How To Instantly Be A
How To Instantly Be A
Marketing Genius
And Think Like The World’s Richest Marketing Experts
Discover The Profitable Secrets And Insights Behind The World’s Greatest Marketing Minds So You Can Bank More Money Faster! Bret Thomson I www.bretthomson.com
About The Author Bret Thomson Bret Thomson is one of Australia’s highest paid in-demand copywriter/marketing & conversion strategists, best selling author, speaker, coach and mentor to thousands. Bret has been the secret weapon behind some of the largest (and most profitable) direct response marketing campaigns in Australia. His wickedly effective ability to nail the BIG IDEA is admired and respected by even the most seasoned marketing experts. Starting out in his own direct mail business, Bret’s name and reputation skyrocketed to legendary status very quickly when he took a product that was barely making any sales at $498, and sold it for a whopping $1,498, just by enhancing the sales copy. Not only that – he outsold every other distributor (who were still struggling to sell it at the old price) by 600%... making over $125,000 in his first 5 months of his start up business... working from his kitchen table. Mal Emery says, “Bret is one of the greatest copywriting talents to ever come out of this country. A rare talent who I personally pay big dollars to write for me.” Before long, Bret was in hot demand by some of the country’s greatest marketers like Mal Emery, Andrew & Daryl Grant, Jamie McIntyre, Darren Stephens, Ari Galper, Darren Stephens, Spike Hummer, Jennie Armato, and the list goes on. He consistently creates successful multi-million dollar marketing campaigns for his clients, and is responsible for the marketing behind bringing Sir Richard Branson out to Australia. Bret is a sought after Marketing expert, freelance copywriter, master sales and conversion strategist, explosive and entertaining stage presenter and creator of one of the most popular copywriting products in Australia, “The 7 Hour Sales Letter”. Bret runs several seminars (that constantly sell-out in days) each year, and facilitates numerous coaching programs throughout Australia, combined with online mentoring to students from all over the world. To find out more, duck over to Bret’s popular and entertaining blog at: www.BretThomson.com
Disclaimer and Copyright Information
Copyright 2012 ©Bret Thomson
No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part or transmitted in any form or any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published by: Bret Thomson Po Box 2839 Burleigh BC QLD 4220 Australia While all attempts have been made to provide accurate and verifiable information in this publication, neither the author nor the publisher assumes any responsibility for errors, inaccuracies or omissions. Any slights of people or organisations are unintentional. This publication is not intended for use as a source of legal or accounting advice. Both the Author and Publisher want to stress that the information contained herein may be subject to federal, State and local laws and regulations. All users are advised to retain competent legal counsel to determine what federal, state and local laws and regulations may apply to the user’s particular business. The Publisher and Author make no representation that you will make a certain amount of money, or any money or not lose money as a result of using our products and services. The use of this publication should be based on your own due diligence and you agree that the Publisher and Author are not liable for your success or failure.
How To Instantly Be A
Marketing Genius And Think Like The Worlds Richest Marketing Experts Discover The Profitable Secrets And Insights Behind The Worlds Greatest Marketing Minds So You Can Bank More Money Faster!
Lets face it... some people just have an AMAZING mind for marketing.
Ideas, insights, revelations & concepts... they just seem to spring out of their brain quicker than most people can collect their thoughts.
So how would you like to have a razor sharp marketing mind? Sound okay? Cool, because it’s one of the most profitable skills you can have...
I’m not kidding. People will be drawn to you and literally throw money at you for your ideas.
So now I want to roll up my sleeves and show you how to “train your brain” to be your own marketing genius.
The good news is... it’s a learnt skill. Sure, natural ability helps... but it’s nothing you can’t learn, okay?
Like anything... the more you immerse yourself and study your craft, the better you’ll be in time. Nothing groundbreaking there... but it boils down to this.
All the marketing geniuses out there... all the experts you’ve met, learnt from, seen on stage, or read about... they all have one thing in common:
They’ve mastered the basics first. Just like someone who is a black belt at marital arts... they’ve just mastered the basics... the fundamentals of their craft. And that’s where you need to start.
I’m going to reveal the core pillars of understanding and mastering direct response marketing...
Once you master these core principles... everything else you learn from this day on will just build on the solid foundations of these timeless (and profitable) insights...
When I first dived into this crazy world of “Direct Response Marketing”... one of the first things I heard is, “You have to first become a great marketer before you can become a great copywriter.”
And I totally, totally agree!
As a Copywriter and a business owner, it’s more than “just” writing good copy – the right marketing strategy behind the copy is critical! Or coming up with the big idea.
