ProBizTips Newsletter
** ISSUE #258 **
August 29th, 2003
** ProBizTips Top Sponsor ** |
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Hey!
Good Day to you and I hope your day is going well so far! :)
Welcome to all our new subscribers this week and I hope you grow
to love us as so many have ... we couldn't do this without you!
Sigh -- I have been up almost all night with the official launch of the new ProBizTips Premium -- and what a night it was!
As soon as I put out the mailings letting you guys know about the official launch and deadline, someone off-site working on getting my database transferred did it right in the middle of some people signing up (really my fault ... wasn't thinking). I guess I got too excited and wasn't patient enough. :P
Anyhow, it all worked out and quite a few of you signed up. Glad to have you guys aboard! The Premium issue will be going out later this afternoon. Got some "goodies" cooking up ....
For those of you who haven't been reading, ProBizTips is changing -- and I've just launched the "premium" version ... if you join before the weekend is over, you can get in without paying a $20 setup fee and it will be at the low rate of $9.97. If you wait, you'll pay $20 and the fee will be going up.
If you're serious about online business ... you'll join:
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In the meantime ... sit back, relax and enjoy today's issue!
Your Friend,
Diane Hughes
ProBizTips Weekly
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| ProBizTips Feature Article |
Three Sales and Marketing Tools to Boost Profits
by Joel Sussman
The quality of your life, whether you're talking about your professional or personal life, is determined by habits. Success is often the result of simply doing the right things over and over again. In sales and marketing, consistency is one of themost important facets of business survival, and it can make or break you, depending on the nature and quality of your habits.
For example, do you make it a top priority to devote a portion of every day to sales and marketing activities? If you're too caught up in "putting out fires" or running other aspects of your operation, it may be necessary to delegate sales and marketing to others or even hire a freelancer or marketing agency. However, if sales and marketing is your primary or only job -- or if you're a one-person company -- here are a few areas to focus on that can help you generate much more business and bottom-line profits.
Sales letters
If you send out only ten targeted, personalized, compelling salesletters or postcards a day, 5 days a week, you'll be reaching two or three thousand new prospects a year, some of whom will become customers. One way to make the task less time consuming and more productive is to use pre-written sales letter templates. At least one followup by mail or phone will significantly increase your response rate. If opt-in email marketing is an avenue you're considering, putting your sales letters on an autoresponder system is an essential way to streamline the process, increase productivity, and save valuable time.
Referrals
Remember the old adage, "You never know unless you ask"? That principle applies to getting sales referrals. If you're not systematically asking for referrals from every satisfied customer, then you're ignoring a rich, untapped source of new business. If you don't feel comfortable directly asking customers for contact information of friends and relatives -- or if it doesn't seem appropriate -- you can often gain new clients by inserting a referral form, pass-along coupons, or extra business cards in a billing statement or a satisfaction survey. Sometimes the mere "power of suggestion" is enough to prompt clients to give you a referral or two if they like you.
Food for thought: Have you ever met or working with a real estate agent that wore a button or a heart-shaped sticker that says "I love referrals"? I think I saw that same idea adapted to business cards. Obviously that wouldn't be an appropriate approach forall types of professional services and products, but the point is that -- one way or another -- you should plant the idea in your customer's mind that you'd appreciate a referral or two. Delivering "value-added" service and making clients feel important and listened to will put them in a receptive frame of mind for giving you referrals.
Positive Thinking
Few people will argue that your attitudes, core beliefs, and the things you habitually say to yourself impact the actions you take, your level of confidence, and the results you produce. Make it a point to write down motivational quotes or inspirational philosophies in a journal or on index cards whenever you stumble across them. Review them a few times a week and try to incorporate them into your own belief system. When you start looking at your challenges in new and inspiring ways, you're almost certain to be empowered to achieve more, surmount obstacles, and to recognize opportunities that others will overlook.
---------------------------------
About the Author: Joel Sussman is an internet marketer,
a freelance writer, and president of Optimal Marketing
Communications. In 2000, he created MarketingSurvivalKit.com
to help small business owners gain a competitive edge and thrive
in a today's challenging economic climate. Subscribe for free to
marketing tips newsletter: marketingsurvivalkit@GetMoreInfo.net
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BizTips by Dr. Kevin Nunley |
Improve Your Ad in 30 Seconds
Feel like your ad just isn't quite right? Here are a few quickfixes to heighten the effectiveness of your ad:
1. Set them in your targets - The most important way to improvean ad is to tightly target your audience. You will often have more luck placing your ad in a trade publication than in a general newspaper, even if the readership is not as high.
2. Make you ad stand apart from the rest - Most people are constantly bombarded by advertisements, but what makes yours stand out from the rest? The ads we pay attention to are the ones that pertain directly to our most pressing concerns. The ads we notice are the ones that promote a product, service, or idea that can solve our problem, make us feel better, make us richer, or make us feel sexy and loved.
Get attention by targeting your best audience. Then use a headline to shout out a problem or solution your target audience will immediately identify with.
3. Make your ad skim-friendly - Only a small percentage of us start at the beginning of an ad and read every word to the end. If the ad is more than a couple of sentences, we will skip it.
Put your most important phrases in bold. Keep sentences short. Use simple everyday words. Make your paragraphs no longer than three lines. Try to limit yourself to one idea per sentence.
