Carol Bentley

A little while ago I mentioned I was getting my blog theme updated. Well it’s finally ready to go live. The new layout will be uploaded on Sunday so we will be ‘closed for maintenance’.

Please avoid visiting between 11a.m. and 3p.m. UK time on Sunday 5th July. Thanks.

~ Carol Bentley

Short and sweet. . . Happy 233rd Independence Day - yep, it’s 233 years since the Declaration of Independence was signed.

Enjoy your holiday and celebrations tomorrow.

~ Carol Bentley

Do you use a freely available email program such as Google Mail? Have you ever sent proprietary material (e.g. PDF, MP3 etc) as an attachment?

Apart from it being a potentially insecure media to use - it looks like you may be ‘giving your material away’ without realising it. Let me explain. . .

I was doing some research online for a client’s copywriting project when I came across this video on YouTube. It highlights the importance of reading the small print whenever we sign up for a service; whether that’s email or one of the social websites.

Now - I’m not a legal whizz-kid; not by any stretch of the imagination so I’m curious… is this a true and correct interpretation of the terms and conditions quoted?

Take a look - it’s only 4.5 minutes long (and yes, it is advertising an event so it may be hype - I don’t know) - and share your thoughts or, if you happen to be a legal-eagle, tell us… should we be extremely careful about what we’re putting out on these free websites?

Of course there may be some content you don’t mind having passed around, but if someone else is gaining revenue from the content you generate without giving you a share, it doesn’t seem very fair to me. Or am I getting paranoid here?

~ Carol Bentley

P.S. Site update nearly ready to go live - just doing some final testing.

If you follow me on Twitter you may have seen a tweet mentioning I’d decided to modernise my blog layout. So the next time you visit it will look very different.

Why am I updating? Main reason - modernising:

The theme I chose to start with was set up on WordPress v 2.2.1 and now looks very dated.

If you are familiar with WordPress you’ll know that it has now reached v2.8.

The layout theme I had did not work beyond version 2.5 - I’d tried updating before unsuccessfully. So I needed to choose a new theme, get it set up and modified and transfer everything over. And I found someone experienced in WordPress to do that for me - the new look will be applied within the next week.

I’ll let you know when it is freshly launched… I hope you like the new style which is very different to the current one

~ Carol Bentley

Do you struggle with time management? I have in the past, which is why I follow some proven time management techniques that reduces the struggle and makes me more effective. In this video I share 10 tips I’m sure you’ll find work extremely well if you adopt them.

Chances are you already know some of these tips, but it doesn’t harm to be reminded occasionally, does it?

[If you can’t play the video you can download the plain text 10 Time Management Tips script file]

That was just 10 tips; there are 23 - another 13 - in the Action Unleashed guide, which I’ve got permission to give you as a free gift and for you to share with your friends and colleagues.

You can download it here:

Action Unleashed (Right-click and choose Save Target As or Save Link As)

And check out the Time Management software tool I’m now using; I mentioned it in the video. Take a look at The Action Machine

~ Carol Bentley

After your headline, PS and opening paragraph your subheads are vital to the success of your letter or web page and in a moment I’ll let you into a neat trick on how to check their effectiveness.

Subheads have two crucial, seemingly opposite, functions in your copywriting. If they don’t fulfil these then they are just ‘eye-candy’ breaking up the main body of your text rather than accomplishing an important role in your sales copy.

Do Your Subheads Facilitate Flow?

You already know that the purpose of your main headline is to capture your reader’s attention and intrigue or persuade them to read the first paragraph of your letter.

Your subheads have a similar function - they should draw the reader naturally from the previous paragraph and smoothly into the next. Sometimes they introduce the next focus point of your letter. It’s important to keep that connection; using subheads to jump about from topic to topic confuses and can repel your reader.

Used in this way it makes reading long sales copy particularly easier for the detailed person.

Do Your Subheads Halt Your Reader?

Your subheads should be able to stop your reader in their tracks.

Now this may seem like a contradiction to what I’ve just said. But it is just as important and, in fact, well written subheads do complete both roles.

The type of reader I’m thinking of is the skimmer. Someone who reads the headline, is interested, reads your first paragraph and then skims through the rest of your copy to see what it is about.

The purpose of your subhead is to get the critical points of your message across and magnetically compel the skimmer to stop and read important sections.

