It’s my birthday on 4th January (now you know why my name is Carol! 
) Come on – you’re not going to ask a lady how old she is – are you? Well, I’m quite a few years over 21… 
I’d like to celebrate with my regular readers – the people who have taken the trouble to subscribe to this blog and, because of that, make me feel good about writing it.
So I’m inviting you to get your birthday celebration gift from me on 4th January. That post will be password protected. The password will be sent out in the email notification when the post goes live. If you are not subscribed for email notification then you will not be able to get the gift.
What is the gift? I’ll tell you about it in more detail in Friday’s post, but just as a taster indication…
It is an MP3 download of a 78-minute live telephone consultation interview during which an extremely successful UK business owner (who uses direct mail for the majority of his business acquisition) asks me 38 pertinent questions about writing sales letters and creating mailing packages. This ‘fly-on-the-wall’ consultation is valued at over £1,100 – although in real terms of what it could help you to create is worth many thousands of pounds in prospective revenue.
Want to join in my birthday celebration? Then simply make sure you get the notices about the posts to this blog. And of course, you get to know about the other writing and marketing gems I share with you on this blog.
Use the Don’t Miss A Tip! form in the top right panel to join and keep an eye out for Friday’s post.
~ Carol Bentley
If you are persuasive in your copywriting it could work in your favour, because I have a confession to make – sometimes I can’t see something even when it’s staring me in the face!
This is what happened: I was writing about the Cialdini YouTube videos in the post Cialdini and the art of persuasion. And I decided, after watching the video presentation, I’d quite like to read the book again.
But could I find it?
After searching my numerous bookshelves – both in the office and home, I decided I must have given or lent it to someone and lost track of it. It happens; no big deal.
So I ordered another copy.
The next day I looked up at the shelf next to my desk and there it was, face-out, staring straight at me! There’s a word for word-blindness, is there one for object blindness?
This means I have a spare copy, which I’m going to gift to whoever can come up with the most persuasive reason why they should have it. Plus I’ll also gift a CD of the live audio recording of a 28-minute business presentation I gave entitled ‘How to Create Winning Adverts… 16 Insider Secrets to Turn Your Advert into a Powerful Sales Generator‘
This is an ideal opportunity for you to test your copywriting skills; start putting into practice some of the tips I’ve been sharing.
I’ll leave this open until 4th January so you’ve got until then to post your comment telling me why you should have the book & CD set. Or, if you’d rather keep your entry private, use the blog contact form to send it in.
Good luck.
~ Carol Bentley
technorati tags: persuasive selling Cialdini copywriting
Many businesses are closing over the next week or two for the Christmas & New Year break. For me it’s an ideal opportunity to catch up on projects; catch up on reading and – surprise, surprise – do some writing. No, not marketing writing; writing the content for a product I’m crafting – all will be revealed in 2008.
In fact, I think I’ll announce what I’m developing on my birthday, which is 4th January – now that’s a nice way to celebrate isn’t it?
In the meantime I’d like to say a huge ‘Thank You’ for visiting this site. I’ve enjoyed sharing with you over the last few months and look forward to exploring more with you next year.
And to finish off – here’s a bit of Christmas fun for anyone who does email marketing…
If Santa was an email marketer…
My favourite…
In roughly 10% of houses, Santa would emerge from the chimney to find himself in the trash can and not the fireplace. This despite a squeaky-clean sender reputation.
~ Carol Bentley
P.S. I might not be able to keep away from you though… so I might slip in a post or two over the holiday period, when no-one’s looking!
A few posts ago I told you how I’d been told that publishing a book is one of the most powerful marketing activities you can do. And I’d proved it to myself.
I also explained that the experience had given me some insights I would like to share with you over the next month or so.
Before I do that, let me explore some alternatives with you…
“What?! Are you going to say I don’t need to write a book?”
No, what I’m saying is you don’t have to write ‘war & peace’ or a Tolkein masterpiece.
What your book should have is valuable insights your target prospects find interesting and useful. Because that is how you demonstrate your expertise.
And, in fact, you don’t even have to write the whole book to achieve that.
An idea that Peter Thomson suggested to the consultant’s membership group I belonged to back in the early 1990′s was to form a collaboration where each person wrote just 1 chapter. Obviously there would have to be a connection between the authors’ topics so that they complemented each other.
The book was published with different jacket covers; each cover depicted one of the consultant authors on the back – with their short bio, a description of the chapter they’d written and a resume of the book content. The other authors were listed as contributing writers.
There are many books published under a co-authorship, so the idea made perfect sense.
Quite a few of the group membership did this and gained the benefit of being recognised as an expert author by their clients and prospects as a result.
Think about the people in your industry or profession or in associated disciplines. Who could you join forces with to write an informative book?
