Tip for September 1, 2004

Your e-mail address "advertises" you--for better or for worse. Does your e-mail address make your identity clear to your e-mail recipients? Today. because of spam--unsolicited e-mail advertising--and fear of e-mail viruses-many people routinely delete e-mail from sources they don't recognize. Don't let this happen to you. Ensure that your e-mails get read by using an e-mail return address that's unambiguously you.

Tip for September 2, 2004

Three color printing at a two color price One of the best ways to save money is to cover the majority of the "billboard" side of a postcard with a solid color--like yellow, and use black ink for the text placed against the yellow background. To create the appearance of a third color, reverse text set at large size--like the headline--against the colored background. This techniques creates the appearance of a third color--white--where there is neither black nor the yellow background color.

Tip for September 3, 2004

More proof that education sells, Part 1 of 2 Today, my copy of a catalogue from Freestyle Photographic Supplies arrived, hard-to-find specialty items and supplies for professional photographers. The front cover contained a list of the firm's Board of Advisors plus topics they had written for the catalog. The table of contents listed the article title plus the page of the catalog where the article was to be found. These short articles converted a "selling" publication--which might have a short shelf-life--into a "reference" publication which I am likely to keep until the next issue appears.

Tip for September 4, 2004

Resolve customer complaints! Customers whose complaint was resolved had a repurchase intention rate of 54 percent. Of those who had their complaints resolved quickly, 82 percent expressed the intention to buy again.

Tip for September 5, 2004

Do you write a lot? If you've just about worn out your dictionary or thesaurus, you'll be happy to discover www.dictionary.com. It's a fast way to find out what ten online dictionaries have to say about a word, or when you want to locate an alternative word. Best of all, you can add a dictionary.com search box to your Internet Explorer toolbar, so you don't even have to go to dictionary.com to locate the right word.

Tip for September 6, 2004

More proof that education sells, Part 2 of 2 There's more to the short articles in the Freestyle Photographic Supplies than just their educational value. Several of the articles mentioned that longer, more detailed, versions of the articles could be found on the individual photographer's web sites. This is an excellent example of what Jay calls Fusion Marketing at work. The publication gets valuable editorial content for free, and the photographers drive qualified traffic to their web site for free. A win-win situation for all!

Tip for September 7, 2004

Print vs. electronic books: Which format sells best online? The short answer is print. By 80%. But, while you are fussing about format, most buyers aren't. Delivery method is secondary. The value and benefit to readers is the information. If they want info, they’re going to go online and try to find it, then ask, 'great, how is it sold? Can I get it delivered?' Publishers make a mistake when they think they are selling books. They are not. They are selling information or entertainment. When they begin to look at what they own that way, they can see other ways to slice, dice, and deliver.

Tip for September 8, 2004

Offer your web site visitors visuals, instead of words Visuals communicate at a glance, encouraging more action than words alone. One of the most useful applications of this is clickable maps that visitors can use to locate resources in a desired part of the country or--for retailers--part of the store. An example of this can be found at . Note how much faster it is to click on the map at the right, instead of the words on the left.

Tip for September 9, 2004

Putting color to work in Mind Maps As Will Reed, from www.b-smart.com mentioned in a recent e-mail to me, many Mind Mapping software programs assign arbitrary colors as new branches are added. The result can be a "circus" of colors, decorative, but not informative. Instead, as Will mentions, change line, background, and text colors to indicate importance, sequence, category or importance.

Tip for September 10, 2004

Refresh your newsletter testimonials Rotate your testimonials when preparing your One-Page Newsletters. Introduce new testimonials as receive them. In addition, insert older testimonials that you received a while back. Each issue of your newsletter is likely to be read by new prospects, who are unfamiliar with the older testimonials.

Tip for September 11, 2004

Besides newspapers and magazines, newsletters and ezines, send your press releases and articles to your Chamber of Commerce and other business or trade associations.

