Improving your advertisements chances of success

A very bright and energetic psychologist asked me to look at the flyer she was making that advertised a seminar she was creating. Here is the flyer she sent me.



It is clear, accurate, concise and direct; four qualities that must be in good writing. But, its chances of attracting or compelling people to come are diminished because of the following:
1. The first words are about her. Your ad must be about them. Never about you.
2. It lacks emotion. People buy with emotions, not intellect.
3. To get people emotionally involved with your advertisement, you’ve got to tell them what benefits they’ll get from your product or service.
4. It is tombstoning.

Solve for these four things and you’ve greatly increased your chances of success. Notice I didn't say "guaranteed to make sales." With all advertisements we use correct principles to improve our chances, try the ad, see if people respond, and then tweak some more. But always using principles that have been proven best over the centuries. (Read in my book, Marketing Singers, the section where I show that Chaucer taught them 800 years ago as did Tsun Tsu.)

To help the ad, I asked her to respond to these questions:
1. What is the single greatest benefit I will get by attending?
2. Tell me two or three more ways I'll be helped by attending.

It is good to write as many benefits down and then organize them from the most to least important.

She wrote back:
“Good question-- Single greatest benefit?

“Attendees will receive information that has potential to create renewed enthusiasm and hope for dealing with life challenges.

“How would someone be helped by attending?

1. Identify patterns in thought and behavior processes that are holding them back from a happier life
2. Learn new and healthier ways to respond to those challenges”


I then wrote back:

“Then the headline should be something like:

“Renew your enthusiasm and hope for life
* Discover your patterns and thoughts keeping you from a happier life
* Learn ways to respond to challenges for a Happier and healthier life

Notice a couple of things:
1. I got the word “your” in immediately. It’s best if it is the first word, but fine as the 2nd.
2. Shorten the first benefit into a concise headline that was all benefit for them.
3. Took the other benefits and turned them into sub-heads.

She was concerned that I’d used “happier” twice. A good concern. I did it on purpose. It focuses on what we all want. You can never get enough happiness. It is a risk to do this, but, it evokes such strong feelings that it is worth it. Just make sure you have a reason for using a word twice.

Once we had the words down, then we gave the words to my wife Elizabeth to create the graphic layout and images that fit the words. Do NOT do this in reverse as so many do. They create a neat graphic image and then make up words to fit. Not very effective. Do your writing and thinking first.

Here’s the final flyer.



Notice that the sunrise evokes “a new day” and is next to the word “hope”. Liz also included Debbie's picture. She’s a very attractive lady and the photo makes her very “approachable” or friendly, yet she’s still professional. Remember that people like buying from people far more than from businesses. General Foods knew that when they created “Betty Crocker”. There never was a Betty Crocker but they needed a face for their company. It makes the company more approachable.

Notice as well that the final words in the ad are tweaked from the first words I sent to her as possible headlines. Keep reworking the headline until the last possible second of the deadline.

In summary, don’t use a tombstone approach to any advertisement. If you don’t understand tombstoning, get my book and read all about it. It is the most common way people advertise and the greatest reason they don’t succeed.

If you’re put off by the fact the book is seemingly written for singers, then see the last post about the cat and refrigerator about how to find similarities in different universes. Ironically, you’ll find, while the book is written to singers, I use mostly non-singer illustrations to force singers to understand that they have a product and the same rules that apply to non-singers apply to singers and vice versa.

Coupons -- tackey or tantalizing

When Dante had Tantalus reach up for some fruit of the tree or stoop down to drink from the pool of water, both nutrients receded and he was out of luck.

You get to tantalize people with an ethical bribe that brings them more value than they expected when you use a coupon or something like it.

Coupons are great for any product because they are one of the least expensive ways of advertising. Yes, you're giving away some of the price of the product, but it just costs you so much less.

Advertising can be the most expensive part of a company's budget. For a singer or artist, it can far exceed all of the artisit's income just to get someone to notice them.

A coupon lets someone sample your wares. If your product, service, talent is good, they'll likely want more.

Advertising can only get someone to try you once -- only product quality can get them to use you a second time.

Examine my Credibility Matrix. It's the key.



