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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03.14.09
Posted in Copywriting, General, PodCast at 11:35 am EDT by Michele PW
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At Alex Mandossian’s Teleseminar Secrets Reunion, we did a “timeline” exercise. Alex started it by charting his highlights and lowlights from the past 20 years. It was fascinating to see this laid out for us and to know even someone like Alex was in the abyss at a couple of points.
Even more importantly, I learned 2 important takeaways I wanted to share with you.
The first came from one of the participants. He remarked that the timeline exercise really put things in perspective. These were simply events, not good or bad. They were neutral. Whether you’re in bankruptcy or just broke the 7-figure mark, it’s just an event. A fact.
It’s the story around it that turns it into something else. The story is where the emotions come in. And that’s where it gets messy.
The event isn’t the problem. The story is. If you can take the story out of what’s going on, you can look at what’s happening more objectively and objectively make a decision about how you’re going to handle it.
You may have heard the quote that life is about 10 percent what happens to you and about 90 percent your reaction to what’s happened to you. In other words, the event is in the 10 percent — your story is in the 90 percent. Read the rest of this entry »
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03.04.09
Posted in Business, Copywriting, Marketing, PodCast at 1:54 pm EST by Michele PW
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In the movie, The Prestige, one of the main characters dissects the elements of a magic trick.
You start by showing the object you’re going to manipulate in some way (i.e. make disappear).
You manipulate the object, in this case you make it disappear.
Then, you bring it back. This is the prestige. It’s not enough to make something disappear. You need to bring it back.
In essence, what he’s talking about is closure. You need to bring closure to whatever you’re doing or it will feel unfinished. This is true for a lot of things in life, including your marketing and copywriting.
How do you do this? Well, let’s look at how people buy. For the most part it looks like this: Read the rest of this entry »
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10.30.08
Posted in Business, Copywriting, General at 6:14 pm EDT by Michele PW
One of my friends recently sent me a link to a sales page. This person (who shall remain completely nameless) was having a sale. The reason behind the sale? For the second time this year, they had experienced a natural disaster which had destroyed their living room. (Then even had photos of the destroyed room on their site.)
Now, I’m all for having a reason for a sale. I think having a reason for why you’re knocking the price down or adding an extra bonus makes it that much more compelling for people to actually buy.
But, there are good reasons and not-so-good reasons. This particular one falls under the category of not-so-good — and here’s why:
First off, people tend to shy away from people who seem to have a bad case of bad luck. Bad luck can be catching after all. Seriously, people want to hang around with winners. They want to hire or use products from people or businesses who are successful and lucky. Bad luck makes good television drama — after all, that’s why we watch the doctors on Grey’s Anatomy stumble through one unlucky situation to another, but in real life people want to hang around winners.
Telling people you were subject to not one but TWO natural disasters that basically destroyed the same room in less than a year is not smart marketing. Especially when in your sales letter you say “I did this sale last January, and made enough to pay for my new living room, but now eight months later, it’s destroyed again.” Is it even worth it to help pay for a new living room when, with this person’s luck, in another six months the whole house could be sucked up into a tornado?
Also, when you play the “woe is me” card, you run the risk of turning yourself into a charity. Bad luck happens. People will feel sorry for you. But do you really want people to give you money because they’re feeling sorry for you? Consider how that’s going to affect your brand down the line. Sure you might make a few bucks now, but what about a year from now?
So, is there a time to use the “woe is me” card? Well, there is, but not with you. I would use it to help someone else. For instance, maybe someone you know winds up with serious medical issues, and with it some serious financial issues. Perhaps you raise some money for them. Or maybe you raise money for a charity in their name. That would be acceptable.
But, I can hear you asking, what if something bad DOES happen to me, like I need that new living room?
Look, there’s nothing wrong with having a sale or a promotion to get some cash in the door, it’s just how you do it. Depending on what exactly happened to me, I may or may not use it. I might choose to have a different reason for a sale or promotion. And if I DID use it, I probably wouldn’t use another story like that for at least a good 10 years.
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10.20.08
Posted in Copywriting, General, Marketing at 7:07 am EDT by Michele PW
Hi there,
Just wanted to send you a quick reminder that my second preview call, 5 Psychological Triggers to Turn Prospects Into Clients, is Wednesday at 4 pm PST/7 pm EST.
Here’s the link to reserve your seat:
http://www.michelepw.com/triggers
If you’ve already signed up for my first preview call, 5 Secrets to Getting All The Leads You Can Handle, you’re automatically signed up for this call as well. Watch your in-box for call-in info.
On the call, 5 Psychological Triggers to Turn Prospects Into Clients, you’ll learn:
* What to do to get people to listen (and believe) what you say.
* How to harness the same power that makes word of mouth marketing so successful.
* How to seamlessly transform lookers into buyers.
* What you need to do to “seal the deal.”
Note: these are pretty powerful, so you should make sure you always use them in an honest and ethical manner.
Here’s that link again to sign up:
http://www.michelepw.com/triggers
“See” you on the call!
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11.12.07
Posted in Business, Copywriting, General, Marketing at 12:39 pm EST by Michele PW
Dear Readers,
Wow. I just got back from Dan Kennedy’s Info Marketing Summit, and as great as it was, I am simply exhausted.
I’ve been to a number of Dan Kennedy’s events over the past couple of years, and I think this is the best one yet. Not so much because of what I learned (although I always pick up new tips and ideas) but the connections I made.
