06.24.09
Posted in Marketing, PodCast, Public Relations, Social networking at 10:27 pm EDT by Michele PW
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Have you ever had done something you thought was a really good idea at the time and then it completely backfires on you?
Well, it happened to my good friend Nancy Marmolejo, Viva Visibility.
If you don’t know Nancy yet, you really need to. She is a social media rock star. However, sometimes even rock stars have days where the guitar is out of tune and the speakers catch fire and explode on stage.
Here’s the story in a nutshell. As you all know, social networking is pretty darn new and Twitter is the brand spanking new kid on that shiny new block. Because it’s so new, things like vocabulary and etiquette are still being hashed out.
It’s better coming from Nancy herself why she got so fixated on this, but she was busy telling people you “tweet” not “twitter” (including yours truly). She also decided to write a letter to Inc Magazine about this.
The result? Inc Magazine called her on it and, well, won.
Now I’m telling you about this for 2 reasons.
1. I’m quite excited I can now use “twitter” as a verb (I just hated saying “tweet” — I felt like I should put a chicken coop in my yard.)
2. Nancy handled the whole situation brilliantly. In fact, I would go as far to say this was actually a really good thing in the end.
So what did Nancy do? Well, to start she owned up to it. She didn’t try to hide her mistake or pretend it never happened (which is simply not possible to do in this day and age anyway.) She ‘fessed up.
Lesson #1 — if you make a mistake, and it’s a public mistake, just suck it up and admit it. It’s when you start lying and hiding that things get so out of control. Look at Bill and Monica. People lied, tried to hide things, and that just made everything worse.
By owning up to it, Nancy completely diffused any negative publicity around it. In fact, if you read the comments, most people didn’t think this was a big deal at all. (Which it isn’t — until you start hiding and lying about it. Then suddenly everyone wonders why you’re lying and hiding and it can blow up into a bigger deal.)
The second thing she did was write a very charming and witty blog post about it. Now, you might not be able to write a charming and witty blog post, but it might be worth it to find someone who can for you. She was entertaining about it, which again helped diffuse the situation and caused all her followers to rally around her.
Now, humor isn’t good for all situations. Remember the Tylenol and Cyanide scare? If the Tylenol CEO had come out with humor that would have been completely inappropriate. However, what he did do was immediately take responsibility, come up with a solution, and didn’t come across as defensive or trying to shift the blame.
Lesson #2 — if you’re going to take a stand, do it graciously. Don’t be defensive, don’t try and shift blame, and for heaven’s sake don’t be a baby about it. Do it with class and people will respect and admire you for it.
The result? Nancy’s post got TONS of comments, pretty much all of them supporting Nancy. She’s back on stage, bigger than ever, with her guitar all tuned up and brand spanking new speakers.
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06.23.09
Posted in Business, Marketing, Public Relations at 11:58 am EDT by Michele PW
Running a business isn’t easy. There’s so much to do, so much to keep track of, so much to learn. Worse, who can you trust? With all the information and so-called “experts” floating around out there, how do you know if you’re listening to someone who actually knows what they’re talking about or not?
Well, that’s why I created the Ka-Ching Community Calls. Each month I’ll be hosting a teleclass where I’ll be sharing powerful, real-world information on running a successful business. (As you know, not only am I running a business but I also continue to work with clients so I see first hand what’s working and not working in the real world.) You’ll either hear from me or I’ll be interviewing an expert (a real expert, someone you can trust).
And the best part? These calls are FREE. Yep. The Ka-Ching Community Calls are free for you. Just sign up here.
This month I’m so excited to welcome Shannon Cherry, APR MA, The Power Publicist
“The Endless Publicity Formula Attracting more clients, making more money for free” on Thursday, June 25,12 pm Pacific/3 pm Eastern
Are you getting all the clients and customers you want?
Are you tired of spending tons of marketing that doesn’t pay the bills, let alone give you the credibility you need to make more money?
Tired of seeing you competition get more recognition and attract more business than you do?
Then you need the power of publicity.
