A Marketing Review of The 2010 Super Bowl Commercials

Each year, companies spend millions of dollars per minute to promote their goods during the Super Bowl, the single largest annual event in the United States.  Some of these commercials are memorable, others not so much.  While I enjoy the ads for their entertainment value as much as the next guy, typically I’m far more interested in the marketing behind the madness.  Below are my reviews for each of the ads shown during Super Bowl XLIV.

1st Quarter

Product: Bud Light

Summary: A pretty typical Bud Light commercial:  young co-eds having fun with lots of Bud Light; actually a whole house made from cans of the stuff.

Review: The commercial served to embrace Bud Light’s party reputation, but seemed to subtly define the company as anti-environmentally responsible.  Not sure that’s the best message, but I think the commercial was meant more to launch the brand’s new tagline “Here We Go”. 

Score: 6/10

Product: Snickers

Summary: Betty White and Abe Vigoda are the stars of this commercial.  A group of friends are out playing football and because they are hungry, are apparently playing like old people. 

Review: Another pretty typical commercial, though Betty White has amassed a cult-like following over the last decade or so and really helps this ad stand out from some other recent Snicker spots.  Another new tagline: “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry”.  I guess some of these advertisers think it’s good to change their taglines every few months.  I’m not so sure. 

Score: 8/10

Product: Focus on the Family

Summary: Tim Tebow’s mom tells the story of how her Heisman Trophy winning son almost wasn’t born.  Son thanks her at the end.

Review: The only commercial this year centered around a political hot topic, this ad got lots of attention pre-Super Bowl.  All in all, had a pretty tame pro-life message starring college football’s most famous player.

Score: 6/10

Product: Hyundai

Summary: Introducing Hyundai’s newest Sonata model and new paint jobs.

Review: The commercial itself is pretty boring, but at least it makes a solid claim and attempts to back it up with visual appeal. In a down economy, it’s very likely that Hyundai can take market share away from Mercedes.  We’ll have to wait and see if their claim of better paint gets people to “Think about it”.

Score: 8/10

Product: Boost Mobile

Summary: Recreates the 1985 Chicago Bears Super Bowl Shuffle, starring members of the team. 

Review: Entertaining, especially for those who remember the original version, Boost does a decent job of getting its message across: $50 unlimited talk and text.  Also a good idea to lead viewers to your website, which the spot does fairly obviously at the end. 

Score: 8/10

Product: Doritos

Summary: Typical human teases animal, animal gets revenge spot. 

Review: This breed of commercial has been played out in recent years, and other than a 1 second chuckle at the end, gets very little for its money. Slightly less funny than the Bud Light spot and equally forgettable. 

Score: 6/10

Product: Robin Hood Feature Film

Summary: Trailer for upcoming release of new Robin Hood movie. 

Review: Didn’t move me at all.  Considering the competition it will be going up against this summer, doesn’t seem to have a great chance.  Left me wondering where Brian Adams was this time around. 

Score: 5/10

Product: Doritos

Summary: Child protects his home turf from mom’s new friend. 

Review: Was a crowd favorite at the Super Bowl party I attended and was far superior to the first Doritos commercial. Apparently Doritos’ goal was to get viewer reaction, and for that, I guess it did its job.  Will be one of the longest-remembered spots of this year’s Super Bowl.

Score: 9/10

Product: Bud Light

Summary: World is about to end.  Astronomers spend their last moments enjoying Bud Light. 

Review: Yet another typical Bud Light spot.  There’s something to be said for consistency in branding, but when the spots are consistently subpar, it’s probably not the best use of millions of dollars.  At minimum, ad reinforces new tagline and continues Bud Light’s claim to be the drink of choice for the party set.

Score: 7/10

Product: Coca-Cola

Summary: Characters from the Simpsons come to life as Mr. Burns loses his fortune and becomes depressed until of course, he gets his hands on a Coca-Cola. 

Review: I knew this was a Coke commercial from the moment it started, so there must be some elements of subtle consistency.  I also thought it was a clever way to tie in the current state of the economy and remind people that there is happiness in the little things.  If Super Bowl ads teach us one thing, it’s that multi-million dollar commercials during the big game are a prime vehicle for unveiling new taglines.  For Coke, it’s “Open Happiness”.

Score: 7/10

Product: Go Daddy

Summary: Typical Go Daddy commercial.   

Review: The only good thing about these Go Daddy commercials is that they lead the viewer to the website, but I don’t know anyone who has ever done so, at least not admittedly.  I’m square in their target market and haven’t the slightest inclination to see the supposed racy endings to one of these spots.  If anything, I would think these spots hurt the company overall, but since they keep running them, they must know something I don’t.

Score: 5/10

Product: Doritos

Summary: Man fakes death to watch Super Bowl and eat Doritos in peace.   

Review: The onslaught on unwitty Doritos commercials continues.  Obviously Frito-Lay subscribes to the school of quantity over quality.  Slightly better than the first Doritos commercial, not quite as good as the second.  Doing their best to keep chips on your brain during the game, though I’m sure people had already stocked up on chips prior to these commercials airing so I’m not sure how much they gain from these spots.

Score: 7/10

Product: Bud Light

Summary: Weak recreation of the classic “What’s Up” ads.   

Review: Auto tune has been a popular trend in music and T-Pain is a popular online figure.  I guess Bud Light felt they could use the issue to recreate one of their past commercial hits, but I think they missed badly.  Another case of quantity over quality.

Score: 7/10

Product: Monster.com

Summary: Violin-playing beaver uses job search provider to find his true calling in life.   

Review: I think Monster really missed out on an opportunity to connect with those out of a job right now.  Instead of inspiring those seeking employment to use their new “precision job search”, they chose to use a puppetry with little or no emotional value to drive traffic to their site.  I doubt it will work.

Score: 6/10

Product: Wolfman Feature Film

Summary: Trailer for upcoming release of new Wolfman movie.   

Review: Commercials for this film seen throughout the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl were actually far better (and longer).  I guess the goal is just to get the word out to as many people as possible, and I suppose, that was accomplished.

Score: 5/10

Product: Bridgestone Tires

Summary: Cheap (and blatant) knock-off of the Hollywood hit “The Hangover”.   

Review: You really could see the punchline coming a mile away.  In my opinion, you do more harm to your brand than good when you so blatantly rip off hot pop culture bits.  They may get some publicity, but at what cost?  I don’t think it’s true any longer that all publicity is good publicity.

Score: 5/10

Product: Skechers

Summary: Promotion of new line of “body shaping” shoes.   

Review: About as lame as the Bridgestone commercial but in half the time. I doubt anyone believes Joe Montana is actually using this product.  Poor misuse of a Super Bowl legend, but at least they accomplished their goal of promoting a new product line.

Score: 6/10

Product: Cars.com

Summary: Completely recycled their commercial from last year’s Super Bowl.   

Review: I’m guessing Cars.com got a spike in traffic from last year’s ad and figured why not try to catch lightning in a bottle a second time.  Something about being totally unoriginal that in my opinion hurts a brand more than it helps.  Basically gives the viewer permission to get up and use the restroom instead of watching the rest.  And a whole minute?  Really?  Shame on whoever gave this the thumbs up.

Score: 6/10

1st Quarter Score – Advertisers 0, Viewers 7.  Commercials have been more entertainment (not very good entertainment, but entertainment) than effective.

 

Product: Budweiser

Summary: With the town bridge out, it’s up to the town’s people to help the Budweiser truck get across.   

Review: Slightly better than the Bud Light commercials, but barely.  I think Budweiser is smart to stick to using their famous Clydesdale’s in their ads, but at least the commercial was slightly entertaining.  Sadly, when I see this type of Bud commercial, it just reminds me that the company is longer American-owned. 

