A lot of businesspeople have a tidal wave of money banging against their door, but they’re busy shoving a couch across the door as a barrier to their success in small business.
Here’s a gem of a small business success tip…
What is “the couch”?
Oh, it could be the idea “But My Business Is Different” or, from a Pete Lillo story, “It Won’t Work In St. Louis.”
It could be industry norms and traditions. Or fear – of peer disapproval or of failure or of success, of “What Will People Think?”
(more…)
If you are going to do well in the small business marketing business, you’ve got to get over whatever queasiness you may have about deception. I started in the “regular” advertising business but quickly gave it up because I realized most of the clients’ money was wasted; most advertising could not work because the public does its damndest to avoid advertising altogether.
Here’s a small business marketing tip for ya…“If you aren’t willing to sneak up on ‘em, you’re in big trouble.”
Of course, you can rise to the level of illegal deceptive advertising or mail, a line They keep moving, and that’s ill-adviseable for very practical reasons.
But short of that line, virtually ALL effective marketing is, to one degree or another, deceptive. All car commercials show “beautiful people”, all beer commercials occur in taverns populated by ordinary guys and gorgeous super-models. That’s deceptive. Our deception is no more or less “evil” than theirs.
(more…)
When a pro freelance copywriter talks about a direct mail marketing package, he is most often referring to the outer envelope, sales letter, brochure and order form.
We tend to be much more creative and varied in the number and variety of enclosures in a good direct mail marketing package, but the result is the same; a collection of pieces and items are assembled and placed in a particular order, to go into an envelope or other container, for delivery to prospect or customer.
The point is that situations best served only by a simple sales letter are quite rare. Most of the time, you want to mail a multi-piece marketing package.
The reasons for this are many.
(more…)
One day, while personally wandering the park, then-CEO of Disney, Michael Eisner instantly and summarily fired the entire chorus line of one of the shows.
Why?
“Because they didn’t have ‘the Disney smile.’”
It takes COURAGE to manage that way, but it is the only way to really manage if you understand how linked and co-mingled your small business marketing is to your rank ‘n file employees’ routine interaction with customers and prospects.
First, there has to be a “Program” — fully enunciated and frequently and repetitively presented expectations about behavior, right down to the smile.
(more…)
Never discouraged by futility or resistance, I continue to teach and preach the profound advantage available only through precise message to market match. And I have another instructive example.
The big sporting goods, hunting, fishing, camping and apparel company ORVIS offers its customer mailing list with ethnic and religious selects, so you can obtain only the Jewish or Catholic or Muslim or Hindu buyers, or only the Asian or African-American or British or Irish or Italian or Hispanic buyers….and by merging Orvis’ list with InfoUSA lifestyle selects, you can get only Democrats or only Republicans…so you could, for example, get only Irish-Catholic Democrats, by age, gender and geography.
Why on earth would you want to do such a thing? (more…)
Around here, on Planet Dan, we say “Copy Is King”…and we focus on the Message (and on Message To Market Match). But, as the highest paid professional, freelance direct-response copywriter working today, I can afford to tell you…and do tell you….things other copywriters will not. While it must be on target, copy gets credit for only 20% to 25% of a successful direct-mail piece/campaign, ad, web site, etc.
Another critical element is the ‘who’ reading the copy. In direct-mail, this makes careful, thorough, precision list selection and segmentation critical; in online marketing, it has to do with where traffic is being obtained from.
Then, another critical element is the presentation of the message. In face-to-face, person-to-person or person-to-group selling this may encompass the salesperson’s attire, personal appearance, body language and voice inflection; his props, visual aids, demonstrations; even the environment in which the selling is taking place. In media, there are seven major items on the Presentation of Message List.
(more…)
Sex in small business marketing has long, long been used, for a wide variety of products, appealing to men, and to women.
It can be subtle “ like Cadillac’s woman driver: the question slyly asked by the sexy woman: when you turn your car on, does it return the favor?
…overt “ think after-shave ads.humorous “ people my age remember football star Joe Namath in pantyhose.
…branding “ think Playboy, think GoDaddy’s Super Bowl commercials…think Hooters.
(more…)
Most of us spend a lot of time laboring in oblivion.
Writers certainly do. When you speak on stage, you can see and hear and judge audience feedback.
But when you write, you write alone. But writers are not alone in their frequent wondering whether or not their work, their concern for their work, is going unnoticed.
I imagine most small business owners, most service providers, small business marketing professionals, and most salespeople share similar feelings.
Statistics and scoreboards are one thing, and the small business owner’s sales for the month tell a story, the salesperson’s closing or missing the sale tells a story, the quarterback’s pass completion and touchdown stats and the win/loss record tell a story.
But the quarterback still wonders if anybody notices how hard he’s worked to quickly read and adjust to defenses, how he’s improved his use of the pocket from game to game, how much better prepared he was against the Redskins this season vs. last.
(more…)
IT AIN’T YOUR GRAND-DAD’S FUNERAL. SIX FEET UNDER, NOT THE ONLY OPTION.
I’ve done some consulting work in the funeral industry, spoke at a national convention, and, while most are mired in the past, with very traditional, somber products and small business marketing strategies, there is growing movement of innovation and daring.
For example, “theme funerals” with themes like golf, NASCAR are happening; caskets sporting college logos and colors, NASCAR personalities, Gene Simmons markets a KISS Koffin, favorite NFL team logos and colors.
Now here’s the newest product, premiered at a previous year’s International Cemetery and Funeral Association Rock & Water Creations’ large, engraved, fake tree stumps and rocks you can put in your front yard, back yard, garden, etc., to provide a final resting place for the urn of ashes of your loved person or pet as well as a temporary resting place for folks taking a walk through your woods.
(more…)
