About Jodi Kaplan

How to Fix Your USP and Why a Niche Isn’t Enough

Posted on July 1, 2010 by Jodi Kaplan

Image via Wikipedia

What are you emphasizing in your marketing? That you’re the best? That you are the cheapest? Or that you specialize in web sites for startups?

What, if anything, makes you stand out? Do you have a USP (unique selling proposition)?

A niche means you concentrate on one particular sector or demographic (pregnant women, or SEO web copywriters).

A USP means two things. First, it’s something you do that fits a specific need your customers have. Second, it stands out in your customers’ (and prospects) minds as unique and special.

If you don’t have a USP, you’ll need to create one.

How a market niche USP works

Insomnia Cookies in NY promises fresh, hot cookies delivered to your door in the middle of the night (just the thing for college students and night owls with the late night munchies).

There are dozens of laundromats here, but there’s one near me that’s open 24/7 (so I guess you do your laundry and then order some cookies to eat while you wait).

Both of those places have unique selling propositions; and the laundromat has managed to find one in a really crowded marketplace. They’re not just selling clean clothes, they are selling convenience.

What are you really selling?

Someone on Marketing Profs asked how they can tell their web site visitors that they’re the only vendor on the Knot (wedding) website that is located in Arizona and specializes in lighting. The other vendors all do lots of other things, including provide DJs, flowers, and decorations.

Right track

The lighting vendor is on the right track (if you’ll pardon the pun). He’s focusing on doing one thing and doing it well. He’s obviously learned how to find a unique market niche. He does lighting. For weddings. Period. Not concerts, not conferences, just weddings.

Wrong USP

The USP needs to be fixed. He’s emphasizing something (being the only Knot lighting vendor in his state) that doesn’t matter to his clients. They aren’t going to care that he is the only vendor who does nothing but lighting unless he gives them a specific reason that his single focus makes him a better choice.

What does matter to a bride is looking good on her wedding day. What if instead of talking about himself (being the only vendor), he talked about what the bride would get.

“Look like a movie star on your wedding day.”

“Look so good Angelina will be jealous.”

He’s not really selling lighting. He’s selling glamor. What if he emphasized that instead? He’d have something that the other wedding vendors couldn’t duplicate (because they are trying to do too many other things besides lighting).

Do you know what you’re really selling? What do your clients really want? To look like movie stars? To save time? To have less stress?

How do you give that to them? And how do you do it in a way that makes you stand out from the competition?

Not sure? Ask in the comments.

Cool tools tomorrow!

Free Ebook: Earn More Money with Niche Marketing

Posted on June 30, 2010 by Jodi Kaplan

Would you like to earn more, even if you have fewer clients?

Get the details from my new ebook: Earn More Money with Niche Marketing.

The book will show you how to:

earn more money with fewer clients
select a “target” market and build a tribe
estimate the size of your market
determine if your market will support you (before you start)

It’s absolutely free. No sign-up or registration required. Feel free to read it, share it, and pass it along. Get your copy here.

10 Sure-Fire Headline Formulas That Work Every Time

Link

Test tubes and other recipients in chemistry lab

Image by Horia Varlan via Flickr

Do you know how to write a great headline? Believe it or not there are sure-fire headline formulas that will grab your readers’ attention every time.

Why does this matter?

Because without a great headline, nobody will read the rest of your ad or your article. The headline is the first thing people see. Write a great one and you’ll pull them in to read more. Write something dull and you’ll scare them away before they’ve read a single word.

And, of course, the fewer people who read your article or ad or post the fewer subscribers you’ll have and the lower your sales will be. Not good.

It can be hard to be brilliant every day though. For those times, when your brain is stuck in neutral, try one of these never-fail headlines.

1. Write a headline with a contradiction

Eat More and Still Lose Weight

Heat Your Home (Without a Furnace)

Something that doesn’t seem to make sense will attract more attention. We think that if we eat more, we’ll gain weight, not lose it. Since most people want to eat more, they’ll read on.

2. Make an exclusive offer

Dinner with Michael Jordan (Diamond Card Exclusive)

Something that people can’t get elsewhere. Of course, a “diamond card” (which I just made up), also promises exclusivity. Not everyone can have one. Especially if there are real diamonds in it.

Pick an offer that that your audience actually wants though. Don’t promise a free colonoscopy.

3. Offer an irresistible guarantee

Create Websites 5 Times Faster – or Your Money Back

This promises a big benefit (get more done in less time) and also reduces the perceived risk in buying the product. If you don’t like it or get the results you want, you get a refund.

4. Make something hard look easy

The Lazy Employer’s Guide to Hiring

Take something that’s difficult and promise to show readers how to do it without a lot of hard work.

5. An unmissable value

$300 in Free Gifts with Your Order

Not only do you get what you are actually paying for, you get an extra $300 worth of gifts. This is the thinking behind those informercials that make a double offer (not one, but two sets of ginzu knives). Pile on the value, so people would be crazy not to take you up on it.

