Guest Blog Post by Dixie Gillaspie

I used to do this little mental two step every time I sat down to craft a newsletter:

1. One Step Forward – I have some awesome information to share (write article)
2. Two Step Forward – I have an announcement about a new event, service, product or other offering (write promo copy)
3. BIG Step Back – I don’t want to promote, pitch, sell, annoy, harass or generally tick off my readers
4. Repeat first three steps until exhausted and frustrated
5. Leave the dance floor in defeat

As you might have guessed, the people on my mailing list often forgot about me between mailings. I’m sure that when my newsletter arrived, their first thought was often, “Dixie WHO?”

I needed to be dancing to a different drummer, so I turned to a little red book, one I’ve read so many times I nearly have it memorized. It’s called “The Go-Giver; A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea.” It’s transformed the way I approach problem solving in my business and life.

I’ve been coaching, teaching and speaking from this book for more than three years. I’ve worked closely with the authors, Bob Burg and John David Mann, to create coaching and teaching materials that are now being used by Certified Go-Giver coaches around the world. I have found that The Five Laws of Stratospheric Success which the authors, Bob Burg and John David Mann, teach in this little parable, hold the answer to almost any business dilemma (and pretty much any personal one as well.)

It made sense to ask myself what my newsletter communication strategy would be if I applied those Five Laws.  So let’s see…

Law #1 – The Law of Value

“Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.”

Everyone knows that your communication strategy should be to “add value.” But how much value? How can a FREE newsletter add more in value than you take in payment? What is the cost to your reader to read your FREE newsletter?

What about time, attention and energy?  Let’s call it “bandwidth.” How much bandwidth will it cost your reader to read your content?

Answering that question for myself gave me a yardstick for a minimum amount of value. This allowed me to stop second guessing myself about whether or not I’d offered enough value to justify asking my readers to welcome my communication. Then I did my best to pile it on.

Law #2 – The Law of Compensation

“Your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them.”

Remember that the first law tells us how our value is determined, but that doesn’t mean we’ll be paid what we’re worth.  This law tells us how to get paid.  Make no mistake, I want to offer lots of value, but my newsletter is first and foremost a business strategy and that means I want the end result to be income.

One of the key benefits I find in working with MarketVolt as a partner in my communications strategy is that they understand that relevancy is valuable. Their automatic segregation of sublists based on interests (as indicated by click-throughs) is brilliant!

So I can create reach (the number of people I serve) through offering tons of value to people who subscribe (right now you can download a 20 minute audio that gives you the Five Essential Elements to Writing Your Own Success Story – it even includes a clip of an interview I did with Richard Bach, author of “Jonathan Livingston Seagull.”) Then I can make sure I serve them well by following up with relevant information (and offers) based on the interests they self-report by clicking on the inks in my original mailing.

Law #3 – The Law of Influence

“Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people’s interests first.”

This was one law I found I was already satisfying. My newsletters create influence for me, both with my readers and with my strategic partners because I often include information and opportunities that have nothing to do with me.

So my readers know that if I find something of huge benefit, I’ll share. (And they know that on those rare occasions that I act as an affiliate, I am extremely transparent about it.) So they know I’m putting their interests first by delivering quality recommendations rather than just pushing what I offer.

Of course, I gain influence with my strategic partners, and often gain new strategic partners, when I provide links to their events, products or profiles and give them a testimonial in my newsletter.

Law #4 – The Law of Authenticity

“The most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself.”

I used to try to write “right.” Now I shoot for good punctuation (which makes a piece more readable,) but I don’t obsess over grammar. I want people to recognize my voice, get a sense of my philosophy and my humor, and generally feel like I’m inviting a dialog rather than broadcasting a monologue.

Once I gave up being “perfect” I started having fun. Somehow, people seemed to think the “fun” me was a lot closer to perfect than the “perfect” me. Go figure!

Law #5 – The Law of Receptivity

“The key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving.”