We use copywriting skills to articulate that idea in the best most economical possible way. But your sales message has to be seen or heard... So It all comes down to the marketing strategy.
Let’s begin:
What Is the Definition of Marketing Anyway? The best information I’ve come across is from Dan Kennedy.
He says...
“Marketing is getting the right message to the right person via the right medium”
There are two diagrams for basic 101 Marketing that you need to imprint to your brain and memorize.
The first one is the Marketing Triangle
On the left hand side of the triangle you’ll see ‘Message’. On the right hand side of the triangle you’ll see ‘Market’. And down the bottom side of the triangle you will see ‘Media’.
If you have only two sides working for you... then your marketing will probably flop! Like any sturdy triangle, you need all three components to make your marketing successful.
Your Message Your message must have a point of difference. No point being the same as everyone else... or what we call, “ME TOO” marketing!
Your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) Finding Your Point of Difference. In the marketing world this is best summarized as the USP, which means Unique Selling Proposition. Now there are a million and one people out there teaching you how to do a USP and how important it is.
Unfortunately for the people who have been around the marketing circles for too long... they kinda overlook it, because they think it’s so commonly talked about.
But I’d be doing you an injustice if I left that out in this eclass.
If you want an idea or concept on how to be different or how to find your point of difference, try this! Again Dan Kennedy tells us to open up the Yellow Pages and look at all of the Yellow Pages ads within your industry.
Take a blank piece of paper and if any ad highlights a feature or benefit or service that they offer, then write it down.
Go thru every ad you see and if one of the ads repeats the same feature or benefit, then just put a little tick or line next to it. After a while as you go through all your ads you’ll start seeing how many people are promising the same thing, and if there’s anything different. That will give you a good basis for determining your point of difference.
Let’s talk about finding the USP …
In a nutshell, a USP is summarizing and broadcasting your No. 1 or your greatest benefit.
Taking that one step further it is ‘your greatest benefit against your competition.’ Okay, so if your greatest benefit right now is ‘opening 7 days per week’ but everyone else is open ‘7 days a week’ then that’s not really your USP because it’s not unique.
Try and keep your USP focused on ‘customer driven benefits’. Listen, if you go to Google and type in USP, you will find everyone uses two great examples.
1.
Domino’s Pizza
2.
FedEx
Now here’s a quick story …
This is the story of Domino’s pizza. Two guys were selling pizzas and the business wasn’t going to well. One of the partners threw in the towel and quit.
The other guy pleaded with him to stay but he didn’t. (BIG mistake)
The guy who stayed, came up with a whole new USP for his pizza shop – and in doing so – totally revolutionized the pizza industry as we know it.
He identified who his ‘target market’ was – and what they wanted!
His target market was Uni students. So he came up with a USP that was customer driven. Do you know what it was? Here it is...
“Fresh Hot Pizza Delivered in 30 Minutes, Guaranteed!”
He made sure his store was planted near or next to a university to make this achievable and it totally revolutionized the pizza industry.
Generally if you do a word association game with someone and say “pizza” probably 9 out of 10 people will say Domino’s. In America anyway!
The story behind the FedEx USP is that they invested millions and millions of dollars in their business. Their original USP or call cry was...
‘We have 300 Jumbo Jets and 200 Acres of Storage Ready for You’.
(Or something like that anyway...)
They launched their new concept... and nothing happened!
They were getting to the desperate stage. That USP was pretty much all about them, so they changed it to a more customer driven USP
“When It Absolutely, Positively Has To Be There Overnight”.
Now that USP turned their business around overnight because they flipped it to a ‘customer driven benefit’.
If I’m interviewing someone to write copy and I want to find out what their unique USP is I’ll ask them this question:
“Why should I choose your business product or service over your competitors?”
Now the first few attempts are very lame, to say the least. They might say “Oh, well because we are friendly... We’re trustworthy... we’ve been in business for 20 years... and we’re a family owned business”
Boooooring! No one cares about that! You need to find that Point of Difference! So I’ll push them and push them.
Here are a bunch of questions you can ask yourself and I encourage you to do it RIGHT NOW not later to help you identify your USP. Every time I’ve done this at workshops with people who have been around for a long time, they absolutely looove it! So here’s a bank of questions to answer right now!
Does your USP offer something…
Unique that your competition doesn’t offer or promote? Compelling that drives individuals to act? That you can you Guarantee? Quality? Results? Position? Is there something that the industry takes for granted?
Here’s another key thing you want to do...
Try and present your USP in as few as words as possible without diluting the comprehension or the emotion.
Go to the chopping board and see if you can get the same message across in the fewest number of words but without diluting the comprehension or the emotion attached to it.
