media. Gaga has over 5 million fans on Facebook and almost 3 millions Twitter followers! She keeps in frequent communication with them and shares the exciting, and not so exciting parts of her life with them.

Take away: Leverage social media if at all possible. I personally am not a huge fan (you may have read my Twitter challenge last year on this blog), but I realize that Social media is huge and very fitting for loyalty. Find people to help you get good at it, and leverage outside resources so social media management doesn`t suck your time dry.

6) Work your ass off to build a fan base with your clients. This quote pretty well says it all on why she has been able to do what she has:

“When you’re dealing with someone as good as Gaga, a lot of it is how to stay the *&^% out of the way,” said Steve Berman, Universal Music’s president of sales and marketing. “Gaga has worked tirelessly in keeping up daily if not hourly communication with her fans and growing fan base through all the technology that exists now.”

Take away: Work your ass off. Overnight riches are a thing of fairy tales. No more needs to be said.

7) Know WHO your customers are. While she seems to have attracted a wide range of Monsters from all age groups, the majority of her fans are young, lost and confused. So was she. An absolute misfit at school. Ridiculed for being different. Pretty well sounds like most of the teenage population out there. And she makes sure they know that she is absolutely NO DIFFERENT than them. When they become a Monster…they know she is one of them.

Take away: Get to know your customers intimately, and make sure they know what you know about them. If you personally can’t relate, have a spokesperson or employee who IS just like them.

“Lady Gaga isn’t the music industry’s new Madonna.

She’s its new business model.”
~~ Forbes.com

All this by 24 years old.

Not too shabby, at all.

A quote to herself: ” ‘Now that you have everybody watching, Gaga, you’d better be f***ing great.’ ”

Last lesson, based on this quote: once you get the success you wanted, work harder and don’t blow it!

To your success, you little marketing monster.

Troy White
Author, Small Business Mastery

Troy White is a top marketing coach, consultant & direct response copywriter based in Calgary, Canada.  He has a powerful approach to growing small businesses and entrepreneurial run ventures on a budget. His free Cash Flow Surges blog shares tons of great strategies at http://www.troysblog.com

Discover numerous techniques for turning your personal and business stories into solid marketing campaigns.  From online email marketing, to product brochures and descriptions.  Complete instruction for new entrepreneurs and seasoned veterans. Powerful tools for every business. Guaranteed.  http://www.StorySellingTips.com

Have You Ceased To Study? If So, Good Night

Here's another interesting article from Bruce Barton.

It might sound familiar to you, especially if you've read the Wall Street Journal's story of the Two Young Men. Not surprising, really, since Barton wrote the original that was based upon: The story of two young men who returned from the war. (I'll put that up sometime).

As with all Bruce Barton articles I've published, this was written in the 1920s.

Here's the article:

A man named Brown and a man named Black graduated from high school and entered business in New York at the same time. Both made rapid progress. At twenty five each of them was drawing $2,500 a year.

"Coming men," said their friends."If they are so far along at twenty-five, where will they be at fifty?"

Black went on.

At fifty he is president of his company, with an income of $25,000 a year.

But something happened to Brown.

He never fulfilled the large promise of his youth: at fifty he had hardly advanced beyond his thirty mark.

What was it that happened to these two men, of equal education and so far as the world could judge equal ability?

I will tell you.

Brown became satisfied.

He ceased to study: which means that he ceased to grow.

Black has told me that when he reached $5,000 a year he said to himself: "I have made a good start. Nothing can stop me if I keep my health and keep growing. I must study, study, study: I must be the best informed man on our business in the United States."

There is the difference. One stayed in school: one did not.

The position you attain before you are twenty-five years old is of no particular credit to you. You gained that simply on the education your parents gave you education that cost you no sacrifice.

But the progress you make in the world after twenty-five that is progress that you must make by educating yourself. It will be in proportion to the amount of study you give to your work in excess of the amount the other man gives.

Analyze any successful man and you will find these three great facts:

He had an aim:

Lord Campbell wrote to his father, as an excuse for not coming home over the holidays: "To have any chance of success, I must be more steady than other men. I must be in chambers when they are at the theater: I must study when they are asleep: I must, above all, remain in town when they are in the country."

He worked: 

"I have worked," said Daniel Webster," for more than twelve hours a day for fifty years."

He studied: 

Vice-President Henry Wilson was born in the direst poverty.