As one of the quotes said hanging on the wall of the conference said, “An entrepreneur is the loneliest person on earth.” As an entrepreneur, you’ve probably experienced this yourself. Your friends, spouse, mother, etc. don’t really “get” what it is you’re doing. You can’t talk to them because not only do they not understand what it’s like to be a business owner, but they also probably have no idea how exactly you make money.
Now that I’ve been regularly going to these, I’m making “connections from my connections” so I’m meeting more people, collecting more leads, getting more ideas on what to do with my business (and my clients’ businesses) and just plain enjoying spending time with people who “get” me and what I do.
Michele PW (Pariza Wacek) is the author of 5 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make That Kill Their Sales…And How To Prevent Them. Ready to turn lookers into buyers and watch your business skyrocket? Click here to learn more about this special report, free for a limited time.
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05.14.07
Posted in Copywriting, Creativity, Marketing at 10:23 pm EDT by Michele PW
The other day, a colleague of mine told me about a new marketing agency and sent me a link to their Web site. I checked it out.
Needless to say, it was dreadful.
Oh, it was pretty enough. Very nice graphics. And what little copy there was, was very artfully placed (although so tiny it was difficult to actually read).
Why do I say it was dreadful? Because, even though it was pretty, it had absolutely no personality.
The copy was boring (not to mention full of “we’s” but that’s for another day). The graphics were pretty but boring. There was no life, no energy. Just flat.
It was as though the Web site was trying so hard to appeal to everyone, it ended up appealing to no one.
You see, people want to do with business with people. And they want to do business with people they know, like and trust.
But how will they know if they like you if they don’t know your personality? If you’re so busy hiding behind some boring, flat, but oh-so-politically-correct Web site, how will they ever figure out if they like you enough to do business with you?
And, even more importantly, will they stick around long enough to get to know you. Read the rest of this entry »
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07.10.06
Posted in Copywriting, General, Marketing at 5:53 pm EDT by Michele PW
The moment I decided to specialize as a direct response copywriter (which means you get a response directly from the marketing materials, there’s no middle person involved, like a sales rep) I knew there would be one thing that would determine if I would be eating steak or eating mac and cheese.
And what’s the one thing? The results I got for my clients.
Therefore, improving results became a pretty big focus of mine. You might even call it a passion. (Some people who aren’t nearly as nice have called it in an obsession.)
Regardless, here are 5 tips that can help you improve the conversions of your marketing materials. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in Copywriting, Public Relations, Writing at 5:42 pm EDT by Michele PW
Headlines are the most important part of a print ad.
In fact, David Ogilvy, famous ad man and author of Confessions of an Advertising Man, has said that four out of five people only read headlines. Nothing more.
And if people DO choose to read the rest of the ad, they make that decision based on the headline.
That’s a big job to put on the shoulders for what amounts to a few words.
But before you start despairing over your headline-writing skills, take heart. There are several “headline types” that have proven to sell products and services over and over again. Below are four of the most powerful and the easiest to implement. Read the rest of this entry »
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05.15.06
Posted in Business, Copywriting at 3:13 pm EDT by Michele PW
If you want people to buy, you gotta ask for the sale.
Truly, it is that simple. Yet I can’t tell you how many ads, Web sites, brochures, sales letters, etc. are floating around out there that aren’t asking.
So, what is a call to action? It’s telling people what action you want them to take. Typical calls to action include:
Hurry in today.
Buy now.
Call now.
Visit now.
Click here now.
Nothing terribly sexy, I agree. However, if you want to see an increase in your customers, leads, income, etc., this is an essential component.
But, you might be thinking, isn’t it obvious? Why else would you be running an ad if you didn’t want people to buy what you’re selling? Read the rest of this entry »
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12.02.05
Posted in Copywriting, Marketing at 4:00 pm EST by Michele PW
You’ve done it. Gotten that press release written. Now you’re ready to send it out to your carefully chosen list of media contacts.
But before you hit that “send” button, take a moment and run your press release through this checklist. Remember, you only have a few seconds to catch the attention of busy journalists and editors — don’t blow it over an easily corrected mistake.
Some of these may seem painfully obvious. Alas, even the obvious gets overlooked from time to time (even from professionals – I know, I’ve made my share of mistakes) so it’s always a wise idea to take a few moments to double check that your release is up to snuff before sending it out into the world. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in Business, Copywriting, Marketing at 3:59 pm EST by Michele PW
Several years ago, when I was working for an agency, I was fired from an account. What that means is the client didn’t want me writing for him anymore.
Another writer, a friend of mine, got the account and life went on.
Of course, I was pretty upset by the situation. I had completed several writing projects already for that client, which had seemed to go well, and had just finished a press release when I got the boot.
My writer friend told me later her “secret” for making this client happy. Basically, what she did was rewrite the press release so it focused solely on the client and the client’s business. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in Business, Copywriting, General at 3:49 pm EST by Michele PW
You know that old saying — if you don’t know where you’re going, any path will get you there. That’s what happens if you don’t take the time to figure out what your goals are and WRITE them down. There’s power in writing things down (but you know this, you’re a writer).
Figuring out your goals is probably one of the most important and one of the most overlooked steps for writers starting their business. Ideally you should put together a business plan. However, I have yet to meet a writer (including myself) who has one. (In fact, if you are a writer with a business plan, please contact me. I’d love to chat with you about it.) Second best is getting your goals down on paper. Here are some things to include. Read the rest of this entry »
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