I was on the phone with my friend and mentor David Garfinkel the other day when he said one of those bone headedly simple things that everyone who tries to sell something *should* know but that almost no one does.
Now, David’s a brilliant copywriter and marketer (and regularly slaps me around and makes me get my head straight on the way marketing *really* works in the real world) . . . but the earth shattering little statement he told me was actually a quote that *he* heard from the late, legendary and justifiably notorious Gary Halbert.
And what Gary said was:
“When All Else Fails, Give People What They Want”
I know, it’s rocket surgery, right?
But I’m always amazed at how many otherwise smart business folks drive themselves *nuts* and get *no results at all* because they’re trying to cram a square offer into a round market (wow, that’s a dirty metaphor) . . . because they’re trying to sell their product or service on the wrong benefits and emotions all together . . . because they have *no idea* what’s actually going on in their market’s head . . . or because they think that just because they think something is *cool* that the public is going to gobble it up like hot and delicious cupcakes.
Remember the Segway? It’s that nifty little two wheeled, gyroscope powered thing-a-magig that Dean Kamen *really really wanted* to transform the way we move around cities . . . but that the public didn’t want at all.
(Note: You can still buy a Segway if you want, but these days it’s mostly just used as a golf cart and as a way for cow-eyed college girls to trick you into signing up for new long distance service in downtown Seattle. I’m actually waiting for the Scientologists to get some and to start chasing people down by the mall.)
Does this mean that you have to throw out your product and start from scratch?
Not necessarily (though if you’ve got something like the Segway, you might consider it.)
But you *do* have to figure out what your market *really* wants and *how what you’ve got to offer gives it to them.
(And the first person to point out how this whole rant keys in to last week’s blog about “If/Then/Why” gets a cookie on me. I mean that literally, you can throw a cookie at me.)
Later.
More
The upside to my fancy new digs at Office Nomads is that I don’t spend nearly as much time alone in my home-office/prison with nothing but a giant goldfish to keep me company.
The downside is that it makes it a hell of a lot easier for mop-topped ski bums to sidle up to my desk and ask for free advice.
An old friend popped by today wondering how the hell he can figure out the perfect market for his product and cut to the core what the heck he’s actually selling.
I gave him some advice that made his eyes light up and his teeth to shine all bright and scary.
It’s phenomenally, almost-stupidly simple advice, and I’m going to share it with you right now.
Here’s what I told him to do:
If you’ve spent any time reading great sales letters and marketing copy, then you’ve probably noticed that one particular open tends to pop up again and again and again. In fact, this is kind of the “fall back”
opening sentence that greats like John Carlton, Gary Halbert, Brian Keith Voiles, David Garfinkel and a raft of others call on when they’re first cracking into a letter and putting their magic “moneyfingers” to work.
What is it?
The classic “If (problem or desire) then this is going to be the most important letter you ever read.”
For instance:
“If you’ve ever wanted to drive a golf ball with the explosive force of a howitzer cannon . . . ”
“If you have any interest at all in putting the real power of online video to tremendously profitable use for your business. . . ”
“If you have high blood pressure and are sick of the drugs, the pain and the fear . . ”
It’s an amazingly versatile way to get your letter going and to mark out to your prospects that what you’re selling is really for them.
But if you turn it on its head, the old “If, Then” open is a phenomenal way to help you figure out what you’re really selling and who you really should be selling it to.
Here’s what I told my ski bum buddy (and what I’m going to tell you too).
If you’re having trouble figuring out your market, your offer or what’s really unique about what you’ve got to sell, just play a little fill in the blank.
“If you’re a (BLANK) who wants to (BLANK), then this will be the most important message you ever read.”
Don’t over think it. Don’t try to get fancy. Just very calmly fill in the blanks.
Fill up a whole page with possibilities. Have fun with it.
And, as you go, be as specific as you can.
Who is this really for?
Who is this really important to?
So saying “If you want to make more money, this will be the most important message you ever read.” won’t get you anywhere. It’s too broad, weak and limp and applies to everybody.
