Write Headlines that Make Your Competition Shout Unfair

The headline of your ad, blog post or sales letter must capture the attention of your prospects.

So what if you are being unfair to your competition.

If you are okay with that - here is a simple and inexpensive software that helps you write those killer headlines in seconds.

Check it out here.



George Torok Keynote Marketing Speaker Co-author of Secrets of Power Marketing Get your free copy of "50 Power Marketing Ideas" Power Marketing on FaceBoourk Marketing Zoo on Twitter

Alright or All Right - Which is the Correct Version?

As a marketer you probably know that it's as much about how you deliver your message. If you use text in your marketing the one often overlooked factor is correct word usage.

For example, do you know when to use one of the words or phrases from the following list?



Already or all ready?

Altogether or all together?

Anybody or anybody?

Maybe or may be?

Overtime or over time?

For the answers to these choices and 15 other word pairs read this informative article by Mark Nichol as posted on his Daily Writing Tips Blog

20 Pairs of One-Word and Two-Word Forms

by Mark Nichol

Many common words and phrases are identical except for a strategic letter space — apart and “a part” come to mind — and though knowing which form to use in a sentence is often obvious (as in that example), the difference can be subtle. Here are some of the less clear-cut pairs:

Click to read the rest of "20 Pairs of One-Word and Two-Word Forms"

Thanks Mark. I see a lot of helpful writing tips on your blog.

George Torok Keynote Marketing Speaker Co-author of Secrets of Power Marketing
Get your free copy of "50 Power Marketing Ideas" Power Marketing on FaceBook Marketing Zoo on Twitter

Why consumers prefer 70 items for $29 and not $29 for 70 items

Facts might not matter as much as presentation.

You probably suspected that.
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Presenting item quantity information before price (70 songs for 29 dollars) may make the deal appear much more appealing than if the price were presented first (29 dollars for 70 songs ).

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That's a curious result form this marketing study.

Learn more here
http://truthdive.com/2012/01/18/Why-consumers-prefer-70-items-for-29-and-not-29-for-70-items.html

Being Pleased with Your Announcement is not Enough

Read this ineffective email announcement and beware. It was sent by a local non-profit organization. Read it and see if you can decipher what they want from the receiver.

Check your interest level, thoughts and emotions as you read this. Of course that’s what you need to do before you ever send an email like this. Certain words have been edited out (substituted with xxx) to protect the guilty.


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It is with great pleasure that we announce the launch of the xxx xxx webpage on our website.

We are fortunate to have some amazing xxx in xxx who have agreed to share their views on what it means for them to be a xxx.

We are pleased to showcase these individuals who have made it their priority to instil work ethics and essential skills, by providing valuable xxx opportunities to our future workforce across a variety of economic sectors.

We invite you to read their stories and hope that you will be inspired to join the thousands of xxx, who believe that knowledge-transfer and xxx are the key to the growth of our economy and our community.To view the xxx page please visit, xxx

Thank you
Name
Title
Organization

What do they want the reader of this message to do? Do they want people to visit their webpage? If so why? What’s the benefit to the reader? If that was the desired action why was it in the fourth paragraph after four boring and send focused paragraphs?

Let’s examine the lame language in this announcement.

“It is with great pleasure that we announce”

Boring, cliché and lame. Why would the receiver of this message care about the sender’s pleasure or announcement?

“We are pleased to showcase”

Why would the receiver care what pleases the sender?

And I left the typo “instil” as it appeared.

“We invite you”

Invite might be a good word to use but the rest of this run-on sentence/paragraph is vague, confusing and boring. What does it mean “to join the thousands”? Do they want money, a signature on a petition or a like on Facebook?

This non-profit organization might end up complaining that people are complacent. I wonder if they will ever consider that perhaps, they haven’t done their homework. They haven’t learned what motivates their market and they haven’t stated their message clearly.

The message needs to be about your audience - not about you.


George Torok

Marketing Speaker

3 Reasons That Numbers Sell

Have you ever noticed that subject lines with a number in them are more likely to be read?