"Want sat by my cradle," he says. "I know what it is to ask my mother for bread when she had none to give. I left home when ten years of age, and served an apprenticeship of eleven years, receiving one month's schooling each year, and at the end of eleven years of hard work a yoke of oxen and six sheep, which brought me $84."

Yet in those eleven years of grueling labor he found time to read and study more than one hundred books.

Really big men check themselves up each autumn, at the beginning of a new business year.

"This year," they say, "I am going to master one new subject. I am going to pursue such and such studies, which will increase my ability and earning power."

The bigger they are, the longer they keep themselves in school. Gladstone took up a new language after he had passed seventy.

Have you left school?

As a matter of fact, did you grow mentally last year at all? What definite subject are you planning to devote your evenings to this year?

"As a rule," said Disraeli, "the most successful man in life is the man who has the most information."

How much will you increase your stock of useful information in the next business year?

Good question.

If you want to increase your stock of useful information... the type that could bring loads more moola into your business... click here and check out what Drayton Bird has to offer.

I did that in 2009. And I haven't looked back since.

Best,
Rezbi
www.directmarketingcourse.com
www.hotbuttoncopywriting.com
www.commonsensedirectmarketing.com

About Making Money

I recently went through a very bad spell with my health. I honestly thought I was going to die.

This went on for about two or three weeks and, when I finally got over it, I sat down and thought about the reasons.

I was going to write a long rambling post about why I thought I got to that stage, but then I saw this article. It was written by Bruce Barton in the 1920s.

What stuck me are the lines I've highlighted, and realised this is what's been happening to me... or rather... not happening. I was ruining my health in the pursuit of my business.

Take a look and see if it rings any bells. Let me know what you think, and how it affects you, in the comments.

About Making Money

It is easy to be hypocritical on the subject of money.

We have formed a habit of pretending publicly to despise money, while actually working our heads off to get more of it.

We make speeches to young men advising them to "seek the higher good," and hurry straightway to our offices to make up for lost time.

Let us have done with such hypocrisy.

We are all out to make money; nor is there anything reprehensible in that fact.

Wise old Sam Johnson said: "There are few occupations in which men can be more harmlessly employed than in making money."

It is not "money" that is the "root of all evil," as we often misquote, but "the love of money."

How much of yourself are you willing to sell for money?

The answer to that question is none of my business. It is a personal question - a question for you to ask yourself.

But if you are the sort of person I think you are, your answer to it will be something like this : There are some things I am not willing to sell for money.

I will not sell my health.

Not for all the money in the world will I die twenty years before my time, as Harriman did; nor spend my old age drinking hot water,
like John D. Rockefeller.

I will not sell my home.

I will forget my business when I leave my office.

My home shall be a place of rest and high thinking and peace not a mere annex to my factory or office, where the talk is of nothing but gains and loss.

I will not sell my honor.

I will not engage in any business, no matter what the profit, that does not contribute something to the happiness and progress of the
world.

King Midas, in a fit of covetousness, prayed that everything he touched might turn to gold.

And his prayer was granted.

The food he was lifting to his mouth turned to gold. His wife, if he had touched her, would have turned to gold.

There are too many King Midases loose in the world.

They do not have the Midas touch: they have the Midas look: They see nothing but money.

A beautiful garden to them is merely something that "must have cost a thousand dollars."

They look on their homes and they see, not a home, but an expense of so much a month.

They look on their wives, and figure how much less it cost them to live when they lived alone.

The universe, to them, is a balancesheet: their minds are adding-machines: their hearts beat in tune with the ticker.

God pity them the men with the Midas look!

Get money but stop once in a while to figure what it is costing you to get it.

No man gets it without giving something in return.

The wise man gives his labor and ability.

The fool gives his life.




Best,
Rezbi
www.directmarketingcourse.com
www.hotbuttoncopywriting.com
www.commonsensedirectmarketing.com

If You Want To Crush It In 2011… Then You’ve Got To Read This

If you’re looking for something that could change the way your entire biz future plays out, then I urge you to look into this.

Here’s the story: There’s a guy out there in the big bad copywriting world who has the kind of credibility that makes other guru’s nervous.  If you’re into copywriting at all, you may have heard of him. His name’s John Carlton.

John is an outrageously-respected copywriting and marketing go-to-guy who’s had a legendary career spanning 30 years.

And he’s taught the art and science of crafting notoriously-good sales messages to many of the top (and most famous) online entrepreneurs in the game.

So, yeah, when Carlton has something I think you’ll benefit from, I want you to know about it.

