Look That Sells

Graphics and design are a vital part of any sales letter. But before you let your graphic designer take over, make sure you keep this in mind:

Always, always, always ask your designer to read the copy. I'm blown away by how many don't. And it shows. Boy, does it show.

The general rule is that good design can't make bad copy work, but bad design can destroy the performance of good copy.

Fancy design isn't always good design. Your first aim is readability. Your second is to make sure the copy isn't obscured by the design. Good design makes the copy look and feel easy to read.

If you throw your finished sales piece onto a table with other finished sales pieces... and it disappears into the pile... you've got a problem.
No screened images behind text. No screened images behind text. Did I mention? Please avoid screened images behind text.

When in doubt, cut graphics before cutting copy. Really. By the time the designer gets a piece, the copy should be airtight. Or close to it. Graphics are less important than the written message. That's just the way it goes.

Designers need to understand the motivations of their target market just as much as marketers and copywriters do. There's no way to be a good designer when you're working in a vacuum.

Follow these guidelines, and the design of your sales pieces will always enhance - not detract from - your sales message.

Differentiate Your Product from the Competition

Uniqueness matters in the marketplace. So make sure you have a USP for every one of your products that makes it stand out in your customers' minds.

To help you come up with a strong USP, here are three points to consider...

The Best USPs Have the Appearance of Uniqueness:

The feature or benefit you decide to promote with your USP does not necessarily have to be unique to your product, but it does have to seem like it is. If, for example, you're a tailor and you wash and iron every item of clothing you mend, make the washing and ironing your USP. Other tailors may be performing those same services - but if they're not mentioning it in their advertising, it will make you appear to be the only one.

The Best USPs Have a Trendy Appeal:

The appearance of uniqueness is not enough. If the feature or benefit you're promoting is not desirable, it will do you no good to promote it. The best USPs are those that tap into trends. The big screen on Apple's iPhone, for example - a feature emphasized in all its ads - played into a growing demand for bigger and more technically refined TV screens.

The Best USPs Are Conceptually Simple:

If your product's USP is trendy, it is almost certainly simple too. Very few complicated things ever become trendy. Plus, keep in mind that you have to sell the USP - and nothing sells well that is difficult to explain. The Fedex slogan - "When it absolutely, positively has to get there overnight" - is a great example of a conceptually simple (and highly successful) USP.

Give Your Prospects a Taste, Get More Sales

There's no doubt about it - giving away free samples is a powerful marketing tool.

The obvious benefit of a free sample is that it allows the customer to confirm the quality of a product before they spend any money on it. Free samples of all sorts of things are given away regularly - ice cream, vitamins, cosmetics, shampoo. But you can also take advantage of this strategy for attracting new customers by giving away free information.

Popular and Profitable Niche Engines

You've probably used, or at least heard of, niche search engines... even if you didn't know it.

In many ways, Amazon.com is a niche engine devoted to books. Newegg.com is a niche engine devoted to computer supplies and technology products and reviews. BestRatedTravel.com is a niche engine (and ratings service) devoted to travel websites.

BestRatedTravel was one of the first niche engines with a "paid-inclusion" program, where companies can pay to have their websites included in the search engine database. Today, hundreds of search engines, including Yahoo! and Overture, offer these programs.

EquiSearch.com is a profitable niche engine developed by a group of entrepreneurs in Kentucky. It serves the thoroughbred horse racing and breeding industry. Most of EquiSearch's users and prospects are horse buyers, stables, trainers, brokers, and racing speculators. Its revenues come from multiple sources, including online and print advertising, Google AdSense, directory listings, affiliate partnerships, and classified ads.

Choosing Your Niche

When it comes time to create your own niche engine, the first thing you have to do is choose your niche. Countless opportunities are out there just waiting for you. But don't forget, your aim is to make a profit, so you want to choose a niche that will help you do so. You don't want to develop a niche engine on an area that is so tight almost no one will ever search for it. Instead of going with something like Naso Tang tropical fish, a better choice would be tropical fish in general (buy/sell, products, accessories, information, etc.).

