Billy Mays Marketing Magic
A new post today on The Total Package (called Billy Mays Marketing Magic) is required reading for every marketer … Rich Schefren delves deep (and delivers in spades) about “the greatest pitchman ever”, Billy Mays (RIP).
http://www.makepeacetotalpackage.com/rich-schefren/billy-mays-marketing-magic.html
Aside from the series “Pitchmen”, which will be sadly sadly missed, what Rich Schefren reveals here about the sales process and other lessons from Billy Mays is something really to put aside several hours to devour and then discover what you can borrow and adapt for yourself.
I know that’s what I’ll be doing.
Best of all … as with all of The Total Package material … access to the article is free.
Enjoy!
Three More Cover Letter Tips For Job Seekers
On Monday I posted six tips for writing cover letters when looking for a job, and there’s three more I’d like to share.
Remember in that post how my re-write of the letter landed a phone call within 30 minutes and an interview the next day? Well the report I got back from the job seeker was that they’d closed off applications — but opened them again after reading the letter and the resume.
The letter got the employer’s attention, and the applicant’s relevant skills got the interview… a good combination. That turned into a short-listed second interview — so it shows how important your first impression is — get attention and really show-off what’s important to the employer.
That part’s really important … as a copywriter, I’m always telling clients (and remembering to write myself) from the perspective of the prospect: it’s all about what’s in it for them, about their emotions, about what benefits they’ll get.
That applied too when writing your cover letter.
Three More Cover Letter Tips
So here’s three more cover letter tips if you’re looking for a job …
1: Raise and answer potential objections
The reason to do this is so you help control the answer — don’t leave any potential issues hanging for them to answer, that way you won’t get the chance to explain and turn the objection in your favour.
Let’s say the employer lists they want someone with 5 years of PowerPoint experience, but you’ve only got 2 in PowerPoint and 5 using another software presentation program. You could do two things: (a) highlight your combined 7 years of experience in creating persuasive presentations (still showing your competency with presentations and using PowerPoint); or (b) show how with just 2 years, your presentations have helped a sales team increase their close rate from 18 per cent to 37 per cent (specific improvements in results).
Even if your skills don’t match exactly, show how what you do have is still a benefit to your potential employer.
What if you have no experience in a particular software program? Let them know … and still show how you’re a benefit because perhaps you’re a very fast learner of new programs (give an example) or that you’ve used an equivalent program and understand the related theory and concepts. For example, a home builder could use several tools (some easier than others) to build a home — because he or she understands the building concepts. Give me the best tool, and it won’t necessarily help me, because I’m not a home builder. So, in the same way, show how you might understand a concept (eg a billing system) without necessarily understanding the particular software.
2: Assume The Sale
If you and the job are a good match, be confident about it! Include wording in your cover letter that helps show you think you’re a good fit and helps them already imagine you as an employee of the company.
For example: “As you’ll discover when I’m part of your team, …. …. ….” and then list relevant skills and abilities that match what the employer is seeking.
You’re writing to highlight the assumption that you will be part of their team, putting you in the picture.
This positive thinking also helps keep you fresh and in focus when you’re writing, so it helps you write with personality and to not be boring!
3: Your Call To Action — The Employer’s Next Step
Of course, this should be a no-brainer — but it can be overlooked!
Make it clear how to contact you. Be specific and don’t assume they’ll jump to your CV to find your contact details. Put them in the sentence of the cover letter.
So, instead of “I hope to hear from you”, be more specific:
“NAME, I am keen to meet with you to discuss how my experience and knowledge can effectively contribute to your company. To arrange a suitable appointment time, you can contact me on 000 000-0000 or 0000 000 000.”
Shows you’re looking forward to a meeting, and also gives clear, specific instructions with a relevant contact number (here I used a landline and a mobile/cell number).
Reminder …
You can see too from the sentence above that this cover letter would use the name of the person you’re writing to.
You of course found that out, didn’t you?
Personalise your letter to a real person where you can! If they’re the HR Director, find out their name.
Do your research: the company, the person you’ll be meeting. That shows initiative and interest — you’re not treating them “just like another job application.”
Put the name of their company in the body of your letter, along with their name.
Show that your letter is ONLY written for them. Show them you care about their company (because they sure do!).
Summary of Job Cover Letter Tips
Okay, here’s all of the tips together in a mini-checklist …
- Personalise your cover letter
- Don’t be boring: show your personality
- Use the cover letter to match relevant skills to what the employer is looking for
- Use their language/wording where possible to describe your skills and abilities
- Show how you solve their problem (it’s all about their needs)
- Read your letter out loud to check that it flows well
- Raise and answer potential objections
- Assume the sale: put yourself in the picture
- Make sure you have a specific call to action: what the employer should do next
That’s now 9 tips for you from a pro copywriter to help you find a job … I hope you put them to good use!
Gotta Be Believable
Sleepily for me, it’s nearly 3am. I was watching a late movie last night, and dozed off near the end … snoozing soundly on our lounge room couch, until our beloved cat suddenly woke me 15 minutes ago (yes, he wanted his “staff” to attend to his needs) asking for a refill of his now empty bowl.