In essence, reading just your subheads should deliver your message - certainly enough to appeal to your prospect so they take the action you want and have clearly signposted.

I have had people phone me and say “Your letter was very long, I didn’t read it all but I did get the gist of it.” And that’s fine with me because the ‘gist’ was enough to get them to take action.

Without powerful ’story-telling’ subheads they would never have got the gist, because they would not have read the main body text.

Creating Powerful Subheads

As I said, subheads should give the gist of your offer whilst - at the same time - drawing your reader through your letter.

If you start your copywriting session developing a large selection of potential headlines you’ll often find many you can adapt into subheads.

Check your swipe file for inspiration on subheads that have been used in successful letters and direct response adverts (you do have a swipe file, don’t you? See my previous post: Your unlimited copywriting resource)

After writing your sales letter check your main body text; is there a phrase within the paragraph that is more powerful than the subhead you have used?

Check How Effective Your Subheads Are… A Neat Trick

Read just your headline and subheads. Do they flow; would they attract attention; are they intriguing enough to make you want to find out more?

Here’s the neat trick I mentioned at the beginning.

Copy your headline, subheads and PS into a separate document. Now read them;

• Do they tell the story?
• Are they all strong statements or questions?
• Are they compelling, even persuasive?

or

• Are they weak and boring?
• Perhaps they don’t flow or make sense?
• Do they need a bit of tweaking or changing completely?

Give your summary document to someone else - who doesn’t know what you are writing about - and ask if they get the gist or are intrigued enough to want to know more.

Advanced Tip

If you write your sales letter in MS Word and use the heading styles there’s an even easier way to get your summary.

Apply Heading style 1 (Ctrl+Alt+1) to your main headline section

Apply Heading style 2 (Ctrl+Alt+2) to your subheads

When you’ve completed your sales letter go into Outline view (Outline from the View menu or use the Outline View tool at the bottom of your document).

Once in Outline view you can set the display to show your main headline and subheads only by choosing to show up to heading level 2 - press Shift+Alt+2

If you print your document whilst displaying your subheads in Outline View you get a printout of your headings only.

So, tell me. Are your subheads working as hard as they should? Are they attracting and compelling your prospect? Or are they scarcely making an impression?

~ Carol Bentley

Did you know you have a huge copywriting resource there for the taking? The same resource professional copywriters constantly use.

I’m talking about a swipe file. You may have come across the term before, especially if you have read advice from marketing and copywriting professionals about how to improve your sales letters / webpages.

In case you haven’t come across the term before, let me explain what it is, what it can do for you and how to create your own.

Swipe File

A swipe file is a collection of sales letters, adverts, webcopy - in fact anything that contains a strong marketing message.

When you start a swipe file it is important to make sure the examples you collect (or swipe ) contain good copy. Preferably ones you know - or are confident - have generated results (I’ll explain how you can check that in a little while).

Benefits of a Swipe File

You can use a good swipe file to:

• improve your own copywriting skill. Simply copying out a good advert or sales letter, in your own hand, helps you to absorb the flow of the copy and start to recognise the techniques used.

  Your understanding may be unconscious rather than a deliberate “oh, I can see why that particular phrase or wording was used here” but the important point is you are learning about what works.

• gather a collection of powerful headlines. Re-writing these for your product or service, following the same structure, is an easy way to create eye-appealing headlines for your adverts, sales letters and webpages.
• give inspiration when you get ‘writer’s block’. When you sit down to write new marketing material sometimes the ideas just won’t come. A blank page or blank screen can be an amazing block to creativity. Browsing through your swipe file often sparks ideas for you.

Caution

The companies that put out these marketing messages have paid their copywriters good money - in many cases thousands of pounds (or $s). You are effectively getting these great copywriting insights for free!

Be careful; when you use your swipe file to inspire your writing creativity you must never plagiarise someone else’s work. An exact copy of an advert or sales letter content is not only frowned upon it is breaking copyright law.

Recognising Good Swipe Copy

• Take a look at your junk mail.
• And take a look at the adverts in your local and national newspapers.
• Check the adverts in your trade or professional magazines or the publications your target audience read.

For the adverts I’d strongly advise you only consider the direct response style advert - those are the adverts that ask you to take some sort of action. Visit a website; make a phone call; place an order or fill out a request coupon.