Ah, receiving. Getting a return. Isn’t that just what we complain our newsletters don’t do for us, provide a return?

In “The Go-Giver,” the mentor, Pindar” says to the frustrated go-getter, Joe, “In life, you often don’t get what you want. But, here’s what you do get – You get what you expect.”

Now we’ve all sent newsletters hoping we’ll get new business, we’ll get sales, we’ll get people coming to our websites, to our stores or to our events. But how can we expect that unless we’re really clear what we expect?

Now my rule of thumb is to be clear about one thing I expect readers to do. One thing.  You’ve heard it referred to as a “call to action.” I think of it as an “offer to engage.” For every message, one offer, not always of something to buy, but always of a way to engage with me at a more meaningful level than just reading my newsletter.

Finally, I learned to dance with the idea of “selling,” It was actually the follow up book to “The Go-Giver,” a book called “Go-Givers Sell More” (if you read it carefully you’ll find that I’m even featured in it, by the way) that gave me the grace to step into that one.

In “Go-Givers Sell More” we’re told that the root of the word “sell” is actually an Old English word; “sellan” which literally means “to give.” We “give” value, we receive “return.” We call it “selling” and all of a sudden we’re terrified of overdoing it.

You can’t over-sell. You can over-push, over-manipulate, over-persuade. But you simply cannot over-sellan. Not if what you’re “giving” is value.

**********

Dixie “Dynamite” Gillaspie helps entrepreneurially-minded people blast through their brick walls and tap into the energy and clarity of their own passion and purpose in order to achieve stratospheric success. You can learn more at dixiedynamitecoaching.com

I have a new client who wants to launch an email marketing campaign. When I asked what business he is in, he said, “We sell telephone equipment and services.”

I offered a gentle correction. “Your business is to help clients operate with greater efficiency and less hassle by deploying smart telecommunications solutions.”

What business are you in? If you say you sell product “x” or service “y,” step back and reassess. Ask yourself, “Why should someone purchase my products or services? How will they benefit?”

The answer to those questions reveals what your business does. You are in business to provide value, to create a benefit. The benefit is what they seek. The product or service is just a means to that end.

Why is this distinction important? Your marketing communications must do more than merely inform prospects and clients about your products and services. You should design communications to interact and collaborate with prospects and client. Content, itself, can deliver a benefit.

My telecommunications client will send emails with tips (best practices for running a teleconference sales call), case studies (how a business like yours used video conferencing to reduce training costs), product comparisons, and other valuable content. He will solicit feedback through interactive surveys.

This will reinforce what the business does. It provides value and benefits. Because they benefit from this content, they’re more likely to see the value in buying the telecommunications products and services.

What benefit do your prospects and clients desire? Answer that question and then create valuable, benefit-driven content. Sales will follow.

(This article first appeared in St. Louis Small Business Monthly which publishes a monthly column, High-Voltage Marketing, by MarketVolt’s Tom Ruwitch.)

While Snickers, Doritos, Go Daddy, Budweiser and the other usual suspects get props for their entertaining Super Bowl ads, I award my top prize to an ad that few are discussing: Honda’s “Everybody Knows Somebody…”

In case you missed it:  The spot opened with a still shot of a couple leaning against a Honda vehicle, parked beside a lake. A women’s voice says, “My boyfriend has one.” As the image slides to the left, a man’s voice (presumably the “boyfriend”) says, “My older sister has one.” A new image slides into the screen with a young woman (the “older sister” and two young children). A child’s voice says, “She has two kids.” A woman’s voice (the older sister with the two children) says, “My college roommate…” as a new photo of a different woman with kids slides into view. Then a photo of an older couple appears as another woman (the college roommate) says, “Our neighbors…”

And on it goes…A scrolling film strip of different people — different ages, various races, appearing in front of different size homes, standing next to their Hondas — naming people they know who “have one.”

