Archives for February 2014

One of the best things about having Zac (a Dan Kennedy trained Gold Certified Copywriter) as a business partner is that he keeps me up to date and tells me all the really useful stuff he comes across. Last year he told me about a really simple but effective way to write Google AdWords, and send me a link to check out Perry Marshall’s Swiss Army Knife Method of writing good AdWords. It made it much simpler, and we used it for our Facebook ads and had a lot of success!

Today I want to focus on one specific technique that was taught and how it applies to all copywriting and marketing. When marketing I always found that it was so easy to get stuck on focusing on one benefit or one particular view of a product and trying to come up with different angles was quite difficult. Or as Perry Marshall puts it in the report I read ““There’s only a few things I can think of to say and it’s really hard to not sound like everyone else in my market.”  – But with this technique it completely eliminates the ‘stuckness’ that I used to get and gives me a treasure trove of ideas to choose from.

Perry didn’t have a particular name for it, he mentioned it simply as ‘Relationships’, but for the purpose of this article I’m going to call these “Relationship Angles”.

Most people, when writing or marketing focus on one relationship angle, usually the relationship between your customer and your product/service, but this is what everyone does, this is what’s expected, and to be honest it is very hard to stand out and be noticed when marketing with this relationship.

For example, a solar power company might simply say “Get Solar Power Installed This Summer?”

Pretty dull and boring really…

If you view the diagram you’ll notice I’ve identified 6 different People / Things. There could be heaps more than this, but for now we will simply use these. What we want to do is shift the angle that we look at with our marketing, view the different relationships that exist and how your marketing could fit into that angle.

For example, we could look at the relationship between our customer’s family member (wife / husband) and something your customer hates (high power bills), and suddenly it opens up a completely different angle to tap into:

“Are high power bills causing arguments in your home?”
“No more making your family suffer in the heat over summer in order to save on your ridiculous power bills”

Or perhaps we could look at something your customer loves (saving money) and  your customer’s enemy (the government) – once again it opens up even more angles to try on:

“The latest government taxes has increased power costs making it difficult for families to save money”

Or even the relationship between your customer’s children and your customer.

“Your kids will inherit the world we create, save power and save the planet”

These ideas are by no means polished, but by simply taking a relationship, you can wrap your marketing around it and completely change the angle you take.

I hope you find this tool as useful as I did!

The other week, Zac and I were sitting on our monthly Mastermind call listening to hospitality expert Jon Taffer from reality TV series ‘Bar Rescue’. He dispensed some great advice: “9/10 business people think the physical item or the service they provide is the product that they are selling, but it’s not, it’s the vehicle. The product is always the reaction to the experience, and he or she that creates the best reactions wins.”

Jon went into a little more detail and explained how in most restaurants, when you cook a plate of food, you think the food is the product. But he said if it is a good plate of food, customers react to it, they sit up and notice it, they physically react to it, and if they don’t, that restaurant is essentially stuck in mediocrity.  Jon says that “the chef in the kitchen is not just making an entrée, he’s making a reaction, the entrée is not the product, it’s the vehicle.” He used other analogies about bars, saying “we don’t play music, we create reactions and we achieve it through music, we don’t serve people, we create reactions, and we achieve it through service.”

What I got from this interview is that we are not really selling our physical product or service, be it printing, financial planning, baby products, medical services, etc. We are selling experiences that create reactions and we use the physical items we sell or the service we provide as the way to achieve it.

I experienced this concept in action first hand when I took Hollie out for dinner at the amazing Red Manna Waterfront Restaurant on the Mandurah foreshore in WA. First of all, I knew this restaurant had been doing something right, because I had been told on multiple occasions by different people how great the restaurant was.  The reason I was taking Hollie there was because, as a couple, I wanted us to have a great experience, I wasn’t looking to simply fill our tummies.