Does it appeal to you? If the headline or body copy of the letter or advert appeals to you - and especially if you are tempted to respond - then it is probably worth keeping in your swipe file - but check the following points first.

Look for frequent or repetitive examples. It is a fairly safe bet that the company sending the same letter or placing the same advert is not going to constantly spend their marketing budget on it if it is not pulling an acceptable response.

Check for coding. With direct response style marketing the originating company measures the response they get from each advert or sales letter. It is the only way they can be sure their marketing is generating revenue for them.

So look for a code in the address or in a corner of the response coupon. A code in a repeated advert or sales letter is a good indication of a results generating marketing piece - one that is worth swiping for reference.

Don’t limit your examples. You may be tempted to only keep marketing examples from your own industry or profession. Don’t! Powerful copy from other, unrelated industries can often be adapted very successfully for your own business. Try re-writing good examples to promote your goods or services.

If you haven’t already got a swipe file I suggest you get one started and let it help your creative juices flow for your marketing material.

~ Carol Bentley

Are your marketing messages congruent? Is there a natural flow and connection? Or do they skip about and confuse your potential customers or clients?

Why am I asking these questions?

Simply because of a phone call from a new client.

“I’m getting a good response to my classified advert - 322 visitors to my website from the last one - but I only got one sale - will you take a look at the letter on my web page?” Anita asked. (Name changed for privacy).

Her conversion rate was an extremely disappointing 0.31%.

I took a look. The letter itself was a bit disjointed; that could soon be remedied.

But the biggest stumbling block I could see was the lack of connection between the advert and the content of the sales page on her website.

The advert offered free information about how someone had achieved a specific result. In contrast the sales letter on the website started off by talking about something entirely different; it didn’t follow on from the advert.

Now, bear in mind that of the people who had seen the classified advert, 322 decided they were interested in what was offered; took the trouble to fire up their computer; open their web browser and type in the URL to find out more.

Imagine their disappointment when the website they reached didn’t give them the information they were promised and - at first glance - didn’t seem to be connected.

There was no congruency between the advert and the content on the website the advert asked the reader to visit.

The info they were promised was there - but not until you reached what would have been page 6 if it was printed out! And I suspect the majority of the readers left long before that point.

It’s a similar situation with PPC (pay per click) advertising like Google Adwords. The experts on Google Adwords always say two things are crucial to gain a good conversion rate:

1. The destination URL should never be the home page of a website… it should be the specific page that matches what is being advertised
2. The headline on the destination web page should match or follow on from the wording used in the Google Adwords entry to reassure your visitor they have reached the right place

Having a magnetic; intriguing or exciting headline or classified advert that appears to have nothing to do with the content that follows may attract people… but you won’t keep their attention.

And Anita had potentially lost thousands in future sales because 321 people, who responded to the original advert, left the website without buying.

Take a minute to check the advertising messages you’re putting out - are they fully congruent throughout?

~ Carol Bentley

What is the most valuable gift you can give anyone? A gift that doesn’t require you opening your wallet or purse? A gift that makes them - and probably you - feel good?

It’s the gift of genuine interest. When you show interest by asking someone about them; their thoughts; their opinions; their interests; you make them feel important. And everyone likes to feel important.

Dale Carnegie’s world-famous book ‘How To Win Friends and Influence People’, published in 1915, clearly explained this principle.

• He told us people didn’t like being taken for granted.
• He told us people like to talk about themselves and their interests.
• He told us people like people who listen properly to what they’ve got to say.
• He told us people like to feel important - that what they say or do matters! (I think that is why social websites and forums are so popular; it gives people a chance to vent their feelings and share their opinions).

And what he said still holds true today.

It’s the foundation of any relationship - whether business or personal (remember people buy from people). And if you don’t have a strong relationship with your customers then you risk losing them.

And of course when a customer leaves, you lose the potential profit you would have gained from any future business with them.

How Many Customers Leave Because of Hurt Feelings?

I recall hearing at a motivational seminar that the greatest proportion of customers leaving a company do so because of indifference; effectively the company ‘hurt their feelings’ in some way. I daresay you’ve heard that as well.