Advertising in box 1 and 2 is fairly cheap. People know you or your product. You have credibility. Advertising 3 and 4 is extremely expensive. You have nearly zero credibility.

Your job is to move people from boxes 3 and 4 up to boxes 1 and 2 as cheaply as possible. Once they arrive in 1 or 2, then you can spend money attracting more sales.

Coupons allow you to move quickly and cheaply.

For the cost of printing, you can reach people with a great deal. They hate to throw great deals away. The longer your coupon sits in front of them, the more they keep seeing you. Your photo may need to be on the coupon or a picture of the product. You've just bought, for the cost of printing, advertising space.

Coupons can be for:
1. Free samples, lessons, special report, free information, etc.
2. Buy one get one free
3. Percentage off -- the higher the %, the better the response
4. A trade-in
5. To feature the person in one of your events
6. Entering a drawing, raffle, etc.
7. Someone else's product that you've made arrangements to give away free for them.

You can also:
1. Email coupons or mail them.
2. Ask friends to distribute them.
3. Pass them out at other events where the audience demographics is similar.
4. Give them to a radio or TV station to give out in their promotions as a gift.
5. Include them with other coupons that are mailed.
6. Give them out at an event you sponsor or where you've featured.
7. Include them with a different product you sell.

You'll think of a dozen more. Just go to work and the ideas will flow.

An Experiment for You with a Prize!

Here’s an experiment for you.



Anyone can find differences in similar universes. Racism is all about that. She’s a human, but the skin color is different therefore the whole person is different. Nonsense. An intelligent person can see similarities in different universes. Tell me the similarities between a cat and a refrigerator. You’ll think of one or two but with some thought you’ll think of a score or more. It’s easier to find how things are different.

In the spirit of this principle, I’m going to tell you of my latest adventures and let you pull the similarities and lessons from this real-life situation and let you apply it to your circumstances. At the very least you might conclude that the guy teaching you marketing actually does what he preaches.

Before I published this blog, I asked my editor to look over this blog entry to see if I was making sense to singers (she's a talented musician). Here is her response:
“From the point of view of a singer that has read your book, your example has all sorts of applications to singers. However, I'm not sure if a singer who is not familiar with your book would see the natural connections. (Your book provides all sorts of non-singer examples, thus the reader becomes accustomed to gleaning singer-specific applications).”

That’s good enough for me. Thanks, Lisa.

No theory here, but execution based upon sound principles.

Principle-based marketing works. I’m not equating principle and morality, although both are good. By principles I mean general standards.

Everyone who deals with other human beings knows that if you treat people a certain way, they’ll usually react immediately in a predicted way. Smile at someone and they’ll immediately smile back. Yes, some people take a bit longer to smile back, but keep up the smile and sunny disposition and even Oscar the Grouch will crack.
So let me tell you my story the past few months and let you figure out the principles.

About three months ago our company faced two problems:

1) Our Universal Transmission (a vehicle transmission without a clutch or torque converter that is constantly engaged while shifting with metal gears between infinite ratios for a 30% or better fuel economy) was having major work done on it to finish our final design and a metal proof model by the end of August. We hired seven excellent and rather brilliant mechanical engineers which cost us a great deal. But we had to have them because major car and transmission makers had seen our preliminary designs and wanted some metal embodiments. Yet, where would we get the money to pay for all of this stuff we had to have done?


(A photo of our invention that will make all automatic, manual and CVT transmissions obsolete. Kind of ambitious.)

2) We had to raise more money by selling some of our units (shares) in our LLC, yet we had no metal model for investors to see and we didn’t have a contract from any of the 12 or more companies to whom we had already shown the Computer Aided Design models (CAD models). They loved the concept but needed more proof.

My job in the partnership is to do the marketing, PR and fund raising or professional business development.

My team went to work by doing the following:

1. We found a process that allows you to create a double image (like a hologram) on a single piece of material. The first image was a $100 bill with Franklin. Beneath that image was a picture of our transmission. When you tilted the bill just so, the transmission would show where Franklin’s picture had been. Our company slogan, “Race car performance with Hybrid efficiency” showed through as well. On the back of this bill-size paper were our key benefits and our contact information. We knew we were on to something when we showed it to our engineers and they loved fooling around with it.




