Do long sales letters really work?

Have you ever found yourself on a web page that seems to scroll on and on and on?

The page usually starts off with “Dear Friend” which then flows in to an endless banter trying to get you to buy what ever it is that is on offer.  And it’s usually punctuated with dozens of testimonials, hundreds of bullet points and the odd yellow highlighted text.

Welcome to the world of long sales letters.

But for most of you, it seems, you scream silently at your PC screen and hit the back button.  This is not a world you want to be associated with – especially when it comes to selling your own products and services.

If you hate them so much, why do so many marketers on the internet use them?  And do long sales letters really work?

First of all, let’s be really clear on what we mean by a long sales letter.

A long sales letter is not just a whole load of ramblings typed up on to a webpage.  A long sales letter is actually a carefully constructed piece of copy writing that can take days, if not weeks, to put together. 

It takes the reader on a journey, captures their attention and overcomes every possible objection until you reach the infamous “Order Now” button.

A long sales letter is a 24/7 sales representative that is there to convince you, the website visitor, to make a purchase right there and then.

And if you don’t make a purchase right there and then, there is every chance you will never return.  You are lost for ever and the sale will never be made.

If you are selling a product or a service through the web, making that sale is critical to your long term success. 

So why do you hate them so much?

Now, don’t get me wrong – there are some down-right awful long sales letters out there.  Really cheesy ones that usually start off with that cringe worthy “Dear Friend” [how can I be your friend - we've never met!!]

And the reason why these don’t appear to work with you is that the copywriter has probably been following a formulated script that they have just filled in the gaps with appropriate words. 

What they haven’t taken in to account are the most important ingredients in the whole mix – who their target client is, what it is that these target clients want and what style of language they like to be communicated with.

Without these ingredients, a long sales letter is like that bore you meet at a networking event who just keeps going on and on about their business and has totally ignored everything about you and what you do.

But written with your target client in mind, long sales letters can work.

And, especially if you are relying on the internet to make the majority of your sales, will be far more effective than just listing a whole load of features, the price and a buy now button.

If you are not answering every conceivable question that your target client may have about your product or service in your website copy, it is too easy for your target client to click away and keep searching for something that does answer all their questions.

A well written long sales letter can engage, inform and delight your target client – especially if what they receive after ordering exceeds their expectations.

So, love them or hate them, the long sales letter can work – that is as long as you take the time to really understand your target client and use the style of language that is going to reach out and engage them.

And spending the time to learn how to write great copy that reflects this can be one of the greatest investments you can make in your business.

What are your thoughts about long sales letters? Add a comment at the end of this article.  I would love to read your ideas, too.

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Email newsletters: Give yours some personality

Email newsletters are a very powerful way of building your own database for your business.  By giving value in the form of top tip articles, latest industry news or practical advice on “how-to-dos” will allow your subscribers to build trust in your expertise.

And you all know that if you trust someone, you are more likely to spend money with them – don’t you?

But having an email newsletter sign up box on your website with the words “Free email newsletter – sign up today” will just not cut it today.

Offering an email newsletter is just not unique enough, because everyone is offering one!

If you are offering an email newsletter and just not seeing anyone subscribe, it may be time to give your email newsletter some much needed personality.

Brand it, name it, give it some value.  Your email newsletter needs to be regards as your most important product to offer because it is the first door that someone opens directly in to your business.

Take some time out to give your newsletter some personality.

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Reviewing & monitoring your marketing is boring, right?

Everyone always seem hungry for new ideas on how to attract clients do their business, don’t they?  They want to know the latest web-tool to use, the next social networking site, the new way of reaching out to a new target audience.

But how many of you take the time to step back and review what you have done already?

I know reviewing and monitoring can often be viewed as the boring bit.  The annoying admin that needs ticking off.

But it’s got to be done!

There is no point going out and discovering the latest and newest (is there such a word!!) way of attracting clients if you haven’t taken the time to work out what is working for you now.

