Google has announced that it is rolling out a new beta test that it has labelled as “pay-per-action” advertising. Under the new program, businesses using Adwords advertising, will define specific actions that they are willing to pay for such as, a visitor opt-in, a certain page view or an actual sale. They also define the amount that they are willing to pay based on the type of action.

When the advertisers’ ad is clicked by a visitor, Google will in turn, only bill the advertiser if the predetermined action is completed. An advertiser needs to establish a conversion tracking system and then, create the adverts. Ads are then displayed on the so called publisher websites that comprise the Google content network. Publishers will also be introduced to new ad units under this new pay-per-action model that can be featured on their sites.

In a nut shell, with this new Google proposition, advertisers only pay for desired results. And content publishers determine whether to run a specific type of ad or group of ads on their websites. Initially, this pay-per-action beta test is only available to advertisers in the United States.

From a publisher’s perspective, there is some risk reversal in featuring the new cost-per-click ads. There is no guarantee that the publisher will receive any payment for a given ad that gets clicked by a visitor from their site. From the advertiser point of view, they will no longer be charged for ads that are ineffective and the annoying risk of click fraud is going to be significantly reduced.

Along side this pay-per-action news, Google has also revealed that it will be adding click-to-play video ads to their line-up of text, Flash and image ad formats all being supported currently by it’s content network. At launch, video ads will be available to AdWords advertisers in the US, Canada and Japan and progressing to other global regions eventually.

According to Googles’ “Inside Adwords”, users will have total control of the ad viewing experience;

“Finally, unlike some intrusive advertising, users will have complete control. When a page loads, only a static image will be visible; the video will not start playing until the user initiates it. He or she will be able to advance the video, pause it, adjust the volume or click through to the advertiser’s site,…

But, you may say, video is only for big branding oriented advertisers. We beg to differ. This feature makes video ads much more accessible to all advertisers. Now, an owner of a small bed & breakfast in Lake Tahoe can put a video tour of his beautiful chalet right next to an article that talks about skiing the epic slopes of Squaw Valley.”

Tapping into the level of frustration and difficulty that your customers and prospects are experiencing in a given market is their problem and your opportunity. They have a thorn in their paw and your business proposition is just the solution that will effectively relieve their angst.

When you can discover issues that are your target audiences’ most pressing problems – issues that are not being satisfied anywhere else - you can position your business offering as the go to solution. Your customers will shout “Hey, they’ve got exactly what I’ve been looking for - and I couldn’t find it anywhere else!”

The best approach to unearthing pressing customer concerns is to survey them. And to discover the potential nuggets of gold from within your survey data, you’ll want to focus on the distinction between Point Of Difference Benefits vs. Price of Entry Benefits.

“Most people that take the time to survey their market really haven’t a clue how to use the information they gather and in fact, they allow their surveys to throw them way off the mark.” So says marketing research expert, Dr. Glenn Livingston.

Dr. Livingston is a certified psychologist who earns a nice living as a quantitative marketing research expert. He has completed highly successful studies for an impressive list of corporate brand names such as Bausch & Lomb, Whirlpool, and Nabisco. His cutting edge information is now available to small business marketers as well.

Too often, the data results of a survey can mislead a marketer because they interpret the frequency of a given response to be essentially the same thing as the importance of response. But these concepts are not created equally.

“For example” says Dr. Livingston, “if you do a survey of guinea pig searchers online, you’ll find people very frequently ask about how long a guinea pig lives. In fact, this will probably be the most common question you’ll get.

Now if you go out and design a product all about how long guinea pigs live, you’re gonna be out of luck pretty quickly because what you’ve discovered is not a purchase motivating benefit – it’s a ‘price of entry’ benefit.”

A price of entry benefit is a benefit that all products in a given market must have in order to even be considered by a purchaser. A point of difference benefit is something that “consumers perceive as hard to find answers to their pressing problems - these are where the real market gaps are - where you’ll find the best opportunities to shine” according to Livingston.

Continuing with the guinea pig market example, a more important question for someone marketing a book on guinea pigs might be how to determine the gender of a guinea pig before its two weeks old.

