Category: General Marketing

Grand plans.

Great expectations.

Big ol’to-do lists…

We all do it.

We listen to a podcast, read an article or watch something on YouTube and we get geared up to take massive action and progress in our business.

To finally pull our collective fingers out and go hell for leather.

Usually…with our marketing.

But, alas, we’re busy. You get distracted and our grand plans are merely a caffeine-fueled wasted hour of our time.

Your marketing plan doesn’t get further than the first activity, and – the business stays in the same position.

That new Facebook Page or Instagram Account, or blog is now silent, doing nothing and collecting dust.

But, it is doing something. It’s, in fact, a big red flashing warning light to any prospective customers who do happen to stumble across them.

It’s shouting ‘flakey’.

‘Inconsistent’.

Perhaps even ‘unreliable’.

I mean, if this guy can’t even keep his own social media channels up-to-date, what on earth is he like to work with?!

Dumby.

Well, that’s exactly what you’d think about MY social media and blog right now.

My last blog post came out in June!

So, why should you trust me to write anything for you? Let alone advise you on what you need to be doing to market yourself.

You shouldn’t.

At least without taking me up on my 100% money back guarantee.

100% Money Back Guarantee Copywriting

When was the last time a professional service business like mine put their hands up in the air and put their money where they mouth was?

I want you to check me out, give me a chance to look over your current marketing efforts, copy and material.

I’ll bust a gut trying my best to advise on ways to improve it, even re-writing stuff myself.

And, if at the end you’re not happy, you get your money back.

It’s risk-free, you don’t lose out, and you could, potentially, be stumbling across a sales generating gold mine, in yours truly.

Drop me an email if you want someone to update your blog more regularly than I update my own.

Email: [email protected]

Next up, a quote from my absolute favourite copywriter and marketer.

Dan Kennedy.

Dan Kennedy’s ‘The Ultimate Sales Letter’ was the very first copywriting book I ever read.

The contents of which helped me put together a modestly successful one page sales letter for my previous internet marketing agency.

I was surprised by the results after I followed some of the instructions, step by step.

Which is why Dan is one of my absolute favourite copywriters.

His quote for this post does more than hit the nail on the head, it’s a Thor sized sledgehammer burying the nail deep into the table.

“all successful selling is by nature and necessity manipulative, and must apply pressure to get decision and action.”  – Dan Kennedy

It doesn’t mean that we as sales people, marketers or copywriters need to be slimy and pushy – but, we must do what we need to in order to get a sale.

Copywriters with this goal in mind know the keys to subtly craft sales copy to force an action.

They get in a readers head, speak directly to them and tip them over the edge just enough to get them to buy.

Need a sales copywriter?

With years of real life sales experience behind me, combined with my copywriting skills – I can help you craft the conversion focused sales copy you need for your next piece of marketing.

Without trying to knock other copywriters, (who can often write beautiful copy), some won’t touch the salesy stuff.

For them, copywriting is an art form, which can’t be dirtied by asking for a sale or talking about money or manipulation.

I’m not like that, I only want to work with businesses who are hungry and dedicated to smashing their sales goals.

Let me know if I can help, drop me an email: [email protected] or call: 07805276044

Back to the blog, and straight down to it.

Have you ever seen a piece of marketing, a sales letter, landing page or email and you just think “I call bullshit…”?

Lately you see it on Facebook and Instagram with the ‘I can help you make £10k a month’ BS posts.

We all know they’re bullshit, often praying on someone’s desperation, or just greed to get a sale for their crappy ‘make money while you sleep’ course.

These posts do work though. Which made me think, what else do we see on a daily basis which – perhaps more subtly, you can call BS on while still being used by proper businesses selling stuff? – And how you could use them, without an bovine whiff…

Exclusivity.

I saw this example in an email from Wayfair today, the subject line reading ‘Exclusively for you: Welcome offers for every room’.

A solid subject line – it’s targeted, shows their list is segmented and pushes exclusivity – a marketing technique we all fall for.

I immediately opened the email, and what did I find…? Just a long boring email full of generic product photos and links, which are hardly exclusively available or offered for me.

The Wayfair email database knows I haven’t bought yet, they’ve got that right, so they’re enticing me to make my first purchase with the ‘Welcome offers’ section. But then the rest of the email lets it down.

 

Now, if this is your business, definitely use this subject line, and ensure your email list is segmented between leads and existing customers, – but actually offer something exclusively for ME. Perhaps try to segment your email list further into male / female and age so you can target this exclusive content even more, to include offers on products I may actually be interested in.

Another one which gets me is a technique you will see constantly when you delve into trying to improve your marketing and copywriting efforts.

Scarcity.

‘We only have X coaching spots left, so book now to avoid disappointment’…

Scarcity is an important, and pretty effective technique to use in your copy, encouraging prospects to immediately sign up / buy now etc instead of saving it until later for fear of missing out.

But, in the same example as before – the product or service you’re actually selling needs to be scarce – you need to have a finite number of spots / widgets available.

You don’t want to find out that you’ve been hurried into signing up for something, only to discover later down the line they’ve ‘found new spots’ or ‘stumbled across a lost batch of widgets’.