------------------------------
Kevin WRITES your professional copy--web site copy, sales
letters, ads, press release and more! See http://DrNunley.com.
Reach Kevin at kevin@drnunley.com or 801-253-4536.
How to turn your worst e-mail mistakes into gold
by Lisa Sparks
Mistakes. We all make them and no one wants to admit to them. We're all faced with the question, how do we recover after we make the occasional slip-up? When it comes to e-mail marketing there's a huge debate over whether to 'fess up or to make like an ostrich and stick our heads in the sand. I'll offer my solution in four words: Own up to it.
You'll earn respect from your peers and you'll gain more credibility in the process. That is, if you handle it correctly. Here's what I did to recover from a major mistake when I published a recent issue of my e-mail newsletter.
The scenario: I wanted to write an article about avoiding typos. So I did. It was a good article on how to squeeze the most out of your spellcheck software before sending something off to another set of eyes for final proofing.
The mistake: I wrote the introductory paragraph to the newsletter in which the article would appear and I went back to rewrite it. Not once, not twice but three times. And I did this after my whole routine of spellchecking, getting others to proofread and then re-reading it myself. Only one word was misspelled and it was one word too many. I didn't know of the slip-up until two of my subscribers let me know what happened. By then, it was too late to change it. The entire list had my dire mistake. As a copywriter, I should know how to spell the word "speaking."
The solution: I sent out a follow-up e-mail and turned my mistake into a credibility-building lesson. In the follow-up e-mail I told readers how they could avoid the same mistake I did. I owned up to the mistake, told the readers how to avoid it in their practices and thanked them for continuing to be loyal readers. The subject line of the e-mail was "Copy Quickie" and here's what I wrote:
Jill,
I have a quick piece of information to add on to this month's
"Copywriting Secrets." In the introduction to this month's
newsletter I wrote "Speakging of questions, a reader from
Coral Gables . . ." I misspelled "speaking." How embarrassing!
And this in an issue where I extol the virtues of zapping typos.
Let's turn this snafu into something special.
If I can do it, anyone can do it. Here's how to avoid it.
Set a re-write limit. That's right. Tell yourself you'll only
re-write your copy two or three times. (More than that and you
could be asking for the rather unfortunate mistake I just made.)
If you're like me you add small bits of info just before deadline
to give your copy extra oomph. Sit on your hands if you have to,
but don't add anything at the last minute.
By using the technique I just mentioned even the most skillfully
hidden typos will come into the blazing sunlight - before you
hit send!
Thanks for reading. And have a great week.
Lisa Sparks
Integrity Writing, Inc.
The result: I received a flood of e-mails from clients, prospects and friends congratulating me on having the "guts" to send out the follow-up message. I received requests to write more articles and my business kept chugging along without fail. Yes, I had two unsubscribes. And yes I saw an uptick in subscriptions in the weeks afterwards. I chalk that up to the ebb and flow of any e-mail marketing campaign and not to my unfortunate misstep.
Bottom line: Own up to your mistake. If you notice it and other readers notice it, then most likely everyone else on your list has seen it, too. No sense in hiding. Turn the mistake into a lesson for your audience. That way, they see that you're looking out for them and you're not afraid to put your credibility on the line to spare them the trouble of going through the same mistake you just made.
---------------------------------
Lisa Sparks, President and Founder of Integrity Writing, Inc,
specializes in writing business newsletters, brochures,
advertisements, articles, sales letters and press releases for
leading companies in the United States and abroad. Sign up for
her monthly writing tips at http://www.integritywriting.com/.
**We're interested in your comments, questions, and suggestions.
Do you enjoy this ezine? Do you have an Internet marketing or
e-commerce related question? If so, feel free to submit it to us.
We may publish your question and response in the next issue.
ProBizTips Tip of the Week |
3 Clever Ways To Capture An E-mail Address!
by Larry Dotson
1) Get An Opinion
Hold an interactive poll or survey on your web site. Ask your visitors to e-mail you their vote or opinion. You could send them a "thank you" e-mail and also mention a product you're selling. Tell them to subscribe to your e-zine so they can see the results of the poll.
2) Offer An Award
Ask your visitors to sign up for a chance to get a web site award. Have them e-mail you their contact and web site information. You can e-mail the webmaster and tell him/her if they are the winner or not. Include your signature file at the end of your e-mail mentioning a product you sell.
3) Show A Prize
Hold a free contest or sweepstake at your web site. Ask them to give you their contact information to enter. Just get their permission to send them new product offers. You could also announce the winners to them, as well as sending new contest offers.
---------------------------------
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A father and son went fishing one day. Sitting in the boat for a couple of hours gave the young lad plenty of time to think about the world around him. He began to get curious so he asked his father some questions. "Dad, how does this boat float?"
he asked.
The father thought for a moment, then replied, "Don't rightly know, son."
The boy returned to his contemplation, but soon came up with another one,
"How do fish breath underwater?"
Once again the father replied, "Don't rightly know, son."
A little later the boy asked his father, "Why is the sky blue?"
Again, the father replied. "Don't rightly know, son."
Worried he was going to annoy his father, he said,
"Dad, do you mind my asking you all of these questions?"
His father immediately assured him, "Of course not, son.
If you don't ask questions, how will you ever learn anything!"