Even this is just a monthly exercise.  A couple of hours on the last Friday of every month where you check your web stats and the number of subscribers to your blog or newsletter.

Even if you just have a piece of paper stuck to your desk where you scribble down how your new clients and customers get to hear about you.

You don’t have to have complicated systems – a basic excel spreadsheet or form to be filled out by hand will keep you on track and help you work out what is working (do more of!) and what is not (stop doing and try something different).

Now, which day did I say I was going to do this myself this month?!!!

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Does the size of your mailing list really matter?

Everyone seems to be focused on numbers at the moment, don’t they?

How many followers can you get on Twitter? How many friends can you collect on facebook?  How big is your network on LinkedIn?

How big does your mailing list need to be before you can make any sales?

Numbers, numbers, numbers!

It seems that everywhere you look, everyone is obsessed by size of lists.

So, does the size of your mailing list really matter? 

Now, there is no doubt that the bigger your mailing list is, the more likely you are to make sales. After all, if you trying to sell 20 places on a workshop to a database of 50 people, the chance of you filling all 20 places is minimal.

Even if everyone on your database is interested in the topic, they may be on holiday, have a meeting that day or  just couldn’t justify the expense at that particular time.

Therefore the more people you have, the easier it is to market your events, products and programmes.

But all this focus on numbers can be demoralising, stressful and not a lot of fun when you struggle to get just one or two newsletter sign-ups every week.

There is one factor that many small business owners forget.  And that is the quality of those you attract to your mailing list.

That phrase “size doesn’t matter, it’s what you do with it that counts” rings true for your mailing lists.

And putting more focus on attracting quality sign-ups will mean that what you do with your mailing list – whether that’s selling e-books, workshop programmes or 1-2-1 services – will work far more effectively for you.

So what are some of the rules when it comes to successful list building strategies?

1.  Know your target audience – the more focused you are on the exact client you want to work with, the easier it will be to attract them.

2.  Know the pains and worries of your target audience – the more you know about what the problems your clients have, the easier it will be to come up with a great give-away to encourage them to part with their email addresses

3.  Offer results, rather than the solutions – your target audience aren’t really that concerned about how you go about helping them. They just want results.  So a “Small Business Checklist” which is rather blah-blah, suddenly becomes desirable when it becomes “The 5 biggest mistakes that small business owners make – and how you can avoid them”. Same content – just presented in a different way

4. Be clear on the language your clients use – tone of phrase, images, how you address someone, specific jargon – all of this matters.  Write and present yourself in a way that relates to your target audience

5. Know where your target audience hangs out – one marketing strategy does not fit all so be careful of using marketing tools and networks just because everyone does.  The more you know about your target audience, the easier it will be to discover where these people hang out in numbers – remembering that the offline world is just as powerful (if not more powerful!) than the online world.

OK.  Coming back to my original question – does the size of your mailing list really matter?

The answer is yes but only when it is full of quality, targeted clients who love what they have signed up for and are ready to make a commitment to you when you make them a good offer.

What are your thoughts? Are you feeling overwhelmed by the pressure to build your list? Or do you disagree and have another view point?  Add your comment below.

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Marketing Drip-Feed is Essential for Small Business Success

As we still face recession headlines, there will be no doubt that one of the reasons why some businesses will survive and others fail, will be the consistency of their marketing.

Many self-employed professionals have relied on referrals over the past few years.  They have built up a strong reputation and enjoyed a steady flow of client.

But, with the economy in a downturn, it is easy for those referrals to dry up.  Their clients may cut budgets or have decided to spend their money on other resources. And the steady flow of clients stops.

On the other hand, there are many, many coaches, consultants and trainers who have been marketing consistently – month in, month out, irrespective of how busy their are with clients.

And it will be these businesses who will not only maintain their flow of work, but probably gain a little more as some other businesses go under.

Marketing is not an activity that happens once a month.  Nor is it something that you do every Monday morning, to kick start your week.