When people see you in the media, you become familiar - even famous! And it gives you credibility. When you are written about in the newspaper, or interviewed on TV or radio, you are news; and that’s better than any advertising you can buy.
In this exclusive call for, you’ll leave:
* Thinking like a reporter to create newsworthy stories — even if don’t think you have anything to say
* Understanding the tricks to getting the media’s attention — and keeping it
* Armed with the tool to get publicity for yourself
* Discovering the secret to promoting your products and services, without feeling like a sleezy salesman
* And much more
Here’s that link again to sign up: http://www.kachingcalls.com
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06.19.09
Posted in Business at 12:45 pm EDT by Michele PW
As if articles and teleclasses weren’t enough you can now learn from me via video. I’ve just been named an expert for yourBusinessChannel. I’ll be sharing my expertise via video tips. Stay tuned!
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Posted in Business, Marketing, PodCast at 3:15 am EDT by Michele PW
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It’s never a good thing when you rely on one stream of income. That stream dries up and you’re, ahem, up that creek without a paddle.
That’s why having multiple streams of income is so valuable. One stream dries up, you’ve got a few other ones to depend on.
(On another note, have you noticed how often money is referred to in water terms? Cash FLOW, multiple STREAMS of income or just income STREAMS. Just something to think about.)
But talking about multiple income streams and actually implementing them in your business are two entirely different things. That’s why today I’m going to share 3 quick and easy ways you can start adding more streams right now.
1. Information products. Creating a product based on your expertise is a fabulous way to start diversifying your income. This is especially good if you’re a service provider — now you’re providing other ways for your customers to work with you rather than them paying you to work with them one on one.
But creating information products doesn’t mean you have to sit down and write a book. You can do a teleclass or a series of teleclasses. Or maybe you do a video. Just make it easy for you to create. (The idea here is NOT to spend months or, worse, years crafting your product — the faster you get it done the faster you’ll make money on it.)
Still feeling stuck? Try this. What’s the biggest problem your customers come to you to solve for them? Can you do a teleclass or write a special report walking them through how to solve it themselves? Granted working with you would probably get the faster, better results, but remember not everyone has the money nor even the inclination (there are a lot of do-it-yourselfers out there, and you don’t want to exclude them from your customer base.)
2. Licensing or certification programs. Do you have a special process you take your clients through? Why not package it up and sell it to other consultants like you? Lots of people are looking for proven methods and systems they can add to their business income streams. So in essence you’re helping other people add income streams to their business while you’re also adding income streams to your business.
Now this one may not be all that quick to do, but I wanted to include it so you weren’t just thinking “info products” as your only option. Open yourself up to other options to making more money.
3. Offer advertising or sell other people’s products. With this one, you’re capitalizing on an asset you’ve built — your list. You have people who follow you, right? They’re on your list, they’re following you on social networking sites, they listen to your podcasts and/or teleclasses. Well, with this one you make money either by promoting someone else’s products and getting a commission, or you charge for advertising.
For advertising, think bigger then just selling spaces in your newsletter or web site or blog. What about offering sponsorships? Sponsorships aren’t just for corporate — they can also be your colleagues who want to reach your target market.
Of all the options, this one is definitely the fastest to pull together and takes the least amount of time for you to manage. However, if you don’t think it through, it does have the potential of diluting the impact you have with your list. If you’re interested in this option, do your homework. Find one or two people who have successfully offered this and ask them about it.
Above all, think creatively. There are lots of ways of reaching your target market, try a few and see what works for you and them.
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06.12.09
Posted in General, PodCast at 7:08 am EDT by Michele PW
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When people realize I walk marathons, one of the questions I frequently get asked is “how did you do it? How did you finish the marathon once you hit the point of ‘nothing helps?’”
Well, I can tell you it’s not easy. Lots of demons come out to play and you have to push past them.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Why would knowing how to finish a marathon have to do with your business? Because you might be having the same problems in your business — demons coming out to play and you throwing in the towel too soon and not seeing the success you deserve.
