There’s one tip to use when you create your business card that will make ’em stand out from the rest, plus you’ll get better response from the people who see them, because they will actually read them and keep them.

When I say this, most people think:

“Okay, I’ll make sure to use full color on both sides using heavy, glossy stock.”

“Then I’ll put in some really cool, eye-catching graphics and colors. That will surely get people’s attention.”

So what’s the big deal? Everyone seemingly knows these tricks. (if that’s what you call them)

Well…you are right. Business cards designed with those features will get people’s attention…for a minute – only because they might be flashy and look nice – not because they necessarily want to do business with you.

But don’t you hand out business cards so people will know what you do, remember you, keep your card, and give you new business?

My tip actually serves a more useful marketing purpose: It gets their attention, but it also immediately tells them how you can help them with your product or service.

Tip: Instead of putting your name and/or company name in big bolded letters, (like most cards do), use a direct response type headline instead.

Basically – Write a headline that shows people how your business will benefit them if they use it.

And if you pair a great headline in a big bold font with a nice picture of yourself (for secondary branding purposes), you’ll get more business because people will see a big benefit right away, while your competitor’s cards only sport their name and company. 

Here’s an example using my own business card: (which, by the way, has caught more than one of my current client’s attention)

Effective Business Card With Headline

It quickly conveys how I can help my clients get new clients by writing “words that sell”. If my company name was there instead, all it would tell someone is that I probably offered something to do with marketing, and that’s it.

So – what can you do different with your business card?

Get your propect’s attention – in a good way – so they will keep know what you can do to help them?

Remember:  They’re thinking – “What’s in it for me!”

What do you think about this technique? Have you used it or another successfully?

Let me know.

To get more information about writing effective sales copy, about this post, marketing advice, or about my direct response copywriting services, e-mail me or call me at 603-686-5140.

Also visit www.webcontentNH.com for help with Website design, writing SEO copy, e-mail marketing, or other online marketing strategies.

To your marketing success!

Merrill Clark
Website and Marketing Copywriter
Crestview Marketing Services LLC

I often get asked about how to make sure the reader opens the envelope in a direct mail campaign.

I say – “To tease…or not to tease”

That is the question, isn’t it?

When you mail out sales letters or fundraising letters, your first challenge (and sometimes biggest hurdle) is to get the prospect to open the envelope before they toss it in the trash can.

So what’s the best way to get them to open it?

Well – it depends.

You could try the plain envelope approach with no teaser copy at all, making sure it looks as much like a personal letter as possible. Most people will open an envelope if they think it’s personal in nature.

Or you could put some teaser copy on it that screams “Open ME to see what I’ve got for you. This obviously is a sales pitch, but if the copy is powerful and intriguing enough, they have to open it to read more about it.

In this approach, the only purpose of the tease is to get people to open the envelope. That’s it!

So which one works best?

Like I said before – it depends. There is no cut and dry answer. The only way to know is to split test using both ways and see which one pulls more, making sure everything else is identical except the envelopes.

I’d like to get your comments and experiences about using or not using teaser copy. Just let me know how it’s worked for you.

To get more information about writing effective sales copy, about this post, marketing advice, or about my direct response copywriting services, e-mail me or call me at 603-686-5140.

Also visit www.webcontentNH.com for help with Website design, writing SEO copy, e-mail marketing, or other online marketing strategies.

To your marketing success!

Merrill Clark
Website and Marketing Copywriter
Crestview Marketing Services LLC

Do at least 80% or more of your customers stay with you year after year – or do they jump ship to your competition as soon as a better offer comes along?

If you have to think about the answer,  you most likely have some work to do. 

And one of the biggest things you can do is this:

Make sure your company promotes non-stop customer loyalty by providing a superior total customer experience – from the time they first learn about you – till they become and continue to be loyal customers.

People like to be treated with respect, feel like they’re dealing with a company that actually cares about their wants and needs, and to be dealt with by competent people.

If they aren’t getting each one of these – chances are they’ll jump ship to your competition the second they offer a “better deal”.

Think about companies such as L.L. Bean and Disney… Both provide unmatched customer service from every employee, from maintenance to phone order takers.

They are all trained to be customer advocates, no matter their primary job functions are.

And they consistently go the extra mile by being flexible and compassionate, taking care of their customers at almost any cost.

That’s why they are always at the top of customer satisfaction surveys, and why customers remain customers.

Conservative estimates are that it costs seven times as much to get a new customer than to keep a current customer!

Talk about Return on Investment! (for the companies that practice great service)

Ramp up your customer service skills and watch your customers continue to buy from you – not your main competitor down the street.

To get more information about developing trust and relationships, about this post, marketing advice, or about my direct response copywriting services, e-mail me or call me at 603-686-5140.

Visit www.webcontentNH.com for Website design, SEO copy, or online marketing strategies.

To your marketing success!

Merrill Clark
Website and Marketing Copywriter
Crestview Marketing Services LLC

Writing short original and informative articles about your area of expertise has been proven to get more visitors to your web site. Plus it gives you the added advantage of being perceived as an expert in your field.