Here are a few of the hottest niche engine markets:

Travel
Stock trading
Real estate
Matchmaking (dating)
Online education (courses, seminars, e-books, tutorials)
Images (non-adult)
Vacation rentals
Precious metals
Online gaming (cheats, strategies, tools)
Live Web cams
Specialty automobiles and parts
Business research
Restaurants (reviews, forums, images, live video)
Retirement communities
Resorts
Apartment rentals
Programming code
Pets
Global positioning systems (GPS)
Not interested in any of those? There are lots more niches out there. Do your research. Find out what's popular. Figure out how you can cater to the latest trends with your niche engine.

Sell With Statistics

The great thing about statistics is that you can use them to support almost any sales point you want to make in your promotion.

For example, marketers often cite the number of units that've been sold to prove that their product is popular and, therefore, must be good.

In the good old days, McDonald's restaurant signs would proclaim "Over 1 Billion Sold." Of course, that really wasn't proof that McDonald's burgers are good. Many restaurants make hamburgers that are better. But it gave customers the impression that McDonald's burgers were exceptional.

Ironically, a statistic that says the exact opposite - a number showing the product does not sell well - can also be used to make a case for superior quality.

Perhaps you have received a catalog for Harry & David, the mail-order company that sells, among other things, Royal Riviera Pears. The copy for the pears says, "Not one person in a thousand has ever tasted them." It makes the product sound exclusive, special, rare, and desirable. But what it really means is that very few people buy them!

Here's another example of how statistics can be skewed in your favor...

I was asked to write a brochure for a company that did research for manufacturers. I asked the client about his competition and where his firm stood among them.

"That's a negative," he said. "There are hundreds of small mom-and-pop operators doing this kind of research out of their homes. But there are only five real companies - and of those five, we are, unfortunately, the smallest."

So in the brochure copy, I wrote: "XYZ Research Associates is one of the 5 largest industrial research companies in North America" - turning a potential negative into a bragging point.

A few additional guidelines for using numbers in your marketing copy to make a case for your product or service:

Write your numbers using the largest unit of measurement. "A quarter of a century" sounds longer than "25 years."

Round off to make a number sound bigger. If the client tells me his newsletter has 2,015 subscribers, I talk about "thousands of satisfied subscribers."

Use "negative statistics," saying what the product doesn't do or have, rather than what it does do or have. For instance, club soda has "no sodium, no artificial flavors, no calories."

Prove statistical points with pictures. Compare two quantities with a bar chart, or show a price chart illustrating how shares of the stock you recommended went up.
Use a persuasive statistic at least three times: in the body copy, in the chart or graph, and in a caption for the chart or graph.

Make unexpected comparisons to dramatize numbers. You might, for example, say "More people have died from malaria over the past century than are now living in the United States" - much more memorable than just stating the number of malaria victims.

Figure out how you are going to sell it.

By Internet?
By phone?
By personal sales presentations?
By direct mail?

Pick the method that gives you the best chance of being successful right away. You don't have any capital now, so you need cash flow.

Each of the above marketing channels has its own unique personality. Select the one that makes most sense for you.

Then learn everything you can about how to market that way.

Will the World End in 2012?

The imminent end of the world has been predicted... well, probably since the first humans set foot on the planet. The date now in vogue with some New Age types is December 12, 2012. This coincides with the end of the current cycle of the ancient Mayan calendar, and also marks the day when the sun will be aligned with the exact center of the Milky Way galaxy for the first time in 26,000 years.

As with any doomsday prediction, there are naysayers. Other New Agers say instead of chaos and catastrophe we can expect a worldwide elevation of consciousness on December 12, 2012. And experts who specialize in ancient American civilization say all the predictions for that date are a major misinterpretation of Mayan writings and history.

Powerful PPC Tactics

Location Targeting
Most PPC campaign platforms offer a variety of location targeting options. Google AdWords is the most robust. Depending on what kind of business you're running and in what part of the world you're running it, the ability to laser-focus your campaign can make a big difference in its performance. Consider targeting by Country, Region, State, Zip Code, or even a radius around particular streets (which could be particularly useful if you have a local delivery business - a pizzeria, flower shop, or even a courier service).

