• Companies sometimes change ad agencies because one agency can purchase circulation at a slightly lower cost than another. They don’t realize that a copywriter who knows his craft (the experience and skill that induce people to read copy) can reach many times more readers than a copywriter who doesn’t.
• Ads that are designed to look like editorial pages gather far more readers than those that don’t.
• Never put large amounts of white type on a black background (reverse). Some say never do it, period. Study after study has proven that it’s difficult to read.
• Write to the self-interest of the reader rather than treating your audience as a large company or group of people.

It’s more likely, however, that your business will grow organically. You’ll chip away at daily tasks, improve your marketing skills, create better offers over time, and generally plant seeds at a pace you can handle. Then you’ll wait out the growing seasons to reap better rewards and profits each time around. It will all snowball, and you’ll be making great dough in due time.

It’s just not going to happen all at once.

I like to keep a quote from Teddy Roosevelt in mind when I’m building my own business and helping others add to their bottom lines:

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”

Great advice. If you show up every day and put in the necessary work to keep the wheels going, you’ll do fine. And you’ll find that what you have will become better every day (knowledge, resources, contacts, customers) and where you are will improve from week to week.

What’s the ROI of social media? That’s the sixty-four thousand dollar question that marketers and businesses alike are grappling to define. Unfortunately, there is no uniform metric to calculate the financial benefits around human interactions and conversations. They’re not quantifiable. That would be like asking what the ROI of a business card is.

We firmly believe that for a Social Media Business strategy to be ‘successful’ requires a philosophy to be adopted before any discussions are had about platforms, ROI’s, interfaces and the like. Education leading to understanding is the biggest obstacle to begin with. Only then can suitable approaches/strategies be decided upon.

Visualize social media as the vehicle, not the destination. Once this concept is understood we can tailor our approaches to identify the value of specific activities we engage in via social platforms. Have costs decreased or sales increased? Have brand perceptions improved? Are we better equipped to respond to issues that affect brand reputation? These are the types of clearly defined strategies and objectives that allow us to define success.

Check out “4 Unique Approaches for Measuring Social Media ROI” to help validate your social media efforts.

Lead Generation Starts with good design, good content and a measurement strategy

How much time to you spend developing content that drives sales?

Do you have a lead generation system in place?

Do you have a Facebook page and a strategy for converting those “likes” into real business? What about a Pinterest presence?

If you’re like most businesses, you need help with this stuff. Design help. Coding help. Landing page development. Copywriting. And more.

But you’re probably  focused on trade shows,  day-to-day sales, and the latest fire drill.

3rd Street can help you get focused and start executing on socially driven lead generation campaigns and traditional web projects.

Call us today to schedule a needs review or discuss new project ideas.

(562) 435-0333. Ask for Phil, Mike or Lisa. We’d be happy to help out.

HE SAID, SHE SAID…

So, you might remember an issue or so ago, I posted an article about “sleaze-free selling.”

It included a bit about how hype and exclamation points might be less fashionable than ever.

What you didn’t see was a bit I edited out of the original, that said women were especially anti-
hype.

“I hope you don’t mind,” I told the guest author of the piece, “but I cut that part because I don’t
really believe there’s a gender bias.”

Okay, she said.

But after I ran the article, I got two or three notes from other women, spontaneously making the
same claim.

Okay, you say.

But then I got another note from a guy named Zack, who happens to write copy for an email list that’s
65% women and has a female marketing director.

Says Zack…

“I’d like to add that exclamation points are perceived differently between masculine and
feminine audiences. And I think that despite the sober economy, their use in marketing to women is
increasing and will continue to increase as email becomes our primary means of communication. In fact
I’d even say the multiple mark is gaining traction!!!!”

Hmm.

Zack continues…

“More recently I’ve been writing copy for a trucking company to recruit drivers (most of whom
are male). Even long copy ads will not–cannot– feature a single exclamation point. Same economy,
just a different gender focus. The one ad I placed with a single exclamation point didn’t perform as
well.”

Now before you skewer Zack… or slap him on the back and tell him he’s dead on target… let him
say this in his defense…

“You might argue that I’m stereotyping on this one, but direct marketing was built upon “typing” if you
will. Relevance equals response.”

So which is it?

Do women love or hate the exclamation point, excitement, and eye-popping headlines?

Do men?

Here’s my take, and I’m sticking by it:

Personally, I think we’re all more anti-exclamation point these days… both male and female… and
it’s not chromosomal at all.

I say this because only because I can think of times when you were nuts NOT to turn up the volume
a bit.

That might seem crazy, but I distinctly remember a 32-page magalog written by an especially successful
copywriter in the late 1990s.

This guy was not just market savvy, he was also a friend. And in person, very subdued. So you can bet
we were amazed when he turned in his copy with an exclamation point at the end of just about every
sentence.

