Copyright © 2009-2010 Scott Bywater
The problem with marketing is in the majority of cases your competitors know exactly what they are doing and can copy exactly what you are doing.
For example, let's say you're a company who sells specialised books to architects.
You advertise in tne local trade magazines and everyone knows what you are doing.
You advertise in there month after month and people really start to notice what you're doing.
And they start to think to themselves. Heck, if he's doing it, why don't we copy what he's doing and get the same results.
So how do you fight the 'copycat syndrome'?
Well, there's a few ways.
Firstly, rather than whacking an ad in your local trade magazine or newspaper, why not try direct mail.
Here's how you do it. Look up mailing list brokers online and find a company who can help you source a mailing list.
I've referred my clients to a company called www.prospectshop.com.au in the past and they are a good place to start.
Anyway, the list broker is going to ask you: what list do you want? what's the purpose of your mailing, etc.
For instance, you might want to target architects in Sydney. Or accountants in Melbourne. Or whatever.
And they'll find you that list.
So that means while you are sending letters to all of the architects in your local area - you won't be sending letters to your competitors.
In fact... they'll have no idea what you are doing.
But even if they do, let's look into this a little deeper.
Most companies have no follow up once you actually call them.
So let's imagine you are selling a product at $500 - your profit margin is 50% ($250) and it's costing you $30 a lead.
But because you have a thorough follow up process which includes direct mail, emails, teleseminars, webinars and plenty of content, you are able to convert 1 leadout of 5.
So you can do it at a profit. But your competitor isn't willing to do all the work to follow up the lead once it comes in.
So while he may be able to model your approach to advertising (if his copywriter has the smarts) and generate a lead for the same price of $30.
But if he's not willing to do the work to create a comprehensive follow up system, he'll get a far lower conversion.
It might look something like this:
He'll shake his head, pull the plug on the advertising and think you've got some magical powers.
When all that was really happening is you were willing to put a bit of elbow grease in and create a comprehensive follow up strategy.
The good news is with creating something like this is you only need to do it once. And most of your competitors won't be bothered to take the effort to copy your approach.
They won't be willing to pay a copywriter big money to create a campaign for them.
They won't be willing to think it all through in detail.
They won't be willing to do the work - and as a result, they won't get the rewards.
The good news for you is - once you learn the skills of effective copy you won't need to pay thousands of dollars for a professional copywriter.
In my opinion, every business owner should master the art of writing for themselves. And you can start your journey today by getting your hands on http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au/cashflow
About the Author:
Scott Bywater is a direct response copywriter and the author of "Cash Flow Advertising" and "More Customers Made Easy". Although Scott is accepting very few clients, he generously shares his experience on copywriting at his web site at http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au/
Read more Articles written by Scott Bywater.
No comments:
Post a Comment