A Brain Dump Of Marketing Ideas

Want to create great marketing pieces?  Use this as the quickest, yet most effective training you’ll ever get on the subject.

1. To increase your profits measure your results.  Test, test, test and keep testing – split runs tests two ads – approximating split runs (two inserts), in the mail – only test the price, the offer and the headline
2. Code every advert you ever do
3. Clarify your objective and stay focused
4. Never run a full page advert – frequency beats size
5. Pay for position – right hand side top better than bottom
6. Do something that’s totally outrageous – know your media
7. Go on standby…  let the people selling space in papers and internet to call you when they have a drop out or last minute space to sell….AND… wheel and deal
8. Boost response by changing the type – point size important – use lead between the lines
9. Never, never, never use all capital letters
10.                             Indent paragraphs
11. Use a drop letter – 4 chances to tell your story – the headline, the full body, the sub-headlines, and  picture and caption
12. Repeat your story in the coupon
13. Tell your story / benefits with sub-headlines
14. Every picture demands a caption
15. Make your ad look like an editorial – do not have lots of white space
16.  Let your customers point the way to profit – listen to what they are looking for and sell them it
17. Watch what direct response advertisers are doing and plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize…  this works even more so on the internet.
18. Never put everything in your advert – always have something more to offer – first impressions are last(ing) impressions.
19. Marketing is not a battle of products, nor brands -  it is a battle of perception
20. The most powerful concept in marketing is owning a word in the prospect’s mind and two companies cannot own the same word in the prospect’s mind
21. Marketing is not one battle but a war – fight the right war for your business.  90% of businesses should use guerilla warfare
22. When you admit a negative, the prospect will give you a positive
23. Success often leads to arrogance – spot it when it happens
24. Failure is to be expected and accepted. 
25. Hype – The situation is often the opposite of the way it appears
26. Without adequate funding an idea won’t get off the ground
27. The keys to success lies in perpetual testing of all the variable.
28. What you say is more important than how you say it.
29. The headline is the most important element in most advertisements
30. The most effective headlines appeal to the reader’s self-interest or give news, curiosity, quick, easy way.  Three classes of successful headlines – self interest…news…curiosity.  Self interest the best headlines when combined with curiosity If you have news…get it into your headline in a big way. Avoid headlines that merely provoke curiosity
31. Long headlines that say something are more effective than short headlines that say nothing
32. Specifics are more believable than generalities
33. Long copy sells more than short copy
34. 3 step process – initial testing, expand testing of winners…learn from results.
35. In a properly controlled test the marketing piece that brings the most inquiries – what we call the first step in two step or multi-step selling usually brings in the most sales.
36. The purpose of headlines must be to convey a message to people who read only headlines, then decide whether or not they will look at the copy.  Only when they are interested do they read the copy
37. The best headlines are the ones that aim at a specific audience and offer that “target market” something its readers want and want badly.
38. In order to impress your offer in the mind of the reader or listener, it is necessary to put it into brief, simple language.
39. There is little sales value in fine writing.  It is what you say that counts, not how you say it.
40. Do not depend on opinions.  Use some kind of objective test to determine the relative effectiveness of marketing pieces
41. Avoid headlines that paint a gloomy or negative side of the picture
42. Try to suggest in your headline that here is a quick and easy way for the readers to get something they want
43. Use a sensible point of view…would the headline make you decide to buy the product
44. Do not try to make your headline so short that it fails to express your idea properly
45. Avoid dead headlines, too smart or meaningless ones
46. When creating a marketing piece  – write as many as 25 headlines
47. In long headlines emphasize one or two words – size, bold print – nouns
48. Keep it simple and to the point
49. Put a date into your headline, write in news style, feature the price, reduce price, special merchandising offer, easy payment plan,
50. Feature a free offer, offer information of value, tell a story, begin your headline with the words…how to, how, why, which, who else, wanted, this , because, if, advice, announcing, now
51. Use a testimonial style headline, offer the reader a test, one-word , two word, or three-word headlines
52. Have your headline ask a question, offer benefits through facts and figures.
53. Successful marketing pieces are based on one or more of three appeals…sex, greed, fear, duty, honor, professionalism
54. Use guarantees to remove the prospects fear of buying your product or service
55. Unsuccessful headlines were not written without a strong appeal, but it was the wrong appeal for that product and that audience.
56. Headline (not marketing piece) Analysis in order of importance:
    • Headline/subheads (appeal, wording, size placement)
    • Illustrations (subject size, style, placement)
    • Layout/colors ( any overall difference between winners and losers)
    • Copy (amount, type, size and style)
    • Offer (including how to order or purchase)
    • Size (size in relation to the page on which ad appears)
    • Medium / frequency (name, type, daily, weekly, monthly)
    • Placement (where ad ran in relation to medium as a whole)
57. There is no better test of a marketing piece than whether or not it actually sell the product
58. Don’t imitate fancy art and fancy language…emulate and borrow from an ad in direct mail or direct response ads
59. Enthusiasm is just as vital in advertising as in selling
60. Use interrupting ideas…a startling statement. a shocker…news, preview, quotation, story
61. Readers digest is fact packed, telegraphic, specific, few adjective, arouse curiosity
62. Straightforward copy – it merely states the facts in the most understandable way possible
63. Story copy – starts off with a human interest situation….
64. You and Me copy… speaks directly to the customer – chatty, friendly way
65. Imaginative copy – heightens the reader’s interest in the product by describing it in imaginative terms.
66. Factual copy – the ad that tell the largest number of facts about the product are the ads that make the most sales
67. Forthright copy – admitting there are some weak points as well as strong points
68. Superlative copy – blow your own horn as loudly as possible
69. Teaser copy – challenges the reader to not read
70. Competitive copy – compares your product with others – not recommended
71. To increase the selling power of your ad  – use present tense, second person…YOU YOU YOU..
72. Pictures must relate to the marketing piece
73. 17 Ways to test your marketing piece…put you newly written marketing piece aside until the next day, ask somebody to read your copy aloud to you
74. Rules are made to be broken

Regards,

Peter