Tip for September 12, 2004

The first words that appear at the top of your home page should immediately engage your visitors. Your home page headline should show your visitors that you empathize with them. Your headline should show your visitor you understand their problems and can offer them a solution. The language should be as conversational as possible.

Tip for September 13, 2004

Create an easily located testimonial folder Valuable testimonials are easily lost. When you receive praise from a client in a letter or e-mail, immediately copy and paste it to a Word document and save it in your Testimonial folder. Use a filename that identifies the name of the individual who praised your quality and service. This is especially important when kind words are buried in longer letters and e-mails which you might inadvertently misplace.

Tip for September 14, 2004

Distribute handouts after online presentations After using online visuals to support a teleconference or telephone sales presentation, distribute PDF copies of the original presentation visuals to prospects and attendees. Audience handouts are as necessary for online presentations as they are for in-person presentations.

Tip for September 15, 2004

Personalize your e-mails Guerrillas recognize and respect the power of personalization. When inviting visitors to your web site to register their e-mail address, also invite them to submit their first name. Then, set up your e-mail program to automatically insert their first name when sending out e-mails announcing the availability of your latest One-Page Newsletter on your web site. "Dear Fred:" or "Dear Mary" is far friendlier than a "Dear Colleague" or--worse--"Dear Customer."

Tip for September 16, 2004

Allowing customers to express themselves My local health club has a "Comments" box and a supply of forms for members to express their pleasure or their dissatisfaction about the facility. The form begins with a simple "triage" set of check-boxes which members can use as shorthand to express their present frame of mind. Options are: * Impressed * Surprised * A Bit annoyed * Very mad * Just wanted to suggest... These options help categorize comments, but, more important, encourage shorter responses. By providing me with a "Very mad" option, I was able to devote space to explaining the problem, rather than explaining how frustrated I was. In doing so, my anger began to dissipate as I wrote. Guerrillas always solicit feedback. Here's how to solicit it most efficiently.

Tip for September 17, 2004

Educating to Plant Seed of Future Sales One of the best examples of proactive market education can be found at www.bhphotovideo.com. Select any camera or major product, and tabs appear for "Accessories," "Features," "Specifications," and "Item includes." Click "Accessories," and you'll find detailed descriptions of every accessory that could increase the utility and pleasure the product offers. The cost (and profitability) of these recommended accessories, i.e., batteries, power supplies, viewfinders, filters, remote cords, lens caps, etc., can quickly convert a low-margin sale into a highly profitable one. Does your web site make it easy to cross-sell and up-sell buyers?

Tip for September 18, 2004

Discounting can have a negative psychological impact on both seller and buyer. Consider raising your price instead.

Tip for September 19, 2004

Does your name tell a story? The best names tell a story. They emphasize the principal benefit offered by your product or service. Or they target their intended market. When a name tells a story, it's a meme. Consider these Sears & Roebuck brands: * Weather Beater paints. * Craftsmen tools * Die Hard batteries

Tip for September 20, 2004

Which of these techniques can increase readership of a newsletter, earn you valuable media coverage, get people into astore and boost traffic at a website? a. a crossword puzzle b. a quiz c. a contest d. inviting letters from the public e. all of the above The correct answer is "e."

Tip for September 21, 2004

Implement a system that enables front-line employees to pass along ideas for better satisfying customers or capitalizing on new needs. Many companies reward every such suggestion with a twenty-dollar bill. Others bestow Employee-of-the-Month recognition on those taking such initiative.

Tip for September 22, 2004

Using a Bonus to Increase Sales, Part 1 of 6 Sports Illustrated has been using a bonus to attract subscribers. Here's the deal: you subscribe to Sports Illustrated for a year, and you get a free bonus video entitled: "Cure Your Slice Now!" The first thing to notice is that the radio campaign emphasizes the bonus, not the "product" itself, i.e., the 12 monthly issues of Sports Illustrated. When you hear the ad, it's as if the 12 monthly issues were the bonus, and the video was the product itself. The lesson? Perhaps you should reexamine your product and service offerings, and experiment with switching the status of your "products" and "bonuses."