Now, imagine this: A swarm of respected experts and Web wizards guide you in creating a proven, step-by-step, fits-your-biz-like-a-glove, super-simple PLAN...

... that you can easily and quickly put into action...

... to demolish the obstacles holding you back and generate massive new results and momentum.  All while transforming your biz into something monstrously successful and more fun than you probably deserve.

It's not a dream.

It is, in fact, exactly what John and his crew are gearing up to do... with a select group of attendees at an utterly unique LIVE event dedicated to mapping out the coolest, fastest and most easy-to-pull-off ways to make 2011 your best year ever.

John Carlton's Action Seminar Event

Entrepreneurs, small biz owners, rookies... anyone lusting after the rewards heaped upon marketers armed with a clear plan to meet every goal... this is tailor-made for you.

You're invited to grab one of the coveted spots at this live event, too... if you don't fool around and miss your shot.

(Very limited space.  The last time John hosted an event like this, it filled up fast.)

Here's what's up: John has assembled a jaw-dropping faculty of brilliant (sometimes feared) and utterly hard-core masters of the entrepreneur/small biz world...

... and they’re gathering down in sunny San Diego at the end of February...

... with one outrageous goal: To empower you to...

1. Assemble a simple plan to dominate your market and obliterate your competition....

2. And understand precisely how to put that simple plan into ACTION.

That's the two fastest ways to get out of the gate ahead of everyone else, and crush it in 2011.

This event is called The Action Seminar... and you've likely never encountered anything like this before.

It is interactive, content-rich, and focused on getting something DONE.

Get more details here:

John Carlton's Action Seminar Event

You need to see what's up with this live event... especially if you're freaked out by the economy, or (worse) thinking you can maybe just wing it through 2011 and be okay.

Don't do that.

Do this instead: Just see what the fuss is all about with this totally unique, interactive live gathering:

John Carlton's Action Seminar Event

You'll be among entrepreneurs and biz owners in your same situation, no matter where you

are now in your career.  Beginner, veteran needing help, or classic kitchen table entrepreneur.

This event is focused on doing what I wished all events did (but don't):  Deliver the goods, and help guide you in creating your own plan to make this year your best ever.

Spots are already being gobbled up.  You've still got time to act, but things are happening fast.

Do not miss this one-time shot at hanging with experts dedicated to helping you get your own action plan together.

Best,
Rezbi

What to Expect These Next 10 Years

"Weather forecast for tonight: dark.
Continued dark overnight, with widely
scattered light by morning."

- George Carlin

It's a funny business, forecasting.

For instance, 10 years ago, you never could have
guessed that we'd be where we are now.

Frankly, neither could I...

TEN YEARS AFTER: WHAT WE DIDN'T EXPECT

If you remember, around this time a decade ago -- and
after years of hearing that you either had to learn to
write for the Internet or risk becoming a dinosaur
dotcom stocks tanked.

Suddenly, we were left trying to figure out the
marketing mix between snail mail and the Internet all
over again.

Blogs barely existed. Same goes for email and video
marketing, both just getting out of the gate for most
marketers.

In Washington, the Clintons were boxing up their books
and the Bushes were busy picking out the menu for their
Inaugural dinner.

Across the rest of the country, the broad economy had
hit a deep backslide, for the first time in nearly a
decade.

What worked before, we were all thinking, might not
work again. Or for a long time. But then, as now, few
were certain.

As for me, I was still living in Manhattan.

Not yet married, working out of my West Village
apartment, and still collecting the bulk of my
copywriting royalties from print mailings.

Who could have known how much or how fast email
marketing could have taken off?

Somewhere in the 10 years that followed -- even I can't
remember exactly when -- the copy I was writing started
making me more online than it did off.

Print mailings got less and less elaborate as they got
more and more expensive. Online, we could test
everything. And we did.

Perhaps I started writing differently, scaling back on
copy sidebars and ramping up on search-friendly words.

"You've got to write shorter for the web," they told
us, "because it's a younger, less patient audience."

Mostly though, that turned out to be all wrong.

Copy I cut to fit the "new" audience flopped. Copy I
wrote and had posted online worked just as well or
better than it had in print.

So well, in fact, that the information publishing
company I worked with (and still work with, as my
biggest client by far) tripled in size, from $100
million per year to well over $300 million.

Today, they still make millions in the mail. But the
majority of sales are online. With copy that's really
STILL not much different from the straight sales
letters they've always relied on.

The Internet, it turned out, didn't die with the dotcom
market bomb. It just took the next leap, from novelty
to market staple.