This information may not be seen as often in your survey responses, but its marked as a lot harder to find. The objective is to put enough of these tidbits together and you wind up being THE source to solve your clients’ most difficult problems. Solutions that they can’t find anywhere else.

And getting some Real Marketing Muscle might just be the solution to your own businesses’ most pressing problems. Solutions that your competitors don’t know about yet!

If you read our last “Copy That 3” post, you’ll hopefully remember our tip for preparing to write good sales copy. If you missed it, this was the pearl that we provided:

“A great offer with poor copy will always perform better than a poor offer with great copy.”

A good offer – better still, an irresistible offer - can make all the difference in the world for generating desired results for your direct marketing efforts. Our Copy That 2 post is full of several suggested questions to consider when determining what your offer could (or should) be comprised from.

The following five points come from the Dan Kennedy school of copy writing in terms of what your offer might (or should) include:

1. Something new as in new products, new services, new prices.
2. A sale or specially discounted prices.
3. A bonus or premium for purchasing or even just for coming in.
4. A gift for responding.
5. A time limit on the offer to stimulate prompt response.

This is what Dan Kennedy has to say concerning these five points: “the best offer includes all five of these ingredients. In fact, whenever I write a sales letter for a client, I will typically include every one of them. Think of it this way. Why would you bother to go to all of the trouble, time, and expense to send your customers or prospects an offer and settle for a lousy result?”

So far, this Copy That series has only dealt with the concept of developing and expanding on the quality of your offer – and why? Good question, we’re glad you asked! The answer is two fold:

1. “A great offer with poor copy will always perform better than a poor offer with great copy.” – But you already know that!:-)
2. A crystal clear understanding of your offer, your value added, your unique selling proposition - with an accurate and complete list of features, advantages and benefits – allows for the creation of effective copy and interesting headlines that will resonate with a greater percentage of readers from your target audience.

The structure of your eventual copy is a pretty simple process - but not necessarily an easy process. Simple means that there is a formula that is repeatable and to a degree, elements of this formula are based on science and psychology that have proven to be successful.

Just be very, very clear on what your offer really means to your prospect - continue to add even more value – and that compelling selling proposition is what you want to communicate to your prospect.

WARNING: Knowing exactly what your market wants can be highly accretive to your success!

If you really want to super charge your offer you’ll need some real marketing muscle. Stay tuned to Copy That and we’ll show you how to feed your hungry audience exactly what they want!:-)

This is a follow up to our last post “Who’s Calling?” Telemarketing sales rules can impact the way businesses market by phone. Even if you’re a consumer, you can bookmark - or link to - this page as a resource for accurate information on “Do Not Call” regulations in the United States.
Most of the States covered below are a direct link to an official site that provides information about that particular States policy and position on telemarketing in the US. Certain States have aligned their regulations with the Federal Do Not Call Registry. Just click on the State that you’re interested in researching and get informed.
A
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas
C
California, Colorado, Connecticut
F
Florida
G
Georgia
I
Idaho, Illinois, Indiana
K
Kansas, Kentucky
L
Louisiana
M
Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana
N
Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina,
North Dakota
O
Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon
P
Pennsylvania
S
South Dakota
T
Tennessee, Texas
U
Utah
V
Vermont
W
Wisconsin, Wyoming

As a consumer, when you think about the concept of “telemarketing”, what comes to mind? Do you think of annoying dinner time phone calls by pseudo market research firms requesting your time to answer a brief survey? Or from local small businesses offering real estate services, newspaper subscriptions or free estimates for windows and doors.

It’s fair to say that telemarketing has a nefarious reputation because it’s disruptive and in fact, is commonly referred to as interruption marketing. Still, big and small businesses as well as not-for-profit organizations alike rely on the use of telemarketing as the key driver of communication for their overall sales and marketing strategy. The telephone remains a very productive means of selling many types of business services and products.

Telemarketing campaigns can be very effective as a strategy to introduce a company to a prospect, for setting up appointments and in general, as a key element in a company’s overall sales cycle. And not just to initiate sales activity. A follow up call made to a prospect after a face to face presentation can further advance the communication process and even lead to a close by phone.