Tip for September 23, 2004

Using a Bonus to Increase Sales, Part 2 of 6 The title of Sports Illustrated's bonus video is: "Cure Your Slice Now." Examine the video's title. It begins with the imperative, or command, word: "Cure." This emphasizes the fact that you will benefit from taking the action. Next, notice the "you." "You" always attracts the reader's interest, as it speaks directly to them. "Slice" is a common frustration among golfers. "Now" emphasizes immediacy, a quick cure. Four carefully chosen words combine to create one very powerful title.

Tip for September 24, 2004

Using a Bonus to Increase Sales, Part 3 of 6 To add impact to the "Cure Your Slice Now!" title of Sports Illustrated's subscription bonus offer, they added an exclamation point at the end of the title. Although exclamation points are the most frequently overused punctuation marks, in this case the punctuation mark adds impact to the immediacy of the offer, summed up in the last word of the title, i.e., "Now."

Tip for September 25, 2004

The six most valuable tricks of one writer’s trade. 1. I don’t start within an idea but a line or image with an unresolved tension. 2. I write for surprise, not what I know, but what I do not yet know. 3. I write out loud. My voice instructs. 4. I write fast to outrun the censor and cause the instructive failures necessary to effective writing. 5. I try to anticipate and answer the questions the reader will ask, 6. I revise by developing my strengths more than by correcting errors.

Tip for September 26, 2004

Join an Association: People join associations for one of three reasons: 1) Social - they want to maintain friendships and influences that may have taken years to build; 2) Promotional - they want to offer their own products or services to others in the industry in a cost effective and positive way; 3) Educational - they want to see what competition is up to, and find out about the latest developments within the industry.

Tip for September 27, 2004

Using a Bonus to Increase Sales, Part 4 of 6 Returning to the use of the word, "Slice," in the title of the Sports Illustrated bonus, it's worth emphasizing that "slice" immediately resonates among golfers because it is a problem shared by most amateur, and advanced amateur, golfers. It's also a shorter, more visual word, than "putting," which may be a near runner-up in terms of frustration, but is a longer word and not as dramatically colorful as a word which brings to mind the embarrassment of golf balls lost in the woods--or ending up on different fairways. Months of market research probably preceded the use of a single four-letter word. Lesson: What's your market's number one frustration? Can it be summer up in one colorful word?

Tip for September 28, 2004

Using a Bonus to Increase Sales, Part 5 of 6 Note that the Sports Illustrated subscription bonus is a video, used to increase sales of a printed magazine. Basically, "new technology" is being used to sell an "old technology, paper-based" product. Lesson: are there ways you could harness new technology, i.e., MP-3 audio downloads, PDF files, web-based presentations, as a tool to sell your "older technology" products or services?

Tip for September 29, 2004

Using a Bonus to Increase Sales, Part 6 of 6 The final lesson involves avoiding an upfront investment in bonus inventory. Because the Sports Illustrated bonus is a video, and it's relatively inexpensive to print and mail an additional copy of a magazine, the economics of the Sports Illustrated promotion are very cost effective. By using a video as a bonus, which can be "duplicated on demand," in contrast to printing thousands of copies of a bonus book and hoping demand will materialize, Sports Illustrated is protected from a heavy investment in a bonus which doesn't generate great demand.

Tip for September 30, 2004

Using a Bonus to Increase Sales, Bonus Point Sports Illustrated "Cure Your Slice Now!" subscription bonus was announced on the radio. This indicates the campaign may not have been paid for--in the sense of "buying some ads," but the station may be reimbursed on a "per inquiry" basis--i.e. the radio station is paid a portion of the direct sales generated by the ads. If the ads sell a lot, Sports Illustrated pays a lot. But, if the ads don't sell, Sports Illustrated doesn't pay--or pays only a portion of the ads "list price." As a result, Sports Illustrated avoids expensive commitment. The lesson, of course, is: "How can you apply the "per inquiry" sales model to your products and services?