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Right Message: It's not as easy as you think

by ewenmack
23 replies
Example.

I was called in to help with the marketing of a business
because he knew I had success in that market... in general.

It would be easy to use the same message in his market,
however it would fail.

Because he has a much smaller and very well defined list of prospects,
they don't match the same prospects I had the experience with.

In some situations you can use the same message in a different location
and in a market that has the same attributes as you've came out of,
however you don't make that call until you found out what is their
Tipping Point which motivates them to take action.

Never assume your market is the same as another,
because if you do, you've left your message to chance.

Best,
Doctor E. Vile
#easy #message
  • Profile picture of the author roger h
    Looking forward to reading the replies for this one....expecting to see Oziboomer, Savidge4, Claude Whitacre & Peter Lessard sometime soon.

    Ewen, how on earth do you find the time ? (Rhetorical)
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  • Profile picture of the author AmericanMuscleTA
    Never thought about that.


    Who was the general market and who was his well defined prospect??
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    • Profile picture of the author ewenmack
      Originally Posted by AmericanMuscleTA View Post

      Never thought about that.


      Who was the general market and who was his well defined prospect??
      I'm keeping details private due to confidentiality.

      But wanted to bring up the big point,
      which you want to have the mindset that each market is different.

      The person who came to me for help,
      had what appeared to be the same well defined, but small, market
      when he sold out in Australia and moved to New Zealand.

      What was different in New Zealand was that many
      people on his list of prospects were DIY types
      and no amount of marketing trickery is going
      to get them to change.

      However we identified another group that would be susceptible
      to change.

      Now he can come up with the right message and right delivery method
      of that message.

      Best,
      Doctor E. Vile
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  • Profile picture of the author savidge4
    Oh nelly is this a killer topic! Reminds me of a bus ride way back in the day when I lived in Hawaii for a few years. There I was on the bus headed out to the North Shore of Oahu in late December to watch the big waves. Me and a bunch of tourist.

    There was a guy From Australia, Another from England, One from the Phillipines, South Africa, Canada, Mississippi, Washington State, Japan, and a few other places. All of us got into a conversation.. all of us were speaking "English" and every last one of us said things that none of the others understood

    Take a Pick-up in the States as an example. In Australia its a "Ute" in the UK some call them "Lorry" In the Phillipines it might be called a "Trak" in Maine it might also be called a "get me by"

    So all of that... match the message to the market. It is not always the obvious things.. its the more than obvious things that will get you. I am currently marketing my services in a few countries around the world.. and have to have all of my text ( English text ) translated for maximum performance. Who would have thought?

    Originally Posted by ewenmack View Post

    Example.

    I was called in to help with the marketing of a business
    because he knew I had success in that market... in general.

    It would be easy to use the same message in his market,
    however it would fail.

    Because he has a much smaller and very well defined list of prospects,
    they don't match the same prospects I had the experience with.

    In some situations you can use the same message in a different location
    and in a market that has the same attributes as you've came out of,
    however you don't make that call until you found out what is their
    Tipping Point which motivates them to take action.

    Never assume your market is the same as another,
    because if you do, you've left your message to chance.

    Best,
    Doctor E. Vile
    Signature
    Success is an ACT not an idea
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  • Profile picture of the author Freebiequeen1999
    This is very true.

    I did some work for a landscape company who had used some ? company/s on the internet.

    His website and print materials were nice enough, mobile ready wordpress, decent quality printing...but they just looked....wrong...

    we are in South Florida and I immediately found the problem.....the photos on all were stock...and of Northern houses, lawns, trees, etc...

    his slider photos....we don't have hills, pine trees, split level houses (NO basements here)...it was just wrong wrong wrong. Looked like Pennsylvania or maybe Virginia. Hills and mountains and brick houses? Uh uh

    Then he had these horribly generic "team" pictures ...the gal with the headset on wearing a white shirt, dark suit..."business people" in dark suits white shirts with arms folded on their chests LOL

    Honestly where I live, if you see people in a dark suit and white shirt they are in a court room trial or going to a funeral (and even then usually more casual) . The office staff of a landscape company sure doesn't dress like that LOL

    I found they had wonderful pictures of their work for some apartment. etc complexes and other jobs...pro pics..and i was able to get permission to use them so switched out all the sliders
    I had them get pics of their own trucks and an office group pic
    Bright skies, palm trees, lovely flowers, more palm trees, flat and green, stucco houses and florida style buildings....sunshine...looking good now
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    • Profile picture of the author kenmichaels
      Originally Posted by Freebiequeen1999 View Post

      This is very true.

      I did some work for a landscape company who had used some ? company/s on the internet.