But saying “If you’re a mom who’s sick of leaving your kids with a stranger every morning and wants to make $3,000.00 a month like clockwork while working from home and having plenty of time to give your kids the love and attention they deserve, this will be the most important message you will ever read.” is a heck of a lot better.
The key is to be specific to the point that you come up with something that calls out to your market in a way where they almost have to raise their hands.
Something so powerful that it makes them feel like you walked into a crowded room and just shouted their name.
And now here’s the fun part. Once you’ve got your If/Then statement, write down the why.
Why is this message going to be so important? What amazing result are you going to deliver to them? What does your product do that will make just learning about it so darned valuable to your prospects?
Now, this post really isn’t about writing copy. It’s about getting your product, your target and your position super clear in your mind.
And it’s a little trick that you can use right now to drastically cut down the time it takes to define your market, figure out what your product does and come up with an almost-stupidly powerful message that your target market just can’t resist.
The comment key is right there. What’s your If/Then/Why?
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Hey folks,
Welcome back to the Hard Working Words Newsletter
In today’s big issue, we’ll talk about:
* What I *Didn’t* Learn At the BIG, Big Seminar
* A BIG Big Chance You Have To Save Thousands on Your Next Copy Job
*The BIG Marketing lesson I learned when I pulled up a front row seat at curbside “Pigeon Fight.”
=======================
What I *Didn’t* Learn At The Big Seminar
=======================
A few weeks back I attended my very first Armand Morin’s Big Seminar. Check out the Hard Working Words Blog at http://haddadink.com/blog/?p=172 to find out what I learned–and what I wish I had learned–in my 3 action-packed days in Atlanta.
===============================
Here’s How You Can Save *Thousands* On Hard Hitting and Profitable Direct Marketing Copy From Chris Haddad — Condo Sale!
===============================
So as I’m writing this my heart is racing, my palms are sweaty and I feel like I’m going to pass out or spontaneously compose an epic poem. Why? Did I finally hit puberty? Was there something in my Rice Chex?
Nope.
It’s because just a few minutes ago I signed the paperwork on my very first horribly overpriced Seattle condo. If you live in Seattle (or have visited this fine city) you know that condos here are lacquered in solid gold and often require donation of body parts and/or unborn children (andl/or body parts of unborn children, which is sort of creepy) in order to buy.
So to free up some liquid cash to help cover the ridiculous closing costs, I’m having my first ever Haddad Ink. Word Sale. If you’ve got a sales letter, autoresponders, name suck page or other piece of copy you’re ready to have done, call me up now (and I mean right now) at 206-550-5558. For the first 5 clients who call I’ll offer the low, low (ridiculously low) price of just $5,500.00 for a sales letter and order form and a 20% discount off any other work you bring my way.
Call now. The floodgates are open and there are really only so many jobs I can take on.
My triple lindy into the housing market is your gain. 206-550-5558 or chris@haddadink.com.
=========
Is Your Business Stuck In A Pigeon Fight?
=========
I was walking home from breakfast yesterday when I saw two burly city pigeons pecking the heck out of each other on the sidewalk in front of me. The fight was fast and brutal. I recoiled at the *fwoop, fwoop* sounds as these two (forgive me) feather-weights battered each other with their wings and stabbed at each other’s jugulars with their sharp pigeon beaks. If I were a small, pigeon-loving child I’m sure it would have made me cry.
As I watched these gray-mottled warriors lunge at each other for round 2, I wondered, what was it that could have caused such an epic pigeon prize fight? An abandoned piece of rustic artesian bread? The affections of a particularly comely female pigeon? The sad realization that these pigeons were, err, pigeons, doomed to live short and meaningless pigeon lives?
I mean, there had to be a good reason that these pigeons were suddenly going for the throat. . .didn’t there? Didn’t there?
Finally the fight broke off and both pigeons (the gray one on the left and the . . .err . . .gray one on the right) launched themselves back up into the air and settled onto the awning of the supermarket. I caught the eye of one of them as he flapped his way up and what I saw there explained everything.
