Nichify Your Name

The arrival was highly anticipated.

Then early one beautiful fall morning, the truck arrived with what we’d been waiting for . . . a brand spanking new front loading washing machine – and a dryer to match.

(When you have an 8 month old that is a serious laundry making machine, a new energy efficient, back-saving, programmable washer and dryer with storage pedestals, is a life changer.)

But there was a problem. The pressure of the valves opening and closing in the washer caused a water hammer in our pipes. This is when the pipes shake and shudder so violently that eventually it sounds like they will break open creating a lake in the basement. Not good.

After consulting with my official plumbing problem adviser (Google), I found that there are devices called water arrestors which can be installed to reduce, if not eliminate the problem.

There were a lot of water arrestors out there, and not being an expert, I had no idea which one to choose. And that brings us to the point of this post.

After performing a few searches I came across a search result from Lowe’s that shows they carry something called a “washing machine arrester.” It was the only search result for water arrestors that mentioned washing machines, and they had it available at the local Lowe’s.

SOLD!

When I found the device at Lowe’s, I immediately noticed something that gave me pause. Nowhere on the packaging did it say “washing machine.” It was definitely the same device that came up in my search results – looked the same, had the same manufacturer and price. It just didn’t say “water machine arrestor” on the package. The packaging called it a “mini-rester.”

That’s when Lowe’s marketing smarts dawned on me. If they had called the device a “mini-rester” I’m not sure I would have bought it. By nichifying the name and calling it a “washing machine arrester” on their website, they positioned the product as THE solution for people like me who have washing machines that make their water pipes dance.

Brilliant!

So that begs the question, can you nichify the name of your product or service? How do you take the same labels that everyone else is using – consultant, web developer, battery, etc. – and nichify it so you stand out from the crowd?

Instead of a consultant, could you be THE small business social media consultant?

Instead of a web developer, could you be THE web developer for upscale local restaurants?

Instead of selling a battery, could you sell THE rechargeable battery for portable electronic devices?

Because when you use a name to nichify yourself to become “THE” something instead of “a” something, you make your prospects decision to use you (or buy from you) a lot easier.

I’ll leave you to ponder all this while I go do some more laundry.

Which Candidate is Talking About You?

It’s fascinating to watch.

As the presidential campaign comes down the homestretch, the candidates and their surrogates are making their pitches to the electorate. To watch the messaging and positioning of the candidates on TV, in print, and on the web from a marketing perspective is just fascinating to me.

As some of you probably know, I came up with the idea of adding an About You page to your website. It’s a page that talks about your prospects, not your company.

The most effective marketing messages are the ones that focus on the prospects and show how your product or service can improve their lives. Adding an About You page to a website forces companies to do that (on at least one page of their site) as opposed to the egotistical, company-focused marketing that seems to be the norm.

So as I was listening to Barack Obama’s acceptance speech the other week, you can imagine how this line got my attention:

“But I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring.  What the nay-sayers don’t understand is that this election has never been about me.  It’s been about you.“

And while John McCain didn’t utter the exact phrase “about you”, he did say this:

“I don’t work for a party. I don’t work for a special interest. I don’t work for myself. I work for you.”

In thinking about the two speeches, I started to wonder which one focused more on the voters (ie. About You) as opposed the candidates themselves. Luckily, there’s a handy tool to help me do just that.

Internet marketing optimization firm FutureNow also understands the importance of focusing on the prospect. To help companies figure out if their web copy focuses more on the company or the prospect, they put a handy little tool on their website called the “We We Calculator.” To use the calculator, simply enter the URL of a webpage and the calculator will look for certain words on that page to determine whether the copy focuses more on customers or the company.

I decided to use this tool to evaluate the text of both John McCain’s and Barack Obama’s acceptance speeches. I copied the text of each speech onto their own page on my website to strip away any advertising, commentary, comments, etc. that could impact the results. Then I entered the URL for each page into the We We Calculator.

