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Other Added - Small Business Marketing Help #1: The Diary An Angry Ad-Man
“Sales All Day”…I wish I hear you yell…one sale would be great!”Under The Radar Advertising Strategy”...sounds like something out of a Star Trek Movie!You see in the world of advertising as quick as you can say “Beam me up Scottie”; new tools are constantly being created in order to differentiate one company from another. These innovations try to as much as possible, maximize resources, minimize costs, and optimize the results of any advertising campaign.So much money goes into the brainstorming for these new and innovative tools you c
Introduction
One stop shop for all your ____ need. (Statements like these are drivel, amateur and cliche and have no business in real marketing. Even worse, they are all about you - the seller, instead of them, the buyer. One stop shop is the listener's cue to stop listening, make a cell phone call, or change the channel).
Features
Features
Smaller benefits
and the rest was basically the same.
What got cut out was the HUGE PROMISE/BIG BENEFIT.
On my mind and the minds of a lot of my clients recently is marketing. Whether you run a small business, are self-employed, work for someone else or are on the job hunt, MARKETING IS KEY.Ultimately, your ability to thrive, to survive no matter what the circumstances, to succeed where others fail, to make bold changes in your life will be in great part due to your ability to market YOU.If you are in the job market, you are marketing yourself, what you can do for a prospective employer and how you fit into their organization.If you are e
Due to budget restraints on the client-side, the spot was produced by the station (read free). Of course the script was written by your truly and my trusty copy-writing sidekick. The spot was finished last Thursday - and on Friday I gave my stamp of approval.
Monday morning I received an email from the station rep saying that they had decided to make a few changes to the commercial - just a few "small things" - and the new commercial started running that morning.
Calmly, I asked for a copy of the new commercial.
At about second 6 my jaw dropped so far down that it hit the desk. My other orange half swiveled in his chair and stared at me in disbelief.
"Did that just say 'one stop shop?'" he asked? Indeed it did.
It seems that the station sales manager felt the spot needed to be rearranged a little bit - and was lacking a few lines. So they made some changes - without consulting me.
Well, I was steaming mad. But, I quickly saw an opportunity through this adversity: I can write a journal entry about this! So here we are.
The primary point I want to make is to illustrate the difference between our script and their script. Why the minor changes could have made tremendous negative impact. Ultimately, I hope you'll learn some good copy writing pointers and understand why you shouldn't let a radio station, newspaper, or anyone else who sells ads write your ads.
Our Formula:
Introducing something new
HUGE PROMISE, BIG BENEFIT
Who can take advantage
Smaller benefits
Basic features
More benefits
Personal name to contact
Call to action
Limited time
Call to action again
Their formula (made by rearranging our script, adding one line and deleting one line):
Introduction
One stop shop for all your ____ need. (Statements like these are drivel, amateur and cliche and have no business in real marketing. Even worse, they are all about you - the seller, instead of them, the buyer. One stop shop is the listener's cue to stop listening, make a cell phone call, or change the channel).
Features
Features
Smaller benefits
and the rest was basically the same.
What got cut out was the HUGE PROMISE/BIG BENEFIT. T
Your business may be making you a profit, but are there things you can do to make it better? Do you offer your customer the best possible transactions? Taking the time to get to know your customers can increase your business. That doesn’t necessarily mean getting to know each of them on a personal basis, rather knowing their needs, their wants, predicting the goods or services they will purchase, and being prepared to keep up with changes in the market.Figuring out the needs of your customers can be tricky. Not only are the needs of the market conti
Calmly, I asked for a copy of the new commercial.
At about second 6 my jaw dropped so far down that it hit the desk. My other orange half swiveled in his chair and stared at me in disbelief.
"Did that just say 'one stop shop?'" he asked? Indeed it did.
It seems that the station sales manager felt the spot needed to be rearranged a little bit - and was lacking a few lines. So they made some changes - without consulting me.
Well, I was steaming mad. But, I quickly saw an opportunity through this adversity: I can write a journal entry about this! So here we are.
The primary point I want to make is to illustrate the difference between our script and their script. Why the minor changes could have made tremendous negative impact. Ultimately, I hope you'll learn some good copy writing pointers and understand why you shouldn't let a radio station, newspaper, or anyone else who sells ads write your ads.
Our Formula:
Introducing something new
HUGE PROMISE, BIG BENEFIT
Who can take advantage
Smaller benefits
Basic features
More benefits
Personal name to contact
Call to action
Limited time
Call to action again
Their formula (made by rearranging our script, adding one line and deleting one line):
Introduction
One stop shop for all your ____ need. (Statements like these are drivel, amateur and cliche and have no business in real marketing. Even worse, they are all about you - the seller, instead of them, the buyer. One stop shop is the listener's cue to stop listening, make a cell phone call, or change the channel).
Features
Features
Smaller benefits
and the rest was basically the same.