Now here’s one of my most favorite UPS’s of all time! I’m telling you this from my memory, because when I tried to “Google” it to find the exact story... I couldn’t find it, but here we go anyway!
The story is about a salmon company who were selling white salmon in a can. Business was going well until a big competitor came in selling pink salmon. Their sales plummeted in a HUGE way. They bought in a marketing expert to try and get them out of this slump.
This guy did his research. He came back to them with a proposal. He said, “I’ll give you my answer, but as long as I can have a small % of the sales.” So they chatted about it and said “Okay we’ll hear it”. So he came back with their USP. Again this is selling white salmon and they wanted to shift the sales away from the pink salmon. So his USP for this company was,
“Enjoy Fresh White Pacific Salmon Before It Turns Pink”
Classic! What a great point of difference. So clever... The good news is... their sales went through the roof!
Okay, here’s the thing! Although that is very clever and cute, don’t try and be too clever or too cute, just for the sake of it. Why? Because that’s pretty much the ‘old school’ marketing...
You want to eliminate assumptions. It has to be clear and concise.
There are two families of marketing ……
This is very important.
There is ‘awareness marketing’ and ‘direct response marketing.’ Awareness marketing is basically people who have got huge budgets but little brains. They’ll just spend their entire marketing budget on massive ad campaigns with pretty pictures and cute little catch cry’s that do nothing!
Typically... They do not get any response from their clients at all. This is okay for companies like Coca Cola etc... but that’s a whole new conversation.
They do it because they don’t really know any different!
“Direct response marketing” – means getting your customers to respond to you directly from your ad.
This is definitely a more cost effective form of marketing for you.
You can do smaller ads, but it’s measurable and can be tracked. You can gather a response from people so you can track everything you are doing.
Finding the Right Market You can have the perfect message but if your message is being broadcast to the wrong target market then it will fall on deaf ears...
For example:
You could have an outrageous offer for a school selling surfing lessons but if the message is being broadcast to a retirement village then I don’t like your chances.
Gary Halbert once said to his audience during a seminar. Using the example of a hamburger store, “If you could choose one thing above all else, one thing that you could have that would make your hamburger store successful, what would it be?”
Some of the answers flying back were “The best chef”... “The best kitchen”... ‘The best location”... “The most delicious hamburgers”... “A stack of great testimonials”, etc...
Gary said “Yes, they are all good answers... but they are wrong!” Gary looked at them and said... “What you need is to find a starving crowd”
That’s absolutely critical. If you find a starving crowd then you are guaranteed to be successful and that’s what we are going to talk about next.
So to find your right target market you have to identify ‘who your ideal customer is. I’m talking about breaking it down to the demographics of age, where they live, their hobbies, what they buy, etc.
Here are a few key questions you wanna ask yourself which will help you understand who your ideal customer is and how to get your message to them.
1.
Where does your ideal customer hang out?
2.
Who has your customer before you? (This is absolutely critical. If you are selling wedding dresses, would it be a hair dresser? Nails? Makeup? Photography? Travel agent, etc.
3.
Who has your customer after you? Again it’s just another twist on the question to get your brain thinking outside the square
Before I became a copywriter, I threw my hat into the ring and started my own business. I ran Personal Development Workshops for kids. It was a business that was close to my heart. As a sole parent at the time I really wanted to boost kid’s self-esteem, confidence and communication skills.
So with zero business experience at all... I jumped in and gave it a go. Now, at the time I’d only just started to learn about this ‘direct response marketing’.
One of the first things I did was to find out who my ideal customer was and who had my customer before me and after me. Interestingly, kids were not my ideal customer... my real client was their parents.
If you haven’t realized, not many 7-13 year old kids really walk around with credit cards these days!
To get my message out there I contacted places where kids and parents hang out. So it could be a bowling alley, cinemas, surf shops... For parents, it could be hairdressers, nail techs, sporting complexes, etc
So here’s what I did. I created a show bag where I got all of these affiliated companies to give me free gift (or discounted) vouchers. My promise was that I was going to give them to the parents who did business with me – since we both share the same clients.
So I created a show bag worth about $1000.00 of free gifts that cost NOTHING! Well, maybe a few phone calls.
So that’s an example of understanding who has your customer before you and who will have your customer after you. And that’s also an example of crafting a compelling offer, which I’ll leave for another eClass.
Finding the Right Media
So looking at your triangle the next thing we need to look at is finding the right media. You’ve got your right message, you’ve found your audience, now you have to broadcast your USP in the right media so it’s actually seen!
Again, you can identify your target market as young surfies, but there’s no use putting an ad in the Courier Mail if they’re not going to read the courier mail. You have to make sure it’s in the right media.
