1. You Create Authority and Credibility
By consistently posting relevant articles you are seen as an authority who knows their stuff in your industry.
10 Things Never to Do in Your Advertising: Number 2
Never Cut Back on Customer Experience
6 Things to Include in Your “About Us” Page
10 Things Never to Do in Your Advertising: Number 1
Break a Pattern to Gain Customer Attention
"The most basic way to get someone's attention is this: Break a pattern. Humans adapt incredibly quickly to consistent patterns. Consistent sensory stimulation makes us tune out: Think of the hum of an air-conditioner, or traffic noise, or the smell of a candle, or the sight of a bookshelf. We may become consciously aware of these things only when something changes: The air-conditioner shuts off. Your spouse rearranges the books." - Made to Stick by Chip & Dan Heath
A radio station targeting over 50's initially refused to play one of my client ads.
The reason?
The ad used a young female voice.
The ad didn’t fit the station’s sound. All ads were voiced by mature males.
In other words, it would stand out.
The female voice was a simple way to break a pattern and gain listener's attention.
What patterns can you break?
(By Craig Arthur, Wizard of Ads Australia.)
3 Ways to Create Free Time in Business
Do you want more free time? Then you must buy it. Free time is never free.
As a Business owner there are only three ways you can buy free time in business:
1. Work fewer hours. Learn to say no. You'll have more free time immediately.
Cost: Lost opportunities, reduced income.
2. Develop systems, methods and procedures that save time.
Cost: Time and money spent in developing those systems, methods and procedures.
3. Recruit, hire, train and manage other people to do your work for you.
Cost: Time and money spent in recruiting, hiring, training and managing.
Free time is never free.
Which option or options will you select?
(By Roy H. Williams, The Wizard of Ads @ MondayMorningMemo.com. To spend a day with Roy is a $7,500 investment plus travel time. Another option is to sign up for Wizard of Ads Live. At $1,440 for a one year license it is an amazing bargain. )
Uncover the Problem Before You Buy a Solution
A headache is a symptom of a problem. It is not the problem.
Lack of customers is a symptom of a problem.
Bad word of mouth on social media is a symptom of a problem.
As a business owner, you are saturated with solutions offered by media salespeople, SEO experts, advertising consultants, sales trainers, smartphone app gurus, and social media swamis.
However, until they know the problem, they are not qualified to offer a solution.
Until you know the problem, you should not buy a solution.
As a business owner you’re on the inside looking out. You don’t see your business like customers see it.
So the first step to uncovering your problem is to seek an outsider's perspective.
Give them permission to call “bullshit” on what they see.
Once they uncover the problem, then you can seek a solution.
Use GLUE to Make Your Customers Stick
Disney’s “cast members” use a two-step process to create a memorable experience for customers.
1) Determine customer expectation.
2) Find a way to take it just one notch higher. Or, as Walt himself said, “plus it up.”
Disney adds surprise and delight to the customer experience.
Disney calls it GLUE: Give Little Unexpected Extras.
Whether a purchase is big or little, the magic of customer delight comes from little extras. Delivering them is a simple matter of including GLUE in every experience.
GLUE is not part of the exchange of money for service or product.
Add GLUE before and it simply becomes an expected part of the transaction.
Never use GLUE in your advertising. It takes away the surprise and delight.
GLUE creates repeat customers and word of mouth.
Budget for GLUE in your marketing.
Where do you put the GLUE in your business?
(Adapted from, "Delight your customers by covering them with GLUE" by Wizard of Ads Partner Charlie Moger. On an AWESOME scale of 1 to 10, Charlie is a 10, plus one notch higher. Add GLUE to your business. Hire Charlie to help you get it right.)
Tim's Thing & Media Should be Your Last Consideration When Building a Business
When building a business, until you know your Goals & Values, you cannot come up with a strategic plan.
Tim's Thing...
Your strategic plan – based on those goals and values – dictates how you treat the customer (including your most important customers – your employees).
Your values, your goals, your plan, and your customer experience determine your message.
Finally, then and only then, once you’ve got a solid foundation of values, goals, a strategic plan, a delightful customer experience, and a strong message, should you begin thinking about choosing media.
A business built upon a solid foundation, is a business built for success.
Media simply amplifies that success.
(Adapted from "So, Here’s The Thing*…" by Wizard of Ads partner Tim Miles. Tim is currently documenting the foundations to success process (which he currently calls 'The Thing') and needs your help to name it. You can read the full story and watch the video here. At the end you can submit your name for 'The Thing'. The prize is an iPad Mini. Or bacon. Or stuff.)
A Question to Ask Prospective Employees
An old man sitting at a well on the outskirts of a desert town.
A stranger approached and asked, “I am thinking of moving to this town, what are the people like?”
The old man answered, “What were the people like in the last town you lived?”
“Rude, uncooperative, selfish”, the reply.
“You’ll find the people in this town the same,” said the old man.
Another stranger approached the old man and asked the question, “I am thinking of moving to this town, what are the people like?”
The old man answered, “What were the people like in the last town you lived?”
“Helpful, friendly, considerate”, the reply.
“You’ll find the people in this town the same,” said the old man.
Ask prospective employees, “What were the people like at the last place you worked?”
The answer says much about the person before you.
(By Craig Arthur, Wizard of Ads Australia. The above story of the old man is my interpretation of an article I read over 30 years ago. The source is forgotten, but the message remains fresh.)
