This Little Piggy Learns to Market

Some great advice came through from a favourite copywriter of mine, Mr “King of Copy” , Craig Garber.

If you aren’t already signed up for Craig’s list (the Garber kind, not to be confused with FreeAds!) I’d recommend it, or maybe look him up on Facebook and say something charming; he’s such a softy for a hard-knocks guy; he’ll be your Facebook friend! Anyway, he sends emails like this about three times a week. Incredibly useful information. Even if you don’t buy anything from him now, get his tips, they are worth a million bucks. www.kingofcopy.com. (I’m not an affiliate of Craig’s, so am not trying to sell ya!…Yet! !)

Craig’s tip about “transition marketing” or “pipeline process marketing” is this…(I’m paraphrasing slightly)

When you’re marketing and selling — especially in print —a vital thing to take into account is the number of things you’re trying to do at once. As a rule, you should ONLY be doing one thing at time. Each sentence should only be dealing with one issue. Each paragraph — one issue. And each decision you ask your prospects to make, should only revolve around one thing at a time.

There are a few reasons for this: 1) what you know about your product or service is usually infinitely more than what your prospect knows. And while it’s great to be enthusiastic, it’s equally important to make sure your prospects are on the same page with you.

2)Most topics aren’t necessarily as simple as you think they are. And when it comes to parting with their money, people generally want to be 100% crystal clear on what they’re getting. So while you might be tempted to go for scientific credibility and say something like:
“This mountain bike is made of carbon fiber manufactured under the same controlled scientific environment in which NASA manufactures the components of the space shuttle.

This material was discovered by accident while NASA scientists were trying to create a special space-age polymer designed to last no less than 100 years and you’ve never seen anything like it!”

You’d be much wiser to go for ‘keeping it simple’,saying this, instead: “This light-weight bike can withstand any territory you take it to. Believe it or not, it is made from the exact same material NASA uses to build the space shuttle. So, I can guarantee its durability, for 100 years. If ANYTHING at all happens to it during this time, I will replace it, 100% free.”

So in the case of your business opportunity, for instance the equivalent might be “trying to sell” the concept of your product too early. Rather than simply selling THE NEXT STEP your prospect has to take to move towards the buying point (ie click through to the landing page or the application form). The hard pitch would be: “Come and join our business. It’s called Acme and I work with a company called Global International and I sell their products and we do it on the internet. So you’ll have to learn that too, but don’t worry I’ll teach you. And, by the way, did I mention it only costs $$,000 to come in at the top level?”

Craig goes on: Stick to making ONE point at a time, so you are much more likely to make that point. People have a lot on their mind these days and are often being pushed to hurry to a decision. When buying, people want to be sure they are doing what they want to do. So getting your prospect or customer to do more than one thing at the same time, or think about more than one thing at a time… it can get too confusing and things get lost in the mix. Don’t get me wrong I love a passionate sales person who is giving me information, but, I struggle with ADHD and have saved lots of money by walking away over-loaded in the past only to have to revisit later if at all! The point here is not to dilute your main message, and to keep the focus on the benefits of taking the next step to resolve their problem.

Absolutely, Craig! At the start of our transition marketing process all I need to “sell” is useful information, then I try to sell an “Application to Find Out More” about my marketing training opportunity and so forth. This ‘information marketing’ is more subtle, but so attractive to customers, because in the dialogue, you are listening to their feedback and responding. Never go charging in to the sales process like a bull in a china shop with your eyes fixed on the sale! You are a solutions seller…

This ‘two way marketing process’ may not be obvious in copy-writing , but consideration of dialogue is especially important here. There are tricks to keep readers engaged with your writing, to make them feel you are in the room with them. I write about copy-writing skills elsewhere in my blog.

Remember, your customer has one hundred demands on their day – especially if your target customer is a woman with family responsibilities! REMEMBER: chances are, she is the one making the buying decisions of the family! She may well benefit from what you have to sell, but you need to give her a good reason to divert her attention form planning dinner, the next holiday, the kids’ homework, the ailing parent, etc.

If you operate business to business, the same principles apply. In print, you’re denied all the non-verbal communication face to face allows you to benefit from. So remember to KISS for your customers (Keep it Simple, Stupid!)

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