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16.05 20110

Good-bye Michigan

By: Lee Collins Categories:Thoughts on Life & Liberty

It seems like just yesterday I was moving to Michigan for "advancement opportunities" with EDS. Then my own business took off like a rocket and I left EDS to pursue my own self-created "advancement opportunities". Michigan is the furthest north I have ever been, and it's been interesting enduring the long winters followed by the 3-4 months of beautiful weather. But now with all my stuff packed in a POD and my essentials with me in the Rover I look forward to warmer times, interesting places and people, and whatever wonders the future holds for me. Look me up in Atlanta. Or Dallas. Or San Diego. Or ...? The Roving Marketer starts his journey today. Talk soon! Lee

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19.12 20100

5 Essential Rules For Writing Effective Headlines

By: Lee Collins Categories:Hybrid Marketing

Please get a copy of today’s newspaper. Look at the front cover and tell me what you read... Let me guess, it probably says something like this – Cold Blooded Murder, Sex Scandal, Corruption Charges Laid, Innocent Victims Sued or something equally grizzly and sensational. Do you know why most of the main articles in newspapers start with headlines relating to disasters, murders, sex and corruption? Well, I am going to tell you anyway.  It’s because that’s what sells newspapers.  It attracts people who read newspapers (and sometimes even those who don’t) and they buy it.

The only purpose of a headline is to target the person you want to reach and to sell them on wanting to know more.

If you want proof, look at the magazine racks in the newsagents.  Magazines aimed at young women such as Cleo have articles headlined – “What You Always Wanted To Know about Men, 4 Signs To Look For If He’s Cheating On You, 8 Tips On Looking Great This Summer.” Magazines for homeowners and renovators such as Lifestyle Kitchens and Bathrooms have articles headlined – “12 Tips To Help You Renovate On A Budget, New Fashion Colors For Your Bathroom...”

None of the successful magazines have on their covers, or as headlines, the publishers or the article writer’s names.

Let’s face it, who would buy a magazine or a newspaper with Efficient Publishing Company as the feature story.  Followed by the Ron Smedley and Sarah Bushwhacker reports. So why is it that most businesses keep sticking the company’s name and logo on top of their advertisements or in the first paragraph of everything they do?? Or the other kind of headline that is a favorite with advertising agencies and many so-called experts. This is the “Guess what I am all about – see if I can trick you headline.” These headlines are aimed at testing the reader’s intelligence and ability to guess.  (They are usually the result of endless corporate meetings and advertising agency think tanks.) Here are my 5 Essential rules for writing effective headlines: Rule #1: Headlines should appeal to the readers self interest by promising a benefit.
Will it save them time, make them money, will it make the reader more beautiful or healthy, give them more miles per gallon, or a whiter wash.  What will it do for them??
Rule #2: Don’t worry about the length. 14 word headlines get almost as much readership as three-word headlines.  It is more important to get your message across than worry about the length of the headline. Rule #3: Put news into the headlines. The news can be an improvement of an old product, the announcement of a new product, or a new ay to use an old product.  We are always on the lookout for something “new”.  Something that will benefit us. Rule #4: Never use headlines that are tricky, confusing or incomplete in their message. You are competing with an average of 350 other headlines in a newspaper or magazine.  And most people are busy and read too fast to figure out what you are trying to say.  They will simply move on. Make sure your headlines are easily understood. Rule #5: Never use headlines that need readership of the rest of the advertisement to be understood. You will lose four out of five readers at that point.  Most people are too busy and read too quickly to be bothered to keep on reading to find out what you are trying to say. What it all boils down to is simply this... The main purpose of a headline is to pick out the people who will be most interested in your product or service. Any other approach is wasting their time and your money. Thoughts? Questions? Need help with headlines? Let me know... (I left some room for you below)

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29.10 20100

How to Avoid Losing Advertising Money

By: Lee Collins Categories:Hybrid Marketing

The way you lose advertising money is by not having a plan and letting ad agencies come in and make decisions for you or making decisions on what an ad rep happens to tell you that day. I see it happen every day and this is a big mistake. Many businesses follow what the Yellow Pages advertising rep tells them to do and, quite honestly, most of them don’t know what they’re talking about. Even if you do good ads that get responses, not boring ones that just try to build the image or get your image out there, you still need to have a plan and that’s part of your marketing plan. You can’t just wait around for the next ad rep to come around and tell you how to put together a newsletter or Yellow Page ad or brochure. You’ll be another victim of wasted advertising. They will tell you to do what everybody else is doing. If you look in the Yellow Pages, you’ll see that everyone looks the same and most of them aren’t getting the response they want. That stuff just doesn’t work. Everyone has tried it over and over again, and it fails over and over again. They get nervous if you say, “Let’s put a number in there and check our response”, because it’s not traditional advertising that they’re used to and they also know it will convince you not to continue doing what they asked you to do. They’ll tell you it won’t work. They’ll tell you it’s non-traditional. They’ll tell you anything so you won’t use direct response advertising. Why do they tell you this? Because it will tell you the results of their advertising. The results will show that it doesn’t work. Don’t listen to them. Direct response advertising works. What you don’t want to do is, after it works and they come back to you, don’t spend the time saying, “I told you so.” Don’t convince them that direct response or your Yellow Page ad, newsletter or sales letter worked, because if you succeed in convincing them that it works, they will tell your competitors and try to sell everyone on it so they too will be successful and the ad rep will garner more business. Just tell them, “It’s working okay.” Some places will even raise your prices if your advertising is working better. Just be lukewarm about it. Continue running the ad if it’s working great. They won’t figure it out. They’ll just think you’re crazy and wasting your money because that’s what everyone is doing - running ads without help. So, let them think what they want, but don’t be an advertising victim.

