Hi Folks,
Welcome back to the Hardworking Words newsletter.
In this month’s issue, you’ll learn
* Why Dolphins and Sea Lions are real Americans.
*A head-bobbing truth about marketing your business.
*Why it’s your right, your privilege and your responsibility to
market your quality goods and services as aggressively and
effectively as you can.
I was out this morning stretching my legs when I saw this headline
on the front of the Seattle Times:
“Navy Wants to Use Dolphins, Sea Lions to Defend Our Shores”
Which, of course, made me stop in my tracks, do a little twist and hunker down on my haunches to read more.
Because that’s one heck of a headline. That’s a headline that grabs you by the frontal lobe and makes you go “Whuzzuwah?” just itching to know more.
That’s a headline that would fit just fine right there on the front of the National Enquirer (except for the fact that it’s, you know, true, and that the smiling picture of a dolphin with a camera attached to its fin doesn’t look doctored one bit at all.)
That’s a headline that’s going to have papers ripped out of those
big metal boxes all day long and make the poor paper guy burst a
disk when he empties out the quarter bins in the morning.
And you can just bet the editor of the paper did a full-on dance of
joy when this story came crawling across her desk and she saw that
she was going to get to *be bold* in her headline copy.
Now, a lot of the marketing you see out there suffers from mediocrititis: an unfortunately common disease where lawyers, hack-job ad-folk and ‘fraidy-cat CEOs strive to make their messages as utterly mediocre, uninspiring and un-intriguing as possible.
They cut all the life out of their words. They go at every brochure, press release, web page and ad with a fine-grain belt sander until they’re left with headlines like “Go Further” and warmed over slogans like “The Smarter Choice in Real Estate”–bloodless marketing pap that says little and means less; buzz words and BS phrases that are meant to be clever and cute and to hypnotize consumers with their supposed
profundity.
*But you know what really gets in my craw about all the awful and meaningless marketing out there?*
It’s that there are a lot of good, solid companies doing it. Companies with good products, awesome services and approaches to customer service that are just about godly, but who are absolutely petrified of saying anything compelling or interesting at all.
And that skeezy, snake-oil peddling slimeballs who are hip to salesmanship are eating their lunch.
======================
Quality is Job Two or Three
======================
Every once in a while my buddy Dominic Canterbury and I teach a
Biznik (http://www.Biznik.com) class called “The Top Ten Marketing
Mistakes Made by Small Businesses and How to Avoid Them.”
And about halfway through the class I give this little speech. I say:
“OK. I’m about to say something that’s going to make every one of
you in this room bob your heads up and down like you’re at a Black
Sabbath concert.”
They all laugh and smile a little.
“There are people out there who are *worse* than you are at what you do who are *more successful* doing it.”
And then that whole room of massage therapists and real estate agents and Web wizards and sharp-eyed entrepreneurs stop laughing, stop smiling and start banging their heads slowly as the thumping beat of “Iron Man” plays back behind their eyes.
Because quality is great. Quality is necessary. If you want to stay in business for the long run, keep your customers coming back again and again and earn mountains of referrals, you’ve absolutely got to offer a quality product or service.
But if you’ve got quality and don’t do everything possible and necessary to let people know about it *in a compelling, interesting and selling way*? Well, then you’re going to get beaten and bloodied by the not-as-talented, not-as-ethical folk down the street who are willing to stand up, shout to the heavens and BE BOLD.
Which is really the whole message of today’s newsletter. If you’ve got a quality product or service, you owe it to yourself–and to the folks you want to be your customers–to get out there and use potent and effective marketing. To use the stuff that works, not
that stuff that you *want* to work. To make big promises and do everything humanly possible to keep them. To craft strong offers your prospects just can’t resist. And to kick the plague of mediocrititis for good.
Because I don’t care how many times you’ve curled up with a big bucket of popcorn and “Field of Dreams,” just because you built it, doesn’t mean they’ll come.
Comments? Questions? Harsh invectives? Hit me up at chris (at) haddadink (dot) 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
More
HWW #24
Welcome back to the Hardworking Words Newsletter. It’s our 2 year anniversary here at HWW. I like to think the snow we’ve had here in Seattle has been celebratory. It’s like the skies are giddy at 2 years of marketing wonder and just can’t help but show it.
Err. Or something.
You can check out a bunch of past issues of HWW at http://haddadink.com/blog/?cat=8
And if you’ve got a friend who needs some HWW in her life, tell her to go on over to http://haddadink.com/newsletter.php to sign up.
In today’s big first issue of 2007, you’ll learn:
-The blunt and ugly truth about the marketing/sales divide.
-Why getting a “New pair of glasses” can knock your whole business for a loop.