Make Sure You Design a Positive Last Impression
I went to a restaurant called Alley Cat. This is the last impression I had before leaving the restaurant, and by golly it was cool.
The box contained a magnifying glass (good for older customers), calculator (good for groups splitting the bill), the bill and lollies (an unexpected bonus).
This was a unique and fun way to give the bill and it totally blew my socks off.
This last gesture created a much bigger lasting impression than the food, service and atmosphere did.
Traditionally the bill signifies the end of the transaction, which is often where businesses let their guard down, and feel their responsibility to their customer finishes.
Alley Cat uses the bill presentation as another chance to impress.
Positive last impressions create word of mouth, happy customers and repeat business.
Does your business leave a positive last impression?
(Adapted from "It’s the little things that count…" by Wizard of Ads Partner Sarah Ripley. Sarah is currently based in Belfast, Northern Ireland and specialises in Customer Delight and Customer Retention.)
How Many Points Per Ad?
There’s a symbolic story about a copywriter.
His client wanted to discuss 13 points to include in their ad.
The copywriter pulls out a board that’s been turned into a bed of nails — a prop that grabs every eye in the room.
He then takes a frypan and slams it down onto the bed of nails. Lifting the frypan up, he shows everyone the dimples.
Then writer-boy produces a board featuring a single, imposing spike potruding from it. He slams the fry pan down, forcing the spike clean through it, creating a half-inch hole big enough to stare through.
At this point, our intrepid copywriter says, “Now, how many points do you want in your ad?”
As it is with ads, so it is with campaigns: one point, goal, or objective per campaign is always best.
(Adapted from the article "Effective Advertising" by Wizard of Ads Partner, Jeff Sexton. Jeff is available for speaking and consulting.)
Confirmation Bias
Jeff says I have a confirmation bias, a strong attraction to information that reinforces my convictions and helps me prove my point.
That makes sense. I'm an ad writer.
Does anyone really want their ad writer to be unbiased? The job of the ad writer is to:
1. discover a persuasive perspective, and
2. develop a distinctly memorable voice for the ad campaign, and
3. find supporting evidence that clearly demonstrates your company and your products to be the only intelligent choices in your category.
Yes, I have a confirmation bias. It makes me a living.
(From the article, Voices of Articles by best selling author Roy H. Williams, The Wizard of Ads)
What are Unleveraged Assets?
An Unleveraged Asset is an existing resource or hidden strength that is not currently being used to maximum effect.
These existing but unused assets could take the form of stories, abilities, relationships, guarantees, return policy's, services or products.
Sometimes they are like an elephant in the room, sometimes you must dig a little deeper.
An Unleveraged Asset is normally something that seems insignificant to you, but to potential customers it can be a tipping point between them buying from you rather than one of your competitors.
You can use these previously Unleveraged Assets to great effect in your marketing or you can combine them to make new products and services.
Wizard of Ads
Uncovery
You cannot have successful marketing without strategic planning.
You cannot have successful strategic planning without successful Uncovery.
There’s a reason why we call it “Uncovery.”
Some companies believe marketing is about being creative and making something up – that’s what agencies are for.
Smart companies realize successful marketing conveys something that is real or true.
The purpose of Uncovery is to make visible, uncover, or disclose important truths about your company and your customers.
Bryan & Jeffrey Eisenberg, Wizard of Ads Partners
Why You Need Help to Write Your Ads
In my 30 years as an ad writer, I’ve come to the conclusion that most people believe that everyone else thinks like they do. This has led to more disasters in advertising than you can possibly imagine.
Think about your business, the thing you do for a living.
Here is my promise: you can be certain that people outside your business DON’T think about it like you do.
Consequently, you are uniquely unqualified to write ads for your business. You know too much about it. More importantly, you care too much about it. This causes you to assume that everyone else cares, or should care as much as you do.
But they don’t. So do the right thing; hire an experienced professional to craft your ads for you.
Roy H. Williams, The Wizard of Ads
Connect the Dots
“Customers connect dots about your business – even when no natural line exists. They invent them.” - Tim Miles, Wizard of Ads Partner
“In the airline industry, if passengers see coffee stains on the food tray, they assume the engine maintenance isn’t done right.” – Donald Burr, former CEO of People Express Airlines, May 5, 2002
What dots are your customers connecting?
(Craig Arthur, Wizard of Ads Partner at WizardOfAdsAustralia)
Don't Let a Committee Edit Your Ads
No committee will ever approve a great ad, they’ll castrate it. But in their minds they’re merely “tweaking it, softening it, taking off the offensive edge.”
Subject a talented ad writer to a lot of second-guessing and he or she will reward you with ads that all your friends and family are guaranteed to like.
Congratulations.
Now you’ve got ads that sound exactly like everyone else’s.
Roy H. Williams
I Don’t Believe the Customer is Always Right
Sometimes, the customer is uniquely unqualified to assess what’s best for them.
Where Empathy Comes In
That said, an expert at empathy understands the delicate bridge connecting what the customer wants and what the customer needs.
Put yourself in the customer’s shoes, then use the benefit of your expertise to simply show them what they’d really prefer to do if they had your knowledge and skill set.
- Tim Miles, Wizard of Ads Partner
From the article, The 7 Facets of Kindness: Shareworthy Service.