*Because in the eyes of that pigeon I saw nothing but simple, frustrated confusion.*
That pigeon had *no idea* why it had just been in a fight. It had *no idea* what it had just put its life on the line for. And it had *no idea* what it was going to do to make sure it never got into a situation like that again.
*Which is sort of like what a lot of businesses do with their marketing.*
They go hard charging into a market and peck at their competitors throats, fighting to the death over a few scraps of business. Money’s spent. Blood is drawn and when all is said and done, all you’ve got is two beat up and confused pigeons struggling to stay in business.
*Which to my way of thinking, is kind of dumb.*
Over on the Biznik Manifesto (http://biznik.com/about/manifesto.html) I wrote that “Competition is an old myth made up by old men with old ideas and no imagination. There’s work out there–big gobs of it–plenty to make all of us fat and happy and (if we eat too much) probably a little tired.”
Which I really feel like extends out to business in general. I mean, sure, Coke and Pepsi go to war on the airwaves every night, spending huge gobs of money in a desperate fight for market share.
But smart business folks, agile business folks and successful business folks who don’t have million dollar ad budgets know that if you want to *win* a pigeon fight, you’ve got to find a way to avoid getting into that pigeon fight in the first place.
How?
By doing the not-so-hard work of positioning your business, finding a broad niche to explore and realizing that the next guy down the power line isn’t a *threat* to your business, he’s a potential partner who can help you get your fill of all the day old bread you can eat.
(And if that’s not a weirdly stretched metaphor, I don’t know what is.)
That’s it for now folks. You can check out the HWW archives lovingly kept on the HWW Blog (http://www.haddadink.com/blog). And if you need to know more about me, head on over to Haddadink.com.
More
Hey folks,
Welcome back to the Hardworking Words Newsletter, a monthly
publication form Direct Response Copywriter and Marketing Wonk
Chris Haddad. To find out more about Chris, his never-ending battle
against jargon and the perturbing power of his marketing prose,
visit http://www.haddadink.com
In today’s big issue you’ll learn:
* The dangers of blindly diving into new technology.
* How to ride the wave of the evolving web without having it crash
in on you.
===============================
My Cousin Lost A Finger — And Taught Me All About Web 2.0!
===============================
“WHRRRRRR CHUG CHUG WHRMMMMMMM.” The big brown door groaned out a
protest as our brand-spanking-new garage door opener *yanked* it up
and along its track to rest quietly above our heads.
This was winter in the 80’s–maybe 1985–and my aunt, uncle and
cousins had come over on a Sunday to play trivial pursuit, get
sugar-high on peanut butter bars and listen to my dad tell weird
stories about his weird life and that weird time he *swears* he was
abducted by mustache-wearing aliens.
My cousin Michelle and I weren’t having it though. We’d heard all
the weird stories before and didn’t know enough about Reaganomics
to be much use at trivia. So we scarfed down some sugary goodness
and snuck downstairs to play with Mom and Dad’s new toy.
“Whoa, cool!” Michelle said when she saw it for the first time. And
I had to agree, the shiny new electric garage door opener *was*
cool. It was all shiny metal, blue plastic and grease.
*And it was just begging us to play with it.*
“Here, let me show you.” I said in my little eight-year-old voice.
I clambered up onto a rickety chair and stretched up on my tippy
toes to push the button. I had to push hard to get the bright red
light to flash, but when I did the whole room rumbled.
“WHRRRRRR CHUG CHUG WHRMMMMMMM” our life-changing new technology
went. It gave us a clear view of the snowy street and sent us both
into ecstatic fits.
“WOW!! AWESOME! LET ME, LET ME!,” Michelle screamed amidst the
giggles. For the next half hour we switched off back and forth. We
opened and closed and opened and closed and opened and closed the
door, balancing precariously on that wobbly little chair every time.
And then we stopped.
Michelle was stretching up and pushing hard on the button again
when her foot slipped. She tumbled and gave a strangled shout.