Comunication Capsules
By Lynda Goldman


For example, "10 Ways to Attract Customers Using Case Studies" captures your attention much more than "Attracting Customers Using Case Studies."

Why? Here are 3 reasons that numbers sell.
3 Reasons that Numbers Sell

1. Numbers arouse curiosity. The person sees the number, (in this case, the 10 ways to use case studies) and immediately starts to compile her own list of ways to use case studies. Then she wants to compare her list to yours, and see if she missed anything. If she can't come up with 10 ways, she's curious to know what they are.

2. Numbers provide a focus for the reader, and a specific promise. The writer has to make sure to fulfill the promise, and deliver the 10 ways.

3. Our brains take in information in groupings more readily. When we see the number 3 or 10, it's very easy for that message to come into our brain and we stay more receptive to it.Bonus tip (and the reason I presented 3 tips instead of 4): Odd numbers seem to work better than even numbers, maybe because they appear to be more scientific and legitimate. That's why Listerine kills 99% of germs instead of 100%.

However, the number 10 is always a winner! (So now, if you'd like 10 Ways to Attract Customers Using Case Studies, just click on the link on the top, to the right.)

Warmest wishes,
Lynda

Lynda@LyndaGoldmanInk.com

Register for Lynda Goldman's Communication Capsules

Code Talkers

Code Talkers - Deceivers

Have you noticed that some (many) companies talk in code?

They say things that make you shake your head and think - "What the hell was that about?"

Why do you think those companies do that?

My theory is that they belong to one of the following three categories:

1. They don't know any better. They are just plain ignorant. (But could be educated)

2. They are deceitful and greedy. They say things they don't mean because they want the sale. (At least you know where they stand.)

3. Combination. They don't know and don't care. (This is the worst type.)


Here is an good example of code talking. I found this text on a website. The name of the company has been changed to XXX. Go ahead and read this statement and then decide how you feel.

Do you understand what they do?
Do you want to join them?
Would you recommend this company to your best friend?

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XXX is committed to becoming the largest Distributor based company in the world. Our emphasis is on being a responsible, innovative business partner providing real wholesale value on each product we sell and at the same time offer an up front income opportunity that far exceeds the conventional methods. We believe ultimately that this new Wave in the ever developing world of network marketing is the future and our commitment is to continue to stay light years ahead of any of the followers.
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So what the hell does that mean?

What did they promise?

What can you count on?

And how many "light years"?

Yep - people and companies do say stupid things.


George Torok

Power Marketing Tips

Marketing Speaker

Online Tools for Working with Words

Online tools for working with words

The following is from an email that I received from Internet Marketing expert Perry Marshall.
If you are picking words for your webpages or writing marketing copy you can find these tools very helpful. Marketing is more about words than about logos and images.

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First, I always liked the idea of a thesaurus but when I'm actually trying to write something, somehow I don't find most of them the least bit helpful. But here's an online tool I just love:

http://visualthesaurus.com - Generates visual trees of related keywords, sort of like a mind map. You type in a term and rich word trees spring up. Then you can click on the next word and the next word and the tree continues to morph. I just sent the latest Renaissance Club newsletter to the printer and I think I used it six or seven times to find just the perfect word. There's a free demo and a yearly membership is a paltry $20. Give it a whirl.

Spy Intelligence: Sometimes it's quite useful to have an idea of what your competitors are doing on Pay Per Click, what keywords they're bidding on, what they're spending, stuff like that. Disclaimer: Neither of these tools provides a completely accurate picture but they're both very useful:

http://spyfoo.com/ - Gives you a list of major keywords your competition is bidding on, an estimate of their daily budget, data about their organic listings, average bid position, and how many competitors they have. Rather insightful.

http://www.googspy.com/ - A related technology, but presented in a different way. The keyword list it generates is incomplete but quite helpful.

http://www.lexfn.com/ - Type in a word and it gives you related terms and concepts.

http://buzz.yahoo.com/ - Following pop culture to see what's hot this week? This is a great place to do it, 'cuz the clicks always tell a story. I don't know that this is terribly useful for keyword research per se (unless you have a very deliberate strategy that plays on celebs & stuff like that) but it certainly gives you topic ideas that you can tie into newsletters, rants, etc.

