MARKETING CONSULTANT

Sales Copywriter

Q uestion: What does a sales copywriter do?

Answer: Wherever you advertise in print, a direct response copywriter will sell more than your present advert does.

Question: How does he do this?

By knowing what makes people buy – It is not magic! – It is by long study of salesmanship in print.

First: – The copywriter knows the keys to selling. The need for a headline to grab your attention and make you read – then the emotions that make you buy. How ot make people trust you. How to prove the value of what you have to sell, and how to ask for the sale.

Second: - Copywriting involves knowing many small details that are proven by testing to improve the conversion, and also the construction of many successful adverts, sales letters and other forms of sales in print.

Third: – A good sales copywriter knows how to weave the details into a story. How to use simple language that flows. How to suck you into a slippery slope that endsd with the sale.

A lot of new copywriters know the first. The experienced ones spend a lot of money to make sure they keep up with the second. Greate copywriters are good story tellers, and that is as much of an art as a science. The copy needs to answer a readers question, just as it enters his head. To understand his readers mindset.

All businesses should test copywriters because a single character can even double the sales, but also the business must listen too. Because the copywriter will know how to extract the information needed to make good copy, and will suggest how to construct an offer that sells.

I can’t promise I will be avalailable but I am passionate about sales copy, so contact me if you would like to discuss.

I now spend most of my time on my own marketing projects.

I spent much of my early career as a consultant, and every now and then do consulting too, particularly in the areas of marketing, business planning and internet marketing.

And I have to say, I understand why consultants get a bad name. Small business has a tough enough time, without having to pay a fortune for rehashed wisdom that they could have found in any book.

The old adage of charging £$hundreds a day to borrow your watch to tell you the time is not far from the truth. I have FREQUENTLY found errors in other consultants standard reports where they have not even changed the LAST clients name!

So what can you expect of a MARKETING CONSULTANT , what can you expect them to do?

If it is the first contact with them, the answer is you probably need a marketing audit. Most people asssume that marketing is only about finding new sales avenues, but the audit should be far more than that.

The consultant should look at your market, your offer and your sales process – looking all the way from contact to sale.

First – who are the customers you are trying to reach, and what problem do you solve for them.

Where is your hungry crowd?

You may sell double glazing for example, but the problem you solve can be anything from noise proofing because of an airport close by, energy efficiency to reduce the cost off bills, or exterior design – making the house look better.

Search for evidence of people searching for solutions to all of these problems. Google research tools are a great way to find out how many people actually want what you sell, not just the product but also the problem.

Second – why should the customer buy from you to solve the problem not anyone else ?

A good marketing consultant wont let you off the hook with this. They will force you to answer, and you must have an answer – it could be the offer you make, the guarantee you give, the times you trade, the testimonials you have or many others – you must develop your answer to this.

Third – how can you reach your hungry market?

The key is to find the most target means available via the lines of least resistance. A good consultant will have a feel to know whether, google local adwords, SEO, joint ventures, viral methods, flyers, direct mail and so on to name but a few, are appropriate for your business, and sadly many of them pay so little for their own education that the knowledge they give you is WAY behind.

Fourth – how can you get them to buy

Conversion is everything, and yet it is the least addressed problem. Simple things can often double sales – a change of a headline, a squeeze page. Many details of adverts or websites help – conversion strategy is the easiest payrise you can get if a headline can multiply sales by ten.

Fifth- how can you get them to buy more

A simple upsell when they agree to buy, can make a massive difference to sales. So combination offers and upsells are vital. You can upsell several times in the same process.

Last – but not least – how can you get them to come back more often?

It is ten times easier to sell to those who already know you – so what are you doing to get prospects to sign, and customers to come back?

A marketing consultant will look at all of these factors and conduct an audit to know where the time is best spent. At very least you should expect an action list, the top three areas to concentrate focus on, and a couple of suggestions for things you can do right now.

And how do you know how to choose? – talk to them!! -

A good marketing consultant will give you a couple of GOOD ideas free. Marketers know the thought process: if that is what they give for free, just think what they will deliver If I pay them!

A good consultant can do that rapid fire audit to find at least a couple of immediate avenues for improvement, that can be giving results whilst a deeper study can plan the true way forward.

The point is – beyond all that you have to decide what business you are really in, and it might not be what you think.

Rolex is in the luxury business, not the Jewellery business. And even when that is established, there are a lot of different business models to choose from in any sector,.

For example if you have a huge list of buyers in your business, you become a direct marketer. You can offer OTHER PEOPLES products in exchange for a commission.. If you don’t have a list it should become a priority WHATEVER business you are in.