*And then I saw the blood.*
Michelle was crying from shock than from pain. I ran upstairs to
get my Uncle and wondered why I hadn’t noticed the 12-inch rotary
saw blade propped up against the wall right under our new “toy.”
The finger had come off clean just under the knuckle closest to the
fingernail. My dad searched around franticly for it, packed it in
ice and rushed off in his big brown Lincoln Town Car to meet up
with Michelle and her dad at the hospital. I stayed home with mom
and stared at the bloody saw blade, wondering again how we managed
to miss the dang thing.
=================================
“Alright, Haddad. You’ve freaked us out, now what the hell does
this have to do with Web 2.0?”
=================================
Good question.
Now I *love* podcasting, blogging, web video, web audio, dynamic
web pages, social networking, Pay-Per-Click and all the other
symptoms of the evolving web.
But sometimes I think business folks get so caught up in the shiny
new technology that they lose sight of the powerful basics.
And as Michelle and I (OK, mostly Michelle) learned way back in
‘85, getting hypnotized by “radical new technology” and ignoring
the fundamental truths about your environment (like a big honking
saw blade right underneath you) can be more than a little bit
dangerous.
=================================
So here’s the real message of today’s newsletter.
=================================
If you’re in business today you *need* to a part of the web. You
*need* to be aware of the radical changes that are happening
online. And you *need* to make some hard choices about how you’re
going to take advantage of the opportunities to start *real*
conversations with your customers and sell your business like never
before.
But you also *need* to realize that the medium is *not* the message
and that *what* you say to your audience is always going to be more
important than *how* you say it.
Which means coming up with a strong offer, developing a powerful
Unique Selling Proposition and laying out in no uncertain terms the
*reasons why* your customers should work with you.
Oh, and since you’re undoubtedly dying to know, the good doctors at
that hospital in Massachusetts managed to put my poor cousin back
together again and she has just a tiny little scar to remind her of
her run in with the garage door opener and the saw blade.
Comments? Questions? Harsh Invectives? Head on over to the Hard
Working Words Blog (http://www.haddadink.com/blog) or email me at
chris (at) haddadink.com
=======================================
About This Newsletter and Your Subscription
=======================================
©2007 Haddad Ink. Copywriting Services. All Rights Reserved.
If you like this article
=======================
Feel fre*e to share it with your own list, post it on
your site, post it on your blog, or add it to your
autoresponder. As long as you leave it intact and
don’t alter it in anyway. All links must remain
in the article.
And give me a shout out asking folks to subscribe by emailing
hwwords@aweber.com
Please notify me when my article is used online and off line.
===================================================
Haddad Ink., 230 14th Ave. E., #302, Seattle, WA 98112, USA
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Hey folks,
First off, happy new years. I hope your 2006 kicked all sorts of ass, and if it didn’t, well, you get to start all over again.
I’m just back to the desk and shaking the cobwebs off my fingers after a wild and whacky holiday East Coast tour. I hit New York City, New Haven Connecticut (which is charming no matter what the crime statistics say) and ended up celebrating Christmas back in Massachusetts.
Oh, and I also got to go to a funeral and learn a little marketing wisdom along the way.
You see, the Friday before Christmas, my great Aunt Loretta died. She was a sweet 95-year-old lady with a distrust of men and an irrational love of her stuffed kitten, “Baby.” And she passed of nothing much more than living too much life for her old body to take.
The funeral was on Tuesday. My mom and I got to the church a little early and while shuffling heel to heel in the lobby I looked up and saw a sign that said “Pro-Life Bulletin Board.”
Now, I don’t want to get political here, but reading through the stuff that people had tacked up on that board taught me something fierce about marketing, and direct response marketing in particular.
Because you see, right there in the middle of that board somebody had tacked up a 4 page fundraising letter for a pro-life cause.
Just think about that for a second. Somebody had gotten a piece of “Junk mail” at their house, had read it, and had been so affected by it that they’d brought it to church with them on Sunday and tacked it up for the world to see.
Why?