6. Help the reader get something they want

You Can Have a Dazzling Smile

Get the Best Price for Your Used Car

Show readers how they can be more attractive or earn more money, or save time.

7. Promise inside information

Little Known Ways to Lower Your Taxes

This offers both secret tips and a clear benefit. Nobody wants to pay more.

8. Appeal to their curiosity

20 Tricks You Didn’t Know Your Dog Could Do

You can’t find out what the tricks are unless you keep reading.

9. Ask a question

Do You Make These Common Marketing Mistakes?

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

Make sure it’s a question that they can’t answer right away. Or, a question that poses a challenge. People may think they know what the common mistakes are, or they may have no idea. The only way to find out what the mistakes are, or the error in the picture, is to keep reading (sense a pattern here?).

10. Answer questions

7 Questions to Ask Before You Hire a Copywriter

If someone is hiring a copywriter, and isn’t sure how the process works, this headline promises to help sort that all out, and avoid making the wrong choice.

How to Make Your Software Registration Process Foolproof

This one promises more signups, and fewer people abandoning your demo or purchasing process. It’s appealing because it offers the promise of more sales and higher revenue.

Want Clients? You’ll Need This

Posted on June 28, 2010 by Jodi Kaplan

Image by Tom Riddle via Flickr

The motto “In God We Trust” is on all U.S. currency. It’s fairly common to see signs (especially in New York) that add “all others pay cash.” This is because building trust is essential in business relationships.

Store owners don’t know everyone who walks in off the street. So, they don’t trust them.

Without trust, we just don’t want to take the risk of losing money, or being tricked in some way.

Why is trust important?

That same store owner may change his/her mind if you come in every week (or every day). Once they know and recognize you, they may throw in a extra piece of fruit, or tell you not to worry if you’re a couple of pennies short in change.

The difference is that they now trust you.

Last week, responding to my post (Why People Buy) Josh said,

I believe that there is now a stark difference between those smart copywriters who know just what to say and those friends we have in our personal networks who make a genuine recommendation to help us.

The problem with social networks is that brands are in effect trying to become that trusted friend immediately. They think that because you’ve given them permission to broadcast on your Facebook feed, they are in!

Build trust before you sell

Josh is absolutely right. Many brands try to be your “friend” in situations in which the word “friend” is not terribly accurate. Your real friends are people, not corporations.

Recommendations are great if they come from someone you know well enough and long enough to trust, not the social media manager for a big company. The most effective recommendations are from friendships in “meat space,” or a well-respected authority in the field (Brian Clark on copywriting or Chris Brogan on social media).

Big brands often use celebrities for this reason, hoping that the “glow” from the star will extend to their razors or shampoo or cars.

But do you really know Tiger Woods? Apparently, we didn’t.

Trust leads to more sales

If your readers/fans/subscribers trust you, and trust the recommendations you make, yes, they will buy. Not only because of smart copywriting (though that certainly helps, says the smart copywriter), but because of trust and because of a relationship. If you skip the hard work of building the relationship (and lose the trust) you won’t get the sale.

Before you start friending or becoming a fan, stop and think. Are you starting a conversation, or making a big social media marketing mistake?

Share your thoughts

Do you trust brands on social networks? Would you “friend” Tide or Charmin? What about a less-familiar brand?

The Second Most Powerful Word in Marketing

Posted on June 25, 2010 by Jodi Kaplan

Image by Library of Congress via Flickr

Yesterday’s copywriting tip discussed the most powerful word in copywriting.

Today’s copywriting tip is the second most powerful word in copywriting.

It’s probably not a word you’re expecting. It’s not something we normally associate with marketing.

Usually, the sort of power words that come to mind with marketing or copywriting are words such as “new” or “free.”

Those are both important, but they’re not nearly as effective as this word.

What is this super word?

It’s “because.”

In fact, research has shown people will respond to it, even if you use it badly.

Here’s what one study found (from The New York Times)

In the 1970’s and 1980’s] research psychologist Dr. Ellen] Langer studied what happened when she stationed someone at a copy machine in a busy graduate school office. When someone stepped up and began copying, Dr. Langer’s plant would come up to the person and interrupt, asking to butt in and make copies…[P]ermission was granted almost 95 percent of the time if the person stepping up to interrupt not only asked, ”May I use the copy machine?” but added a reason, ”because I’m in a rush.”

That seems to make sense. People heard the reason and decided they were willing to step aside for a moment. What was odd, Dr. Langer found, was that if the interrupter asked, ”Can I use the machine?” and added a meaningless phrase, ”because I have to make copies,” the people at the machine also stepped aside nearly 95 percent of the time.”

If it works that well used poorly, think of the results if you use it well! Tell people why they should buy. And know why people buy from you.

I’m not a psychologist, but I think it works because it’s a story (even if it’s not a good one). We want to know why things are happening, and as long as it’s not a big hassle, we’ll go along.

What do you think?