Let me explain. It’s been documented that lots of business owners quit too soon. They either quit the business altogether or they lower their goals (i.e. “I don’t need to make 7-figures, I’ll be happy in the low 6-figures”) or they drop a product or service that’s not selling.
However, many times the turning point in their business is just up ahead. They’re right there, the finish line is a half mile away, but they stop. They stop and they use all sorts of excuses as to why it was a smart decision to stop.
This happens to me all the time after I get past mile 20 in the marathon. It gets even worse once I hit the point of “nothing helps” — the pain is awful, I’m exhausted (a deep, deep exhaustion, so deep it makes it difficult to fall asleep for several hours after you’re done) and I’m extremely grumpy.
All the demons come out. “I’ve done this before. Why do I have to make myself miserable now?” (The first year it was “I can try this again next year when I’m in better shape and know what to expect.”) “Boy that pain in my knee feels bad — maybe I’m permanently hurting myself. I should stop.” “Look at all those other people in the medical aid tent, they’ve stopped I can stop too.” “Why the heck (or something stronger) am I doing this to myself again?”
And on and on.
So along with walking on despite the physical pain, you’re also battling mental demons. And this becomes an even bigger issue the longer you walk because at the end it’s all mental. There’s nothing physically left — the only reason why you’re staying on your feet is because you’re forcing yourself too.
Does any of this sound familiar in your business? “Why should I bother marketing and/or selling? People aren’t buying anyway. And the economy is bad. And my industry is struggling.” “I haven’t sent out a newsletter in months, I’m just too busy.” “I know I have a stack of business cards on my desk I should follow up with, but I’m just so busy. And besides, do they really want to hear from me anyway? It’s probably too late.” “This product launch was a disaster. Only 2 people bought. I guess no one is interested in this after all.” (Never mind you only sent out a couple of emails and called that a launch not to mention never sending out a newsletter.) “I’m almost done with my first product. I just have a couple more things to add/change.” (And you’ve been saying THAT for 3 years.)
And the most insidious of them all “I’ve been doing everything so-and-so said for months and it’s still not working. Maybe I’m not cut out to run a business. I should just quit and find a job before I run up any more debt.”
All of these are just variations of the same theme. You’re throwing in the towel before you’ve reached the finish line. And chances are, if you DO quit, success is most likely right around the corner.
Now this isn’t to say there is never a time to quit. Sometimes you really do injure yourself and you can’t finish the marathon. And sometimes a product or a service you’ve launched really isn’t a good fit for your target market and should be dropped. And sometimes things have so radically changed in your market you need to change something or you’re going out of business.
But, a lot of times the reason why things aren’t working is because you aren’t marketing enough (or marketing smartly). Maybe that product really isn’t a good fit. But if you only send out 2 emails to your email list that only hears from you once in a blue moon and call that your launch, you don’t know enough to say it’s not a good fit. You haven’t given it a fair shot.
What can you do to push through? Even when you feel like you’re doing everything you’re supposed to and nothing is working? Just do what I do after mile 23. Put your head down and keep walking. Don’t listen to the chatter in your head, just keep walking. Focus on the cheerleaders on the sidelines telling you you’re almost there and keep walking. The finish line really is just around the corner, and eventually you’ll get to it, but only if you keep walking. The moment you stop, you’re done.
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06.08.09
Posted in General at 8:11 am EDT by Michele PW
Social networking.
It’s the talk of the town. Everyone is buzzing about it. Everyone is doing it (or trying to do it).
But is anyone making at money at it?
The short answer is YES — but only if they’re doing it strategically.
And that’s what I’m going to be teaching you in my next Copywriting and Marketing Success Circle call, “How to Turn Social Media Visitors Into Paying Customers.”
(In a hurry? Here’s the link.
No matter where you’re at in the social networking spectrum — youÕve heard of twitter and that’s about it; you have a facebook account but you don’t know what to do with it other than look for old high school buddies; or you’re actively working the social networking platforms — you’ll discover proven steps on how to convert your social networking activities into actual cash.
