The other day I got a piece of direct mail from Shaw Cable.
It was an over-sized postcard, double-sided in a standout colors.
Nothing that interesting yet … However, what was interesting is the level of personalization they included in the direct mail piece.
(front)
(back)
“Japan just got a little bit closer” To many of you that might not mean anything, but to me it does. Continue reading »
I know a lot of marketers in the social media space are saying that the old approach to advertising doesn’t work anymore.
No doubt there’s a ton of books written on the ‘new’ social media landscape and marketing strategies and techniques that
can be used effectively. And hey, that’s all good.
In fact, I not only believe a lot of what authors such as David Meerman Scott have written in their recent books – we’ve been putting some of these principles to work for our clients for quite some time.
What I found myself questioning the other day, is how can so many people say that the old direct response approach to selling products directly to consumers doesn’t work anymore…when the TV and magazines are filled with repeat advertisers hawking their wares. Continue reading »
Rohit Bhargava has put together a wonderful short presentation about why infomercial style marketing works.
This is one of the best presentations I’ve seen for its length.
Often times business owners, and I’ve encountered many over the years, are cynical of the prospects that infomercial direct-response style advertising works.
They say … Continue reading »
Calling all marketers. Did you know …
“The internet is the least effective way
to sell ever devised by man …”
According to Gary Halbert that is. Does he know what he’s talking about? Yes siree. Gary Halbert passed away a year ago. But he was easily one of the smartest and most effective copywriters on the planet.
Ken Mcarthy has put up a bunch of videos online of Gary Halbert. Some shorter, some longer. But the message in this video is worth more than what you likely earn in 1 hour – and you’ll learn it in minutes.
It may sound like common sense, but give it some good thought and remember what Gary says,
“The Internet Is Only A Delivery System”.
As you probably know Dan Kennedy is one of the greatest marketing minds around. Not the only by any means, maybe not even the best. And I haven’t studied or seen much of his stuff lately, but he was/is a true marketing genius.
Don’t worry. I know it sounds like I’m trying to sell you something, but I assure you I’m not. All it is is an introduction to a great video of him I just found.
If you’ve followed my work and writings over the years you’ll know I’m a big believer in the power of having a guarantee to increase sales. And not just some fluffy text in miniscule type. But one that stands out and means something.
Well, here is Dan Kennedy delivering his personal guarantee for his products. Enjoy, it’s live and it works!
Here’s a video from Canadian Copywriter Michel Fortin. No matter how great you think your ad, your copy, or any of your marketing and sales materials are performing … if you’re not testing, you’re really missing out.
Look for the little conversion secret he delivers near the end of the video.
Here is a golden video from Perry Marshall. With 2 very important lessons.
An increasing number of our clients, especially over the last two years, have asked for our help with their Adwords campaigns. Actually, about 70% of them didn’t even have an account set up … so we often start from scratch.
As you get more and more advanced with Google Adwords you quickly see how effective a marketing tool it can be, but also how advanced it can get. This video below not only gives you a high-level technique that works … but also brings home the reality that not everything will work for everyone.
That’s what testing is for, right?
Marketing Sherpa just published a great case study.
This one looks at a challenge many large companies face and most do nothing about. But the company in the case study, Business Objects, did.
I’m happy about this for 2 reasons: 1) Business Objects is based in Vancouver, where I live (although they were recently acquired by SAP, and 2) the company clearly proved that direct response marketing deserves a seat (if not the Vice-President’s chair) at the main table.
Here’s why …
Advertising Age just ran an article stating that 53% of marketers are preparing to cut back their advertising if they haven’t already begun to do so.
The survey, conducted by the Association of National Advertisers, polled 100 marketers across several industries. While some will surely wonder whether on hundred respondents is enough to make this statistically valid — evidence that this is true is all around us.
You see, every time the economy faces a downturn marketers get wary. They hold back. Waiting. Until the landscape settles.
There are couple of massive problems with this. Continue reading »
Lobster for everyone!! Come and get it … this time in a most unusual way.
Two brothers in Maine have created a new program where you can own your own lobster trap. Everything that is caught in that trap during a whole year’s season is yours.
They guarantee you’ll get at least 48 delightful crustaceans weighing on average 1.5lbs each.
Plus, you also get clams, mussels, and other wonders from the Atlantic.
Don’t eat seafood? Hey, that’s okay. And I won’t even ask why. But there is a big marketing lesson here.
These two brothers have run with a classic strategy that works. They’ve take the structure and model of “own your own olive tree” or apple, or vineyard section, etc. These biz models are popping up all over the place.
People like to call something their own. It’s impressive, and if you like wine, apples, olive oil, or lobsters it’s a good deal.
They definitely charge you a premium here. In the case of the lobsters they charge $2,995 a year. 48 lobsters minimum at $15/lb (let’s say standard price), that’s $22.50 per lobster and $1080 for 48. But these guys give you so much more, a long list of goodies (see their website here).