=================
Fuzzy Wuzzy
=================
Her name was Julie, she sat next to me in my 10th grade homeroom, and she had glasses.
Not the sleek fashion frames of today, either. This was the early 90’s, when glasses were stark and shiny utilitarian things, crafted by angry Eastern Europeans to keep the pretty from getting uppity and to give the homely something to hide behind.
But Julie’s glasses were nice. They looked good on her. They fit her face. They made here look coy and intelligent and made you think that at any moment she might rip her glasses off, tousle her hair and say something sultry and deep out of a daytime soap.
One morning I picked up Julie’s nice glasses, perched them on my nose and let out a little strangled “hoogamagasuh?” of surprise as suddenly the whole world snapped into sharp focus.
Suddenly I could actually *read* the words and formulas up on the blackboard. Suddenly the scowl Mrs. Dadah was giving me for that little strangled “hoogamagasuh?” noise made sense.
Suddenly I could see.
Which was a bit of a shock, because I *thought* I could see before.
I didn’t know I needed glasses. I didn’t know that things were all Fuzzy Wuzzy.
Which, in my experience, is a problem a lot of folks have out in the great big world of business.
So let’s do a little marketing laser surgery here. (Don’t blink. It’ll ruin your night vision and possibly scar you for life.)
If you’ve been swallowing what Madison Avenue has been feeding you all these years, you probably think that advertising and marketing is supposed to entertain.
It’s supposed to be fun and funny and get people talking around the water cooler and win awards and earn you slaps on the back from your golf buddies at just how clever and cool your company is.
==========================
Which is pure and unmitigated fuzzy wuzzy bulls**t.
=========================
Good advertising and marketing (and you can read all about the difference between the two at http://haddadink.com/blog/?p=130) *sells.*
Good advertising and marketing *makes you money.*
Does that mean it can’t be friendly and engaging and maybe even a little entertaining? Not at all. In fact, the more personal you are, the better your marketing will be.
Does that mean you have to be a plaid-coat wearing, cliche spewing, shiny-toothed used car salesman? Hell no. You try something like that and most customers will be diving into the middle of the street to avoid you.
But if you want to create marketing and advertising that actually builds your business and gets you closer to buying that island you’ve always wanted (Johnny Depp has one. Why not you?) you HAVE to:
-Tell your prospect why what you’ve got to offer is amazingly the answer to
-Paint them a picture of what their life is going to be like when they buy your product or service.
-And — and this is the big on — ask for the sale and make it as easy as falling off a shoddy trapeze to buy what you’ve got.
That’s marketing. That’s advertising. That’s how you build a business when you don’t have millions of dollars to drop on national ad buys, wasteful superbowl spots with cats being herded or (and I saw this one in Times Square recently. Check out pics at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bluespf42/343588896/in/photostream/) absurd Willy-Wonka-esque musical Charmin-sponsored Bathrooms.
And if anyone tells you different, well, they’re just using “Fuzzy math.”
Now put on your glasses and get to work.
And if you’ve got a question, hit me up at chris (at) haddadink (dot) 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
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
Michael Max is a heck of an acupuncturist, a world traveller, a fellow bald-headed troubadour and an all around nice guy. He also writes good responses to things. Here’s what he had to say about the most recent HWW newsletter:
And completely agree that much of learning is really about unlearning
something that might have at one time been a perfect solution, but now has
evolved into into a problem. Or simply stagnated past it's pull date and
needs to be done away with. Either way, once something becomes
"infrastructure" it's hard to do away with. Sometimes you just need
perseverance and blasting caps.
I really dig Michael’s comment about “infrastructure” getting in the way.
c
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.
=====================================
Why Marketing and Educating are the Same Thing
=====================================
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.
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 by asking folks to subscribe by emailing
hwwords@aweber.com
Please notify me when my article is used online and off line.
===================================================
More
Hey folks,
I’m hard at work this Saturday morning pumping out HWW 21. Now, I changed list managers recently and as part of the deal all you fine subscribers have to confirm your subscription to the hottest little marketing newsletter in the world. If you didn’t get the confirmation email, or were just too lazy to reply to it, send a blank message to hwwords@aweber.com and the robots will take care of everything.
More
Welcome to the Hard-Working Words Newsletter–-a monthly publication from copywriter and word-mercenary, Chris Haddad. If you’d rather not receive this email, simply send a message to unsubscribe@haddadink.com. The little elves who live in my computer will take care of everything.
September, 2006
Hey folks,
Welcome back to the Hard-Working Words newsletter. I’ve had lots to chew on over the last month (OK, month and change. I’m a couple days late.) Between a four-day trip to Vegas, a raucous celebration of my 29th birthday, visits from friends from the East coast, run ins with terrible and horrifying customer service and a veritable mountain of good old fashioned work for lovely, lovely clients, I feel like I just want to curl up in a field somewhere and take a long, satisfying nap.
