Marketing Tip: 'The Whole Story of Marketing'

The Whole Story of Marketing

The whole story of marketing can be summed up in a few words:

ONE FINDS OR STRENGTHENS OR CREATES A DEMAND.

Marketing Tip: 'It's About Emotion'

It's About Emotion

I don't think I've made this clear enough.

Marketing is about emotion.

Effective marketing stirs the emotions.

This is so true that there is a recent strain of marketing that seeks to make people angry or disgusted. The philosophy is that at least they'll remember you.

Well, at least it's an emotion. But, of course, what you are really trying to do is stir positive emotions towards what you are trying to sell.

If you can do that, you can create response. Logic, rational arguments, facts, can support your marketing but they aren't the heart of it.

The old saying is you're selling the sizzle, not the steak.

This is true of all marketing, anywhere.

Source: Richard R. Byrd

Marketing Tip: Headlines and Titles

Headlines and Titles

The first words a person sees or hears in your ad, article, brochure, direct mail piece or web page are hugely important.

This is the point where you get the person's interest. Or not.

This is the second huge barrier you have to overcome to achieve effective marketing (the first is getting noticed at all). If you get the person's interest, they are going to read or listen to the next line. If you don't, they are gone.

You know this from your own experience. The average American is exposed to over 3,000 marketing messages per day. How many of them do you pay attention to? A handful at most I'm sure.

And which ones are they? The ones that say something to indicate this is or might be of interest or importance TO YOU.

Here are some types of headlines:

1. Benefit Headline -- “What's in it for me? What benefit or advantage will I get by responding to your ad?”

“Earn Extra Money At Home... In Your Spare Time”
“Reduce Fat”
“Protect Your Property”
“Get Better Gas Mileage”

Overall, benefit headlines are the best.

2. News Headline -- This gives news about a new product or announces a sale or the latest model, etc.

"At last! Our ‘2002 Models Are Here!"
"Announcing ... A Car Battery That Lasts A Lifetime!"
"New UFO Evidence! -- Abductees Take Their Case To Court"

3. Storytelling Headline -- This can intrigue people because it promises to lead them into a story. Stories are interesting.

“How I Went From Bankruptcy To Financial Security In Less Than Two Years.”

This headline also has an implied benefit: financial security.

4. Advice Headline -- The heading of this report is an advice headline. It gives tips or advice. Another example:

“7 Tips For Lowering Your Fuel Bill.”

(Also has a benefit).

5. Curiosity Headline --

“Do You Make These Mistakes With Your Employees?”

Curiosity article titles with numbers in them work especially well:

"Top 10 Ways To Increase Brain-Power."

6. Testimonial Headline -- These can be very powerful. They have the added credibility of a third-party endorsement.

“I earned $40,000 in six months using your wealth-building techniques!”

How do you learn to write headlines or opening lines? Study what others are doing. Also there are many books on the subject.

Be wary of older articles and books: This is the sort of thing that changes over time. Not 100%, as some things are timeless. But look at ads from the 1950's and you'll see what I mean.

Also this is very dependent on culture and language. A good headline in the U.S. might be a complete bust in Venezuela.

Try out different headlines and see what actually works for you. You might be amazed how even a one word change in a headline can improve your response.

Source: Richard R. Byrd

Marketing Tip: Headlines - Words That Work

Headlines - Words That Work

A great deal of know-how can go into writing effective headlines - headlines that grab eyeballs and make people want to read on.

See the types of headlines above.

Here's another piece of the puzzle: It is known that certain words are especially effective. Work them into your headlines whenever you can:

you, money, free, easy, now, people, save, who, why, how, how to, big, handy, useful, secret.

Source: Richard R. Byrd

Marketing Tip: Getting Traffic to Your Website

Getting Traffic to Your Website

Everyone wants to get rich online. The holy grail of the Internet is traffic. If you don't get a lot of visitors to your website, you aren't going to get rich off it.

It can be done. But you have to do it in a way that you can afford, and you have to do it in a way that pays for itself.

The least expensive and most effective ways to do it are usually:

1. "Organic" or "natural" SEO - optimization of your website so you get high search engine rankings.

2. Publicity that creates a buzz on your product, service or company that sends a wave of visitors to your site.

3. In many cases, "click ads" - sponsored links on search engines - are cost effective. And you can control exactly the amount you spend to suit your budget.

4. A lot of traffic can be generated by links and listings from other sites. Depending on what you do, this can be very important, and, links can improve your search engine rankings and bring you more traffic that way as well.

Source: Richard R. Byrd

Marketing Tip: Websites as a Sales Tool

Websites as a Sales Tool

The premier use of most websites is as a sales tool.

In short, the FIRST use of the majority of websites is not as a lead generator. It is there to reinforce interest but to function as a sort of online catalog, gallery or brochure to assist Sales in closing a prospective buyer.

This immediately tells you what to put on a site: Everything you find yourself repeatedly telling or showing sales prospects.

If you do this you will automatically have an effective website. First of all, it will answer unasked questions from people you haven't even heard of - thereby increasing the likelihood they will call you.

Secondly, you'll save enormous amounts of time on the sales cycle because when they do talk to you, they'll already know a lot of the answers. And if not - if they haven't visited your site yet - you can send them to the site or walk them through the site as a part of the sales cycle.

Source: Richard R. Byrd

Marketing Tip: URL - Your Website Address

URL - Your Website Address

We frequently get called on to help a client pick a URL or URLs for their website.

Here are the basics.

"URL" is short for "Uniform Resource Locator" which is a silly enough name. All it is, is your website's address. It is how computers all over the world can find your website.

A website address usually starts with "www" for world-wide web but these days you never have to type that. Your browser will fill it in automatically if needed.

It ends (after a ".") with 2, 3 or 4 letters which are the "TLD" or "Top Level Domain", such as ".com". Every country has its own TLD, like ".ca" for Canada. In addition, there are TLD's more oriented to what you do or are - most famously ".com" - for commercial, ".org" - for organization, and ".net" for Network.

There are no limitations on the use of .com, .org and .net. However, in most cases .com is your best choice because people in the U.S. usually assume that is what your website address ends in - and if you use something else, probably a lot of people are going to try to go to the wrong place.

Now that we've got that out of the way, how do you go about picking the best URL for your business? See blog below.

Source: Richard R. Byrd