Freelance Copywriter

Copywriting is my passion, so very now and then I act as a freelance copywriter

I have started and owned a lot of businesses, and Ever since I discovered a handful of words could make a massive difference to whether people buy or not. I was hooked.So I became a copywriting anorak. I buy almost every good book on copywriting I can find, and My shelves are full of lever arch files containingt swipe files – - that is other peoples copy.

Copywriting is where science, art and creativity meet.

You see all these soulless sales letters, with a blaring title, a thousand bullets and benefits, and the authors roundly miss the point.

For sure there are devices in copy such as the embedded instructions, such as “when you buy this” is a kind of imperative that leaves the instruction to buy.

But good copy is far more than that. Good copy as Joe Sugarman notes is a slippery slope. It makes you WANT to read on. To do that generally needs a story. An emotional connection with the reader.

I have to say I prefer soft copy. I love to read what copywriters like Ted Nicholas, Brett Mcfall, and of the later generation Ray Edwards, and of long lost g generations those such as C ollier and Hopkins.

You really DO NOT have to scream to persuade people.

For example, take Ted Nicholas…which headline persuades you more? The “only way left for the little guy to get Rich” – leaves you wondering What can it be? Rather than a more modern take – “7 secrets to starting a corporation” leaves you saying ” so what”

And good copy is built on guiding principle. The Schlitz beer add, that gained ownership of the word “pure” in beer making.

So I love to write copy, and sometimes act as a freelance copywriter. My standard deal applies. You pay a portion or all in advance to prove you are serious. But if you dont like the copy written, I will first attempt to meet aspirations, then after that if you STILL dont like it, I give all the money back!. SI wnat atisfied customers only!

Placement Targetted Adwords – AKA James Caan is a spammer.

How NOT to do placement targetted adwords – James Caan Style.

My adsense earnings have dropped on a lot of my niche sites, and it is James Caan’s fault!
His online marketing team, clearly dont know seem to know what they are doing.

Ever since Caan started promoting his seminars, his ads are appearing everywhere – in as far as I can see – on any and all websites that carry adsense, so everything from food websites, to writing websites etc etc all have his face appearing in placement targetted google ads for his one day seminars..

The problem is he is promoting to people who have no interest at all. – And that is the biggest mistake in marketing. A targetted offer, to a targetted crowd, are clear essentials for success

That causes two serious problems.
i/ Because the ads are untargetted, his conversion will be low or nothing ….
ii/ Because the ads are untargetted, my earnings drop too because they displace more targetted offers …!!

Moral of the story?
i/ Placement targetted ads are great.

The hidden jewel of adwords provided that:

(a) you only pick sites that rank for your keywords with ads above the first fold and:

(b) kick out any sites that dont give you better than 3% CTR…my rule is if I dont get one click in 100 impressions, I remove it from the list.(on placement you dont need high CTR to get click cost down)

then:

(c) having picked the sites you go CPM cost per impressions – and then you get targetted clicks which can be as low as 1/10 price of those on adwords for search.

But and it is a MASSIVE BUT

ii/ It is easy to use placement badly. To target people who simply have no interest in your offer.

So if you see someone misusing your ad space, google give you the tools to ban them on adsense….I have.

James Caan is now persona non grata for all my sites. He is a spammer!!
I tried to contact him via his main site to explain the problem. Got no response, so his customer services team match his online marketers in performance it seems!

Placement targetted adwords is great – just not done the way that Caan or his minions are doing it!

Adwords and Website Conversion

I guess it just is not glamorous enough! -

It is really hard to get small business to appreciate that adwords and website conversion matters as much as traffic -Ask a small business about marketing – and their first reaction is to consider additional ways to broadcast the message.

Thing is existing customers are far more likely to buy again than new ones and more importantly: A single character can often double or treble the response of an advert, the fastest way to prove this is using adwords. Split test it, and you see an INSTANT trebling of click thru and sales.

Website conversion and /or advert conversion really is the fastest way to a payrise.

When people see these results and experience it first hand they get hooked – but most dont believe such things are possible, so miss out on a massive chane.

Ask me and I will tell you the character! – Thing is , there are many ways to double conversion not just one.
So my advice is start taking website conversion seriously.

Internet Marketing – A New dimension

It is not underestimating the truth to say Market Samurai revolutionised targetted key phrase market research.

The next step from that is to purchase a keyword rich domain.

Now DOMAIN SAMURAI solves that problem – it searches for relevant new and used domains, with interface to domainface – a new search utitlity from Kenny Goodman.

Between the packages – A revolution in internet marketing.