When you ad it all up does it equal the $2,995 price tag. Probably not, but you’re getting a piece of “ownership” and this is what people love buying into.
You see, these guys have recognized that they’re better off not just selling a product. They’re selling a whole experience and memories around that … and people are happy to pay good dollars in return.
Ask yourself, can this model be used in my business in anyway?
To your success,
Michael Zipursky
Friends, how are you?
Air Canada has come out with a new service to “ease travellers worries.” Called On My Way the service offers travelers that have had their trip interrupted protection.
Protection in what form and from what exactly? According to the Air Canada website if you’ve been affected by harsh weather conditions that cause delays, flight and plane issues that force cancellations or pretty much anything else that restricts you from getting off the ground…then On My Way will provide assistance.
When you’ve signed up for this service you receive a special number to call. Calling that number a “special customer service agent” will rebook you on the very next flight (so you get dibs on that) and arrange for complimentary accommodations and means (that’s right, they foot the bill).
In case you haven’t noticed more and more companies have been using ‘guarantees’ in their marketing.
The art and power of the guarantee is nothing new. Direct marketers and advertisers the world over have included guarantees in their offers for centuries.
While I surely wasn’t around back then…I’d wager that 200, 300, heck, probably even 500 years ago people tradesmen (yes, I’m sure there were tradeswomen as well, but allow me to keep this simple for now) were offering guarantees of satisfaction on the products and services they sold in one form or another.
No, I’m not implying they all did, likely there were only a few in each town that were brave enough to place a guarantee on that which they sold.
These days there are still only a few in each industry that incorporate a guarantee into their business models. But that is slowly changing.
On two occasions now, the president’s of two large companies have attacked me.
No silly, not by physical force. But they were genuinely concerned.
Turn on the TV, check the front few pages of any newspaper, listen to the radio and no doubt you’ll be bombarded with a chess match of mentally developed and not-so-understandably respected folks yelling at each other “recession-this” and “no-recession-that’”.
“A financial crisis here” says one lady, while the other ‘just-as-wise’ smiles her best smile, looks you in the eye and tells you “there is no financial crisis, this is a time of opportunity.” And just then, ten other well-greased analysts, and a couple of bow-tie clad economists declare there is no opportunity. Everyone must cust back and cushioned their rear-ends in preparation for the big loss.
What’s happening really isn’t anything new in my view. Sure, parts of this dramatic play “have never been seen before”. But the economy, since the beginning of time, as had its ups and downs, its sidesteps, trips, hops, jumps and falls…
The Vancouver Sun ran an article last Tuesday about Chef Daniel Boulud. The famed restaurateur who owns 5-6 restaurants across the US is partnering with the current owners of Lumiere and Feenies. If you’ve been following the story of Rob Feenie’s departure, there’s likely a lot more than meets the eye. But that’s not what I’m writing to you about today…
Hidden deep inside that Vancouver Sun article was a gem. A precisely-cut and glittering diamond of marketing wisdom.
It appeared when Daniel Boulud was asked why he chose to come to Vancouver over Toronto or Montreal, the largest Canadian cities (Vancouver holds 3rd place).
Boulud’s reply was spot on. He said
Continue reading »
As part of my book release for Profitable Relations, I’ve put together a 5-day free email course that shares a success story each day.
There’s no cost to sign up, and it only takes 20 seconds.
If you’re interested in learning how other businesses have used straightforward marketing techniques to increase their customer loyalty, you’ll enjoy this course.
Go to the Profitable Relations E-Course page, scroll to the bottom and sign up.
Let me know what you think?
To your success,
Michael
There is one area that marketers and companies alike often neglect. Yet this ‘final step’ in the majority of cases dictates your rate of success.
This is as relevant with trade show marketing as it is with direct mail, face-to-face salesmanship, advertisements, and even web promotions.
What am I talking about?
Possibly the single most important step of any marketing strategy…THE (you can hear the drum roll) Follow-Up.
That’s right. The follow-up.
You go to all the trouble of planning your tradeshow, putting together materials, coordinating with vendors and your staff — not to mention the expense of printing, booth rental, travel and hotel costs and all the rest….we’re talking anywhere from tens-of-thousands to millions of dollars being spent.
However, 80% of companies don’t follow up. Don’t quote me on that figure, it’s an educated guess. Here’s why I’m saying that though…the last trade show I attended, where many companies were spending bi big dollars on their tradeshow marketing efforts…80% or more of the companies I met with to talk about business and opportunities didn’t follow up.
A surprise contender…(you’ll never guess which companies seem to be delivering the best follow-up).
Almost every single one was from China. Now many of them were a bit aggressive…touting their products and services. They’re doing whatever they can to get me on board. But hey, that’s okay.