Several factors may come into play when deciding where to target your PPC ads. Assuming no problem with your country's business laws, potential language barriers, and your willingness to ship internationally, you may even choose to target worldwide. The important thing is to make sure you can successfully do business in the location(s) you target.

Seasonal or Holiday Campaigns
If you have a tight budget, turning your PPC campaigns on and off based on seasons or holidays could be a great strategy for maximizing your ROI (return on investment).

Let's say you run an online sporting goods store. In that case, you may want a campaign for summer sports and another one for winter sports. You'd turn on your ads for bathing suits and water skis in April and turn them off in August, when you'd turn on your snowboard ads.

Or let's say you run a tiny print shop and sell custom greeting cards online. In that case, you could create targeted campaigns around Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, and Christmas, and turn those campaigns on only for those big holidays. Again, the key is testing. Find out which holiday gets you the most bang for your buck.

Dayparting
A close cousin to the seasonal campaign, dayparting is a fancy term for showing your ads during certain times of the day. Dayparting can play a pivotal role in making sure your ads appear during peak business hours and make the best use of your budget. Again, this could be particularly useful if you are running a local delivery service.

Dayparting can also be helpful when used in conjunction with analytics data. If, for example, you notice that your target customers tend to search for your keywords between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and noon, you may want to schedule your ads to run only during that time. A little tweak to your campaign using dayparting may just make a big difference in sales.

Placement Targeting
Once called Site Targeting, Placement Targeting is specific to Google AdWords. Creating a Placement Targeted campaign will allow you to run ads on Google's Content Network, but on a smaller scale. Placement Targeting allows you to choose which websites - or even which sections of a site - you want your ads to show on.

Placement Targeting is particularly useful if you are launching a new product that people aren't yet searching for, or if you are in an industry that doesn't receive a lot of search traffic. Perhaps you know what kinds of sites your audience visits. If those sites are in Google's Content Network, you will be able to target them, without having to waste impressions on other underperforming sites in the network.

Placement Targeting is also a great strategy for testing out advertising on a site that has a rate card beyond your current budget.

Multi-Channel Marketing
Finally, to really make your PPC campaigns sizzle, make them part of your larger synchronized marketing effort. Wendy Montes de Oca wrote about the importance of multi-channel marketing earlier this year, and her advice is as important now as ever.

By synchronizing the message you push in your PPC ads with the message in your PR, online media buys, and print advertising, you increase your company's presence and solidify name recognition, branding, and trust. This increases the chance that searchers will recognize your products and company name and, therefore, see your PPC ad as coming from a viable company to do business with.

Whether you are just thinking about starting your first PPC campaign or have been managing one for a while, the above tips can really amp up clicks and sales while maximizing your allotted budget.

Just remember... to determine which PPC strategy is best for your online business, keep testing.

Blockbuster Basics of PPC

Keyword Selection

Several tools are available to help you choose keywords for your campaigns. These include WordTracker and Keyword Discovery, which you pay to use, and a free tool from Google. To use these tools, you simply enter a keyword or phrase that you'd like to target. The tool spits out a list of related terms and the volume of searches that each keyword has received in a 30-90 day timeframe.

Depending on your goals and your budget, you want to choose a combination of high-volume keywords and lower-volume, but more targeted, long-tail keywords. For instance, if you are in the health food industry, your high-volume keyword may be "health food" and a more targeted long-tail keyword could be "natural health food store."

Refine and target even further by including negative keywords. If you run a health food store but you don't deliver, you could add "delivery" as a negative keyword. That way, your PPC ad won't show up for searches that include that word. By spending a little more time on research and keyword selection, you can vastly improve the number of sales you make, while controlling your budget.

Refining Your Ad Copy

Now that you've spent that extra time targeting the right customers, be sure to capture their attention with compelling ad copy. Study your competitors' ads. What do they have in common? What can you do to stand out amongst them?