Now to do that right brings us to another diagram which I learned from Mal Emery which is absolutely critical if you are going to succeed in business today. It’s called the Psychology and Math circle.
This diagram can save a lot of businesses. You need the right balance of Psychology and Maths. We’ve heard it all before. 95% of businesses fail within the first year – and the number one reason is because generally they run out of money.
Now when I say “psychology” what I mean is, coming up with the right message to the right market so you hit their trigger points, hot buttons, emotions and objections. Which is what copywriting is all about.
But the math is critical. You don’t want to spend your entire budget on an ad where it’s not gonna be seen.
A great example is the American Super bowl (Apparently the most watched sporting event in the U.S). There are companies that spend their entire yearly budget (and some), on a 30 second ad in the middle of the Super bowl. Literally multiple millions of dollars are spent this way... Unfortunately, some of them aren’t around anymore.
A lot of people do what everyone else is doing. Pamphlet drops are a classic example. Or flyers under the car window... Sure it’s cheap. But sometimes you can spend $1000’s of dollars and only get one or two responses and if you’re selling a book that’s only $25 then a couple of thousand dollars on advertising... well, The MATH doesn’t work. And if the math doesn’t work, you’ll go broke faster, get it?
With emotional direct response marketing you can test small.
Here’s another quick story ….
Several years ago I was in a network marketing business. We were selling health related products. I identified that I needed to get in front of some health savvy people.
There was a health expo running nearby where I lived. I enquired about booking a stand or a booth, but it was going to coast anywhere from $1000 to $3,000.
At the time I didn’t have that money (the math wouldn’t work) - but I knew I had to be there because that’s where my target market was “hanging out”. So I got clever. I went and got a name badge engraved for myself – It looked very professional.
I dressed in a uniform that looked like I was from an organization. Next I bought a ticket like everyone else. I had a stack of pamphlets and a clip board that I had printed up for my own business.
I went up to someone else’s booth (a personal trainer) and say ‘Hi, my name is Bret Thomson, I’m promoting this product and I think I could help you get more contacts for your business. I will be up the other end of the expo talking about my business but I’d be happy to hand out your business cards and spread the word for you at the other end of the expo.
This guy goes ‘Sure, why not’. So I grabbed a stack of his business cards and headed off to the other end of the expo and stood at the top of the stairs,
I greeted every person who came up or down the stairs, saying, “Hi, how are you going, can I ask you a quick question?” I’d then hand them my stuff and I’d talk to them about what I was doing. If they were interested I would put their name on my clipboard along with their phone number!
Anyway, everyone in the booths was watching me because I was getting waaaay more people than they were. They were just sitting behind their booth waiting until someone came to them! I just kinda jumped in and started talking to everyone. I was getting a stack of names and numbers! It was fantastic.
Then one of the officials came up and said “Excuse me mate. Where are you from?” So I handed him one of the Personal Trainer’s business cards.
I said, “He’s got a booth down the other end. Here’s his card.” He looked at it and went “Oh okay no worries.” And they left me there all day!!!
Now here’s the thing …. I could have borrowed money and got a booth for $2000 – BUT – it would’ve taken me a looooong time to recoup my money – and I probably would’ve gone broke. So you’ve got to be creative and make sure the MATH is right. Don’t be stupid.
The good thing with direct response marketing is... like I’ve said before... test small. You can test small and as you make a profit from that, use the profit and put a bigger ad in. BUT don’t blow your budget! It’s normal to have higher expectations too. It’s human nature, or maybe it’s just me, but sometimes I see the world in rosy colored glasses. It’s totally normal to expect your ad to do better, so don’t beat yourself up if that doesn’t happen.
So again, you can send the right message to the right market, but if it’s in the wrong media, for example, if you have a $19 eBook but you spend $10,000 on a T.V ad, then the math isn’t right! It’s going to take you a looong looong time to get your money back!
So again … start small, test small and then build up.
The question you can ask yourself for the right media is what magazines or newspapers do they read? Or what websites do they commonly visit.
Just in closing. Ways to become better in marketing.
Read! Read! Read! Simple as that. Immersion is the key.
I recommend anything from Dan Kennedy or Jay Abraham. Can’t go wrong!
Also, listen to audios, go to seminars and just immerse yourself in this stuff.
AND ABOVE ALL observe. Observe what other people are doing because if someone comes up with a great hook twist or angle for their business... see if you can use that idea and implement that in to your own industry.
FINAL MESSAGE: If you want to become a marketing expert overnight... Ask you clients what they want. Simple. Don’t assume.