And if you think about it – being seen as an expert surely can’t hurt you, can it?

Some have more time than money to spend on developing a business or building traffic to a website, and article marketing is one of the best techniques that you can use.

So… exactly how do you go about this whole thing then?

There are online article submission directories that accept articles. One of the most common and well respected ones is EzineArticles.com. Many of them will let you submit articles for free.

For more article submission sites, just Google “article submission sites” and you’ll come up with a ton of them.

Writing articles is give and take.

You “give” in the article content, making sure not to obviously market yourself. Make sure you give valuable information to the readers. After all, that’s why they’re there in the first place.

Your “take” is what’s called the resource box, which is a place where you can usually display a short bio, maybe a picture, a tagline, and the URL of your website.

The resource box is the only place you can openly promote yourself and your website.

Here’s a short interview where author and coach Roger C. Parker of www.publishedandprofitable.com  discusses advantages of articles at http://blog.ezinearticles.com/2009/06/roger-c-parker-member-spotlight.html.

The biggest advantages of article writing are a) they’re usually free, b) if you have a good article and resource box, you’ll get more clicks to your web site, and c) you will be seen as an expert.

The disadvantage is you have to spend the time to write and submit the articles. But…if you have more time than money to promote yourself – this won’t be a problem, will it?

So what are you waiting for? Start writing today.

To get more information about how to write effective articles and resource boxes that can increase your traffic, sales materials that develop trust and relationships, about this post, marketing advice, or about my direct response copywriting services, e-mail me or call me at 603-686-5140.

Visit www.webcontentNH.com for Website design, SEO copy, or online marketing strategies.

To your marketing success!

Merrill Clark
Website and Marketing Copywriter
Crestview Marketing Services LLC

Getting a new client from your marketing campaign is just like getting a new boyfriend or girlfriend.

Think about it for a second:

When you are scouring the landscape for a mate, what’s the first thing you see one you like? Their looks, of course.

Well – their physical looks are just like the attention-getting headline in an ad or sales copy for your product or service.

It’s step #1. “Get their attention“.

Now the other person has got your attention with their “looks”, you talk with them and see if they’re interested, too.

If you’ve got that far, the next logical step is to talk them into going out on a first date, isn’t it?

From the marketing side, that’s the equivalent of  getting your prospect to read the first sentence or paragraph of the ad or sales copy.  They will determine if it’s still important enough to them to keep reading.

Now, back to the dating scene – if all goes well (and I hope it does, I do have feelings, ya know), you’ll go on a second date, and a third one, and so on and so one until, well, you become an “item.”

Before a new client opens their wallet, they need to trust you, and you do that by developing a relationship. 

Now – something else to think about…

Do you know what the real purpose of all those dates were? Come on now, at least give me a guess.

Okay– The biggest reason was to … build a relationship and trust!

Wow! Just like your sales copy and marketing processes should do.

I mean, people buy things more often from companies (and people) they like and trust. It’s human nature.

So…Is your sales copy, ads, web sites, postcards, and whatever other materials doing a reasonably good job at developing trust and building up a relationship with your prospects?

Or…

Do you just talk about yourself and how good you are, not giving a second thought to the person reading it or what they might be looking for?

It’s a powerful and valid question, though.

Think about this, too… Do you go up to the boy or girl you were attracted to and immediately ask them to marry you?

No. (not usually anyway, unless alcohol is involved)

With dating or business – The more time spent developing the trust and relationship, the more successful it will be!

To get more information about how to develop effective sales materials that develop trust and relationships, about this post, marketing advice, or about my direct response copywriting services, e-mail me or call me at 603-686-5140.

Visit www.webcontentNH.com for Website design, SEO copy, or online marketing strategies.

To your marketing success!

Merrill Clark
Website and Marketing Copywriter
Crestview Marketing Services LLC

If your target audience doesn’t “get” your ads, they sure as heck ain’t gonna work!

For example: While watching a TV ad for Volkswagen recently, I chuckled, but my wife just sat there and looked at me like I had three heads.

The particular part of this commercial was comparing the engine sounds of their new car with the sound made by this other guy’s new hybrid. The VW sounded like vroom, vroom, vroom, while the other guy said his sounded like swoosh swoosh, all air.

Anyway, I chuckled because I knew what the comparison was and what a hybrid could sound like…but my wife – well, she didn’t. So she had no idea why the guy was making the swooshing sound and was completely confused, so the commercial made absolutely no sense to her, at least until I told her.

So all you advertisers out there: Remember to make sure your ads don’t confuse your target market. Make sure they understand all the elements in your ad and you’ll have a much better chance to get their attention and convert them to customers.

If they are bored or confused, you’ll surely never see ’em buying your goods.

To get more information about how to develop effective ads for your business, about this post, marketing advice, or about my direct response copywriting services, e-mail me or call me at 603-686-5140.

Visit www.webcontentNH.com for Website design, SEO copy, or online marketing strategies.

To your marketing success!

Merrill Clark
Website and Marketing Copywriter
Crestview Marketing Services LLC

Have you taken an objective look at your customer service policies lately? Or have you been on the front lines answering your own customer complaints?

