Walt Goshert

Is your marketing flat?

Many local businesses “play it safe” with same and lame marketing.

Here’s Daniel Levis on the Two Emotions you MUST trigger to put a spark into your local marketing efforts.

Do You Market to These Emotions Online?

What can Mother Theresa and Charles Schwab teach you about marketing online?

Certainly these two historical figures saw two vastly different worlds in their lifetimes.

Mother Theresa spent hers with the poorest of the poor, while Charles Schwab spent his with the richest of the rich.

But look at these two famous quotes.

“There is more hunger in this world for love and appreciation than for bread” Mother Teresa

“I have yet to find a man, however exalted his station, who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than under a spirit of criticism.” Charles Schwab

Do you see the underlying thread?

Regardless of who you are selling to, from one end of the social spectrum to the other, and everywhere in between, human beings are looking for appreciation, and approval, above all else.

Show your customers how the use of your product yields a sense of importance, and recognition, or how it helps them avoid embarrassment and indifference, and you will make many more sales than if you simply describe the qualities of your product.

But it takes a certain kind of selling to pull this off.

While your advertising can speak directly about the features of your product, and explain what those features do for your customer, it is much more difficult to transfer emotional meaning with the same directness.

Yet it is the emotions that trigger desire in the buyer. As an advertiser, it is your job to bring those desires that already exist in the buyers mind to the fore. To stir them to life, so to speak. And the best way to do that is through indirection.

By wrapping your sales message up in a story, you give your prospect permission to imagine. You’re not telling them how they should feel. They instinctively project themselves into the tale. They can’t help themselves. It’s what we all learnt to do as little children.

Remember this.

Without imagination, there is no desire, and without desire, there is no action.

When someone comes to your website and reads your copy, do they see themselves using your product? Do they see themselves living the results of using it? Even more importantly, do they see others approving of them, and appreciating them for having done so?

That may sound like a strange way of thinking about a product, but let me give you an example of what I’m talking about.

Let’s say you’re selling a diet plan. How do you use indirection and storytelling to trigger your prospect’s desire for it?

You might talk to your overweight potential client like this…
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Imagine yourself walking briskly along a hot, sandy, sun drenched beach. An azure haze hangs over the skyline as the warm wind caresses your bare skin.

As you stride confidently to your favorite spot, your breathing is normal, and your body relaxed. You smile to yourself, knowing you could walk for miles like this without becoming fatigued.

The beach is busy, and as you glance around you catch the eye of someone of the opposite sex. They smile at you, and you smile back.
You walk assuredly into the water, and swim a couple of hundred yards out and back with ease. Lying back on your towel you can’t help but think…

‘Life Has Never Been So Good’

OK, now stop dreaming, and answer this question. Did you have a little trouble seeing yourself in that picture? If so, then take heart.

A slim, sexy figure and abundant self-esteem can now be yours, thanks to the amazingly simple and easy to follow…
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Do you see how indirection works?

You don’t have to come right out and tell your potential client people will appreciate them, and approve of them as a result of what your product can do. You don’t have to tell them they’ll no longer feel embarrassed by their weight in social situations.

The story does it for you.

Now you’ve got their undivided attention, and a real chance to prove your product is unique and that it works.

Photo Credit:Flickr

Here’s Daniel Levis with 8 Tips to improve your marketing and convert more visitors to your website to clients.

8 Timeless Tips for Making Your
Web Marketing More Persuasive …

The first thing you need to do is draw attention to your marketing.

Spend at least as much time worrying about the headline of each web page you create as you do worrying about the body copy.

Brainstorm at least five headlines, pick the one most likely to stop your prospects dead in their tracks (tip, the only way to know for sure is to test), and use the rest of them in the body of the message.

Curiosity Killed The Cat - It’s human nature to be curious. One of the most effective ways to get your sales message consumed is to throw a little mystery. Mystery, mixed with relevant benefit is essential to creating a powerful headline that drags people into your copy. But that’s not all …

It also helps to drive your prospect deeper into the body of the message. Remember, the deeper your readers go into your copy, the more difficult it will be for them to STOP reading it.

