Archive for August, 2008

I’ve always believed that third-party endorsements are a great way to add credibility to copy. After all, I can say I’m great, but if somebody else says it, someone without a vested interest in my success, that carries much more weight.

The problem with many testimonials is that they come off sounding canned and solicited. Does anyone really talk in superlatives, with losts of exclamation points?

Over at Copyblogger, Dean Reick just wrapped up a terrific four-part series about testimonials, their importance and use. The final installment reveals subtle ways your can integrate testimonials into brochures, newsletters and sales copy.

Here are my favorites from his list: Continued

Popularity: 33% [?]

I do some PR and marketing consulting for Fernando Paredes, a personal trainer whose clients, by the nature of the service he provides, tend to have significant disposable income. At $100 an hour to be pushed, pulled and stretched, it’s not in everyone’s price range.

Fernando’s Fusion Fitness Studio is generally busy but we’ve been kicking around ways to jump start his marketing plan for 2009. One of the resources we’ve come across is Dan Kennedy’s “Marketing to the Affluent,” part of the No B.S. Series published by Entrepreneur Press.

The book is chock full of great insights about reaching people who are motivated differently from the great majority of the population. Affluent customers, for example, would rather be recognized than rewarded for referring a new customer. They are more likely to be attracted by – and willing to pay dearly for - the prospect of a unique experience. Exclusivity is another trigger – affluent customers like to feel that not everyone can qualify for the product or service they receive.

One recommendation we’ll act on immediately is positioning my Fernando as an expert in the field of personal training, which, of course he already is. According to Kennedy, “the more affluent the customer and the more significant the purchase or its price, the more likely perceived expert status will play into the decision.” By positioning Fernando as an expert in the field of personal training, he should gain “competitive differentiation and advantage, create support for charging premium prices and fees, make himself more attractive to the affluent customer and lay the groundwork for media acceptance and publicity, according to Kennedy.

So, how are we going to accomplish this goal? Kennedy says there are three paths to expert status:

Publication. We’re going to write an e-book about Fernando’s unique training philosophy and offer for free on his website. We’re also going to offer membership – not a subscription, another Kennedy suggestion makes for marketing to wealthy clients – in a group that receives a monthly newsletter.

Promotion. We’re going to make a point to promote Fernando as an expert in personal training, as opposed to marketing his training programs. The former will lead to the latter.

Publicity. We’ll create opportunities that play off of Fernando’s status as an expert and an author.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Interesting story on the front page of The Philadelphia Inquirer today about bad business writing. Although I’m not sure exactly what made Stacey Burling’s piece worthy of such prime real estate (it wasn’t exactly a slow news day what with Russia invading George and the Olympics in full swing), it did bring a warm feeling to this writer’s heart.

What especially caught my attention was a quote from Rick Sherman, an Austin, Texas marketing consultant who defended his authorship of this description of his company: “[We’re] a market-leading provider of technology-enabled process-optimization tools to reduce and right-size inventory, improve forecast accuracy and service, optimize production resources, and reduce cycle time across the supply chain.”

Boiled down to its essence, the company makes money for its clients by making them more efficient. Of course, that’s not sexy enough for upper management, so Sherman penned his wordy, obtuse, self-important sounding passage. And, as Burling reported, he was more than happy to stand behind his work by arguing his target readers were supply-chain managers and trade-press writers, not reporters for daily newspapers. As if that audience is somehow genetically predisposed to prefer vague, unnecessarily complicated writing.

“It is not our strategic intent for you to understand,” he told Burling.

Sherman also defended the passage by saying it was purposely wordy to allow for as many key Internet search words as possible.

Kudos to Sherman for at least grasping the concept of writing for your audience and his rudimentary knowledge of Search Engine Optimization. But major jeers for thinking that you can sacrifice clarity in favor of keywords.

Popularity: 36% [?]

A couple of years ago, I needed a new dishwasher. My first instinct was to go to one of the big box stores – Home Depot, Lowes, Best Buy – and pick out a model. But before I had a chance to stop in to one of those places, I happened by an appliance store in a gritty section of an Upper Bucks County Borough.

There was the owner, an older gentleman, wearing a dark suit and using a feather duster to clean the inside of a refrigerator. His son – less formally dressed — greeted me with a friendly smile and asked if he could help. There wasn’t another soul in the store.

After asking a few questions about my family, he directed me to the model he thought would be appropriate. It wasn’t the most expensive, but it wasn’t the cheapest, either. He patiently explained its features, the pros and cons, even offering to run it through a cycle, if I wanted. No pressure, no hype, no directing me to the higher price models, no upsell for a warranty.

I walked out of there the proud owner of a new dishwasher. I’m not sure if I got the best price, but I sure felt good about the process. I knew if something went wrong, that store would stand behind its product.

Now, even though there’s no big parking lot, the store isn’t air conditioned, and it might take a couple extra days for delivery, I’ve been back several times for appliances. Why? Because they sold me more than a dishwasher that first time I stopped by. They sold me peace of mind, a sense of family, a link to the past when businesses cared about their customers on a personal level.

Too many small businesses throw up their hands when it comes to going head-to-head with the Big Dogs of the world. Look for your strengths, do the things your competitors can’t do and do them better. You’ll be surprised how many people will come your way. And stick with you.

Popularity: 26% [?]

I figure I’ve typed about a billion words – give or take a small novel — in my 30-year writing career. To this day, I still use the old hunt-and-peck method, which means my brain often gets ahead of my fingers. The result is some pretty embarrassing mistakes in my work. I usually catch them while proofing, but the occasional boo-boo does slip through.

When that happens, a little bit of my credibility dies. My excuse is that I never learned how to touch type. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

But there are people out there who really don’t know the difference between “your” and “you’re” or “their” and “there” and “they’re.” In an effort to sound conversational, they write “I should of…” Worse, they leave their modifiers dangling. In public, no less.

Continued

Popularity: 37% [?]