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Why should I buy from you?
(and why can't I tell from your web site?)
Why do we have so much trouble articulating in copy - especially web copy - why our company is different?
A large seminar company called us recently. They were just about to launch a web page promoting a particular seminar. "Can you just look it over, and let us know what you think?"
I scanned the page - as most site visitors will. I read the headline. I looked for subheads (there weren't any). I bypassed the three chunky paragraphs of copy at the top, looking for the "why should I attend YOUR seminar" bullets. I called the company back after about 15 seconds, and asked one question:
"Why should I attend your seminar?"
"Gee, you're really putting me on the spot, aren't you?" was the marketer's answer. (yikes.) It's a wonder that we expect web visitors to figure out why they should buy from us, when even WE don't know! (Note to all marketers: the "why should they buy yours" question should be the FIRST one answered as part of your planning process for ANY marketing effort.)
After the marketer thought about my question, she came up with four great reasons why I should attend her seminar over the competition. I told her to revise her page to focus on those four great reasons. The seminar promotion launched, and the conversion from the page was higher than their normal average.
Why should I buy yours - on every page
When we looked at the four reasons for attending the company's seminar, we found that three of those reasons were reasons to choose that particular seminar provider.
Those three reasons belong on every page of their site. Why? The search engines' organic results could list any page of the site, depending on the search terms entered. Since we can't control which page might be the "entry page" for any given search engine visitor, the "why should I buy yours" message must be on each and every page.
It's just too easy for a visitor to hit the "back" button if they're not convinced to buy when they visit our site. We all need to get better at taking advantage of every visitor.
List Secrets to Boost Your Direct Mail Success
Daily's Restaurant in San Diego offers a heart-healthy menu. In addition, they sell heart-healthy supplements on a monthly shipment plan. For their first direct mail effort, they relied on a list recommendation supplied by their printing broker. Unfortunately, it was the poorest list they could have selected for their particular promotion. How did their first direct mail effort do? They virtually got ZERO response.
Where did Daily's go wrong? They didn't know enough about mailing lists to know if the list recommendation they received made sense for them. And so, they essentially wasted their entire direct mail budget. (This is not uncommon. I recently met with another mailer, all set to accept the very incomplete list recommendations of another vendor - again involving lists that weren't likely to be the highest responding lists for them.)
So what's the secret to better list selection? Know a couple of important questions to ask:
1. Who else has tested this list - and continued to use the list? This information is surprisingly easy to obtain - yet often overlooked. Unless you're selecting a list based only on demographics, you should be able to see what types of businesses have had continued success with the lists being recommended to you. Ask for this information! Look for businesses selling similar products to yours who continue to use the list - that usually means the list continues to be profitable for them.
2. What is the average size of the order or donation? For lists containing names that have made either purchases or donations, ask for the average size of the order or donation. If your product sells for $199, and the average order size on a list you're considering is $59, the list may not reach the right audience for your product.
3. If your market is nationwide, be sure to ask if there are "Response" lists available to consider. "Response" lists are lists made up of names that have responded to another offer (as compared to "Compiled" lists gathered from public information like census data). Names that have responded to an offer similar to yours will be more likely to respond again. Selecting a list using demographics (like census data) is best when you have no other option (if you're mailing within one county, for example, you will likely have to use a Compiled list).
For Dailys, we located Response lists of names that had purchased other heart-healthy products, and got rid of the prior list idea of mailing to upscale consumers age 60+. The Response lists did eight times better!
Creative Ideas: Long copy versus Short?
News from recent conferences
Zacks.com's marketing team included some big believers in long offer letters. But the company decided to test short "e-mail postcards"-email messages that pitch one item, typically with a graphic border and a short message that appears completely "above the fold" without scrolling. Prospects who clicked on the link within the email were sent to a longer-copy landing page. The postcard e-mails combined with the long landing pages delivered four times as many orders as using long e-mail messages with a link to the buy page.
Search-marketing content provider StomperNet began its launch by promoting free educational videos. Affiliates were encouraged to share the videos. The marketing thinking: "No one's going to forward a long sales letter, but if it's a video they'll forward it all day long." (We'd add a slight correction: if the video is well-done - and useful or interesting . . .)
ForeclosuresDaily.com was able to boost leads 100% on the site's free trial registration page - by adding a video, rather than lots of copy. The flash video of CEO Mike Kane touted the benefits of the service.
Comments? Have you noticed any good or bad database marketing examples lately?
Email Karen at info@SMAresource.com.