Before I turned off the tv, I couldn’t help but have a quick look at the guide and notice the overnight infomercials. And without surprise, sure enough there was one for a product I hadn’t yet seen.
This one was for a garden trimmer (the Total Trimmer).
Typical format for a US informercial, although this time they’ve got an Aussie voiceover for selling to the local market. That’s good, except he still read out “gas” instead of “petrol” — but at least it was a “local” voice.
Alternatives
And the presentation of alternative options in black and white, instead of colour, wasn’t surprising either. It’s a way of visually saying “those old style methods” that are no longer the best option (using black and white attempts to signify they’re less appealing as well as dated).
It was kinda frustrating to watch though — because the presentation to me didn’t look believable.
Having helped my dad for several years during high school when he had a lawn mowing business, garden trimmers are something I’m a little familiar with (don’t have one now, but used one plenty of times, even as a teenager).
Now, you should find all the “frustrations” of alternative methods and use them.
But showing someone trying to put gas/petrol into a trimmer from more than ten inches away — and no funnel in sight — that’s just plain ridiculous. People use FUNNELS and it’s EASY. Real people also don’t simply splash gas/petrol all over the place like the rather pathetic and dangerous depiction in the ad.
Do they think I’m an idiot?
Would you do that with pouring milk into your cereal bowl?
Would you hold it a couple of feet away and slightly tip the upright bottle so the milk runs all over the bottle and onto the bench, rather than tipping it “the normal way” so the milk goes into the bowl?
No? You wouldn’t splash it everywhere? Here they expect you do that with petrol.
I’m not sure about you, but an inexpensive plastic funnel for a couple of bucks would solve that problem for me.
Scores a negative for me because I don’t think the depiction of an alternative method is credible.
Here I am, watching the ad, and instantly arguing and solving the objections myself — this is not the thinking you want your prospect to be doing!
Also — seeing a petrol trimmer in action — with heavy duty nylon cutting cord coming out of the head of the trimmer, it’s a far superior result than this plastic looking device.
And on this one, they stop, and have to manually adjust the angle of the head to change the trimmer’s ability to trim areas like lawn edges.
On our trimmer, we just flipped it over in no time at all and kept going, with the fast trimming action now on a different angle and no need to stop and press any buttons or adjust the head of the machine!
So this advertised machine’s limited looking ability scored a negative for me too (knowing how alternative options really work).
No side-by-side comparison, no testimonials in sight either!
Presenting Price
What got me though was the price presentation.
They had a big “$300″ crossed out on the screen for what you wouldn’t pay for some other “old fashioned” gas/petrol trimmer (with a far superior result in my eyes).
Yet the price for this flimsy-looking, lightweight plastic thing was $279.70 (5 payments plus postage handling and insurance) … hardly much different at all (less than 7 per cent).
I’ve only gotta look in the online Bunnings catalogue and they have an electric hedge trimmer for $49.90 and an electric line trimmer for $59 — $108.90 is far LESS anyway than $279.90 for this trimmer with the hedge attachment. Even the cordless Bosch model at Bunnings is only $199. $23.90 for a 25m extension lead (pretty damn easy to roll that up without the tangle they’re showing me), and $12.98 for garden shears, and to me I’ve got the same setup, and probably more effective equipment, at just over HALF price.
Plenty left over for a $15.90 extension cord reel… less than $162 (plus a trip to the store, always fun, and instant purchase) versus $279.90.
It’s scary to think what the other useless optional attachments are worth.
More Potential Objections
One black and white picture shows a tangle of cords in the garage. I can easily “solve” their problem of having to use a cord with a long extension lead by rolling it up around my elbow, or on a reel, like used with a hose — problem solved. Now if they had showed a cord trailing across the lawn, and someone potentially tripping over it — that’s a different problem that really could be a useful objection against alternative choices … but I didn’t see that raised at all!
Now, this thing might not be flimsy in real life, but it sure looked that way to me. To me it looked painfully slow and ineffective. The head hardly made an impact on the lawn edge or the hedges.
And who uses a trimmer to cut their entire lawn? No way!
This thing looked to me like it’d lose a fight against 3 tough blades of grass — not much more power than a kids toy.
There wasn’t real grass flying everywhere, the nylon line would do a much better job! And the nylon line comes in several strengths, there are heavy duty lines (much better than the cheap stuff — look around and find the decent stuff) that spin fast and get the job done.
So this is another objection that hasn’t been raised and addressed — other than them saying it’s lightweight, which is good for some people.
Their demo around the fountain? They were also claiming it’s less straining, but then they’re leaning over on one foot to try and just cut down a few blades of grass — want too much effort for little result.
Around the garden gnomes? Again, the machine looked slow and ineffective, taking more effort than it should for that kind of trimming.
And being battery operated might be a good thing — although it’s only got UP TO a 60 minute charge, and the demo didn’t show the trimmer as having much ability to effectively do the job, so that time is probably eaten up long before your job is finished and you’ll be stuck waiting for a recharge before going back out to get things done.
Again, an objective not addressed … so they leave the viewer to decide on the answer — something you should not do in your own copy.