Because it was good. Damned good. I read through ever word of that letter and just marveled at the craft. Whoever wrote it was a master. He told a story, used sharp language (the term “Baby killer” popped up several times), asked questions, quoted statistics and–and here’s the key bit–offended the living hell out of me.
And that’s a good thing.
Why?
Because I’m a 29-year old Northwest, yoga-doing, dance-going, church-avoiding liberal.
I’m NOT the market that letter was aimed at. I’m not the market that’s EVER going to send money to this particular cause. And the copywriter who wrote that letter? He knows that. And he also knows this little pearl of wisdom you should add to your daily affirmations: “If you’re not offending someone, you’re doing it wrong.”
When you’re selling something, you’re target market matters, and just about everyone else can go to hell.
Yea, I know, it’s 2007. I know we’re supposed to be PC and inclusive and take great pains not to get anyone’s feathers ruffled.
But when it comes to direct response marketing that’s bull. Your marketing isn’t public service and it isn’t art. It’s sales. Sales that, if you target well enough, the folks you might offend will never even see. But your target? The folks you want to get into the heads and the hearts of? The more sharp and direct and powerful your prose–the more tuned and focused it is to their way of thinking of talking and living–the more they’ll respond.
–
Quick Aside: I did find one thing to criticize in that particular letter. It was damned well written, but it read overwhelmingly mail and was “signed” by a woman. I don’t think that will tank the response or anything, but it stuck in my craw a bit.
Oh, and if you’re offended by this blog post (I can’t see why you would be, but it’s amazing what gets people’s gander up) . . . well . . .you know how I feel about that.
More
Hey folks,
Welcome back to the Hardworking words newsletter. Massive changes have landed at HWW headquarters. In fact, if you pop over to haddadink.com, you’ll see that things are a bit, err, different than they were a week ago.
In today’s big final issue of 2006 you’ll learn:
-The difference between werwolves and armadillos.
-Why customers “armoring up” is actually good for your sales.
===============================
Is your customer an Armadillo?
===============================
Last weekend I got attacked by an armadillo.
He was a vicious, six-year-old, blonde haired armadillo who–earlier in the night–had claimed to be a werewolf. He had howled and screeched and pounced and gnashed his werewolf teeth and then howled and howled some more.
But now he was an armadillo. And a tough one at that. He balled himself up tight, pulled his limbs in and tucked his head into an invulnerable armadillo ball. He was pillow-proof, this armadillo, laughing off puffy strikes from other kids and adult guests alike as his tough nine-banded armadillo hide kept him safe and sound and . . .err. . . portable.
Because, you see, this kid was so committed to his armadillo-ness–so committed to keeping himself safe and tough–that he stayed in his little ball even as I tucked him football-like under my arm and ran an end run over to his smirking and bemused mom.
To one degree or another, your customers are like armadillos. (And sometimes they’re like six-year-old kids who pretend to be armadillos too.)
You see every customer has a soft underbelly. An emotional core that marketing folks, salesmen, mother-in-laws and schoolyard bullies are all too eager to take advantage of.
And so customers all learn to armor up, toughen their hearts and get just a wee bit cynical.
It’s like a strange little tremor sense. As soon as most folks see a plaid salesman’s coat, a string of 17 exclamation points or a smiling moon-faced girl on a corner with a clipboard, they go into armadillo mode.
They curl up. They scritch and scratch their claws. And they get ready to say “NO NO NO” to whatever outlandish offer or outrageous smarmy deal is about to come their way.
=================================
But Chris, as ethical marketers with honest-to-goodness good products and services to sell, how do we get customers . . . err. . . unball?
=================================
Good question. Here’s the deal. Every day, every single one of your customers is bombarded by a million zillion sales messages.
Billboards, Spam, TV ads, Magazine spreads, Myspace smarm, Banners, Beggars, Sheisters and more all desperately trying to separate them from their hard-earned cash.
So how do you cut through the haze and get your customers to let you get in close?
Easy.
Be Honest.
===============
Huzzuhwazzuhuh?
===============
Yea, yea, I know. Honesty in marketing is like fiscal responsibility in the military.