      His website and print materials were nice enough, mobile ready wordpress, decent quality printing...but they just looked....wrong...

      we are in South Florida and I immediately found the problem.....the photos on all were stock...and of Northern houses, lawns, trees, etc...

      his slider photos....we don't have hills, pine trees, split level houses (NO basements here)...it was just wrong wrong wrong. Looked like Pennsylvania or maybe Virginia. Hills and mountains and brick houses? Uh uh

      Then he had these horribly generic "team" pictures ...the gal with the headset on wearing a white shirt, dark suit..."business people" in dark suits white shirts with arms folded on their chests LOL

      Honestly where I live, if you see people in a dark suit and white shirt they are in a court room trial or going to a funeral (and even then usually more casual) . The office staff of a landscape company sure doesn't dress like that LOL

      I found they had wonderful pictures of their work for some apartment. etc complexes and other jobs...pro pics..and i was able to get permission to use them so switched out all the sliders
      I had them get pics of their own trucks and an office group pic
      Bright skies, palm trees, lovely flowers, more palm trees, flat and green, stucco houses and florida style buildings....sunshine...looking good now
      I am not sure I can count the number of times that I have run across
      this very same situation.

      Lol - court or funeral - I am in daytona so I know what you mean.
      Since we cover a lot FL ... you and I might know each other.
      Signature

      Selling Ain't for Sissies!
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  • Profile picture of the author Robyn435
    Originally Posted by ewenmack View Post

    Example.

    I was called in to help with the marketing of a business
    because he knew I had success in that market... in general.

    It would be easy to use the same message in his market,
    however it would fail.

    Because he has a much smaller and very well defined list of prospects,
    they don't match the same prospects I had the experience with.

    In some situations you can use the same message in a different location
    and in a market that has the same attributes as you've came out of,
    however you don't make that call until you found out what is their
    Tipping Point which motivates them to take action.

    Never assume your market is the same as another,
    because if you do, you've left your message to chance.

    Best,
    Doctor E. Vile

    Keep dropping the gold!
    Started reading all your posts a month or so ago...

    Opened doors I thought were closed or dead
    Damn well blew my mind on the opportunities that were flying over my head.

    When I joined WF, I got dizzy just from the amount of crap posts
    I had to dig through daily in searches but it was dam worth it
    to find the type of gems that ewen posts.
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    • Profile picture of the author ewenmack
      Originally Posted by Robyn435 View Post


      Opened doors I thought were closed or dead
      Damn well blew my mind on the opportunities that were flying over my head.
      .
      Really interested in finding out more about that,
      if you can share.

      Thank you for your kind comments about me.

      Best,
      Doctor E. Vile
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      • Profile picture of the author Robyn435
        Originally Posted by ewenmack View Post

        Really interested in finding out more about that,
        if you can share.

        Thank you for your kind comments about me.

        Best,
        Doctor E. Vile
        I followed some of the principles you put forward from this thread
        http://www.warriorforum.com/offline-...verts-pay.html

        and another thread you made with the home remodeling ad as an example.

        Both of these ads focused on reaching out to a specific person with a specific need
        and weeds out those least likely to buy.

        I began scrolling through my local classifieds and found a few places
        that sold car parts and after some prodding got them interested in moving more volume.

        Ok lets break here.

        The taxi system is very unregulated in my country and
        people run taxis with all models of cars but one feature that's valued
        is a strong front end to handle our poor road infrastructure.

        So with that in mind, taxi men are looking for cost effective but long lasting parts.

        I then sat down and wrote and ad reaching out to the taxi men
        and even got a picture of a taxi man put him in the ad for social proof.


        1st week the ad ran it didn't do so well so I went to marketing experiments
        and found one of their videos about removing anxiety from your offer.

        I removed anxiety by adding a defective part warranty and replacement.


        The owner of the car parts business called me and said he had to plug the damn phone out of the wall!

        Ofcourse I collected my cut
        I might do a commision based deal next.


        I am still very new at writing ad copy but I just went into the taxi man's head
        and thought about what I would be looking for.

        My local paper has tons of awful ads like the one I redid.
        Lots of opportunity
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        • Profile picture of the author ewenmack
          My goodness, that's brilliant Robyn!

          Thank you for replying.

          Had you ever wrote an ad before and had you ever been to
          Marketing Experiments before stumbling across my posts?

          Best,
          Doctor E. Vile
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          • Profile picture of the author Robyn435
            Originally Posted by ewenmack View Post

            My goodness, that's brilliant Robyn!

            Thank you for replying.

            Had you ever wrote an ad before and had you ever been to
            Marketing Experiments before stumbling across my posts?

            Best,
            Doctor E. Vile
            Never wrote an ad for print before or even online.

