by marrygoever
Writing a good sales letter is a skill that every marketer needs to acquire.
Writing effective copy is not rocket science so if you can speak good English, you can create copy that converts. Writing in a conversational tone works best for convincing your prospects to buy your product which is your job as a copywriter. Keep reading to learn how you can create copy that conveys your sales message without taking away the essence of your product.
Essentially; when you develop the necessary configuration of your copy, you should get in the flow and have every component in place. If you lack a fierce flow, then it will be challenging for your prospects to figure out what it is that you’re saying. Your copy should move along without a hitch from one subheading to another and from paragraph to paragraph. Therefore each and every factor that you include with your copy has one simple task – to continue this flow and to move your prospects toward a call to action.
Next, don’t waste too much time trying to make your first draft the best.
Focus on creating the first draft as quickly as possible instead. When you start writing your copy, you may have two distinct voices in your head; one that gets your creative juices flowing, and the other that keeps telling you to edit the sentence you wrote. If you try to listen to both voices, it will be really difficult to finish your copy. Forget about making your first draft perfect and just write it as quickly as possible.
Lastly, identify your target market’s burning need and determine how your product meets that particular need. When people are facing a problem, they usually buy products to help, so basically they have a need that must be addressed. The stronger the person’s need, the better the response you will get, which increases your chances of making a sale. The article above has made it clear that writing good copy takes both time and effort and won’t happen in an instant. If your ultimate goal is to become an expert in copy writing it’s important that you utilize the above information as soon as possible. The more practice you get the more improved your skills will become.?
by: Anandrahi
We are now on the wave of a new revolution of doing business with our telephones. Still rarest of the rare people really know the art of using the telephone as a very effective business tool. Even big companies falter and become a nuisance for those people whom they call. Here are 6 valuable tips.
1. Give Valuable Information
Everyone wants to receive a call that has some valuable information for them. Therefore it is better to make a list of the people to be called and try to know their needs and tastes. By this way you can make your call valuable for him or her. In case you are unable to know about all customers, learn the needs of a particular segment of customers. This is the first shot of winning your marketing game.
2. Good News
Your call must be like good news that lifts the spirit of a person. Frame your sentences in a way so that they sound like good news.
Never call whenever you are in an aggressive or bad mood. At that time you are more likely to convey bad news or good news in a negative way. Cheer yourself up before speaking.
3. Appreciate Them
Never leave an opportunity to appreciate the listener. It is human nature to enjoy appreciation. If you are unable to insert praising words in the beginning or in the middle of your talk, do insert them while ending a call. People will definitely like to hear from you again.
4. Convey Good Wishes
Make a listener feel that he or she is something special and do wish him/her a bright career and happiness in life. People of all races everyehere love good wishes. Wishes are like beautiful flowers.
5. Fix a Call Quota
You need to fix a call quota. If you are making three or four calls in a day – fix it to 10 calls. If you are making ten calls a day double it to 20. Such a habit helps you to make more calls. But be careful all the calls are constructive and carefully planned calls. As unnecessary calls are a waste of time. Make a list of the people in the morning whom you are going to make calls to.
6. Don’t be a Nuisance
Call in a very polite manner taking in consideration above five tips. Don’t call a person too much to disturb his routine or mood. See the mood of a person and call again after a few days with good news. If the listener was seeming disturbed make a second call only after 30 days.
by Susanne Cervenka
Volunteerism can do more than fill time when a job is elusive; it can lead to a job.
Of course, volunteering gives participants an altruistic experience of helping their neighbors, which in turn can provide a much-needed morale boost for people who may otherwise be feeling down about a job loss.
But director Margie Collins of the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program in Cocao,Florida, a federal program with more than a half million volunteers nationwide, said it also helps job seekers network, develop new skills and explore new career options.
“It allows them to explore interests of theirs that they were never able to pursue because of employment conflicts. Certainly they increase their contacts and remain connected to the work force,” she said. “And it fills up gaps in their resumes.”
Employment experts and psychologists say it is critical to keep a worklike routine not just for finding a job, but dealing with the loss.
Collins joined with other agencies here to form a loose partnership, called Volunteer For Your Career.
Together, they are encouraging job seekers to consider volunteerism to fill the employment gap.
by: Ellie Mirman
Tip #1: Communicate Campaigns
Let your sales team know what campaigns are running and who they’re going to. The sales reps are the ones connecting with your leads and having conversations, so they need to know any background information of what information their leads are downloading.