Think big. Be different. Bret Thomson
If you haven’t already, check out my blog for more cool hints & tips www.bretthomon.com
Marketing Genius
And Think Like The World’s Richest Marketing Experts
Discover The Profitable Secrets And Insights Behind The World’s Greatest Marketing Minds So You Can Bank More Money Faster! Bret Thomson I www.bretthomson.com
About The Author Bret Thomson Bret Thomson is one of Australia’s highest paid in-demand copywriter/marketing & conversion strategists, best selling author, speaker, coach and mentor to thousands. Bret has been the secret weapon behind some of the largest (and most profitable) direct response marketing campaigns in Australia. His wickedly effective ability to nail the BIG IDEA is admired and respected by even the most seasoned marketing experts. Starting out in his own direct mail business, Bret’s name and reputation skyrocketed to legendary status very quickly when he took a product that was barely making any sales at $498, and sold it for a whopping $1,498, just by enhancing the sales copy. Not only that – he outsold every other distributor (who were still struggling to sell it at the old price) by 600%... making over $125,000 in his first 5 months of his start up business... working from his kitchen table. Mal Emery says, “Bret is one of the greatest copywriting talents to ever come out of this country. A rare talent who I personally pay big dollars to write for me.” Before long, Bret was in hot demand by some of the country’s greatest marketers like Mal Emery, Andrew & Daryl Grant, Jamie McIntyre, Darren Stephens, Ari Galper, Darren Stephens, Spike Hummer, Jennie Armato, and the list goes on. He consistently creates successful multi-million dollar marketing campaigns for his clients, and is responsible for the marketing behind bringing Sir Richard Branson out to Australia. Bret is a sought after Marketing expert, freelance copywriter, master sales and conversion strategist, explosive and entertaining stage presenter and creator of one of the most popular copywriting products in Australia, “The 7 Hour Sales Letter”. Bret runs several seminars (that constantly sell-out in days) each year, and facilitates numerous coaching programs throughout Australia, combined with online mentoring to students from all over the world. To find out more, duck over to Bret’s popular and entertaining blog at: www.BretThomson.com
Disclaimer and Copyright Information
Copyright 2012 ©Bret Thomson
No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part or transmitted in any form or any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published by: Bret Thomson Po Box 2839 Burleigh BC QLD 4220 Australia While all attempts have been made to provide accurate and verifiable information in this publication, neither the author nor the publisher assumes any responsibility for errors, inaccuracies or omissions. Any slights of people or organisations are unintentional. This publication is not intended for use as a source of legal or accounting advice. Both the Author and Publisher want to stress that the information contained herein may be subject to federal, State and local laws and regulations. All users are advised to retain competent legal counsel to determine what federal, state and local laws and regulations may apply to the user’s particular business. The Publisher and Author make no representation that you will make a certain amount of money, or any money or not lose money as a result of using our products and services. The use of this publication should be based on your own due diligence and you agree that the Publisher and Author are not liable for your success or failure.
How To Instantly Be A
Marketing Genius And Think Like The Worlds Richest Marketing Experts Discover The Profitable Secrets And Insights Behind The Worlds Greatest Marketing Minds So You Can Bank More Money Faster!
Lets face it... some people just have an AMAZING mind for marketing.
Ideas, insights, revelations & concepts... they just seem to spring out of their brain quicker than most people can collect their thoughts.
So how would you like to have a razor sharp marketing mind? Sound okay? Cool, because it’s one of the most profitable skills you can have...
I’m not kidding. People will be drawn to you and literally throw money at you for your ideas.
So now I want to roll up my sleeves and show you how to “train your brain” to be your own marketing genius.
The good news is... it’s a learnt skill. Sure, natural ability helps... but it’s nothing you can’t learn, okay?
Like anything... the more you immerse yourself and study your craft, the better you’ll be in time. Nothing groundbreaking there... but it boils down to this.
All the marketing geniuses out there... all the experts you’ve met, learnt from, seen on stage, or read about... they all have one thing in common:
They’ve mastered the basics first. Just like someone who is a black belt at marital arts... they’ve just mastered the basics... the fundamentals of their craft. And that’s where you need to start.
I’m going to reveal the core pillars of understanding and mastering direct response marketing...
Once you master these core principles... everything else you learn from this day on will just build on the solid foundations of these timeless (and profitable) insights...
When I first dived into this crazy world of “Direct Response Marketing”... one of the first things I heard is, “You have to first become a great marketer before you can become a great copywriter.”
And I totally, totally agree!
As a Copywriter and a business owner, it’s more than “just” writing good copy – the right marketing strategy behind the copy is critical! Or coming up with the big idea.
We use copywriting skills to articulate that idea in the best most economical possible way. But your sales message has to be seen or heard... So It all comes down to the marketing strategy.
