Web Wolves, Whores, Vagabonds, and Fools
Posted on 13. Apr, 2011 by Daniel Levis in Articles, authenticity, benefit, Blog, employer, evolution, guru, market, myth, scam, selling, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, trend, tweet, Twitter
The world is changing today so fast it’s really hard to keep up. Just a few years ago pretty much everybody worked for someone else. For most, it was the smart thing to do.
Safe, secure, benefits — the whole bit.
How things change. Today, manufacturing in the developed world is dead, toast, gone.
And so called "knowledge work" is now carried on by independent consultants, freelancers, and other entrepreneurs who come together virtually from the four corners of the earth. It’s cheaper, more efficient, and involves far less risk than the traditional everything-under-one-roof business model.
In this brave new world, only idiots still believe employment equals security. The average tenure in a J.O.B. is now, what… eighteen minutes?
The big, lumbering, vertically-integrated companies are failing like the dinosaurs they are, spitting out long-suffering employees like so much mulch. Since the vast majority of these employees were educated for a business world that no longer exists, they are now left twisting in the wind, clutching at straws.
And sooner or later — with the help of web wolves in sheep’s clothing — it dawns on these poor souls: Make Money on the Internet. It’s a fabulous idea. You absolutely can make money on the Internet, though most people who try don’t make a red cent.
Why?
It all boils down to a mindset that buys into these three big myths…
Myth #1:
Push Button, Make Money
From what I can tell, most newbies approach online business with the exact same mindset they bring to their jobs. They give no thought to the purposes of their labor, save a paycheck at the end of the week.
And this flawed thinking makes them prime suckers for every add-nothing-of-value-get-rich-quick scam that comes down the pike.
Multi-level schemes… auto-blogging… PPC arbitrage… software that automates some almost-useless function to such a degree that it squirts a little money… the exploitation of temporary loopholes that allow you to inject yourself into somebody else’s value chain, but without bringing anything useful to the equation.
These are the kinds of things that attract the employee mindset. Just give me some mindless activity — I don’t want to know the motivations or interests of anybody else — the less thinking I have to put into this the better.
The flimflam artists who dream up these schemes know that the less they explain about what it is they are actually selling, the more suckers they’ll enlist. No thinking person would buy from their sales copy because it fails to answer the fundamental business question: What value does this bring to anybody but me?
Contrary to popular opinion, the purpose of business is NOT to make money. The purpose of business is to fulfill unmet needs and desires — to add value to other people’s lives in some way. Making money is a byproduct of that process.
Myth #2
You Need a System, Blueprint, Roadmap, Formula, Method to "Duplicate"
Now don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with modeling. The problem is mindless modeling. The kind of modeling where Joe Newbie takes said model and applies it out of context and without adaptation.
In today’s world, there is no such thing as context. Things change much too quickly to expect that by the time a particular system, blueprint, or roadmap comes to market it’s still entirely optimal — even to the exact same situation it was originally developed for.
Let alone the inevitable differences of situation that exist between where it was developed and where it will be applied.
Yet this is exactly the expectation. The average employee expects his or her employer to show them step-by-step how the job is to be done. If the output is less than ideal, it’s the employer’s fault. And this idea gets carried over into the entrepreneurial world. If it doesn’t work, it’s the guru’s fault.
And so yet another disillusioned newbie begins wandering aimlessly through the Internet marketing streets like a hapless vagabond in search of something that actually works. There is no such thing as a plug and play business. Doesn’t exist, never will.
It’s up to YOU come up with your own system, blueprint, or roadmap that solves the specific problem that defines your business.
Myth #3
You Don’t Have to Sell, Just Make "Friends", "Followers", and "Connections"
The promise of social media marketing is this: Make fans, they’ll do your selling for you.
It’s all about authenticity and connection and interacting with your public on the same stage, where everybody gets an equal voice. While it’s certainly true that liking is important to persuasion, it’s just part of the equation.
