Category — Small Business Marketing

Here are 7 ways that a trip to your local newsstand can help you improve your marketing.  You don’t even have to buy anything.

1. Market Research

Look at the titles on the newsstand. What subjects do they cover? Are there lots of magazines about bicycling? Or more about architecture?

It’s a quick way to find out if your niche is big enough and if your local area is interested (no interest, no magazines).

2. Copywriting Tip #1

A great source for writing great headlines. Magazines won’t attract readers unless they have attention-getting headlines and colorful pictures. Neither will your Web site or your blog.

3. Pricing

Newsstand prices are higher. Magazines reward regular customers with lower prices for subscriptions. Making a commitment gets you a better price. People who read regularly are more loyal and likely to continue buying from you.

You might either add extra bonuses, or offer a better price for someone who hires you on a retainer or other continuing basis.

4. Copywriting Tip #2

Simple words. Even the tech magazines keep the jargon to a minimum. The latest issue of Windows IT Pro promises an article about “Mobility and Exchange Server” (evidently a pain in the butt), rather than “Configuring Exchange Server Across Multiple Mobile OS Platforms.”

5. Risk Reversal

Risk reversal means that the customer has little (or nothing to lose).

Magazines have:

• trial issues (send in this card and get your first three issues free)
• bill me later (here’s your first issue, we’ll send you a bill only after you receive the next four issues)
• cancel any time offers

You can adapt this to your services with:

• 60-day guarantees
• a forwards and backwards guarantee (if you don’t like it, you can return it; just forward to a friend you think could use it, and tell us how we can make our product better)
• limited free trial periods (demo software for example)
• risk-free guarantees (join our forum for 30 days, if you don’t like it, cancel your membership)

6. Copywriting Tip #3

A big appealing promise, “Thinner Thighs in Thirty Days.” No magazine ever told you “Exercise Four Hours a Day, Starve Yourself, and You’ll Weigh Less.”  Put the big promise right in your headline — in big type.

7. Gifts

Magazines give away tote bags, t-shirts, and puzzles.

You can adapt this by creating a free favicon (that’s the little images you sometimes see on the left next to a URL (CNN has their logo), or a thank you note for a referral, or even doing something a little extra for a client (I just did a quick grammar fix for a client who’s not a native English speaker — he called me a “saint”, we both feel good).

What other marketing ideas can you get from a newsstand? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Image compliments of: Phillip C

Today, we’re having a roundup. No horses or cattle involved. Instead, it’s a series of posts about how to get fans, influence people, and make more money!

How to Charge More and Still Have Raving Fans

Six Ways to Build Your Company’s Fan Club

Get Your Customers to Love You

How to Charge Higher Prices in a Recession

Share your own tips in the comments.

Image: motumboe

In case you don’t know, a landing page is a special web page designed to sell something. It could be a free “sale” (such as an e-newsletter), or a paid sale (an eb0ok or an audio program, or even a physical product).

Here are ten key things that can mess up your landing page (and how to fix them).

1. Lots of other content

I just looked at a landing page with links to sub-topics. blog archives, top posts, and a store. It also featured ads for other products, some of them animated. It was confusing and distracting.

I host mine off my web site (instead of my blog), so that the navigation and distractions are minimized. You can also get a domain specifically for the landing page.

2. Sharing

Sharing is great, but it’s not your first priority for a landing page. You want people to take a specific action (buy something, or sign-up). Don’t distract them with Twitter links.

3. RSS feed (blog subscription)

Sure you want more subscribers to your blog, but this isn’t the place for it. You want to zero in on one thing – getting more people to download your book and subscribe to your newsletter.

4. What’s in it for me?

There was a short blurb about the source of the content in the book, but very little about what that content actually was. Tell readers why they will want to read what you wrote. What will they get from it?

5. Dull title

Calling your book “Dinner menus” won’t attract much interest. Instead call it “Dinner in 30 Minutes.” The title should attract attention, arouse curiosity, and encourage readers to want to learn more.

6. Too vague

Share some hints about what’s inside. Continuing with the cooking theme (I must be hungry), list some of the recipes: Chicken in Basil Cream, Almond-Coated Trout with Sage, Linguini with Pesto Sauce. Be as specific as possible (without giving everything away).

7. No authority

Be clear about your credentials to discuss and advise on the topic. In this case, it might be parent of three children, or testimonials from previous subscribers about your great recipes.

8. Ads for other products

A banner ad for car insurance won’t help you get cooking newsletter subscribers. Neither will your twitter stream or recent blog comments. Keep those things for your normal blog pages (not landing pages).

9. No clear audience

Who is this for? The likely audience for our hypothetical cooking ebook is busy moms. Talk in terms that will appeal to them.

10. No benefits

Tell them why they need this book. “Get dinner on the table fast. Delicious, quick meals your kids will actually eat. And, they’re so good, you’ll love them too. No more making separate dinners for each member of the family.”

Image thanks to: abcdz2000

I recently read a memoir (Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All, by Christina Thompson).

In the book, one of the author’s professors complained that she’d failed to say anything new about “‘the intertextual process of establishment of authority via discourses of experience or empirical observation.”

She was also guilty of “presenting empiricism ‘as a form of simplicity,’ rather than as ” ‘a metaphysically complex mode of representation.”

Apparently, this means that she’d taken the words of the writers she was studying at face value, rather than critically. It makes my head hurt.

Take Microsoft’s web site (please)

It says, “Introducing WIndows 7.  Your PC, Simplified.”

Is it?  I can barely read the text on the windows home page because it’s got white type on a background that shades from dark green (OK) on the left to yellowish-green on the right.  The type on the right is illegible.

Then, there’s a box that says compare versions (there are three). Click on that and  you get to a box that lets you compare Windows 7 to XP and 2000.  Not what I thought I was getting.  I expected to see the different versions of Windows 7.  Had to click another tab to see that.

Apple’s site is different

Apple’s web site says, “…Snow Leopard makes your Mac faster, more reliable, and easier to use.”

There are large images, and lots of white space.

It’s easy to read.  Easy to find what you want.

Yes, the technical stuff is there, but it’s presented in a way that’s easy to understand, even if you’re not a geek.

Educating your clients

Take a look at your marketing materials and your emails to your clients.  Are they full of  technical terms like CSS, standards-compliant, and HTML 4.0?

Instead of dwelling on the technical stuff, tell the client that the template they want isn’t good for search engines and will hurt his ranking on Google.

Skip the usability explanation and talk about how making his site easier to use will improve sales (confused or frustrated prospects will leave without buying anything). 

If people can’t read the text, they won’t know what the client offers.  If they can’t find products, they will be unable to buy them.

That’s language any business person can understand.

Image compliments oftowodo

Milton Kramer got a check from the US government for one cent.  Fearing there might be some obscure regulation about not cashing government checks, he went to the bank. 

He handed it to the teller,  who glanced at the endorsement, then at the front of the check, and asked, “How would you like that sir?  Heads or tails?”

It was remarkable enough for Mr. Kramer to send it in to the New York Times (which has a column with reader submissions for tales of the big, bad city).  And noteworthy enough for The Times to print it, and for me to repeat it.

Small things can make a big difference in the way your clients perceive you.  Do a little something extra.  Give them free soup. Make them smile.  Send a note for no particular reason, except that it’s National Tortilla Chip Day (which it is).  Include some chips.

You can check out Part One here.

Photo compliments of sids1/