Category — Marketing Tips

John Reese, one of the world’s top internet marketers, quit twitter yesterday.  He left behind 25,000 followers! In a note to his email list, Reese said, “About a year ago, I really loved Twitter.  It was a lot of fun and it was great for communicating with people and for getting into all sorts of discussions. But as Twitter has grown, it’s become full of NOISE. Even, though, my follower count has risen, the response to my tweets has been on a steady decline.”

In his final Twitter posts on March 1, Reese said the response rate to his tweets has declined 75% from its peak. He checked with other marketers who reported similar declines. He said he will focus his social media efforts on Facebook (I happen to agree that you should focus most of your social media energy on Facebook).

So…should we all quit Twitter? Reese is a master of traffic generation. He knows how to drive traffic to his site and convert that traffic to sales. I trust his judgment…

But I don’t think “quit Twitter now” is the lesson to be learned from Reese’s actions. The key takeaway for me: Measure your results! Reese walks away with confidence because he knows his conversion rate has declined by 75%. When he posts a link to Twitter, he measures the number of clicks. He measures the number of people who click then register for his email list. He measures the number of people who click and then purchase his products. He measures the time he spends on Twitter (and thus the cost). So he can calculate his investment against the return. The numbers simply don’t work for him.

Does Twitter work for you? How do you know? What are you trying to accomplish with your tweets?

Reese is right about the noise on Twitter. Many tweeters spend countless hours posting trivial stuff…for what? What are your business goals? How do your tweets serve those goals? How do you measure your success?

At the very least, you should use a URL shortening program such as bit.ly that lets you measure click-throughs. Better yet, include tracking software on your site (such as Google analytics) that tracks where your Twitter traffic goes once it reaches your site. Don’t guess. Measure.

In a previous post, I said businesses ignore social media at their own peril. I still believe that. But then and now, I cautioned that you should engage in social media only if you have a purpose.

My goal is to strengthen my company’s reputation as a leading resource for interactive marketing solutions and tools. Occasionally, I’ll link to pages on my web site, where visitors download tips. This serves the same goal, plus people who visit that page can sign up for my email list. That helps me achieve my goal to identify, acquire and convert new leads. The bottom line: Begin by familiarizing yourself with Twitter and having some fun. As you continue with Twitter, ask yourself, “Why am I doing this?” If your answer is not in line with specific business goals, you probably can find better ways to kill time.

Do I plan to quit Twitter? Not yet. But I know that if I stick with Twitter, I’ll be able to justify the decision, and if I eventually quit, I’ll know exactly why.

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.

I found a copy of the ad posted on YouTube:

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.

Yogi Berra once said, “If people don’t want to come to the ballpark, how are you gonna stop them?”

I love that quote, and I think about it often as I work with clients on their marketing campaigns. In his charming, convoluted way, Yogi presented a very basic but essential marketing principle: It’s far easier to tap someone’s desire than to create desire in someone who doesn’t have it. If you want to fill the ballpark, identify and market to the baseball fans rather than trying to “stop” nonfans from choosing another option.

Email marketers often forget this principle. Email is inexpensive, easy to create and quick to deliver. That’s the problem. Because email is so easy, e-marketers often send everything to everybody. In other words, they send baseball promotions to people who don’t want to come to the ballpark.

The following case study – also from the sports world – demonstrates the point.

A small, Midwestern university wanted to promote its women’s basketball program. The women had a breakthrough season the year before, winning the conference championship, but the arena was nearly empty on most nights.

The athletic department had a list of 8,000 people, collected from booster club rosters, ticket order forms, website registrations, alumni lists and other sources. These people had opted in to receive information from the university, but the athletic department had no idea who they were.

The university sent several emails to the list, all covering multiple topics. Each email included sales promotions for women’s basketball. The emails weren’t working. In fact, they backfired. With each subsequent email, the open rate dropped and the opt-out rate grew.

The athletic department’s marketing director asked me to help. “How can I use this list to promote women’s hoops?” he asked.

Yogi’s quote echoed in my head.

“You have 8,000 people on that list, and I bet more than 7,000 have no interest in women’s hoops,” I said. “You can send them 100 emails, and it won’t help. If people don’t want to watch women’s basketball, you can’t force them.”

Worse still, if you continue to send mailing after mailing to people who don’t care about women’s basketball, those people will stop opening your emails and opt out from your list. Then you’ve lost the chance to promote other sports to them.

At first the marketing director heard only one thing: More than 7,000 people on your list won’t respond to your offer.