Score: 7/10

Product: Shutter Island Feature Film

Summary: Trailer for upcoming release of new Shutter Island movie.   

Review: See Wolfman review above.  Something about upcoming release commercials that seems like a might big waste of money, brining nothing new to the table that hasn’t been showing on television breaks in weeks leading up to the big game.  Commercials we’ve seen before = bathroom breaks.

Score: 5/10

Product: Late Show

Summary: Dave, Oprah and Jay on a couch.   

Review: If nothing else, it made you pay attention.  I thought it sort of odd they had three television celebrities from three different networks, but it was kind of interesting and got a chuckle from the crowd I was with.  Decent use of tying in current events. 

Score: 6/10

Product: Careerbuilder.com

Summary: Casual Friday’s taken a bit too far.   

Review: In what turns out to be the beginning of a disturbing trend of commercials featuring people with less than enough clothes on, Careerbuilder actually does a little bit better job than Monster did in inspiring job seekers to take action.  Seriously, would you want his job?

Score: 7/10

Product: Dockers

Summary: Men declaring their right to wear no pants.    

Review: A second commercial in a row with pantless men.  A relatively witty, metaphorical shot at the lack of masculinity in today’s society.  However, I just don’t see Dockers as a legitimate answer to their request to finally wear the pants once again.

Score: 7/10

Product: Hyundai

Summary: Brett Favre continuing to play on his off the field antics.    

Review: Completely different from the first Hyundai ad.  Mildly humorous vehicle for reinforcing the company’s warranty.  I remember the commercial more for Brett Favre than the actual product, which in my mind, isn’t the best use of money.

Score: 7/10

Product: Bud Light

Summary: Stranded passengers from a plane crash prefer Bud Light over being rescued.    

Review: Again, Bud Light’s intention is to position the brand as a party favorite, and accomplished the feat with a blatant ripoff of the “Lost” pilot episode.  Mildly amusing at times. 

Score: 7/10

Product: Dove For Men

Summary: Man goes through life’s big moments to finally feel comfortable with himself.    

Review: The song featured in the commercial is kind of entertaining, but in my opinion, Dove is committing one of marketing’s cardinal sins: that of line extension.  They would be better off creating a new brand for this product instead of trying to stretch a successful brand to cover new ground.  My money is on Axe in this battle.

Score: 7/10

Product: Dodge Charger

Summary: Emasculated man gets to enjoy at least one thing in his life.    

Review: The commercial was fine, Dexter’s voice was cool and the car itself is pretty awesome.  Just tiring to see commercial after commercial featuring men who aren’t really men at all.  Especially during a game which is supposed to be a “man’s game”. 

Score: 7/10

Product: Teleflora

Summary: Flowers in a box will get you nowhere with the ladies.    

Review: Another recycled commercial from last year’s Super Bowl.  While the commercial is not all that entertaining, I think it does do a good job justifying an actual purchase of the product, as opposed to most of the commercials so far.  From a marketing perspective, increasing sales should trump entertainment value, but you wouldn’t know it from the majority of the ads played so far.

Score: 8/10

Product: Papa John’s Pizza

Summary: People at the Pro Bowl love pizza.    

Review: As a marketer, I can live with commercials like this. Probably didn’t cost much to make.  Reinforces the brand’s position (better ingredients, better pizza).  And invites the viewer to visit the website for a special offer.  Can’t ask for much more in 30 seconds.  I’d bet Papa John’s gets far more mileage for this type of commercial than just about any of the other ads run so far. 

Score: 9/10

Product: Alice In Wonderland Feature Film

Summary: Trailer for upcoming release of new Alice In Wonderland movie.   

Review: I don’t recall having seen this commercial before except as a 3-D trailer before Avatar. Probably got some people excited to see a new live-action version of the classic. 

Score: 6/10

Product: Dr. Pepper Cherry

Summary: A play on a kiss of cherry with the rock legends KISS.   

Review: Seems pretty much the same as their previous ads for this product.  Not as effective as the Cherry Dr. Pepper ads with the Santa Claus, Tooth Fairy, etc.  Yet another high price to pay for very little pay off. 

Score: 6/10

Product: Tru TV

Summary: Troy Polamalu plays groundhog to promote new NFL series on Tru TV.   

Review: Maybe the strangest commercial so far.  Regardless, it does a good job teasing the audience and leaving them in need of more information.  Decent use of celebrity as Troy is an NFL superstar, a fan favorite and a rising star in commercials. 

Score: 7/10

Product: Universal Orlando

Summary: Grand opening of new Harry Potter theme ride at Universal Studios Orlando.   

Review: I want to say it looks cool, but the fact they only show the ride for about 1.5 seconds tells me otherwise.  I think kids will probably be pretty excited about it, especially Potter fans, but I’m guessing that in this economy, not many families are going to pack up and travel cross country to check this out, no matter how much their kids plead. 

Score: 6/10

Product: Flo TV

Summary: Man forced to go shopping with his girlfriend instead of staying home to watch sports.   

Review: Spineless is right. The recurring theme of this year’s Super Bowl ads appears to be that men have absolutely no spine and no longer wear the pants in the relationship, and any other metaphor you can think of for men being emasculated.  Is this really the best way to sell products to men?  If so, it’s quite sad.  Very cool product.  Not so cool sales tactic.

Score: 6/10

Product: Intel

Summary: New breakthrough in processors is bigger achievement than humanoid robot.   

Review: Cute commercial featuring one of the company’s icons.  Semi-effective message introducing new core processors, leading viewer (falsely) to believe they are powerful enough to power a lifelike robot.  Will probably be effective overall as competition doesn’t really advertise.

Score: 7/10

Product: Flo TV

Summary: Life’s memorable moments are caught on TV, so don’t get caught without a television at all times.   

Review: I have to say this Flo TV commercial is exponentially more effective than the first one which is simply offensive. Why will.i.am needed to be involved I’m not sure as it didn’t take a musical genius to “remix” the classic Who song being played in the back (the commercial also led into the Who halftime show), but the commercial as a whole will probably sell some product.  Definitely one of the more effective commercials of the first half.

Score: 8/10

Half Time Score – Advertisers 3, Viewers 7.  Second quarter commercials have been slightly more effective marketing-wise, allowing the advertisers to creep back into the game.

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Make More Money From Each Of Your Ad Dollars

If you’re like most small businesses, you’re spending quite a bit of money on display ads, direct mail and/or PPC and possibly even relying on these ads and sales letters for all or most of your leads.  For maximum profits, small businesses should build and implement multiple streams of lead generation, but if the majority of your marketing budget is tied up in ads, it’s still possible to literally double your business without spending any extra money.

How?

By optimizing your current ads to increase the response you get from them.  To help you get started, follow these 11 time-tested laws to boost the response rate of your ads and sales letters.

The 11 Time-Tested Laws of High-Response Ads

Law #1 – Include Coupons and/or An 800 Number – Coupons increase your response rate for several reasons.  First, people like to save money and so take notice of coupons.  Include an expiration date to improve your response even more.  Coupons are also powerful because people tend to cut them out, thereby increasing the likelihood they’ll see your ad again later.  As far as a call-to-action goes, not many are more powerful than 800 #’s because they encourage people to make a free phone call, which research shows they often do.

Law #2 – Use 8, 10 or 12 Point Font Only – Fonts are rarely the make or break reason for your ad getting read, but it can have some impact if you use the wrong font.  Don’t try to get too cute here.  Use a font type and size that people are accustomed to reading in the publication you are running the ad with.  Typically these fonts are between 8-12 point and in a more popular font style like Times New Roman, Verdana and Tahoma.

