Cathy Stucker - The Idea Lady

Attract Customers and Make Yourself Famous

Selling with Free Samples

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mattress

Want to get people to sit up and take notice? Give ‘em something for free! Everyone loves to get a freebie, and no-risk “samples” of your product or expertise are a good way to introduce yourself to potential customers.

Sampling seems obvious if you’re Mrs. Fields–you give everyone who walks by a free cookie. Once they’ve had a taste, they’ll be back to buy more. But what about situations where your product is too expensive to give away, or when what you sell is an intangible service?

Look for a way to let potential customers sample the experience. Give them a feel for what they will get when they buy from you.

One of my favorite sampling stories comes from a mattress retailer. They offered to place a brand new mattress in the customer’s home for 30 days. At the end of the sampling period, they would pay for the mattress, or the store would come and pick it up. How many people do you think were willing to go back to sleeping on their lumpy, saggy old mattress after spending 30 days (and nights!) on a brand new one? Not very many!

If you offer a service, give a sample of your knowledge. Present a free seminar, make a speech, give away a booklet or CD, do a free consultation, etc. For example, a decorator could give a free design consultation. Or a dog trainer could give a class at a pet store demonstrating a training technique, perhaps teaching one command or trick that can be quickly learned by most dogs. Give enough information to help potential customers see what can be achieved and demonstrate that you know your stuff, but not so much that they believe they can do it on their own and they don’t need you.

A good guideline to keep in mind is to give away the what or the why and sell the how.

Make sure your samples are targeted to reach potential customers. There are people who will take anything, as long as it is free, and you do not want to waste time and money marketing to people who have no chance of becoming customers. Promote your offer using methods that are targeted to reach your preferred audience.

B2B Copywriting – Writing for the B2B market

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business-word-cloudThis is a guest post from Mitt Ray of The White Paper Blog.

When you write white papers, website copy, brochures or any other marketing material for the B2B market you need to keep certain factors in mind.

Writing for the B2B market has many similarities with writing for the B2C market. But there are certain factors you always need to keep in mind.

Some of these factors are:-

1. Always address the reader as you: Many people make the mistake of addressing the company as a whole or addressing them as many people. This is not how it should be written as your copy is normally read by one person at a time.

These people are normally sitting alone in their office or cubicle and reading it to themselves. So always address them as a single person using “you”. This will make them feel a special personal connection with your copy.

2. Write using the simplest words: It is important that you write using the simplest words. I have seen writers use complicated terms sometimes to make their copy sound more sophisticated. This is because many people think that using complicated material will make the company look sophisticated. But using these sophisticated words could actually work against you.

When you write for the B2B market you are usually writing for busy people. These people don’t have the time to read a document that is full of words that are hard to understand, as this will take up a lot of their time.  They want to read something that is easy to read, something they can finish quickly and get back to work. If they find it hard to read, they will just give up reading it and read something else, that is easy to read.

Therefore it is important that you keep everything in the copy as simple as possible, so that your client can finish reading the document quickly. Keeping it simple improves the chance of it being read completely.

3. Mention all the benefits businesses look for: One person or a group of individuals will be making the decision whether to use your service/product or not. What you need to keep in mind is that they are not making a personal decision, but they are making a decision for the entire company.

They’re looking for ways to save the company money, time, improve profits, reduce staff etc. So make sure that you work on these benefits and include them in your copy.

You also need to keep in mind that though they are making a decision for the entire company and are mainly looking at the welfare of the company. There will be certain personal benefits and emotions that will be involved in their decision.

If they make the right decision, their chances of getting a promotion or a raise go up and if they make a wrong decision it could cost the company’s future and their job. You need to keep these factors in mind too.

So whenever you write white papers, brochures, emails, or any other marketing materials for the B2B market always keep these factors in mind, as it will help you write a copy that works.

Mitt Ray is a copywriter. He specializes in writing and marketing white papers. He regularly posts articles on writing and marketing white papers on his blog at http://www.imittcopy.com/Thewhitepaperblog/what-is-a-white-paper/. He’s also the author of ”Understand and Write White Papers” which is a white paper on how to write white papers.

Keeping Customers

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keeping-customersMost marketing efforts are aimed at getting new customers. What are you doing to keep the customers you already have?

Many banks are actively encouraging customers to sign up for their online bill paying services. Some banks use this as a profit center, but others are offering the service free because they realize that customers who use online bill paying are less likely to change banks. Once you have set up all of the information for your payments, it is a hassle to move to another bank and do it all over again.

Making it inconvenient for customers to leave is one way to keep them. Here are a few ways that are more positive:

Reward frequent customers. Offer a discount or free item for a certain number or volume of purchases. The airlines may have started this with frequent flier miles, but now it seems that everyone from the local coffee shop to credit cards to parking lots have followed with their own programs.

Make customers feel valued by asking for their opinions. How can you improve service? What do they like best about your product or service? Are your hours convenient? Then, when you make changes, let them know it was because of feedback from customers.

Get personal. Ask for customers’ birthdates, and send a card to acknowledge them on their special days. Keep track of past purchases in order to make recommendations of other products they might enjoy. Let them know when something new is available.

Say thank you. It’s a simple thing, but it goes a long way. Send a brief handwritten note thanking them for their business. Keep a supply of post cards or note cards handy, and dash off at least a few every week to new or long-time customers.

It is usually less expensive to keep customers than to find new ones. Although it is always important to keep looking for new customers, keeping the ones you have gives your business stability over the long term.

Writing Powerful Headlines

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Your headlines may be the shortest writing you do, but they are the most important words you will write. Great headlines arouse curiosity, promise benefits, and draw readers in.

Attention-grabbing headlines are necessary for ads, sales letters and brochures, web pages, press releases, articles and more. Here are some tips for writing headlines that will grab your readers and not let them go.

Use a question. Readers will have to learn the answer to your provocative question.

Use numbers. Seven ways to! Six things you need to know before you! Ten reasons to! This one is used by women’s magazines all the time!

”Do this to get that.” Tell how to do something that will bring a wanted benefit.

Promise little-known information. What…doesn’t want you to know. Insider secrets about!

Don’t make headlines and titles too cute. Something that you think is a clever play on words may go right over the heads of your readers.

Keep headlines and titles short. Use a sub-title if needed for clarification.

Measuring Results

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measuring-results

The 80/20 Rule says that 80% of results come from 20% of your effort. But which 20%? There are several things you can do to see which of your marketing efforts are bringing results.

First, ask. When someone places an order, ask how they heard about you. Put a space on your order form for online and mail orders, and ask customers who buy in-person or over the phone. Keep track of where sales come from. Your method can be as simple as a sheet of paper next to the cash register or phone with tick marks for each buyer who says they saw a particular ad or heard about you another way.

Key ads, coupons and specials. Mail orders may be sent to a department code, such as Dept. S10, telling you to which ad a customer is responding. Phone orders may include an extension number. Web ads can be directed to a tracking URL. Printed coupons may include a code on them.

By tracking results you will see which of your marketing efforts are paying off, and which are not. Keep doing what is working, but you may not want to completely abandon the things that don’t appear as successful. Perhaps your ad copy needs a rewrite and it will work for you. Or, it hasn’t had time to work yet. Some marketing, such as advertising, may be most effective when people see it or hear it several times.

Also remember that customers may see or hear of you many times before they buy. Even if you are not getting a lot of orders at your web site, the information there may be a factor in persuading customers to buy.

Don’t scrap your entire marketing plan at once. Make incremental changes to see how your sales are affected.