“Our neighbors…My daughter…My husband has one…The fella I work with…on so on…”

As the filmstrip ends, the spokesperson declares: “Everybody knows somebody who loves a Honda. Who do you know?”

Then the address for Honda’s Facebook page appears on the screen: facebook.com/honda

Go there and you’ll see a page with more than 300,000 fans (as of Feb. 10)!

I love this ad for several reasons. First, in a simple but brilliant way, it uses social proof to persuade people to choose Honda. “Social proof” is the persuasion principle that says people tend to follow the crowd — even those who like to think of themselves as rebels.

Everybody knows somebody who loves a Honda. And the ad represents the enormous range of Honda-lovers — young, old, rich, poor, black, white. Marketing that effectively employs social proof  dares the target to make a choice: Are you with us or are you going to stand outside the social norm? The tug is strong, and Honda applies it subtly but forcefully in this ad.

Secondly, the ad has a great call to action: Go to our facebook page and share your story with us. I didn’t check Honda’s fan page after the game, but I’m sure there were far fewer than the 300,000+ fans Honda has today.

Honda practiced what we so often preach: Your marketing should not be solely about extending your brand or enhancing your image. With interactive technology, you can make targets act immediately with simple, low-risk calls to action.

People aren’t running from their houses after the Super Bowl to buy a Honda, and the company knows that. But Honda also knows that people who might eventually buy — the people we call the “maybes” — will be warmer prospects if the company can interact with them. So Honda asked them to do a simple thing that didn’t require people to sit with a car salesman or take much risk — visit our facebook page.

Now Honda can communicate with those 300,000+ fans. Without that call to action, Honda would have had no connection with these people until and unless they chose to act.

That’s a great example of using social proof to persuade people to act, and using a simple call-to-action to connect with and market to the maybes

Want to know more about social proof and other persuasion principles? Check out 7 Proven Ways to Make Your Marketing Messages More Persuasive, available for download at www.marketvolt.com/persuasion.

The following is an excerpt from 7 Proven Ways to Make Your Marketing Messages More Persuasive, available for download at www.marketvolt.com/persuasion…

We’ve all heard the phrase, “You owe me one.” That’s a powerful concept that you can use to your benefit when marketing. If you offer something to prospects, they will be more inclined to say “yes” when you ultimately make your sales pitch. They wish to reciprocate. When they used to solicit in airports, Hare Krishnas would hand small flowers to people before asking for a donation. The Krishnas noticed that many people would refuse the request and toss the flowers in the trash. The Krishnas then switched from flowers to small American flags – a token that people were reluctant to toss in the trash. Saddled with a “gift” they could not refuse, people felt more obligated to return the favor. Donations rose dramatically, according to persuasion expert and author Robert Cialdini.

You can apply this principle in countless ways in your marketing efforts. If you give, you will get.

Want more persuasion tips. Get “7 Proven Ways to Make Your Marketing Messages More Persuasive”, available for download at www.marketvolt.com/persuasion…

Clients ask me all the time how they can improve the performance of their email marketing campaigns. Nine times out of 10, their writing needs to improve. If you fill your emails with boring, unpersuasive copy, you will have bored, un-persuaded readers.  It doesn’t matter what you offer or how good the deal. If your copy suffers, your sales will lag. So here are a three tips to strengthen your copy and improve your sales.

No. 1: Use the “Why Should I Care? Filter to Distill Core Benefits from Your Copy. I met last month with a client who wanted help promoting his company’s new online order-tracking system. His draft email described the system under the headline “Introducing Our New Online Order-Tracking System.” Customers can log in, enter the order number and see the status of the order. The copy described the system features in great detail. After reading the draft, I understood what the new system could do.

I then asked, “Why should I care?”

At first he was taken aback, but then he played along and answered, “Because now you can get the information online.”

“Great,” I said, “Why should I care?”

