No matter how well we plan ahead sometimes things just don’t go as we’d hoped. And that’s what has happened which is why I’m sending an apology and asking for your patience and understanding.
Let me explain; when I started this blog I made a commitment to you, my reader, to make a daily (well, week-daily) post. When I had days out of the office scheduled I simply wrote up the posts in advance and set a date and time for publishing. That way I kept my promise and you got your daily dose of my thoughts.
If you are a regular reader you may have noticed I’ve missed a few days this week. The reason for that is a completely unexpected absence from my office (actually I’m still away). That is because my Father has had a sudden, serious stroke which the Doctors do not expect him to recover from.
I’m sure you appreciate my family must take precedence. So, please forgive the erratic posts that may happen over the next few weeks. I promise my usual daily post will resume as soon as possible.
Thank you for your understanding.
~ Carol Bentley
Have you ever started a conversation or starting writing something intending to talk about one thing and then ended up with a completely different subject?
That’s what happened when I was writing yesterday’s blog post. I intended to share with you 36 different appeals you could consider when writing your sales letter. Instead I went off at a completely different tangent because, as I was thinking about how we identify our ideal target prospect, I remembered how sometimes recommending an apparent competitor instead of trying to ‘close the sale’ sometimes turns out to be the best action to take.
So I thought today I would get back on track and share the original thought with you…
Getting the Right Appeal
When you are deciding upon your offer and crafting your sales letter you need to know your target prospect in as much depth as possible, as I mentioned yesterday. Once you have that intimate knowledge of them you can position your offer to match what appeals best.
Here’s some popular appeals that might resonate with your target audience:
He (or she) wants to:
- Satisfy their curiosity
- Be successful – in life or in business
- Be comfortable
- Make their work easier
- Gain recognition or praise from their peers or superiors
- Save money
- Make money
- Satisfy their ego
- Gain self-respect
- Be fashionable
- Be a recognised expert
- Protect themselves, their family & their possessions
- Protect their reputation
- Avoid embarrassment
- Save time
- Gain status through possessions
- Get a bargain
- Get something for free
- Protect the environment
- Prevent or relieve boredom
- Get ahead – in their career or social status
- Enjoy beautiful items
- Be popular
- Be their own boss
- Enjoy leisure pursuits
- Gain better health
- Become fit
- Get rid of aches and pains
- Be sexually attractive
- Satisfy their own sexual desires
- Gain knowledge
- Be good parents
- Relax – with friends or alone
- Be safe and secure
- Live longer
- Enjoy their life more
Which of these do your products or services satisfy? Could you make an offer that would match other desires?
The more of these appeals you can meet the better chacne you have of increasing the response to your sales letters, adverts and web pages.
~ Carol Bentley
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Right – so you know all you need to know about your target market. You’ve got a fine-tuned understanding of your ideal prospect; you know their age; their gender; income range; whether they’re employed or retired (for consumer marketing); where they’re likely to live and what type of accommodation they have.
You know what interest’s them; hobbies; reading habits;beliefs and opinions, ethical stance and purchasing habits – maybe.
Pardon? Did you say you’re selling to business and you don’t need all this personal detail?
Ok-ay, tell me who makes the decision to buy from you? The ‘business’ or a person at the business; owner, Director, Buying Manager or other decision maker?
Whoever makes that decision in your favour does so for a variety of reasons and one of the points that can heavily influence the outcome is do they think “I like [your name]; I feel I can trust his (or her) advice and I’m confident he / she has my best interests at heart.”
I’m sure you’ve heard it dozens of times but it’s true… you have to build a relationship in order to get the sale.
But let’s say you can’t get up close & personal with your prospect. How do you create a relationship then – how do you appeal to your target audience?
By reaching out in other ways. By freely giving good advice; advice that your prospect can use. Advice such as:
- Crucial facts he needs to be aware of before making a decision; whether that decision is in your favour or not. (Free reports or case studies are good for this)
- Clearly explaining what your product or service is suitable for – describing the features and how they work
- And just as clearly stating when it is not appropriate; be honest about limitations or situations where your offer is inappropriate
- Recommending an alternative supplier you know and trust when your product or service does not quite fit the bill, rather than trying to compromise
Now don’t get upset about that last suggestion… at first glance it may look as if you’re driving business away, but that is not always the case.
Think about it; When you recommend an apparent competitor you are demonstrating you’re confident enough about what you supply to be absolutely straight and up-front about it. You’re displaying a strong ethic of ‘the customer’s interest comes first’- that gives you kudos in your prospect’s eyes. Do you think there’s a good chance your prospect will tell people they know about your honesty and trustworthiness? And recommend you to people who are looking for what you offer? I’m certain it will happen because it has for me.
Plus – if you have a canny business mind I’m sure you can see the possibilities here…
You see, there is always a certain proportion of the enquiries you get that you are not able to satisfy; you don’t match what the customer is looking for. Your ‘competitor’ does.
And your competitor will have enquirers they can’t convert into business that you could make very happy.
Agreeing to direct those unconverted enquiries to each other can create a win-win situation for you both. And, if you agree an introductory commission beforehand for any business realised, it won’t matter if there seems to be more traffic going one way.
Who in your industry or profession could you set up an arrangement like this with? Or perhaps you already have a similar understanding? Share your thoughts with other visitors to this blog.