2. We identified the trade shows where the leaders of the industry would likely be, and made arrangements to be there with them. I sent our most personable salesman and he managed to secure appointments with the heads of Ford, Chrysler, Magna, ZF and other huge companies. He had no qualms about sidling up to the grandest poobah and giving him our elevator pitch (that’s a summary of your product that will get someone’s attention in the time it takes for the elevator door to close, go up a floor and the door to open – if it’s good they’ll stay on the elevator and ask you more – sounds a bit like dating, and it is). He had worn a nice dress shirt and tie and had the $100 bills sticking out of his chest pocket. He asked them (VP of Ford, etal) if they’d like one of our $100 bills. All said yes and when they saw the dual images they’d laugh and say, “If your transmission is as clever as your marketing, it must be something.”


(My guy Mike Agrelius after he gave the Exec. VP of Ford our $100 bill.)

3. In the meantime, we asked all of the companies who had met with us to send us a Letter of Intent to do business with us. Keep in mind, this letter buys you nothing of hard goods; but because it simply says, on their letterhead, that they are intrigued by our product and would like to explore doing business with us, it buys us a huge amount of credibility. How do I know this? Read on …

4. We invited a professional business evaluator that I knew to come in and examine our books, our drawings, reviews and business plan, and to help establish our pre-sale business value. I showed him our detailed financial spread sheets. We’d created an interactive spreadsheet that was 155 pages long giving great deals on our estimations and projections. And, I showed him all of the Letters of Intent, comments from the 12 companies (including Hyundai and Kia and GM Daewoo) and our future marketing plans. His conclusion was that our business plan (which showed a 3rd-year profit of $288 million) was conservative, had logical assumptions, and the value of $106 million was grossly understated.


(Here's a photo of me meeting with a team of marketers to solve the problems. That's what marketers do -- solve problems so they can get what they want!)

5. We took the pictures we’d taken with the original 12 companies with whom we’d already shown our transmission CADs, added the Letters of Intent with real signatures and the latest drawings and animations of our transmission working, and put them into a Power Point presentation that told our story, showed why we wiped out the competition and made all other transmissions obsolete, and included the Letter of Valuation. This Power Point concluded by showing our assumptions, plans and conclusions for what an investor might expect to get as a return.

6. We then checked with our existing supporters, friends, family, employees and investors and asked them if they knew anyone who might be a good candidate as an investor. When someone said they did – and they were anxious to help an enterprise they believed in and supported – we asked that person to email or call their friend and tell them about us. They did and called us with the results. We then called and set up appointments for them to come in and see the CAD work being done and to meet us. We gave them the full demonstration and taught them what we were about.

7. We didn’t pester people or try sales tactics so commonly used to trick, bug or trap people into buying. In fact, we were very up front about the risks of our company, about how the technology might not work or no one might ever buy it. One investor laughed as he told another potential investor, “See, I told you that they’d try to talk you out of it.” As we finished the presentation I always said, “Decide if you feel comfortable in investing, and the amount you could lose without losing sleep, and then let us know. We won’t call you.”

By the end of July and during August we raised most of the money we needed (in total that is now in the millions), and had solid commitments for more funds. By the end of August we had finished the metal bench model of Proof-1 that proved absolutely our revolutionary transmission worked. We demonstrated it to many potential investors as well as those who invested. They loved it. So did we.

Now we are arranging to go back to all of the original 12 companies and the 18 more we’ve added to our “friends of VMT” list.

Will it all work? Yes. I’m sure of it. These are exciting times. But, notice how many marketing principles we used to arrive at this point. The process wasn’t easy, and it took hard work, risk and determination. And it took a great product. Please examine the story and tell me how this story could apply to you – and make no mistake, what we’ve done can be replicated in every business, every trade and with talented people as diverse as singers, story tellers, musicians, engineers or entrepreneurs.

Put your thoughts in the Comments box below. The person who finds the most principles with a minimum of five, will get a special prize. And I’ll brag about in the next post.

Best wishes in your endeavors. I want you to succeed.