Instead of obliterating the "old school," businesses
comfortably absorbed online tools and integrated them
into their already working business models.

For us and others who figured out how to use it, it
turned out the best way to use it was to gather and
market to new names... to involve and engage with our
original customers cheaply... and to deliver info-
products faster and more cheaply.

For me, it let me work even more long distance. My wife
and I picked up and moved (for at least a big part of
the year) to Paris.

We now have kids and send them to school, while she and
I both work from home. She on design (her day job) and
me on, of course, copywriting projects.

As I write to you now, I'm sitting in our living room,
listening to MP3s of music I can work to while a
digital fire crackles on our big flat-screen TV.

It really is a different world. So, how different can
you expect it to get over the NEXT 10 years?

Likely, my powers of prognostication won't hold up any
better for this second decade of the new century than
they did for the first, but I'll give it a shot...

THE NEXT TEN YEARS: WHAT YOU CAN BANK ON

As we look on, what's ahead?

Maybe telepathic reply cards... holograph-driven
headlines... and scent-crafted sales copy, retooled for
use on smell-o-vision. But I doubt it.

You're sure to hear plenty forecasting the need for
even shorter copy ("Soon we'll be inscribing headlines
on jet-powered microdots, so you'll have to trim it to
fit.") But that will probably be wrong too.

What is true is that the mediums will evolve, yet
again. For instance, the marketers I worked alongside
this year did make a huge, successful leap into video
marketing.

But not like you'd expect.

For one, we've found so far that low production values
-- at least in our info-publishing market -- out pull
fancy fireworks.

Our best performing stuff is just text on screen, with
a voice reading it aloud in the background. And
otherwise, it's barely changed from the copy we used in
the print or online sales letter versions.

Short? Not even close.

The most astounding successes in our area, of the last
six months, have been videos that run for -- brace
yourself -- as long as 45 minutes to an hour.

I'm not making that up.

And when we try to edit it them down, do they pull even
better? Not at all. Response drops by 20% or more.

What's changed though is that no longer can copy afford
to be sloppy, meandering, or boring. The best messages
compel from opening bang to ending order button.

(Come to think of it, hasn't that always been the
truth? Well-crafted creative works best. But as in
novels and Hollywood, that just seems even more true
now than ever.)

As the world moves ever faster, we do seem to get less
patient with our time. We'll spend it liberally if
we're interested, yes.

But we're getting ever more stingy with our full
attention when it comes to messages that don't do the
work to meet us at least halfway.

Again, that doesn't at all mean "short."

It just means we'll keep on digging deeper, working
harder, and getting better educated to talk to markets
that are already experts on passions we'll target.

Obviously, you've gotten the message that tomorrow will
be more mobile. That's only going to mean more
breakthroughs in format and offer testing, too.

Magazines will figure out the subscription model.
They'll have to. But more tablet computers beyond the
iPad and an even bigger smartphone explosion, along
with more integrated Internet and television, will all
open other doors too.

Most will try to figure out "who" is on the other end
of those mediums. And that will matter, especially when
it means cracking open all those unexplored niche
markets.

But maybe more important will be figuring out "where"
those new customers are and "what" they'll want to look
at.

A lot of the talk of the last 10 years was about how
different our customers would be. However, all the big
breakthroughs I can list were either in formats or how
we compiled new customers lists.

(That's the only reason, by the way, that I think those
who are looking into social marketing might yet be on
to something... even though I suspect they don't know
what, any better than the rest of us.)

The dialogue itself, either what we said or the how we
said it, didn't change much at all.

That said, it did change a little. And will probably
continue in that same direction.

Specifically, the more inundated our target customers
are, the better we'll have to get at writing much LESS
direct sales copy.

You might think that sounds backward.

After all, in a crowded market, don't you have to get
to the point -- particularly the benefits -- faster?

Certainly, you can't afford to waste a prospect's time.
But with everyone shouting about how everything makes
you slimmer, faster, smarter, richer, and cooler than
the nerds on your neighbor's Facebook page, you'll have
to look LESS like you're out to sell something.

That might just mean finding an even sharper emotional
hook for your every sales pitch. It might mean learning
to sell even better with stories.

What it will add up to is figuring out how to do more
of what the fast-media, always-on information age does
surprisingly poorly... which is add depth and not just
breadth to personal connections.

I suspect, for no reason I can exactly put my finger
on, we'll make more sales promises about not just
improving a prospect's life, but improving the world's
perception of the prospect too.

