Check Your Messages Make Sense
Online selling platforms like eBay include some great automation tools, as eBay magician Matt Clarkson pointed out on the weekend at the eBay workshop he and wife Amanda presented on the Gold Coast.
For example, Selling Manager Pro includes a handy feature to help automate the messages sellers can send out during the buying process once an item has been sold.
I got one of these emails today from a seller, for an item I purchased for my wife Mel on the weekend.
It started like this:
Subject: Thank you for your payment. eBay item #____________ “name of the item”
Dear (eBay user),
We hope you enjoy your purchase. Your payment has been received for the following item:
(A table showing the Item title, Web Address, Item number, Buyer User ID, Seller User ID and total price.)
Thank you very much. Your business is much appreciated.
Please send payment for eBay purchase.
I accept the following payment method: PayPal, Money Transfer, Money Order/Cashiers Cheque
Please go to the URL below to complete payment: (linked eBay payment address)
Did you notice the error?
First of all, it starts off by saying thanks for my payment. That’s a good automated email to send as a courtesy, which establishes a little rapport (even without a personalised message).
And then it describes the payment received and the related item.
That’s great too — confirmation I did pay for the correct item as a buyer.
But then, it falls apart.
The message tells me to send payment, the acceptable payment methods and a link to paying via eBay.
I’ve already paid! So asking me here to pay again doesn’t make any sense. (For some inexperienced users, that may cause confusion and affect the buyer-seller relationship).
In fact, it would have been better from a marketing perspective to have a link back to the seller’s other items (or their store if they had one — in this case they do have an eBay store) … to encourage further purchases.
If you’re going to use automated templates (or any other manual or sequenced series of messages), make sure you check and verify yourself that the messages make sense from the buyer’s point of view.
Affluent Marketing
At last week’s Mal Emery Platinum mastermind get together, we briefly discussed how there’ll be a massive transfer in wealth in the coming decade or more, as the parents of baby boomers pass away and wealth is transferred in greater amounts to the baby boomer generation.
That transfer of wealth will generate an increasing amount of spending on products and services aimed at an increasingly affluent generation who are no longer prepared just to sit out retirement, but want experiences, services and products to actively enjoy life after work.
Here’s one indication of the amount of wealth being transferred, at least in the US:
“The numbers are staggering. According to the Boston College Center on Wealth and Philanthropy, over the next 50 years, the wealthiest Americans will leave behind an estimated $27 TRILLION dollars.”
– High Net Worth on CNBC, 16 August 2008
(On the CWP website, the figure is even higher — they’re reporting intergenerational wealth transfer of $41 trillion by 2052 — in 44 years).
It certainly reinforces that discussion … so what can you do in your business to make the most of this opportunity? How can you package and present your products to attract affluent baby boomers to your business?
If you haven’t already done so, you should be taking note to ensure this lucrative market is not overlooked.
President Kennedy
Okay, you won’t believe this … I’m not even a US resident and I got the Americans to let me run for President … it’s all over the news!
Thankfully having the name “Kennedy” swayed them — they don’t seem to mind the idea of another Kennedy in the Whitehouse.
Thanks to Paul Gram on the Copywriters Board for the heads up on this one! Nice viral marketing at work!
Put an end to work on spec
I read tonight of a new online business venture which not only encourages work “on spec” but uses it as a model for designers. What a disaster!
Before I get into this post, so you know what “on spec” means, from No!Spec, the definition of work “on spec” is:
“Spec” has become the short form for any work done on a speculative basis. In other words, any requested work for which a fair and reasonable fee has not been agreed upon, preferably in writing.
Back to the story.
The site in question — which I have no intention of promoting with a free link — uses this approach:
by having bidding designers (at least 25 entries) submit completed concepts rather than just proposals in the competitive process
Why have they determined that this model of business is okay for graphic design? Why should a provider — in this case a designer — invest their time, equipment and skills in a project where they’re one of at least 25 submissions to the client. So they have a four percent chance of being paid.
You wouldn’t think of doing this in other environments.
For instance, if you’re building a new home, do you ask 25 builders to build you a house “on spec”, and then choose the one you want to pay for? Hardly! Would a hairdresser cut hair all day “on spec” in the hope that 1-in-25 clients likes them enough to pay for it? No!
Design is no different.
Now, if you’re a new designer (or copywriter, desktop publisher etc) then you might want to take on some “free” work — pro-bono — to build up a credible portfolio before you have a lot of successfully completed projects under your belt. In that way, it’s a legitimate way to build up your reputation by showing a client the type of work (and client) you are capable of producing.
And there’s certainly a difference between creating personalised marketing samples to attract a client and creating full projects you “might” get paid for as one of several or even dozens of potential skilled providers.
But that client then expecting you to undertake full projects without the surety of payment … makes no sense for the provider … so in the end it’ll make no sense for a client. It devalues the intellectual property skills of the provider, devalues their time and ultimately costs clients more money anyway as that lost time is compensated for with paid hours.
A better approach — which I use regularly — is to guarantee my services and involvement in a project. The risk is on me to produce something suitable, or risk not being paid in the unlikely event my work doesn’t fit the bill. But — other than for poor performance — my involvement in the project is paid for, not “on spec”.
If a client is asking for work “on spec” because they don’t know you — then along with a guarantee you could use samples, existing work and client testimonials to help prove your value. So there are certainly ways to persuade a client who isn’t aware of your capabilities of your suitability for a project.
Stick to these proven, persuasive approaches and steer clear of the “on spec” requests!
Category Ads Don’t Make Sense
I just saw on TV an ad by Bigpond for DVD home movie rental. Creative, humorous ad … but nothing really special. The only thing is, the main thrust of the message was to sell viewers on home DVD rental, not necessarily Bigpond home DVD rental.
So they’re really just promoting the “home DVD rental” category, and not saying anything at all about how different they are to competitors like QuickFlix and others.
Epson have been doing the same thing lately — ads on the back of IT magazines advertising their products, but again showing no difference compared to competitors like HP and Canon.
The current ad shows how a stapler isn’t as good at multi-tasking as an Epson printer — yet Canon and HP multifunction printers are in the same category and perform the same functions.
Another recent Epson ad showed how their printers had individual cartridges for each ink colour (the main image was a case of pencils with one nearly used up) — again, just like their competitors HP, Canon et al.
If consumers are “duped” into believing Bigpond and Epson are the only companies to offer such products … once they realise that’s not the case, what will their perception be of Bigpond and Epson? Will it be lowered when they realise competing products also offer the same features?
So in that case, what’s the point of promoting a “category” of product like multifunction printers when consumers later realise yours is just of several choices? You might convince them to pick a multifunction printer, or get home DVD rentals, but you’re not ruling out your competitors in your marketing.
Wouldn’t you rather get people hungry for your own product, and see good reason to choose you over a competitor?