About Jodi Kaplan

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Friday Fun: Cool Tools for Freelancers and Writers

Fountain pen nib

Image via Wikipedia

Today is Friday, so it’s time for some cool tools.

This week, we’ve got everything from a backlink checker to a way to watch your site visits in real time.

Who’s looking at you?

Google Search Console Links to Your Site – this backlink checker shows who’s linking to your website or blog.

Improve your web site sales

Website Optimizer – a Google app that helps you test landing pages, write irresistible headlines, and increase your sales

Bounceapp– use this for website design changes, editing suggestions, and feedback – make your suggestions and share them
Chartbeat – real-time analytics for your site (free trial)

Turn your blog into a book

Anthologize – a free tool for converting your blog content into a book (thank you National Endowment for the Humanities)

Got more?  Share them in the comments.  We’re due for a roundup post, I’ll link them all back to you.

Are You Marketing Backwards?

Da Vinci notebook
Image by tiny_packages via Flickr

We all know that Leonardo da Vinci wrote backwards, though nobody knows exactly why.

It may have been to keep his work secret, or because he was left-handed (and writing that way was less messy).

Doing things backwards worked for Leonardo, but it’s not a good idea for your marketing.

Is your marketing backwards?

I was just reading this blog post in the NY Times by Jay Goltz.  He owns a picture framing company and his team was doing some sales planning for next year. They were trying to think of some ways to increase business.

A brainstorming session about a hypothetical 100 people in the area who needed framing, but went elsewhere, came up with the following possibilities :

  • “5 percent used us and for some reason decided they didn’t want to come back (we have a very high repeat and referral rate).
  • 25 percent are loyal to another frame shop and have no reason to leave.
  • 20 percent consider us too expensive.
  • 50 percent don’t know about us.”

Self-focused marketing is looking the wrong way

So, they decided to increase their advertising to get the word out. Obviously, this isn’t scientific, and the author readily admits that.  However, there’s another, bigger issue.

Say they spend more on ads, radio, adwords or whatever. Now more people know they exist. Is that enough?

Do you buy from the place you heard of (along with all the other places)? Or, do you buy from the place that’s remarkable? That treats you differently or offers something the other framing stores don’t?

There are lots of places near me (this store isn’t one of them), but no particular reason to choose one over the other. It’s a commodity. I have something I’ve been meaning to frame, and when I do, I’ll just pick one.

They were focusing on themselves, not their clients

They were looking in the wrong direction. They stopped and asked themselves how to get more sales, and their solution was focused inward – we’ll advertise more!

They never asked what the customer might want, such as pickup and delivery of large paintings or faster service. Neither did they focus on building a niche – maybe focus on museums (large, high-quality frames) or hotels (mass frame purchase).

What if the experience was special or unique in some way?

Like this dry cleaner (apologies in advance for the forced commercial; Seth Godin fans look closely at 1:55).

The reason that Hangers Cleaners is doing so well is that they made it convenient and made it fun with silly signs and t-shirts. How many silly dry cleaners have you ever seen?

Marketing forwards (outwards and toward the customer has led this company to improve its revenue, while its competitors are losing money.

Which way are you marketing?

A Powerful Little Email Marketing Tool That’s Often Overlooked

postscript, one more thingThere’s a little email marketing tool that people often forget about.  Many marketing posts tend to focus on writing the perfect headline, finding the right image for your post, and how to structure your offer.

But there’s another, humble tool, that’s less flashy than a great headline or a photo or an offer, but a tool that can have a big impact on your marketing results.

It’s the P.S.

Why use a P.S. in your email marketing

It may seem like an afterthought, but the P.S. is the second place most people look at a letter or email (the first is the return address on a physical letter or the sender in an email).  With all those eyeballs going to that spot, it’s important to use that attention to your advantage.  It works on physical letters, emails, and landing pages.  People look at the headline, scan the photos, and then check the P.S.

Your offer: miniaturized

It’s a mini-summary of your marketing: your offer, an important reason to buy quickly, or another benefit of using the product.  It’s the chance to add an extra little push. focus attention, and tell readers to go  back and look at the rest of the page.

The fifth “P”

It’s sometimes called “the fifth P” (after Promise, Picture, Proof, and Push).  Marketers selling to other marketers sometimes treat it ironically (here’s that P.S. again, you know the one where we promise to make you better looking, taller, and increase your IQ to genius levels), but it still works.  If you’re pitching to a more button-down audience, play it straight.

P.S. Just one more thing (no, I couldn’t resist, could I) … I wonder if that’s why Steve Jobs did that at the end of Apple presentations.

P.P.S. I was reminded while looking for an image for this post that TV cop Lieutenant Columbo used to do the same thing.. and he always solved the case!

Image: flutterby

Creativity or Science: Which Really Matters?

David MacKenzie Ogilvy
Image via Wikipedia

I just read a discussion on LinkedIn bemoaning the “death of creative.” Nobody remembers DDB (Bill Bernbach)! Everyone quotes David Ogilvy.  David Ogilvy was “mechanistic.” All his layouts looked the same.  It’s not creative.  It’s not sexy.

Maybe not.  However, Ogilvy’s ads looked the same because he measured response to find out what worked better.  He measured because he started with The Gallup Organization (pollsters). He probably read Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins.

Sure, I love creative stuff too.  But the truth is, you sell not by being creative (that makes you memorable and may win you awards).  You sell by measuring – seeing what works, tweaking, testing.  Rinse, lather, repeat.  Which do you really want? Awards?  Or cash?

(I’ll take the cash please).

Oh, and if you’d like a free copy of Scientific Advertising, you can download it here.

Friday Fun: Tell Us Where You Are

world map

Image via Wikipedia

I was looking at my stats for the last few months and I was astonished at all the different places my visitors and readers come from.

The United States was first (OK, that makes sense), followed by India, the UK, Australia, and Canada.  But I also got traffic from Pakistan, Vietnam, Ghana, Peru, United Arab Emirates, China, Sweden, Czech Republic, and Nepal (!?).  It’s amazing.

So, where are you from?  Give yourself, your country and your city a shoutout.

Feedback

By the way, if you haven’t filled out the feedback survey, please do.  Get more of what you want (less of what you don’t).

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