Law #3 – Don’t Use Capitals – Using capital letters throughout your ad actually makes it harder to read because the typical human eye is used to reading text with mostly lower case letters.  Instead of taking chances on ideas you aren’t sure will perform, stick to the laws that are time-tested.

Law #4 – Don’t Use Pictures – Display ads are expensive and to get a good ROI, you must use your space wisely.  Unless your products must be seen, use the space instead to deliver benefits that persuade the reader to take your desired action.

Law #5 – Give As Many Details As Possible – Having trouble filling your ad with valuable details that translate to benefits?  Ask your customers why they buy your products and services and fill your ad with benefits culled from their feedback.  The more you tell your prospects why they should buy from you, the more you’ll sell.

Law #6 – Use Facts & Figures – Today’s consumers are blind to outlandish and unproven claims; if anything, they work against you because you sound like everyone else.  Claims of superior service and great quality are vague and in reality are already expected from consumers.  Instead, fill your ads with specific figures and the facts to back them up.

Law #7 – Use Positive Language – Negative language has a way of lingering in the consumer’s mind.  Instead of using negative language to describe your products and services, always focus on the positive results they provide.  For example, a chimney cleaner should promise a warm, smoke-free house rather than removing all the dirty soot that’s clogging their chimney.

Law #8 – Focus On Solutions, Not Prevention – Consumers rarely look far enough into the future to worry much about preventing problems that may or may not arise.  Focus on helping them solve the issues they have now.  Focus your ads on promising these solutions and your responses will skyrocket.

Law #9 – Promise Free Trials & Samples – One of the easiest ways to get people to read and respond to your ads is to offer a free trial or sample of your products and services.  It will cost you some money to give your goods away, but if they are as good as you say they are, you’ll make far more profits in the long run from repeat customers and is actually the cheapest way for you to build your business.

Law #10 – Use A Headline – Headlines are by far the most important part of any ad, sales letter or commercial.  More than 4-out-of-5 people read the headline ONLY.  Without one, you may as well be throwing away your advertising dollars.  Come up with some headlines that promise your most important benefit to your ideal prospect and see which one works best.

Law #11 – Test Everything – Think your ad is as good as it gets or that testing isn’t worth the time it takes?  Think again.  Every aspect of your ad should be tested, one at a time.  This includes your headline, call-to-action, guarantee, free offer, P.S., time limit, font and anything else you can think of.  No matter how satisfied you are with your ad’s response, testing will help them improve.

Stop spending a fortune on underperforming ads and sales letters.  Even when the economy is down, your ad responses don’t need to be.  Follow these laws religiously and invest time into testing and improving your ads over an extended period of time (forever) and you’re business will grow all by itself without spending any more money than you already are.

Looking For A Guaranteed Way To Improve Your Ads?

Let Prevail PR do it for you.  We guarantee we’ll improve your ads and boost their response to generate more money than you paid for this service within 60 DAYS or we’ll refund your entire purchase price.

We Either Make You More Money Or We Give Your Money Back.  Simple As That.

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Need Some Inspiration?  Look No Further.

One of the best ways to get ahead in life is to learn from the experts in your chosen field that came before you.  In marketing, this is especially true because human nature changes so little over time and the techniques that were successful in the past are just as successful today.

In the years I’ve been honing my marketing skills, I’ve spent a vast amount of time poring through the life works of some pretty incredible marketers, many of whom have profoundly changed my views on the industry as a whole.  Indeed, I started my career as a journalist with little respect for contemporary marketing, but as I grew older and wiser, and stumbled across more and more brilliant and honorable marketers, I began to see marketing as a tool for helping entrepreneurs fulfill their dreams and not as one to push unwanted products.

As a source of inspiration to aspiring marketers and seasoned vets alike, I’ve collected the names and vital information of those who have come before me, men with vision who continue to push the scientific boundaries of marketing.  The gurus of marketing who help make marketing the terrific and rewarding profession it can be.

Enjoy!

25+ Marketers All Marketers Should Study

1.  Jay Conrad Levinson – The “father” of guerrilla marketing.

• Philosophy – Easy and inexpensive strategies for making big profits from your small business.
• Website: Guerrilla Marketing Online
• Blog: GMarketingBlog
• RSS: Subscribe
• Twitter: N/A
• Facebook: N/A
• LinkedIn: Profile
• Multimedia: The Way of the Guerrilla
• Amazon Bestseller: Guerrilla Marketing

2.  Zig Ziglar – The “father” of motivational sales.

• Philosophy – Help enough other people get what they want, and you’ll get what you want.
• Website: Ziglar
• Blog: Ziglar Pure & Simple
• RSS: Subscribe
• Twitter: @tomziglar
• Facebook: Zig Ziglar Group
• LinkedIn: N/A
• Multimedia: Setting Goals
• Amazon Bestseller: Secrets of Closing the Sale

3.  Jay Abraham – The “father” of the Power Parthenon and the world’s highest-paid marketing consultant.

• Philosophy – The power of preeminence and stealth marketing.
• Website: Abraham
• Blog: N/A
• RSS: N/A
• Twitter: N/A
• Facebook: Jay Abraham Group
• LinkedIn: N/A
• Multimedia: Power to Create Profits
• Amazon Bestseller: Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got

4.  Dan Kennedy – The “father” of million dollar direct mail campaigns.

• Philosophy – No B.S., no hype.
• Website: Dan Kennedy
• Blog: N/A
• RSS: N/A
• Twitter: N/A
• Facebook: Dan Kennedy Group
• LinkedIn: N/A
• Multimedia: The Big Opportunity
• Amazon Bestseller: The Ultimate Sales Letter

5.  Brian Tracy – The “father” of self-help success.

• Philosophy – Create your future for unlimited success.
• Website: Brian Tracy
• Blog: Brian Tracy’s Blog
• RSS: Subscribe
• Twitter: @briantracy_
• Facebook: Brian Tracy Group
• LinkedIn: Profile
• Multimedia: The Phoenix Seminar
• Amazon Bestseller: Maximum Achievement: Strategies & Skills That Will Unlock Your Hidden Powers

6.  Seth Godin – The “father” of permission marketing.

• Philosophy – Gaining permission and holding attention are the keys to marketing success.
• Website: Seth Godin
• Blog: Seth’s Blog
• RSS: Subscribe
• Twitter: @notgodinreposts
• Facebook: Profile
• LinkedIn: N/A
• Multimedia: All Marketers Are Liars
• Amazon Bestseller: Purple Cow: Transform Your Business By Being Remarkable

7.  Malcolm Gladwell – The “father” of marketing psychology and best-selling author.

• Philosophy – Social psychology driven marketing insight.
• Website: Gladwell
• Blog: Gladwell
• RSS: Subscribe
• Twitter: @malcolmgladwell
• Facebook: Profile
• LinkedIn: N/A
• Multimedia: What We Can Learn From Spaghetti Sauce
• Amazon Bestseller: The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference

8.  Stephen Covey – The “father” of effective habits.

• Philosophy – Enabling greatness in people and organizations everywhere.
• Website: Stephen Covey
• Blog: Stephen Covey
• RSS: Subscribe
• Twitter: @stephenrcovey
• Facebook: Profile
• LinkedIn: N/A
• Multimedia: Choosing Success
• Amazon Bestseller: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

9.  Joe Vitale – The “father” of metaphysical marketing.

• Philosophy – Unlocking “The Secret” to success.
• Website: Mr. Fire
• Blog: Mr. Fire at Zero
• RSS: Subscribe
• Twitter: @mrfire
• Facebook: The Dr. Joe Vitale Network
• LinkedIn: Profile
• Multimedia: 15 Minute Miracle
• Amazon Bestseller: The Attractor Factor: 5 Easy Steps For Creating Wealth (Or Anything Else) From the Inside Out

