Sales Focused Copywriting For Direct Response Marketers Who Want More Clients...More Sales...More Cash In The Bank!
Been a while since I featured one of Tom Fishburne’s wonderful cartoons…
…and this I think is a classic.
Now, I confess that there are occasions where as a direct response marketer it would be nice to have this kind of offer available to use!
However, there’s a serious marketing point here…
Time for our monthly look ahead for event-based marketing opportunities in August 2011.
Frankly, it’s a lean month both in the northern and southern hemispheres.
In Australia, it’s the middle of winter and in the north it’s the lazy days of summer.
So, you’ll need to look for more offbeat occasions, business-linked reasons and reasons linked specifically to your circumstances.
In Australia, there is a Bank Holiday in NSW on August 1 (quirkily, this is an old-style Bank Holiday where it’s only the banks who have the day off). In Queensland, it’s Queensland Show Day on August 17.
It’s also the Sydney Fashion Festival August 22-26 (apologies to other Australian states for local events I may have missed!)
Elsewhere…
Reminded of one of my favourite marketing themes the other day…
…the need for, and the power of, FOCUS.
Happened when I noticed an ad for Snap printers making a big thing about all the new services they offer.
Their tagline is…
…”We do more”…
…which gives you a clue as to the problem.
More of what?
For who?
Why?
What’s it going to do for me?
When you look more closely, you discover that Snap are offering a number of services such as design and customisation…
…plus marketing advice.
A “complete marketing solution” in fact, whatever that means.
So what’s the problem here?
Split testing, also known as A/B testing, is the process of having two identical pages (except for one change) rotate randomly to see which one generates more sales (or opt ins, or whatever the goal of the landing page).
A little piece of code called a “cookie” is stored on their computer, so if they return to your page again, they will always see the same page where they originally landed. This is important because you don’t want them coming to your landing page and seeing one deal, then returning later and seeing another.
Whenever you contemplate making a change, you should always split test the change against the control (the control page is the one that is generating the most sales or opt ins or whatever). The object of split testing is to always try to beat your control. Then the one that beat it becomes the new control, and the process starts again.
If you take away anything from this tip about split testing, it should be this: Split testing is an ongoing process. It never ends. You should always try to beat your control. Sometimes one small change will make a big difference. This is especially true when split testing headlines, because more than 5 times as many people read your headline than they do your copy. So headlines are a good start to get the biggest bang for your efforts.
In fact…
…plus a couple of other marketing observations on this, the first day of the second half of 2011!
In no particular order…
1. The last few days as I’ve been out on my morning walk, I’ve noticed an ad on the side of a passing bus. At first glance, it contains only the headline or phrase “Impeccable Taste”. No obvious call to action. Today, I notice that tucked away in the bottom right hand corner of the ad is a website address (I confess, I’ve already forgotten what it is…I’ll update when I can).
Firstly, the ad itself isn’t compelling copy. But making matters worse is the wimpy call to action and then, in effect, hiding it away!
Now the ad may be very “tasteful” but that’s not going to get results. Always remember in your advertising and marketing that you want to (a) make it very clear what you want people to do and (b) make it easy for them to do so.
2. Next…