To increase the clicks on your ad, be sure to include your targeted keywords in the copy. A quick and easy way to do this with Google AdWords is to use their Dynamic Keyword Insertion tool. Another option is to write a custom ad for each keyword. Try using quirky or funny language in your ad, experiment with punctuation, and, most important, include a call to action ("Get all the details here!"). The key to success is always to be testing.

Increase your customers

1. Go the extra mile for your customers and prospects.

Do things that will make you stand out from the pack. If you see an article that you feel may interest one of them, mail it (or e-mail it, but sending something in the mail tends to have a greater impact). A good way to find appropriate articles is to set up a Google News Alert for topics you feel would interest your customers. If you think a story is relevant, send them the link.

2. Make sure your customers know about every service you provide.

If you sell Product A to someone, make sure they also know you carry Products B, C, and D. The more solutions your customers know you provide, the more likely it is that they'll know someone who will benefit from getting a call from you.

3. Establish relationships with people who sell complementary products or services.

For example, if you sell boats, contact the local marina and introduce yourself. Tell them you'll be referring your customers to them, and make them aware that you'd be open to any referrals from them.

4. Ask for a referral.

If you don't ask, chances are you'll never get a referral. Customers usually don't volunteer them on their own. When the time seems right, say something like "Do you know anyone else I might be able to help out?"

5. Always thank your customers for their referrals.

Obviously, say "Thank you." But then take it one step further. Send a thank you note or a small gift. It could lead to another referral.

6. Keep your customers informed.

Let your customers know what happened when you called the person they referred you to. Offer to keep them in the loop as things progress.

Develop and follow through on a referral and repeat-business strategy and, like Joe Girard, you'll make more sales... and have an easier time doing it.

Hacking Technology

Anti-virus software, firewalls, spyware blockers. Our computers are full of features to stop hackers from stealing our confidential data. But computer security researchers have recently found a new way to bypass all that security.

A German team from Saarland University uses telescopes to focus on the reflection of computer screens on glasses, bottles, teapots, spoons, and even eyes. They can read 12-point type from up to 15 feet away, and 18-point type from 30 feet. As far as they know, no one has yet exploited this technique to "hack." But to be on the safe side when you're working on your computer, keep an eye out for people lurking around with telescopes.

Neglecting to Follow Up

You must follow up with people you meet at business functions. This is Networking 101. But it bears repeating, because no matter how well we understand the importance of follow-up, few people actually do it.

Maybe you think you're too busy to follow up. Or you lose new business cards (they are tiny and easy to lose) in the piles on your desk. Or maybe you suffer from blank screen/blank mind syndrome.

The fact is, it takes no more than a few minutes to compose a short e-mail to a brand-new contact. Yes, it's possible that the other person won't remember what you discussed. He may even have forgotten talking to you at all. But don't let those "what ifs" prevent you from making contact. When you're sitting in front of a blank computer screen with a stack of cold business cards, push yourself to make the effort to write a short note. That way, your e-mail address and message will be in the other person's inbox to jolt his memory.

Set the foundation for follow up while you're talking. Note anything unusual about the other person or the work he does, any details or specifics that you might forget. As soon as your conversation ends, jot down a few notes on the back of his business card - ideas about what to say when you follow up, the link you promised to send or the resource you want to pass along.

And then say goodbye to blank screen/blank mind syndrome.

Effective E-Mail Subject Lines

When you send an e-mail, especially for business purposes, the subject line should be as informative as possible. A great e-mail message can be understood and acted upon just based on a perfect subject line.

That means avoiding vague subject lines like "Hi!," "Just to let you know," and "Quick Favor to Ask."

Instead, use specific language like, "Agenda for tomorrow's team meeting,"

"Your OK needed on Henderson contract," or "FYI: TPS report due next Tuesday."

http://www.WEBUYFASTNOW.COM

Deductive Reasoning

By Paul Lawrence

My son Jose is 11 years old. So when he looked at me and said, "I think it would be a good idea for me to clean the birdcage and throw out the garbage now," the heavens opened up and a chorus of angels sang. If you have children, you know that hearing words like that can seem like a miracle.

