E-Biz Booster Blog

Welcome to the nineteenth edition of email marketing tips on March 23rd, 2010.

This is the first edition of my email marketing tips blog carnival this year. I have hand-picked all entries myself and hope that I will get useful blog article submissions to the next edition.

By the way: Here is the complete archive with highlight of the best contributions with useful email marketing tips.

Today’s categories:

• copywriting
• general tips
• practical tips

Browsing Tip: If not stated otherwise all links in this email marketing tips carnival edition will open in this window. Use the back button of your browser to come back here or open links in a new window or tab.

copywriting

Sonia Simone wrote The Betty Crocker Secret to Email Marketing that Works posted at Copyblogger, saying, “You’ve heard it a thousand times: the money’s in the list. If you’re serious about getting results online, you need to build a list of people who are paying attention to you, typically an email list.”

John’s comment: A must read article! I only have one objection: “The money is not in the list! It’s in the relationship with the list.”

Doberman Dan wrote David Deutsch’s Advice To Copywriters posted at Doberman Dan - Direct Response Entrepreneur, saying, “At John Carlton’s Action Seminar David Deutsch shared several life-changing pieces of advice with me. David is one of the handful of top “A list” copywriters… the very best hired guns who write for the HUGE direct response companies like Boardroom, Agora, Rodale and Phillips.”

John’s comment: With that tip you actually can earn while you learn. Doesn’t matter if you get started with direct mail or you simply start to build an list of your own.

general tips

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Do you remember the reasons why people do not buy from you?

Here are the main three reasons:

 • They don’t want what you sell.
 • They don’t have the money.
 • They don’t trust you.

Let’s focus on the first reason for a minute or two.


They don’t want what you sell.

In many instances this can easily be translated into “They don’t understand what you sell.”

Direct response copywriters and advertising experts taught us the importance of “getting into the head of our customer”.

A piece of marketing which generates a lot of response is not a monologue, it’s a dialog between the copywriter and the reader—the prospect. A writer needs to join that conversation in the head of the reader. Therefore, the writer needs to understand the market and the prospects she is writing for very well.

Derek Sivers gave a short 6 minute talk at a
TED (↑) conference in India, in November last year. He reminds us of the many reasons why the person listening or reading might not understand what you are trying to communicate. His multicultural example makes it quite clear.

Derek Sivers: Weird, or just different?

That’s just the icing on the cake. Culture is not the only potential barrier that interferes with the meaning of your message and its perception.

“Despite the Internet being a global medium, your audience usually wears a very local head.”
~ John W. Furst

Enjoy the video and start becoming more aware of dangerous pitfalls in your communication and marketing.

Yours
John W. Furst

Just discovered this little test on Youtube and it made me think. It made me think about marketing, advertising, and copywriting.

Probably you should take the test first. It's easy, the instructions are in the video, and I promise you will learn something.

Take The Test

Okay, you might say, “I knew this of course.”

Then I will ask you, “Well, but are you using that knowledge to your advantage in business or not?”

This example demonstrates actually a lot…

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“Happy 2010”

I have recorded a short video with two tips for improving your marketing in 2010.

Update: This will work in 2011, and 2012, …

Actually I have already recorded it on December 28, but so far only had uploaded it to a private membership. But why not share it with everybody?

Here it is.

This year I will focus on improving how I use words and further build relationships.

Download the full transcript

• Two Tips For Marketing In 2010 (↑)
  [PDF file, 130 kibytes]

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You might have heard this statement very often when people are talking about their ideas, their products, their customers, …

You try to argue with them and they say,

“But I know …”

My response in such a conversation is usually something like these:

“Okay, show me!”

“Can you prove it?”

“Have you tested it?”

The last one is a very significant one for businesses and marketeers. So many of you rely on assumptions rather than facts.

It is easier, cheaper, and quicker to test ideas and concepts than most of you believe.

Stop wasting your time and money guessing.

Start testing, now!

Biased by my professional background and current playing field focused on online marketing I am particularly fond of testing

• market viability
• marketing messages
• product ideas

with direct response marketing practices.

In fact I think a lot of—especially smaller businesses—test a lot implicitly by just doing rather than putting items on a to do list or agenda for a meeting.

But still most businesses do not test enough!

The ultimate decision maker is the market, not a director, not a manager. (I am assuming fair play, no tricking, no monopoly.)

My position here is not necessarily innovative, creative in first place. It's listening and responding. There is room for innovation and creation but it usually isn't your cash flow star right away.

• Where does the money come from?
• How do you increase the ROI of your marketing efforts?

Continuous testing is the answer.

Making it a habit pays off big time.

Yours
John W. Furst

P.S.: I think, I will write more articles about testing in the near future.

Image source: Based on The orange bicycle DKNY.Com Guerilla marketing scheme, ©2008 by rollingrck/flickr. Modifications ©2009 by John W. Furst - Some rights reserved. - CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Top level copywriters preach for ages how this can be done, but it seems that

(1) Most marketing and advertising professionals are consistently ignoring that knowledge of “How To Make The Sale” and

(2) There's a steadily stream of a new generation of professionals whom this know how should be brought to attention too.

Now Christophe Morin and Patrick Renvoise have not only conserved this wisdom in their latest book Neuromarketing, but also have put it in new light.

Put the book in your amazon cart right now!

While you are waiting for your book to be delivered you can read on and answer yourself the following questions:

• Did you ever wonder why there are certain mega markets like health, fitness, make money, relationship?
  
  
• Did you ever wonder why some products sell like crazy although you say, “I never would buy that sort of …” It's not — actually it's never — about YOU.

Once you watched the video below you might not wonder anymore why certain marketing strategies and tactics that you may observe work. Smart marketers are using that secrets big time. For decades. They are making big money while you say, “I don't like that kind of marketing … ”

Well, one more time: “It's not about YOU. ”

As long as you market to people made of flesh and blood you need to do it that way.

• Technology is changing
• Trends are changing
• Styles are changing
• PEOPLE are not changing! Not in your lifetime.

Now watch this video about the absolute marketing power

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