Marketing needs to happen each and every day, drip fed in to your working week so you maintain visibility and your potential clients think of you when they are ready.

 

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The 3 rules of marketing for small businesses

More clients, more clients, more clients.  This seems to be a common mantra chanted over and over again by small business owners. And it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the amount of information and advice out there on how to get more clients.

However, my favourite character on TV – the meerkat – has the right idea.  Marketing is Simples!  And there are only 3 rules to follow to make sure you are able to attract more clients.

1.  Marketing is Fun

Many small business owners seem to speak about marketing their business with a grimace on their face.  They often associate the word “marketing” with “cold-calling” and “leaflet dropping”.

If these were the only ways to attract clients I think I would have given up a long time ago.

There are many, many ways to market yourself.  Just think about the dozens of ways you communicate with people on a week by week basis.  From phone calls to meeting people face-to-face.  From emails to popping a postcard in the letter box.

Why do the things that fill you with dread when you can choose between having a cup of coffee with someone to writing an article for your local newspaper.

Think about what you enjoy doing.  Do you like standing up and speaking in front of audience?  Do you enjoy writing articles or developing workshop programmes?  Do you prefer using the phone or like getting out and meeting people?

If you are not focusing on what you enjoy doing then marketing can be horrid.

Focus on what you love to do and that way marketing becomes fun; something that you look forward to doing.

2.  Marketing happens each and every day

Marketing is about communicating with potential customers and building relationships with them so that, at some point in the future, they purchase from you (preferably several times) and go on and tell others about what you do.

Marketing is not something that you have a blast at for a couple of days one week and then don’t bother for the rest of the month.

Marketing needs to – and should – happen each and every day of your working life.  Every time you send an email think about what you are communicating about.  Can you include a link to one of your products or programmes at the bottom of your email signature?

Every time you meet someone think about how you follow up. Can you send them something in the post that may be useful to them and help them remember you and what you do?

Marketing happens every time you speak about your business, email someone about your business and write about your business.

3.  Marketing is doing more of less

One of the biggest reasons that most small business owners end up hating marketing is that they flit from one thing to the next.

Too many people end up placing an advert in their local newspaper, submit a few articles online, turn up to a dozen or so networking events, make 20 cold calls and send out a direct mailing to a database they just bought.

And after 3 weeks then declare none of it works!

If it far more effective and far easier to pick just two or three marketing activities to do each and every day for several months AND then always measure the results.

The repeated actions also help make marketing part of the way you communicate so that the process becomes a subconscious one.  The marketing process can be so natural that neither you nor your prospect client actually thinks of it as marketing.  It just helps build that relationship.  When this happens, it is time to start with the next one and then the next.

So remember:  Less is more if it is done each and every day with a smile on your face.

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Promote Less and Charge More

One of the easiest ways of making your business more profitable is to stop offering lots of choice and put your prices up.

Offer “affordable” and “low-cost” solutions to your clients and it is easy to get caught in the trap of constant promotions.  You can see this happening on the High Street at the moment.  Big retailers are offering pre-christmas sales and slashing their prices.  But the low margins mean that they have to get large numbers of customers through their doors to hit their sales targets.

When you run your own business, this is a strategy that rarely works.  It’s hard to attract the high numbers of clients you need to make the profits you want.

Here is a simple example using workshops to show you what I mean.

Half-day workshop tickets sell at £45
Delegate rate & room hire cost you £10 per person
Gross Profit per person £35

To make a total gross profit (and remember you still need to take in to account all the cost of promoting the event, work book printing, admin support, etc) of £500, you need a minimum of 15 tickets sold. 

Full-day workshop tickets sell at £195
Delegate rate & room hire cost you £40 per person
Gross Profit per person £155

To make the same £500 gross profit, you only need to sell 4 tickets.  If you sold 15 tickets, you would make a gross profit of £2325.

You would have to run at least 4 half day workshops to make the same gross profit as running one full day workshop.

Which workshop programme do you think will take less of your time to make £2,000?