If you’re using scarcity – make sure you do actually run out! Otherwise, this technique is just lying and you’ll lost trust and credibility, and seem kinda desperate…and you might sound a bit like a cheesy second hand car dealer…

…Hardly a good look. Can you tell I’ve been stung by this pretty recently?

Phew, off my chest. It’s Easter Sunday at last, so even more chocolate today and a family visit to my Grandparents today for roast.
W

 

Day two on the official journey to starting my new venture, aka – the conversion copywriting agency, to help businesses get more out of their online marketing efforts by driving up conversions with good, relevant copywriting.

But, today is Good Friday, so not much has happened on the business development front. Instead, we’ve been indoors all day, eating chocolate easter eggs, and watching way too much rubbish kids TV.

One thing that I have however been doing as and when examples crop up, is taking an objective view of the email campaigns that jump into my own inbox. I signed up to some of the websites I knew would hit me with emails almost instantly (think home shopping, furniture, electronics etc) and have been keeping an eye on what they’re doing really well on, and what others could improve on.

Even some of the basic ‘rookie’ email marketing issues have been cropping up from some larger companies, ranging from the email itself not showing up in my email reader as the entire thing is made up of images (I have images turned off), to completely irrelevant products being pushed, or even simply not being responsive – forcing me to zoom in and out to read them.

While some internet marketing “guru’s” will claim email marketing is dead, it isn’t – we just need to think differently about how it works, and how readers will be consuming the content.

As a business owner, it’s your job to get your product or service messages in front of your target audience, at the right time and when they have an intent to purchase. Email is still one of the best ways to do this…and done properly, it does work.

Back to Peppa Pig…

…and sticky, chocolate fingers…While cuddling with Archie today, my iPhone buzzed – it was an email from Dean Morrison (a very funny greetings card firm). This email was responsive (I could read it properly on my phone), personalised to me, and timely.

…Just a few clicks later and I had bought two birthday cards for Zoe’s birthday at the end of April, and Dean has another sale – all because they sent an email newsletter out at the right time, to someone with high intent to purchase.

There’s nothing stopping you from doing the same, you just need to work harder to get the message right and the audience primed and ready to buy.

This is something I’m working on providing for clients, helping them reap the rewards well crafted and planned email marketing campaigns can bring.

Knowing where to start can be hard. You sit there with your laptop open, ready to ‘do business’ to smash your to-do list and get results, your fingers eagerly stroking the keys…

But where? Where do you start?

We have all been there. Whether you’re running an established business which is doing ‘OK’ but really could do better, or if you’re like me – looking to start something fresh, but not knowing where to start, we’ve all been there.

This is the problem I’m facing right now, so – a little about me.

My name’s Liam Atkins, I’m 27 and live in Hastings – aka 1066 Battle of Hastings county…

I’ve recently sold the business which had been my main income source over the past 6 months (and one which I did really well from).

I launched a cryptocurrency trading venture in July 2017 and shortly after hitting GBP £1 Million in turnover mark, I sold up and stepped away with a (for us at least) nice number in the bank.

Now, after a 3 month work break to focus on quality time with my 22 month old son Archie, I’m ready to get back into the world of work.

Up until this Bitcoin rollercoaster of a business venture, almost my entire business life had been in the internet marketing world – working as an online marketing consultant helping small businesses with everything from website redesigns, to email marketing – social media – the lot.

This background came in pretty handy as I launched the crypto business, enabling me to quickly establish and online presence – and achieve an almost GBP £200K turnover within just a few months – all, from scratch. With zero initial customers and a tiny GBP £1,000 budget loan from my Dad.

As as side note, this is something I believe all internet marketing ‘consultants’ – experts, guru’s – whatever they want to be called, must have been able to do. Launch, grow and profit from an online business venture using the stuff they’re getting paid to tell you to do…

If your marketing consultant hasn’t personally been able to achieve anything like this for himself – why are you trusting him / her to do it for you?

Anyway, started – and sold within 6 months all with thanks to the Internet marketing techniques and skills gained over the past 7+ years of consulting.

Working with small businesses was great prior to this, giving me my first chances in the business world aged just 19 and enabling me to build my skill base while working on their projects, but, this ‘jack of all trades’ approach will never work with any business – and it certainly didn’t pay off for me bank account wise for a very long time.

Which is why over the past months, between watching endless Peppa Pig and playing with Archie, I’ve been brushing up on my own skills and enrolling in hyper-speed in depth training, in an area that I absolutely love – copywriting, and more specifically – conversion copywriting.

Conversion Copywriting

Building upon the solid foundation that is my 7 years of internet marketing experience, helping businesses not only get their messages out there and seen by potential clients – but crafting those lead generating messages in the first place.

…and then using those same online tools to drive up conversions and generate a much better ROI for their initial business spend / efforts.

And that’s where I currently am, case studies under my belt, recent real life experience launching and selling a profitable business to hand – but yet… I’m still staring at my shiny new Macbook Pro (upgraded from the 4 year old Macbook Air), eagerly stroking the keys – not really knowing where to begin.

On the brink of launching a whole new venture – looking to actually focus on something I love, something that’s lucrative, and something which businesses both large and small can get genuine value from.

So there I go – day 1 sorted, hopefully these ongoing blog posts will help you if you’re in the same position as I am, whether it’s launching a new business, undergoing a re-launch – or just struggling to get your marketing game together.

Until tomorrow – 🙂

Liam