I cut my teeth on marketing ‘gurus’ like Dan Kennedy and Jay Abraham. I have always loved their direct no nonsense approach. (the fact they are incredibly successful at what they do helps too)

As amazing as it sounds, I found a new hero… His name is.. Drayton Bird.

Drayton is from the UK and knows what he is talking about. When advertising giant David Ogilvy says: "Bird knows more about marketing than anyone in the world"… that says it all.

I have heard of Drayton, but paid no attention… until I heard about amazing results he typically gets with his advertising.

Drayton has several amazing stories circulating around the marketing kingdom.

One is that he has had a sales page pull MORE than 100% conversion! How? Allegedly people who bought the product passed along the sales page. He created incidental sales.

Another story that has some weight is that his controls beat more than 90% of whoever he goes up against (keep in mind he goes up against the best).

On top of all of that I love his style. I recently had a friend usher me to his website and I was shocked to find he gives away top shelf marketing tips, tricks and tactics. All I needed to do was sign up for his emails (which have been a marketing lesson in itself)

If you want to stretch your mind and become a lot better at selling whatever it is you sell, get over to his site and check him out. It’s the best free marketing advice I have seen yet.

Click here to go to Drayton Bird’s website

Paul

Do you know what I find hard, writing my own advertising. I don’t have the same mental constipation with my client’s ads.

I am going to let you in on a little secret… a lot of us copywriters and marketing pros have a hard time with our own business’s marketing. With all the training we have we still have a civil war going on within our heads.

The trouble with all business owners is…  that we see our advertising as something other than what is supposed to be, to help people. How many times when you are placing ads are you thinking about what affect on your life the ad has if it succeeds or fails?

You immediately start thinking about bills that need to be payed, equipment you need to buy, employees dependent on you or a high priced hooker you have scheduled for every Thursday… it all impedes how you see your advertising.

Your ads will reflect your situation unless you are extremely disciplined. I can always tell a desperate business by their advertising, can’t you?

Most times we are not thinking about the right results. We focus on money, but the person reading your ad is focused on their problems. You have a business that specializes in eliminating a problem (or problems) for people.

Whether you are a window cleaner, financial adviser or a used car salesman, you’re in the business of solving problems.

This is why it is so much easier for me to write advertisements for other businesses. I can see the business’s solution to the clients problem and write it to their target market in an appealing way.

Here is a simple approach to writing your own ads- Tell them how you can help them. It is vital you forget about your side of things.

You must be sincere in your effort to help others. I have seen advertisements written by small business owners, with little marketing skill win big with a simple, direct and sincere ad.

Don’t be funny, fancy or egocentric. You likely have not got the sincerity part down yet so adding humor or visual enhancements become a mask. This is a VERY hard way to create an effective advertisement.

Humor is based on what YOU think is funny. Design is based on what YOU think looks appealing. If the words are generic your results will be weakened.

I know this is beaten to death but you need to write from the customers point of view. I always try to ask ‘why?’ when I write a sentence, offer, add graphics…. Why should they keep reading. Why do these graphics help in making sales. Why should they be compelled to contact me now.

Be sincere and always keep asking yourself why and you will see huge leaps in sales.

Paul

Blog tools

For those of you who don’t know, I have worked with a lot of local businesses. I also used to own a localized service business. One common problem I had and all others have is trying to tell people how much better our service/product is better than the others.

I have yet to talk to a business owner who does not think badly about their competition. Usually it’s more of…  a "it’s not as good", "they are not insured", "they hire illegal immigrants"…. or whatever else they think should matter to people.

The problem is that if we start off our conversation with people warning them that everyone else sucks we create a non-conducive buying environment.

We turn them off, even if it is true. I have just witnessed a GREAT commercial showing you how to give a competitor a stick in the ribs… without looking bad in the process. Take this idea and see if you can do something like it in your ads.

Go get some

Paul

Watch how marketing superstar Eben Pagen deals with creating a headline

When I am writing someones sales page I need to research their product or service.

A lot of the time I see a lot of value in what they offer, yet they charge almost nothing…. and then lump on a bunch of bonuses or freebies.

I had a client with a business selling plans for building a contraption for car enthusiasts. I took one look at his price and… 

raised it without even seeing anything.

Actually, I almost doubled the price. I knew he was positioning his products as "poor mans plans" and I don’t see a profitable outcome there.

He about crapped his overhauls but he raised the price and sales INCREASED.

Obviously writing him a new sales page helped, but we were not hitting a new target market. These were the "tightwads" he believed would not pay more.