You’ll learn:
- How to turn friends and followers into PAYING customers. Yes, it IS possible, but you need to
know what to do
- What NOT to do so you don’t turn your friends and followers against you (this is almost as important as knowing what TO do — it’s very easy to destroy your online reputation and once that
happens, it’s very difficult to get your reputation back)
- TESTED campaigns that resulted in CASH in your pocket (you can easily implement these in your own
business)
- And more
You’ll get my step-by-step system on how you can make money doing social networking, as well as
templates and samples (yes samples of how to write for results in the social networking world) to make it easy to “plug and play” in your own business.
It all happens on Tuesday at 4 pm Pacific, so you’ll want to reserve your space now. Here’s that link again to sign up.
To your success!
P.S. When you sign up, as a special bonus you’ll also get a copy of my Sales Letter Secrets: Rev Up
Your Business With Copy That Sells! Here’s that link again.
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06.04.09
Posted in General, PodCast at 7:38 pm EDT by Michele PW
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Musings from the Marathon (and How it Can Help Your Business)
I just returned from San Diego where I walked my third marathon. It took me 6.5 hours. (I’m not a runner, I’m a walker, and that’s averaging between a 14- and 15-minute mile.) Now if you know anything about marathons, you’ll know that I’m never going to make the Boston marathon with that time.
In fact, I was beaten by an 86-year-old woman from South Carolina (we were neck and neck for awhile — she pulled away when I stopped for a bathroom break, beat me by 5 minutes) by a man dressed in a banana suit, by naked man (he whipped off his shorts when he crossed the finish line, although it’s probably not fair to compare him to me as he definitely had less wind resistance than I had) and a bunch of guys dressed as Elvis.
My point is if I was doing marathons to win, I would probably be in the depths of despair this week. Lucky for me, I do marathons for other reasons that have nothing to do with speed and everything to do with perseverance.
In fact, I think every business owner and entrepreneur should complete a marathon at least once in their life. No, not because I want partners to share in the torture and agony, but for the same reasons why I do. Let me explain.
I’ve come to the conclusion that nature has intended for the human body to only travel about 20 miles at any one time. I’ve decided this based on both science and my own experiences.
Now, I’m not a scientist but here’s my understanding of what’s going on when you walk a marathon. Your body only has around 2000 calories of ready energy it can use at any one time. How long does it take you to run out of 2000 calories? Oh, about 20 miles. After 20 miles, your body starts attacking your muscle to use as fuel (your body can’t burn fat on its own, it can only access the fat through burning something easier, such as carbohydrates or muscle).
At the same time, the hormones your body produces when you run (the ones that are responsible for the “runner’s high”) are used up. When that happens, the natural pain killer that’s part of the runner’s high also disappears, so now you feel every bit of the pain your muscles are going through.
In other words, somewhere between mile 20 and 24, your body runs out of ready energy and starts attacking your muscles and also runs out of the hormones that give you extra energy, stamina and pain relief. There’s a term for this you might have heard. It’s called “hitting the wall.” And if you’re going to hit the wall, you’re going to hit it somewhere between mile 20 and 24.
As someone who has smashed head first into said wall, I can tell you it’s not pretty. You can get a second wind at mile 12, 16, even 18. There’s no second wind at mile 24.
During every marathon I’ve done, there comes a time where nothing helps. Nothing. Everything hurts. Everything. You’re exhausted. Every muscle in your body is screaming for you to stop. You’re keeping your legs moving on sheer grit and determination alone. There’s nothing else left.
The only thing that even comes close to helping during this time is the people cheering on the sideline. The ones near the end yelling “You can do it, you’re almost there.” (Note to spectators, this is the time to lie. Tell the runners or walkers or limpers they’re almost there or the next mile marker is around the corner, even if the next mile marker is actually around the corner, up a hill and a half-mile away. You need anything you can grab on to at this time.)
So for all you spectators, yes your cheering really DOES help. Don’t let our grumpy expressions fool you. We’re hanging on to what you’re saying for dear life.
(On another note, the neighbors who live between mile 15 and 16 who every year buy a gazillion oranges, spend hours cutting them up and then MORE hours standing on the street handing them to us as we go by, I only have one thing to say to you — I’m leaving you in my will.)