Of course, I simply could have ordered him to clean the cage and take out the trash, but that might've led to an argument. Instead, when discussing chores with Jose, I use a powerful persuasion technique called "Triggering Deductive Reasoning." The idea is to get him to logically decide that it's in his best interest to do his chores right away. And that's why he's (usually) eager to take care of them.

Ordering people around - even if you're in a position to do so - is one of the least effective ways to get them to do what you want them to do. It's always better to use proven persuasion techniques to change their thinking - and even their actions - without sounding like a dictator or a jerk.

You can use the Triggering Deductive Reasoning technique to get your own kids to do their chores. But you can also use it to persuade clients to buy your products... to get an employee to take on an unpleasant project... or to get your spouse to agree to take you out to dinner. I'm going to show you how.

First, let me explain why there's more to this technique than appealing to the other person's sense of logic. For instance, I could have said to Jose, "Why don't you do your chores now, so you don't forget?" In asking that question, I would hope Jose would recognize the wisdom of my logic and agree. But that approach would've likely failed miserably. Why? Because he didn't come to the conclusion on his own.

If you can subtly lead the other person to make the decision you're hoping for, their conviction that it is the right thing to do will be very strong. And they won't even realize what you did.

Here's how I did it with Jose...

I knew he was really looking forward to playing at his friend's house, and he didn't want anything to interfere with his plans. So I said, "What time are you going to your friend's house?"

"I'm supposed to be there at 2:00," he replied, without looking up from his video game.

I responded, "Mom's going to drive you over there, right? What time are you leaving?"

"1:30," he said, glancing at his watch. "It's 12:30 now."

"Well then," I said, "I guess you can keep playing your game for a while."

"I'm supposed to clean the birdcage and take out the garbage before I go," he said, looking up from his game.

"I'm sure you won't forget," I said.

I watched his eyes as he thought about it. It was obvious that he recognized the distinct possibility that he could, indeed, get wrapped up in his game... forget about the chores... and have his mother tell him he couldn't go because he didn't get them done. He deduced for himself that the wise choice was to do the chores right then, and not take the chance of missing his afternoon fun.

The Triggering Deductive Reasoning technique works just as well with adults.

A few years ago, a partner and I were getting ready to produce an instructional video. He was going to fund the venture, and I was going to do the legwork. Neither one of us owned any video equipment at the time, so I investigated what it would cost to hire a professional videographer. Because we intended to market the video by showing clips in television ads, it had to be of the highest quality.

After getting many quotes, I came to the conclusion that for 25 percent more than we'd budgeted, we could purchase everything we needed to shoot and edit the video ourselves. A big advantage of this plan was that we could then produce further videos inexpensively. However, I was reluctant to approach my partner and tell him that he should put in more money than we originally discussed.

So I decided to use the Triggering Deductive Reasoning technique. I showed him the quotes I'd gotten from all the videographers, and told him, "I'm not sure any of these guys know more about shooting and editing a video than we do. But as much as I'd like to buy the equipment, we can save at least $5,000 by paying one of them to produce this one for us."

Being a smart guy, he instantly realized that it would be much better for us to own the equipment. "Remember," he said, "we already have plans to do three more videos together." And so he decided, without me asking, to make the additional investment.

To use the Triggering Deductive Reasoning technique, take the following steps:

1. Identify your goal.

You must know precisely what you want to achieve. In my example with Jose, my goal was to get him to make the decision to stop playing his game and get his chores done immediately. In my video-production example, my goal was to get my partner to make the decision to invest an additional $5,000 so we could buy our own equipment.

2. Make a statement that leads the other person to the conclusion you want him to come to.

The leading statement I made to Jose was, "I'm sure you won't forget [to do your chores before it's time to go]." The leading statement I made to my partner was, ""I'm not sure any of these guys know more about shooting and editing a video than we do."

Let's say you want to persuade your boss to increase your budget for a particular project. In that case, you might say something like, "I can definitely get this project done within the budget - although, with the shortcuts we'll need to take, there may be some quality issues."

That statement would lead your boss to the realization that not giving you a bigger budget might be a bad idea.