10.  Robert Allen – The “father” of no-money-down real estate.

• Philosophy – Success is built upon multiple streams of income.
• Website: Robert G. Allen
• Blog: N/A
• RSS: N/A
• Twitter: @bestsellerbob
• Facebook: N/A
• LinkedIn: N/A
• Multimedia: Multiple Streams of Income
• Amazon Bestseller: Multiple Streams of Income: How to Generate a Lifetime of Unlimited Wealth

11.  Yanik Silver – The “father” of adventure experiences and sales letter guru.

• Philosophy – Fun, freedom and financial independence.
• Website: Maverick Business Adventures
• Blog: The Internet Lifestyle
• RSS: Subscribe
• Twitter: @yaniksilver
• Facebook: N/A
• LinkedIn: Profile
• Multimedia: Yanik Silver With Dan Kennedy
• Amazon Bestseller: Instant Sales Letters

12.  Al Ries – The “father” of position marketing.

• Philosophy – Building businesses through branding.
• Website: Ries & Ries
• Blog: Origin of Brands
• RSS: Subscribe
• Twitter: N/A
• Facebook: Profile
• LinkedIn: Profile
• Multimedia: Palestra
• Amazon Bestseller: The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding

13.  Jack Canfield – The “father” of chicken soup… for the soul.

• Philosophy – Using transformational leadership to succeed in life.
• Website: Jack Canfield
• Blog: N/A
• RSS: N/A
• Twitter: @j_canfield
• Facebook: Profile
• LinkedIn: Profile
• Multimedia: The Success Principles
• Amazon Bestseller: The Success Principles: How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be

14.  Gary Halbert – The “father” of direct response advertising and the world’s greatest copywriter.

• Philosophy – Testing, testing, testing.
• Website: The Gary Halbert Letter
• Blog: N/A
• RSS: N/A
• Twitter: N/A
• Facebook: Gary Halbert Letter Fan Club
• LinkedIn: N/A
• Multimedia: Live at the System Seminar
• Amazon Bestseller: Steal This Book

15.  Marlon Sanders – The “father” of online information products.

• Philosophy – Build any business or brand through the creation and packaging of information.
• Website: Marlon Sanders
• Blog: Marlon Sanders’ Blog
• RSS: Subscribe
• Twitter: @marlon_sanders
• Facebook: N/A
• LinkedIn: Profile
• Multimedia: Live Video Webcast
• Amazon Bestseller: The Amazing Formula

16.  Joe Polish – The “king” of carpet cleaning.

• Philosophy – Make life easy, lucrative and fun.
• Website: Joe Polish
• Blog: Rich Cleaner
• RSS: Subscribe
• Twitter: @jpolish
• Facebook: N/A
• LinkedIn: Profile
• Multimedia: Advice From Richard Branson
• Amazon Bestseller: Piranha Marketing

17.  Chris Anderson – The “father” of the “long tail” and champion of FREE.

• Philosophy – How to sell less of more and give away your products or services for more profits.
• Website: The Long Tail
• Blog: Chris Anderson’s Blog
• RSS: Subscribe
• Twitter: @chr1sa
• Facebook: N/A
• LinkedIn: Profile
• Multimedia: On Tech’s Long Tail
• Amazon Bestseller: Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More

18.  John Jantsch – The “father” of sticky marketing.

• Philosophy – Simple, effective and affordable small business marketing.
• Website: John Jantsch
• Blog: Small Business Marketing Blog
• RSS: Subscribe
• Twitter: @ducttape
• Facebook: Profile
• LinkedIn: Profile
• Multimedia: Simple Marketing Tactics 1 of 11
• Amazon Bestseller: Duct Tape Marketing: The World’s Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide

19.  Joe Girard – World’s Greatest Salesperson.

• Philosophy – How to sell so many automobiles you end up in the Automotive Hall of Fame.
• Website: Joe Girard
• Blog: N/A
• RSS: N/A
• Twitter: N/A
• Facebook: N/A
• LinkedIn: N/A
• Multimedia: Lessons From the Best Salesman in the World
• Amazon Bestseller: How to Sell Anything to Anybody

20.  Mark Joyner – The “father” of the irresistible offer.

• Philosophy – Sell your products and services in 3 seconds or less.
• Website: Mark Joyner
• Blog: Simpleology
• RSS: Subscribe
• Twitter: N/A
• Facebook: Profile
• LinkedIn: N/A
• Multimedia: Word of Mouth Marketing
• Amazon Bestseller: The Irresistible Offer: How to Sell Your Products or Service in 3 Seconds Or Less

21.  Perry Marshall – The “father” of Google Adwords.

• Philosophy – Reach 100’s of millions of people at once with inexpensive ads.
• Website: Perry Marshall
• Blog: Perry Marshall
• RSS: Subscribe
• Twitter: @perrymarshall
• Facebook: Profile
• LinkedIn: N/A
• Multimedia: Internet Marketing SuperConference 6
• Amazon Bestseller: Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords

22.  Ken Evoy – The “father” of preselling.

• Philosophy – Easy and inexpensive strategies for making big profits from your small business
• Website: Site Sell
• Blog: Site Sell the Blog
• RSS: Subscribe
• Twitter: @kevoy
• Facebook: Profile
• LinkedIn: Profile
• Multimedia: How to Start Your Own Business
• Amazon Bestseller: The Affiliate Masters Course

23.  Michel Fortin – Sales copywriter and conversion specialist.

• Philosophy – Become a millionaire with your copywriting skills.
• Website: Success Doctor
• Blog: Michel Fortin
• RSS: Subscribe
• Twitter: @michelfortin
• Facebook: Profile
• LinkedIn: Profile
• Multimedia: John Daly Interviews Michel Fortin
• Amazon Bestseller: The Internet Business Book, Vol. 1

24.  Robert Scoble – Technical evangelist at Microsoft and uber-blogger.

• Philosophy – Leveraging the power of the social web to build your brand.
• Website: Building 43
• Blog: Scobleizer
• RSS: Subscribe
• Twitter: @scobleizer
• Facebook: Profile
• LinkedIn: N/A
• Multimedia: Welcome to Fast Co. TV
• Amazon Bestseller: Naked Converations: How Blogs Are Changing the Way Businesses Talk With Customers

25.  Darren Rowse – The “father” of problogging.

• Philosophy – Turning your passions into a blogging career.
• Website: b5 Media
• Blog: Problogger
• RSS: Subscribe
• Twitter: @problogger
• Facebook: Profile
• LinkedIn: Profile
• Multimedia: 5 Emerging Trends in Blogging
• Amazon Bestseller: Problogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income

26.  Dosh Dosh – Internet marketing extraordinaire.

• Philosophy – Making money as the go-to source on the internet for a subject.
• Website: Dosh Dosh
• Blog: Dosh Dosh
• RSS: Subscribe
• Twitter: @doshdosh
• Facebook: N/A
• LinkedIn: N/A
• Multimedia: N/A
• Amazon Bestseller: N/A

27.  Brian Clark – The “father” of copyblogging.

• Philosophy – Passionate words lead to passionate customers.
• Website: Copyblogger
• Blog: Copyblogger
• RSS: Subscribe
• Twitter: @copyblogger
• Facebook: N/A
• LinkedIn: N/A
• Multimedia: N/A
• Amazon Bestseller: N/A

This list is, of course, a work in progress.  As the marketing industry continues to evolve, new marketing pioneers continue to appear on the horizon.  While this is mainly a list of those who have inspired me over the years, please feel free to suggest additions in the comments below and help us improve this almanac.