If you’re going to sell a product or service think about the price. Experiment with a higher price point first. Let the market tell you what sounds good.

For those of you writing your own ads, really look at the value of what you are offering. Convey the value with a justifiable price and sales will increase.

I am not saying raising prices is the answer to more sales, but most focus on how cheap it is. They focus on cheap and so does the customer.

I see WAY too many under-priced offers out there. It cost no more to sell something for $57 than it does $17.

Don’t jump over the dollars to get to the dimes.

go get some

Paul

Please feel free to leave your thoughts on this. I would love to hear what you think.

 Being that I write ads and sales pages I always find myself
in a situation where I need to qualify my client’s position.

This happens a lot in the ‘relationship’ niche.

It can be very hard to position somebody as someone with
the answers when they don’t have a body of work or
proof (like degrees, awards, expert testimonials, etc)

You likely have had to (or will be) trying to convince people
to buy your thingy or service based upon your know-how.

A lot of niches can do this with screen shots and testimonials,
but a lot of others do not have these tools.

My favorite example of someone completely forcing his will
upon people to believe him is…  Tony Robbins.

Here we have this troubled man with no degree in anything
talking about changing peoples lives in 15 minutes.

How did he do this? Back in the mid 80′s when he started out he grasped
onto NLP. He studied this little known method to great detail and
wrote a book.

He took what he knew and simply challenged psychiatrists that he
could ‘cure’ their patients in front of a live audience. He convinced a
woman deathly afraid of snakes not to be in 15 minutes!

Here is a guy who was absolutely nobody. Took on a niche where
you HAD to have a formal education and became one of the most
famous self help people to ever walk the earth.

He started having private sessions with people for $500 an hour
and ‘cured" them in one session! He quickly charged $5000 a session.

He VERY quickly proved to the world (despite being criticized
by every expert as a charlatan) that he was indeed someone who
can teach you to help yourself.

Dr Phil did much the same thing.

If you are a part of what you are selling, you need to give the reader
something other than "I’m the expert". Reveal stuff in your ads, give
out some ‘secrets’.

I promise you if you divulge some awesome free advice/tricks/
strategies you can get around fighting to get them to believe you
are the expert.

Find a way to show them you are the expert that can help them

go get some

Paul

The Great Marketing Separator — Nonconformity

Today I am going to focus on those of you who have small businesses. When I was running my local service business I was afflicted with the disease of sameness…

I never focused on what made my company different, but yet I would always say ‘no other company is like mine’. The problem is we think one way and the marketplace thinks another.

This post is not about getting your message out there, this is about the truckloads of cash you may be screwing yourself out of…. because  you are a true conformist.

Rather than focus on what makes you special, let’s focus on what you are not offering or doing that will immediately separate your business from the flood…

It’s So Easy Even a Barber Can Do It

Can you think of anything more mundane than a barbershop? With all the salons taking aggressive steps to focus on men, barbershop’s faithful are far and few. Likely why most go out of business or barely make any money.

If you owned a struggling barbershop what would you do? Think about this for a minute as it is easier to think how you would treat another business than it is your own. How would you get more customers in the door?

Would you…

• Use social networking (like Twitter and Facebook)
  
• Send out direct mail
  
• Utilize television or radio
  
• Put ads in local papers and/or magazines
  

Do you know what will happen if you used all of those? Probably not much, do you know why? Because the mentality of today’s man has changed. We love to go to the salon and have our hair ‘styled’ by a hot looking stylist.

We will happily shell out $40 a trip rather than hit the ‘old man’ barbershop for half the price.

Nonconformist Entreprenuers Elevate "the barbershop" Image

I am sure most of your answers in my ‘how to save the barbershop’ question was noble. You tried and likely could not see the forest through the trees. (the trees being your focus on the advertising rather than the psychology… the true enemy here.)

Would you believe a barbershop not only can get a large client base, but charge them membership dues? Some of the top end memberships costing thousands per year!

Check out what these guys have done to a stagnate and dying business type- http://www.kennedysbarberclub.com/

Do you see how you may be missing out on something in your business? Imagine what would have happened if these guys asked people within the industry what they thought about their idea in the beginning… they would have been laughed out of there.

Instead they skipped talking to the barely surviving, narrow minded people and looked at business models outside of the industry. They now have 152 locations, and growing! I wonder how many of those typical barbershops will have a chain of 150 stores and an army of clients being auto-billed monthly.

These savvy entrepreneurs also identified that men like ‘male exclusivity’. Men will pay to be involved in a private club like this, and some will pay a lot.