Let’s begin:
What Is the Definition of Marketing Anyway? The best information I’ve come across is from Dan Kennedy.
He says...
“Marketing is getting the right message to the right person via the right medium”
There are two diagrams for basic 101 Marketing that you need to imprint to your brain and memorize.
The first one is the Marketing Triangle
On the left hand side of the triangle you’ll see ‘Message’. On the right hand side of the triangle you’ll see ‘Market’. And down the bottom side of the triangle you will see ‘Media’.
If you have only two sides working for you... then your marketing will probably flop! Like any sturdy triangle, you need all three components to make your marketing successful.
Your Message Your message must have a point of difference. No point being the same as everyone else... or what we call, “ME TOO” marketing!
Your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) Finding Your Point of Difference. In the marketing world this is best summarized as the USP, which means Unique Selling Proposition. Now there are a million and one people out there teaching you how to do a USP and how important it is.
Unfortunately for the people who have been around the marketing circles for too long... they kinda overlook it, because they think it’s so commonly talked about.
But I’d be doing you an injustice if I left that out in this eclass.
If you want an idea or concept on how to be different or how to find your point of difference, try this! Again Dan Kennedy tells us to open up the Yellow Pages and look at all of the Yellow Pages ads within your industry.
Take a blank piece of paper and if any ad highlights a feature or benefit or service that they offer, then write it down.
Go thru every ad you see and if one of the ads repeats the same feature or benefit, then just put a little tick or line next to it. After a while as you go through all your ads you’ll start seeing how many people are promising the same thing, and if there’s anything different. That will give you a good basis for determining your point of difference.
Let’s talk about finding the USP …
In a nutshell, a USP is summarizing and broadcasting your No. 1 or your greatest benefit.
Taking that one step further it is ‘your greatest benefit against your competition.’ Okay, so if your greatest benefit right now is ‘opening 7 days per week’ but everyone else is open ‘7 days a week’ then that’s not really your USP because it’s not unique.
Try and keep your USP focused on ‘customer driven benefits’. Listen, if you go to Google and type in USP, you will find everyone uses two great examples.
1.
Domino’s Pizza
2.
FedEx
Now here’s a quick story …
This is the story of Domino’s pizza. Two guys were selling pizzas and the business wasn’t going to well. One of the partners threw in the towel and quit.
The other guy pleaded with him to stay but he didn’t. (BIG mistake)
The guy who stayed, came up with a whole new USP for his pizza shop – and in doing so – totally revolutionized the pizza industry as we know it.
He identified who his ‘target market’ was – and what they wanted!
His target market was Uni students. So he came up with a USP that was customer driven. Do you know what it was? Here it is...
“Fresh Hot Pizza Delivered in 30 Minutes, Guaranteed!”
He made sure his store was planted near or next to a university to make this achievable and it totally revolutionized the pizza industry.
Generally if you do a word association game with someone and say “pizza” probably 9 out of 10 people will say Domino’s. In America anyway!
The story behind the FedEx USP is that they invested millions and millions of dollars in their business. Their original USP or call cry was...
‘We have 300 Jumbo Jets and 200 Acres of Storage Ready for You’.
(Or something like that anyway...)
They launched their new concept... and nothing happened!
They were getting to the desperate stage. That USP was pretty much all about them, so they changed it to a more customer driven USP
“When It Absolutely, Positively Has To Be There Overnight”.
Now that USP turned their business around overnight because they flipped it to a ‘customer driven benefit’.
If I’m interviewing someone to write copy and I want to find out what their unique USP is I’ll ask them this question:
“Why should I choose your business product or service over your competitors?”
Now the first few attempts are very lame, to say the least. They might say “Oh, well because we are friendly... We’re trustworthy... we’ve been in business for 20 years... and we’re a family owned business”
Boooooring! No one cares about that! You need to find that Point of Difference! So I’ll push them and push them.
Here are a bunch of questions you can ask yourself and I encourage you to do it RIGHT NOW not later to help you identify your USP. Every time I’ve done this at workshops with people who have been around for a long time, they absolutely looove it! So here’s a bank of questions to answer right now!
Does your USP offer something…
Unique that your competition doesn’t offer or promote? Compelling that drives individuals to act? That you can you Guarantee? Quality? Results? Position? Is there something that the industry takes for granted?
Here’s another key thing you want to do...
Try and present your USP in as few as words as possible without diluting the comprehension or the emotion.
Go to the chopping board and see if you can get the same message across in the fewest number of words but without diluting the comprehension or the emotion attached to it.