Not sure this would work for you? Don’t worry, I’ve got another thought for you – but that’s the subject of another post…
~ Carol Bentley
technorati tags: writing a book marketing insights ask the expert
It’s nearly that time of year again – you know… New Year Resolutions! And many experts will be advising you to review your business plans as well.
So what are your goals for 2008 and beyond? Have you got specific targets in mind? Are you focused on achieving them?
Here are a few tips on making realistic goals and, more importantly, increasing your chances of achieving them… You can use these steps for both your personal and your business goals.
The most successful people; whether in business or personal achievement, frequently have one thing in common; they write down what they want to achieve using the SMART acronym.
- What is your goal? Write down what you want to achieve. Follow the SMART structure:
- S – Specific e.g. ‘Increase sales by 28%’, rather than just ‘get more sales’ or ‘lose 2 stone’ rather than ‘lose weight’
- M – Measurable. This is linked strongly with specific. If you have a specific goal you’ll be able to measure how close you are to achieving it.
- A – Achievable or Awesome. Most people say this stands for achievable but I think the word awesome given by my good friend Steve Pipe of Added Value Solutions is a better. Why?
Because your goal must be awesome for you; fill you with excitement and inspiration. You see if it isn’t an awesome goal for you to achieve the chances are you’re not passionate about it and you are less likely to take the action needed to make it happen.
- R – Realistic. If they are realistic they are achievable. By all means stretch yourself; you don’t want to be doing the ‘same-old, same-old’ but make sure what you set is practical. For example increasing your sales by 100% or 200% may be achievable – but can you handle that increase in business logistically?
- T – Timed. Set a date when you intend to reach this goal. E.g. ‘reduce my working days to 4 days per week’ is not as powerful as ‘reduce my working days to 4 days per week by February 2009′.
- Why do you want to achieve this? Is it a “it would be nice to…” or is a passionate “I absolutely must do this”? A weak reason for reaching your goal is not going to inspire you.
- What will happen if you fail to realise your goal? What pain will you experience by not achieving it?
- What do you stand to gain when you succeed? Will it light your inner fire? Give you less stress and worry? Make you feel happier? Give you a feeling of pride? Draw the admiration of your peers and superiors?
- What are the steps you must take to achieve this goal? Write the key things you need to achieve this goal. Not the finite detail, enough to identify what action you need to take. For example if your goal is to increase your sales in 2008 by 28% you might decide you need to put your sales team through the latest sales training. At this stage you would not say it has to be training with ‘such & such a company on this date’.
Repeat this sequence for all your personal and business goals.
Prioritise Your Goals
Some of your goals will be more important to you than others. Some may be dependent upon you achieving another goal before you can get started. For example if you have a goal that says ‘increase the profitable response to my direct mailing campaigns by 300% by June 2008′ your goal to learn good copywriting skills would have to be achieved first.
And others may, on reflection, not be as important or inspiring as you first thought.
Decide which are your most meaningful goals and write those on a separate planning sheet. Constantly monitor your progress towards your goal as you take the actions needed.
Does Writing Goals Down Work?
In my personal experience, Yes! If I decide I want to achieve something but I don’t write it down, following the SMART structure, it just doesn’t get done or it takes an inordinately long amount of time to achieve a less than satisfactory result.
When I write my goal down it does 4 things for me:
- It focuses my mind on the outcome I want and when I want it by.
- It programmes my subconscious to find solutions for me.
- It clearly identifies the actions I need to take and when they need to be done by.
- Things happen! Unexpected opportunities that help me achieve my goal suddenly appear. Now some people will argue that’s because I’m more focused and aware of what’s going on around me. So I see those opportunities more clearly. Maybe; I really don’t care- it works!
Sometimes Sharing Helps
For some people stating a goal in public or sharing it with a mentor or valued colleague gives added impetus to achieving the goal.
Let me give you an example. In 2003 I decided I would write and publish a book. It didn’t happen. Why? Because the goal, although stated, wasn’t written down and wasn’t specific.
In 2005 I committed to a group of business people that I would have the manuscript for my book on how to write sales letters completed for the next meeting, which was 1 month away. I did it!
So what was different this time?
I stated my specific goal (to write a book on how to write sales letters)
It was measurable (a completed manuscript ready for publishing)
It was awesome (I was very excited by the prospect of sharing my expertise in a book that would be available to the public)
It was realistic (I had the knowledge, expertise and material for the book content)
I said when it would be done (in 1 month)
And, for me crucially,
I stated the goal to people I respected. (My reputation was on the line. What would they think if I didn’t achieve what I’d stated?)
If you find sharing your SMART goals helps you to achieve them feel free to share with me. You can do so publicly (if you are very brave) by adding a comment to this post or privately using the blog contact form. But be warned – I just might ask if you achieved what you set out to do when your stated time scale is reached.
~ Carol Bentley
technorati tags: goal setting self achievement business tips
In 1994 I worked with a savvy sales & marketing expert, Peter Thomson, who was a self-made millionaire. He gave me some sage advice:
“If you want people to recognise you as an expert in your field, you must write and publish a book!”