Adwords Expert

What really makes an adwords expert? What seperates the good from the rest.
For sure ask any internet marketing expert and they will tell you there are far too many junior employees out there trashing large volumes of company money because they are not testing properly.

That is what really makes the difference.

A novice at ppc thinks “click through”, as though it was an end in itself. A true adwords expert is far more interested in conversion and cost, to determine profit, and what he can do to increase conversion.

Done right – Pay per click can work, no doubt about it.

Think of it this way:
A machine that turns $ coins into $2 coins!
If you had a slot machine in which you could put a coin, and get more than a coin back, then how much would you put in?? So provided you DO Make a profit each time, the fact that it costs is no bad thing. Particularly if you collect money before google collect it from you.

But to win you have to do it right , and it is careful testing and maths made much easier by the fact that google optimiser can do the sums for you.

Google is an auction. If competitors are bidding prices up , not measuring what they do properly, then some markets CAN become uneconomic as a direct result.

An adwords expert gets to recognise the signs of profitable markets and good practioners. A company who is already top in organic ranking, also bidding first on pay per click ,with adverts that are under split test is a very good sign.

So here are some of the keys.

First find keywords that have the right mindset, buyers not just browsers.
Then get people to click your ad by appealing to the mindset – an advert that matches the keywords
DONT try to fire large groups of keywords at the same advert.
And start to lean the tricks for rwhat really makes adverts convert – a single character can double conversion, do you know what it is?
Put money keywords into their own campaign
Then maximise website conversion 101 tricks to know
Calculate always profit not CTR and use that as the barometer
Always be split testing something!!

The real adwords expert is always thinking both sides of the click.

There are also two hidden gems on adwords - places where traffic is cheap and plentiful. The subject of another post.

New FTC ruling has serious implications for Direct Marketers

For anyone selling by internet into the US

Legendary internet marketer Frank Kern has had previous run ins with the FTC so has been keeping an eye on the new guidelines which have already demanded that affiliate earnings and commissions are declared on blogs…

But this is far more serious – and concerns any testimonials.
The fact that it HAS worked for some is no longer enough.

“…The most significant change to the revised guides is the deletion of the “safe harbor” that has long allowed advertisers to use testimonials who reported specific successful experiences with an advertised product or service as long as the advertiser included a disclaimer such as “Results not typical.” Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect.”

So whilst good marketers applaud the fact of cracking down on scammers: this will make marketers very wary of how they use testimonials.

See Frank Kerns blog
FTC ruling on direct marketing

SEO traffic – Easy or hard?

Is it hard to get ranked in google?

The simple answer is it depends what expression you try to get ranked for. The interesting thing, is buyers tend to enter longer keyword expressions than browsers. The man who enters “Portable computer spares” is a browser. The man who enters “Buy Inspiron 1300 hinge assembly” will buy assuming the terms are right, so the second is both easier to SEO and converts better.

So before doing anything else, use google analytics to see which expressions your buyers come from, and which phrases only bring browsers. Test with PPC if you are not sure.

Then it is a case of doing systematic keyword reseach

(a) There is sufficient traffic
(b) The traffic are buyers
(c) The competition is acceptable

Since the introduction of Market Samurai this process is now ten times easier.

From knowing which expressions are sensible to target, THEN decide the pages on your site.
SEO is not an add on or a graft on. It is better viewed as a foundation and design.
Get it wrong and it is mighty hard to change.

Samurai gets its answers from google, and sometimes you cannot trust the answer.
Always worth checking “Google insights” To see if similar traffic is there, and to check trends.

SEO depends on two things.

(a) What you say about yourself – thats “Onsite” factors such as page TITLE, HTags and URLs

(b) What others say about you – thats links, which are the time taking thing.

Not any link, but it is very important that they use the right anchor text. If everyone calls you a “limousine rental company” then google will think it is true. If they all call you “starlight rentals” – what chance you rank for the word limousine?

So before SEO Of anything. Get a keyword report.
Find out what is easy and what is hard.

Then Test on PPC before committing.

Low cost marketing is back – After a spring clean!

Now back after a spring clean:
Actually a major overhaul – the site deleted and started again!

Take a look around my new site:

See the five point Low Cost Marketing strategy. Contact me if you have an existing business, and want to discuss how it applies to your business. The first half hour is free, during which I promise to give you some useful ideas.

And please do sign up for my newsletter “nuggets” – the “good” stuff I dont want to put in the public domain.

MARKETING CONSULTANT | Freelance Copywriter | Internet Marketing Expert | Sales Copywriter

Sales Copywriter