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Use Twitter To Build Your Online Presence

And Communicate With Your Prospects

Twitter stormed onto the scene a couple of years ago, one of many players in a crowded field of micro-blogging services.  Fast forward two years and Twitter is literally everywhere.  Companies like Jet Blue and Chevrolet have successfully leveraged Twitter to build relationships with their customers, getting customer feedback and building new networks.

And now that you’ve decided to start building your company’s profile on Twitter, the first thing you need to do is set up your account.  Luckily, like most things to do with Twitter, this task is extremely simple.

Step #1 – First things, first, visit Twitter and click on the green “Get Started-Join!” button.

Step #2 – Now for the hard part.  Remember your name and type it in the “full Name” field.  Then choose a Username and Password and enter in a valid email address.  Next choose whether or not you’d like to receive email updates from Twitter, provide the appropriate Captcha words and click “Create my account”.  Since you are using your Twitter account to build your business presence, use your company’s name as your Username and later add your logo to your profile.

Step #3 – So far, so good.  Now that you have you very own Twitter account, it’s time to see if anyone you know is already a member of the service.  To find these people, all you have to do is choose the email accounts you use and click invite and Twitter will send an invitation to join your new network to all of the people you choose in your email contacts.  Within one minute, you could already have 100’s of people following your conversation.  You can also find friends on Twitter if you like.

Step #4 – Now that you’ve got your profile set up and have a few people following you, the next thing you’ll want to do is announce your arrival on Twitter.  Click “Home” and you’ll be taken to a new Twitter hone page that highlights the activity on your account.  Right now, it should be empty.  Change that by typing your message in the “What Are You Doing?” box and click “update”.  Remember, on Twitter, your messages can never be longer than 140 total characters, including your username.

Step #5 – Before long, you’ll have a steady stream of traffic coming through your Twitter profile and you’re probably going to want to brand your page a little bit.  To do this, all you have to do is go to your profile and upload a picture of your choice.  I’ve optioned to have my picture and our logo, but you can choose or either or both.  You can also change the background picture and colors to match your company identity.

Step #6 - Search for members that are relevant to your industry and add a few of them.  Now when these people update their accounts with a new message, their messages will appear alongside your own in your Twitterstream.  If the people you choose to follow decide to follow you too, your future messages will then appear in their Twitterstreams.  Obviously it’s good to have lots of followers, but like everything else in marketing, quality is better than quantity.  A good rule of thumb for starters is to keep the number of people following you and the number of people you are following close together.

Well, that’s it.  Congratulations on joining one of the most popular networks in the world.  Subscribe to our feed or follow us on Twitter to get the rest of the posts in this series.

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25 Marketing Tips To Grow Through Lean Times

While there is no such thing as the perfect marketing plan, there are some things you can do to continue growing, even during a sluggish economy.  Instead of throwing your hard-earned profits away on expensive display ads, implement as many of these 25 recession-proofing tips as possible and watch your sales grow overnight.

Tip #1 – Work Your Past & Current Customer Lists: Depending on your business, it cost you tens to hundreds of dollars for each of the names on your customer list.  Combine this with the fact that the easiest sales you can make are those to your past customers, and this tip alone can help you get more sales today.

Create a special offer just for the customers on your list and send it out.  Be sure to include a call to action!

Tip #2 – Eliminate Your Ineffective Advertising: Ineffective ads are one of the quickest ways to sap your company’s cash.  Try some of these tips to improve your ads, hire someone to help or give them up altogether.

Test your ads immediately and focus on understanding your perfect customer.  By knowing exactly who these people are, you will have a better idea of which publications and media to place your ads.

Tip #3 – Follow Up On Your Offers: After each offer you send out, simply follow up with a phone call or email to see if the prospect received your offer.  Use this opportunity to provide some free advice instead of putting all the pressure on the prospect to make a purchase.

The phone can be your best friend.  Try to call 5 or 10 prospects a day to offer your advice.  Thank you letters are also a great way to keep in contact with your customers.

Tip #4 – Keep Following Up With Your Prospects: After each and every contact with a prospect, it is wise to make some effort to follow up.  Whether they have come into your store, sent you an email or called your office, get back to them as soon as possible to thank them for their interest.

Create processes for following up with prospects and customers.  This will save you time and energy and systematically help you follow up with everyone.

Tip #5 – Use Risk Reversal In Your Offers: In all transactions, someone has to assume the risk.  Typically the risk is placed upon the consumer, but watch your sales grow by taking the risk upon yourself instead.

Test out different risk reversal ideas with some of your best customers and see which ones they prefer.  Then roll these ideas out to all your prospects.

Tip #6 – Upsell After Each Of Your Sales: Any business can benefit from upselling.  In fact, sales often increase more than 30% just by asking someone who has just bought from you if they’d like to buy another complimentary product or service.

Create products or services you can upsell at the point of purchase if you don’t already have any.  You can also look into selling someone else’s products or services and earn a commission.

Tip #7 – Sell To Your Buyers Again: After you’ve made the sale, send another offer within the next three weeks.  A good percentage will buy again and you’ll develop a closer relationship with the rest.

Make your follow-up offers work for you.  Use this contact to allay buyer’s remorse, solicit referrals and include information that will help your customers use your products or services better and more often.

Tip #8 – Increase Your Profits With Endorsements: If you are doing you’re job right, your clients and vendors appreciate and trust doing business with you.  You can help them even more by endorsing other products or services that would improve their lives. You can also find other businesses that might be interested in endorsing your services to their lists.  Either way, work out a revenue agreement and enjoy the profits.

Look at the services you already use and trust and ask them if you can set up an endorsement campaign.  Handle as much of the work as possible so they can just collect their money and you’ll have a winning long-term deal.

Tip #9 – Use Your Competitors Resources: Finding qualified leads is expensive; converting them is even more expensive.  That doesn’t mean you can’t make a little money from the leads you don’t convert.  Sell them to competitors you trust and respect and know will get the job done the way the client deserves.

Figure out your average cost per lead then offer to sell your unsold leads for a price less than that amount.  If your competitors have a similar average cost, you’ll be doing them a favor.

Tip #10 – Offer Extended Guarantees & Incentives: Sometimes, the guarantee of a specific benefit or the addition of valuable incentives make the difference in the sale.  Put as much value as your product as possible and then back it with complete confidence.

Find out what guarantees and incentives your direct competitors offer and then match or surpass them.

Tip #11 – Lock In Your Sales In Advance: Just about any type of service industry have the ability to lock in sales in advance for consistent growth.  This way, you’ll also lock out the option of buying elsewhere.

Provide a portion of your services free up front in exchange for agreeing to continue doing business with you in the future.  You can also provide a lower-fee in return for an upfront payment.

Tip #12 – License Successful Concepts: Know something your competitors don’t?  You may not want to share this information with those in your direct market, but if it wouldn’t hurt you to share it with those in outside markets, license this information and market it to them.

Write a sales letter and mail it to businesses similar to your own in non-competing markets.  Be sure to entice them with specifics on how your process will improve their business.

Tip #13 – Break Even On The Front End: Do you know how much it cost you to make a sale?  Do you know how often your customers buy from you again? Do you know how long they continue to buy from you? You should. Only then will you know exactly how much you can afford to “buy” a customer.

Once you have calculated this number, give away your products or services at the lowest price you can afford and then proceed to provide constant customer service and satisfaction to increase the length and frequency of your sales cycle.

Tip #14 – Test Your Prices: Testing your prices will help you understand how valuable your goods are to the marketplace.  Many times, business owners shortchange themselves early in their business and never think to raise prices higher than their comfort zone.