In those days getting a book published was no easy task. Finding a publisher who would take your work was like finding a needle in a haystack.
Self-publishing, called Vanity Press, was very expensive with the likelihood that none of your books would sell and you’d end up with a garage full of the thousand or so books you had to order.
I wrote hundreds of how-to manuals and programmes and created a number of tips booklets, but I didn’t go down the print publishing route.
Then in 2003 I got the exact same advice from another marketing expert, Paul Gorman.
But one thing Paul said – that turned out to be true – is that no matter how many business people learn about this powerful market positioning tool very few take action and actually do it.
And that included me for another 18 months or so.
Then in 2005 I decided to ‘buckle down’ and write my book and it was a lot easier than I had expected. Now you might be thinking, “Well it is going to be easier for you, after all you are a copywriter!”
True! But, amazingly it wasn’t my copywriting skills that came to the fore – it was my knowledge and passion about my subject. I wanted to share with other business people; to let them discover how they too could write their own effective marketing material.
The actual writing, not the editing or getting it published and out into the market place, took me a little over a week to achieve. Once I started it just poured out. And, as it did, I discovered a few tricks to writing a book that helped me enormously.
The book was finally published in November 2005. I still remember the elation of holding the first copy in my hands; the excitement of sharing it with family and business friends. And, even more, the thrill of seeing it listed on Amazon and receiving my first order from them.
Both Peter and Paul said a book is an amazingly effective marketing tool – and it is.
I’ve met people and gained new clients I would never have come across in a month of Sundays if they hadn’t bought my book. Some came through Amazon sales, others came through website sales, book store sales and joint venture sales.
Over the next month, amongst these daily blog posts, I’m going to share some of those writing, publishing and marketing insights with you.
So, sharpen your pencil, clear your mind and get ready to create your most powerful marketing tool. And I promise… I’ll help you make it as painless as possible.
~ Carol Bentley
technorati tags: writing a book marketing insights ask the expert
It’s not my favourite activity – in fact, I’ve always avoided it like the plague. Give me a nice pad and pen any day to write my first communication with someone and I’m as happy as a lark.
Give me a phone to call someone I don’t know – and who doesn’t know me – and you wouldn’t see me for dust!
I know, it’s the way I think about it. I suppose it’s no different to people saying they are terrified of the thought of public speaking, which I have no problem with at all!
So why am I sharing this with you?
Because I discovered someone who is extremely comfortable with cold-calling and totally understands the fears many of us hold and is able to help allay those fears.
His name? Steve Brewer.
I saw his presentation at a business seminar and was totally impressed – he even motivated me to change my view about this marketing activity; well that’s what it is isn’t it? Because, as he said, you have to create a relationship before anyone is going to buy from you and that’s what cold-calling is – the start of a relationship.
In the presentation he explored how our mindset is the key to being successful at cold-calling. Tell me, if I asked if you enjoyed cold-calling would you say “I love it!” as Steve does, or would you say “I’d do absolutely everything I can to put it off!” as I did?
Understanding this, knowing the best approach that empowers you and building on the successes you experience makes this not only a more pleasurable task but one you get more and more success from.
So what else did he share?
- Use Customer Centered Selling. Focus on the real benefits for your prospect; think of the damage you’d be doing if you didn’t make the effort to speak to him and explain how your company’s offer delivers a solution for him.
- Decide the 3 biggest things that would make an impact for him, write it on a post-it and place it on the screen in front of you – it helps keep you focused.
- Don’t regard the ‘gatekeeper’ as an obstacle. Make friends with her, ask for her help, use her name if she’s given it.
- Remember decision makers often work outside normal hours. Calling between 8am and 9am or between 5pm and 6pm may give you a better chance of getting through.
- If you get through to voicemail leave a compelling message. Steve said to copy the style of a radio advert – you want your prospect to call you back or at least be happy to take your call when you get back to him. Review your Elevator Speech – can you turn that into a radio ad style message?
- When you call you have less than 30 seconds to intrigue your prospect enough for him to allow you to continue. You must be able to answer the 3 questions he is silently asking himself:
- Who are you?
- Where are you calling from?
- Why should I stop and talk to you? (What’s in it for me?)
I know Steve only scratched the surface of the fund of valuable experience and knowledge he has. How do I know? Because I’ve got his new book and audio programme, in which he explains in plain English how to turn this spine-chilling activity into a more pleasurable experience.
Steve’s not only good at what he does; selling, but he’s also a great communicator presenting this difficult subject in a humorous and enjoyable style.
You can find out more about his programmes at http://www.stevebrewer.co.uk or visit his blog at http://www.stevebrewer.co.uk/blog
~ Carol Bentley
technorati tags: cold-calling sales Steve Brewer
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