“You can log in 24-7 to track your order,” he said. This was a detail not mentioned in the draft copy. Now we were getting somewhere.

“That’s great for people who want to check their inventory after business hours. But I work 9-5 when you’re open. Why should I care?” I asked.

“Because even if you call during business hours, it can be a pain,” he said. “You don’t always get to the person who has your information. You get put on hold. It’s frustrating. The new system makes it easy.”

Bingo! Get the information whenever you want. Never wait on hold. Avoid the frustration. Make it easy to track your order.

By asking “why should I care?” in response to each claim in your copy (and repeating that question several times over), you will distill your message to its core benefits.

My client isn’t selling system features (log on, enter order number, see status). He’s selling benefits. Never wait on hold. Avoid the frustration. Make it easy to track your order.

Force yourself to ask, “Why should I care?” as you review your copy. Answer and then repeat the question. Keep going. The more you ask and answer, the better your copy will become.

No. 2: Be a storyteller. The day before I met with that client, I called the telephone company to correct a billing issue. I got one of those automated attendants who sent me through the maze of confusing options. Occasionally, I had to say something (and hope the automated attendant could translate my words); once in a while, I had to enter a number on the telephone keypad. After nearly five minutes of this, I was able to “press zero to speak to a representative about your bill.”

“Finally!” I thought as I pressed “zero”. Then: “Ringggg… Ringgg… Ringgg…We’re sorry. Our billing department is currently closed. Please call back during regular business hours.”

I nearly threw the phone out my window! “Has something like this ever happened to you?” I asked.

Of course, it had. “Has it happened to your customers.” I asked. Sure, he said. Everyone has had a similar experience.

If I was promoting an order-tracking system, I would tell my story about the phone company and then say something like this: “If you’re anything like me, you hate being on hold, flailing around the automated attendant maze, only to reach dead-ends. You want to get the information you need easily, when you want it, on your terms — not the automated attendant’s terms. I certainly don’t want to put you or my other clients through what I went through with the telephone company. That’s why we’ve introduced a new order tracking system that…”

By starting with a story, I connect with the readers. They can relate to me, and they can connect their own experiences with the problem I’m trying to solve. It gives me — the salesman — greater credibility and authority. And it gives the prospect greater comfort and confidence in the solution being offered.

Stories move readers forward. Stories keep readers’ interested. Stories make your copy more interesting and persuasive.

No. 3: Understand the Psychology of Persuasion. In the introduction to their outstanding book, “Yes!” authors Noah Goldstein, Steve J. Martin, and Robert Cialdini write, “…Small, easy changes to our messages and to our requests can make them vastly more persuasive…Everyone’s ability to persuade others can be improved by learning persuasion strategies that have been scientifically proven to be successful.”

If you want your prospects and customers to say, “Yes” more often, you must buy this book. You also should consider Cialdini’s earlier work, “Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion.”

When promoting my new order-tracking system, I would also include a sentence like this (after outlining the benefits for the customer): “We’re also adding this system because it helps us reduce our customer support costs while actually improving the service we provide.”

Why would I include this copy? Because! That word — because — is very powerful. When added to your copy, it can dramatically improve the persuasiveness of your pitch. Cialdini and his colleagues have proven it, and they explain it in both books I recommend.

I explain the power of “because” in an expanded edition of this article: 7 Proven Ways to Make Your Marketing Messages More Persuasive, available for download at www.marketvolt.com/persuasion.

Three Tips to Make Your Copy Less Boring and More Persuasive

by Tom Ruwitch

Clients ask me all the time how they can improve the performance of their email marketing campaigns. Nine times out of 10, their writing needs to improve. If you fill your emails with boring, unpersuasive copy, you will have bored, un-persuaded readers.  It doesn’t matter what you offer or how good the deal. If your copy suffers, your sales will lag. So here are a three tips to strengthen your copy and improve your sales.

