A marketing mistake

Just when I think I have my marketing somewhat organized, I make a mistake. Marketing is a huge part of my life, especially right now. One part of marketing is pre-qualification...making sure that the people who are interested in what you have are a good fit.

It's a fine line...I want the business but I don't want to waste time with people who don't want to do business in a way I think is realistic.

I met with some people recently who wanted direct response copy and I gave them a quote and they wanted to move forward but when I repeated the price and the terms I was pretty much told to get lost. I wasted about three hours meeting with them and sending a lot of emails back and forth.

My mistake: not pre-qualifying the prospect. This happens all the time but it was still painful--my fault entirely.

This ad was not a snore

The merchants of direct response are increasingly active in the local newspaper. There was a great DR ad in the sports section today with the headline...

Are You Snoring Yourself to Death?

Of course, it looked just like a regular article. There was a photo of a woman next to a man who must have been snoring; the woman had her pillow around her ears. There was a ton of copy--written just like a newspaper article. I can't show you the ad but I went to the website for the product (out of sheer DR curiosity, of course) and, the site is all DR. It's a thing of beauty.

Actually, it's not that great looking a site but the ad and the site have everything.

Video

Testimonials

Lots of copy

Call to action

Clear benefits

A solution to a problem

A clear USP

Guarantee

Two different ways to order

And so on...

So, from my DR perspective, their marketing is not a snore at all and I'm sure they are selling a lot of a product that looks like it costs about $2 to make but sells for $89.97 (plus shipping and handling).

My guess is that an "A" list copywriter wrote all this.

Direct Response Verification

The more I get into direct response (and I love it) the more I understand a couple of things.

1. Either you get the power of direct response and believe in it or you don't.

2. People who have been exposed to DR really understand it--because it works.

I was giving a marketing seminar today and was introducing key DR concepts. One of the attendees used to work for a women's clothing store that uses DR marketing exclusively; the attendee told everyone, unsolicited, that DR works and verified everything I was discussing in the seminar. The former assistant store manager basically said, "I can vouch that everything in this seminar works."

That's part of direct response. There are no secrets. You just get on with all the techniques.

For fast DR copy, go to my website, www.scottmartinwriting.com

Are we selling happiness?

Are we selling happiness?

Yesterday morning, I got on one of those dull and anonymous rental car busses—you know, the ones that take you from the airport to the car rental place and back. Usually, the driver is not especially interest in much of anything. On this occasion, the bus driver was energetic, happy, keen to help, and smiling all the time. He was walking happiness.

He reminded me of something that’s vital in all copywriting and it’s a big one on my copywriting checklist.

THE COPY MUST SELL HAPPINESS

Copywriting is salesmanship in words. Yes, people buy goods and services to solve a problem but, in most cases, people buy for emotional reasons backed by logic. Happiness is an emotion…just ask the bus driver.

For direct response copy quickly go to my website, www.scottmartinwriting.com.

A Superb Benefit Headline

Like so many products today, car rental is pretty much a commodity. Sites like Orbitz have made shopping for a rental car an exercise in picking the best price. Yes--there are tie-ins and frequent user programs but it's all pretty much the same. You get to the car rental place. You're treated very well. You get into a car with a no-smoking sticker but the car smells like the last person who rented it had a three-pack-a-day habit. I had a certificate for Budget and I have a Budget card and so I went to the Budget site for a recent car rental and the first words I saw were:

Rent a car in just 60 seconds.

See it here.

There are some other clear benefit headlines on the home page.