            I picked everything up from combing through your threads/replies
            then followed the rabbit hole from there.

            Must say marketing experiments is probably my best find yet.

            Now I have a itch I cant get rid off
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            • Profile picture of the author ewenmack
              Originally Posted by Robyn435 View Post

              Now I have a itch I cant get rid off
              Oops, I've infected you with a virus!

              When you get a 'hit' like you did,
              especially so soon, it's real head rush alright.

              Welcome to the crazy world of turning words
              into money!

              Best,
              Doctor E. Vile
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        • Profile picture of the author kenmichaels
          Originally Posted by Robyn435 View Post

          I followed some of the principles you put forward from this thread
          http://www.warriorforum.com/offline-...verts-pay.html

          and another thread you made with the home remodeling ad as an example.

          Both of these ads focused on reaching out to a specific person with a specific need
          and weeds out those least likely to buy.

          I began scrolling through my local classifieds and found a few places
          that sold car parts and after some prodding got them interested in moving more volume.

          Ok lets break here.

          The taxi system is very unregulated in my country and
          people run taxis with all models of cars but one feature that's valued
          is a strong front end to handle our poor road infrastructure.

          So with that in mind, taxi men are looking for cost effective but long lasting parts.

          I then sat down and wrote and ad reaching out to the taxi men
          and even got a picture of a taxi man put him in the ad for social proof.


          1st week the ad ran it didn't do so well so I went to marketing experiments
          and found one of their videos about removing anxiety from your offer.

          I removed anxiety by adding a defective part warranty and replacement.


          The owner of the car parts business called me and said he had to plug the damn phone out of the wall!

          Ofcourse I collected my cut
          I might do a commision based deal next.


          I am still very new at writing ad copy but I just went into the taxi man's head
          and thought about what I would be looking for.

          My local paper has tons of awful ads like the one I redid.
          Lots of opportunity
          In the usa papers there are more bad ads then good.
          Someone with an ounce of brains and some ambition can do what
          you did over here and make a killing.
          Signature

          Selling Ain't for Sissies!
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          • Profile picture of the author Robyn435
            Originally Posted by kenmichaels View Post

            In the usa papers there are more bad ads then good.
            Someone with an ounce of brains and some ambition can do what
            you did over here and make a killing.
            That's why I said so much opportunity that
            originally blew right over my head.

            I am definitely looking into it

            What I did wasnt very hard at all, I was wondering why
            someone else was not capitalizing on it.

            The owner of the parts business sold more parts in one week
            than he did the entire month, but that's my local market.

            Not familiar with the US market but
            Interesting opp indeed.
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          • Profile picture of the author misterme
            Originally Posted by kenmichaels View Post

            In the usa papers there are more bad ads then good.
            Someone with an ounce of brains and some ambition can do what
            you did over here and make a killing.
            Maybe so but over here we also have a consumer base that gets a thousand gazillion marketing messages hurled at them every minute. So there's more noise to cut through, consumers have more options than just one, and they pretty much have a guard up, so you have to be most excellent to get through.
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            • Profile picture of the author bizgrower
              Originally Posted by misterme View Post

              Maybe so but over here we also have a consumer base that gets a thousand gazillion marketing messages hurled at them every minute. So there's more noise to cut through, consumers have more options than just one, and they pretty much have a guard up, so you have to be most excellent to get through.
              That's why things like "Chicken Soup for _________ Souls", or Robyn's ad for the taxi man
              work.

              Understanding your landscape is very important, not just for ads. There was a national dining chain
              where the accounting department was up in arms about certain restaurants using a lot more sugar
              than others in the chain. Turns out the high sugar using stores were in states where "Sweet Tea"
              is very popular.
              Signature

              "If you think you're the smartest person in the room, then you're probably in the wrong room."

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            • Profile picture of the author kenmichaels
              Originally Posted by misterme View Post

              Maybe so but over here we also have a consumer base that gets a thousand gazillion marketing messages hurled at them every minute. So there's more noise to cut through, consumers have more options than just one, and they pretty much have a guard up, so you have to be most excellent to get through.


              You just have to be better then the last ad they read.

              I am not a copy guy by any stretch of the imagination, yet I have placed
              ads that have pulled thousands of calls per day.

              One of my best pulling ads had the words
              (right in the middle of the ad.)

              "ever want to go sky diving over egypt?"
              (and the next line said )
              "Now that your paying attention, start over."

              That ad ran from 98 - 03 all over the US and it wasn't even a good ad
              it just stood out more then some of the other ads it was next to.
              Signature

              Selling Ain't for Sissies!
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        • Profile picture of the author ewenmack
          Originally Posted by Robyn435 View Post


          and another thread you made with the home remodeling ad as an example.

