Carol Bentley

Are you losing customers without knowing why? According to research carried out by TARP 68% of customers stop doing business because of perceived indifference, often because of lack of communication.

Printed newsletters are an ideal way of keeping communication channels open with your customers and prospects. Keep your customer up to date with information about your products or services plus little gems of insights that will help him and anything happening in your company and you make him feel he is important to you and you are interested in him.

BUT - be careful not to fall into the ‘newsletter trap’. Make your print newsletter effective by avoiding the 9 biggest mistakes people make (as described in my book); here are 4 of them:

Mistake 1: Boring Headlines

Use descriptive headlines to attract your reader’s interest. Give the promise of something worth reading. You can turn a boring headline into something more appealing by simply expanding it, as in these examples:

Boring Headline: New XL987 Widget
Interesting Headline: New XL987 Widget Increases Production by 30%

Boring Headline: New Website Launched
Interesting Headline: Download Free Report from Newly Launched Website

Boring Headline: Message from the Managing Director
Interesting Headline: Managing Director Announces New Process Cuts Delivery Times in Half

Use attention-grabbing words to give your Newsletter headline more impact, such as ‘new’; ‘announcing’ and, where possible, be specific. It’s no different to creating headlines for your sales letter. Boring headlines are not going to keep his attention.

Mistake 2: Headlines Are The Same Size

Glance through any newspaper and you see the headlines are different sizes. It makes the paper more attractive to look at and guides the reader to more important articles.

Design your newsletter to do the same. Generate more interest in your main stories with larger headlines and use smaller headlines in those that are less significant.

Mistake 3: Woolly Opening Sentences

Keep your reader’s attention with your opening sentence. Keep it specific and relevant to your headline.

Once your reader has been caught by the headline, don’t disappoint him with a boring statement; it discourages him from finishing the article.

For example if you are writing the article for an in-house company newsletter for the XL987 widget headline an uninteresting start might be:

The new XL987 widget was launched at the company AGM on July 18th in London.

Your reader doesn’t care when or where the new product was launched - the sentence offers nothing of real interest at all – it’s likely to elicit the question “So what?”. Whereas this one clearly states something more remarkable:

“As well as increasing production by 30%, the new XL987 widget will cut costs by 10% and is likely to add £1,747,000 to the company turnover,” claimed Managing Director, Charles Forthwith, at the AGM.

Newspaper reporters know they must get the most important information over first to encourage readers to finish the article. You need to do the same.

Mistake 4: Too Many Font Styles

Resist the temptation to ‘pretty up’ your newsletter with a myriad of font styles and colours. It makes your newsletter too busy and difficult for people to read. It also looks very amateurish.

Choose a maximum of 2 fonts - 1 for headlines and 1 for the main body of the text. You can change the size of the headline font to create variety - as previously mentioned.

Do not change the font size for the articles. Write enough text to fill the space you have. Don’t increase the size to fit a gap or reduce the size to fit more in. It looks inconsistent and unattractive.

The bottom line is whatever you use to communicate with your customers and prospects keep it interesting for your reader; think ‘What’s in it for them?’ why should they spend their valuable time reading it?

~ Carol Bentley

technorati tags: copywriting marketing

Just a quick fun post for the weekend.. although it might send you crazy trying to figure out what’s going on ;).

I found this post which displays a spinning girl

The direction the girl is spinning in is supposed to show which is the dominant hemisphere in your brain. I only saw one direction. When I got my husband to look he saw her going in the opposite direction and then, after about 15 seconds, she reversed direction!!

Someone in the comments said it was a flash display - but the blog author said it was a GIF graphic image. And it is. I copied the image onto my desktop and popped it into an Outlook email to see if she stopped spinning (hadn’t got a GIF viewer to hand). She didn’t - it’s definitely a GIF image.

I’ve turned comments on for this post so you can share what you experienced…

Have fun with it… oh, and if you’re curious, yes my creative side showed dominant - but when I looked again she had reversed direction which means I rely on realism and words… and you’d expect that from a copywriter wouldn’t you?