You see friend, if they wiggled themselves to jello-like state of laziness like all the rest of the companies and didn’t follow-up…99% chance I’m not going to do business with them. Heck, I doubt I’d even remember them.
By getting in touch with me…I thought about them again. I took the time out of my busy schedule to have another look at their offerings.
They re-ignited the communication torch…they’re pushing to keep the relationship going. And in business it’s all about the relationship. You can hawk goods and make a profit in the short term, but without a real relationship, your business will fade into the mist…you’ll lack the long term loyal customers a business requires to grow and be profitable into the future.
Your fortune would be as good as gone. Poof! Gone.
Follow-up can come in many forms. An email, a phone call, a fax, even a letter. It doesn’t really matter. The key is that you DO FOLLOW UP.
The best marketers know the value of follow-up. They understand that follow-up isn’t about a random and unplanned call to a prospect months after the event. But rather a highly strategic, well planned out part of your overall tradeshow marketing strategy.
And the best marketers make sure that strategy comes in many forms. It may start with an email, lead to a phone call, then a letter, then another phone call and eventually to a face to face meeting again to provide more information or give a demonstration.
When you’ve got them, don’t lose them.
If you haven’t been using a structured follow up process in your marketing, start right now to work it into every aspect of your arsenal.
You will glow with glee and your bank account will bulge. Folks, follow-up works. Give it a shot.
To your success,
Michael
Let’s pick up where we left off. In the last two weeks I talked about the process of getting attendees to visit your booth at the tradeshow. So now that they are there, what do you do?
Well, you don’t just say hello and show them your product. Of course, there is nothing wrong with showing your products to anyone that comes to your booth, but what you really should do is qualify each person.
You don’t want to spend 20 minutes showing someone your product only to find out they have no intention whatsoever of buying it or writing/talking about it (if they are press).
My suggestion here is for times when there are many people around your booth. If there is no rush, not many people around, sure – take your time and talk away…you never know who that person may tell…even if they don’t plan to buy, someone they know may.
But you need to have your priorities in place.
Back to qualifying attendees. You can do this by finding out, “which company are you with?”, “have you ever seen this kind of product”, “do you have experience with this product?” ….or simply ask if they are looking for the kind of solution your product provides.
This will give you a good indication if you’re talking with a potential “prime buyer.”
And then, if they are, you can make the move to get their contact information. Before we talk about that there is one extremely important topic we must cover….
…preparing for the dialog with potential buyers before you even arrive at the tradeshow.
It’s a mystery why most companies don’t do this (actually, not really, people are just lazy). Gather your team around a table and make a list of all the questions your potential buyers (those that would be most interested in your product…the ones you had in mind when you developed the product) could possibly ask you.
Things like the cost, the materials, how does this part function, can I use it with this other product, so on and so forth. This might take 30 or 40 mins to write down, but it will be time well spent. Then take another 20 mins or so to answer all of those questions. What you’re doing here is ensuring that all of your staff’s answers are aligned and that you’re prepared for any possible question that comes to you.
This is important because often times you’ll lose potential customers because you can’t justify for them why they should make this purchase or you don’t have the information they need to make up their mind that “this is the right choice.”
Again, it is time well spent.
You can also build in much of this information into your print materials that promote and support the advantages of what you are offering.
What kind of print materials are most effective for trade show marketing? A 1-page, double-sided outline of your product with a few photos and list of what it can do…often times a comparison chart of other similar products in the industry works well too.
What should this not be? Forget the 10-page brochure. Leave that for when the potential client requests additional information. Most trade show attendees have their bags filled with papers and promotions…and they don’t appreciate receiving heavy packages. Fact is, they can (or should be able to) get all that information and more from your website.
So keep your materials short and sweet. The key to these materials, as always, is the copywriting. It should be laser targeted to you prime prospect and clearly tell them why they should care.
A headline, benefits, proof, testimonials and don’t forget to make them an offer….use a call to action that emotionally forces them to want to contact you again for a free report or demonstration.
In the hole please….
That’s where it can go. Many executives think it’s too cheesy…but it still works. To make collecting people’s information easier offer a draw for a prize - you can even have them fill in a simple survey…and then you can sort through to find the real prospects later. Thing is, you give away an iPod or something that most people would like…but it also attracts attention to your booth and makes it easy for you to get the contact information of attendees.
I’m going to have to end here. Sorry folks, but stay tuned. Next week I’m going to cover the most neglected yet exponentially important final step of tradeshow marketing.
See you next Monday.
To your success,
Michael
I received quite a bit of interest about my last two posts – Joe B. wants to know more about what “effective tradeshow marketing is?”
So Joe, here we go….
Last week I said I wouldn’t touch on the actions you should go through before the tradeshow. But let me digress and bridge that gap for a moment.
