strongcaster » Marketing

Why are mass-mailers in love with PS?

Justin — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 20:03:25 +0000

Ah, the post scriptum. Best used at the end of love letters to reinforce the writer’s affection (PS – I love you), these two letters have found a new home. They are used primarily by banks hawking high interest loans (PS – Act now to take advantage of this generous credit offer!) and by political parties (PS – Help us defeat the Liberals, send us your donation of $50 today!).

I find it hilarious that these types of communication have a “PS” at the end of every single thing they send. No longer an afterword, or a last-minute addition, the “PS” now signifies one thing: that the sender is completely disingenuous.

Print advertising can be dumb

Justin — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:14:41 +0000

Derek Sivers has a great story on his blog about a musician who booked an ad in a magazine in the hopes of converting 1% of the magazine’s readership into sales. In this case, 1% would have translated into 10,000 CDs sold. The result? 4 CDs sold.

He ends with this line: “He forgot there was a number lower than one percent.”

This story reminded me of when I owned my own retail shop. We would place a full-page ad in the newspaper (with a coupon), hoping sales would just poor in. The newspaper’s circulation was 20,000, so a 1% conversion would have meant 200 new customers. But sure enough, only a handful of new people would walk through the door.

Circulation means nothing without engagement. This is one of the reasons the newspaper industry is in such trouble; for years businesses would throw money at advertising and hope it would make a difference. The problem is that, often, it didn’t.

This isn’t to say that print doesn’t have a place; there are many factors to consider, including the size of one’s target market, ad design, etc… But it does affirm something I believe strongly: that little guys have to develop their own audience relationally, one person at a time.

I can’t believe this isn’t an ad for Southwest

Justin — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 21:26:01 +0000

I can’t believe that this video was not an ad for Southwest Airlines.

If it was, I think it’s brilliant (especially the last line: “you can not get that on United, lemme tell you that!”)

If it wasn’t, it’s a lucky bit of exposure.

Juicy Fruit and Jib Jab – a great opportunity

Justin — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:13:45 +0000

I think that JibJab and Juicy Fruit should definitely team up: http://bit.ly/A8fuE

If you haven’t visited the JibJab site, you should definitely go have a look. A brilliant concept, well executed, with great revenue potential.

This is what smart marketing should look like. When Office Max teamed up with JibJab for the highly viral Christmas campaign “Go Elf Yourself” it received over 100 million unique visits over the holidays.

Why blogging is important for Real Estate agents

Justin — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 18:36:44 +0000

I’m not a real estate agent. I am, however, one of those “closet real estate addicts” – I pour over MLS listings in my spare time, watch HGTV, and get emailed pricing reports for the major Canadian markets. I am also one of the few Canadians who sold and bought a house within the past month.

I’ve had a few friends who have recently gone into the business, and being in communications thought this would be a good time to share some of my insights into this unique industry, and some new ways of thinking about marketing. There’s a lot of ground to cover, so I think I’ll turn this into a series (a Complete Communications Guide for Real Estate Agents). First up, why blogging is important.

Why do people choose a particular agent?

I imagine that when real estate agents do any type of marketing, their goal is to have people choose them as an agent. That’s how you (as an agent) get paid. So a good question to ask is why anyone would want to choose you. What is your competitive advantage? I’ve got to be completely honest with you: when I’m looking at a bus bench ad, or at the sea of faces in the newspaper, “competitive advantage” isn’t something that is immediately visible. If my decision was based on who has the nicest smile, maybe, but otherwise these ads are pretty useless in terms of communicating value to a potential client. Now, if you’re that guy who has a full 4-page spread of listings all to yourself I can imagine that would generate some interest. But according to “that guy’s” ad, he’s in the top 0.5% of all agents, so we need a strategy for the 95.5%.

Let’s be honest about something else: you have a lot to prove. Like most households, my wife and I were hesitant to hand over $12,000 of our home equity to someone else (especially in this market). The public doesn’t understand everything you have to do; and they also don’t want to hear a sob story about how hard it is in-between commissions. What they do want to hear is why you’re worth that money. You need to prove to your clients one thing: that they can trust you to work your butt off to sell their home (or purchase a new one). You need to know your stuff, you need to be creative, and you need to build trust.

How to build trust

Trust is key. I know I just said that in the previous paragraph, but it’s the most important thing you will read today. Trust is key: when people trust you, they will call you up and ask you to sell their home. So how do you build it?

