handprop
10-27-2009, 01:04 AM
Dave, here is the response I promised you
Politics is a 24 hour job. I received a call a couple of hours ago from a Senator that was invited to a Q&A on a nationally syndicated network in the morning and he was freaking out because he kept drawing a blank about what message he was trying to push.
My job was to help him stay on task, not always an easy with politicians! And what I did to help him is the same thing I recommend for people trying to develop copy for any printed media or advertisement. After all, a conversation is no different than a billboard right?
The conversation lasted two hours and the first half hour was me listening to him ramble on and talk in circles. After the thirty minutes were up I had him go through an exercise that I have used since I first began my quest into marketing and is proven successful.
What I did was ask him to list five items that he felt occupied the minds of voters regardless of what party they belong to. Like most people he had a hard time with the list because he was having an information overload from a very rough day. I knew where this was going and also knew I had to settle him down and just stay with the basics. The list was as follows.
1. Voters think the government can’t be trusted
2. Voters are scared of the future of America
3. Voters think the government does nothing but waste money
4. Voters see the economy getting worse
5. Voters are sick of parties fighting and not solving problems
Now comes the fun part! I asked him to come up with some potential questions that might be asked but I had a series of rules that had to be followed. The rules are simple, I ask the question and he responds with the answer but the answer can only come out of the list of 5 factors voters are concerned about. This may appear simple but try it and you will find it’s very challenging.
The first couple rounds was a mess and we both laughed but after some practice I was able to force him to stay on task and the answers came out like pure poetry.
You might be a little confused so I’ll explain why this is a very good exercise. But instead of explaining my exercise with the Senator I’ll apply it to Daves website for his plumbing company, that way he can walk away with something he can use to increase how effective his site can be.
Dave…..You responded in the other thread buy explaining how your website already has the typical bullet points like honesty, dependability, etc. Try the above exercise and list 5 items that are always on the consumers mind when they think of calling a plumber. You already have listed a couple items like honesty, dependability, etc. so it should be rather easy.
One point I want to make before we continue is be careful because what you feel the 5 items are could be different than the 5 items your customers feel are important. (This is why surveys can be important if designed correctly)
Anyhow, develop the list and write it down on paper. Then go on your website and look at every detail of the content, this includes photos, links, headlines, etc.
Now imagine you have to re-develop all the content but this time every stitch of it revolves around the list of 5. You can see how hard this exercise can be.
The only point I’m making is we all know how important it is to connect on a personal level with our customers but yet somehow people fail at developing content that revolves around the customer. When a customer clicks on a link to your website what comes up? Do you have a headline that pulls them in? Does the content of the headline revolve around the list of 5? Or how about the body of the front page, you expect people to read it but do they? If a customer just sees the same old garbage as every other site that’s a real problem. But what if you developed content that revolved around the list of five? If done correctly the customer will WANT to keep reading.
The list of five doesn’t just apply to a website either. What about a yellow page advertisement? The goal is to always strike an emotional cord with the potential customer and if it’s designed without the list of five it will be a sub-standard marketing vehicle.
But what about the offer I talked about earlier? Once we have the list of 5 we can now craft a great offer right? It’s easy because the list keeps us on track and we can take this information and create an offer that’s very targeted to the customers thinking process. The offer is beyond the scope of this thread but put some thought into what I wrote and you will find your business will be forced to stay on track. If you can get a handle on this all types of advertising becomes a walk in the park.
Hope this helps
Mike
Politics is a 24 hour job. I received a call a couple of hours ago from a Senator that was invited to a Q&A on a nationally syndicated network in the morning and he was freaking out because he kept drawing a blank about what message he was trying to push.
My job was to help him stay on task, not always an easy with politicians! And what I did to help him is the same thing I recommend for people trying to develop copy for any printed media or advertisement. After all, a conversation is no different than a billboard right?
The conversation lasted two hours and the first half hour was me listening to him ramble on and talk in circles. After the thirty minutes were up I had him go through an exercise that I have used since I first began my quest into marketing and is proven successful.
What I did was ask him to list five items that he felt occupied the minds of voters regardless of what party they belong to. Like most people he had a hard time with the list because he was having an information overload from a very rough day. I knew where this was going and also knew I had to settle him down and just stay with the basics. The list was as follows.
1. Voters think the government can’t be trusted
2. Voters are scared of the future of America
3. Voters think the government does nothing but waste money
4. Voters see the economy getting worse
5. Voters are sick of parties fighting and not solving problems
Now comes the fun part! I asked him to come up with some potential questions that might be asked but I had a series of rules that had to be followed. The rules are simple, I ask the question and he responds with the answer but the answer can only come out of the list of 5 factors voters are concerned about. This may appear simple but try it and you will find it’s very challenging.
The first couple rounds was a mess and we both laughed but after some practice I was able to force him to stay on task and the answers came out like pure poetry.
You might be a little confused so I’ll explain why this is a very good exercise. But instead of explaining my exercise with the Senator I’ll apply it to Daves website for his plumbing company, that way he can walk away with something he can use to increase how effective his site can be.
Dave…..You responded in the other thread buy explaining how your website already has the typical bullet points like honesty, dependability, etc. Try the above exercise and list 5 items that are always on the consumers mind when they think of calling a plumber. You already have listed a couple items like honesty, dependability, etc. so it should be rather easy.
One point I want to make before we continue is be careful because what you feel the 5 items are could be different than the 5 items your customers feel are important. (This is why surveys can be important if designed correctly)
Anyhow, develop the list and write it down on paper. Then go on your website and look at every detail of the content, this includes photos, links, headlines, etc.
Now imagine you have to re-develop all the content but this time every stitch of it revolves around the list of 5. You can see how hard this exercise can be.
The only point I’m making is we all know how important it is to connect on a personal level with our customers but yet somehow people fail at developing content that revolves around the customer. When a customer clicks on a link to your website what comes up? Do you have a headline that pulls them in? Does the content of the headline revolve around the list of 5? Or how about the body of the front page, you expect people to read it but do they? If a customer just sees the same old garbage as every other site that’s a real problem. But what if you developed content that revolved around the list of five? If done correctly the customer will WANT to keep reading.
The list of five doesn’t just apply to a website either. What about a yellow page advertisement? The goal is to always strike an emotional cord with the potential customer and if it’s designed without the list of five it will be a sub-standard marketing vehicle.
But what about the offer I talked about earlier? Once we have the list of 5 we can now craft a great offer right? It’s easy because the list keeps us on track and we can take this information and create an offer that’s very targeted to the customers thinking process. The offer is beyond the scope of this thread but put some thought into what I wrote and you will find your business will be forced to stay on track. If you can get a handle on this all types of advertising becomes a walk in the park.
Hope this helps
Mike