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Bean-Counter needs your help to craft a kick-ass copy intensive business card. (You game?)

by copyassassin
11 replies
Hi Copy Warriors,

I'd greatly appreciate your insights on crafting a business card with a direct response treatment.

So instead of having Name, Title, Address, Phone #, Fax, Email, it would be more like:

"Quick & Easy Tax Prep By A Pro
Tax Butcher Who'll Remove Every
Ounce of Tax Legally Possible!"


Call Adam @ xxxx-xxx-xxxx
{Address}
Slice Your Tax Bill Into Pieces

Or something like that.

My day job is in the tax field and would love to take DM to the boring world of accounting, and since this is the time of the year when we reorder business cards, I'm hoping to create a business card that gets noticed.

What do your business cards say?

Your thoughts?

Thank you in advance!
#bean #beancounter #boring #business #card #copy #counter #craft #game #intensive #kickass #power
  • Profile picture of the author RickDuris
    I have had success with business cards that REALLY look like $100 bills. You have enough room on the backside for a really compelling offer.

    What would be the offer is up to you. Then once you have it we can brainstorm some ideas.

    - Rick Duris
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    • Profile picture of the author maximus242
      Your copy is hypey.

      ""Quick & Easy Tax Prep By A Pro
      Tax Butcher Who'll Remove Every
      Ounce of Tax Legally Possible!"


      Call Adam @ xxxx-xxx-xxxx
      {Address}
      Slice Your Tax Bill Into Pieces"

      If I said to you...

      "Quick & Easy SEO By A Pro
      SEO Master Who'll Get Every
      Visitor Humanly Possible!"

      Would you believe me? Never make your claims bigger than your proof. You have not given any reason to believe your claims - and so they wont.

      Advertising is about telling the truth, in terms of what the prospect wants.

      Instead you need to first answer, why should they buy from you instead of the other accountants?

      What is better about your service than the next guy?

      Advertising is all about psychology. I am not going to tell you all the major concepts for getting a sale but ill give you a few precious gems. You have to answer these questions if you want them to buy

      1. What advantage will they gain by purchasing your service?
      2. Why is your service the best choice they could make to gain that advantage - instead of all the other options out there?

      Also your question comes down to strategy - should you try to sell them tax services on your business card or a free consultation? A free consultation is a much better marketing strategy. Then you can convert them into a sale after the consultation.

      The reason why you should offer a freebie is because it produces higher sales overall. You get more leads, so you have more people you can convert. Trying to convince a customer to call you to buy tax services with a headline is a lot harder than offering them cookies and milk (aka free consultation, or whatever bribe you have) for coming into your office.
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  • Profile picture of the author RickDuris
    Adam buddy!

    Your newsletters ROCK and you better be getting some nice business off them. Quite the Trojan horse, they are.

    Seriously, your newsletters *should be* creating quite a connection between you and your prospects and Clients.

    I can see the time you put into them. You could be the next Irv Blackman (Blackman on Taxes)

    - Rick Duris

    PS: Moving into new offices THIS week I'm told. Previous destroyed by fire in October.

    PPPS: As for vendors... don't have a clue. But just Google "$100 bill business card" and you'll have lots of options. Or go local.

    -------------

    For those eavesdropping, Adam is a Client. Writes a damn good monthly newsletter for his tax and business consulting practice. He's got quite the talent for crafting everyday memorable personal stories that are interesting and relevant to the reader--as he effortlessly integrates various business offers without sounding salesy.

    Quite the copywriter.

    His recent one opens with:

    'I almost "lost it" the other night.'

    That's a keeper. Rivals Abraham's "I have to get this off my chest before I explode."

    PM him and he'll probably send you a copy (if you ask nicely.)
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  • Profile picture of the author Jason Kanigan
    That word "butcher" doesn't resound nicely. Makes it sound like you're going to make a mess of my taxes. With a cleaver! "Easy" doesn't fit either; try "painless" or "stress-free"...I mean, if it were easy, I'd do it myself.

