Tip for October 1, 2004

Panera Breads Profits from Sampling I am currently hooked on Panera Bread's asiago cheese bagels. The flavor is very compelling. Six months ago, I had never heard of asiago cheese. But, Panera always had samples of their bagels on a table near the door. After I sampled it several times, I tried a bagel, and found myself hooked. How do you encourage your market to "sample" your products and services? Do you make it easy for prospects to consistently "sample" your offerings, too, until they're "hooked?"

Tip for October 2, 2004

Get an toll-free number. People are seven times as likely to phone if the call is toll-free.

Tip for October 3, 2004

Subject lines are as important to e-mail as headlines are to advertisements and letters. Successful direct marketers--those who measure their success by the amount of goods sold--often spend up to half of the time they invest in a project on the headline. If your e-mail subject lines fail to offer a benefit, your e-mail is likely to go unread- -or be immediately deleted. When sending a newsletter, for example, don't use a subject line that says: "My July Newsletter." Instead, describe the benefit that your readers will enjoy when they read your newsletter, i.e., "6 reasons 1 page newsletters are better than 4 page newsletters."

Tip for October 4, 2004

Airlines Suggest Alternatives--Do You? On several airline web sites, the site will suggest adjacent, alternative cities which offer scheduling and pricing options. Often, the mileage from the original airport to the suggested alternative is shown, so you can see that driving 80 miles, for example, will save you $199 in round trip savings. Do you offer alternatives to accommodate prospects who tell you they are interested in your product or service, but are not comfortable with one, or more, aspects of your offering. Do you offer less-expensive, or "Lite," versions of your full program for those seeking a less expensive alternative?

Tip for October 5, 2004

Thinking from the Prospects Perspective When you visit the web sites of some airlines, you're expected to know the airport code for your departure and arrival cities, i.e., SFO for San Francisco International Airport, or ORD for O'hare Airport in Chicago. Often, you have to go to a different screen to locate the necessary airport code. On other sites, however, they either offer a pulldown menu of city choices, or will let you simply enter the name of the city. What's your equivalent of "ORD" and "SFO?" On your web site, and throughout all of your marketing communications, do you speak your prospect's language, or do you speak in "code?"

Tip for October 6, 2004

Making the Most of "Waiting Time" on your web site In checking schedules and fares between Boston and Seattle on the Alaska Airlines site, I was impressed by the promotion that appeared while the database was preparing a list of flight options. Instead of looking at a spinning symbol, I was reading a short and to-the-point popup for their frequent flyer telling me how to get 1,000 bonus miles. If you have a database driven web site, do you make similar good use of your web site's processing time?

Tip for October 7, 2004

Online Courtesy from Alaska Airlines It's a simple point, but I was further impressed by the Alaska Airlines site when I entered a tentative October date for my "Leaving On" Date, instead of the current month's default, the "Returning On" default automatically changed from September to October. Likewise, if I selected a November departure date, the Return default month was automatically updated to a November date. A simple point, perhaps, but one that saved a few extra keystrokes and communicated a "passenger first" image. Question: Does your web site offer similar courtesies to your visitors?

Tip for October 8, 2004

Promote Upcoming Events on Your Answering Machine If all you're doing on your telephone answering machine is expressing regret that you are not available to take a call, you're missing an important sales opportunity. Keep your message fresh, and generate some additional interest, by always mention new and upcoming events on your answering machine. Topics to mention include workshops, teleseminars, new books, or your latest newsletter topics. Taking full advantage of your answer machine message was suggested by Jenny Hamby, www.seminarmarketingpro.com, a previous guest on a Wednesday night call.

Tip for October 9, 2004

TEN ADVERTISING IDEAS WITH LONGEVITY 1. Maytag's lonely repaiman 2. Starkist's Charlie The Tuna 4. Allstate's good hands 3. Pillsbury's Doughboy 5. United's friendly skies 6. Green Giant's ho ho ho 7. Merrill Lynch's bull 8. The Dreyfus Fund's Lion 9. Marlboro's cowboy 10. Energizer's bunny

Tip for October 10, 2004

Packaging and identity Guerrilla Marketers know that the best time to make a follow-up sale is immediately following the original sale. The more time that goes by after an initial sale, the less likely a follow-up sale will be. That’s why Morgan Press, Manchester, NH, delivers printed brochures and newsletters packed in white cartons with a large red logo. The boxes look like they contain fine jewelry from Tiffany’s. How much would Morgan Press save if they delivered brochures and newsletters in unmarked brown corrugated boxes, or—worse—in the boxes paper often comes in from paper manufacturers? Initially, they’d lose nothing. But, over time, their reputation would erode because cheap packaging materials fail to deliver a positive or reinforcing message. When contemplating economies, Guerrillas must be careful not to save money in ways that undermine the identity they want to convey to their clients’ or prospects’ minds. Take-away. How do you “package” your product or service? Is there a way you can deliver your product or service in a way that makes a positive statement?