~ Carol

When sending out a mailshot should you use franked postmarks or live stamps? I’ve always maintained real stamps get a better response in most situations because the letter looks more personal - and I have proved it on many occasions for clients.

So I was intrigued to get a letter from Royal Mail - with a live stamp. Although I have to say the ‘first impression’ of a personal letter was rather spoilt by it being addressed to RM Direct Customer!

In the letter they were promoting their Christmas Stamps. It said:

“Imagine you have two letters in front of you. Which would you open first? The one with the postage stamp or the one with the printed postmark?”

They quoted independent research, carried out in the UK on their behalf by Quadrangle in February 2007, which reported:

“Anecdotal evidence suggests letters with stamps are perceived as having a positive, personal touch and are far more likely to be opened. And direct mail makes the recipient feel more valued than email or e-newsletters.”

I’d like to add my 2p worth to that, based on my own testing and experience…

Does It Work?

I carried out a test for a client, sending half a mailshot using a franked stamp and the other half with ordinary ’stick-on’ stamps. Result? The stamps brought in 18.5% more bookings (it was for a training course) which paid for the extra labour involved and brought in additional profit.

First or Second Class

Most direct mail is sent second class to keep costs to a minimum.

But - tell me, if you see a letter with a 2nd class stamp on it, how important or urgent do you think it is? If the letter inside is urging you to act before a deadline doesn’t that come over as a bit inconsistent with the subliminal message from the 2nd class stamp?

So does that mean you should send your letters 1st class? Could be hellishly expensive - especially if you’re sending out thousands of letters.

No - here’s my suggestion:

Check the actual postage price for your letter or package; for e.g. an ordinary 2nd class letter, at the moment, is 24p. Use denominated stamps to that value. Unfortunately Royal Mail do not help us by offering a 24p stamp, so you have to use multiple stamps. E.g. 10p & 14p.

People rarely check the value of stamps and what class postage rate they represent. So although the actual rate is for 2nd class, it won’t give that impression when it is received.

Getting Your Stamps

Did you know.. if you buy stamps to the value of £35 or more Royal Mail will deliver them to you next day free of charge?

It’s a great way of buying your stamps for smaller, in-house mailing campaigns without going to your local post office and depleting their stock. You can order online at www.royalmail.com

Outside the UK?

[This post is about UK mailing campaigns; I wonder if people in other countries get the same results? If you are a reader from outside the UK I’d love to know what you’ve discovered if you’ve ever tested franked mail against stamped mail. Use my blog contact form or leave a comment below to let me know - thanks].

~ Carol

P.S. Thanks to everyone who emailed to say these frequent blog posts are OK because the contents are useful. I’ll just take weekends off and the occasional day of holiday

I’m a newsletter junkie - especially anything to do with marketing and copywriting. And one of the newsletters I always take time to read is the Copywriter’s Roundtable by John Forde. I love his quirky humour and his way of reminding me of copywriting techniques I know work.

And this week was no different. In his newsletter John talked about ‘What if. . .’ here’s what he shared:

Who is Ravi Vora? He’s a young guy who runs a motivation blog “for People with Big Dreams.”
(www.ravivora.com). One recent post claims you only need two words, in the form of a question, to always inspire creativity. What are the two words?

Very simply, “What if?”

Ravi calls this single question the “root of imagination.” It’s here, and I think he’s right, that every creative moment begins.

“The possibilities are endless with this question,” says Ravi. “You open up new realms of discovery, new worlds, whole new universes of opportunities. There is no end with this question. There is no way to say ‘No, we can’t’ or ‘That isn’t possible.’ The only thing you can do with a ‘what if’ question is dream.”

Well said.

This is a powerful phrase you can use in your copywriting. . .

• what if you could double or triple response to your marketing activity?

• what if you could improve efficiency by 42%?

• what if you could reduce costs without reducing quality or service?

• what if you could show your customers how you can help them achieve their dreams?

Include a few what if statements in your sales letter and see what happens. And don’t forget… what if can also be used to describe the less than ideal situation your customer experiences by not taking your offer.