Okay, so my hypothesis is the human body is only supposed to walk or run for 20 to 24 miles. And a marathon is 26.2 miles (and yes, that .2 is VERY important — that .2 of a mile is harder than the first 20). So what that means is you are literally pushing yourself past your body’s limits for at least 2.2 miles.
In fact, that’s why I think marathons ARE 26.2 miles. Because they push past your physical boundaries.
I suspect this was the discussion back when marathons first came up. The Marathon God was sitting around with the other Greek Gods in Mt Olympus and the conversation went something like this. “Maybe a marathon should be 20.4 miles.” “No, no, that’s still within their body’s limits.” “Okay, so how about 28.8?” “No, that’s too far. Too many people will drop out or die and that defeats the purpose.” “So what about 26.2 miles?” “Perfect, just far enough to push past their boundaries and not so far that they give up or die.”
So walking marathons is about pushing past boundaries. If you can push past your body’s physical limits with your mind, then you should have no problems pushing past other boundaries with your mind, such as income boundaries or business growth boundaries.
After all, you know it’s possible to build a multi-million-dollar (or billion-dollar) business from scratch. You’ve seen other people do it. And after you walk a marathon, you’ll know you can push past boundaries because you’ve just done it. So therefore, now you know you have the capability to push past whatever boundaries you’ve set for yourself. You’ll have physical, tangible proof of it. (And they even give you a medal when you finish.)
And that, my friends, is why I think every business owner and entrepreneur should walk or run a marathon at least once in their life.
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05.27.09
Posted in PodCast, Social networking at 9:50 am EDT by Michele PW
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Probably the biggest question I get asked is if social networking is worth it or a big waste of time. Well, if you’re doing social networking to make money, and you aren’t making money, then it most certainly is a waste of time.
So, how do you make money with social networking? A lot depends on the words you use and how you interact with your friends and followers. Today I’m going to focus specifically on Twitter.
Remember, for Twitter you only have 140 characters including spaces for every tweet. That means every character counts so use them wisely.
Here are 3 more tips to make those tweets as compelling and persuasive as possible.
1. Get your personality in there. The beauty of social networking is it’s driven by relationships. You build relationships by letting people see who you really are. That means showcasing your personality.
The more people can get a sense of your personality, the more they’ll decide if they like you or not. And the more they know, like and trust you, the more likely they’ll become your customers.
In addition, people don’t like to be sold to. If your tweets sound canned or not authentically from YOU, they’ll be turned off. And turned off people are not likely to buy from you.
2. Give and you shall receive. The more you give, and do things for other people, the more it will come back to you. You spend your time helping other people, the more they’ll help promote your products and services, the more likely they’ll go check out what you offer and if it’s a match, the more likely they’ll buy.
If all you do is push your own stuff on Twitter, you’re not going to get very far. You need to spend most of your time doing things for other people. Then, when you do promote yourself, people will take notice and be more likely to act.
3. Be entertaining. There’s an old quote in the copywriting world that you can’t bore anyone into buying something. (I think it was David Ogilvy who first said it.) Same goes for Twitter. You can’t bore people into building and maintaining a relationship with you. You can’t bore people into promoting your products or events. And you can’t bore people into buying your products.
Now this doesn’t mean you have to a stand-up comic. Sure this is easier if writing short, pithy statements comes naturally to you. But don’t forget Tip #1 — stay true to your personality. We’re all interesting in our own way, even if you’re not a stand-up comic.
The key here is to be entertaining in your own unique and personal way. What, you don’t think you’re entertaining? You have friends, right? You go out to dinner with them, right? What do you talk about? You’re entertaining them or they wouldn’t want to go dinner with you.
So entertain your twitter followers the same way. And the ones who respond to that will respond to you. And as they get to know you, they’ll move to like and trust. And that leads to them becoming your customers.