The social media marketing game is at best foreplay that can never succeed without getting down the "ugliness" of direct marketing and actually asking people to buy stuff. It is this fear of selling that causes newbies to flock to social media marketing in the first place.
At its worst, social media marketing is prostitution. What was supposed to be a pristine oasis of authenticity and a sanctuary from blatant commercialism is turning into a cesspool of disingenuous opinion and endorsement — a media that is inherently unreliable, and therefore destined to devolve in value.
Case in point: Twitter now offers a revolutionary new suite of pay per click advertising services. With Promoted Tweets you can now buy celebrity endorsements at the push of a button.
The service is only available to large advertisers at present, but pretty soon the little people should be able to log on and use their plastic money to get plastic people to tweet about them.
It’s incredibly genuine. They’re keepin’ it real.
Or how about Promoted Trends? Yes, you can actually buy your own trend. Who’d have thunk it?
Or the ultimate in pimposity, Promoted Accounts. This is where Twitter will help you turn a quick trick by soliciting followers on your behalf.
The wonders money can buy. Whatever happened to good old-fashioned, honest direct marketing?
Until next time, Good Selling!
Web Wolves, Whores, Vagabonds, and Fools originally appeared on The Michel Fortin Blog. Please visit to subscribe to it, or Tweet This.
Forget Benefits, And You Will Sell More
Posted on 01. Oct, 2010 by Michel Fortin in Articles, benefit, Blog, claim, Copywriting, feature, focus, market, selling, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, success, word
What’s the single, most important element in copywriting?
Let me say it another way.
You’ve done your research. You found a starving market. Your product fills a need. And your sales copy shines with benefits. If everything is so perfect, then why is your product still not selling? Is it the price? The offer? The competition?
Maybe. But not necessarily.
The fact is, these things are not always to blame for being unable to sell an in-demand product, even with great copy. Too often, it has more to do with one thing:
Focus. (Or should I say, the lack thereof.)
In fact, the greatest word in copywriting is not “free.” It’s “focus.” And what you focus on in your copy is often the single, greatest determinant of your copy’s success.
In my experience, copy that brings me the greatest response is copy that focuses on:
- One messsage
- One market
- One outcome
Here’s what I mean…
1. One Message
The copy doesn’t tell multiple, irrelevant stories. It doesn’t make multiple offers. It doesn’t go on tangential topics or provide extra information that doesn’t advance the sale.
Copy should make one offer and one offer only.
Too many messages confuse the reader. And as copywriter Randy Gage once noted, “The confused mind never buys.” It confuses them because they don’t know which offer provides them with the best value for the amount of money they are ready to spend.
Prospects want to spend their money wisely. Lose focus, and it is harder to think clearheadedly as to make a wise decision in the first place. Remember this axiom:
“Give people too many choices and they won’t make one.”
You don’t want to do what my teenage daughter does to me. When we go shopping for a dress, after hours of flipping through hangers and racks, she finally pinpoints one she likes, goes to the changing room to try it on, looks at me and asks, “How’s this one?”
“Perfect!” I say. “You sure, dad?” She asks. “Yes,” I add. “I’m positive.” So we head to the cash register when, suddenly, she stops along the way, picks up another dress off the rack, and says, “How about this one? Or maybe this one? Oooh, look at this other one!”
We came really close to walking out of that store without buying any of the dresses.
2. One Market
I don’t want to spend the little space I have for this article to extoll the virtues of niche marketing. But when it comes to writing high-converting sales messages, it goes without saying: trying to be all things to all people is next to impossible.
When it is possible, then your sales message must be generic enough to appeal to everyone, causing the majority in your market to feel you’re not focused on them.
(There’s that word “focus,” again!)
In order to appeal to everyone, your sales message will be heavily diluted. It will lose clarity. People will feel left out because you’re too vague. You will appear indifferent to their situation, and to their specific needs and goals, too.