(Please note, these calculations are highly simplified.  Do make sure you work out your net profit carefully when running events and don’t get caught out by focusing on your gross profit per person!)

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Do Small Businesses Really Have Time For Marketing?

I reviewed a consultant’s LinkedIn profile the other day and after I had emailed over the report, we arranged to speak on the phone to go through my advice and recommendations.

Unfortunately, to make his LinkedIn profile work harder for him, it became apparent that this consultant was trapped by the “time excuse”. He felt he was so busy he didn’t have the time to make the necessary changes I had recommended. It was a Catch 22. He knew LinkedIn could prove to be a profitable marketing platform for him – many of his target clients where active users. But even though his profile was poor and if a potential client was to Google his name, it would probably put someone off from contacting him, he felt he didn’t have the time to do anything about it.

He wanted new clients, but was too busy with day-to-day “stuff”.

But was time the real reason for not taking action?

Probably not! As small business owners, it is easy to feel there is not enough time in the working week. But if a new client was too call you’d make the time to speak with them, wouldn’t you?

Time is not genuine excuse for not getting on with your marketing. And I think the reason why you may use the time excuse is that you don’t really know what you should be doing first.

You have no plan of attack.

It’s too easy to wade through hundreds of emails that have been stacking up in your inbox. Perhaps you have lots of paperwork and invoices to send out or sort out.

These are just excuses. If you have no plan of attack, then it’s not surprising that all your good intentions are just left by the wayside. It’s not surprising that you will find yourself at the end of each month having drifted along, not having attracted any new clients or moved ahead with any new projects.

So, before you let yourself drift through the next month and allow your competitors to be one step ahead of you, follow these simple steps.

Step One. Get Clear on Your “Big Plan”. Where do you see your business in 6 months or 2 years? What do you want to known for in your industry? What product, programme or book do you want to create before next year?

Step Two: Map Out Your Journey. Your “Big Plan” is your long term plan. However, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed before you’ve begun the journey, if you have failed to chunk your plan down in to more manageable time frames. It’s easier to climb several hills than go straight for Mount Everest! Good milestones to have are 3 months, 6 months and 1 year.

Step Three: SMARTen Up Your Milestones. Classic goal setting tips here! Make sure each milestone is SMART. SMART means Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timescale. If each of your milestones can be each of these, then you have a great goal that is easier to achieve.

Step Four: Create Your 3 Month Action Plan. By focusing now on just your 3 month milestone (rather than your “Big Picture”) you should find it far easier deciding what to actually do over the coming weeks. Remember though, this isn’t a to-do-list (that’s for your daily brain dumps). I suggest no more than 3 daily, 3 weekly and 3 monthly actions because this is will ensure your plan of attack is simple and easy to follow (and will also allow you to manage other parts of your life so you are not working 24/7!).

Step Five: Diarise Your Action Plan. Work out how long your daily, weekly and monthly actions should take you and diarise 30 minute or 1 hour chunks in to your diary. It can be tough allocating a whole day every week to marketing. Little and often fit better in to a working week.

Follow these five steps and the time excuse will no longer be needed as you will now know exactly what you need to do get on with your marketing.

As for the consultant I mentioned earlier – I’m looking forward to seeing what he has managed to achieve from my checklist in the one hour chunk I challenged him on!

If you want help in chunking down your “big plan” or even with the “big plan” itself, then call me on 01428 607745 or click here for more information on how working with me could help you and your business.

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Do you display your prices on your website?

If there is one question that comes up time and time again with clients who want their website reviewed, it’s this: “Do I display my prices?”

My answer time and time again is YES! Of course! Why wouldn’t you?

“Oh, because I don’t want my competitors knowing what I charge.”

“I don’t want to put people off from contacting me.”

“I want to be flexible so I can charge more if I feel I can get away with it.”

Rubbish. Rubbish. Rubbish. And here are my reasons why:

Perception of being too expensive. I was checking out a new webinar system earlier this week and no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t find the page called “Prices” or “Packages”. All I could do was to either sign up for a free 30 day trial or fill in a form for someone to contact me.