But fear not, dear reader, because all that exhausting whackiness has filled my head with metric tons of marketing wonder.
Big Ask, Small Ask
I’ve always had a love/loathe relationship with Las Vegas. At its base level, the whole city is a palace built on the backs of wasted cash and human misery. Plus it’s hot. And I’ve always distrusted buffets.
But still, there’s something awe-inspiring about strolling down the strip. The lights. The sounds. The impossibly cheap prime rib. I tell foreign friends that if they want to really experience the US of A, they should head to Vegas. And I always tell business owners and wannabe copywriters that if you really want to learn how to sell–if you really want to learn how to separate customers from their cash and have them thanking you for the privilege–a few days cavorting around a casino is just about all the education you need.
Why? Because Vegas is the absolute master of the small ask.
The small what?
The small ask. The tiny one. What does a slot machine ask you for? Just one quarter. Just one nickel. Just one little push of that shiny white button. Just 15 more seconds of your time.
In a recent post on the HWW blog I talked about how important it is to actually ask for a response from your customers (I even used a 7th grade dance as an analogy. Go check out the post). But there’s a whole other component to the call-to-action mythology: You can only ask for as much as you’ve earned.
Huh?
Think of it this way: Say you meet a nattily dressed business type at a party and he immediately asks you for a thousand dollars. Would you give it to him? Doubtful. But if that guy put in the time and effort to sit down with you, find out about your wants and needs , lay out how his particular investment plan or product was going to dramatically benefit you and your family, get ringing testimonials from people you trust and give you a powerful guarantee that you’d be well taken care of for trusting him, then I’d say the chance of your cutting a check goes way the heck up.
Why?
Because in the second scenario he earned the right to to ask you for that thousand dollars (whereas in the first one he probably just earned a snigger and a withering stare.)
So here’s the big point.
If you’re asking for something BIG (and big varies depending on the customer. To some folks five bucks is big. To other $5k is nothing at all) you have to earn it. You have to do the old-fashioned marketing work of convincing them that you’re trustworthy, that your product or service does what you say it does and that their buyer’s remorse is going to be kept to an absolute minimum.
And the best way to get to the point where you’re able to do the big ask–the best way to actually earn that special right–is by getting a little Vegas and making a series of smaller asks.
For instance, you could:
-Set up a form on your website that asks for an email address so you can send a customer more valuable and educational information.
-Send out a newsletter that asks your readers for a few minutes of their time in exchange for some useful tips.
-Set up a sales page that asks your customers to tune into a free teleconference on a topic that could have a big effect on their bottom line.
And about a hundred thousand other things that have you developing rapport and trust like our thousand-dollar-richer business man above. And when you’ve done all that homework and hard education? Well then, dear reader, ask away.
If you want to talk about this further, drop me a line at chris@haddadink.com
or pop over to the HWW Blog and leave a comment.
Comments? Questions? Harsh invectives?: chris@haddadink.com.
All content is copyright Chris Haddad, 2006. Feel free to distribute this issue far and wide as long as the entire newsletter is kept intact.
To learn more about Hard-Working Words and the never-ending battle against jargon, visit http://www.haddadink.com or call 206-550-5558.
Chris Haddad is available to speak at your conference or event. From copywriting basics to marketing mastery, Chris can communicate complex concepts in a way that will have both your brain and your cheekbones aching.
More
After reading this month’s HWW Newsletter Friend of Haddonia Beth Yockey passed on this little Brand loving treasure from The Onion:
Three Of Man’s Closest Relationships With Brands
August 16, 2006
PASADENA, CA—Three of the five deepest emotional investments of local resident Ken Bowman are currently Apple, American Apparel, and Starbucks, sources close to the 27-year-old graphic designer said Monday. “American Apparel makes a strong debut this year, surging ahead of [Bowman's girlfriend] Missy [Levenson], Diesel and Tom’s Of Maine,” Bowman’s roommate and marketing consultant Dean Childers said. “Ken’s mother is still a solid number five, but Skechers is down to the seventh spot from number two last year, a drop which may spell wider implications.” Missing from this year’s list were Roomba, Bowman’s cat Pepsi, and Childers himself.
Thanks Beth. And thanks Onion.
More
Welcome to the Hard-Working Words Newsletter–-a monthly publication from copywriter and word-mercenary, Chris Haddad. If you’d rather not receive this email, simply send a message to unsubscribe@haddadink.com. The little elves who live in my computer will take care of everything.