Here are the results:

John McCain’s Customer (ie. Voter) Focus Rate: 12.14%
Barack Obama’s Customer (ie. Voter) Focus Rate: 19.29%

MCain’s Self Focus Rate: 87.86%
Obama’s Self Focus Rate: 80.71%

According to the calculator, McCain had 51 instances of voter-focused words and 369 instances of self-focused words in an acceptance speech that had a total word count of 3912.

Obama had 65 instance of voter-focused words and 272 instances of self-focused words in his acceptance speech which totaled 4610.

By focusing on the voters about twice as much as Senator McCain as well as focusing on himself much less, Senator Obama seems to get the About You concept more than Senator McCain (at least as far as acceptance speeches are concerned).

What does all this mean?

First, it’s probably no surprise that in evaluating the speeches of politicians, both spent the vast majority of the time talking about themselves (I’m not saying this is necessarily a bad thing in politics, just not surprising).

Second, I’d make no assumptions about the outcome of this presidential campaign based on the voter-focused vs. self-focused language in just one speech from each candidate.

However, I would make the assumption that if you applied this calculator to the pages of your website and got results similar to either candidate’s speech, your marketing needs some help. If your copy focuses on your customers less than 20% of the time and on yourself over 80% of the time, it’s time to get some new copy!

To see how your copy scores on the We We Calculator, put it to the test here.

And one last thing, please keep any comments focused on marketing – not the virtues of the candidate you support or the lack of virtues of the candidate you don’t!

Jack Palance’s Secret to Marketing Online

Ever see the movie “City Slickers”?

Jack Palance plays a wise, crusty old cowboy named Curly. There’s a scene in the movie where he shares his secret of life with Billy Crystal’s character Mitch- a middle aged city slicker going through a mid-life crisis.

You can watch the scene on You Tube, but the bottom line is that Curly’s secret to life is this:

“One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that everything else don’t mean shit.”

So what does that have to do with marketing online?

In our last blog post in our “Fundamentals of Marketing Online” series we talked about how overwhelming marketing online can be and one way to make it more manageable (by focusing on core marketing strategies that have proven successful offline).

Another way to make marketing online less intimidating is to take Curly’s advice and just focus on one thing.

You’ll probably never be an expert on using Google AdWords, Facebook, MySpace, article marketing, SEO, copywriting, social bookmarking, video marketing, Twitter, FriendFeed, WordPress, etc. to market your business.

But you can become an expert in just one. Forget about the others. I’m not saying they don’t mean shit, but you can hire an expert to help you with them while you stay focused on your one thing.

I know this is tough to do. There are always cool new marketing tools coming along online. There are always emails in your inbox from one guru or another promising to make your filthy stinking rich if you use their methodology.

I’m not saying to totally ignore them. But focus the majority of your time on your one thing (the 80/20 rule is definitely in effect when it comes to marketing online).

So what one thing should you focus on? Well, Curly’s answer is “that’s what you have to figure out.” And he’s right. It all depends on your business and your goals.

Over the years I’ve hitched my wagon to Google AdWords and copywriting. I think that no matter what businesses I’m involved in, the expertise I’ve developed in those two areas will help immensely.

But they might not be right for you.

So my recommendation is to find what is right for you – your “one thing” – stick to it and master it so you can expertly use it to power your online marketing efforts.

Copyblogger’s Talking About You

There was a short, yet powerful post by James Chartrand on Copyblogger last Friday titled “I Don’t Care About You.”

James writes about “Egotistical Marketing.” It’s a great term that describes a mistake many marketers make – focusing on themselves instead of others.

Bottom line: If you want people to pay attention to your marketing then tell them about their favorite subject – themselves!

After you read James’ post, check out my take on the concept and how to put it to use by creating an About You page on your website.

8 Business Lessons From My Broken Kenmore Refrigerator

What a joke.

Last Friday, my 3 ½ year old Kenmore refrigerator stopped working. At the time I’m writing this, almost a week later, it’s still not working.

Here’s a recap of this comedy of errors and the lessons you can learn . . .

1. I’m home with my 4 month old and notice the refrigerator makes a loud click, the motor turns on for about 5 seconds, then it clicks again and shuts off. I open it up, and while the contents are still cold, the fridge is not blowing cold air anymore. Realizing time is of the essence, I stuff a 5 week supply of frozen breast milk from the freezer into a cooler and rush it to my wife’s office to store in the freezer there.