Split-test your prices by creating multiple landing pages on your website.  Also, use Google Adwords to put your tests to a larger market.

Tip #15 – Reposition Yourself As An Expert: People love to be led and admire leaders. Learn as much as possible about your industry and act as a filter to provide valuable information and service for your clients.  Consumers prefer to buy from those they believe are the best at what they do.

Launch a blog on your website if you don’t already have one.  Use this space as your soapbox, but make sure you are bringing a new angle or you’ll risk looking like you’re following your competitors instead of standing out from them.

Tip #16 – Buy Lists From Closing Businesses: For a variety of reasons, many companies go out of business every day. These businesses may find it very beneficial that you’re interested in buying a customer list they may not have placed value in any more.

Use Google Alerts to keep an ear out for businesses quitting in your industry or market.  Then offer to split future profits made from their list with them.

Tip #17 – Decrease Your Overhead: Keeping your overhead down could be the key to staying in business and could be a huge “profit center” in and of itself.  Look for wastes and excesses in your business and eliminate them.

Sell off or trade excess inventory, trim unneeded staff, cut ineffective advertising from your budget and farm out overload work to other companies and/or share costs with them.

Tip #18 – Don’t Burn Your Bridges: Even when cutting staff or apologizing for a business error, you can use the opportunity to build that relationship.  Offer to hire the staff back when possible and provide referrals for staff and departing customers.  You never know who they know and it’s just good business karma to take the high road.

If there is a bridge you’ve burned, it’s not too late to rebuild it.  Give the person a call or send them a hand-written letter with your sincere feelings and ask them if there is anything you can help them with.

Tip #19 – Don’t Let Your Head Get Too Big: Even if you provide the best product or service in the world, other businesses are going to continue to try and entice them away from you.  Don’t assume you are the only option and you’ll increase your chances that you will be.

Make sure to contact your customers from time to time and ask them for their feedback and ask them if there is anything you could have done better so that you can do it better next time.

Tip #20 – Get Responses To Your Ads & Sales Letters: Use the AIDA checklist before paying for any of your ads or sales letters if they don’t pass this checklist, you’re probably wasting your money. Get your prospect’s Attention, follow that up by piquing their Interest by building upon their Desires and lastly, ask for a specific Action you’d like them to take.

Sending out a sales letter to a targeted group with a special offer on your excess inventory is a great way to make some money immediately.  Be sure to make your offer time-sensitive.

Tip #21 – Make Your Headlines Pull: Figure out what makes you, your product or your services stand out from the competition and then promote this information in a benefit-driven headline.  You’ll get much more attention this way.

Make sure to test your headlines.  Remember, your headline is the most important part of your ad, so spend some time figuring out the best ones.

Tip #22 – Analyze Your Results: The real gold is in the results of your testing.  Categorize and crunch these numbers and study their trends over time to maximize your future campaigns.

Create an Excel database of your advertising and sales letter campaigns.  Include the cost of each campaign, results, what was tested, the offer, what media you used and any other relevant information.

Tip #23 – Don’t Rely On One Source: Diversify your product or service line, who you advertise with, where you get referrals and your vendors.  Slow economic times have a way of shaking up the marketplace and it’s your duty to identify and work with the best.

Discover new niches that compliment your services.  By expanding your services to cater to these niches, you will create new streams of income.

Tip #24 – Get Your Customers To Give You Referrals: The “cheapest” way to get new clients is to have your current ones send them to you.  By giving you their stamp of approval, referrers are presold and highly likely to buy from you.

Create a referral system that benefits your referrers, too.  Make sure to recognize their efforts whether you make the sale or not and follow through on any compensation you may have promised.

Tip #25 -  Recognize & Identify Your Hidden Assets: If you’ve been in business for awhile, chances are you have some assets that you aren’t even aware of.  Do a thorough audit of your business to identify these assets and then brainstorm ideas on how you can leverage them.

Think outside the box or hire a marketing consultant to help you uncover the hidden assets in your business.  Develop these assets to create new streams of income and grow your business on a consistent basis.

Slow economies are notorious for shaking out the weak businesses in every industry.  Use these recession-proofing tips to make sure your company isn’t one of them.

Got an idea to help others market through these hard times?  Share them below.

25 Ways To Recession-Proof Your Small Business Read More

Improve Your Ads & You Could Double Your Business Over Night

Running display ads is one of the biggest costs for small business owners and honestly, most of them are throwing their money away.  I know, I know, not you though.

Well for the rest of you who at least have a suspicion that you aren’t getting your money’s worth from you print advertising, here is a 10 point checklist for you to go over before you hand over your hard-earned cash to some ad rep that gets paid to sell ads, not results.  Follow these rules religiously and you’ll grow your business over night without costing you a dime more than you are already spending.

10 Ways To Instantly Increase The Response Of Your Ads

Tip #1 – Focus On The Reader, Not You

Instinctively, people only read sales letters and advertisements to find out what’s in it for them.  If you fail to tell them what benefits they’ll receive and instead focus on tooting your own horn, the reader is going to lose interest and move on.  Far too often I see ads that read like a typical business card and consist of little more than a company’s name, address, hours of operation and a generic claim like “Top Quality”.

Not one item in an ad like this has any benefit to the reader, and as a result, these types of ads are glossed over or even worse, passed over altogether.  Instead, write your ads as if you were writing a letter to a personal friend or a person you know that symbolically relates to your desired customers.  Use the words “you” and “your” generously, and if possible, try not to use the words “I” and “me” at all.

What We Do:  All sales materials have been rewritten to focus on the reader and are written as if to a single person.  Extensive research has gone into discovering the reasons people buy from us and that information has been integrated into our website and sales letters.

What You Can Do:  Look for any mention of “I” and “us” in your marketing materials and rewrite them with a new focus on your prospects.  Have someone else read your materials first and make sure they feel like the ad or letter is written specifically for them.

Tip #2 – Excite Readers With Benefits, Not Features

Features describe the qualities of your products and services and do little to draw upon the emotions of your customers. A better way to describe your products and services is to figure out what benefits your customers get from using them and then to let your prospects know how they can feel the same.

Toyota did a wonderful job with this with the Prius.  Because these cars are so fuel-efficient, owners are going to save a lot of money on gas.  But instead of focusing on saving money, Toyota instead focused on appealing to their customer’s “green” nature and how good they’d feel driving around in a car that does less damage to the environment. No matter what it is you sell, find out from your customers what they gain from buying from you and then focus your ads around these benefits.

What We Do: Keep a database of benefits for each and every one of products or services that is added to on a constant basis.  Get feedback from every single prospect and client when possible.  Collect quotes and statistics from relevant sources that back up our benefit claims.

What You Can Do: Use surveys and polls to get feedback from your current customers.

Tip #3 – Push Emotional Hot Buttons

People don’t like to be sold, but they do like to buy.  And why do they buy?  To satisfy some personal emotion of course.  Ferrari’s make people feel cool.  Volvo’s make people feel safe.  Chevy’s make people feel loyal.  They are all cars, but they all draw on different emotions.

Emotions alone will probably not finish the job, so once you have gained a prospect’s attention by appealing to their emotions, focus on your features and close the sale by appealing to their logic.  Provide plenty of educational materials to answer any questions the prospect may have and your sales conversions will takeoff.

What We Do: Write stories and sales letters using long copy that focus on the emotional hot buttons of small business owners.  Main points are “guaranteed results”, “customer-friendly pricing options” and “more free time and money to spend with family”.

What You Can Do: Use the information you collect from your customers to unearth the true reasons they buy from you, then use this information at every step of your sales process to earn new customers.

