Is Your Headline Working for or Against You?
By Natasha | March 2, 2008
Don’t blame media choices for a failed marketing campaign. Deciding that your direct mail or print ads didn’t work can be a costly mistake, for instance, when a more likely explanation is that you chose the wrong message for your audience.
Or perhaps the problem is as simple as a boring, ineffective headline. You might even have forgotten to include one at all! Or perhaps you thought your business name is the headline. Well it’s not.
Here are a few tips to get that headline working for you:
1. Get to the point. Brief, punchy headlines work best
2. Make it active. Energise your headline with vivid, action verbs.
3. Grab the readers’ attention. Use copy that asks a personal, poignant or catchy question.
4. Use visual appeal. Use a white type on a black background as contrast.
Don’t expect the headline to sell for you. But on the flip side, don’t expect the reader to stop without a show-stopping headline.
Topics: Marketing | No Comments »
Four Ways to Encourage Word of Mouth
By Natasha | February 25, 2008
In a post at MarketingProfs’ Daily Fix blog, Andy Sernovitz discusses some takeaways from a recent experience in which he told an office manager that the $239 Dell monitor he purchased for his PC would work with her Mac. “She said she had been saving up for a monitor from Apple for three times the price,” he writes, “but she was going to check out the Dell instead.”
Use conversation starters. Sernovitz realized the Dell monitor was Apple-compatible because the cable was included as an accessory. This extra is the conversation starter; while most Dell customers have no use for it, their Mac-loyal friends might want to know about a cost-effective alternative. “The resulting word of mouth pays for the extra cost,” he says. “What can you put in the box to start a conversation?”
Use good names. Ditch memory-defying alphanumeric product names for more catchy alternatives. Are you more likely to tell a friend about the SP2208WFP or the Fred 22?
Use simple URLs. Use a URL that’s simple to remember and pass along—for instance, dell.com/fred.
Use referral landing pages. Let customer evangelists create a page like dell.com/sernovitz with favorite purchases and wish lists. “It’s easy to do,” he says, “and it makes me look great when I tell people about it. Give me points when my friends visit. Give referrers status and recognition.”
“Great word of mouth is more than buzz,” says Sernovitz. “It’s nailing the simple tactics that help the conversation spread.”
Source: MarketingProfs. Click here for the post.
Topics: Marketing | No Comments »
What pizza?
By Natasha | January 18, 2008
Trying to sell pizza, trying to promote a school, trying to sell shoes, toys or even a house?
You wouldn’t try to sell a house without displaying the house in your advertising or brochure. The same goes for trying to sell a school to parents. How do you stir the emotions of your prospective parents if you don’t feature the students, ‘the life of the school’ and the purpose for its being.
I recently received a brochure in the mail for a new pizza shop that had just opened down the road. The brochure was brightly coloured in sunny yellow and sky blue. It had all the relevant information, types of pizzas with creatively themed romatic names, but something was lacking. Can you guess what it was?
Yes, not one picture, icon or glimpse of pizza or pasta being sold.
How can you possibly tempt, attract or appeal to your target market if you don’t give them a reason, a mouth watering experience to seek you out? Display images of who you are, what you sell and what you stand for. You will grab the attention of your target more effectively than just words.
Topics: General, Marketing | No Comments »
Are You Ready to Rock?
By Natasha | January 9, 2008
Rock stars are, in actuality, fantastic marketers. According to Mack Collier, in a recent post at The Viral Garden, “Musicians do such an amazing job of exciting the people that buy their music, and turning them into fans.” If your company has an inner Gwen Stefani just begging to break out, here are a couple steps Collier suggests you can take:
Think of your customers as a community to which you belong. Tori Amos fills front rows and interacts with her fans throughout her energetic performances. She makes it clear she’s one of them. In the business world, Collier points to Willie Davidson of Harley-Davidson, who conducts in-the-trenches market research by hitting the open road with enthusiasts. “Since the company is participating in the customers’ community,” writes Collier, “they better understand their customers, and as a result market to them more effectively.”
Align your perceptions of a product or service with those of your customers. Rock stars see themselves as cool—and so do their fans, who become cool by association. When the iPhone launched, there were long lines at Apple stores although the item was easily obtained at any (less fashionable) Cingular/AT&T store. As Collier explains, “But it was ‘cool’ to stand in line to wait for an iPhone at the Apple store. Apple thinks the iPhone is cool, and Apple’s customers agree.”
The Po!nt: “Marketing doesn’t have to be viewed as just a necessary business function, but instead could be seen as a way to excite your customers into becoming fans,” writes Collier. “Besides, don’t we all really want to be rock stars?”
Source: Get To The Point by Marketing Profs, The Viral Garden. Read the entire post here.
Topics: General, Marketing | No Comments »
Season’s Greetings
By Natasha | December 19, 2007
As another year draws to a close, the staff at Five-id would like to wish you and your families a safe and Merry Christmas and a joyous new year.
We hope that the new year brings you abounding business and relationships.
We will be taking a short break, but look forward to assisting with your marketing and project management needs in 2008.
The office will be closed from Friday 21st December until Tuesday the 8th of January.
Topics: General | No Comments »