The equivalent tool on Google is called Zeitgeist:
http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html

Google's Keyword Suggest - http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en - as you type a search term, Google suggests related words.

Have fun with this stuff.
Perry Marshall
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Here's a great tool for writing killer headlines - because headlines are the welcome mat for your website or marketing copy.
Headline Creator Pro


George Torok

Personal Marketing

Marketing Speaker for conferences and corporate meetings

More Yellow Pages Ads Mistakes

More Mistakes in Yellow Page Ads


Yellow page advertising seems to generate a lot of mistakes. Why?

My guess is that it is because of the way many business owners think about their yellow page ad. They believe that they must be in the yellow pages because the competition is there. They believe yellow page advertising costs way too much. They’re not sure how well (or even if) its working. Yet they invest so little in measuring, analyzing, planning and designing their yellow page ad.

Every time the Yellow page ad sales rep comes to visit the business owner just can’t say no and doesn’t know the right questions to ask. The Yellow page ad rep intimidates the business owner by offering options like color, sizes, outlines… The Yellow page ad rep doesn’t help the business owner create a better ad. The rep simply pressures the buisiness owner to buy a Yellow pages ad.


Here are more of the sins that I discovered in the Yellow page ads:

Centering text
Including company logo
Including useless images (most are useless)
Including useless photos (most are useless)
Including photos of staff or founder (a special category of useless photo)
Background Shading
Background images
Too many different fonts
Using decorative fonts
Putting “Sales and Service at the top”
The business name in the largest font
Trying to reach more than one market
Print too small
Too much text
Using all caps for anything other then business name
Too many boxes within the ad
Using the word ‘quality’
Association member logos – other than BBB
No call to action
Credit card images (doesn’t everybody take them?)


George Torok
Yellow Pages Advisor
Power Marketing
Marketing Tune up

Proof Reading Tips from Daphne

Every good marketer needs a good proofreader. Enjoy these proofreading tips from the creator of Perfect Edit.

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Daphne's tips for proofreading your work:

Read it aloud and also silently but always slowly.
Read it backwards to focus on spelling.
Use a spellchecker, but don't depend on it.
Point with your finger to read one word at a time.
Don't proof every type of mistake at once - proof at separate intervals for spelling, grammar, consistency of word usage, etc.
Make a 'to-do' list of things to watch for as you edit.
Double check little words, they are often interchanged - e.g. or, of, it, and is.
Don't use fluorescent lighting while proofing.
Listen to music while you work!

Daphne at Perfect Edit
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Only a fool proofreads his own work.

Don't be a fool. contact Daphne at Perfect Edit for your written materials. Sometimes I try to save time by bypassing my proofreader - and that is when you will find errors in my material. Silly me.


George Torok
Marketing Coach
Co-author of Secrets of Power Marketing

Write Head-Snapping Headlines

Writing a good headline for your marketing material is important. But writing profit-pulling headlines is the holy grail of marketing copywriting.

It used to be very difficult and thus very expensive to hire a powerful headline writer. Good headline writers are the elite of marketing copywriters. It is the headline that grabs your target’s attention and gets them to read the rest of the copy. A bad headline wastes the time and money expended on writing the marketing text.

Now you don’t need to spend hours writing or thousands of dollars for a top-notch headline writer. (Good copywriters spend years studying and developing their craft.)

Well, technology just made it easier for you. Technology does level the playing field – but only for those who take advantage of it.

I recently discovered the software that helps you write your own powerful headlines in seconds. I tried it and was blown away by how easy it is to use. It’s called Headline Creator Pro.

….AND I can’t believe how inexpensive it is.

Save yourself a bundle on your next marketing campaign and make it more profitable for you. If you ever need to write headlines for your marketing materials, websites or articles check it out.


George Torok

PS: It comes with a money back satisfaction guarantee.

PPS: It costs you nothing to learn more now.

George Torok
Power Marketing