Tip for October 11, 2004

Multipart Newsletter Topics, Part 1 of 3 Topics do not have to be limited to individual newsletters. When addressing a major issue, such as sales incentives, newsletter design, motivation in the face of setbacks, consider splitting the topic of two, or more, individual issues. This provides you with space to develop the topic in more detail. Each issue can explore a different aspect of the topic.

Tip for October 12, 2004

Multipart Newsletter Topics, Part 2 of 3 When sending multipart newsletters, and posting them on your web site, always remind readers of the individual issue's context. On the front and back pages, remind readers that they're receiving one of a series of newsletters addressing a major topic. Whenever possible, remind visitors of the contents of the previous newsletter, and build anticipation for the next issue to appear. These context messages can be placed both on the newsletter itself, as well as the covering letter announcing the newsletter's availability as a web site download or e-mail attachment.

Tip for October 13, 2004

Multipart Newsletter Topics, Part 3 of 3 Use multipart newsletters as the core of Special Reports, teleconferences, e-books, and workshops. Always prepare your newsletters in a way that allows you to recycle the information at a later date, using it as the basis for larger projects. Once you have identified a major topic of interest to your market, and developed a 2, 3, 4, or 5 part series, use the original newsletters as outlines for chapters in a larger publication, or installments in an autoresponder series, e-course, or telecourse. Just be sure you go deeper into the topic each time you revisit it.

Tip for October 14, 2004

Selling Your Newsletters Guerrilla Marketers know that it's not enough to write and create a perfect newsletter, they know they have to "sell" it to their market. This selling takes place in the e-mail which announces the availability of new issues available for downloading from their web site, as well as e-mails carrying the newsletters as attachments. Your clients and prospects are too busy to download and read anything other than what's urgent and important. By stressing the importance of your newsletter contents, and--whenever possible--relating it to current news events, you can great increase your newsletter's readership.

Tip for October 15, 2004

If You Got It, Flaunt It! Whenever you come across tangible expressions of your commitment or success, don't keep them a secret--share them with your clients or prospects. Will Reed, www.gmarketing-genius.com and www.b-smart.net, just reached a milestone--he's entering the second year of publishing his monthly newsletters. Rather than keep it a secret, Will very properly announced the achievement of 48 issues of two newsletters--two newsletters, English and Japanese versions of each--in the covering letter announcing his latest issue. In itself, not a big thing, except insofar as it reinforces Will's professionalism and commitment which will make him a bit more desirable and memorable to clients and prospects.

Tip for October 16, 2004

Irrigating your market with information Farmers rarely flood their crops all at once. Instead, throughout the growing season, farmers irrigate their crops with just enough water to provide nutrients, but not so much they drown their crops or wash them away. In a similar way, Guerrilla Marketers deliver information in slow, but steady, increments. This “slow and steady” approach maintains their awareness among their market and also avoids delivering more information than the market can absorb at one time. Drip irrigation also allows you to build tighter bonds with clients and prospects. For example, instead of sending a newsletter entitled--for example--“The 10 Biggest Newsletter Marketing Mistakes,” consider sending a newsletter with “The 3 Biggest Newsletter Marketing Mistakes.” This could conclude with a reference to an autoresponder or e-mail address where those who want to learn the missing 7 points can go to learn more. This scenario also provides feedback on the popularity of the topic as well as which particular clients or prospects are interested in the topic.

Tip for October 17, 2004

Never argue with results. If a team member goes about achieving their objective in an unconventional way, reward them anyway. What works for you may not work for them. Encourage your people to take responsibility for achieving their objectives, reward them progressively, and stand back.

Tip for October 18, 2004

Avoiding Unintentional Spacing, 1 of 3 After completing a major project, and doing extensive editing, select your software program's "Find & Replace" feature (under the Editing menu) and instruct your program to locate every instance of two spaces in a row, and replace each instance with a single space. By now, you've probably aware of the importance of not inserting two spaces after each period. However, two spaces in a row often show up after deleting or moving individual words. You'll be surprised at what a difference "tight" copy can make, especially if your body copy is set justified (i.e. lines of each length).

Tip for October 19, 2004

Avoid Unintentional Spacing, Part 2 of 3 After editing and proofing an e-book or newsletter, select "Find and Replace" from the Edit menu and instruct your software program to search for every instance of two Hard Returns (created by pressing the Enter key twice). Paragraph spacing should be inserted using the FOrmat>Paragraph>Space After command, not by pressing the Enter key twice. Pressing the Enter key twice creates too much space between paragraphs. Often, two spaces are inadvertently added when moving paragraphs around. Eliminating the duplicate spaces will clarify the organization and information hierarchy of your publication.