“I guess we shouldn’t use email then,” he said.

He was missing the point. He was like a gold rush pioneer looking at a river full of gold and thinking, “More than 90% of that riverbed is just worthless pebbles.”

But about 10% of that riverbed held gold. He just needed to find it.

“We need to find the people in your email list who like women’s basketball,” I said. “Then we can market aggressively to them without wasting time and effort selling to the others.”

We devised a plan. The university would send emails twice monthly to the entire list. Those emails would include short summaries about multiple sports: men’s basketball, women’s basketball, wrestling and others.

Each summary would not be a direct sales pitch, but each would include a link allowing the recipient to read more. For example, the women’s basketball summary might be a brief summary of upcoming games (or a recap of past games) with a link to the rest of the schedule (or to more news).

“But why don’t we just promote ticket sales directly in this email?” he asked.
“Because the goal of this email is not to sell tickets. The goal of this email is to find the prospects we’ll target,” I said.

If you ask people to “buy now” or “click to purchase,” they need to be in buying mode to act. You’re not offering them anything other than the transaction. If they’re not ready to buy, they won’t click. That’s fine if you’ve already identified your targets and plan to send promotions to them regularly.

But at this point you simply want people to raise their hands, to show you they’re interested in women’s basketball. You’re separating prospects from suspects. The sales will follow.

If you ask them to “read more” or “learn more,” you’re offering them something that has immediate value and involves little risk. Far more people will click these links than the “buy now” link.

We also planned to include a brief survey with the email. Among other questions, the survey asked which sports the readers followed. The list of checkboxes included, of course, women’s basketball.

The university began to send the general interest newsletter (with a survey included) to the list. Using the email software’s tools that automatically track who clicks which links and who checks which survey boxes, the marketing director identified roughly 900 people who were interested in women’s basketball. Those people either clicked the women’s basketball link in one of the emails or checked the box in the survey.

Over the next four months, the university sent weekly emails to the 900 people on the women’s basketball list. The emails included detailed game summaries (the local newspaper didn’t even include box scores for the games), player profiles and prominent ticket offers.

The results were great. On average, more than 60% of recipients opened each email (a great open rate for a weekly email). Over the four months of the campaign, only one person opted out of the list. (Meanwhile, the thousands who showed no interest in women’s hoops were not bombarded with weekly emails and consequently remained on the master list.)

Most important, ticket sales spiked. The university didn’t fill the arena, but attendance increased noticeably. Because it identified the 900 people out of 8,000 to target, the university was also able to create a print promotion. It would have been too expensive and inefficient to send that mailing to 8,000 people. But because it used email – and a low-risk call to action – to identify prospects, the university had a great list to help it focus the postal mail program.

So, in the end, the university heeded Yogi’s advice. Rather than “stopping” nonfans from ignoring women’s basketball, it found the real fans and marketed aggressively to them.

You can apply this lesson to any business, any industry. The music store that wants to clear its classical inventory can identify those who like classical music before selling to them. The nonprofit that wants to promote a planned giving program can find the people interested in planned giving before sending them more detailed information on this delicate topic. The pet store can separate dog lovers from cat lovers. And so forth.

To do this well, you must remember that each email serves a different purpose. Some emails are designed only to identify prospects. Others are designed to sell.

Do you have an email signature? If you’re like most people, you may have one that lists your name and basic contact information, but you most likely don’t see it as a marketing opportunity.

You should think of your email signature as an opportunity to promote your business and capture leads.

Here’s the signature I use for people who are not already MarketVolt clients:

p.s. Get Free E-Mail Marketing Tips:
“10 Secrets to Write Email Subject Lines that Sell”

http://www.marketvolt.com/SubjectlineTips

p.p.s. Please check out my twitter feed — http://twitter.com/marketvolt.
Daily interactive marketing tips and other ideas and observations to help you grow your business.

(My contact info follows the p.s. and p.p.s)

A p.s. is an effective copy writing technique. Readers tend to look at a p.s., even if they skim the content above. The first p.s. offers readers something of value — that’s free. The topic reinforces MarketVolt’s expertise in the field while simultaneously offering a favor — free assistance — to the reader.

Those who click through and get the report are added to my prospecting database and begin to get follow-up emails from me. The first actually explains how I executed the campaign. That shows them how powerful the MarketVolt system is and how they could do the same thing with their marketing.