Lesson #1: Frozen breast milk is worth more than gold. If you have some stored in your freezer and that supply is put at risk, do whatever it takes to save it. Whatever the solution, it’s a lot less expensive than hiring a psychologist to help your wife recover from the loss. (While I realize this is not a business lesson and most people reading this will never encounter this situation, believe me, if you do, you’ll thank me!).

2. I returned home after successfully delivering the payload before it melted and called Sears to come out to repair the refrigerator. I am pretty much forced to use Sears because the expensive parts of the refrigerator are still under warranty. I’m told they have no service appointments until Monday.

That put us in a real bind. We had medication for the baby and fresh breast milk in the fridge (not to mention food for us). No matter how much I explained the situation and pleaded with them, I was told there was nothing they could do for us.

So faced with having no refrigerator for the weekend, I rush out (cursing Sears along the way) to buy a mini-fridge so we can at least stock the essentials until the repair man comes. I save a few things, but have to toss most of what was in our fridge and freezer.

Lesson #2: If you have a customer in a bind, what can you do to help them? What contingency plans could you put in place to make sure they get the help they need? In this case, could Sears have offered the option of a loaner fridge for the weekend or let me talk with a service technician to see if perhaps there’s an easy or temporary solution to the problem?

One way to turn customers into raving fans that sing your praises from the rooftops is to come up big in their time of need.

3. The technician comes out on Monday and as soon as I describe the problem, he tells me it’s the starter relay – which, of course, is not under warranty.

The good news is that it’s only a $30 part.
The bad news is that labor costs $200 (plus a $10 gas surcharge).
The worst news is that he doesn’t have the part in stock and couldn’t get it and come back until Thursday to make the repair.

The tech is a nice guy and shows me how easy it is to install this myself and tells me where I can order the part online as well as a local store that might have it in stock.

Lesson #3: Be prepared. I explained the problem to the scheduler on Friday and would think it was on the repair ticket. If the repair man knew exactly what the problem was when I described it to him, could he (or someone else in his company) looked at my ticket BEFORE he came out? Then maybe they could have made sure they had the part that would likely fix my problem, saving me and him a wasted service call.

How can you anticipate your customers’ needs and be prepared before you are in front of them and have tell them you can’t give them what they need?

4. I call the local company the tech mentioned, Marcone Appliance Parts Center in St. Louis. It’s a little after 4PM. After being on hold for 54 minutes and hearing over and over again how important my call and customer service is to them, I get disconnected at 5PM when their phones shut off. I vow never to use Marcone – ever!

Lesson #4: Back up your words with action. As a copywriter, I’m acutely aware of the importance of words and the messages they convey. I’m also acutely aware that if you don’t back up your words and messages with action, you lose all credibility. Don’t bullshit your prospects with empty rhetoric or promises, you’ll only piss them off.

5. I order the part online from SearsPartsDirect.com. The site shows the part is in stock and with expedited shipping, I can have it by Wednesday. 24 hours later I check my order status and it now shows the part is backordered. I call SearsPartsDirect.com and they can’t tell me when the part might ship. I tell them I want to cancel the order. They tell me once an order has been placed, they can’t cancel it.

Yes, that’s right. I placed the order on the understanding that it was in stock and would get to me by Wednesday. Now it turns out that not only is that not the case, but they won’t allow me to cancel my order of a backordered part that hasn’t shipped yet! The rep happily lets me know that once I get the part, I can easily return it. I ask if that includes the cost for the expedited shipping I paid for (which cost almost as much as the part itself) and am told the refund would only cover the part itself – not the shipping.

After demanding to speak with a supervisor, I’m transferred a department they actually called “Customer Resolution.” I pitch enough of a fit and am told, as it turns out, they can cancel my order.

Lesson #5: If you tell a customer you can meet their needs, meet them. Deliver the goods as promised in the timeframe you promised it. Bonus points here if you deliver more than expected, faster than they expect it.

Lesson #6: Don’t enact stupid-ass policies that make no sense. If a customer wants to cancel the arrangement before any goods or services are delivered, then make it as easy as possible to do it.

