The following is probably the greatest commandment in “Power Positioning.”

Now that we’ve talked about lead generation advertising, the next step is where to advertise. And the trick to having as many pre-qualified prospects come forward is to have your ad noticed and read by such a specific group of people as much, as often, and as effectively as possible. General publications won’t do that and they cost a lot of money… That’s cost-per-lead money.

Specialized publications, on the other hand, have the distinction of appealing to a specific audience and thus increase the chances of it being noticed as well as read. Why? If one newspaper has a readership of 100,000 but only 25,000 fits into your demographics, where another has only 40,000 readers but all of which fits into your demographics (because the publication is specialized), which one do you think will give you the greatest response?

Read the rest or post a comment »

I know that the yellow pages’ people will hate me for this, but your yellow pages’ ad, although an essential part of your entire marketing machine, doesn’t have to be of a large size, in color, prominently displayed, or tied-in with other gimmicks that the yellow pages salespeople have to offer. While necessary, the yellow pages should only be used as support systems.

The concept of this entire book is to teach you that creating top-of-mind awareness (not “institutional” advertising) should be your main marketing goal. When people have seen your ad, heard about you, or have a need for your services at any particular time, your contact information may or may not be available to them at that particular moment. Therefore, you want the yellow pages to back you up and not use them as a full-blown marketing medium.

Read the rest or post a comment »

One of my coaching students, Dave Martin, asked me to quickly critique a sales page he will be working on. The site is for "Gourmet Sweet Nuts" by Lady Betsy, which, according to David, are "Gawd-awful good!"

The problem is, this page sells the product directly but was originally intended as an introduction letter to candy stores and dealers. (That explains why it isn’t selling as well as it can.)

Just like trying to mix SEO with good sales copy, it’s a hard thing to do when your page has more than one goal. It requires skill. But in this particular case, it’s best to focus only on one core message. In fact, I always try to stick to the “rule of focus” in copy, which means…

Read the rest or post a comment »

An interesting discussion is going on in one of my favorite online forums, The Warriors Forum, about short copy winning over long copy. And the author of the thread cited a study he conducted, where he proved that shorter copy won over long copy.

Some people are screaming “heresy!” Others agreed.

Personally, I believe the study conducted is indeed valid because it makes sense. In this particular case, short copy was warranted for this particular market with this particular offer.

But is this true in all cases? When you look at his study closer, you realize that it lacks information about the variables involved, which makes the study, and its findings, a bit misleading.

Here’s what I mean.

Read the rest or post a comment »