Free -- turning the bad to good

FREE -- good for selling things, bad for paying your bills.

When I advise singers, I stress that they should never again sing for free. And they don't have to in order to make a living from their talent.

To folks of other skills and business the same advise applies. Don't give away your services. Ever.

Now, let me contradict that or at least set up the paradox.

In every business transaction one person has value that is traded to the other person for their value. When both parties get the value they want, a deal is made.

If a singer is asked to sing at a concert and the deal is, "we'll be staging the event and have many expenses so we can't afford to pay you so we hope you'll donate your performance," don't let the conversation end there.

Most singers figure if they don't accept the free job the organizer will just get someone else so they cower and accept.

Your position of advantage is lost but doesn't need to be.

Instead, when someone asks you to do something for free, listen and understand what they're asking and understand what their assets are. Then consider:
1. They asked you so that is a great compliment. They wanted you. Work that.
2. Their event has great value because people are trading their value to come to the event. They value the event and sacrifice their free time to come and in many cases are paying for their tickets.
3. Now is your greatest time of leverage and you must use it.

First, say, "I'd love to help you out and pleased you think so much of my talent that you would ask me above so many other singers." You are establishing your value.

Next, say, "Normally the market rate is at least $2,000 for such a performance but I understand your financial difficulties and would be happy to help you." You establish the value, again, for you, and set a dollar roof that they now must think about. You've also let them know that by asking for free they are saying they are not competent in their financial dealings. Be gentle, but make the reality point just a bit.

Now, come in for the opportunity and say, "Your audience must be some special people." Let them tout their abilities to attract people. Let them brag on what good people they know. Establish the value of the audience and you further increase your value for you are being asked to stand before them.

Then say, "I'd like to thank them personally for coming." Then proposed one or two of the following:
1. In all literature that goes out before or after the event a gracious note be included from you thanking people for coming and endorsing the event or cause or whatever. Your name and picture need to be reinforced in the consumer's mind.
2. Ask for the email addresses (that's the cheapest, but, mailing labels can be acceptable or something like unto them) of everyone that has been invited so you can send them a personal note after the event. They have a list of people that they've invited. You're asking that by you sharing, they'll share. Most organization will cooperate. Some will give you the list. Others will agree to print what you need at their expense and include it in their mailings. However it turns out, begin by asking for the entire list. You may get it.
3. Tell the organizer you'd like to offer all of their audience members a special price on your product (your book, your CD or DVD, your whatever), and offer that for each sale made you'll donate to the cause or give to the company. Give them a self interest in your advantage. They'll be far more likely to give if they're going to get.
4. Something else that you need.

At the very least make sure you get all of whatever you work out put into an email that you send to the organizer that states what the arrangement are going to be. Make it a Letter of Understanding and ask them to "if my understanding is consistent with yours please reply to this email that you agree."

Be sure to include in the letter a request that the organizers, on their letterhead will give you a stirring endorsement and positive evaluation of your abilities and contribution.

And yes, you will likely need to write that letter of recommendation. You send it as a sample. Some will use that to help them get around to writing their own, but in many, many cases they'll take the words you write and use them for their letter.

I recently had our sales agents and engineers meet with some of the world's largest corporations who are considering buying our transmission when the development finishes. In the end I had the agents ask each corporation to give us a Letter of Intent to do business. We wrote the letter and the agents gave it to them as a "sample of what we'd like." Sure enough, some used the letter almost word for word and others used it to see that what we were asking wasn't unreasonable and recrafted the letter in their own words. Either way we got great letters from huge companies positively commenting on our product and stating their desire to attain the product. That had a wonderful affect on our investors, our staff and future customers who are competitors of the people we met with.

What about those who brush you aside and won't give you anything? There are a very small number of people like that. To them I say, "Let me get this straight. You want me to give up my time and talent as a value to you but you're not willing to help me out in any significant way in return?" Most of the hard noses will reconsider. For those who don't, these are the words you must absolutely say..."No thank you." Walk away and don't look back. Literally. These kinds of people aren't worth dealing with. It will be a bad experience for you.