Tip #2: Provide Soundbites
As the marketer, you know your content and offers infinitely better than anyone in your organization. Help your sales team understand how to take a lead opt-in to a productive conversation by providing follow up soundbites. If someone downloaded a particular ebook, what does that say about a particular problem they’re trying to solve? At HubSpot, our marketing team sends an email every week to the sales team about what are this week’s active campaigns with a one-line description of what’s included and a follow up soundbite that helps start off that sales conversation.
Tip #3: Share Results
Sometimes we assume that sales doesn’t care about what campaigns the marketing team is doing. Just get me my leads, and more of them, we might think they’re going to say. But sharing results is a key step to ensure smarketing success. Sharing the results of your campaigns – what worked and what didn’t – can give you and your sales team insight into which topics are hot in your industry at that moment. These learnings may surprise you! Also, sharing your results shows that you are constantly experimenting with different campaigns, learning and improving. Marketing is not a set-it-and-forget-it job and you should share what you’re learning through your marketing experiments.
Tip #4: Score Leads
If you’re doing all the right things, you’re generating lots of leads for your sales team. But your sales team has limited time and they need help prioritizing their time. You know best which lead behaviors are good buying signals, and you should use this intelligence to score your leads so that your sales team can first focus on your hottest leads. In the meantime you can continue to nurture your lower quality leads so that they become even more sales-ready.
Tip #5: Ask for Feedback
Gather qualitative feedback from your sales team by asking what they thought of lead quality and lead quantity. This helps you understand the perception of the leads you’re generating for your sales team and may also give you early indicators of marketing campaign results. As a marketer, you typically have to wait for the data to come in – total response rates, conversion rates, etc. But a sales person can call their first 5 leads and if all 5 are terrible or if all 5 are fantastic, you can get some early indicators of your campaign’s success to react even faster.
These steps are essential to establish a productive and open relationship between sales and marketing. And you need to rely on each other to make effective use of each other’s time. Unless you’re a fully ecommerce company with no sales team, these two roles need to work together to achieve business goals.
How are you doing on the steps above? Do you have any other tips to ensure smarketing (sales and marketing) success?
By Tim Feran
The Columbus Dispatch
Mobile shopping apps have become a very big deal for retailers — many analysts say it’s the biggest trend of the year — as merchants look for ways to convert browsers into buyers.
Macy’s, for example, is rolling out its Macy’s Backstage Pass as a way to nurture the fashionista instinct in consumers.
A mixture of entertainment and fashion, the Backstage Pass delivers 30-second films to users’ cell phones. The films, which aim to provide fashion inspiration and advice, are the latest step in ever-more-direct contact with consumers, said Martine Reardon, Macy’s executive vice president of marketing.
Through smart phones, “We are connecting and engaging our customer in a personal way,” she said.
After viewing the initial video feature, users will have the option to select longer content that will take them further “backstage” with each designer or brand. Designers featured in the videos include Bobbi Brown, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Tommy Hilfiger, Michael Kors, Greg Norman, Rachel Roy, Martha Stewart and Madonna.
The videos are accessible on Macy’s Facebook page, via Macy’s YouTube Channel and by texting certain words to MACYS (62297). Shoppers can find those words in the stores, but they also can access the videos by using their smart phones to scan what are called QR codes.
QR — or Quick Response — codes emerged in the mid-1990s in Japan. The two-dimensional bar codes are readable by cameras on smart phones that are running a QR-reader application.
As it became apparent that smart phones would become mini-computers, retailers realized that consumers would quickly move past online e-commerce to mobile commerce on their handheld devices. By the middle of 2010, eBay reported that selling via smart phones and tablet computers was its fastest-growing business.
“I think this particular campaign is where we’re seeing a lot of retailers test the waters,” said Steve Agganis, vice president of interactive services at Columbus-based SBC Advertising. “All retailers are scrambling to make sure they have mobile experiences that at least let you shop. This is building on that transaction platform, bringing value to the customer.”
While Macy’s won’t be able to directly attribute sales of fashion items to the new app, “it’s pretty amazing,” Agganis said. “Good marketers know who their customers are, and they build on that so that they know the mobile device their customers will use. It’s a dynamic space — there are no books on this yet. It’s integrating the brick and mortar experience with the ‘traditional’ online experience. We’re seeing QR codes, mobile websites, integration of social media. There is a lot of testing going on among retailers.”
In many ways, he said, such mobile apps as Macy’s are “almost re-imagining the shopping experience. You can go into Best Buy right now and the QR code will snap up reviews of a product — and then you can make your purchase decision right there.”