If you cater to a large, diversified market, I highly encourage that you segment your market and target each segment separately, and write copy that caters to each one.
That is, write copy for each individual and targeted group of people within your market. If your market is made up of two or three (or more) identifiable market groups, write copy for each one — even if the product is the same for everyone.
3. One Outcome
“Click here,” “read my about page,” “here’s a link to some testimonials,” “call this number,” “fill out this form,” “don’t buy know, just think about it,” “here are my other websites,” “here are 41 other products to choose from,” and on and on… Ack!
When people read your sales copy, and if your copy is meant to induce sales, then you want one thing and one thing only: get the sale! In other words, there’s only one thing your readers should do, and that’s buy. Or at least your copy should lead them to buy.
In other words, the ultimate outcome should be to buy — every call to action, every piece of copy, every page, every graphic should revolve around this one outcome.
Remember K.I.S.S. (i.e., “keep it straightforwardly simple”).
You would be surprised at how many salesletters I critique where the author asks the reader to do too many things, to choose from too many things, or to jump through so many hoops to get the very thing they want in the first place.
Your copy should focus on one call to action only, or one ultimate outcome. Forget links to other websites or pages that are irrelevant to the sale. Forget irrelevant forms and distractions. Why invite procrastination with too many calls-to-action?
In fact, I believe that the goal is not to elicit action but to prevent procrastination.
Because when people hit your website, whether they found you on a search engine after searching for information, were referred to you by someone else, or read about you somewhere online, then they are, in large part, interested from the get-go.
So your job is not to get them to buy, really. They’re already interested. They’re ready to buy. Your job (i.e., your copy’s job), therefore, is to get them not to go away.
Ultimately, focus on the reader. One, single reader.
This is probably the thing you need to focus on the most. The most common blunders I see being committed in copy is the lack of focus in a sales message, particularly on the individual reading the copy and the value you specifically bring to them.
In my experience as a copywriter, I find that some people put too much emphasis on the product, the provider, and even the market (as a whole), and not enough on the most important element in a sales situation: the customer.
That is, the individual reading the copy at that very moment.
Don’t focus your copy on your product and the features of your product — and on how good, superior, or innovative they are. And don’t even focus on the benefits.
Instead, focus on increasing perceived value with them. Why? Because perception is personal. It’s intimate. It’s ego-centric. Let me explain.
When you talk about your product, you’re making a broad claim. Everyone makes claims, especially online. “We’re number one,” “we offer the highest quality,” “it’s our best version yet,” etc. (Often, my reaction is, “So what?”)
And describing benefits is just as bad.
Benefits are too broad, in my opinion. You were probably taught that a feature is what a product has and a benefit is what that feature does. Right? But even describing benefits is, in my estimation, making a broad claim, too.
The adage goes, “Don’t sell quarter-inch drills, sell quarter-inch holes.”
But holes alone don’t mean a thing to someone who might have different uses, reasons or needs for that hole. So you need to translate benefits into more meaningful benefits.
You see, a claim always looks self-serving. It also puts you in a precarious position, as it lessens your perceived value and makes your offer suspect — the opposite of what you’re trying to accomplish by making claims in the first place.
Therefore, don’t focus on the benefits of a certain feature. Rather, focus on how those features specifically benefit the individual. Directly. Personally. Intimately.
There is a difference. A big difference.
The more you explain what those claims specifically mean to the prospect, the more you will sell. It’s not the features that counts and it’s not even benefits. It’s the perceived value. So how do you build perceived value?
The most common problem I see when people attempt to describe benefits is when what they are really describing are advantages — or glorified features, so to speak. Real benefits are far more personal and intimate.
That’s why I prefer to use this continuum:
Features ► Advantages ► Benefits
Of course, a feature is what a product has. And an advantage (or what most people think is a benefit) is what that feature does. But…
… A benefit is what that feature means.