I know they wanted my contact details first. They wanted to pull me in to their marketing system so they could follow up and wear me down until I decided to buy. But I wanted to know whether the product was within my budget.

By not having the price on their website easily accessible, my only thoughts were “bet they are too expensive!” (Note: this is a good strategy to take for luxury, top end products if you do actually want to create the image of being expensive in your marketing.)

Wasted time on enquiries. If you want people to contact you for a price, you have to have the systems and spend the time to respond to these enquires. Coaches, you are the worst at this! You offer a free consultation – up to an hour of your time – only for the potential client to say “thanks, but I’ll have to go away and think about it”. Translated: “Thanks but it’s more than I thought.  I can’t afford your services but I don’t want to say this to you directly”

My conversion rate when I first started out went from 30% to 60% as soon as I put my prices on my website. If the prices put people off before contacting me, great. It saved me that consultation hour and I was able to get on with other stuff that did make me money.

If you have created the right product/service to provide a solution for your client’s problems, be confident about your pricing.  If you are not overcharging or under selling yourself, charging the “right” price is a good business decision!  It’s nothing to be ashamed of ;o)

Makes the sale easier. If someone knows what you charge before they start talking to you, the whole sales process becomes so much smoother. There is no need for you to stumble over the question “What do you charge?” They already know, so you don’t need to feel embarrassed or awkward discussing it. (We really don’t like talking money, do we?!)

If you do a lot of bespoke work and have to quote per client, then make sure you publicize a starter package, for example. Or quote a price range, highlighting what they would get for that package.

Stuff the competition. So what if your competitors know your price. If you don’t put it on your website, I am pretty sure – if they really wanted to – they would find a way of getting your price lists. You don’t have time to be getting in to petty price wars with other businesses.

So be bold. Be brave. Clearly state your prices or packages so your potential clients know exactly what they are in for, so that when you get to speak to them or they click the order button, they are ready to make the decision to buy.

Photo credit goes to: Unhindered by talent

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What’s your book cover say about you?

Do people judge a book by its cover?

Most of us have been taught to never pre-judge people and to always look beyond someone’s appearance before casting an opinion.  And yes, in society this is certainly how I like to be treated.

But, in business, we often find ourselves making snap decisions.

You meet a stranger at a networking event and BAM – you just can’t help it.  The way they shook hands with you, the way they did (or didn’t) look you in the eye and the way they said their name – all these things are immediately processed and an instant judgement is made on whether you want to stick around and carry on the conversation.

Statistics say that, on average, what you actually say contributes just 7% to how someone perceives you.  38% comes from the way you say your words and a massive 55% is affected by your appearance.

Scary isn’t it?

When we start out in business, we often worry so much about what we actually say when go out and network and present ourselves to prospective clients.  But from these statistics (and just look at how you react to people you meet in business for the first time) what we actually say slips rapidly down the priority list.

The way you say things and the way you present yourself, both in terms of clothing and body language, are incredibly important factors to how your personal brand is interpreted.

And your personal brand is an incredibly important factor when it comes to attracting clients.

Imagine two nutritional therapists standing up to speak at a networking event.  They both offer the same elevator speech in that they work with clients on a 1-2-1 basis to help them lose weight and feel healthier.

One nutritional therapist is nicely slim (not lollipop-model!), well groomed and has a clear complexion.  The other seems to be wearing ill-fitting trousers (two sizes too small), has a huge spot in the middle of her forehead and looks slightly out-of-breath having walked up two flights of stairs.

OK, I’m being a little extreme to make my point here but Which one are you going to “judge” to be the “better” nutritional therapist?

So what’s your book cover saying to people?

What is your appearance, your body language and your speech patterns saying about your business?

Understanding your personal brand and identifying how people perceive you and your business, can be daunting.  But it’s got to be done! Take time out to check yourself out in the mirror before leaving for your next networking event.

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