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05.19.09
Posted in General, PodCast at 3:48 pm EDT by Michele PW
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Let me begin by saying I was very impressed with Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump’s daughter. She spoke at the Dan Kennedy/Bill Glazer Superconference and it was fascinating hearing her take on business. Here are a few nuggets I came away with:
1. You got to really want it. Ivanka is a driven woman. In fact, I would go so far to say she is succeeding despite her father and wealth. She works 3 times as hard as anyone else to prove that she really is the best person for the job. And she has succeeded.
Now you could say it was easy for her. She has connections, a name, money. However, that’s exactly the reason why it’s difficult for her. People assume her success is due to her family and not her ability.
She could have thrown in the towel, turned into another Paris. Instead she decided to work 3 times as hard to prove to the world she is just as capable as her father at being successful at business.
My point here is that everyone has obstacles. Even if you can’t see them, we all have issues and blocks and obstacles. And we can choose to give in to them or to succeed despite them.
And, we all feel the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. Ivanka truly believes her father would fire her if she screws up. (Actually he publically said that in an interview, he’d fire his kids if they messed up.) Can you imagine the public embarrassment and humiliation if that actually happened? Sure we can all look at Ivanka and think “oh, she has it so easy.” But if she ends up in the middle of a colossal failure, the world will all know about it and talk about it. That’s not the case with someone less well known.
This is very common in business (well, in life in general) - people assume someone else’s business is a piece of cake while they have to X, Y, Z to contend with. While it’s true maybe that person doesn’t have X, Y, Z, they do have A, B, C, which are just as difficult in their own way. So the best thing to do is rather than wasting energy on comparisons, focus on making what you have that much better.
2. What’s going on with the economy is just a way to make businesses stronger. Okay, she’s 28, which means she was an infant during the last big recession. However, she is learning from her father, who not only lived through that recession but nearly went bankrupt. How did her father handle it? He got up every day and did something about it. He didn’t let the fact that he owed millions of dollars with no way to pay it back stop him. He got up every day and did something about it.
What are you doing right now? Are you sitting there waiting for the economy to “get better” so you can start making money? Or are you going to start doing something NOW to make that money?
Businesses are still making money right now. People are still buying products and services. You can make money, you just need to be smart about it.
3. Find what you love and do that. Ivanka had been offered a very prestigious job in another company after graduation, but wanted to work in the family business. Her father questioned that decision, which for a long time made her angry. However, he just wanted to make sure she was doing something she loved and not just getting a job in the family business because she thought it was expected of her.
What I liked about this story was what it said about both Donald and Ivanka. Ivanka knew she loved construction and buildings, so she designed her career around doing what she loved. Her father knew how important doing what you love is, and wanted to make sure Ivanka was following in his footsteps. Not his footsteps in the family business but that she truly was doing something she loved.
Are you doing what you love? Or are you doing what is “expected” of you? Think about it. Make sure you really are designing a business you love and that motivates and excites you.
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05.14.09
Posted in Advertising, Business, Marketing, Public Relations at 9:27 am EDT by Michele PW
In the book “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” after Earth is blown up, Arthur (the main character) is presented with a small computer (not unlike an iPhone I’d imagine) with these words on the front — “Don’t panic.” Arthur finds this oddly comforting, even though Earth is gone and he is on a spaceship with a guy he really didn’t get along with too well when they were both on Earth.
Although no one said those words, that was the underlying theme of this past Dan Kennedy/Bill Glazer Superconference. Don’t panic. Yes we’re in a recession. Yes the government is doing crazy things. Yes we have pirates and pig flu and everything else. But you shouldn’t be panicking because it’s very possible for us to not just survive but thrive. (Hey, if Arthur can keep from panicking after watching the end of the world, we should have no problems.)
So what can we do? In a word — lots. Here are 3 things to get you started:
1. Don’t allow what’s going on to paralyze you. Over and over again we kept hearing stories about business owners who have just stopped doing anything. Whether it’s from fear or because they believe it’s not going to make a difference so why bother or they think this is smart to hunker down and do nothing while they wait things out, the end result is they’re frozen. And because they’re frozen, their businesses are dying.