August, 2006
Hey folks,
The Hard Working words blog is just chocked full of copywriting and marketing goodness. Check it at HWW Blog and why not subscribe to the RSS feed while you’re there?
Getting to We
Norwegian people are weird. And so are Swedes. And the movies they make? Even weirder.
For instance:
Last week I curled up on my couch one night and watched a Norwegian/Swedish flick called “Kitchen Stories.” According to IMDB the plot is:
“A scientific observer’s job of observing an old cantakerous single man’s kitchen habits is complicated by his growing friendship with him.”
In other words, a middle aged Swedish guy is assigned to sit in a really high chair and watch what an old Norwegian guy does in his kitchen. And under no circumstances are the middle aged Swedish guy and the old Norwegian guy to, you know, actually talk to each other.
For a foreign film, it’s got the fewest subtitles I’ve ever seen. Vast stretches are just filled with old white men waggling their eyebrows at each other or sharing long, uncomfortable silences
And, of course, the two of them do talk and do become friends and do have long conversations about which side of the road it’s proper to drive on.
And of course I learned a whole bunch about marketing just by watching a couple of old Europeans make eyes at each other.
Oh, come on Chris, this one sounds like a stretch even for you
Oh, I’m not so sure about that.
Here’s the deal:
Theoretically you and customers have a pretty formal relationship. You sit in your high chair, they sit at their kitchen table and the interactions between you are formalized and few. You might send out a marketing piece, they might come buy something, but it’s a shallow relationship, a marriage of convenience and an unemotional one at that. In other words, you really don’t talk.
But to be successful in the marketing eco-sphere of 2006, you’ve got to come down off your high chair, get away from that “Us, Them” formal mentality. To be successful today, you’ve got to create a relationship and a community around your company.
To be Successful today You’ve got to Get to We
Do me a favor: Close your eyes and dig through your brain for those companies that you feel warm and fuzzy about.
Got it? Ok. What makes you feel so great about that company? Is it the quality of the product? Is it the quality of the product? Maybe a little. Is it their awe inspiring customer service? Maybe. But I’m willing to bet that the real cockle-warming, loyalty building factor is this: It’s a company that makes you feel special. It’s a company that makes you feel like you’re part of a community.
It’s a company that makes you think “We”
For instance, I’m a rabid and loyal Mac user. I ditched out of the world of PC’s 4 years ago and haven’t looked back. I read Mac news websites, get into long conversations about the relative merits of Mac OS X versus Windows and, yes, feel just that little bit smug and superior whenever I see a PC user struggling with an un-elegant behemoth of a laptop.
In other words, when I think Apple and the people who use their products, I think “We.” Apple has created a community (or maybe a cult) around their products and that community is key to keeping them strong and powerful in the future.
I used to drive a Volkswagen (now I’m a proud pedestrian) and thought “We” when I thought about VW drivers.
I go to a Yoga Studio and think “We” whenever I look around at all the smiling/grimacing/sweating faces.
Huh. Ok, but how do I get my customers to start thinking “We?” How do I convince them to build a community around my company and become emotionally invested in what I do?
Glad you asked. The keys to “We-ness” are:
A. Giving tremendously awesome customer service.
B. Making your customers feel special and unique.
C. Having an honest to god conversation with them on a regular basis.
Now, the first two are either self-explanatory or huge topics that I don’t have room for here. But that third part is easy. How do you have a regular conversation with your customers?
-You start a blog (and post to it on a regular basis. And actually reply to the comments left by customers or potential customers.)
-You send out a newsletter that’s packed not with self-promotional pap, but with honest-to-goodness useful information.
And you send regular messages–and I don’t really care how you do this–that show just how much you appreciate your customers.
Speaking of which: Have I told you how much I love you, Dear HWW readers? I don’t know that I have. So let me do it now.
I love you.
If you want to talk about this further, drop me a line at chris@haddadink.com
or pop over to the HWW Blog and leave a comment.
Get Strategic
Strategic marketing consultant and friend of Haddonia (he’s got diplomatic immunity in my office), Dominic Canterbury has just launched his very own blog. It’s downright tasty and refreshingly comabtive. Check it out at http://www.dcstrategic.blogspot.com
And that’s all for this month, folks. I gotta go talk to some customers.
Comments? Questions? Harsh invectives?: chris@haddadink.com.
All content is copyright Chris Haddad, 2006. Feel free to distribute this issue far and wide as long as the entire newsletter is kept intact.
To learn more about Hard-Working Words and the never-ending battle against jargon, visit http://www.haddadink.com or call 206-550-5558.
Chris Haddad is available to speak at your conference or event. From copywriting basics to marketing mastery, Chris can communicate complex concepts in a way that will have both your brain and your cheekbones aching.
More