I don't just mean the standard appeals to vanity, but
something bigger. The wider the physical gaps and more
superficial the digital connections, the more we seem
to crave "impact" and "influence" in the crowds around
us.

People, of course, have always wanted to make a ripple.
But these days it seems like an even more widely shared
yardstick of success. Silent victories just won't do.
Bragging rights, even those not exercised, seem to
matter even more than they have in the past.

What will sell?

It depends on where the economy goes next. We've seen
luxury "stuff" fall out of fashion, these past couple
years. I don't expect it to come roaring back.

At least not anytime soon.

That said, even though I work in a sector where gloom-
and-doom is a marketing staple (the financial info
biz), you can't help but notice a recent uptick in
expectations.

The market, say a lot of experts, is coming back.
Housing, construction, energy demand. They're all
seeing a surge. Even jobs might inch upward.

Some say that's because that's what always happens,
going back over the last 100 years, in the third year
of the U.S. presidential cycle.

Others might say it's because we've had a change of the
guard or because of tax cuts or stimulus or whatever.
Maybe it's just pent up cash and optimism.

It doesn't matter much why... maybe it's just nature
saying we're overdue... but something this way comes.

The good news is that spending might be back. If only
in a small way. The mixed news is that it might come
with rising prices, i.e. what you and I know as
inflation.

Oil prices, for instance, are surging. So are food
prices and more. If stocks and housing go back up,
that's just inflation of another kind.

As a marketer, that matters to you in more than one
way. At the bottom line, it might mean you'll get a
chance to raise your prices.

But it could also mean, and this is especially true if
jobs don't come surging back fast enough, your prices
could rise TOO fast. And that can come back to bite
you, too.

Over the couple years ahead, maybe that translates into
more deadline offers... "Act now or pay double when we
hike prices at midnight, March 15"... or maybe just
price testing, with an eye on competitors.

I'm just guessing on all of this, of course. And like I
said, I could be as stunned as you are at how off these
expectations might be.

What we'll be selling and how we'll sell it will almost
absolutely change radically from what we're doing now.

Blogs, HTML emails, Facebook, even iPads and Android,
and the iPhone... I don't expect any of it to be much
more than a memory compared to what we're looking at
now.

One thing I'm sure of, for 2021 and beyond, is that you
can bank on the one thing that doesn't change: good
copy will still target the same core emotions and still
promise to serve the same core needs and solve the same
core problems -- health, respect, wealth, and the rest.

You get that already, I'm sure. It will be trying not
to forget it over these next 10 years that you'll find
challenging.

Contributed by John Forde
Guest Contributor
http://copywritersroundtable.com/

How To Make Readers Love Your Ideas

When genuine passion moves you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot. - D.H. Lawrence

Who doesn't want to be the one at the party, telling the story nobody can resist?

Even better, how about telling the story you know everybody will repeat tomorrow?

It's a great feeling, when it happens.

And I've just started reading a book that might help you make sure it happens more often.

It's called "Made to Stick," by brothers Chip and Dan Heath. I must have missed it the first time around. It came out in 2007.

But already, as I read, I'm thinking... wow, imagine how many people I could have protected from boring storytelling (mostly mine) in the time since.

Even more, though, I see huge parallels in the book that work for us, as copywriters.

Let me show you what I mean...

WHAT IT MEANS TO "MAKE IT STICK"

When the Heath's talk "stickiness," they're talking about those messages that people can't resist repeating.

You know them.

In fact, the book itself starts with one -- an urban legend about the guy who wakes up in a tub full of ice, one kidney short, after a bad date.

Urban legends are great examples of "sticky" tales because they best get remembered and passed around, solely on the steam they pick up from those that stumble across them.

And like I said, wouldn't you want to tell a story -- or better, write an ad -- that could do that?

Of course you would.

"Stickiness" in itself won't make you rich, of course. But the nature of a sticky tale or marketing message is not just that it gets passed around, but also that readers WANT to pass it around because it instantly engages and hangs on to their imaginations.

Imagine, say the Heath brothers, hearing the story about the guy who wakes up in the tub of ice. He sees a cell phone and a note telling him to call 911. "Stay calm," says the 911 operator, "we've seen this before -- one of your organs has been harvested."

Not true, by the way. But what are the chances you could relate that same story to a friend, a week from today? Pretty good. And I've only given you the short version.

Compare that to a memo from the boss or an ad from a business that's jammed with nothing but charts, statistics, and multi-syllabic claims.

Instantly forgettable.