Tip #4 – Incorporate Proof & Believability

Making specific claims abut your products or services is a great way to increase your sales, but you better make sure you back up these claims with proof and believability.  One of the quickest ways to kill a sale is by making your offer too unbelievable.  It may not always be true, but everyone knows that if it’s too good to be true, it probably is.  When crafting your offers, you need to stand out from your competitors, but you also need to provide testimonials and statistics that back up your claim.

Some other things you can do are including pictures of yourself or from past customers, listing any awards you may have won, highlighting how many people are using your products or services, providing a strong return policy, gaining celebrity endorsements and even revealing flaws about your products or services.  As with all areas of advertising, testing is key.

What We Do: Collect industry statistics, customer testimonials, sales figures and traffic growth and incorporate these numbers into our sales letters and marketing materials.

What You Can Do: Get video testimonials from your customers and upload them to your website.  You can also provide industry data from respected sources as proof.

Tip #5 – Have A Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

It’s amazing how few businesses have a USP.  As a quick rule, the companies that grow faster and bigger are those that have powerful selling points that help them stand out from the competition.  Some of the most recognizable companies in the world got that way because of their USP more than any other factor.   FedEx, Domino’s and Wal-Mart all relied on their USP to gain huge chunks of market share.

Having a USP isn’t just for the big boys, though.  They weren’t always that way, and you don’t have to be either.  Some of the ways you can make your company stand out are to focus on price differences, superior quality, superior service or exclusive rights.  Talk to your customers and ask them why they think you stand out and perhaps they can help you define your USP, but do something.  Not having a USP is equal to throwing your advertising money away.

What We Do: Spend hours and hours talking to small business owners to figure out their needs, improving our services to reflect these needs and then crafting a powerful USP that speaks to these needs.  Currently, our USP has changed several times over the last three years.

What You Can Do: Talk to your customers and see what they see different about your products and services.  Find out what else you can do to satisfy their needs and then let everyone know why your products or services are the ones that can satisfy their needs best.

Tip #6 – Have A Headline

Again, not more than 2 or 3 out of 100 advertisements we read have headlines, but they are one of the easiest ways to improve your ads.  It’s a well-known fact that 80% of people only read headlines.  If you aren’t using headlines in your ads, do the math and see how much money you are possibly throwing away because you insist on using your company’s name and logo as the centerpiece of your ads instead of a customer-focused headline with news and a benefit that will get their attention.

Television commercials seem to have convinced everyone that the best way to advertise is to keep your name and image in front of the buying public, but nothing could be further from the truth.  Sure, spending money just to enhance your branding may work for McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and BMW, but it won’t work for you.  Instead, focus on your customers, define your benefits and create a compelling headline that appeals to your market.

What We Do: Use our USP as our headline and keep a database of other headlines we have used that were successful.

What You Can Do: Include news and a benefit to your prospects in your headlines.

Tip #7 – Use Long Copy

All things being equal, the longer your sales message is, the better it will sell your products or services.  It’s true, people are busier than ever and want their information in bite-size portions, BUT when it comes to making purchases, especially higher-end items, they want as many of their questions answered as possible.  The best way to do this is to answer as many of their questions as you can in your advertisements.

Obviously, there is only so much space to say what you need in a print advertisement, but there are other ways to reach your prospects that you can take advantage of longer copy, such as with direct mail or on your company website.  Long copy may bore or intimidate some readers, but for those who are most in need of your prospects or services, you will do yourself and them a favor by including as much information as it takes to make the sale.

What We Do: Mail out sales letters to qualified prospects.  Letters range from 2 and 4 pages to up to 12 pages.  Include as much free information on our website as possible and continually add to it.

What You Can Do: Use direct mail to grow sales.  Find out what your prospect’s questions are first and use your sales letters to answer as many of these questions as you can.

Tip #8 – Write To Be Scanned

Long copy will definitely help your ads make the sale, but that doesn’t mean you should write long blocks of text that are difficult to read quickly.  The majority of people, even those interested in your products or services, read the scannable parts of an ad or sales letter first and then decide if they want to read it in more detail.  It’s important to accommodate both scanners and thorough readers.

So what can you do to break up your copy and make it easier to read?

• * Use bullet points
• * Use sub-heads
• * Use numbered lists
• * Use short sentences
• * Use a P.S.

What We Do: Write blog posts, sales letters and ads that are long and informative, but are easily read by those who have little time to spend.

What You Can Do: Have someone else read your marketing materials first and get their feedback.  Was it easy to read?  How can it be easier to read?

Tip #9 – Use The AIDA Structure

What in the world is AIDA?  AIDA is a simple equation that copywriters and marketers have been using for decades to get the best response for their efforts.  In short, AIDA stands for:

Attention – Grab your reader’s attention and draw them into the ad or sales letter.  Remember, 80% of people only read the headline.

Interest – Use the next part of your ad to build their interest by talking about some of the benefits they’ll enjoy from buying your products or services.

Desire – Next, start pushing their emotional hot buttons.  Show them how these benefits will make their lives better or more enjoyable.

Action – All of your ads, sales letters and other marketing materials need to end with a call to action.  If you aren’t telling your prospects what they need to do next, they probably aren’t going to take the action you want them to.

What We Do: Study the great copywriters in history, collect swipe files of great ads, test headlines and offers and get feedback.

What You Can Do: Test your ads and make changes.  Then test some more.

Tip #10 – Increase Urgency

It’s your job to get your prospects to buy and buy now.  If you don’t provide an incentive to buy now, you will lose out on a high percentage of sales.  Instead, capture qualified prospects with a compelling call to action.  Three of the best ways to do this are:

1. Limiting The Quantity – Let your prospects know that there are a limited amount of Product X and that they need to hurry if they want their own.

2. Limiting The Time – Use a realistic deadline and stand by it.  If your sale is only for one week, don’t keep extending it just because you haven’t gotten the sales you expected.

3. Limiting The Offer – Limit other parts of your offer like your guarantee, premiums or bonuses.  Often, these extras are worth more to the prospect than the product or service itself.

What We Do: Include limitations in all three areas.  We are only able to serve a limited amount of clients each month, offers last between 24 hours and 1 week, and because we’ve created so many value-added bonuses, we are able to limit different bonuses to different segments of our market.

What You Can Do: At the very minimum, use a limited-time offer.  Better yet, use scarcity to create more desire.

Most advertising agencies are more interested in earning awards for their pretty or witty artwork and most ad reps, besides lacking any marketing savvy, are more interested in earning higher commissions than earning you more sales.

Especially in a sluggish economy, it is vitally important that you get the most out of your advertising expenditures. In fact, if you master these 10 ways to improve your ads, you will begin to look at your ads as investments instead of expenditures.  Improving your ads will substantially grow your bottom line, so apply each tip to your next ad and then slowly start to test each one, or if you don’t have the time, hire a reputable copywriter to help you out.

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Marketing is the lifeblood of your business, but it’s a difficult subject to master, not to mention time-consuming and expensive.  In order to survive a tough economy, however, it is vital to cut your marketing mistakes down to a minimum.

To help you get started, here are 10 mistakes most small businesses make and how you can start eliminating them from your marketing campaigns.

1. Failing To Test – Good marketers test some things.  Great marketers test everything.  Prices.  Headlines.  Offers.  Different Media.  Greetings.  think about each and every step of your sales process and test a new version against your old ones to see if they can be improved.  Then test them again.   In fact, why ever stop?

Our Marketing: We’ve tested our tagline and offers continuously for nearly three years, upgraded and modified every single service we’ve ever offered and are already on our third website due to various testing.  Each area has contributed to our growth.