Tip for October 20, 2004

Avoid Unintentional Spacing, Part 3 of 3 Ever notice how the line spacing in the last line of a paragraph appears somehow different? Often, it appears as if extra white space were inserted above the last line. Yet, if you examine the Paragraph and line spacing specifications, you won't see a reason for the extra space. Eliminate the unwanted space by simply inserting a Hard Return, by pressing the Enter key, at the end of the sentence. This is often all it takes to tighten up line spacing and restore the integrity of your original design.

Tip for October 21, 2004

Important Amazon.com Shortcut Probably like you, I spend a goodly amount of time each week on the Amazon.com web site, researching different topics. I used to manually switch the search category from "all products" to "books," when searching for a particular title. I just noticed, today, however, that I can leave the search category as it is, and it will automatically go to books when I enter a title. Just one more handy time, mouse, and wrist saver.

Tip for October 22, 2004

Roger C. Parker tells us that the best time to resell a customer is when you are delivering a previously ordered item. Says Roger, “I buy railroad books from www.karensbooks.com. Each time Karen ships me a book I've ordered, Karen includes her latest catalog. Within a week or ten days, I invariably order another book...or two. Enclosing a catalog with each shipment makes a lot of sense. My awareness of her firm is at its peak when I'm unpacking a new book, I'm pleased with it, and--being happy with it--I soon will want more in order to continue the pleasure.”

Tip for October 23, 2004

If you want every out-of-state trade show visitor to visit your booth, provide area hotels with room keys featuring your logo, booth number, plus a compelling reason to visit your booth. Several firms can custom print your message on the front and--if desired--back of plastic hotel room keys and help you coordinate hotel distribution. Studies have shown that room keys (and your message) will be looked at over ten times a day!

Tip for October 24, 2004

Do what you say you'll do, and more. Under-promise and over-deliver.

Tip for October 25, 2004

What Makes Mini Marketing Great? Pt. 1 The marketing program run by BMW's Mini Cooper division runs counter to the prevailing winds in many ways. At a time when the larger automobile manufacturers are saturating the market with a near-endless supply of near-identical cars, the Mini is doing the exact opposite. For example, limited production is keeping the Mini in short supply. This maintains prices (and profits) for Mini dealers and eliminates the inventory problems plaguging many automobile brands.

Tip for October 26, 2004

What Makes Mini Marketing Great? Pt. 2 Mini's limited production, itself, has been turned into an advantage for buyers. Since Mini Cooper and Mini Cooper S's are in short supply, buyers can custom accessorize their Mini to their specific tastes. Numerous design and comfort options can be specified when ordering. When the resulting car arrives, it has been basically custom-built built to the owner's specifications, adding to the car's uniqueness and--hence--desirability. Since the owner's have "bought into" their car when ordering, they are far more likely to profess their satisfaction than owners of cars identical to thousands of other cars imported into the United States.

Tip for October 27, 2004

What Makes Mini Marketing Great? Pt. 3 Mini has also turned the disadvantage of waiting for the car's arrival to their advantage. They use the Internet and e-mail to keep those who have ordered Minis informed of the progress and due date of their "custom built" cars, thus building far more anticipation and emotional involvement into the purchase than possible when buying from a a selection of identical models at an adjacent "superstore."

Tip for October 28, 2004

What Makes Mini Marketing Great? Pt. 4 Mini has done a good job of regionalizing its advertising and making it easy to understand the brand's advantages. For example, it's Boston dealer lists the out of pocket gasoline costs of driving round trip to various cities in a manner similar to airlines, i.e. "Portland, $18 round trip," or "NYC, $32 round trip." This makes it easy for prospects to instantly appreciate the Mini's fuel economy.

Tip for October 29, 2004

What Makes Mini Marketing Great? Pt. 5 Like Guerrillas everywhere, Mini Marketing is all about combining economy and effectiveness. Whenever possible, store sales personnel encourage prospects to visit the www.miniusa.com web site and download a brochure and "accessorize" their car. This eliminates the need for dealers to order expensive brochures to hand out.

Tip for October 30, 2004

A New Hampshire jazz experience shows us the importance of consistency One of the larger colleges in the state features a large selection of world-famous jazz acts at discount prices. You can hear concerts by performers who were part of Duke Ellington's and Count Basie's orchestras for just $7.00. The problem is, the concerts are poorly attended. Why? Because in early August they send jazz lovers who have asked to be kept informed a single concert calendar for the whole year--and that's the extent of their promotion. By the time November and December roll around, the brochure is lost and the concerts are forgotten--no matter how strong the original attention to "take more advantage" of the concerts. The moral is obvious: in this over-communicated world: you can't depend on your market to keep track of events scheduled far in the future. You have to constantly remind them of your existence if you want to succeed.