Teach them something

This is an idea that comes from the guys at 37signals: people trust those that teach them. The best way to do this is to start a blog, and post at least every week. Here are the rules:

Be genuine: You know what I would love to hear, just once? A real estate agent telling me that now is not the right time to sell! If you do that, you will gain my trust, and I will talk about you with everyone I know.
Take a stand: This goes with #1, but the other thing you need to do is take a stand about the things you believe in, and be willing to lose a part of your “potential market” for it. I, personally, think that buying a home in a trailer park is a bad deal. In my market you could pay $80,000 for a poorly built structure, have to pay hundreds in monthly fees, and still not own the land it sits on! If I was an agent I would be honest with people that are looking for their first home: don’t buy a mobile home. It would be way better for them to wait, save, and by a condo or a smaller starter home. I’m willing to bet that people would respect me more for taking a stand on something that’s important to me.
Say something that matters: this is where your social skills come in. You need to listen to people around you. What’s the current “nerve” that you need to hit? Right now, in my hometown there are a lot of people that bought 2nd and 3rd homes in the “boom” hoping to flip them and make them a quick buck. Now they’re freaking out because the market has crashed, and they are left holding the keys (and three mortgage payments). I just asked my agent if he, or anyone in his office, bought 2nd properties during the boom. He said: “Nope, none of us. We’ve always felt like it’s almost always too risky.” That’s good advice; I hope that he said that during the boom, when the trend was for every homeowner to use their home equity and pick up additional properties. That’s advice that matters.
You have to write it yourself: Given everything I’ve just said, you can’t delegate this off on somebody else. You can’t go and buy some pre-written content. You can’t have your assistant do it. It has to come from you, or it will just look like all the other generic crap out there

Once you’ve got a blog, and you’re updating it regularly, you’re going to have a pool of great content. This is content you can use in other places: your email newsletter, articles you write for the paper, or that next talk you give at the Chamber meeting.

Equally beneficial, people are going to start visiting your web site regularly. Your organic search results (on Google) are going to improve. And your visitors are going to come back. Eventually, it’s very likely that they’ll ask you to serve them.

What if I’m not a good writer? You don’t necessarily have to post writing on your blog. You could post video, images, or a weekly cartoon strip (illustrated by you). Gary Vaynerchuk, owner of winelibrarytv.com, realized early on that he couldn’t write; but he was great on-screen. For the past 3 years he has produced a new episode of his show every single day and amassed a following of thousands.

Who is doing this well?

At one point, my wife and I were thinking about moving to Prince George. We started our search on the web. We were looking for more than just home listings, we wanted to get a feel for the community. The first site we found was Dean Birks. He maintains a video blog and a real estate blog where he passionately explain why “Prince George BC is a fantastic place to live, work and invest.” His posts provided real insight into the community, and were personal and honest. I instantly trusted him.

Interesting post on value and advertising

Justin — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:08:11 +0000

Just read an interesting post by Ricky Irvine on Advertising, Value, and Meaning. I think he’s spot on, here’s an excerpt:

There’s what we can call the Walmart Way, in which value means less expensive, affordable, cheap, or low quality. The driving force determining what we’re willing to trade real money for is a rarely possible combination of best quality and lowest price. This is shameful.

Go and check out his blog: Dressed in Value.

What’s the best ad you’ve seen this year?

Justin — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 18:00:59 +0000

Leave a response to this post and tell me: What is the best ad you’ve seen this year that actually lead you to buy something?

I’m not looking for the “coolest,” or the “sexiest,” or the “funniest.” I’m interested in conversion – which ad made you pick up your wallet, and dole out some dough for the advertised item?

Clear and clever – but does it make you want to buy gum?

Justin — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 18:58:49 +0000

I pass this billboard on my way to the bus stop (here’s the actual sign). When I first saw it I thought it was quite clever: each ad has a simple catch-phrase (“the original voicemail,” or “friend request accepted.”) These Dentyne ads highlight the current social media phenomenon, and point out the superiority of actual face-to-face time.

I get it. The message is clear, and the ads are simple. But do they make you want to buy Dentyne?

A big part of my methodology is making communication simple and clear. These ads have both those traits, but I’m wondering if they are actually effective in getting people to purchase the product.

Do you think they’re effective? What could they do to actually increase sales?