When we arrived, as we walked up the stairs, the walls were covered in culinary awards, finalists for best service, best food, best experience and many others. I was impressed before I even entered the restaurant. The restaurant itself was beautifully presented, the ambience was relaxed and elegant. The wait staff were very polite and helpful the whole way through the night. The food was heavenly, I am getting hungry just thinking about it again. We sat out on the decking, looking out over the beautiful Mandurah foreshore. The night was everything I wanted, great food, great service, great location… It created an amazing experience that I won’t forget and if you ask Hollie about the “reaction” I had to the melt-in-your mouth lamb cutlets, it was priceless, I was weak at the knees about to propose to my meal. Soooooo good! I highly recommended it if you want a great restaurant in Mandurah, and definitely worth the drive from Perth!

As you can see by the last paragraph, one of the other reactions that has been created from the experience was recommending it to you all, a positive recommendation or referral is so valuable, and by creating the right experience of your product or service it makes people go WOW and want to tell others. Impressed customers buy more, refer more and stay longer.

There’s an old saying that goes “Jack of all Trades, Master of none”. The saying is used in reference to a person that is competent with many skills, but is not necessarily outstanding in any particular one.

The idea of being a jack-of-all-trades in business is pretty appealing for most business owners. If you think about it, if you can do a variety of different services then there are more jobs that you can take on and you have a bigger universe of potential customers.

For some businesses in particular it is great to be a Jack-of-all-trades, a handyman for instance! But for the most part there are some real pitfalls to promoting yourself as a jack-of-all-trades.

Pitfall Number 1: If you are perceived as a jack-of-all-trades then you are perceived as a master of none… It doesn’t matter how great your skills are or how masterful you are at what you do, when you promote yourself as a ‘I can do everything’ type business, people assume you will be competent, but not the best.

Pitfall Number 2: If you do everything, then people expect to pay less. Think about it for a second, who would you expect pay more for? The handyman or the plumber? The G.P. or the Heart Surgeon? Specialists are sought out and paid more because they have expert skills and consumers who want their problems solved or needs filled seek out specialists. Affluent people seek out specialists and are happy to pay the extra, people on a tight budget seek out the jack-of-all trades. Businesses appear desperate for work when they will ‘do anything’ and take on any job that comes their way.

Pitfall Number 3: Your marketing message is harder to focus. When marketing, the more laser-focused your message can be, the easier it will be to connect with your market and make sales. For example “We sell golf gear” is broad and difficult to connect with, to laser-focus you could say “We sell left-handed golf clubs for people with arthritis”, if that’s you, it would connect for sure! A medical example would be a Family Practice vs Heart Surgeon. By having focused messages in your marketing, people know exactly how you can help them and why they should use your service or product.

Pitfall Number 4: Your target customers are harder to pin-point. If I was a make-up artist and I was using a flyer that said I did weddings, school balls, photoshoots etc… then it would be very difficult to pinpoint who needs my services. Instead if I had a flyer that focused on being a school ball makeup specialist, I could easily promote myself through schools and youth groups etc,. Prospects would be easier to pinpoint and reach.

Although these pitfalls exist, there is nothing inherently wrong with being a jack-of-all-trades. The downfall is in promoting yourself as one. Some simple ways that you can avoid falling into this trap is to do separate marketing campaigns for each service you provide, have separate flyers for the services you offer. Be a specialist in one particular service to get new leads in the door and then cross-sell them to your other services. Making this shift will change the way you are perceived by your customers!

Remember, nobody wants to have heart surgery from the jack-of-all-trades doctor who’s offering a 2 for 1 deal and can fit you in tomorrow. They want the guy who’s fully booked and costs an arm and leg!

When Ben and I met, we were wrapt. Closer in age (and maturity) than most of the people at the seminar we were attending – it made it much more fun. Over the coming months we did a few bits and pieces together – the odd client project. It was a good time.

However, Ben was at capacity – he thought he was over capacity, I wasn’t far off. Neither of us had the income or the lifestyle we really wanted and the only option we had, was to work more. Worst of all, there was no equity being built. Just income, which inevitably gets spent.

Then there was another thing nagging at me, a testimonial from Gary Halbert about Dan Kennedy.

“Kennedy is one of the few copywriters out there, who is willing to put his money where his mouth is and writes his own copy to sell his own products.”