          Both of these ads focused on reaching out to a specific person with a specific need
          and weeds out those least likely to buy.
          Here's the ad for those not sure what she is referring to...



          Home renovator banked $17,800 from his tiny direct mail campaign.

          Total spend, $86.

          Total return on investment, 209 to 1

          Enjoy!
          Doctor E. Vile
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  • Profile picture of the author roger h
    Fantastic story above, from someone (Robyn) who

    Took Action
    Embraced Risk
    Got Results
    Received Reward.

    I like the sound of that itch.
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  • Profile picture of the author Oziboomer
    Originally Posted by ewenmack View Post

    Never assume your market is the same as another,
    because if you do, you've left your message to chance.
    Sorry I'm late to the party but here's a little thing I discovered in a market I worked on...

    It was to do with the delivery of items to homes or businesses.

    When all the competition were trying to use the cheapest courier services available who would only deliver Monday to Friday 9-5 and only to a business address and only then if that address was on the ground floor....

    ....you know what's coming...

    Did the same thing with payment processing options and online ordering facilities for another client in a market where the competition blindly refused to think that someone wanted to order and pay now for delivery same day.

    Opportunities exist in nearly every market but most people just go for what they think are the obvious things that will swing a purchaser one way or another...

    ...the trick is to discover the "Not so Obvious" ...or in many cases the "Tipping Point" as Ewen describes so well.
    Signature
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    • Profile picture of the author bizgrower
      I don't know if he is following his instincts, or learned the photography business from somebody
      really good.

      Anyway, there is a very good wildlife and landscape photographer in town. He does pretty high end
      work and seems to know everything about paper, framing, pixels, camera types....

      He does framing and delivery. I don't think he ever really messed with the cheapest way to ship, maybe once and it got damaged. He just uses a freighter who will get the framed work intact to the best delivery address for the customer. Some pieces are too large for the customers to transport from the office to home in their personal car... he had one client who insisted on home delivery and he lived in the
      boondocks in Oklahoma (very sparsely populated).

      He personally delivers a lot of times to clients within a couple of hours drive.

      He is starting to get feedback comparing him to a really famous photographer in our region.

      Dan


      Originally Posted by Oziboomer View Post

      Sorry I'm late to the party but here's a little thing I discovered in a market I worked on...

      It was to do with the delivery of items to homes or businesses.

      When all the competition were trying to use the cheapest courier services available who would only deliver Monday to Friday 9-5 and only to a business address and only then if that address was on the ground floor....

      ....you know what's coming...

      Did the same thing with payment processing options and online ordering facilities for another client in a market where the competition blindly refused to think that someone wanted to order and pay now for delivery same day.

      Opportunities exist in nearly every market but most people just go for what they think are the obvious things that will swing a purchaser one way or another...

      ...the trick is to discover the "Not so Obvious" ...or in many cases the "Tipping Point" as Ewen describes so well.
      Signature

      "If you think you're the smartest person in the room, then you're probably in the wrong room."

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  • Profile picture of the author misterme
    "Chicken Soup for the Soul" got turned down a zillion times, and it was the authors' self-publishing it and marketing the hell out of it that got it noticed. Yes, it tapped into the consciousness of the public nicely from that point but here's something you probably didn't know about it:

    It's catchy title, "Chicken Soup for the Soul" wasn't written by the authors, wasn't written by any copywriter or marketing team. It was an innocent remark by someone working with them commenting on what the work was like.

    So here we're confusing brilliant copywriting with the intention of writing brilliant copy.
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    • Profile picture of the author bizgrower
      This is from Abraham.com:
      "Jack Canfield and I approached Jay when we wanted to do the book concept for ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul.’ Jay gave Jack and me two killer concepts. Obviously they must have worked, because so far we’ve sold over 14 million copies using his approach."

      Mark Victor Hansen, co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series



      I did not know about the title creation. I was getting at how they got the market segmentation/message
      to all the different types of souls. I'm pretty sure that was one of Jay's contributions, rather than just
      reaching generic souls.



      Dan




      Originally Posted by misterme View Post

      "Chicken Soup for the Soul" got turned down a zillion times, and it was the authors' self-publishing it and marketing the hell out of it that got it noticed. Yes, it tapped into the consciousness of the public nicely from that point but here's something you probably didn't know about it:

      It's catchy title, "Chicken Soup for the Soul" wasn't written by the authors, wasn't written by any copywriter or marketing team. It was an innocent remark by someone working with them commenting on what the work was like.

      So here we're confusing brilliant copywriting with the intention of writing brilliant copy.
      Signature

      "If you think you're the smartest person in the room, then you're probably in the wrong room."

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