The worst thing you can do as a tradeshow or event exhibitor is to settle for a small listing on your website about your exhibition and booth number and leave it at that. Show up, set up, and hope all goes well is a dangerous set of ingredients. 9 times out of 10 that recipe is going to give you some terrible tasting results.
The major reason most companies attend tradeshows is to increase their sales. I mean, you can put a blanket on the ‘increase sales’ phrase with whatever language you want, like “demonstrate our new product” or “make contacts” or “create awareness” – fact is, you’re doing all of that to make a sale.
Now, if you’re going to make a sale, you need to know who you are going to sell to. And what you have that they so badly want or need that they’ll spend their time taking out their credits card to buy it from you. But you always identify who your prime targets are before going to a trade show, right? And the product or service you’ll offer them has been crafted with laser precision to give them what they want, right?
Good, I’m glad to hear that.
So you have a list of prospects, maybe not the exact companies, but you know what kind of company you want to target. Great. The next step is to get a list of those ‘ideal clients’ and start the dialog with them.
Operator…connect me
How can you find these companies, you ask? You can go through the yellow pages and call them. You can buy a list from a list broker and send direct mail to them. There’s also placing an ad in a publication those prime buyers are most likely to read. And of course, their is the various ways to do all of this on the internet.
Remember, these initial communications don’t need to say everything. You definitely don’t want to start this dialog trying to hard sell your offering. This is just to get things going….
Next, send out that initial communication months in advance. Why? Because some ideal clients may not even be planning to attend that trade show. But after you personally invite them to your booth…to see something amazing you have to offer…they may decide that attending the show is worthwhile.
Your next communication can be a month or two before the show, and then another week or two before the show. What you’re doing here is creating and keeping the anticipation, awareness and desire of your target market to meet with you. You’ll be on their ‘to-see’ list during the show.
Here they come baby, here they come
They will come. That’s what this is meant to do – and it works. If each communication is done properly and if what you’re offering fills a need or want of your target market…they will come. Not only will they show up at your booth, they’ll be primed with interest to talk with you, to see what you’ve got, and you’ll be ready.
I wanted to write more about this but I gotta run. Check back next week and we’ll be covering more about tradeshow marketing, like:
Come on by next week.
To your success,
Michael
Last week we looked at the big take away from CES.
This week we’re going to dive into a quick snapshot of what works and what doesn’t in trade show marketing.
Since I just came back from the CES, we’re going to use this as our case study.
Looking at the results, I can tell you, many if not most companies’ trade show marketing stinks – it’s terrible.
Here’s why….
Let’s leave the marketing steps you should take before the trade show even begins for another day. I want to show you some examples from the show.
The reason to have a booth at a trade show is to:
1. Get attention
2. Create awareness
3. Start a meaningful dialog
Then, with that all taken care of there is the all-important:
4. Follow-up stage 1
5. Follow-up stage 2 and so on
So I’m walking around the show and see this. Companies need to think of their booth designs as advertisements…not as space to play with color use as art. Generic words like these say nothing. They don’t get attention, and even if someone happened to take 5 seconds for a glance at the text, they get nothing from it.
The copy here provides no reason for people to be interested.
Folks, use this space wisely. Text should be large enough to get attention, but just as important, it needs to communicate directly to your ideal prospect with a fact, news, or benefit that will make them stop and rush over to your booth.
This company could have said something like this “Save Money Delivering Your Products: We deliver more than 13,000 products a day to global markets”
After they’ve read your copy and feel compelled to come over to you and find out more, than you can start a meaningful dialog with them.
Point: Maximize your booth space to not just look ‘professional’ but also to sell attendees on a reason why they should get more information from you.
We’ll pick up from here next week…and I’ll elaborate more how to complete the trade show experience to get real measurable results and increase profits.
To your success,
Michael
I’m coming to you from the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas this week. I’ll be here for a few today’s checking out the city and the latest technologies from around the world.
If you aren’t familiar with CES, this is THE show that electronics and technology players gather at to tout their latest goods and latest innovations. Steve Jobbs, Bill Gates and several others from the upper galaxies have released their company’s products here.
What will I be doing here? Here’s a sampling:
1. I love technology. So I’ll be walking around the convention center (think big x1000) until my legs give out to see goods from Asia, the middle east, Europe, N. America, etc. Almost anything to do with technology will be here in one form or another. Plus, this is a great place to see technology marketing in action. From trade show design, to copywriting of literature, and more….
2. Networking. I’ll be catching up with past clients attending the show and am looking forward to meet other technology marketers.
3. See the city. Believe it or not, Las Vegas is one of the cities I’ve never been to. So I’ll make a bit of free time to stroll the streets…and drop a few coins with the one-arm bandits (that’s what they slot machines).
When I get back I’ll update you on some of the highlights and give you a glimpse into the best and worst from this year’s newest technology….
To your success,
Michael