Find all the objections you can — raise them and answer them! The more the better. Be thorough. Be realistic and believable and have a credible argument. Don’t hide anything … if a prospect thinks about it, and you haven’t addressed it, THEY get to come up with the answer, and it probably misses points you’d want to include.
Doing this shows you really know your product — so you’re the expert and perceived with more trust and value — and you can be more persuasive because you get to influence the answer to the objection, rather than letting prospects think up their own answer. It also avoids insulting the intelligence of your prospective audience by showing alternative scenarios that don’t look at all realistic.
In regard to this garden trimmer, to me (one of those who don’t think the presentation is realistic), it’s fair to say that now I don’t believe you about this … I’m most likely to also start thinking that what else you say also might not be believable.
At that point, you’ve lost me as a prospect because I’m not convinced at all about your presentation.
To me, you ain’t fair dinkum.
Now I’m probably in the minority — I MUST BE, as this ad is running in its current form and probably worked very successfully in the US market before it was imported here — so I’m probably not your ideal prospect anyway … in that case, your ad is doing a good job, even if I don’t believe it.
This is my opinion of course — you’ll have to watch the ad for your own assessment.
And personally I can think of several ways to improve this ad to be more influential (although like I said they probably aren’t looking to address a potential prospect like me). There are several credibility tools and copy arguments that could be used here that I think are missing.
In any marketing … being believable … for trust and credibility … that is ESSENTIAL.
People are skeptical, and getting even more so as time goes on, so if you fail to address these issues in your marketing, you’re “leaving money on the table” and not being as convincing as you can be.
(Now the NEXT informercial that’s now showing, about the Contoured Cloud sleeping mattress — they’re doing a more convincing job than the trimmer!).
Okay, time for me to get some sleep!
Thought A Voucher Was A Better Gift?
… well it appears not everyone wants to use the Gift Card they got for Christmas!
So now comes along “GiftCardRescue” — as spotted in Springwise this month — who allow users to either exchange their cards for cash or another gift card from a different store. The story states the cash payout is 60 to 80 percent of the card’s value, or an exchange can be up to the full value of the card you’re getting rid of.
It’s only US based … for now … but that’s a great business idea that filled a need of a hungry crowd.
On the subject of gift cards…
While I don’t have a source of stats — I have heard in the past (and can verify from anecdotal evidence) that gift vouchers and gift cards are not only sometimes unwanted, but even people who like their present don’t always spend the card at its full value (if at all).
If you’re a retailer, it shows you two things: one — promoting gift cards may earn you unexpected profits from cards that aren’t redeemed; and two — if you were to address that issue in some way, it could be a way to stand out from your competitors.
Local informercial relates better to viewers
Guthy-Renker’s Proactiv solution (the skin care solution for acne treatment) has been running on Australian television networks as an infomercial for several years … and I’d hazard to guess it’s doing very well (given its continuous airing) … even with the whole infomercial basically being an American production.
But tonight I noticed there’s now a new “local” Australian version of the infomercial … all of the testimonials are by Australians … local voices, local addresses … with an Australian television celebrity used predominantly throughout the presentation.
The stories and testimonials, they way they’re told and even the words used, relate exactly to an Australian audience.
And they also use an Australian accented voice over and even mention the product is made in Australia — there’s also wording like “here in Australia” to help ensure it’s obvious the infomercial is Australian.
Even with a few small US sections in the presentation, it’s easy to tell It’s a “fair dinkum” infomercial, still with Proactiv’s professional production values (more about that in a moment).
Whilst I have no evidence or research, my gut feeling says this approach will take sales to another level. Viewers will relate better hearing Australians giving live testimonials — because they’re “local” authentic people, not just one of those “US infomercials” that seem like they’re just lobbed into our market.
To many Australians (or at least the ones I’ve personally polled), the US-produced infomercials can seem overly pushy and scripted/controlled … and there can be a feeling at times that the company who make the product don’t care enough to bother to make a local version of their commercial.
So Proactiv beats this perception.
On the other hand, some of the Australian-produced infomercials simply look amateurish compared to US presentations. While some of the US infomercials look very scripted, and the audience appears overly fake, the Aussie productions look like they were put together on an old PC sitting in someone’s spare bedroom (I won’t name it, but one professional handyman tool comes to mind, as well as a new ad starring the same two blokes).
There’s nothing professional looking about these Australian productions — they’re almost corny … and that’s possibly a strategy (sometimes looking “cheap and cheerful” can be used to promote a “budget” or low cost/high quality value approach — it shows you’re not wasting money on over-the-top marketing). Actually, for the products they promote, I’m sure they work very well. They’re just at a different production level than most US infomercials.
But in Proactiv’s case, the Australian version of their ad is equally well produced as the US one. So that can give the perception that the company cares enough to use local people and still not compromise on the quality of the presentation.
Using testimonials that relate more to your target audience is definitely a proven strategy — for example, if you’re marketing to real estate agents, getting testimonials from other real estate agents is a great way to help persuade your audience.
That’s why I’m sure using Australians in Proactiv’s infomercials will help their sales.