There were only about a dozen in the whole document that ended a phrase in any other way. Did it flop?
Quite the opposite. It was a gigantic success.

I also remember the same happening during the dotcom boom. The world was on adrenalin and so were
the markets. If you tried to sell without extra excitement, your voice got drowned out.

Today couldn’t be more different.

I’m seeing longer paragraphs, bigger words, and even fewer adjectives. We’ve gone from purple to
grey.

If it’s not gender-based (more women in the market place) are we simply growing up or getting smarter?

I don’t think so.

Rather, we’re in a world where whispers feel safer, more personal, and more reasonable. We need a voice
that sounds like a refuge and a rock.

You don’t think that could change… but just when you’re sure it won’t… count on the possibility
that it could.

http://copywritersroundtable.com

The Psychology of Resistance:

Why Your Buyers Won’t Buy
(And What To Do About It)
By Donnie Bryant

If you’ve been involved in business for any length of time, you’re painfully aware of how challenging it can be to grab the attention of your audience. Even after you have it, it can be hard work to keep it, channel desire toward your offer and seal the deal.

A countless number of thoughts and emotions occupy your potential customers’ minds. Distractions arise constantly. Then there’s the ever-present resistance to “being sold.”

You have to find a way to get around to get around these obstacles.

Understanding the Resistance

Jeffrey Gitomer wrote in The Sales Bible, “People don’t like to be sold but they love to buy.” From your own experience, you know that’s a true statement.

There’s the marketer’s challenge. People want to buy things to satisfy their desires and remove unpleasant aspects of their lives. They just don’t want to be feeling like they’re being “sold.”

Why is that?

Claude Hopkins wrote that “Any apparent effort to sell creates corresponding resistance.” It’s an instinctive reaction. Our brains automatically think “Hey! This guy is trying to benefit at my expense. Well, he’s not gonna get me!”

But selling doesn’t have to be a zero-sum proposition. In fact, everyone should profit from the interaction.

A customer’s sales resistance is related to a psychological phenomenon called reactance. Simply stated, reactance is a person’s subconscious rebellion against what he thinks someone else wants him to do.

We see the other person’s will as a threat to our freedom to decide and act as we please.

When a salesperson asks “how can I help you?” you don’t believe her intention is to help you; you believe she wants to help herself. You imagine that she’s going to do everything in her power to make you purchase what she want to sell, not necessarily what you want to buy.

She will try to make you buy now; you want to make up your mind in your own time.

We want to operate on our own terms, not those of a salesperson (or anyone else). So we resist.

How can you neutralize reactance? Let’s take a look at three psychological leverage points you can use.

Self-Perception

The most important factor in the decision-making process is how people categorize themselves. The way they think about themselves and their place in the world affects everything they do.

They choose products, services and brands because of how they tie into their perception of their present and future selves.

For example, how many millions of dollars does Nike make selling equipment to people who are serious athletes? How many more millions do they earn from those who dream of being athletes?

Affirm the worldview of your audience and associating yourself to the categories they identify with.

Mental/Emotional Inertia

You’ve heard it before, but your message has to enter into the conversation that the potential client is already having inside her mind.

Which do you think will work better: adding another voice to the noisy cafeteria of your client’s mind, or talking with him about something he’s already thinking about, caring about and ready to do something about?

Hitch a ride on a train that’s already in motion. Attach your offering to a motivation that is already driving your prospect. The stronger the motivation, the better.

What are the things that your audience is ecstatic or terrified about? Addressing those issues in a meaningful way makes you the welcome contributor to an important discussion.

Curiosity

Curiosity is one of the strongest of all human incentives. Once it’s been aroused, we can hardly sleep until we satisfy that curiosity.

Have you ever heard of the Zeigarnik effect? It’s another psychological phenomenon that can boost your persuasiveness. When people are given incomplete information, such as a story that is cut off before the end, the brain feels a strong need to “close the loop.”

This is why television shows and movies use cliffhanger endings. The audience just has to know what’s going to happen next.

Make anyone who hears your claim wonder “How is that possible? How can she do that?” Their curiosity will compel them to find out your secret. Instead of chasing clients and customers, now they are coming to you, wanting to hear more.

When customers are seeking you (instead of the other way around), resistance dissolves.

Instead of trying to pound your way through the front gates with hype or pressure tactics, these points of leverage empower you to sneak past the defenses that stand between you and making the sale.

Use them wisely.

http://copywritersroundtable.com

With the recent launch of brand pages it seems obvious to link Google+ business pages to the business listings on Google Places. Consolidating addresses, phone numbers, photos and customer reviews into a centralized profile allows the user to eliminate the need of continuously updating and maintaining multiple sites.

Once both services are merged, customers will be able to search for any business in the world and have a central destination for operating and location information, user reviews and comments, promotional offers, and real-time conversations between customers and owners. The concept and execution of a global, social-local platform, is about to transform the way individuals and businesses interact with social processes.