For the contemporary telemarketer however, dialling for dollars is not as efficient as it once was during the salad days of marketing by phone. Today, callers outgoing sales messages must now compete with email marketing, direct mail, fax broadcasting, voice mail, jaded gate keepers, and in the United States, “do not call legislation”.

To recapture some efficiency for this tried and true direct selling method, big business in particular has introduced the use of outsourcing and sophisticated telemarketing software. Increasingly, a lot of this outsourcing is going off-shore to service providers located in countries such as India, for example.

India is a country with a very educated workforce that is available at much cheaper labour rates than the those of the US and Canada. India’s business proposition continues to garner a reputation for reliability and for services that include outbound as well as inbound call center fulfillment.

Thinking of telemarketing in the US? Our next post will be a good resource for you to bookmark - or to link to - because it will be a handy reference for information about “do not call” legislation in the United States - on a state by state basis.

In the meantime, this is worth a listen – it’s a consumer making a disruptive (but very funny) phone call of their own.:-)

Now if you’re a Mr Rogers fan btw, don’t fret. We like Mr Rogers too and we’ll be posting some excellent footage of this great man shortly. Stay tuned!

So, have you been brain storming creative ideas about your proposition – your compelling offer? We’ve received several emails – especially from folks with a small business marketing focus - concerned about being able to write good copy.

No worries, we have suggestions and solutions that we’ll be passing your way. We have expert copy writing information that we will be featuring on a regular basis. And most of these insights will be short and snappy – kinda like a weekly golf tip.

But you’ll need to stay tuned. The easiest way to do that is to subscribe - over there to the right – where it says Newsletter. Just type in you email and each time we post to this site, you’ll get a notice. Go ahead – try it – don’t be scared!

If your interest is in writing good copy, keep your eye out for any post titled “Copy That”. And if you haven’t already, you can scroll down and look for other “Copy That” posts. Now, here is our short and snappy “Copy That” thought for the day. Drum roll please ….

A great offer with poor copy will always perform better than a poor offer with great copy.

That’s it. You know, something Steven Covey might describe as principled centered. But we haven’t asked him so we don’t know for certain. But you can read what Steven Covey thinks in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People Version 2.0

Regardless, focus on what you are offering and your marketing message will become much easier to create. Add value, improve your guarantees, reduce - better still eliminate - your customer’s risk. Be steadfast in making your selling proposition - or your offer - as compelling as possible.

Copy That!

Before creating a single word of copy for your direct marketing campaign, start by brain storming the question: “What is my offer?” Something Mark Joyner might describe as The Irresistible Offer: How to Sell Your Product or Service in 3 Seconds or Less

So what is an irresistible offer? According to Joyner: “The irresistible offer is an identity-building offer central to a product, service, or company where the believable return on investment is communicated so clearly and efficiently that it’s immediately apparent you’d have to be a fool to pass it up.”

In essence, your offer is aiming to create an itch that your prospective buyer feels a compelling sense of urgency to scratch. And it’s your product/service that will relieve that itch right now. The goal is to create an immediate action that you are directing your reader to take. For instance - buy now! – or - opt in to this list now!

As a starting point, when you brain storm, act as if you are the target customer and ask yourself the following series of questions:

1. What is this about – what are you trying to sell me?
2. What will this cost me – what am I risking?
3. How do I know I can believe you – why should I trust you?
4. How will this benefit me – what will I gain from this?

As you consider these questions from your customer’s perspective, you are looking to establish elements that will eventually become the material used to build compelling copy. Among other factors, look to identify and list ideas that will communicate;

• Obvious, tangible benefits – it’s not a shiny red convertible that you really want – it’s the feelings that you associate to owning a shiny red convertible that motivate you – excitement, sexy, desirable, prestige, accomplishment, prosperous etc.
• Consider bonuses that you can include to “sweeten the deal”. How can you add more value, create urgency and reduce risk by adding bonuses?
• Always think about potential, benefit rich, headlines. Your aim is to capture your reader’s interest. And hopefully, more people reading your copy.
• Reverse or eliminate the risk that is concerning to your customer. Offer a powerful guarantee. For example; include a risk free, 30, 60, 90, 180 day, no hassle return policy. You can even consider a “Better Than Risk Free” offer. For example - return the product and keep the bonus(s) just for trying our product/service.
• How can you establish credibility? What are your credentials – your track record? Who have you helped or served before? Do you have valid testimonials? Who will give you testimonials?