It doesn’t hurt to tell a little bit about what your offer isn’t, to build up the suspense, and help drive your reader further down the page.

Tell A Story - In 1919, a Russian immigrant named Max Sackheim, stumbled upon a fascinating discovery. He had been hired by the Sherwin Cody School of English to come up with a mail order advertisement, and his original headline read, “Do You Make Mistakes In English”?

The ad didn’t pull.

By adding one magic little word to the headline, Max was able to make the very same ad produce amazing results. The ad became so profitable that it ran for over 40 years straight, when Max changed the headline to, “Do You Make These Mistakes In English”?

People’s curiosity got the better of them. They just couldn’t resist reading Max’s advertisement. They were all wondering if they might be making “these” mistakes in English. Max was able to slip right under the buyer’s natural resistance to being sold, and suck them right into the advertisement.

Story telling has the same effect.

You Can Never Over Educate - Nobody ever bought a hammer, because they wanted a hammer. What they wanted was a bunch of nails tapped home just right. Sequential e-mail follow up is ideal for showing your prospects how to achieve their goals with your product.

Remember, the more comfortable your prospects are about the “How To” of using your product or service to solve their problem, the more confidence they’ll have in your ability and willingness to really help them. One of the most effective things you can do with your autoresponder, is to offer free courses and tutorials that show your prospects how to use your products to get the results they’re looking for.

It’s the ultimate soft sell, and very effective!

Warts & All- It’s all about trust. That’s why follow up is so essential. Your prospects need to be exposed an average of 7 to 9 times before succumbing to your seduction.

Pointing out the imperfections of your product can go a long way toward building that trust. You don’t necessarily have to slam your product, but giving the straight goods on the pitfalls the buyer might encounter when using such products, and helping them to avoid them, demonstrates your honesty, and openness.

It’s like showing the front of your hands in a face-to-face encounter.

Be Specific - Details, exact numbers, and vivid descriptions worked into your copy are worth their weight in gold, because they’re far more believable than generalities. When you make a claim, back it up with facts and figures.

Your prospects are both naturally skeptical, and hungry for truth.

Don’t Be Shy About Objections - Every product has natural objections. Don’t be afraid to address them.

Read your copy after being away from it for a while, and at some point in the message you’ll feel them creeping in. That’s the point when you add something like, “OK, you’re probably thinking _________. I can understand why you might feel that way. Many others who looked at this product felt just the same way, until they found out about ________.”

You need to come up with a list of reasons why your prospect would want to buy your product or service, and also the reasons why not.

The Fear of Loss Is Greater Than The Desire For Gain - Often the fear of losing something, sometimes even something that we do not yet have, is a stronger motivator than our desire for gain.

The fear of missing out on a special price or promotion is a good example of this.

Don’t we all want what we can’t have? Work hard to find ways to make your product scarce, or at least make your offer scarce, by offering it for a limited time.

Justify Your Offer - People know that you’re in business to make a profit, and that you don’t give things away out of the goodness of your heart.

When they see a sale, or a special price, or a bonus offer, the wheels naturally start turning in the back of their heads. What’s the catch? While it’s our emotions that truly motivate us, logic does have a nasty habit of getting in the way.

When you are open with your prospects about the reason why you’re offering them a special deal, it’s amazing how easily they’ll accept your reasoning, and abandon their resistance. The same applies to giving a legitimate reason why your special offer absolutely expires on a specific date.

So there you have it. Eight timeless persuasion tips, revealed.

About the Author
Daniel Levis is a top marketing consultant, direct response copywrter, and one of the leading web conversion experts operating online today. He is also the originator of the 5R Web Conversion System (TM), a strategic process for engineering enhanced Internet profits. Click here to watch a complimentary 5R System training video. (Affiliate links)

Photo Credit: Flickr