    The idea isn't bad, for those who think in images (NTs like me in Myers-Briggs, for instance)...but for those who don't, whadya got?

    I recommend speaking directly...most business managers & owners are '-STJ' in Myers-Briggs speak and deal with facts, pretty humorlessly except for the dry wit kind.

    "If the numbers and complexity of your tax problems are threatening to overwhelm you...

    "If your business is headed towards tax trouble and you want a way out...

    "If you dread tax time and are desperate for a professional to organize and make sense of it all for you...

    "Then call Adam @ ###-####."

    Gawd, I just gave it to you for Free. What am I thinking??

    Oh. Do a split run (2 versions or more) and see which converts best.
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    • Profile picture of the author agc
      Originally Posted by kaniganj View Post

      That word "butcher" doesn't resound nicely. Makes it sound like you're going to make a mess of my taxes. With a cleaver! "Easy" doesn't fit either; try "painless" or "stress-free"...I mean, if it were easy, I'd do it myself.
      This was my first reaction as well.

      You want to be the sous chef... trimming the fat to make the perfect cut.

      Or maybe use Boucher (in italics) implying a little more French finesse.

      But I still don't much like it.
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      • Profile picture of the author RickDuris
        Adam,

        If you think the $100 bill idea too "gimmicky," for your market, you can also go with a tri-fold card. That means you get triple the space to work with.

        That really opens things up and you can use it for your referential info, your USP, 3 reasons Clients love Adam, your picture, your offer or a testimonial or two.

        Last year I did a tri-fold for myself for offline Clients, and I went hog wild with it. Cost me like $1000, BUT I did 4-color, some special glossy finish and drove the graphic designer crazy with changes until I was happy. (Sadly, they were lost in the fire.)

        You can definitely get tri-folds cheaper ad test a few versions.

        -----

        Also, last year somebody showed me their "business card" It was a high class coin. Cost? $3.50/each in small quantities. The cool thing about it was you didn't want to throw it out or put it away in the drawer.

        -----

        - Rick Duris
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  • Profile picture of the author Mr. Subtle
    Originally Posted by copyassassin View Post


    "Quick & Easy Tax Prep By A Pro
    Tax Butcher Who'll Remove Every
    Ounce of Tax Legally Possible!"


    Call Adam @ xxxx-xxx-xxxx
    {Address}
    Slice Your Tax Bill Into Pieces

    Your thoughts?
    Do you really need all those words to say this...


    Signature

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  • Profile picture of the author agc
    How about David giving Goliath the finger?
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  • Profile picture of the author maximus242
    I will say this copyassassin, what is more important than your copy is your offer:

    Now I have two ads, which one do you want:

    Tax Accounting That Reduces Your Taxes, Call Now

    OR

    Free Booklet Reveals Little Known Ways To Reduce Your Taxes, Call Now

    What you do is you send them the booklet in the mail when they call, and along with it you include a sales letter for your services. You can also do a gary halbert and have:

    FREE Recorded Message Reveals 7 Ways To Cut Your Taxes In 2012, Call xxx-xxx-xxxx

    Then after you give the 7 tips you sell them on your services via recorded message. Joe Polish has a service that can do this for you with a 1-800 number for $100 per month. Google joe polish genius network, then look under his services section to find it

    Or if your going local just get a phone number that goes straight to voicemail - however the nice thing with joes service is you can get them to press a button and be forwarded to your cellphone. Either way you just include a phone number for them to respond to.

    Its going to come down to your sales strategy - first I would test having them go to your cellphone and having them ask for the report. Then you get their home address so you can send them the report and follow up with them by direct mail. And you will have a prospect list.

    Tada, we just tripled your response without writing a word of copy - but by having a better offer and strategy.

    Then you can specialize...

    Free Recorded Message Reveals:

    7 Little Known Secrets
    To Reducing Your Taxes
    If You Make Over $500,000 Per Year

    Call Now:
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