A benefit is what a person intimately gains from a specific feature. When you describe a feature, say this: “What this means to you, Mr. Prospect, is this (…),” followed by a more personal gain your reader gets from using the feature.
Let me give you a real-word example.
A client once came to me for a critique of her copy. She sold an anti-wrinkle facial cream. It’s often referred to as “microdermabrasion.” Her copy had features and some advantages, but no benefits. In fact, here’s what she had:
Features:
- It reduces wrinkles.
- It comes in a do-it-yourself kit.
- And it’s pH balanced.
Advantages:
- It reduces wrinkles, so it makes you look younger.
- It comes in a kit, so it’s easy to use at home.
- And it’s pH balanced, so it’s gentle on your skin.
This is what people will think a benefit is, such as “younger,” “easy to use” and “gentle.” But they are general. Vague. They’re not specific and intimate enough. So I told her to add these benefits to her copy…
Benefits:
- It makes you look younger, which means you will be more attractive, you will get that promotion or recognition you always wanted, you will make them fall in love with you all over again, they will never guess your age, etc.
- It’s easy to use at home, which means you don’t have to be embarrassed — or waste time and money — with repeated visits to the doctor’s office… It’s like a facelift in a jar done in the privacy of your own home!
- It’s gentle on your skin, which means there are no risks, pain or long healing periods often associated with harsh chemical peels, surgeries and injections.
Now, those are benefits!
Remember, copywriting is “salesmanship in print.” You have the ability to put into words what you normally say in a person-to-person situation. If you were to explain what a feature means during an encounter, why not do so in copy?
The more benefit-driven you are, the more you will sell. In other words, the greater the perceived value you present, the greater the desire for your product will be. And if they really want your product, you’ll make a lot of money.
It’s that simple.
In fact, like a face-to-face, one-on-one sales situation (or as we say in sales training, being “belly to belly” with your prospect), you need to denominate as specifically as possible the value your offer brings to your readers.
In other words, express the benefits of your offer in terms that relate directly not only to your market, but also and more importantly:
- To each individual in that market
- And to each individual’s situation.
Don’t focus on your product. Focus on your readers. Better yet, focus on how the benefits of your offer appeal to the person that’s reading them. And express how your offer benefits your prospect in terms they can intimately relate to, too.
Look at it this way:
- Use terms the prospect is used to, appreciates and fully understands. (The mind thinks in relative terms. That’s why the use of analogies, stories, examples, metaphors, and testimonials is so important! Like “facelift in a jar,” for example.)
- Address your reader directly and forget third-person language. Don’t be afraid to use “you,” “your,” and “yours,” as well as “I,” “me,” “my,” and “mine.” Speak to your reader as if in a personal conversation with her.
- Use terms that trigger their hormones, stroke their egos, tug their heartstrings, and press their hot buttons. You don’t need to use puffery with superlative-laden copy. Just speak to your reader at an intimate level. An emotional level.
Because the worst thing you can do, second to making broad claims, is to express those claims broadly. Instead, appeal to their ego. Why? Because…
… We are all human beings.
Eugene Schwartz, author of Breakthrough Advertising (one of the best books on copywriting), once noted we are not far evolved from chimpanzees. “Just far enough to be dangerous to ourselves,” copywriter Peter Stone once noted.
He’s not alone. My friend and copywriter Paul Myers was once asked during an interview, “Why do people buy from long, hypey copy?” His short answer was, “Human beings are only two feet away from the cave.”
(Speaking of Eugene Schwartz, listen to his speech. It’s the best keynote speech on copywriting. Ever. Click hear to listen to it. You can also get a copy of his book, too, called “Breakthrough Advertising.” I read mine several times already.)
People buy for personal wants and desires, and for selfish reasons above all. Whether you sell to consumers or businesses, people are people are people. It’s been that way for millions of years.
And nothing’s changed.