Lesson #7: If you need a department in your company called “Customer Resolution,” that’s a pretty big clue that Customer Service needs a big overhaul.

7. I order the part from an online store (which I found using Google AdWords) and it supposedly will arrive by FedEx Thursday morning. Hopefully, the part number the Sears repairman gave me is the right one and the part works, but at this point I’m making no assumptions. If it doesn’t work, I’m getting rid of our Kenmore refrigerator and buying a new non-Kenmore one from someplace not named Sears.

Lesson #8: Everything you do in your company is marketing. Your customer service, the quality of your product, what customers hear when they are on hold, your billing and cancellation policies, etc.

All these things affect people’s impressions of your company/brand and their decisions to buy from you or not. You can spend millions building a brand and trying to get customers in the door only to have sloppy customer service, shoddy products or service, and dumb policies sabotage it all. This is even more true in the Internet age where pissed off customers can vent their frustrations on message boards, review sites and blogs.

I hope the lessons outlined in this blog are helpful and can make at least some good to come out of this debacle. Oh, one last thing, if you ever need a new refrigerator, I’d recommend staying away from Sears. I know I will.

(Update: Partselect.com and FedEx came through and we now have a working refrigerator!)

Do You Have LFAQs on Your Website?

I’ve already made an argument for including an “About You” page on your website. The basic idea is that while everyone has an About Us page that describes you and/or your company, customers don’t care. They care about themselves so you should have a page on your site, the About You page, that describes your ideal customer.

Another page that frequents websites is the FAQ page. Businesses use it to list the Frequently Asked Questions they get asked about their business. The problem with FAQs is that they are asked, well, frequently.

Frequent is common.
Frequent is what prospects are asking your competitors.
Frequent focuses on similarities.

What if you were to focus on LEAST Frequently Asked Questions instead?

The questions that are uncommon.
The questions that you wish your customers would ask you, but usually don’t.
The questions that focus on what sets you apart from the competition, not makes you similar.

What questions do prospects not frequently ask you that you could add to your website? How can you use these questions to uniquely position your company to set you apart from the competition? Please post your thoughts in the comments section below.

One Simple Slogan. Two Powerful Lessons.

As I was driving down the street the other day, a red moving truck caught my eye. On the truck was the company’s name and slogan:

Simple Moves – We move what you can’t

As a copywriter, I love the slogan. It serves as a great example for other businesses to emulate.

The lesson is keep it simple. The Simple Moves slogan gets right at the heart of what they do. They didn’t try to get cute. There’s no wordplay to try and show how clever they are. They’re not trying to get you to laugh.

Many companies fall into these traps when coming up with a slogan. But in gloating over how cute, clever and funny they are they don’t realize that their customers don’t care about those things. Customers just want to know what you can do for them. A great slogan (and headline, sales letter, AdWords ad, etc.) does that simply and directly.

And the Simple Moves slogan hits the mark. It lays out exactly what service they provide their customers (and implies what they don’t). It’s not cute. It’s not clever. It’s not funny. It’s just effective.

The second lesson to take away here is to be a niche player. Instead of competing with the big, expensive moving companies, Simple Moves has carved out a niche for themselves. Local, small moves. You want to move your clothes, sliverware, and bottle cap collection yourself, great! You want help with your furniture, large appliances and your piano, Small Moves is your company.

Does your company slogan clearly and simply tell prospects exactly what you do?

Does your company try to be everything to everybody or have you carved out a niche that you can dominate?

I can’t say whether doing these things have helped Simple Moves become a successful company. I do, however, appreciate the way they have positioned themselves and the lessons we can all take away from their example.

Do you have examples of slogans that have captured your attention for better or worse? Post them in the comment section.

Business Lessons From a Toddler: You Can’t Walk Before You Crawl

Babies don’t come out of the womb wearing their Nikes ready to run. It takes a good year or so before they are able to take their first steps.