If you haven’t, I suggest you do. And I would do it sooner than later, especially if you aren’t up to date on who in your company is saying what to your customers.

My recent experience with a local restaurant brings this issue to the top of my mind and I want to share it with you. You’ve probably ran into a very similar one with a company you weren’t entirely pleased with yourself.

My wife and I, with 10 other friends made reservations at a very busy restaurant on a Saturday night. To make a long story short, they screwed up the reservations.

We ended up waiting for 2 long hours for a table, and when we finally were seated, there was only room for 8. Then, they offered to give the other 4 a separate table, the whole time knowing we wanted to sit together as a group.

The service was lackluster, to say the least.  Friendly, but not attentive, only checking on us one time during the entire meal.

Needless to say, we were not impressed.

The next day, I emailed the owner describing our dissatisfaction. I didnt even get a response..until three weeks later.

And his response?

“I’m sorry about the misunderstanding. You should have asked to talk with a manager (which, by the way, we did). Hopefully it won’t happen again next time you visit us”.

Woaa… It definitely wont happen again! No question about it – because my wife and I, ten of our good friends, and most likely a few of their friends will never go back!  They just conservatively lost 15 customers, all because of poor customer service, and worse yet it was from the owner.

Pretty impressive response huh? And from the owner himself. I guess he can cook, but he surely doesn’t have a clue about how to treat customers so they will come back again.

Great customer service has to start from the top. Now we didn’t complain to get a bunch of free meals out of the deal, but a sincere apology with maybe a coupon would have gone a long way.

But instead, he made me feel like it was my fault because they screwed up.

So, the moral of this week’s rambling is this:

Take care of and care about the satisfaction of your customers. Do what you have to in order to keep them happy, because they are your business. They pay your paychecks! If you don’t, trust me, they will be more than happy to spend there money  at your competition.

To get more information about how to develop and implement a customer service and marketing plan for your business, about this post, marketing advice, or about my direct response copywriting services, e-mail me or call me at 603-686-5140.

Visit www.webcontentNH.com for Website design, SEO copy, or online marketing strategies.

To your marketing success!

Merrill Clark
Website and Marketing Copywriter
Crestview Marketing Services
www.crestviewmarketing.com

You see, advertising is not the same thing as marketing, and marketing is not advertising.

But if you ask 100 business owners if they mean the same thing, I’d be willing to bet that 90 of them will probably say they are – but they’d be wrong!

Sure…they are closely related and are often used in the same sentence, but they mean totally different things.

So I’m going to give you my quick, down and dirty definitions so you understand the importance of each term and how they work together.

Marketing is the broad, overall strategy used to generate more prospects and sales for your business.

Advertising, on the other hand is a technique, component, or tactic you might use in your marketing efforts.

For example:

Your company’s marketing strategy may include your lead generating website, direct mail letters or postcards, email campaigns, PPC ads, local network business groups, radio and TV spots, billboards, and Yellow Page ads, and door hangers. (as well as many other available methods).

Advertising is just one necessary component of your marketing plan. The Yellow Page ads or newspaper ads are considered advertising. Banner ads in the online editions of your local paper would be considered advertising, too. The Chamber of Commerce wouldn’t be.

The bottom line is you need to use advertising methods in addition to other techniques as part of your overall marketing plan or strategy.

To successfully increase your business, you really need to have a well thought out and effective marketing plan, because if you fail to plan – you plan to fail.

To get more information about how to develop and implement a marketing plan for your business, about this post, marketing advice, or about my direct response copywriting services, e-mail me or call me at 603-686-5140.

To your marketing success!

Merrill Clark
Website and Marketing Copywriter
Crestview Marketing Services
www.crestviewmarketing.com

Visit www.webcontentNH.com for Website design, SEO copy, or online marketing strategies.

Sales letters, ads, postcards, website content…Who reads ‘em anyway?

Not a machine – but a real live person with real feelings and a personality!

Think about this: How many ads or direct mail pieces do you get that looks like it was written by a machine, dry, with no excitement or personality at all?

Did you enjoy reading it, or better yet, did you read it at all?

Many businesses make this mistake (especially when mailing to other businesses) because they think their sales copy should be “professional” and dry, instead of exciting and compelling to the reader.

But think about it, who wants to read a boring letter? Wouldn’t it be better if your prospect wanted to read it because it engaged them by being more personal?

You see, even the executive managers and purchasing agents have lives and feelings. Your sales copy has to appeal to those feelings so they will read and react to your offers.

And if it doesn’t, well… in the trash it will go!

So – put some life into your sales copy, and you’ll have a much higher chance of getting your copy read and getting a new lead or customer.

To get more information about writing sales copy that won’t bore your readers to death, about this post, marketing advice, or about my direct response copywriting services, e-mail me or call me at 603-686-5140.

To your marketing success!

Merrill Clark
Website and Marketing Copywriter
Crestview Marketing Services LLC

For website design & copy or online marketing strategies, visit www.webcontentNH.com.