I couldn’t remember the reasons and percentages for why customers change their supplier, so I Googled to see what came up:

Cease Trading / Die…………………………..1%
Move Away…………………………………….3%
Influenced by Others…………………………5%
Attracted to Competition…………………….9%
Dissatisfaction with Product/Service………14%
Indifference from Company………………….68%

I don’t know how accurate these figures are; they are supposedly the result of a survey held by the American Society for Quality Control back in the early 1980s. But even if the true figure is half of the 68% quoted that is way too much, isn’t it?

Good quality customer service goes some way towards minimising that feeling of indifference, but these days that really is not enough.

So, is your customer important enough to listen to? Do you value their opinion? Do you actually take the time to ask them?

Do you have a system in place that allows your customers to give you crucial feedback? And when you get the feedback do you acknowledge it and show your appreciation?

It’s all part of creating rapport isn’t it? But I wonder if sometimes we forget - or are too busy - to keep that connection going.

So, what do you do to make your customers and prospects feel good?

Share your ideas and thoughts - I’d love to discover tips on relationship building I haven’t thought of or come across before… click the comment link below and tell about good - and bad - experiences you have had with companies you’ve dealt with and how it impacted on you.

~ Carol Bentley

A quick note in case you missed it last week. Collect your copy of the 80-page Social Media report at www.scymtoolbox.com and whilst you are there take a look at the extensive toolbox I created for you.

That’s it! I said it was just a quick note

~ Carol Bentley

If you’ve been gearing up for tomorrow’s release - you can relax, because there is a slight delay.

Don’t you just hate it when things don’t go quite to plan? Me too and - that is what has happened.

It’s my own fault really, I should have waited until everything was ready before announcing a release date for the 80-page Social Media report and the Spring Clean Your Marketing Toolbox. But I was so sure everything was on track for the schedule of 4 p.m. tomorrow; Tuesday 12th May and that’s why I cheerfully announced it last week. Big mistake!

You see, there’s been a few hiccoughs in the preparation; some technical; others administrative. It goes against my nature to deliver a shoddy result and that’s why I’m grabbing an extra 24 hours to make sure this is the best it can be.

I did agonise over taking this step because I appreciate it may be a disappointing decision. But I also feel it would be an insult to give you anything less than my best effort.

So, please accept my apologies for rescheduling to Wednesday at 4 p.m.

I promise it will be worth the wait; so far I’ve crammed

• 30 video tutorials
• 8 reports
• 27 MP3 audio tracks
• and some essential software

into this toolbox, all geared to help you brush up your marketing strategies.

And, even if you decide you don’t want or need the toolbox, the Social Media report is yours free - just for taking a look.

Thank you for your patience, I’ll let you have the website url at 4p.m. on Wednesday - keep a look out for it.

~ Carol Bentley

I am worn out - but excited too! Tell you why in a moment, but first I have a handy gift for you.

It’s all very well being told that social marketing is a great way of getting your business seen - but where do you find these sites? Sure, everyone has heard of Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter and a few other well known sites. But there’s more to it than that - what about the more focused sites; the niche sites where your target audience hang out; the sites that may fit your business better?

Experts suggest using the search engines to find the sites you need - but the search results are not always as ‘clean’ as you’d like and a lot of time can be wasted looking through the results.

Well, I have found a possible solution for you because (time to get the violins out) whilst most people in the UK were relaxing, and maybe even sunning themselves, over the bank holiday weekend I was slaving over a hot computer (well, not that hot ) gathering, editing, creating and collating the tools for the Spring Clean Your Marketing Toolbox that is due to launch next Tuesday 12th at 4 p.m. BST (3 p.m. GMT) (yep, I’ve set the date).

And whilst I was working my fingers to the bone (what? I’m laying this on a bit too thick? Oh - OK - but I have been working on this to 1 a.m. every day for the past week! )…

Get Your Social Marketing Directory…

Anyway, I discovered this handy PDF guide of social websites. It has a nice clean list of live links to

• 100 networking sites
• 151 bookmarking sites
• 150 video-sharing sites.

Phew! That’s a lot of websites that just might hold the key for your successful online business promoting activity. It’s also got some great links to free resources to help you get started.

Now I could have included it in the Social Marketing section of the toolbox, but then I thought you might like to have it sooner than that.

So you can get your copy at www.scymtoolbox.com by joining the exclusive pre-launch notification group. And - if you’ve already signed up - just pop the same name and email address in and you’ll be taken straight to the directory download page.