Makes sense – if I am such a good marketer and copywriter, why don’t I put my money where my mouth is and start my own business using my copy to sell my own products. A lot of copywriters and marketing consultants out there are frankly woeful; don’t know what they are doing and that is why they are in the advice business – those who ‘can’ ‘do’. (Consultant usually means unemployed professional after all)

Ben felt the same way about his marketing skills – he’d seen his clients take his ideas and make a mint with them.

From Little Things Big Things Grow

Long before I met Ben I had pondered starting ‘a done for them’ newsletter business. I knew I couldn’t do it alone. So I was looking for the right business partner for that monumental project.

Ben and I had a few nights together having a quiet drink and kicking around money making ideas including what would become Newsletter Marketing Systems.

After realising just how much demand there was for newsletters out there, Ben was certain that doing newsletters for other clients was just the way to go. We’d just seen 90% of the attendees at a seminar raise their hand and say they wanted to do a monthly printed customer newsletter. And one of them asked “who can do that for us?”

And the speaker said “I don’t know! Do it yourself.”

What started as a good idea in late 2011 has by the end of 2013 grown consistently and steadily. It’s taken longer than we wanted. But it has started to grow very rapidly in the last 6 months. And looks poised to double in size from its current levels by Easter.

Pretty much everybody in business has business cards. There are some really good ones around, but most of them are pretty average, in fact most are actually very boring. (some are downright embarrassing)

It’s not that often that you find a business card that ‘wows’ you or cards that you actually want to keep. And it’s even rarer that you get a card that compels you to actually read it.

If you think that business cards are purely just a way to hand out your contact details and that’s all that you’re looking for in a business card, then you would be much better suited visiting somewhere like vistaprint.com. – They’ll put details on a simple little card with a pretty little picture and it’ll cost you next to nothing.

Let me just emphasize something for a moment Business cards are MORE than just contact details.

I’ve personally designed over 1000 business cards… and I don’t say that to brag because I reckon the first 500 or so weren’t amazing.

Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t sell or design crappy cards. They always looked great and my clients are always happy with them. What they lacked was effectiveness.

By effectiveness I’m talking about cards that actually get results, cards that not only look great but achieve the goal of bringing in more enquiries and customers… Ultimately, bringing in more $$$.

The good news about the 500 or so average cards I designed is, that it has taught me how to make your new business cards highly effective because I know what works and I know what doesn’t.

Often, your business cards will end up in the hands of your most qualified prospects. And from there, they need to direct your prospects to take some sort of action. There’s a number of actions you might want them to take:

•     Subscribe to a newsletter
•     Download a Free Report
•     Visit the Website
•     Scan a QR Code,
•     Call to enquire
•     Buy your product or service.

The goal of your business card is to get your prospective clients to take the actions – That’s effectiveness!

There are numerous design and copy techniques that I use when designing cards to make them effective.

Your card needs to do 4 things:

•     Stand out
•     Get Attention,
•     Gain Interest
•     Promote Action.

By having your card achieve this, it means that when people compare your card with another, your business is the obvious and logical choice. Which means MORE enquiries and MORE sales for you!

When I design cards, there are 2 things that I care about.

1. First thing, that they are designed in a way that will generate you enquires and sales.
2. The second thing is that you are proud of your cards. You need to be beaming with confidence when you hand them out to people, because that in itself can make or break a sale!

If you are not completely confident with you cards and want some help re-designing or maybe you are running short and just need a reprint. We would love to be able to help with your business card design and printing.
Simply phone us on 1300 120 106 or contact us and let us know what your situation is.

If you’ve never used our design or printing services, and you’re a little unsure whether to make the switch, there are a few questions to answer.

Are you happy & completely satisfied by your printer. If yes, then I suggest you continue using them. Why fix what’s not broken!

Does your printer or designer get marketing?  I was once a simple graphic artist and my goal was to make things look ‘visually appealing’, now I focus on making marketing effective, making you $$$.

Are you protected by a Guarantee? – Things go wrong in printing, it’s just the nature of the industry. We have a Five-Way Risk-Free Guarantee to ensure that you always come out on top.