The p.p.s. invites people to check out my twitter page. Twitter is not for everyone so I don’t expect everyone to click through. But those who do click will most likely follow me. That opens a new communication channel for me to promote products and services to this prospect, and it puts me one degree of separation away from many others who are connected to this prospect.

I used to put only my contact info in my signature. But since I put an interactive call to action in the signature, I’ve generated several leads that I might otherwise have missed.

The following article was first published in St. Louis Small Business Monthly’s May edition

When I was a teen, I loved to order Domino’s pizza. I would call the neighborhood shop, order my favorite (a small pepperoni), note the time of my order on a slip of paper, and then wait with breathless anticipation.

My excitement had little to do with the quality of the pizza. In fact, there were plenty of other pizza joints in town that, in my opinion, delivered better pies.

Why did I choose Domino’s over all of the other pizza places?

I chose Domino’s because it offered me something no other restaurant would: “Fresh hot pizza delivered to (my) door in 30 minutes or less…or it’s free.”

So time and time again, I would order this pizza—which I liked less than other brands—and wait for my reward.

Domino’s cornered the pizza market in the late 1970s and 1980s because it convinced millions of pizza lovers to value fresh and hot, fast or free over some other benefit.

Domino’s didn’t promise delicious. Domino’s didn’t promise big. Domino’s simply said, fresh and hot, fast or free. That was Domino’s Unique Selling Proposition (USP). It still stands today among the greatest USP’s in marketing history.

Why should your prospects choose your business over all of the other options they have? Your answer is your Unique Selling Proposition. If you don’t have one, get to work.

Your USP must be the foundation of all your marketing and sales materials. It must appear in your emails, on your web site, in direct mail, and broadcast. Everywhere you connect with prospects and customers, your USP must be prominent.

Here are some questions to help you create or improve your USP:

What benefits do customers realize by choosing your business?

As you answer this question, make a distinction between features and benefits. Anti-lock brakes and air-bags are features. Getting your family there safely is the benefit. High-speed pizza ovens and efficient delivery systems are features. Satisfying your hunger quickly and avoiding the frustration of waiting endlessly are benefits. Businesses frequently lead by listing features. Prospective customers are shopping for benefits.

What makes your business unique?

We don’t call this a unique selling proposition for nothing. At the time, Domino’s was the only pizza place that could deliver consistently in “30 minutes or less.” Even if others could deliver as quickly, Domino’s staked the claim as the one and only that would.

As you consider what makes you different, don’t forget that distinction between benefits and features.

Next time you’re waiting for a pizza delivery, browse the Yellow Pages (if you still have them) in a competitive category, such as electrical contractors. This is a great way to see the difference between ads that emphasize features and claim nothing unique (you’ll find many) versus ads that emphasize unique benefits. I found one with the following headline; “Electrical Problems? Save Money!!! We Charge by the Job…Not the Hour!! No surprises. Know the price BEFORE We Start”

It’s a great ad—unique (no other ad claimed to charge by the job) and focused on benefits (save money and avoid surprises).

Can you offer a guarantee?

Every time I called Domino’s I knew I would either get the pizza quickly (Good! I’m hungry!), or I would get it free (What do I have to lose!?). Domino’s eliminated the risk.

Guarantees work. Sure, Domino’s had to give away plenty of pizzas over the years, but they sold far more because of the guarantee.

The question really is not can you offer a guarantee; the question is what guarantee will you offer?  If you offer the guarantee, teamed with a unique benefit, more prospects will buy.

If you have nothing unique to offer, if you promote the same features as every competitor without identifying the benefits, if you don’t mitigate some of the risk for the buyer, you give prospects reasons to hesitate, to price-shop, and to choose your competitors. That’s the wrong approach at any time. That spells disaster in this economy.

As noted above, I count Domino’s USP among the best. But it’s not my favorite. That honor goes to Mike Diamond, a southern California plumbing contractor. His USP: “I guarantee my plumber will show up on time and smell good or your house call is free!”

This brilliant USP has all the ingredients. It’s unique. It emphasizes benefits. And it has a bold guarantee. Plus it’s funny. (If there are any plumbers or plumbers’ relatives who are not laughing, please send comments or complaints to Mike Diamond, not me).

More Marketing Tips from the Pizza Parlor

On the very day I began writing this column, I read an article in the New York Times about Domino’s. If you believe the PR mantra “all news is good news,” you didn’t see the YouTube video in which a Domino’s employee stuck cheese up his nose, and then put the cheese on sandwiches that may have been delivered.

The frenzy that followed that video—and the social media lessons that can instruct your business—will be the topic of next month’s High Voltage Marketing column.