Have a good Friday and weekend - I’ll catch up with you next week. I’m off to do a bit more work on the toolbox (it’s great fun really).

~ Carol Bentley

In the blog post this morning I said I’d try to get the sneak preview; an extract from the live workshop that is part of the toolbox, ready for you this afternoon.

Well after a few technical hitches (isn’t it always the way?) it is finally done - you can take a peak at http://www.scymtoolbox.com

You are asked to subscribe to get access to the extracts and to any other pre-release bonuses I decide to give out.

If you’ve been following this blog you’ll know that my original Spring Clean Your Marketing Toolbox launch schedule has slipped a bit (best laid plans, eh?)

At the moment I’m aiming to reschedule the launch for either Friday 8th May or Tuesday 12th. It rather depends upon how quickly I can get the delivery media ready.

Enjoy your weekend, speak soon.

~ Carol Bentley

Yesterday I asked you - and my other readers - to take part in a poll on what sort of media to use for delivering info products.

I only gave two choices: CDs or USB flashdrive.

A few of the direct email replies I received suggested it would be more environmentally friendly - and probably easier for me - to offer either web downloads or online studying.

It is certainly a popular delivery mechanism with many online marketers, but it got me thinking - is it the way to go?

You see if you happen to be in an area that doesn’t have good broadband access; you have dial-up only or you have a limited bandwidth available then downloads or online studying may not be viable. I wouldn’t want to alienate anyone who has that limitation.

Plus - there’s that edge of anticipation when a package arrives; the excitement of opening it up; I know, I’m a kid at heart.. I love getting parcels, even when I know what the contents are

So I’m still pondering on what the best delivery method is - what do you think? Am I being an eco-devil by not going for downloads / online studying?

~ Carol Bentley

P.S. The poll has returned 89.09% in favour of the USB so far…

P.P.S. Re: the marketing toolbox, I’ve decided to include an audio recording (& 130-page workbook) of a 7-hour live workshop in which I went through the whole process of creating a sales letter. Actually the event was 7 hours but a lot of that time was spent writing - and there’s not much fun in ‘listening’ to people quietly working, is there? So the actual workshop audio content is about 3 hours.

I’m just pulling out some extracts from the event for you to have a listen to; if all goes to plan, it should be up by this afternoon - and that will be on a website. So if you have dial-up, I’ll say ’sorry’ now.

At the end of yesterday’s post I mentioned the great little tool I found that is perfect for anyone who sends plain text emails. This is a great time saver and, initially, I was just going to include it in the Spring Clean Your Marketing Toolbox.

But then I decided it is so handy I didn’t want to wait for the toolbox to be ready (it’s coming along but checking everything is up to my high standards takes time ) and I didn’t want you to miss out if the rest of the toolbox is not right for you at the moment.

Let me explain why I like this little tool.

Many email marketing experts advise sending plain text emails. Although html emails look prettier they don’t always get through - a lot of people only accept plain text email - so where possible we are advised to have a plain text version as well.

If you use an autoresponder to send your marketing messages - such as Aweber - you may have the facility to set up both a plain text and html message.

Now, the problem with plain text is that email clients handle the text differently and in some cases can cause the lines to break up so they look ugly and even alter the sense of the message.

Aweber’s message set up screens offer a word wrap facility. Problem is, their word-wrapping is ignored by Outlook - and for all I know it may be ignored by other email clients. I’ve had my test messages come through where most of the lines break at 60 characters (the recommended line length) because I’ve put in manual line breaks and then you suddenly get a longer line appear, where my manual line break has been ignored.

This utility - I’ve dubbed Emails Made Easy - breaks the text up for you at a simple click of a button and, to my delight, the formatted text comes through OK on my Aweber test message.

This is what the screen looks like:

You can see how the text expands across the box. At the bottom you get stats of number of characters, words, sentences, lines and paragraphs.

After clicking on the Format button the text is formatted to the selected line length of 60 characters:

For me, it certainly beats the time consuming frustration of manually splitting the lines.

This is free to download and you can pass it on to anyone you think will find it useful.

Right click the link below and choose Save Target As or Save Link As

Emails Made Easy Download

The zip file is just over 1 Mbyte and contains a file called eme.exe. Extract the file and double-click it to install the utility on your system. It comes with an uninstall script if you decide you don’t want to use it any longer.

Lots more to come…

~ Carol Bentley