No. 1: Use the “Why Should I Care? Filter to Distill Core Benefits from Your Copy. I met last month with a client who wanted help promoting his company’s new online order-tracking system. His draft email described the system under the headline “Introducing Our New Online Order-Tracking System.” Customers can log in, enter the order number and see the status of the order. The copy described the system features in great detail. After reading the draft, I understood what the new system could do.

I then asked, “Why should I care?”

At first he was taken aback, but then he played along and answered, “Because now you can get the information online.”

“Great,” I said, “Why should I care?”

“You can log in 24-7 to track your order,” he said. This was a detail not mentioned in the draft copy. Now we were getting somewhere.

“That’s great for people who want to check their inventory after business hours. But I work 9-5 when you’re open. Why should I care?” I asked.

“Because even if you call during business hours, it can be a pain,” he said. “You don’t always get to the person who has your information. You get put on hold. It’s frustrating. The new system makes it easy.”

Bingo! Get the information whenever you want. Never wait on hold. Avoid the frustration. Make it easy to track your order.

By asking “why should I care?” in response to each claim in your copy (and repeating that question several times over), you will distill your message to its core benefits.

My client isn’t selling system features (log on, enter order number, see status). He’s selling benefits. Never wait on hold. Avoid the frustration. Make it easy to track your order.

Force yourself to ask, “Why should I care?” as you review your copy. Answer and then repeat the question. Keep going. The more you ask and answer, the better your copy will become.

No. 2: Be a storyteller. The day before I met with that client, I called the telephone company to correct a billing issue. I got one of those automated attendants who sent me through the maze of confusing options. Occasionally, I had to say something (and hope the automated attendant could translate my words); once in a while, I had to enter a number on the telephone keypad. After nearly five minutes of this, I was able to “press zero to speak to a representative about your bill.”

“Finally!” I thought as I pressed “zero”. Then: “Ringggg… Ringgg… Ringgg…We’re sorry. Our billing department is currently closed. Please call back during regular business hours.”

I nearly threw the phone out my window! “Has something like this ever happened to you?” I asked.

Of course, it had. “Has it happened to your customers.” I asked. Sure, he said. Everyone has had a similar experience.

If I was promoting an order-tracking system, I would tell my story about the phone company and then say something like this: “If you’re anything like me, you hate being on hold, flailing around the automated attendant maze, only to reach dead-ends. You want to get the information you need easily, when you want it, on your terms — not the automated attendant’s terms. I certainly don’t want to put you or my other clients through what I went through with the telephone company. That’s why we’ve introduced a new order tracking system that…”

By starting with a story, I connect with the readers. They can relate to me, and they can connect their own experiences with the problem I’m trying to solve. It gives me — the salesman — greater credibility and authority. And it gives the prospect greater comfort and confidence in the solution being offered.

Stories move readers forward. Stories keep readers’ interested. Stories make your copy more interesting and persuasive.

No. 3: Understand the Psychology of Persuasion. In the introduction to their outstanding book, “Yes!” authors Noah Goldstein, Steve J. Martin, and Robert Cialdini write, “…Small, easy changes to our messages and to our requests can make them vastly more persuasive…Everyone’s ability to persuade others can be improved by learning persuasion strategies that have been scientifically proven to be successful.”

If you want your prospects and customers to say, “Yes” more often, you must buy this book. You also should consider Cialdini’s earlier work, “Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion.”

When promoting my new order-tracking system, I would also include a sentence like this (after outlining the benefits for the customer): “We’re also adding this system because it helps us reduce our customer support costs while actually improving the service we provide.”

Why would I include this copy? Because! That word — because — is very powerful. When added to your copy, it can dramatically improve the persuasiveness of your pitch. Cialdini and his colleagues have proven it, and they explain it in both books I recommend.

I explain the power of “because” in an expanded edition of this article: 7 Proven Ways to Make Your Marketing Messages More Persuasive, available for download at www.marketvolt.com/persuasion.