The Wrong Way to Leave a Voice Message

If you want people to return your calls, don't leave a voice message like this.

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This message is for George Torok.

This is Alex calling.

I need you to return my call at 1 800 000 0000  It’s urgent that I hear from you.

Once again the number is 1 800 000 0000.

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That was the message on my voice mail. There were at least two messages from Alex and one from a female using the same script. I could not understand her name.

What's wrong with this message?

1. There was no reason to call. Your listener is wondering, "What's in it for me?"

If you want people to call you, you must tell them why. In particular the reason to call must be in their interests. The listener doesn't care about what you need.

2. Just because you say it's urgent doesn't mean it's urgent. Even if you think it's urgent, that's only your interpretation. It's not urgent to your listener.

If it is urgent tell your listener why it is urgent for them.

3. There was no offer.

What was Alex offering? Was it a free gift, special price or insider information? Who knows? We can only assume that Alex was selling something. Clearly it was not something I wanted or needed because he didn't mention the product or the problem that it would solve.


4. There was no connection.

Alex didn't mention his company name so the listener is left wondering. I don't know Alex. I wondered, "How did you get my name?"

If there was a pre-existing connection or referral - tell your listener. That can warm up the relationship.


5. It was clearly an automated call.

My name was in a different person's voice. So it was patched into the voice message like a mail merge in a word processing program. It was clearly not a personal call but one intended to broadcast to as many as possible in the hope of catching some unsuspecting fish. Telephone spam.





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

Controversy Sells: Richard Branson Does it Again

Richard Branson built a billion dollar empire and a powerful personal brand. There are common elements in those two achievements and some distinct differences.

Let's look at the more interesting part - the personal brand.

If you were to describe the man, what simple words would you use?

These are the words and phrases that come to my mind:

Adventurer


Provocative


Passionate


Visionary


Wicked sense of humour

My guess is that none of those surprise you. So why was the government of British Columbia surprised and unprepared when he acted exactly that way on his recent visit to promote Virgin Atlantic flying into Vancouver?

After BC Premier Christy Clark invited Branson to go kite surfing off the BC coast, Richard responded on his blog.
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When in British Columbia a few days ago, the delightful Premier Christy Clark accepted my invite to come for a kitesurf ride on my back.

One thing though - I forgot to tell her about the dress code! Well, here it is.
The offer still stands Christy!

By Richard Branson. Founder of Virgin Group

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Classic Branson!

Provocative and wicked sense of humour.

But the stuffed shirts at the BC government proclaimed his comments as "offensive" and "disrespectful".

Those stooges played right into Branson's hands by fuelling the controversy in the public media.


Score Card

Richard Branson: For being true to himself: 100

BC Premier, Christy Clark: For her clever and funny quip: 50

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20120530/Premier-Christy-Clark-Branson-kitesurfing-120530/BC Government back room advisers: For their lack of forethought and afterthought : minus 30



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

Put a Little Joy in Someone's Life

Marketing Speaker Geoff Ramm is on the street hunting down powerful marketing in action. Look how simple this marketing is and listen to the owner's reasoning. I like it. And thanks to Geoff Ramm.







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

Reliance Takes Unfair Advantage of the Competition

Good marketing should give you an unfair advantage over the competition. You want your prospects and clients to believe that selecting you over the competition is a clear decision. "Duh, of course we will buy from them."

To gain that unfair advantage you might make enemies with your competition. Nothing wrong with that, is there?

Kudos to Reliance Home Comfort in fighting back against the competition.

Reliance Home Comfort is mainly in the business of renting water heaters. The also sell water heaters but renting is far more lucrative for them so that's what they encourage customers to do. They offer other services related to home heating and cooling.

In the past few years there has been an influx of competitors who have marketed themselves by knocking on doors. Notice that the new insurgents into the market attacked on a different front.

When you want to beat the market leader you must attack on a different level. Never go head-to-head with a stronger competitor. The competition was playing unfair.