2.  Failing to run direct response ads – Nearly every business wastes money on their space ads because they are more focused on what they do instead of what their customers get out of it.  Your logo may be pretty and your tagline witty, but they don’t do much for the customer.  Instead, use the space to announce a great offer and then make a call for action.  Try it and see the difference.

Our Marketing: So far, we’ve been 100% advertising free, BUT we do send a lot of sales letters, each of which has been tested.  Response rates have seen increases from 40% to 700%.  Testing continues.

3. Failing to develop and implement a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) – What makes you different than all the other plumbers, electricians, shoe stores or restaurants?  Figuring out what this is and letting people know about it transforms businesses overnight.

Our Marketing: Prevail was created to fill a niche in the marketing field that guarantees results in return for a client’s business.  Even so, our USP has changed from offering subscription services, to emphasizing partnership, to stating that we basically walk you down the path to marketing success, to now “Grow Your Business 10% Or More In The Next 12 Months…Guaranteed“.  It’s hard to keep business cards up-to-date, but it’s more than paid off in growth.

4. Failing to build backend products – Let’s do some math.  Acquiring new customers is expensive.  Retaining those customers and selling them more quality products and services is profitable.  Simple as that.  Even if you think you only have one product or service to offer, you are wrong (and for the first time ever, you should be happy about it).  Creativity is all that is required to build a backend for your business, even if it’s selling someone else’s wares.

Our Marketing: We successfully generate revenue from selling unsold leads, selling information products by mail and by building great websites that get results at a low price to open the door for our more expensive (and income-generating) ad writing and marketing services.  We state this right up front in our sales letters and it works pretty good.  We’ve also tested several other backend products, the most successful of which will be rolled out over the next few months.  Some locally here in San Luis Obispo and some others as an extension of our online reach.  Keep an eye out, we’re sure you will enjoy them.

5.  Failing to determine and address customer needs - Your customer’s satisfaction dictates the success of your business.  Why not give them exactly what they want?  There are numerous free tools online to help you figure out what it is your customers want from you.  Search for free polls, surveys and feedback forms for the ones most suitable for your needs.

Our Marketing: We’ve conducted dozens of surveys to find out what small business owners want from a marketing company, and as a result, our USP, offers, products and services have all consistently evolved over the last three years.  We also conduct exit surveys with our clients and search for other polls and surveys available online.  Remember, if you don’t have the time or money to run your own, you can still gain a good share of insight from similar polls and surveys.

6.  Failing to sell and educate out of business problems - Have a great product, but not the sales to match?  Educate the marketplace and let them know exactly why your products or services are so good.  Then educate them some more.  And along each and every step of your sales process.  A powerful USP does a lot of this work for you, the reason it’s the first step in our “Step-By-Step Marketing” system.

Our Marketing: In addition to constantly crafting our USP, we’ve also tested four different front pages, all of which has been wordy, yet informative and educational.  We also try our best to explain our services and guarantees in as much detail as possible, as well as provide transparency for the reasons why we do things.  All these things erode buyer remorse and do most of the selling for us so we can eliminate expensive advertising from our marketing plan.

7.  Failing to make doing business with your company easy and appealing – People are busy.  The more they have to go out of their way to do business with you, the less likely you are going to close the sale.  Go through your sales process as a customer and see for yourself what they experience.  If there’s something you don’t like, fix it.  This time, keep the customer in mind and they’ll enjoy doing business with you more.

Our Marketing: We’ve made it possible for our customers to contact us by phone, mail, email and even instant messenger.  We accept basically any form of payment (seriously, look into PayPal if you don’t have your own merchant account), we have eliminated most customer inquiries by providing education, we answer the customer inquiries that do come in promptly, provide unlimited customer service and spend a lot of time networking and providing valuable free information to as many business owners as possible. We’re also working on establishing mini-foundations to give back to the San Luis Obispo County community and developing networking opportunities for our clients and the local community at large.

8.  Failing to explain to your customers why you are an expert – Even if you are offering a similar product or service to someone else, you can still stand out by explaining how or why you’ve personally come about being in your business or why it’s so important to you to serve your customers.  Perhaps you have gained elusive insight that expands the quality of your products or adds value to your service.  You may even do the same exact thing as everyone else, but if the marketplace doesn’t know, they are going to trust the first one to tell them about it the most.

Our Marketing: In addition to learning invaluable lessons from failing at two businesses, I’ve also bought books and attended workshops and seminars on marketing totaling more than $168,000 and spent more than 13,140 (give or take a few) hours over the last 12 years studying and honing my skills in journalism, public relations and a wide range of marketing functions that are now rolled into our core step-by-step marketing service.  While I’ve failed to ever boast of this information previously, I’ve now successfully avoided Mistake #8 of our own list right before your eyes.

9.  Failing to stick with campaigns that still work – You don’t need to change for change’s sake.  In marketing, truly, if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.  Instead, refer to Mistake #1 and continue to test.  If your test doesn’t beat your old campaign, don’t change it.  Something must be working if it’s provided positive results over an extended period of time.

Our Marketing: Again, no advertising to speak of, but we’ve got some pretty solid data on our sales letter campaigns.  Some of them stunk, some of them limped back and others are responsible for nearly 25% of our lead generation (the other 75% comes from referrals and organic search engine traffic).  The losers were dumped and while we continue to test, the winners are sent out weekly and monthly like clockwork.

10.  Failing to focus solely on your intended customer - Granted, this is the hardest mistake to avoid of them all, especially in economic slumps when you might be having days you are just happy the phone rings. Ironically, better defining your perfect customer and forgetting about everyone else will lead to higher profits.  By figuring out exactly who best would gain from your products or services, you can better tailor your sales messages to them, thereby increasing your closing rates and decreasing your average cost per acquisition.

Our Marketing: Honestly, we’ve changed our business model several times in an attempt to best suit the marketplace, and until recently had an obtuse idea of our perfect client.  The last 6 months or so we’ve been more focused on defining our perfect client and as a results our services have evolved more towards their needs than we originally set out to do.  So who is our perfect client? It is the small business owner, with less than 10 employees, who has a current monthly marketing budget of at least $1000, who has overlooked some or many of the hidden assets in their business, is either unaware of or too busy to implement the testing necessary for marketing success, is either located in San Luis Obispo County or does business solely online, who desires growth and has the resources to handle it AND who provides a valuable and respectful product or service that we sincerely believe in.

Well, that’s it.  The economy is slowing down, but that doesn’t mean that your business needs to.  Economic downturns are the perfect time to invest more in your advertising, even if it’s not money.  Spend more time testing and building relationships with your customers.  Find out what they want and offer it them.  Figure out who you are exactly and who exactly it is you can help best.  Learn from these mistakes, or they very well could be the last ones you make in your business.

10 Marketing Mistakes That Could Kill Your Business And How To Avoid Them Read More

I’ve been keeping up with the story on John Chow about selling his 300 x 250 Google Adsense block to a private advertiser due to slowing revenue. Within moments of posting the story, the ad had sold. Today, John let’s us in on who bought it, and more importantly, what they plan to do with it. 

For $1000, Ryan Stewart of eleven21.com earned the right to advertise whatever he wants for a whole month. Apparently Bidvertiser will be taking over the spot the month after next, but I really like what Ryan is planning to do with it while it’s his space.  The ad links to a sales page on Ryan’s site which explains that he plans on reselling the ad space…for a 50% markup! Genius.

He’s also got the ad on eBay and explains how the ad will be prorated, allowing Ryan the blogging hat trick: getting a week or so of ad publicity, making a profit on the sale of the ad and getting talked about throughout the blogosphere for having the kind of marketing savvy we appreciate here at Prevail.Well done Ryan!

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