If you think there is nothing you can do like this in your business, that is fine… but just because you stop moving does not mean the world does too.

go get some

Paul

Stop talking and start doing!

Here we are in 2010. It’s really amazing how fast time flies.

I find it sorta funny how everyone initially sees it as a new beginning. "It’s a chance to start fresh!"… why? It’s just another day. Nothing has happened but some numbers changing. Why do people think that will be enough to bring success or enthusiasm strong enough to do better this year?

It’s no wonder every New Year’s resolution disappears almost immediately after the first week is gone by.

Some may see this as me being negative or the glass is half empty. Hell no, it’s an absolute fact.

I’ll tell you what, I did not do nearly as much as I wanted to do in 2009. I suppose I could treat it like a credit card and transfer the balance to a new one (the 2010 card) and keep spending like time ain’t running out.

I just met up with…  some friends on Facebook I have not seen in 20+ years, it really put time into perspective for me.  I can’t believe I am already 40. It feels like I woke up and 20 years went by in a minute.

As awesome as it is to get back in touch with them I had a very vivid realization of waking up and being 60… wondering what the hell happened to 20 years.

Screw it being a ‘new year’, it’s one less year for me to do shit. We are on a stopwatch and that thing can run out at any time. I don’t feel I have really lived so I sure the hell am not ready to be wheeled around in a diaper.

If a new year resolution seems a little weak to you too… imagine never accomplishing all the things you keep putting off. Realize how much you can do in the next 365 days if you really dig deep.

It’s time for me to get serious, who’s with me?

go get some (no, really)

Paul

If you own a small business, this is for you

For those of you who don’t know, I write ads. Both online and off. Small business owners can be very difficult to work with, do you know why? Most are megalomaniacs (power drunk)

Almost every offline small business I work with is focused on their image. Almost all online businesses are focused on sales. It is an interesting dichotomy.

I started with a offline local business and I can’t tell you how blind I was. Let’s face it, most small business owners can’t sell toilet paper to a family with food poisoning…

I asked one business owner I was writing for to describe what separates him  from his competition. He told me he cares more. How in the hell do you sell caring?

Hire Me Today to Build an Addition on to Your Home, because I care

Do you ever see the ads or websites where a company goes on and on about customer service? I promise you that has ZERO effect on getting sales. In fact it may be losing sales. People don’t care for one, but they also don’t believe them. Have you ever bought anything because you thought they cared more. Be honest

Does Wal-Mart care more than Target? Does Ford care more than Toyota? Does Dominoes care more than Papa John’s? Have you ever thought about who cares more?

Most times I get a coupon when I am hungry and order a pizza. If the pizza guy wants to mow my lawn, that’s cool. But I called because I am hungry and they had a quick fix. I don’t even like these pizzas!

What people are buying is the end result. Not a smile, not a thank you card. First they need to want what is being pushed on them. Customer service is not worth anything to anyone but the business.

It comes after the sale.

Branding is another area I butt heads on a lot. 99.9% of businesses look at McDonalds and Coke and say "I wanna be that in my local area. When they think of _____ they think of us". Well, that is silly and near impossible. Seeing your signs, trucks, logos or whatever does nothing because there is no meaning.

If people are getting hit with 3000 ads per day, it is impossible for you to position yourself without stopping them dead in their tracks. They need to ignore the other 2999 ads, their kids, the late credit card payment, the ringing phone and Oprah.

The best way to do that is to hook them and sell them right then. Don’t give them time to think about it or forget. This is where online businesses beat the crap out of offline. They know that person may never come back.

Don’t worry about image, ego or branding. If you get them as a customer then you can show them how much you care. Then your brand means something to them.

go get some

Paul

Sometimes we need to pat ourselves on the back a little more…

I was listening to a seminar the other day and Dave Lakhani was speaking. He brought up something I feel we should all do more often…. celebrate.

We are always waiting for the 'big thing' to happen before we allow ourselves to enjoy what just happened.

For example, I just landed a couple of partnerships that really look good. I like the people and what they are going to promote. What did I do after locking these down? Concentrated on the next thing I need to do.

Damn sad aint it? I worked hard to put myself in a position to be offered this, yet I do not stop and enjoy the moment.

When is the moment big enough…. is it ever big enough? I get testimonials from people telling me they loved working with me and I did a great job. Did I stop to say to myself "good going Paul!"… no.

I just allow that positive energy to dissipate into nothingness

I plan on pushing myself hard this new year. The part I will push the most is acknowledging triumphs, both big and small.

That aint going to be easy, but it will be wonderful.

Have a great holiday and a prosperous new year

go get some

Paul