Next week we’ll take a look at some print newsletter tips.

And remember, if you have a copywriting or marketing question use the blog question form to send it in.

~ Carol

Your sales letter is extremely powerful when you use the proven science behind good copywriting . Simply adopt this 8-element structure to give you a head-start:

When selling (and remember you are selling in your letter or advert) most professional sales people tell you to follow AIDA; no I’m not talking about a person called AIDA; I’m talking about the acronym AIDA which stands for:

Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.  Add an extra sprinkling of A for Attention and your sales letter sparkles.

Let’s go through the copywriting techniques that match these elements:

1) Grab ATTENTION with your headline – spend the majority of your time on this. Use eye-catching words such as You/Your; Who Else; Which; Now; New; Bargain; Free; How/How to; Hurry or Breakthrough.

2) Whatever your headline promised your first paragraph must reinforce. Keep it short and to the point. Resist the temptation to ramble. Keeping it focused keeps your reader’s INTEREST.

3) Draw your reader on - describe exactly what you are offering, what it does for him, how he benefits. If there are a number of steps to a process describe exactly what they are so you start to create his DESIRE.

4) Remember human nature. Something’s good? We want it too! Give your reader feedback from your delighted customers. Make sure the testimonials are descriptive and identify the problem your customer had or the result he wanted and the solution or outcome you delivered. You keep your reader’s DESIRE high.

5) Lose – It is your job to make sure your prospect understands why he cannot possibly ignore your offer. Make absolutely sure he understands exactly how much less his life is if he does not respond to your valuable proposition. You are harming him by not doing everything possible to clearly show the loss he would experience.

So tell him what he loses if he doesn’t taken up your valuable offer. How he’s missed out on key benefits or results, how his life will never be the same again…

OK, so I’m exaggerating , but I’m sure you get the picture. As I’ve said before, people make buying decisions based on their emotions and then use logic to justify the decision. If we weren’t influenced by our emotion, people would never buy expensive cars, designer clothes or larger houses. After all a small, cheap car gets you from A to B, just as a more expensive car does.

Appeal to your prospect’s emotional wants and desires – the detail of features you provide helps him justify the logic of buying from you.

This is still part of his DESIRE – his desire not to lose what you have already created an interest in.

So, having ‘depressed‘ your reader with what he might lose if he doesn’t take your offer, now you must…

6) Repeat the benefits – raise the desire again to own or experience your service or product. Get your reader excited about what he can expect to enjoy.

And then…

7) Action – tell him EXACTLY what to do now. This is where many sales letters fall down. There is no specific ‘call to action’ describing, in simple to follow steps, how to get what you’ve been promising throughout your letter.

So go on, tell him to send the completed request form in the envelope provided. Tell him to call the Freephone number and place his request NOW. Tell him to send the email confirming his interest. Don’t let him ‘cool off’ by not leading him through the steps he needs to take immediately.

And finally add the P.S. – your second headline (and the final sprinkling ‘A’ of the AIDA-A acronym). Having spent so much time preparing your main headline you have already discovered your second strongest – and that is probably a natural P.S.

Make your P.S. as compelling as your headline. Its job is to get your prospect to read your letter and remind him of the most important reason why he should respond.

These - and other - insights are described in my book. If you haven’t already got a copy why not invest in yourself and go to http://www.carolbentley.com/offer or give it as a business gift to a colleague or friend.

You might not want to give it to a competitor though, after all you do want some advantage, don’t you?

~ Carol

Keeping in touch with people is important. But so is making sure you’re not annoying them with an excessive overload of information. And although Internet experts say that daily blogging is a good thing, I’m not so sure.

Do you think a daily post on this blog is too much? If you like getting these snippets daily let me know using the blog question contact form. (Why not send your most burning copywriting or marketing question at the same time?)

If I don’t get a deluge of messages saying “Keep going - I love what you send” I’ll temper my posts and do just 2 or 3 per week, with an occasional flurry if something important crops up.

Lookout for my post announcements on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.

Oh, by the way tomorrow’s post is ‘The 8 Elements of a powerful letter‘.  It should be up just after 11 a.m.

