Copywriting Posts - My Top 5 Favourites
Happy Blogday to The Power Packed Business Growth Blog!
Yes I've been posting to this blog for just a shade over 12 months.
As I always enjoy writing I've tried to post every work day.
So I've looked back at the blog over the last 12 months and reviewed the posts I particularly liked.
So this is my top 5 copywriting posts... let me know what you think.
Gary Halbert Spills Some Of Those Copywriting Secrets
10 Tips To Make All Our Email Lives Better
Copywriting Compels or Repels - Which One Does Yours Do?
Why We Have Three Monkey Brains And How It Helps In Direct Mail
How To Get Copy and Headlines Written
Enjoy!
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Can 3,600 Consumers Be Wrong About What Is Important In An Ad?
Consumers reckon text wins over pictures in an advert!
The Guerrilla Consulting Blog has this to say...
"In a study of 3,600 consumers, researchers concluded that to get people to notice an ad, text was twice as important as pictures."
I'm not quite sure how they can be sure that text really is twice as important.
But, it's something I've been saying for a long, long time.
That said an appropriate picture still helps by supporting the copy. But it must be appropriate.
In the end the copy sells you on the service, or product. For a start it tells you how to get it. Pretty important in my book!
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10 Tips To Make All Our Email Lives Better
Email's a pain in the proverbial. Yet it's also a great tool.
I've been using email for more years than I can remember. Certainly well over 20.
I've been burnt by most bad aspects at one time or another. And again it's got me out of a few holes where I've had to prove to managers with "bad" memories what I said and backed up with an email.
This article (which I believe is quite old as it quotes a prediction for 1999) makes a number of interesting points about email.
It said
"But like any valuable communications tool people often don't understand how to use it properly or quickly find ways to abuse it's use. E-mail is so much a part of our business life that the Electronic Messaging Association estimates that more than 94 million users will send over 5.5 trillion e-mail messages in 1999."
Interestingly a later prediction from a different web site notes that in 2000 8.2 billion emails were sent every day and that the prediction was that this would rise to 26.1 billion per day by 2005. And this excludes bulk email.
And Vnunet.com notes that more than one million new spam emails were sent on just one day on the 25th March 2004.
So we haven't quite reached the doom laden prediction in the nineties. But we still manage to fall foul of a lack of etiquette
Email No Nos
- Don't instantly type in a response because you're annoyed. If you send it the chances are it will upset someone and possibly damage your career!
- Don't use emoticons or things like "<grin>" you just don't know how that sort of thing is received in a business communication. I can vouch for seriously upsetting some people for putting "<grin>" in some emails to them. The intention was to be friendly but the opposite happened and they felt they were being talked down to.
- If you're not willing for your email to be read out to everyone in a large concert hall filled with all your friends and relatives and others don't send it. Because people have the ability to forward your mail to their friends, who have their own friends... You see where this is going don't you?
- Also remember your features can soften much of what you say when you're talking to someone. Even when you're on the phone. You don't have that luxury by email and an email can be read as being nasty, bullying, aggressive and unfriendly simply because other people perceive what you've written differently to your intention
- If you intention was to be aggressive and bad tempered. Don't. Remember email rage, like road rage can be over the most trivial things yet can alter two people's lives and relationship for ever.
- Don't try to justify sending large amounts of email to prospect lists you've bought with no clue as to whether they are your target market. That's just spam. Spam is insulting, annoying and just adds up to the hassle factor for people you're sending it to.
- Check that before you send it you've added any attachments you wrote about.
- Note that if you do send attachments beware that people may simply delete the email and nothing will get read.
- Do not, I repeat do not, simply reply to an email and copy someone else on that reply. The reason is that you may have been having an email conversation that the new person shouldn't know about. I've received several over the years and have found the conversations interesting, and sometimes useful too!
- Do not use an enormously long signature. People are used to between 2 to 5 lines. Anymore and they're just going to ignore it anyway.
Finally an extra tip:
11. Never send an email without a subject line. Firstly because it stands a great danger of being deleted. Secondly the person who receives it has no incentive to open it even though they have to find out what it's about. Why should they bother? Look at your subject line as the headline for your email. It should attract and intrigue so that the recipient wants to open it.
So use email the right way because you stand more chance of being read. And use marketing the right way because you stand more chance of selling!
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When You Go To Business Network Meetings What Should You Do?
Business networking or social networking is an important part of getting yourself known in business circles. Networking covers networking events and business networking through internet sites such as LinkedIn.com, Ecademy.com. and Ryze.com.
When it comes to career management that's all about networking too as The Guardian's tongue in cheek article tells us.
When it comes to the normal business networking the sooner you get involved the sooner you become accepted as a "proper" businessman.