In the end, you must not sing or work for free. You must always receive significant value. It doesn't have to be money. In the examples above while money was not exchanged, you did get a list of names and rifle-shot exposure that would have cost you far more than the fee would have been.

If you've followed the other advise I've given in my books, you'll parlay those names into far more income because you now have a great many new people/customers to add to your house list so at your next concert or event or product launch you'll have people to invite who know you, have sales from your product, and have quotes or endorsements to add to your website and other promotional materials.

All because you refuse to do things for free.

Risk Reversal for Immediate and Long Term Sales

I haven't posted for a bit because I've been editing the 2nd Edition of Marketing Singers. I keep thinking I need to rewrite this book and make it a more general book for all small businesses and entrepreneurs. So little is out there to help them with their unique circumstances. But... I wrestled with the issue and decided I had to help singer first. I've added a great many more tips in the 2nd Edition. It should be to the press in August. If you want one of the first copies, email me at book@marketingartists.com

One chapter is just on 11 marketing principles in short. Here's #11.

11. Use Risk Reversal for Immediate and Long Term Sales
Risk-reversal should be a common sense and widely known marketing concept but, as I already quoted Mark Twain as saying, "Common sense is none too common."
Risk-reversal is simply taking on the risk yourself and taking it away from your customer. RR comes in many forms including: guarantees, free samples, "try one", delayed payments... and the list goes on as far as your imagination works.
This principles works in every business setting, including the arts.
Let's be a bit specific and look at guarantees. Some business people create conditional guarantees. Buy this and if it doesn't work, provided you did your part, we'll give you your money back. Many place time restrictions, performance on the customer's part, times of operations and other conditions. They do so in the belief that the customers will take advantage of them. They'll use the product, get the benefit and then try to get their money back.
The risk, therefore, remains with the customer.
None of this is right or wrong. It's simply an opportunity for you. It's part of my Zig-Zag Theory or Paradigm that are discuss later. If others offer conditions, offer none. If they have time restrictions, make yours unlimited time. If they say "you must perform" then you say "you don't even have to perform."
That gets people's attention and they will be more likely to try your products.
Of course if your product is junk, you might have a problem. I say "might" because I once worked (for a short time) with a company that produced extreme vanity products. Their diet products included ephedrine and other dangerous substances. The FDA had not banned them yet, but the owners knew of the negative effects. They also knew that nearly every product they had either didn't work or only worked temporarily. They preyed upon people's gullibility and weaknesses. This was most evident in their guarantees. Wisely, they had ZERO conditions for getting your money back except returning the product. Such a guarantees allowed a skeptical customer to try the product without fear of being ripped off – which, ironically they were with these products that cost $2 to make and sold for $135.
Now, I'm sounding contradictory. A rip-off company that let customers rip them off if they wanted. Let's just call it honor among thieves because these guys knew the facts of marketing. And the salient fact to this discussion is this proven bit of knowledge on guarantees: no matter how bad the product no more than 25% of the customers will return the product. Of course the higher the cost of the goods or service, the closer to 25% you'll be.
They sold hundreds of thousands of bottles of diet pills, thigh shrinkers, fat lip salve, muscles builders while you sleep and so forth. I'd go to their mail room and every day large bins would arrive with returned product. They checked for the unopened ones and restocked their shelves. The opened ones would be trashed. They had their standards. Never did they get more than a 20% return rate. After taking out the products that were just restocked they had no more than a 10% rate. Their margins and business plan used the 25% figure so each month they exceeded their profit projections.
Learn from them about guarantees. Guarantees work. Unconditional guarantees work even better. Now that you know about the predictability of returns, make sure your margins can handle the returns. Above all, make sure that you have a quality product with good margins and you'll have a field day in the profit picture. The few returns and word of mouth promotions will help you be successful.

Special Note to Singers:
Have you ever offered a customer an unconditional money back guarantee – "Try my singing. If you don't like me, no charge." That will turn some heads your way because it screams "I'm confident and I'm that good." Someone you don't have as a customer will become a customer.

How many words should an advertisement contain?

How many words should an advertisement contain?

When I throw that question out to groups, I hear some interesting first responses:
Groups of people hoping to create their first ads say: I never read long letters or ads with lots of words.

