Some years ago, there was an excellent campaign for oil filters, of all things, that featured an auto mechanic warning that you could pay him now, or you could pay him later. The message was that by spending a little more now on the superior brand of oil filter, would wouldn’t have to pay for costly engine repairs down the road.
Henry Ford put it a bit differently: “If you need a machine and don’t buy it, you will ultimately find that you have paid for it and don’t have it.”
Watching this year’s national election debates, I’ve been particularly fascinated by the moderators on two fronts. First, there are the styles each has used, and second, there’s the uproar their performances trigger among the partisans on either side. (Those who know me well know I’m apolitical, so if your immediate response to that sentence is to castigate one of those moderators for treating your candidate shabbily, this blog’s comments section isn’t the place.)
They fascinate me because they serve a similar role to that of the copywriter. They have to defend the interests of the audience from those who wish to control both the message and its delivery. Regardless of their own personal beliefs about the matters at hand, to be truly effective, they have to operate with objectivity and continually ask themselves whether the ultimate audience is getting the information it wants.
Planning to share some information with a reporter or editor, or trying to interest him or her in a story? You’ll be more likely to succeed if you start by asking a very simple question.
That question would be “Is this a good time?”
I recently re-encountered one of the best descriptive quotes about marketing. Professor Theodore Levitt of Harvard once noted that people don’t care about a quarter-inch drill. “They want a quarter-inch hole.”
It’s a simple concept, but it’s one that’s lost on far too many marketers in all industries. Instead of thinking about the prospective customer’s ultimate need and desire, they focus on their product’s attributes or what they think is most important.
In the old days, before marketers began to mistake technology for knowledge and sophistication, most companies relied on a variety of tried-and-true tactics to make the most of their marketing budgets. One of the most effective tools they used was called the split test.
Essentially, what they would do is make two different offers to two identical groups. Suppose they had a mailing list with 50,000 names. They would take 1000 names from that list, divide them into two groups, and send them offers that differed in content or approach.
After my recent post about the value of direct mail, I happened upon an interesting statistic. The Direct Marketing Association released new research that said 95 percent of nonprofit organizations use direct mail.
Why is that so significant? Most nonprofits operate on razor-thin budgets. They don’t have money to waste. So they have to be very careful about how they invest what they do have. And the fact that 95 percent of them continue to use direct mail as a channel suggests that it continues to carry its own weight.
“So what’s the best trick for making copy work well?” she asked. I didn’t hesitate for a second, because the answer was obvious.
Effective copy is conversational. No matter whether you’re writing a web page, a white paper, a print ad, an email, or a letter, copy that’s conversational will invariably do a better job of connecting with the reader and convincing him (or her) to do or think whatever it is you want.
When companies decide to hold some kind of prize giveaway, whether it’s a simple drawing, some kind of contest, or an all-out sweepstakes (and yes, there are legal differences between all three), one of the first decisions is what will be given away.
Typically, the big question is whether to give a single glorious prize, or multiple smaller prizes. There’s no single answer, but a key consideration is your objective in holding the giveaway.
… is one of the oldest in the book. I’ve always been a fan of direct mail (the targeted kind, not the mass junk mail version). And my clients will tell you that I’m quick to recommend it in this age of tweets and suites. In fact, I’ve told audiences that direct mail may even be more effective today, simply because so few companies are using it.
But don’t take my word for it. Lois Geller has been one of the doyennes of direct marketing for decades, and in a recent blog for Forbes, she shares her thoughts on why direct mail continues to outpull most other marketing channels.
A study from market researchers Ipsos MediaCT released this week found that fewer than half of Indiana’s small businesses (companies with fewer than 250 employees) have a website. The state’s percentage was 47 percent, surprisingly ahead of the national average of 42 percent.
If that alone doesn’t sound like a big deal to you, consider that coverage of the study also noted that 97 percent of consumers will search for local businesses online. A business that doesn’t have an online presence essentially doesn’t exist anymore.