Do you have any advertising horror stories? Share them below...

-- Lee Collins

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14.08 20100

How To Write A Killer Ad

By: Lee Collins Categories:Hybrid Marketing

A lot of folks have been asking me how to write a killer ad. Here’s how you do it in 11 easy steps, and of course this is a Hybrid Marketingtm strategy so it will work equally as well online or offline (Google Adwords, newspaper, Craigslist, etc).

  1. Talk it out first before you write it.
  2. Call a friend, associate or employee and explain your product or service to them. (This will help you get common questions out in the open, and also help with overcoming common objections)
  3. Tape record that call. (Digital recorders work fine if you don't have a tape recorder, guess I show my age haha :-)
  4. Have that conversation transcribed onto paper. (Or into a word processor, then print it out. I find it's easier to work on real paper)
  5. Label every single sentence in there with an - F if it’s a feature (describes what your product or service does), - A for an advantage (over a competitor), and - B for anything that’s a benefit (tell your customers what it does for them).
  6. Write the sentences rated 1-10 by their importance. 1 being the least important and 10 being the best. You will have an F-1, F-2, F-3, etc. B-10 would be the most important benefit.
  7. Combine all features, advantages and benefits ranked 6 or higher and create a headline from there. In other words, if you’ve got a B-10 and B-9, A-10 and A-9, an F-10 and F-9, you want to create your headline out of those. Use the 6-8 benefits to tell your story. Your 6-8 advantages will create interest and your 6-8 features will credentialize your story with details and facts.
  8. Tell them how to order and how to order now.
  9. Reverse the risk from them to you using risk-reversal.
  10. Reward them for immediate action.
  11. Re-write five different versions.
This seems like a lot of work, but it's really not. (Hey, it likely beats the pants off what you're doing now). This is how you will end up with a killer ad. Roll it out small and test it, and when it works, roll it out in a big way. Easy enough for ya? Please comment below. - Lee Collins

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08.08 20100

Sell Them What They Want, Give Them What They Need

By: Lee Collins Categories:Hybrid Marketing

There’s an old saying that you should find a need, fill it, and you’ll get rich. It’s not really true. You need to find a want and fill it. People often do not want what they need. They need to eat right, but they don’t. They need to stop smoking, but they don’t. They want to be more healthy, but they make unhealthy choices. You want to stand out from the crowd. You want to sell them what they want, but give them what they need. Your prospects and customers are people just like you and me and they’re going to respond to messages similar to ones we might respond to.  They’ll get turned off by the same things and exaggerations that we do. Filling their needs and wants typically involves things that we’ve talked about - convenience, long-lasting, time-saving, better-looking, more functional stronger guarantees, better service, etc. We never know which hot button is their buying button. We need to test one feature or benefit against another until we discover what their hot buttons are. Your objective is simply one of matching your marketing mission to the functions of the products or services that your business offers. If your business offers products and services that by design are problem solvers, then you need to use this function in your marketing approach. You want to accentuate the types of problems they may have because your product or service will solve them. Point out a problem in detail and tell just how your product or service is designed to solve that problem. Here’s a couple of examples:

  • A diet program. You don’t want to sell the powder or the vitamin, but you want to sell better confidence, better health, greater attraction, and long life.
  • Toothpaste. You don’t want to sell the fluoride, but you want to sell the whiter teeth, brighter smile, and less trips to the dentist.
How do you uncover their real wants and desires? If you listen, you’ll discover the customer talking back to you in many ways. They might speak directly with you, your employees, the media, other customers. You have to pay attention. You’ll hear more of what they don’t want instead of what they do want. They might say prices are too high or there’s not a big enough selection or the quality isn’t high enough. That’s telling you the opposite of what they really want. However and whatever they say - listen to them! You’ll learn something every time you do. Back to our quote from earlier, the truth is this:

"You can make a living selling people what they need, But you can get RICH selling people what they want"

(excerpt from Lee's "Book of Many Things") How do you fee about this? Comments very welcome... - Lee Collins

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