The following article was first published in St. Louis Small Business Monthly’s April edition

As I drove to my office this morning, I heard a radio advertisement for a local technology firm (let’s call it Acme Technologies) that sells a service I might need. At the end of the ad, the spokesman recited the firm’s toll-free telephone number and said, “Call today to get started.”

“I’m not ready to get started,” I thought. “I may be interested soon, but not today.”

I didn’t call. In a few weeks, if I’m more ready to buy, I may remember the ad and may call the firm. Meanwhile, Acme has no idea I exist and no way to court me further.

Thousands of people heard that ad. Most are like me. We are the maybes. Marketers frequently ignore us.

If you want to sell more, you must court the maybes. I purposely chose that word court to remind you of courtship, as in dating and romance.

Imagine you’re single, looking for a new long-term relationship. You enter a room full of strangers and see someone whom you find attractive. You walk over, introduce yourself, and strike up a conversation. You masterfully deliver some of your best material—funny anecdotes about yourself, details about your high-powered career, evidence of your passionate, yet sensitive side. The stranger is smiling at you, laughing at your jokes, making eye contact, enjoying your company.

And then you deliver the call to action: “Please marry me!”

Whoa, now, Romeo! Not so fast.

Juliet dashes out the door.

Seems crazy, huh? Then why do so many marketers follow the same playbook when courting new leads?

Let’s give Romeo a do-over:

…The stranger is smiling at you, laughing at your jokes, making eye contact, enjoying your company. And then the call to action: “May I have your email. I’ll send you some pictures of my mountain climbing expedition I told you about…”

Juliet is happy to oblige. Will she marry him? Maybe. What are Romeo’s chances? Hard to say. But he’s in the game. He’ll email those pictures to her, invite her to lunch, and see what develops from there.

Now let’s give Acme Technologies a do-over:

…Listeners are enjoying your ad, thinking that your firm offers good products and services. And then the call to action: “Our experts have prepared a special report called 10 Steps You Can Take Today to Reduce Technology Costs and Increase Sales. Go to acmeSTL.com/10 steps to get this free report. Or if you’d like to get started with Acme right away, please call today.”

Listeners are happy to oblige. They go to your website where they enter their names and emails to get the free report. Will they buy? Maybe. What are Acme’s chances? Hard to say. But Acme can now send emails to those maybes and see what develops from there.

Courting is a process, not an event. Same with marketing and sales.

Why does Juliet give Romeo her email? Because she has little to lose. It’s a low-risk action with potential reward. She gets pictures and friendship immediately. And since she may be interested in something more, she’s happy to connect, gradually, with Romeo.

Rather than watching her dash out the door, Romeo now can connect with Juliet, court her further, and hopefully achieve his ultimate goal.
Why does the radio listener enter his email address on Acme’s web site? Because he has little to lose. He gives only his email address (low-risk) and gets a rewarding report in return. Since he may be interested in Acme’s services, he’s happy to connect in this way.

Now Acme can connect with this listener, court him further, and hopefully achieve its ultimate goal. Acme can court this maybe and convert him to a yes.

So how do you court the maybes. Here are a few tips:

Evaluate your marketing content. Review it all—your print advertisements, your brochures, your web site, your broadcast pieces, and so on. Think of the maybes—people interested in the products and services you sell, but not ready to buy. Do your marketing pieces include an explicit call to action for them—something other than buy now?

Give the maybes a reason to say yes. Imagine you’re a maybe and complete this sentence: I’m not ready to buy, but I would be willing to _______________.  What can you put in the blank? Get a free report? Subscribe to a weekly tips column? Receive a free gift? Prospects will give you their contact information if they receive something in return. Present a compelling, explicit call to action that invites the maybes to engage with you.

Plan the courting process. You have Juliet’s email address. Now what? First a lunch date. Then a dinner date. If that goes well, plan a weekend away. Have dinner with your parents when you return. It’s a process, leading hopefully to a lifelong engagement. Sales is the same. You’ve successfully turned a cold lead into a warm prospect who has given you contact information. Now you need to act. What steps will you take?
Of course, the steps will vary depending on your business and resources, but all businesses can do something to court the maybes.

I’ll use my business as an example. MarketVolt is an interactive marketing firm that specializes in email marketing. We recently created a special report called 10 Secrets to Write Email Subject Lines that Sell.

We offer the report at marketvolt.com/SubjectLineTips. Visitors must enter their name and email to get the report.