There’s a natural progression that most babies go through to get there – picking their heads up, rolling over, playing while on their tummmies, sitting up, crawling, standing up, and then walking. During each one of those stages, a baby develops, practices, and refines the skills – such as hand-eye coordination, depth perception, and the muscles – they need to start walking. If a baby skips any step along the way, the ultimate goal, walking, becomes much more difficult, if not impossible to achieve.

Business owners often fall into that trap of skipping steps in trying to grow their business. This often leads to disastrous results. Just look to Boston Market and Krispy Kreme as two well-known examples of businesses who paid the price for trying to run before they could crawl.

You can’t open your doors for business one day and expect to have the next Microsoft, Amazon.com, or eBay. There’s a natural progression needed to develop all the parts of a business. Each successful step along the way builds on the previous ones. Go too quickly or skip some steps along the way and the business will fall flat on its face.

This lesson is especially important for individuals that want to start an online business and develop a stream of SWISS Money. There is a tendency to want to rush things. You get bombarded with emails from internet gurus who have supposedly built huge fortunes and tell you that you can too if you just follow a few easy steps.

It just doesn’t work that way. The internet gurus who have built huge fortunes haven’t done so overnight. It took time for them to learn the skills they needed to start that huge flow of SWISS Money their way. They developed, practiced and refined their copywriting, sales, technology, direct response, and AdWords skills.

They built huge mailing lists.
They researched their target audiences.
They tested their marketing messages.

At each step along they way they developed the skills needed to successfully get to the next level. Those that did this have the SWISS Money flowing in. Those who went to fast and skipped steps in the development of their business – don’t.

As you grow your online or offline business(es), never take your eyes off your ultimate goal. Just don’t push things so that you try to get there before you, and the business, are ready. Because you will fall flat on your face.

Make sure you have the necessary skills and support structure in place so you can confidently and successfully take each step along the way to reaching your goals.

Because when building a successful business, as with babies learning to walk, you can’t walk before you crawl.

Ultimate Writing Tip That Will Blow Your Mind and Boost Your Response

Want people to read your blog posts, promotional emails, articles, advertisements, press releases, or web site? More often than not, it’s going to come down to the headline.

You have precious few seconds to entice a reader. If your headline fails to do that, odds are the rest of what you’ve written will not get read – no matter how good it may be.

Perhaps no one knows this better than those in the magazine industry. This industry pays headline writers big bucks to come up with catchy headlines that instantly grabs the reader’s attention and gets them to add the magazine to their cart.

So why not put their expertise to use for your business?

One of my favorite copywriting tricks is to browse magazine covers at Magazines.com. At this website, you can view the latest covers for just about any magazine in print. From Cosmo to Maxim to Men’s Health to many more, it’s a crash course in writing headlines that command attention.

Here are a few suggestions on how to make the most of using Magazines.com for marketing your business:

1. Don’t obsess over the words so much as the structure of the headlines. For instance, you’re probably never going to write a headline for your business “When Your Boobs Act Weird.” However, if you’re in IT, you could use the headline “When Your Server Acts Weird.”

2. Pay particular attention to the headlines from magazines that target the audience you’re writing for. If you’re writing for small business owners, check out headlines from Entrepreneur, Inc., or Fast Company.

3. Use the headlines as a cure for writer’s block. Don’t know what to write about for your next blog post or newsletter? Start browsing those magazine covers and the headlines are sure to trigger an avalanche of ideas.

4. Magazine headlines can also make for great Google AdWords ads. You have very limited space when writing text ads to promote your business on Google. Adapt some particularly catchy headlines into your AdWords campaign and see if they give your clickthrough rate a big boost.

5. Start a headline swipe file. Spend an hour each month browsing the most popular magazine covers at Magazines.com. Add all the headlines that capture your attention to a Word document on your computer. Before long, you’ll have 100s of possible ideas for headlines, blog posts, AdWords ads, etc.

Some copywriters say the headline is so important they spend 80% of their time on it and only 20% writing the body copy. Using Magazines.com can be a shortcut for generating that attention grabbing headline that will boost the response to your next blog post, email marketing campaign, sales letter, AdWords ad, etc.

And, by the way, the title for this blog post was adapted from the magazine headline in my swipe file, “Ultimate Health Check Up That Will Blow Your Mind and Change Your Life.”