~ Carol Bentley
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Whilst doing my usual browsing of other people’s blogs a post on Ed Rivis’ called ‘Write Press Releases That Sizzle’ caught my eye. He described how to boost your company’s visibility, with both on and offline PR… so I followed the link he included and found an interesting article on Terry Dean’s blog offering some inspiring ideas at http://www.terrydean.org/21-ideas-for-hot-press-releases-part-1/
PR is a great way to get some free publicity. But you have to stand out from all the other businesses trying to get noticed. And news editors are looking for something that is interesting for their readers; something a little different from the ‘norm’.
Some of Terry’s ideas may seem a bit wacky – but they’ve all got merit. I particularly like number 20 – it made me smile.
Help Your News Editor Make Your PR An Attention-Grabber
When I first released my book I sent a press release to my local paper’s Business Editor describing some of the tips it contained and how they help business people get a good result. I wanted to make sure I had the highest chance of the news release being printed so I sent a bit of an odd picture to catch his attention:
The editor asked if the money I was holding was real – it was!
He published the picture, and a long article about the book , on the first page of the business news section. Great result!
In fact he used the picture again when a local Ottakar’s bookstore hosted my book-signing event a few months later.
So what can you do to promote your business? Perhaps Terry’s tips have given you an idea or two?
If you have never included PR in your marketing toolkit maybe now is the time to try. See which of his 21 ideas appeals to you and give it a go. Then come back here and share your results.
~ Carol Bentley
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I constantly advise that when writing a sales letter one of the most effective ingredients is a good testimonial. Not just one that says “Great job, would recommend”, but one that is more specific about what was happening before, what solution you provided and the result your customer enjoyed.
An even better structure for your testimonial is what Alex Mandossian refers to as a heart-centred testimonial using the Before/After/After template. This is particularly powerful when coming from your long term customers. Check Alex’s post here and go down to the visitor’s comments because the one from Gail Doby is rather useful.
And when you’ve done that consider your existing customers.
- Which of these gained a great result from you?
- Which of these make you feel proud of what you’ve done for them?
- Have you asked for their testimonial? If not, perhaps now is a good time to ask.
Use this question structure, not only does it produce a good testimonial for you, it also makes it easier for your customer to think of what to write or say.And one final point, the testimonial is no good if you can’t share it with your prospects. So make sure you get permission to use it – along with your contact’s name, company name (if appropriate) and location – in your marketing material.
~ Carol Bentley
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Your mind is buzzing, your senses are on fire as the ideas come to you thick and fast – you can’t write them down quick enough and you just know that some gems are going to disappear into the ether.
Or you’re listening hard, you want to capture every ounce of wisdom you’re hearing but as you write you’re missing other vital information. Sound familiar?
It was certainly a familiar scenario for me when I used to make my notes in linear form. When I discovered Tony Buzan and his mind mapping it opened up a whole new world. I could capture my ideas, brainstorm creatively and remember what I’d heard with simple keywords on a mindmap.
I remember attending a seminar in 2002 where Ivan Misner was speaking about business networking. I made notes; on a mindmap in a notebook that was no more than 10cm x 6.5cm – that was pretty small! I transferred my mindmap, complete with images to a larger map when I got back to my office. I still refer to that mindmap and in fact have written articles and given presentations to business groups using the material as my foundation.
But I’m not aiming to convince you about how wonderful mind mapping is as a business tool – you may already know that. No, what I want to share with you today is the mind mapping program that has been created by Tony Buzan and his team.
You see, up to now I’ve used Mind Manager from Mindjet. And I’ve got quite proficient at using it for most of my creative work. But today I discovered iMindMap, which has a more organic feel that ties in with Buzan’s concept of mind mapping and the way our brains function.
So I downloaded the evaluation 7-day trial copy and gave it a whirl. And I love it! It is extremely easy to use and – for me – looks just right, completely organic like the mind maps you’d draw by hand.
And, just to show you what I mean, I created a mindmap to match one of my earlier posts: 8 elements of a compelling sales letter. Here it is:
The other point that impressed me is the reasonable cost – just £58.69 per user license compared to £199 for Mind Manager.
I think I’m converted 
If you like the flow of hand-drawn mind maps you’ll love this software too.
You can download a free trial copy at www.iMindMap.com/drwriter and test it for yourself. And yes, that is an affiliate link. If you’d rather not use the affiliate URL you can just go straight to www.iMindMap.com
I’m off to get some more ideas down using my new mindmapping software, ciao for now
~ Carol Bentley
technorati tags: mind mapping sales letters brainstorming
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I mentioned at the beginning of January I would be creating a video programme to show the easiest way to get a book written and published. And, because of that, I decided to talk to other business authors to get their views on why they decided to write a book and how they went about it. I figured the more approaches I revealed the better chance there was that you’d find something that hit the mark for you.
Last week I spoke to Jill Konrath, who wrote ‘Selling to Big Companies’. We were discussing the reasons for writing a business book; one I’ve already shared with you is to position yourself as the expert in your field.
Jill told me that after publishing her book she was curious why there were very few business women authors. And she talked to successful business women, trying to encourage them to join her as an author. Their response surprised her…
You might be relieved to find you have the same thoughts.
I recorded my telephone conversation with Jill and I’ll be sharing the full content with you at a later date, but for the moment, I thought you might like to listen to this short clip – only a few minutes – in which she shares the revelation those astute business women gave her and explains why some of them changed their mind. Click on the audio bar below to listen-in.
So – has this short audio given you some food for thought?
~ Carol Bentley
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technorati tags: business author marketing writing
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