Now is not the time to be doing nothing. Now is the time to be doing something. Lots of things. Like marketing. Lots of marketing. In fact, this is an excellent time to be marketing because your competition is probably panicking and frozen and hiding in a closet somewhere, so you have the chance to not only solidify YOUR position but take customers away from your competition.
2. Work harder. Ivanka Trump came and spoke to us, and the biggest thing I took from her is she works 16-hour days. Yes she’s rich. Yes she has a trust fund. Yes she’s in the family business. And she works her little tush off.
Now, I’m not necessarily advocating ignoring your family and your health and everything else and just focusing on your business. What I AM saying is if your business isn’t where you want it to be, rather than shutting down or doing less, try doing more. Whether that looks like hiring someone to do a marketing campaign for you or you get some systems in place to free up your time so you can focus on other things or you roll up your sleeves and do things you wouldn’t normally do, you might need to do more right now rather then less.
3. Fix any fundamental flaws. Dan said what’s really happening right now is the recession is exposing flaws in businesses that were always there, it’s just before the businesses were making money despite those flaws. So, again, don’t panic, don’t shut down, and look at this as an opportunity. You’re able to fix problems in your business so when we do come out of the recession, your business will be that much stronger.
And the most important thing to remember — don’t panic. You CAN not only survive this but thrive.
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05.05.09
Posted in Business, Copywriting, General, Marketing at 11:14 am EDT by Michele PW
Between deadly pig flu, government bailouts and pirates, talking about the recession seems almost anticlimactic – nevertheless I wanted to share something I learned from Dan Kennedy at the Super Conference.
Dan had a special session about Recession Rescue, which included a bunch of good info about thriving during this time (I’ll be sharing more in later posts). He had an interesting point I wanted to talk about today:
One of the main reasons why spending is down is because businesses have stopped asking for the sale.
Businesses all over have cut back their marketing and sales budgets because they think it doesn’t matter. “Why bother?” they say. “People aren’t buying anyway, so why bother trying to sell to them?”
Of course, as all good students of copywriting know, if you don’t ask for the sale, you’re not going to get the sale. So if you stop marketing and selling, people WILL stop buying. (Yes it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.)
And especially now, you need to sell and market even harder because people are more cautious with their money, so if anything you should be stepping up your marketing strategies and efforts, not cutting back.
When business is slow, there’s no question it makes sense to cut back on expenses. But cutting back on things that directly relate to income (i.e. marketing and sales) is not a smart business move.
What are your thoughts? Have you noticed less selling in your life? What have you noticed in YOUR business? Leave me a comment and let me know what YOUR experiences are.
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04.21.09
Posted in Business, Copywriting, General, Online Marketing, PodCast at 10:41 pm EDT by Michele PW
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Want to know the secret for creating promotional materials that make sales?
It starts with the headline.
You see, people are busy. They’re only going to take a few seconds to determine if they want to spend any time with your promotional materials or not (whether that’s an email, a web site, a sales letter or something else).
How will they make that decision? A big part of it will come from reading your headline. So if your headline doesn’t pull its own weight, your prospects will most likely simply move on.
So how can you craft a headline that persuades your prospects to keep reading? Here are 3 tips to get you started:
1. Put yourself in the mind of your prospect. Chances are, your prospect landed on your site because they have a problem. And they’re looking for a solution to that problem. And they’re impatient because they’re squeezing in searching for this solution in between taking the kids to dance class, sending a few last emails and figuring out what to throw together for dinner. (Okay, that was a very female-biased day, but men are equally as stretched.) So if they’re not feeling confident they’re going to find a solution, they WILL move on. And fast.
But, if you create a headline that embodies the solution, then they’ll probably stick around and keep reading. For instance, a headline like this:
Give me 3 days and I’ll show you how to make more money while working far less
If you’re considering writing a headline like this, then your prospects are probably completely overwhelmed, exhausted, struggling to get everything done and not making much money. See how the headline entices them to read on because it promises a solution?
Here’s another one:
Give me 3 days and I’ll show you how to lose weight without crazy fad diets, pills, hours of sweaty exhausting exercise or feeling hungry.