But being honest with your customers–telling them that you want to sell them something, showing them all the pros and *even some of the cons* of what you’ve got to offer and talking like an honest to god human being–is the surest and quickest path to getting your customers to lower their shields, start and actual conversation and make an honest to god sale.
==============================================================
Wait a sec. You want us to talk about the CONS of what we’ve got? Are you nuts?
==============================================================
Maybe a little. But I swear to you it works.
Nobody trusts perfection. Nobody trusts an offer that looks to good to be true. And everyone is always looking for the catch.
Now, I’m not saying you should celebrate the fact that your new zippity doo dad tends to light small children on fire. If you’ve got that kind of flaw, you should pull it off the market and maybe rethink your whole business strategy.
But if you’ve got warts, go ahead and admit it. Put them on display.
I promise if you do, you’ll have more customers rolling your way
======================================
See you next month, folks. In the meantime pop on by the Hardworking words Blog (it’s going through some transitions, but will hopefully be working fine when you get this) at http://www.haddadink.com/blog.
Give the gift of marketing know-how this Holiday season. Tell your friends to subscribe to the Hardworking Words newsletter at http://www.haddadink.com/newsletter.php
I’m currently filling up my schedule for February of 2007. Got a copywriting and marketing project that needs some Haddonic attitude? Visit http://www.haddadink.com and tell me all about it.
=======================================
About This Newsletter and Your Subscription
=======================================
©2006 Haddad Ink. Copywriting Services. All Rights Reserved.
If you like this article
=======================
Feel fre*e to share it with your own list, post it on
your site, post it on your blog, or add it to your
autoresponder. As long as you leave it intact and
don’t alter it in anyway. All links must remain
in the article.
And give me a shout out asking folks to subscribe by emailing
hwwords@aweber.com
Please notify me when my article is used online and off line.
===================================================
Haddad Ink., 230 14th Ave. E., #302, Seattle, WA 98112, USA
To unsubscribe or change subscriber options visit:
http://www.aweber.com/z/r/?zMzMbAyctMysbAxs7KxM
More
Hey folks,
Welcome back to the Hardworking Words newsletter (now in beautiful black and white!). It’s been almost two years since I launched this crazy thing. In all that time we’ve laughed, we’ve cried and hopefully we’ve learned something. If you’re feeling nostalgic (or just want to fill your brain with marketing goodness) check out the HWW archive at http://haddadink.com/newsletter/.
In today’s issue you’ll learn the answers to:
-What does Married with Children’s Al Bundy know about target marketing that most business people don’t?
-What deadly emotion can stop your sales in their tracks and send your marketing plan right to its room without any supper?
===============================
Al Bundy Sold Women’s Shoes
===============================
When I was a kid, one of my favorite TV shows was “Married with Children.”
Ever Sunday night, my dad, my brother and I would plop down on the couch and watch the Bundy clan go through their white trash ballet. It was TV for the rest of us–the folks who didn’t fit the Cosby mold and who couldn’t even fathom why those “Family Ties” were so damned strong.
“Married” was smart in its utter idiocy. And Ed O’Neil, as washed up football player and shoe salesman Al Bundy, taught me more about the sales game than any five books on the subject.
Because you see, Al Bundy was a *bad* salesman. He hectored his customers, insulted them to their faces and got horrible shivers every time he had to help a less-than-svelte lady try on a new pair of pumps.
But Al still managed to keep his family in ramen noodles and beer.
Why?
Because Al Bundy Sold *Women’s* Shoes.
And because Al Bundy knew what 90% of marketers out there don’t know. Al Bundy knew that he was *not* his target market.
And odds are, neither are you.
==================
“But *I* Don’t Like That. ”
==================
Good copy–and good marketing in general–is ego-less.
Now, I’m not saying you personally have to be some sort of detached zen master.
But when you’re putting together your marketing, writing up your sales letter or preparing an email blast (or even if you’re paying someone to do it for you), you’ve got to remember that what you personally like and what you’d personally respond to is about as important as what color socks Neil Armstrong wore on the moon.