~ Carol

One of the interesting people I met at the weekend seminar I attended was Kirsty who is an Opera Singer and Manager. Her experienced confirmed what I’ve always believed and told people…

You see Kirsty needed to supplement her income - her passion is Opera - but as she said, it doesn’t pay a huge amount of money. She tried various ways of getting an additional income, including temping which she did not take to.

Then, because she likes writing, someone asked her to help with writing the copy for their web page.

She said “I was a bit nervous about it, but they gave me a guide to follow which took me step-by-step through what I needed to do and it was OK!” Since then she has helped other people with their copywriting tasks and now has a successful second business.

Which just goes to prove, with expert guidance, anyone can write effective copy for a business and you can write the material for yours.

If you don’t already have a copy of my book, which gives you all the insider secrets and techniques for creating your business boosting marketing material in simple to understand and easy to follow steps, check out ‘I Want to Buy Your Product..’   where you can download Chapters 1 & 3 completely FREE and without obligation.

~ Carol

Do you use clichés when you’re talking to people? You know, things like ‘he’s as good as gold’?

And do you use them when writing your sales letters?  After all, the best sales letter is written in the same way that you’d talk to someone, so you might include a common phrase.  If you do, learn from my mistake and think carefully about what you use.

This is what happened.  Earlier in the week I sent an email to my subscribers to tell them about Ed’s blogging programme. I started off with…

“How do you find time to keep in constant communication with customers and prospects - without tearing your hair out?”

So, what’s wrong with that you might be asking.  Or, if you’re like one of my subscribers who replied to my email, you may have spotted my faux pas!

His reply was simply: “I’m bald”

Was my face red!

So, whilst popular phrases can help to bring your letter alive and make it more vibrant, be careful that what you use isn’t alienating part of your audience.

~Carol

I’m off to London for an Internet Seminar this weekend. Now why would I do that and how will it help you?

3 reasons:

1) The people: everyone attending is an entrepreneur - or an embryonic entrepreneur. They all want to know how to create a successful business on the web. There’ll be a fascinating breadth of business ideas and people from all walks of life.

Imagine the rich source of stories, experiences and insights to what motivates people that gives me as a copywriter! Remember, people like to know what others have done and how they’ve succeeded - especially when it reveals an idea they can adopt for themselves. You never know what tales I’ll hear to give you and me a marketing gem or insight.

2) Additional expert knowledge: Although I’ve written copy for the web, which has been successful, and I have some working knowledge of internet marketing I am not an ‘out-and-out’ expert on search engine optimising (SEO) (Ed is though - check his blog).

• I know a little html code;
• I understand the concept of SEO to get websites to appear in the first few pages of search results;
• I understand the principles of how PPC (pay per click) advertising works (but not ALL the in-depth secrets to get the best out of it);
• I appreciate the thinking behind landing pages and how to use keywords and
• I already use article marketing to some degree of success (try typing Carol Bentley into the search box on Google).

So, as far as the Internet is concerned, I’m a bit of a ‘jack-of-all-trades’ - expert in none.

And that’s OK, because in an ever-changing arena like the Internet keeping on top of everything is a full time job in itself and it’s not my expert area - copywriting is my passion.

Of course it’s useful to keep a ‘finger on the pulse’ and that’s what I’ll be doing at the seminar. Listening to the proven experts and picking their brains for the juicy tidbits I can come back and use - and share with you!

3) Connections: meeting and networking with all those self-motivating people (they must be self-motivated to give up a weekend AND pay to attend) is rewarding in itself.

Who knows I might connect with an ideal joint venture partner; or find a great supplier for me and my clients (I found 2 champions at the last event I went to!) or even find people who want my copywriting products or services.

That’s what networking is all about (I’ll be writing more about business networking skills in a later blog; having done it for over 20 years I’ve got some useful tips for you ).

So I’m taking a short break - travelling up to London tomorrow.

Check back after the weekend - when I’ll share any gems I’ve discovered.

And have a good weekend yourself.

~ Carol