(Ah, don’t we all wish?)
Okay, so your prospect wants to lose weight and has tried a lot of things without success.
See how this works?
2. Give them a time limit. If you were wondering in the above examples why I had a time limit in there, it’s because that resonates with people. Again, people are impatient. They don’t want to wait years or decades for the solution to take effect (even if that’s what it takes). They want to know the solution is within reach and it’s a manageable time frame. So if you can frame your solution around something that sounds doable (a couple of weeks, days or minutes are best yet if you can distill it that far).
3. Use language your prospects will relate to. Whether it’s language that resonates with your prospects (hours of sweaty exhausting exercise would probably resonate with prospects who don’t like to exercise whereas it wouldn’t with people whose hobby was running marathons) or using words like “Free” or “Guaranteed,” making sure you pick the right words can mean the difference from a kick-butt sales piece to a so-so one.
And don’t be afraid to simply tweak a couple of words. Sometimes that’s all it takes to tweak a word or 2 to transform a blah headline into a sexy, profit-pulling one.
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04.20.09
Posted in Copywriting, Creativity, General at 3:47 pm EDT by Michele PW
A couple of weeks ago, my accountant called to let me know my taxes were ready. He also shared with me that I was one of the “lucky” ones - I was one of the few in his practice who owed money because my business made money last year.
Ah, lucky me.
Good news, my business was successful last year. Bad new, Uncle Sam wants his piece of the pie.
So I decided to look at this as a win-win. I would have a 24-hr sale on one of my best products, Kaching Traffic Secrets.
You win because you’ll be able to save a whopping $200 for 24 hours AND you’ll get THE system on driving more traffic to your site using Web 2.0 tactics. This isn’t another information product that will languish unopened on your shelf - this is the actual system I use for myself and for my clients to drive thousands of visitors to their sites. You just hand it over to your virtual assistant and they implement it. It’s that easy!
And I win because I’ll be happily writing my check to Uncle Sam. (Well, happily might be stretching it…)
Uncle Sam wins too, but maybe we’ll not talk about that…
Anyway, sale starts bright and early Thursday morning at 6 am Pacific and ends Friday at 6 am Pacific. Here’s the link if you want to check out Kaching Traffic Secrets now:
http://www.kachingtraffic.com
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03.31.09
Posted in Business, PodCast at 8:22 pm EDT by Michele PW
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I first learned about the Twilight series this summer. I read an article about how this series was even more popular than the Harry Potter books amongst teenage girls.
Well, as a fiction writer, I had to check that out. So on the Saturday before I was leaving on vacation, I went to the bookstore and bought Twilight (which is the first one in the series) and another book. I figured reading the first one would be enough — after all, it’s been a few years since I was in high school.
I started reading Twilight Saturday night. By Sunday night I was back in the bookstore buying the second two in the series. I had the second one read before I left for vacation and forced myself to wait until I was in the airport to start the third. (Needless to say, I ended up having to work part of my vacation because I got so caught up with those books.)
I’m not even going to tell you what I went through to get my hands on the fourth one.
Now, before you think I’ve got the emotional maturity of a 16-year-old, let me assure you I am not the only adult woman out there who got caught up in these books. In fact, there’s a massive online community out there called “Twilight Moms” — which, as its name suggests, was created for adult women. Not to mention I’ve given the books to my adult friends who have also devoured them. Read the rest of this entry »
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03.19.09
Posted in General, PodCast, Social networking at 10:34 am EDT by Michele PW
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Isn’t social networking fun? You get to meet all these people and connect with them and spend hours looking at their profiles and videos and photos and…
Okay, so clearly social networking can take an awful lot of time. The question is, is it worth it? Will spending all that time doing social networking lead to an increase in sales?
And the answer is, yes it can. But you need to be strategic about it — just like you need to be strategic with all your marketing. And one way you can do that is to have a social networking landing page.
So what the heck is a social networking landing page? Read the rest of this entry »
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I also write fiction. Learn more here.