Because you are not your target market any more than Al Bundy was an overweight woman in the Chicago burbs.
“But Chris, I’m not a washed-up 40-year-old ex-high-school-football star selling women’s shoes! I’m a yogi selling yoga stuff! I’m a hip 30 year old massage therapist selling to hip 30 year olds! I’m a tech executive selling to technology companies! I AM My target market! Aren’t I?”
Eh. You’d think so, wouldn’t you? But even if you fit the demographic (and demographics aren’t worth much in my opinion) or psychographic profile of your target to a key, you still aren’t them.
Why?
Because you know too much. You know too much about the product. You know too much about all the hard work you’ve done building your business.
And because as a business owner or a marketer your ego is right there in the middle of your head second guessing every decision you make and encouraging you to put out marketing materials that you think *should* work as opposed to what *does* work. And when you’ve got that kind of attitude rolling around in your head–when you let your ego drive the bus–you’re heading for a time-consuming and costly business breakdown.
So here’s your prescription:
Next time you’re planning a campaign, writing a marketing piece or just looking over a design or some copy an outside vendor put together for, I want you to close your eyes right there at your desk, take a deep meditative breath and say “Al Bundy Sold Women’s Shoes.” Repeat it to yourself over and over like a mantra. Let it sink in deep.
Then think about your actual target market. Paint a picture of them in your head. Get it sharp, from the way they stand, to the worries bouncing around their brains to that little scar on their left cheek.
And then–and only then, after your ego has been sent to its room without any supper–can you get to work.
If you want to talk about this more, shoot me a line at chris@haddadink.com
======================================
See you next month, folks. In the meantime pop on by the Hard
Working Words Blog at http://www.haddadink.com/blog or listen to my
dulcet tones at the Biznik Podcast at
http://www.biznik.com/podcasts. And keep an eye out for my new
blog, podcastmarketingtricks.com, launching sometime next week.
=======================================
About This Newsletter and Your Subscription
=======================================
©2006 Haddad Ink. Copywriting Services. All Rights Reserved.
If you like this article
=======================
Feel fre*e to share it with your own list, post it on
your site, post it on your blog, or add it to your
autoresponder. As long as you leave it intact and
don’t alter it in anyway. All links must remain
in the article.
And give me a shout out asking folks to subscribe by emailing
hwwords@aweber.com
Please notify me when my article is used online and off line.
===================================================
More
Hey folks,
Welcome to the all new, all different HardWorking Words Newsletter.
It’s leaner. It’s meaner. It’s . . .uh . . .just plain text in an
email and a lot less likely to get kiboshed by overambitious spam
blockers.
Got a friend who wants to subscribe? Have them send an email to
hwwords@aweber.com or point them towards
http://www.haddadink.com/newsletter.
In today’s big issue (number 21 for those of us who are counting),
I’ll dig around in the marketing toy trunk and talk about teaching
old customers new tricks.
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Why Marketing and Educating are the Same Thing
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My keyboard is like some weird sort of alien steering device.
People who pop by HWW central and try and type something usually
get this glazed and confused look on their faces. Very occasionally
they pass out. And that’s always hard to explain.
You see, a few years ago I was suffering from horrible and
debilitating tendonitis. Using my mouse was like being repeatedly
bit on the wrist by an overzealous ferret. And trying to type was a
plodding and painful affair that usually ended with me icing my
wrists and trying to peck out prose with my nose.
=====================================
So I decided to do something about it.
=====================================
First, I bought my weird alien steering device keyboard (made by
the fine folks at Kinesis, who make damned good products and do
damned bad marketing.) And second, I decided to learn how to type
in the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard Layout.
Now, for those of you who aren’t nearly the geek I am, Dvorak is a
layout developed back in 1936 by a guy named August Dvorak. It’s a
lot more efficient and comfortable than QWERTY and makes your
fingers “travel” less as you type away. Less travel. Less work.
Less pain. Sounded good to me.
So I downloaded a typing tutor (it had a Viking. I called him the
typing Viking) and got to work learning how to write all over again.