What got cut out was the HUGE PROMISE/BIG BENEFIT.
Cotton has sustained its position as the most versatile fiber in the world, even after nearly eighty centuries. None of the other fiber has such characteristics to obtain amicable results which cotton has.Cotton has several uses and a thousand faces, it is well known for its usefulness, look, presentation and above all the comfort it gives. It generates millions of employment as it moves from yarn to final products.Prior to reaching our wardrobes, cotton goes on an extensively hectic voyage that takes it around the world. Several players are
Well, I was steaming mad. But, I quickly saw an opportunity through this adversity: I can write a journal entry about this! So here we are.
The primary point I want to make is to illustrate the difference between our script and their script. Why the minor changes could have made tremendous negative impact. Ultimately, I hope you'll learn some good copy writing pointers and understand why you shouldn't let a radio station, newspaper, or anyone else who sells ads write your ads.
Our Formula:
Introducing something new
HUGE PROMISE, BIG BENEFIT
Who can take advantage
Smaller benefits
Basic features
More benefits
Personal name to contact
Call to action
Limited time
Call to action again
Their formula (made by rearranging our script, adding one line and deleting one line):
Introduction
One stop shop for all your ____ need. (Statements like these are drivel, amateur and cliche and have no business in real marketing. Even worse, they are all about you - the seller, instead of them, the buyer. One stop shop is the listener's cue to stop listening, make a cell phone call, or change the channel).
Features
Features
Smaller benefits
and the rest was basically the same.
What got cut out was the HUGE PROMISE/BIG BENEFIT.
You've decided to go into business for yourself. You've done your research into your industry, overhead, equipment, advertising, etc. You're all set to go, right? Wrong!If you have NOT had comprehensive research conducted on your business name, then you do not know if it's truly available.A common mistake many new business owners make is assuming that their business name is available simply because:the domain name was available the fictitious name was available the corporate name
Our Formula:
Introducing something new
HUGE PROMISE, BIG BENEFIT
Who can take advantage
Smaller benefits
Basic features
More benefits
Personal name to contact
Call to action
Limited time
Call to action again
Their formula (made by rearranging our script, adding one line and deleting one line):
Introduction
One stop shop for all your ____ need. (Statements like these are drivel, amateur and cliche and have no business in real marketing. Even worse, they are all about you - the seller, instead of them, the buyer. One stop shop is the listener's cue to stop listening, make a cell phone call, or change the channel).
Features
Features
Smaller benefits
and the rest was basically the same.
What got cut out was the HUGE PROMISE/BIG BENEFIT.
The rate of organizational change has not slowed in recent years, and may even be increasing. In spite of the importance and permanence of change, most change initiatives fail to deliver the expected organizational benefits. It is little wonder then that the fear of managing change and its impacts is a leading cause of anxiety in managers.To lend assistance, there are now available many guides to help change agents drive and manage change. These serve a very valuable purpose. Nonetheless, guidebooks can only assist so far. Every organization is diff
Introduction
One stop shop for all your ____ need. (Statements like these are drivel, amateur and cliche and have no business in real marketing. Even worse, they are all about you - the seller, instead of them, the buyer. One stop shop is the listener's cue to stop listening, make a cell phone call, or change the channel).
Features
Features
Smaller benefits
and the rest was basically the same.
What got cut out was the HUGE PROMISE/BIG BENEFIT. The benefits that were left were pushes toward the middle, buried underneath the self-centered discussion of one stop shops and a laundry list of features.
When I "asked" the station about this they told me that they were looking out for the client's best interest. They were concerned that listeners may not understand exactly who the client was or what they did - or exactly what the package contained.
Guess what? In a sixty second radio ad they shouldn't learn those things. The purpose of the ad is not to get the person to completely understand the offering and make a buying decision. That can't happen in 60 seconds - unless you're selling gum or erasers or something.
The purpose of the ad was to get the listener to say, "Hmmm...that big benefit sounds good...oh and they're talking to me...and those other benefits sound very fine...oh - a few features, that sounds like something I could use...so that's the person I need to talk to to learn more, and there's the number - eh....better hurry - it's only good for this week - and there's the number again." The point is to get arouse the listener's curiosity, engage their greed-glands, get them to picture themselves with the benefit in their lives, then to call and learn more.
But as soon as you throw the self-centered cliche gorilla snot in there, the entire process breaks down and the listener disengages.
Incidentally, the station manager admitted, "I guess I could have chosen a better line than 'one stop shop'...that is pretty cliche." Mty point exactly.. So why did he change it?
It makes me think we're not charging enough. Most copy writers at our level charge $15,000 a pop for a campaign. I'll bet if my client had paid $15,000 for that script, an act of congress couldn't have changed that ad without my agreement. Interesting.
My parting message to the station - and to you - is this: Let the stations and newspapers do what they do - which is sell the adve
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