Apparently, these insurgents were also unfair to their prospects by being deceptive in how they represented themselves. But, they were hurting Reliance Home Comfort because the giant reacted.

Reliance respond by creating a website and campaign to expose these unscrupulous door knockers. The cornerstone is the website www.BurnedAtTheDoor.com At this website you can find information about water heaters and questions to pose to door-to-door sales people. Reliance also posted notices of "Hot Spots" - communities where the competition was actively knocking on doors.

They even allow you to report current hot spots - tapping into the social media urge.

I'm curious about how the competition will fight back.


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

What is Total Value?

Value is not the same as cost. 

In fact, a product's value is almost never equal to its cost. For example, your product might cost you $2 and you sell it for $10. The value to you is $10. 

The value to the customer will usually be more than the selling price. If it was only worth $10 to the customer then they have no motivation to buy. But if the value to them is greater than the selling price, they are motivated to trade their money for something of greater value. It may be worth $30 to the customer. Then they will gladly give up $10 of their money for the product. The greater the difference between the perceived value and the cost of the purchase, the more the customer will want to do business with you.

Always provide value that is greater than the price they pay.

The Value Formula

Take a look at the following formula, then see where you need to concentrate your efforts to create value. Every product and service can be described this way.

Total value = real value + perceived value

Let’s take it apart to understand it. Real value comprises the tangibles. It is relatively easy to measure. Real value can be expressed in this manner:

Real value = function/cost

Function is what the product or service does in mechanical or analytical terms. How much money does it save you or make for you?

Imagine you are buying a new car. If you want to get the best real value, you would get the most function (efficient ground transportation) for the lowest cost.

You could measure the car's function factor by comparing it with the cost of your practical alternatives: public transit, car pooling, taxi, bicycle, limousine, various car models. You might wish to consider the costs of these alternatives in terms of time and inconvenience. What does your new car give you that these other modes of transportation don't?

Having determined the new car's function factor, you can divide it by its cost. Is its function worth more to you than its cost? If so, the new car has real value.

At the end of your analysis you would buy the cheapest car. Right? Not necessarily. 

Remember that what you are willing to pay for your car is based on the total value to you, which is a factor of both real and perceived value. 

So, sometimes without realizing it, you assign value to less quantifiable benefits and buy something that you like. 

Liking is not part of real value, it is part of a product's perceived value.

What is Perceived Value?

Compared with real value, perceived value is harder to measure. It is influenced by emotion, image, and other intangibles - all the benefits you should emphasize in your marketing efforts.

Perceived values are not bad - they are a reality. As long as we are individuals we will think differently, perceive differently, and place different values on things.

Beware of that. Use it to your advantage. When your prospect wants to negotiate price, remember to build up your product's perceived value.

By the way, always deliver real value too.

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

Wimpy Braille Burger Marketing Unfair to Competition

In this video, my friend Geoff Ramm reports from South Africa with this example of clever marketing from a Wimpy Burger.

It's an example of how you can take advantage of the misfortune and mistakes of your competitors. Apparently one of the other hamburger chains asked a blind person with his seeing eye dog to leave the restaurant. That story was splashed in the media with lots of bad publicity for that chain.

So what would you do if you were the competition? Would you politely say, 'what a shame', or would you jump on the opportunity to take an unfair advantage over the competition?

Look at how Wimpy took the unfair advantage. Thanks to Geoff Ramm for this video report.





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

56 Tips for Increasing Website Traffic - Carol Roth

This compilation on the Carol Roth Blog offers 56 tips for getting more traffic to your site.


Here is my contribution (number 35) to the list:


Funnel Travel Via YouTube


Optimize your videos on YouTube by putting your keywords in the title, description and tags. Put your website URL at the beginning of the video description. Place your keywords as captions in your video. Put your URL on a text page at the end of your video. 


Read the rest of the list 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 FaceBook Marketing Zoo on Twitter