But what do you need to do and what should you expect from it?
Networking happens when a group of business people meet up to talk and to see whether they can help each other at all.
In the time I've been networking I've found the following three step process reasonably reliable:
On Your Marks: Prepare To Network
2) Think about your aim for being at a networking meeting:
1) First get some good looking business cards that spell out your business.
- Don't "just print" some business cards on your own inkjet/laser
- Don't cross out phone number/emails/names/addresses on existing cards, to save money
- Check that it's clear what your business does/offers
- Make sure you use both sides of the card
- Provide an offer on the card
- Make sure you've phone/fax/mobile/email/web site
- Don't use oversize cards - I can't read them with my card reader!
2) Think about your aim for your networking event:
- Is it to simply get your face known?
- Is it to make contact with someone from a specific firm?
- Is it to help someone else at the meeting?
- Is it to speak at a meeting?
3) Finally, make sure you take a pen and enough business cards with you
Get Set, GO: Network
Now go the event.
- Get yourself a drink to hold in your hand if you tend to fidget
- Get there early if you're a bit nervous - that way you can talk to one or two people as they arrive and before everyone else turns up.
- Get a friend to go with you if you're very nervous
Don't be intimidated by a group of people in earnest discussion. Check whether they're open to other people joining them. You'll see their body language is partially open and if you stop near by they may well pause and give you the opportunity to enter the conversation.
Remember everyone is there for the same purpose. To pickup more business. Yes we may go to chat but we all still have an eye on possible business.
When you speak to people ask about whether this event has helped them. At the same time ask about other networking opportunities they may know about.
Also remember who you speak. That's so that if someone else you speak to has a problem that someone you've spoken to can sort out you can give your new contact their details.
How do you do that? By taking and giving out business cards.
If you promise to help someone write exactly what you promised on their business card so that you can follow up.
At the end of the meeting you should have a pile of business cards.
The Finishing Line: Prepare to Follow-up
When you get back to base enter your new contacts details into a follow-up system. The most basic is probably an Excel spreadsheet. I'd recommend using a card scanner if you intend going to lots of meetings. It helps in the sheer work of entering card details.
As you enter the cards make sure you also note down on your to-do list every promise or action you made and any made by the contacts you made.
Should you follow-up with every single person you met during the meeting?
No.
The reason is that the people you spoke to may have no interest, or use, for your product or service.
BUT the people that they know who are outside the networking meetings you've attended may. If so and if they're consistent networkers they're likely to remember your details and let people know about you.
Also networking is all about allowing people to see what sort of business person you are. How do you handle yourself, are you consistent in your message, do you deliver on your promises.
There are times in networking when you CAN sell your product or services and you'll recognise that time. But don't do what many rookie business networkers do: desperately push business cards and/or leaflets into the hands of everyone at the event as though simply pushing information onto people will help their business.
Believe me it won't and it will damage your credibility.
So go out and have a great time. Opportunities are bountiful.
networking help, career networking, networking event, social networking, Linkedin
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How To Keep Your Projects On Track
Any achiever knows that they're only moving forward and growing whilst they create and deliver new projects
So if you can create and deliver more projects you're going to achieve more.
Simple, don't you think?
It is, and it isn't.
It's simple because the concept is not rocket science.
It's more complex because your busy, busy life can get in the way.
Things can deflect you from your goals.
And there's something you can do to reduce the number of deflections you get. So you stay on the right path for longer.
That means you're moving forward and delivering your projects.
What is it?
FOCUS...
But more than focus. You need a strategic goal to aim for. Without one you'll never know you've drifted off course.
Once you have the strategic goal you focus on it and it gets done.
Because it's strategic it moves you forward.
One of my strategic goals is "to be proactive in educating myself in marketing, business growth and personal development (see my previous post)."
That goal was written down about 10 years ago.
Has it helped me deliver more for myself? - YES!
Of course I attend seminars.
Of course I get and read books.
Of course I listen to CDs and watch DVDS.
I also ensure that the material I use is focused on my strategic goals too.
One of my goals is to know as much as possible about sales and marketing, including advertising and PR. To that end I've used the Achiever's Edge CD a month programme.
I've used it for nearly 8 years.
Why have I kept subscribed for nearly 8 years?
Because it's been informative, it's linked to my strategic goals and it's been a great form of motivation too.
It's worth checking the programme out as Peter Thompson (who runs it) is still offering a great set of downloads for less than a cup of coffee for starting a subscription. Amazingly you can then unsubscribe and still keep the great downloads. I've blogged about the download content before.
So start the New Year with a resolution to educate yourself more go to the Achiever's Edge web site and sign-up now. You'll be pleased you did.
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