*And within about five minutes I had an aneurism and collapsed into
a frothing-at-the-mouth mess on my office floor.*
Because, you see, I wasn’t just trying to learn something new, I
was trying to *unlearn* something old. I’d spent more than 20
years tick-ticking away on QWERTY boards, and as I tried to follow
along to the typing Viking’s instructions, I could literally feel
the gears in my head grinding up against each other, sparks and
smoke coming off, pathways in my brain resisting every stroke.
Sitting there with my keyboard staring up at me, I think I got a tiny,
tiny taste of what it’s like for stroke victims who have to
learn how to talk again.
==============================================================
SO, WHY AM I SPENDING SO MUCH TIME TELLING YOU ABOUT MY TYPING
HABITS?
==============================================================
Oh, come on, dear readers. You’re a smart bunch. I bet you’ve
already figured out. When you get right down to it, good marketing
is educating. You need to *teach* prospective customers why it
is that your product or service is the one that’s going to bring
the biggest benefit to their lives.
And what’s the biggest obstacle to teaching your customers
something new? You got it. All that old stuff–all those old ways
of doing things, old ways of thinking about things and
misconceptions–that are already clogging up their heads.
This is why cool technologies like RSS, podcasting. . . uh. . cars
. . . take a while to catch hold. To the technorati and the geek
set the big benefits are obvious. But everybody else already has it
set in their head how they get news and listen to the radio and get
across town.
If you’ve got a product that challenges the way people
have done things before, you’ve got do all the hard work of teaching
your customers what’s so great about it and hold their sweaty hands
as they go through the gear grinding phase of taking all that cobwebby old
stuff out of their brains and replacing it with your shiny, new and
hopefully better way of doing things.
The upside? Once you’ve done the edu-ma-cating, you’ve probably got
a customer for a good long time (I’ll never go back to QWERTY.) The
bad news? Teaching your customers takes time, effort, multiple
hits, long copy and a willingness to stick your mud and believe in
what you’ve got to offer through all the objections, naysays and
curmudgeonly grunts.
Fun, huh?
If you want to talk about this more, shoot me a line at chris@haddadink.com
======================================
See you next month, folks. In the meantime pop on by the Hard
Working Words Blog at http://www.haddadink.com/blog or listen to my
dulcet tones at the Biznik Podcast at
http://www.biznik.com/podcasts. And keep an eye out for my new
blog, podcastmarketingtricks.com, launching sometime next week.
=======================================
About This Newsletter and Your Subscription
=======================================
©2006 Haddad Ink. Copywriting Services. All Rights Reserved.
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More
So unless you’ve been living under a rock (and a rock without internet access at that) you’ve undoubtedly heard that the wunderkinds at Google have decided to buy up internet sensation YouTube for 1.57 Billion in stock.
And you gotta wonder, why are those geniuses in California shelling out so much scratch for a site that hasn’t–and legally almost can’t–make money?
Well, one of my new Haddadisms is “Money can’t buy you success, only opportunity.”
And what Google is buying here is the opportunity to lead the charge as the internet becomes more and more of a video medium.
A while back I harped on about how happy I was that the 30 second commercial spot is dying a quick death. And I’m still happy about that. In fact I’m dancing right now in my chair (as I watch a downloaded copy of Battlestar Galactica commercial free).
But video is powerful.
And video that’s controlled by the user–video that a consumer can turn on and off as she wants and skip through for the content she really wants, whenever and wherever she wants is going to be one of the most powerful sales tools to come along in decades.
Google knows this. Google undoubtedly has a plan that’s going to be as powerful and revolutionary to the way direct marketers (and if you’re doing business in 2006, you should be a direct marketer) work as good old Adsense.
And personally I can’t wait to see what it is.
Later skaters.
More
Just heard a great quote from Phoebe–one of the lovely ladies behind the Nontourage Podcast had a great insight into why they’re decked out with so much delectable schwag
She says: “We’re marketing challenged, we’re just really good at shopping.”
More
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