The case I'm making -- and I credit it to what I expect to find in the book -- is that the same principles that make stories and other messages "sticky" can also make
your ad copy more powerful.

In fact, let's break it down right now, right here, and see what we come up with...

SIX "STICKY" PRINCIPLES, SIX SECRETS TO GREAT ADS

Not to preempt the impact of what you'll find in the book (and I encourage you to check it out), "Made to Stick" narrows lasting message power to six characteristics.

As I read a summary of all six, I couldn't help but notice how well they matched six big secrets to writing great copy... including a few secrets you've already seen written up here before.

For instance...

GREAT MESSAGES ARE SIMPLE:

The Heaths' #1  principle is that simple messages stick best. Common sense? Absolutely. And a great parallel to what my copy colleagues and I often talk about as the "Power of One."

In short, avoid giving too many points -- even great ones -- when you can. Instead, scale back to the single most important "takeaway" message. One great insight is much easier to absorb than a dozen (or even six... ahem) very good ones.

GREAT MESSAGES SURPRISE:

"Made to Stick" calls this the value of "unexpectedness." In the world of copy, we might call it instead the value of "uniqueness." Especially as in the famous "USP" or "Unique Selling Proposition."

Why does it matter so much to make your message new? Simple. Who wants to listen to the same old tales or promises, again and again? Why stick around for details
you can get anywhere?

Every seasoned copywriter knows that curiosity can be as powerful a motivator as a big promise, especially when it's relevant to what you know you're selling.

GREAT MESSAGES FEEL REAL:

The book calls this "concreteness" and makes a great analogy that you might remember: years back, a food researcher wanted to get across that movie popcorn was full of saturated fat.

He could have made his case with graphs and charts. He could have spelled out the fat content in milligrams. But he realized that wasn't enough. So instead he compared it to eating the equivalent in Big Macs.

Those kinds of analogies are more than just colorful. They make an idea feel real, by connecting something new to something instantly personal and understandable.

I would add that it's not just the vividness that makes a message stick, but also what we teach in copy workshops as "specificity." Details make readers soak up stories in a way generalities cannot.

GREAT MESSAGES ARE BELIEVABLE:

In sales copy, a lot of what you'll do is bend over backwards to prove your claims. Testimonials, studies, hard numbers, mainstream media quotes, photos of a bank statement or sharply contrasting "before and after" shots... there are lots of ways to do it.

And many times, it's only by making this case that you'll make your sale. But, warns the book, be careful. What you're doing isn't forcing an audience to consent to your claims.

Rather, you're putting them in a spot where they can feel like they've decided for themselves. Ask yourself, you might say, how much better would your own life be if you could do what my product claims you can do?

And maybe even, how much worse could it get if you pass up on this opportunity? And then make it real for them, by way of those proofs and similar examples.

GREAT MESSAGES GET YOU WORKED UP:

Why do fundraising letters always start out with a personal story? Because the more they mail out those requests, the more they realize: you get more money when you make it personal.

Statistics on how many people died in the earthquake in Haiti or how many buildings fell might make your eyes pops. But it's the story about a little girl who lost her mother that gets people to open checkbooks.

That's because we're programmed to get emotional when messages hit closer to home -- suddenly we're not talking vague millions, but your neighbor, your daughter, your friend, your wife. We can see that. More importantly, we can feel it.

Every kind of copy message works the same way. Tap emotions first and fast, get personal -- it's the only way to get doors to open consistently.

GREAT MESSAGES USE STORIES:

This might be the most instinctive "stickiness" secret of all. Like so many books in this vein, "Made to Stick" opens first with a string of stories, each of them proving the point better than the last.

There's no fighting it -- and no reason to fight it, either -- people love a good story. Why? Because there's no better, more painless way to package a message.

Stories seep into your conscious like good pop songs; with riffs and hooks that catch, and strings of notes you're hard-pressed to forget. Stories flow automatically.

They give your imagination a backdrop. And a map to follow, so you can tell yourself and others the same story -- and message -- over and over again.

Does every great message have to be built around a great story? No. But it doesn't hurt to have the story that tells it all, waiting in your arsenal.

I'm sure I'll come back with more from "Made to Stick" as I get into it. Already, in fact, I've got a few more CR issue ideas percolating along those lines.

'til then, be sure to get a copy and check it out for yourself. I've already added it to my list of "recommended reads" on the Copywriter's Roundtable website:

http://copywritersroundtable.com/further-reading

Contributed by John Forde
Guest Contributor