Groups of experienced marketers who really haven’t written an ad themselves, but have approved many say: That will depend on the media, the space available, and blah, blah, blah.

Groups of copywriters say: The longer the better. The more you write the more they bite.

To the amateurs I say: Be a little more humble. Just because you don’t think you’d respond, you have, in all likelihood, bought something after getting 700 words or more. Chances are, a short ad didn’t persuade you to buy.

To the marketing executives I say: Be a lot more humble. The space available is a function of your ability to sell. It also avoids the basic question.

To the copywriters I say: No. Nonsensical. You’re missing the point.

The point is to make a sale.

If you have limited space then you must have such a powerful message that it compels the potential buyers to seek information some place else. The remaining words of the sales pitch will be delivered there. One of the most successful ads ever, and the silliest, was in a classified ad in a New York City newspaper. It just said, “Send $1" and gave the address. Dollar bills flowed in. The kooks at the post office or some government bureau purported to protect people from themselves deemed it a con and shut the guy down, taking his money (and they put it in the government coffers as if it was better used or safer there). The space demanded he get pithy and he did. But the action required an address where the curious dupe thought he’d get more information on something bigger. On a less silly front, the lawn sign read, “I’ll pay cash for your home” and gave a phone number. Was the sale made? Nope. But the first person who tried that, supposedly in St. Louis, got swamped with phone calls. The ad worked – it achieved its objective.

Remember, the purpose of the headline is to drive the reader to the next sentence or action. The headline length can be a few words or many words. One headline I wrote was “When is a diet pill worth $135 a bottle... when it works.” That headline has been used over and over since I wrote it in the early 2000s. It’s a little long. I’ve used headlines twice that long. But, one of my most successful headlines was “We Don’t Sell Fish.” It had enough of a curiosity factor to make people want to read the next sentence. They did and we followed that with benefit after benefit for people to attend a one week course that cost them $3,000. Hundreds came.

That next sentence after the headline might be uttered over the phone, in an email, a twitter, a website or into the store where the rest of the advertisement takes place.

The length of the ad is strictly based upon its purpose. And you should only use enough words to accomplish that purpose. Not a word more or less.

Sometimes it takes many words. Remember, advertising is simply salesmanship in print (or on a another medium).

Determine your purpose and write as many words as it takes to close the sale. Don’t limit yourself when writing to the physical constraints of the ad space or cost. You’ll edit later. Get the message out there in a free flowing logical progression first. Don’t be constrained by what others will think either. Someone will always be there to utter the foolish words, “that’s too long.” No. It’s either effective or ineffective.

Doing something matters

Two turkeys read the advertisement for Flying Lessons. Excited to fly, they spent the day at the flying lessons flapping, and soaring and seeing life from a new vantage point. At the end of the lesson as they were walking home, one said, "that was great. When's the next lesson?"

Too often we read or hear great advice and then WALK home.

Jason, a reader of this blog, took what was said in the previous post on negotiating and the same week put it to the test. He had a product that he was trying to find out if there was a market. Jason did the following very right things:

1. He immediately asked the customer what he needed. The customer also stated that his budget was very small and couldn't afford even $100 to $300.
2. Jason then met with him with solutions to the customer's problem. (In person is always best.)
3. Jason established the value he could bring and got the customer excited about the possibilities. (You do that by knowing what he needs and showing him how you can do it.)
4. Once the value was establish and the desire was high, the customer asked the price.
5. Jason astutely said, "I've asked another professional what he would charge and he said his fee would be $3,000 to $5,000." He stopped and let the high price sink in. The customer gasp a little and said, "Ouch. $5,000 is beyond my budget."
6. Jason heroically stepped in and said, "That's okay. I can do it for about half that." A 50% discount is always compelling.
7. The customer was quite pleased to get such a good deal.
8. Jason was quite pleased to have gotten the job for $2,500. Better than the $100 to $500 the person originally thought was their maximum.

The same principles work on any product or service.
The same principles work on any amount -- $1 to millions. I'm working on a deal right now worth greatly in excess of monetary imagination and the offer has been tendered for far more than I first thought. Happily.

The prime lesson here: Go do something. Go fly. Don't walk home.