3. Reinforce the logical conclusion the other person comes to "on his own."

When the person you're using the Triggering Deductive Reasoning technique on comes to the conclusion you were hoping for, agree with him that he made a wise decision. You might even admit that you were thinking the same thing... and he convinced you it was the right thing to do.

Enormous Goals

When Bobby announced that he was going to write a novel by the end of 2007, his family was a little skeptical. Bobby has a demanding job in investment banking. Plus, he's never taken a single writing class. And, to be truthful, the only thing he regularly reads is The Wall Street Journal. So when 2008 rolled around and Bobby hadn't written more than 10 pages, no one was surprised. Except Bobby. He was upset and felt like he'd failed himself. And his dream of becoming a writer went down in flames.

It's not that Bobby CAN'T be a writer. The problem is that he set an unrealistic goal for himself. And when you start out with an unrealistic goal, you are setting yourself up for defeat.

According to Professor Richard Wiseman - leader of a year-long study of goal-setting - you'll have a better chance of reaching a major goal if you break it down into smaller short-term objectives. So instead of a big, broad goal like "I'll write a novel this year," you might plan to write five pages of the novel every week.

The study discovered that men who made goals this way were 22 percent more likely to achieve them.

It also helps to make your goals very specific. For example, instead of saying, "I'll go to the gym three times a week," you would make a commitment to go every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

the 90 percent rule!

What’s wrong with depending on the collective wisdom of the analysts who follow stocks day in and day out? If the majority of analysts say buy, shouldn’t you buy? And when most say sell, shouldn’t you sell (if you already hold the stock)… or at least not buy? If anybody knows whether a stock is good or not, they should, right?

All this makes so much sense. And it would be so easy to do. Which is why I hate to throw the idea to the dogs. But that’s what it fully deserves. And I’ll tell you why.

Analysts are incredibly biased. When they see a cup half-empty, they’re known to shout "buy." Okay, that’s forgivable. But not when they see a cup two-thirds empty. The frightful fact is this. About 40 percent of stocks go down in any given year. And the percentage of stocks that have "sells"? Only five percent. As recently as the 90s, it was two percent.

That means a lot of stocks go down with either a "hold" or "buy" rating.

There’s a way for you to get around all the smoke and mirrors. Look at the trend, not at the tally. Are analysts liking a company more or less? If it’s more, the company is worth a second look. Because as analysts improve their ratings from sell to hold or from hold to buy, they bring more buyers into the fold. And as investors do more buying, the share price goes up. As an investor, that’s what you want to see.

$297 Investment Into A $2,000-A-Week Profit

In the next seven days, 4,589 people will leave their jobs, never go back... and have all the money they will ever need.

I would tell you that these people are "very lucky," but the fact of the matter is that there is no luck involved.

It's happening everywhere. Ordinary people - including people who never finished school - starting their own businesses... and making in the neighborhood of $40,000... $60,000... even $100,000 or more a year.

Even though all these people are "ordinary" in some ways, one thing is certainly "out of the ordinary" about them:

Many used the same secret to start a business

Sending Clear E-Mails

When sending an e-mail to a colleague or co-worker, it is all too easy to mix irrelevant information with important points and questions that need answers. The result can be confusing. Instead, make requests and questions easy to find and read by setting them apart from the rest of the message with bullet points.

So, instead of this...

Hi Frank,

How are you doing? About that Asian market report... what is the deadline? And is the data you sent me last week still valid? I'll be finished with the intro later today. Do you want me to send it to the graphic designer, or would you like to take a look first? By the way, I found some art that is perfect. I'll send that over too.

Try this...

Hi Frank,

I'll be finished with the intro for the Asian market report today. I have some artwork that I think is perfect. I'll send it to you this afternoon. I also have a few questions:

1. Would you like to take a look at the intro before I send it to the graphic designer?

2. What is the deadline for the rest of the report?

3. Is the data you sent last week still valid?

When you number your questions, it allows the other person to reply to them in an easy way:

1. Yes

2. Next Monday 6/2

3. Yes