Archive for January, 2008

One of Australia’s top copywriters, Pete Godfrey, is going “On The Road” this February and March to present a series of one day seminars called “Turn Words Into Money”.

If you’re a business owner looking to get more out of your marketing or a copywriter looking to boost your skills and add to your “bag of tricks” this is something you will want to attend.

Pete’s holding these one day seminars in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Sydney (he held a “prototype” event in Perth late last year) and the price is ridiculously cheap, in my opinion.

You can get all the details right here…

www.petegodfrey.com/roadtrip

I’ve attended Pete’s events before and he always delivers great material that you can use to make more money from your marketing right now. 

I’ll be at the Sydney event (which is on March 8 ) and looking forward to it.

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OK, January is almost over (gee, what happened to the first month of the year) and Valentine’s Day is fast approaching.  I just received an email from PayPal with a Valentine’s Day promotion.  If you’re going to have a special themed promotion, you need to have it organised NOW!

Looking a little further ahead, Easter comes early this year so start planning now if your marketing calendar is going to include an Easter event.  “Hot Cross Buns” have already appeared in some of my local shops and I’m sure “Easter Eggs” won’t be far behind!

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One of my all time favourite movies is “Heat”.  Written and directed by Michael Mann it stars Al Pacino and Robert de Niro in a crime epic set in LA.  It’s an enthralling, fast-paced movie with a surprising amount of depth to it.  It also contains possibly the best movie shoot-out scene of all time.

Anyway, the movie had already been in my DVD collection for some time.  Over Christmas while in the UK, I noticed a “Special Edition” version.  On my return home I checked out the SE version in an online store and promptly bought it.

Now, I have to confess, this is not the only movie where I have two copies!  And it’s getting a little annoying to notice that the first DVD version of a movie is released a few months after the theatrical release and then a “Special Edition” version comes a few months after that.

However, there’s a marketing lesson in all this. That is, consumers are prepared to pay more than once for essentially the same product, provided there’s some “added value”.

In the case of movie “Special Editions”, rabid fans of a particular movie seem to have an almost insatiable appetite for “more”.  Case in point, the movie “Blade Runner”.  I think there’s already something like 7 different versions of this classic movie around.  This year there’s a new “Anniversary” edition coming out.  And yes, I’ll be getting it even though I already have a version in my library.

So, if you have a successful product that clients like, see if you can come up with a “Special Edition”.  I’d suggest you offer existing clients a great deal if they already have the original version.  Remember, client goodwill is the most important asset of your business.

Quick apology.  In the previous post I promised to reveal the second ”hidden” marketing lesson.  It’s going to have to wait until next time.

Until then… 

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…Insiders Reveal “Trouble Was Brewing For Years!”

Did that headline get your attention?  Even if it is a little, shall we say, “sensational”?  A little “National Enquirer” perhaps?  But if you’ve read this far I’m pretty sure you’re wondering what this is all about.

And there’s a lesson in that of course.  I’ll reveal what this story is all about in a moment. But first let’s look at the question of headlines again.

One of the biggest problems any marketer or copywriter has is getting the attention of their prospect.  Let’s face it, we’re all busy and we’re bombarded by thousands of advertising messages every single day.

So you need to get people’s attention.  And one of the most powerful devices to get attention is curiosity.  One thing though.  When using curiosity make sure you tie it in with something that’s relevant to your audience.  With headlines, for example, curiosity on it’s own is usually not enough.  It needs to be combined with a potential benefit to the reader.

For example “The Remarkable New Breakthrough From Japan That Guarantees A Flawless Complexion”.  If you’re interested in having a flawless complexion, you’ll probably be very curious to know about this breakthrough.

So, use curiosity when you can.  It’s powerful.

Back to the story.  The Copywriting Genius mentioned is none other than Australia’s Pete Godfrey.  When it comes to explaining and putting into practice “Emotional Ad Writing”, Pete is really in a class of his own.  The headline is actually taken from the January 2008 issue of Pete’s “Emotional Ad Writing And Marketing Letter”.  He used it to firstly grab readers’ attention for some announcments and secondly to make the point I talked about in this post.

Part of the news was that Pete has finally got his act together and started up his own blog.  There’s a link in the “Blogroll” on the right of the page and here’s the direct link http://www.petegodfrey.com.

Pete’s a master marketer and well worth listening to.  He’s really in the centre of the action in Direct Response Marketing in Australia so what he shares with you is based on real campaigns and what’s working right now.

Back to the story.  The “Crazed Guru” is a good mate of Pete’s who has been nagging Pete to get a blog going for some time now.  See how the headline makes that simple story so much more compelling?

I mentioned the “National Enquirer” earlier.  They really are the masters at coming up with those kind of compelling headlines.  My mentors such as Pete and David Garfinkel often advise studying such magazines as a great source of headlines.  Advice worth noting.

Did you spot the other copywriting lesson in this post?  All will be revealed in the next post…

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There’s a famous case involving legendary copywriter Claude Hopkins and the Schlitz Beer company.  In his book “My Life In Advertising” Hopkins describes an advertising campaign where he explained the enormous lengths the company went to in making the beer and the great care they took to make the beer as “pure” as possible.

The campaign was a great success and in just a few months Schlitz jumped from fifth place to neck-and-neck with first place.  The amazing thing was that Schlitz wasn’t doing anything significantly different to the other brewers!  However, they were the first to explain to the public what they did and by doing so they secured the position in the public’s mind that their beer was of the highest quality.

There are a number of lessons from this case.  One of them is that it pays to educate your customer in the benefits of your product and its superior features.

Now I’m not talking about “educating” your customers in the sense of arousing in them the understanding that there’s a problem they have that they really should do something about even if it’s not really been a big concern before.  No, no, no!  Remember that we start with the “Conversation that’s already going on” in the potential customers mind.

What I’m talking about is explaining to your customers all the unique and superior benefits of your product and hence why they have to have it.

I was reminded of this the other day when indulging in some purchases at Haigh’s Chocolates in Sydney.  Haigh’s is a small Australian company (based in Adelaide) that makes very high quality chocolate and other confectionery. To my knowledge, they are one of the few companies in the world that makes their chocolate purely from real cocoa beans (most mainstream chocolate brands contain little actual cocoa) and you can taste the difference.

Now Haigh’s go to great lengths to make sure their product reaches the customer in good condition.  In the summer months in Sydney, every purchase is wrapped in a foil bag to help keep the chocolate in good condition.  And on my receipt I noticed this piece of information…

“The optimum temperature for storing chocolate is 15-20 degrees centigrade.  During hot weather avoid leaving chocolate in a parked car and store away from heat and light.”

Little details like this all go to add to and reinforce the perception of quality and that you’re dealing with people who really know and care about chocolate. It helps differentiate Haigh’s and  makes them stand out from the crowd.

So, look for opportunities to showcase in your marketing how your product or service is different or superior.  Remember the Schlitz Beer case.  What you might think is ordinary or commonplace might be something that your customer will value highly.

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