Now here’s one of my most favorite UPS’s of all time! I’m telling you this from my memory, because when I tried to “Google” it to find the exact story... I couldn’t find it, but here we go anyway!
The story is about a salmon company who were selling white salmon in a can. Business was going well until a big competitor came in selling pink salmon. Their sales plummeted in a HUGE way. They bought in a marketing expert to try and get them out of this slump.
This guy did his research. He came back to them with a proposal. He said, “I’ll give you my answer, but as long as I can have a small % of the sales.” So they chatted about it and said “Okay we’ll hear it”. So he came back with their USP. Again this is selling white salmon and they wanted to shift the sales away from the pink salmon. So his USP for this company was,
“Enjoy Fresh White Pacific Salmon Before It Turns Pink”
Classic! What a great point of difference. So clever... The good news is... their sales went through the roof!
Okay, here’s the thing! Although that is very clever and cute, don’t try and be too clever or too cute, just for the sake of it. Why? Because that’s pretty much the ‘old school’ marketing...
You want to eliminate assumptions. It has to be clear and concise.
There are two families of marketing ……
This is very important.
There is ‘awareness marketing’ and ‘direct response marketing.’ Awareness marketing is basically people who have got huge budgets but little brains. They’ll just spend their entire marketing budget on massive ad campaigns with pretty pictures and cute little catch cry’s that do nothing!
Typically... They do not get any response from their clients at all. This is okay for companies like Coca Cola etc... but that’s a whole new conversation.
They do it because they don’t really know any different!
“Direct response marketing” – means getting your customers to respond to you directly from your ad.
This is definitely a more cost effective form of marketing for you.
You can do smaller ads, but it’s measurable and can be tracked. You can gather a response from people so you can track everything you are doing.
Finding the Right Market You can have the perfect message but if your message is being broadcast to the wrong target market then it will fall on deaf ears...
For example:
You could have an outrageous offer for a school selling surfing lessons but if the message is being broadcast to a retirement village then I don’t like your chances.
Gary Halbert once said to his audience during a seminar. Using the example of a hamburger store, “If you could choose one thing above all else, one thing that you could have that would make your hamburger store successful, what would it be?”
Some of the answers flying back were “The best chef”... “The best kitchen”... ‘The best location”... “The most delicious hamburgers”... “A stack of great testimonials”, etc...
Gary said “Yes, they are all good answers... but they are wrong!” Gary looked at them and said... “What you need is to find a starving crowd”
That’s absolutely critical. If you find a starving crowd then you are guaranteed to be successful and that’s what we are going to talk about next.
So to find your right target market you have to identify ‘who your ideal customer is. I’m talking about breaking it down to the demographics of age, where they live, their hobbies, what they buy, etc.
Here are a few key questions you wanna ask yourself which will help you understand who your ideal customer is and how to get your message to them.
1.
Where does your ideal customer hang out?
2.
Who has your customer before you? (This is absolutely critical. If you are selling wedding dresses, would it be a hair dresser? Nails? Makeup? Photography? Travel agent, etc.
3.
Who has your customer after you? Again it’s just another twist on the question to get your brain thinking outside the square
Before I became a copywriter, I threw my hat into the ring and started my own business. I ran Personal Development Workshops for kids. It was a business that was close to my heart. As a sole parent at the time I really wanted to boost kid’s self-esteem, confidence and communication skills.
So with zero business experience at all... I jumped in and gave it a go. Now, at the time I’d only just started to learn about this ‘direct response marketing’.
One of the first things I did was to find out who my ideal customer was and who had my customer before me and after me. Interestingly, kids were not my ideal customer... my real client was their parents.
If you haven’t realized, not many 7-13 year old kids really walk around with credit cards these days!
To get my message out there I contacted places where kids and parents hang out. So it could be a bowling alley, cinemas, surf shops... For parents, it could be hairdressers, nail techs, sporting complexes, etc
So here’s what I did. I created a show bag where I got all of these affiliated companies to give me free gift (or discounted) vouchers. My promise was that I was going to give them to the parents who did business with me – since we both share the same clients.
So I created a show bag worth about $1000.00 of free gifts that cost NOTHING! Well, maybe a few phone calls.
So that’s an example of understanding who has your customer before you and who will have your customer after you. And that’s also an example of crafting a compelling offer, which I’ll leave for another eClass.
Finding the Right Media
So looking at your triangle the next thing we need to look at is finding the right media. You’ve got your right message, you’ve found your audience, now you have to broadcast your USP in the right media so it’s actually seen!
Again, you can identify your target market as young surfies, but there’s no use putting an ad in the Courier Mail if they’re not going to read the courier mail. You have to make sure it’s in the right media.
