ON ADVERTISING WD On Advertising is published by Wesley Day Advertising
BRAND LOYALTY: BUILD IT. KEEP IT.
Even in an age of Internet marketing and advanced technology, the basics of building brand loyalty still apply. There are no shortcuts. A proper identity must be developed, one that resonates with the customer and reflects the core of the company and its products. The brand identity then becomes the springboard for unique positioning and differentiation. For a brand to remain viable: • It must be nurtured and remain consistent at every touch point, inside the company and outside. • Each and every employee must be a brand ambassador. • For the customer, all touch points must work together to create a cohesive brand experience. • Companies must realize that a positive experience at one touch point does not create total experiential branding. Let’s face it: Product or service features, no matter how innovative, can be copied in a relatively short period of time by competitors. Brand loyalty based on relationships is much more enduring. It can’t be copied or bought. It must be earned.
DIRECT MAIL TIPS #1 OF 4:
START WITH THE RIGHT LIST.
While e-mail is fast, inexpensive, and flashy, good old-fashioned snail mail can often be more effective if you follow these basics.
1. Find the right list. It’s the most important factor in direct mail success. Yet it’s an afterthought in too many cases. Focus on mailing to those firms who most resemble your best customers. 2. Sell the next step. The objective of lead generation programs is to begin the sales process, not to complete it. Push for action on the next step – sending for more information, a free sample, a free analysis. Once you have qualified prospects, you can concentrate on product benefits, features, and applications. 3. Put your message in an envelope or box. Self-mailers and postcards are cheaper to produce, but much less efficient – especially going to C-level executives of large companies. Watch for more direct mail tips in upcoming issues. KEEP WEB PAGES SIMPLE.
A Web site for expectant mothers learned the hard way that simplicity is the best policy for Web sites. A baby name-finder tool was a proven traffic driver for BabyCenter.com. However, visitors who clicked through their search ads weren’t arriving on a landing page specifically relevant to baby names. As a result, they were seeing a high drop off from that page. To solve the problem, they uploaded four new baby-name landing pages and measured their performance. One of these choices simply stated “Looking for baby names? Find your perfect baby name and much more at BabyCenter.com.” and provided search and BabyCenter sign-up boxes. The other three test pages added progressively more detail about the naming information users would find on the site. The last one actually teased the naming tool by listing the top five names in the previous year. The simplest version produced the biggest lift in conversions (defined as users clicking through to the actual name-finder tool), with an increase of 67 percent over the old page. The page with the list of top baby names scored at the bottom.
COPYWRITING SECRET #8 OF 8:
THE FILET OF SOUL.
Can’t seem to please your reader? Here’s a technique for shattering writer’s block that actually originated with Benjamin Franklin. You can use it to figure out what makes a particular piece of copy work. It can also be a jump-start any time you get stuck for words: Get a piece of writing that already works on your audience – yours or somebody else’s. On another piece of paper filet out the bare-bones outline – the soul of the piece. Look at how it is put together. This is just like the reverse engineering that Chinese companies are using on our best products. Now use the outline to build your new piece. It’s a perfectly legit way to jump-start your own creative juices. Read previous secrets at wesleyday.com. CASE HISTORY BLUNDERS.
Customer success stories are a powerful way to promote the value of your company or product -nobody speaks louder than your customers. So why do so many stories fall short? 1. Lack objectivity. Purge all corporate ego statements and keep it objective. 2. Wrong customer. Handpick the best customer to support your marketing goals, not the most willing. 3. Generic story. Direct your case study at just one specific market using the appropriate vocabulary and insight. 4. Too much detail. Carefully select just the details that tell the story and leave the rest out. 5. Targeting your CEO. Write for your potential customers. 6. Not showing ROI. Get a financial ROI if you can, present percentage improvements if you can’t. 7. Sweeping generalizations. All good stories rely on “show me, don’t tell me.” 8. Subjective benefits. Present specific, quantified benefits.
9. Poor writing. Write like a journalist, not a marketer or engineer. 10. Intimidating readers. Keep your story to less than 1,500 words and break it up with subheads that support key points. Contact the professionals at Wesley Day Advertising today to make your case histories more powerful and effective. IS YOUR BRAND MASCULINE OR FEMININE?
Men tend to compare. As salesmen, they ask customers to apply cognitive reasoning to arrive at the best choice. “Buy this because it’s not that.” Women tend to connect. As marketers, they make their product attractive by understanding the prospect’s needs and looking for an emotional connection. The best brands are a healthy integration of both genders -- a combination of both emotional sensitivity and solid, cognitive reasoning. It must appeal to the feminine side with a story that’s attractive and emotionally compelling and to the masculine by having benefits that are cognitively better than everyone else’s.
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