Start listing ideas and remember that, at this stage, the goal is to identify potential objections that your reader might have and to establish responses to those objections. Eventually, you’ll begin to organise and mould this material into a well written, structured presentation of your compelling offer.

So stay tuned for ideas about great headlines, the structure of a sales letter and surveying your customs so that they will practically tell you what to offer them and how you should say it!

Copy That!

Good copy is at the heart of every successful marketing campaign. This is just as true for a simple slogan, with genius inherent in its brevity, as it is for a biblical sized sales letter that is typical of direct marketing efforts – both online and off. And there is more to effective copy than just a good turn of phrase.
For any marketing campaign to have any chance of success, there are three factors that must be analysed and understood before a single word is ever written.

1. First, concerning your product or service, what is your offer? In business, nothing happens without an offer! Your customer is asking, “What are you trying to sell me?”
2. Second is your market – for direct marketers it’s your list. The right message to the wrong market = poor sales.
3. Third is the medium or the “piece”. Is it a newspaper ad, a fourteen page sales letter, a post card sized invitation? The tool must suit the job it is intended to accomplish.

In the coming days we will be analysing effective sales copy a little more closely. In particular, we’ll focus in on direct marketing and we’ll start with the first factor – what is your offer?
And soon, we’ll be revealing some pretty good information on how to research your market to help you determine if you even have a worthwhile offer to make! And if it’s not the right offer – what should you be offering?
And finally, if you have the right offer, directed at the right audience, then what is the best way to deliver that message.
So stay tuned!
Copy that!

A Canadian man, Terrence Croteau (32) of Welland, Ontario pleased guilty in May to 20 counts of mail fraud, four counts of wire fraud and a telemarketing charge. He has been ordered to serve 12 years and seven months in federal prison while repaying $2.9 million to over 6,000 customers he tricked in the telemarketing scam.

Authorities say that between 2000 and June 2004, Croteau’s employees called businesses, charities, churches, sheriff’s offices and others, offering for as much as $800 to include them in business directory listings, which ultimately were bogus. Read

Visit this site to hear the telemarketing call. I found this today. Basically what the guy does when a telemarketer calls his house is to pretend he’s a police officerÂ� at a murder scene of the person the telemarketer is calling for. The best part is at the end when the telemarketer is freaking out and the ‘police officer’ asks him if he happens to be the gay lover of the ‘deceased’ Listen to the Hilarious Telemarketer Call now.

I’m sure quite a few of us have experienced what is called “missed call” telemarketing. It is a rather new form of telemarketing in which a telemarketer calls your cell phone for such a short period of time that you might not even hear it ring but you’ll end up with a voicemail trying to sell you on something.

“‘Missed call’ marketing is the term that has been given to the practice of calling a mobile telephone for such a short period of time that the owner cannot answer the call. When the marketer disconnects the call, most mobile phones present a ‘missed call’ notification with the marketer’s number. The marketer intends that the owner of the phone will think that they have missed a legitimate call and ring the number back, in which case they hear a recorded promotional message.”

Read

Martijin Engelbregt, who apparently has not registered with the National Do Not Call Registry yet, has developed a counter script for consumers wishing not to have their dinners interupted by newspaper subscription calls. According to Mr. Engelbregt “Telemarketers make use of a telescript - a guideline for a telephone conversation. This script creates an imbalance in the conversation between the marketer and the consumer. It is this imbalance, most of all, that makes telemarketing successful. The EGBG Counterscript attempts to redress that balance.” It’s a good way to throw off a salesperson calling you and pretending to be your buddy if you ask me. Amuse yourself and enjoy.