Now to do that right brings us to another diagram which I learned from Mal Emery which is absolutely critical if you are going to succeed in business today. It’s called the Psychology and Math circle.
This diagram can save a lot of businesses. You need the right balance of Psychology and Maths. We’ve heard it all before. 95% of businesses fail within the first year – and the number one reason is because generally they run out of money.
Now when I say “psychology” what I mean is, coming up with the right message to the right market so you hit their trigger points, hot buttons, emotions and objections. Which is what copywriting is all about.
But the math is critical. You don’t want to spend your entire budget on an ad where it’s not gonna be seen.
A great example is the American Super bowl (Apparently the most watched sporting event in the U.S). There are companies that spend their entire yearly budget (and some), on a 30 second ad in the middle of the Super bowl. Literally multiple millions of dollars are spent this way... Unfortunately, some of them aren’t around anymore.
A lot of people do what everyone else is doing. Pamphlet drops are a classic example. Or flyers under the car window... Sure it’s cheap. But sometimes you can spend $1000’s of dollars and only get one or two responses and if you’re selling a book that’s only $25 then a couple of thousand dollars on advertising... well, The MATH doesn’t work. And if the math doesn’t work, you’ll go broke faster, get it?
With emotional direct response marketing you can test small.
Here’s another quick story ….
Several years ago I was in a network marketing business. We were selling health related products. I identified that I needed to get in front of some health savvy people.
There was a health expo running nearby where I lived. I enquired about booking a stand or a booth, but it was going to coast anywhere from $1000 to $3,000.
At the time I didn’t have that money (the math wouldn’t work) - but I knew I had to be there because that’s where my target market was “hanging out”. So I got clever. I went and got a name badge engraved for myself – It looked very professional.
I dressed in a uniform that looked like I was from an organization. Next I bought a ticket like everyone else. I had a stack of pamphlets and a clip board that I had printed up for my own business.
I went up to someone else’s booth (a personal trainer) and say ‘Hi, my name is Bret Thomson, I’m promoting this product and I think I could help you get more contacts for your business. I will be up the other end of the expo talking about my business but I’d be happy to hand out your business cards and spread the word for you at the other end of the expo.
This guy goes ‘Sure, why not’. So I grabbed a stack of his business cards and headed off to the other end of the expo and stood at the top of the stairs,
I greeted every person who came up or down the stairs, saying, “Hi, how are you going, can I ask you a quick question?” I’d then hand them my stuff and I’d talk to them about what I was doing. If they were interested I would put their name on my clipboard along with their phone number!
Anyway, everyone in the booths was watching me because I was getting waaaay more people than they were. They were just sitting behind their booth waiting until someone came to them! I just kinda jumped in and started talking to everyone. I was getting a stack of names and numbers! It was fantastic.
Then one of the officials came up and said “Excuse me mate. Where are you from?” So I handed him one of the Personal Trainer’s business cards.
I said, “He’s got a booth down the other end. Here’s his card.” He looked at it and went “Oh okay no worries.” And they left me there all day!!!
Now here’s the thing …. I could have borrowed money and got a booth for $2000 – BUT – it would’ve taken me a looooong time to recoup my money – and I probably would’ve gone broke. So you’ve got to be creative and make sure the MATH is right. Don’t be stupid.
The good thing with direct response marketing is... like I’ve said before... test small. You can test small and as you make a profit from that, use the profit and put a bigger ad in. BUT don’t blow your budget! It’s normal to have higher expectations too. It’s human nature, or maybe it’s just me, but sometimes I see the world in rosy colored glasses. It’s totally normal to expect your ad to do better, so don’t beat yourself up if that doesn’t happen.
So again, you can send the right message to the right market, but if it’s in the wrong media, for example, if you have a $19 eBook but you spend $10,000 on a T.V ad, then the math isn’t right! It’s going to take you a looong looong time to get your money back!
So again … start small, test small and then build up.
The question you can ask yourself for the right media is what magazines or newspapers do they read? Or what websites do they commonly visit.
Just in closing. Ways to become better in marketing.
Read! Read! Read! Simple as that. Immersion is the key.
I recommend anything from Dan Kennedy or Jay Abraham. Can’t go wrong!
Also, listen to audios, go to seminars and just immerse yourself in this stuff.
AND ABOVE ALL observe. Observe what other people are doing because if someone comes up with a great hook twist or angle for their business... see if you can use that idea and implement that in to your own industry.
FINAL MESSAGE: If you want to become a marketing expert overnight... Ask you clients what they want. Simple. Don’t assume.
Think big. Be different. Bret Thomson
If you haven’t already, check out my blog for more cool hints & tips www.bretthomon.com
