A Nice Way To Say “No Dogs Allowed”

Sometimes examples of great copywriting come when you least expect them.

This summer, I was on a family vacation with my wife and daughter. We were strolling down the street of a quaint (if not touristy) town in Wisconsin. On the door of a restaurant was a sign I had never seen before. It was a small square sign with big red letters that said, “Guide Dogs Gladly Welcome!”

The sign struck me as a fantastic lesson in marketing and copywriting.

It took the negative “No Dogs Allowed,” and put a positive spin on it.

It’s easy, and often necessary, to tell customers and prospects no. But with a little thought and creativity, you can say no in a positive way that doesn’t upset and/or offend them.

My hats off to the owners of that restaurant for providing a great example of doing just that! I wonder if the next time I pass by they’ll have another sign saying “Service Happily Provided to Fully Clothed Individuals!”

Have you noticed any examples of businesses that express a negative concept in a positive light?

I gladly welcome any interesting, well-written comments below!

The Marketing Power of a Domain Name

You could be making a costly mistake if your company’s only domain name (URL) is yourcompanyname.com.

Don’t get me wrong, you should definitely register yourcompanyname.com, .net, .biz, etc. Not only to prevent competitors from taking it, but also because prospects and customers will expect to find you there.

If that’s all you’ve registered, however, you’re probably missing out on a great marketing opportunity.

Let me tell you why with an example.

The drug testing company I’m involved with is named Integrity Detection Systems. It’s a fairly boring company name, with the accompanying boring URL of www.integritydetection.com.

When launching a new service that lets parents order drug detection kits online, we decided to register the domain name, www.TestMyHomeForDrugs.com.

Then I ran some tests in Google AdWords. Simply changing the URL in the Google ad to the more descriptive www.TestMyHomeForDrugs.com increased clickthrough rates by around 50%!

With the success of that URL test, we now have a stable of URLs that we can use, depending on what aspect of the business we’re promoting including www.TestMyBusinessForDrugs.com and www.TestMyHomeForMeth.com.

A short, descriptive, memorable URL that highlights specific products or services you offer can be a highly effective marketing tactic both online and off.

Think about it.

If you tell a prospect your domain name at a networking event, are they more likely to remember www.YetAnotherFinancialServicesFirm.com or www.TheRetirementExperts.com?

www.MorrisJohnsonSmithLawOffices.com or www.ProtectYourEstate.com?

As the water level starts rising in their basement when a pipe bursts are they going to recall www.JohnDoesPlumbingServices.com or www.NoMoreLeaks.com?

Domain names are one of your business’ most prominent marketing messages. And at under $10 a year, they are an extremely affordable tool for a small business to have in their marketing arsenal. Be sure to make the most of them!

(TIP: Two sites that I’ve found tremendously helpful while brainstorming new domain names are www.InstantDomainSearch.com and www.Nameboy.com.)

Why Most Websites Have It Wrong: It’s Not About Us, It’s About YOU!

Do you have an About Us page on your website? If you’re like most businesses, I’m betting you do.

How about an About You page? I’m betting you don’t.

One of the biggest mistakes most businesses make in marketing is focusing on themselves. The About Us page epitomizes this mistake. Most companies use it as a place to spout off about one of more of the following:

1. How great their company is.
2. How fantastic their employees are (at least the management team).
3. That their widget is the best widget around.
4. Their incredible mission statement that states how great the company is, what fantastic employees they have, and how their widget is the best widget around.

That’s all well and good, but there’s just one problem.

No one cares!

People care about themselves. They want to know what’s in it for them. They want to see how your company, your employees, your widget can improve their lives.

When done right, the About Us page can help a business connect with prospects and turn more of them into customers.

(A little secret about the About Us page is that the most effective ones actually focus on the customer, not the business. They paint a clear picture of the benefits one receives when doing business with that company. )

I’d like to propose taking things a step further. If you’re going to dedicate a web page to “Us” (your company), then dedicate one to “You” (your customers).

Without customers, you don’t have a business. So why not give them their very own page on your website?

What Goes On an About You Page?

Use the About You page to tell prospects and customers about themselves. Detail their problems and frustrations. Describe who they are. Describe who they’re not.

On my website, the About You page has a bulleted list of qualities that describe my ideal prospect.

It tells them who they are – small business owners, entrepreneurs, or the head of a not-for-profit.

It tells them about common problems that my clients have that I can help solve – not having enough customers, being in the dark about internet marketing, or staring at a blank screen that needs to be filled with words for an article or marketing copy.

It tells them who they are not – affiliate marketers or MLMs (multi-level marketers).

What Can an About You Page Do For You?

There are a few main benefits that an About You page can provide.

1. It forces you to focus on the ideal client for your business. Most small businesses make the mistake of trying to be everything to everyone. That generally leads to chasing leads and servicing clients that can suck the life out of your business.Writing down a clear description of your ideal client puts your focus on attracting prospects who are perfectly suited for your business’ core competencies (this is a worthwhile task even if you don’t want to put it on your website).

   Attract these types of clients and you’ll be a lot happier.

2. Clients that aren’t a good fit for your business can quickly disqualify themselves. If you’ve posted the attributes of your ideal client on your website, prospects who don’t fit the bill can see that for themselves and move on to find a better fit. This keeps them and you from wasting valuable time trying to figure it out later.

3. It ensures you have at least one page on your site that puts the focus squarely on your customers’ favorite topic – themselves.

4. There’s a powerful psychological aspect to having an About You page on your website. When a prospect comes to your site and finds a description or checklist that describes them perfectly, it gives them a feeling of finding the mothership. A place where they belong. This can help convince them that becoming a client of yours would be an ideal fit for them.

5. It makes you stand out from the crowd. I did exhaustive research (ie. a Google search) and found almost no websites have an About You page. In a web full of sites with Home, Products, Services, Blog, About Us, Contact Us, etc., the About You page is a great way to stand out and get noticed.
   

So that’s my case for adding an About You page to your company’s website. This is uncharted territory and there are no set guidelines. If you like this idea, run with it! Be creative. Have fun. Email me a link (and if your About You page describes me, you may just get a new customer!)

But most of all, take the idea of focusing on your prospects and customers to every page of your website. Then incorporate it into all of your other sales and marketing activities. Because focusing on your customers will ultimately benefit you.