Your message is just a bunch of words. But words are symbols. Different words mean different things to different people. Look at this way: while a picture is worth a thousand words, a word is worth a thousand pictures.
And the words you choose can also be worth a thousand sales.
Forget Benefits, And You Will Sell More originally appeared on The Michel Fortin Blog. Please visit to subscribe to it, or Tweet This.
Get in Touch With The Future
Posted on 07. Apr, 2010 by Michel Fortin in Blog, computer, engaging, john naisbitt, kinesthetic, market, Marshall McLuhan, Megatrends, message, Opinions, prediction, salesletter, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, statistic, trend, video, Wii
An interesting thing is happening lately, and it’s giving me a lot of fodder. I wanted to share a few opinions with you.
First off, as you know I love predictions and making some of my own. For example, I wrote a controversial white paper several years ago, called “The Death of The Salesletter.”
In it, I predicted that more and more salesletters will become shorter, more dynamic, more targeted, and more engaging. The explosion in video salesletters being one of them.
And that was over three years ago!
Recently, I wrote about another big upcoming trend, and that’s the explosion in cloud computing and how it will change the future of online business. I even blogged about it here in a post entitled “The Future of The Internet is Cloudy.”
For example, I downloaded Xmarks, a nifty online-based bookmark synchronizer that also synchronizes my native bookmarks on IE, Chrome, Firefox, and Safari using the cloud. It even synchronizes passwords and form fills, although I use LastPass for that.
But recently, a new product hit the market that reminded me of something…
We’re seeing a huge change in the way we work with computers. In my white paper, I talked about “multisensorial salesletters” where salesletters will increasingly engage all three modalities of communication (i.e., visual, auditory, and kinesthetic).
For instance, print media is a tactile medium. It’s mostly kinesthetic. The radio is auditory, while the TV, which may be both auditory and visual, is predominantly visual.
The computer, on the other hand, with the help of your keyboard and mouse, are all three. They help engage more senses. They’re visual, auditory, and kinesthetic.
Therefore, it makes perfect sense that sales messages online should be multisensorial. Significant statistics prove that, the more senses you engage, the more sales you will make. Which is why I predicted that video salesletters would explode — as it has.
But one thing struck me.
While we use a mouse and a keyboard, the kinesthetic component is somewhat indirect. These tools enable some tactile interaction, but they are more or less guides. (The Wii video console is a better example of having a bit more direct tactile engagement.)
Now, enter the new iPad.
iPhone and iPad are definitely more direct forms of kinesthetic communication. Sure, touchscreens have been around for years. But Apple helped touchscreens to penetrate the mass-market by making them easy, practical, and of course cool.
When I first heard of the iPad, I thought to myself, “This is the future!” I thought that more and more computers will become like that — direct contact with the message.
(Marshall McLuhan was dead-on, if not pretty darn close.)
iPad is not just a larger iPhone. It’s much, much more than that. Better said, its introduction means a lot more than what most people care to give it credit for. Some people don’t like it. A lot of people say it’s just a bunch of hype. But I say it’s the future.
And now, I see this article in Mashable, which underlines exactly what I thought — in that research shows that all computers will be eventually touchscreen-based.
By the way, as I’m sure you have guessed, I love visionaries, futurists, and predictions. John Naisbitt’s “Megatrends” is one of my favorite books. I often mention “high-tech, high-touch” in my work. Faith Popcorn is another visionary I admire a lot.
Speaking of Marshall McLuhan, other than his most famous quote (i.e., “The medium is the message”) he is mostly known for, here are a few more of his fascinating quotes. Read them, and you’ll see how ahead of his time this guy was.
Anyway, ’tis all food for thought. 
The important thing in all of this, is this: how do we mold our businesses, products, and services to fit these upcoming trends? More important, how can we monetize them?
Bottom line, keep your eyes peeled. Just sayin’.
Get in Touch With The Future originally appeared on The Michel Fortin Blog. Please visit to subscribe to it, or Tweet This.
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