By David Garfinkel
© 2002 David Garfinkel
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Allow me to introduce you to the mysterious "E-Factor."
It's mysterious because it has two meanings.
Both meanings will help you get more business from any
promotion you do. So without further ado, here's how you
can use the "E-Factor" to make more money:
· Put "E-Factor" in your testimonials and copy
Did you realize the very best source of new business is
almost always a prospect who has been referred to you by a
friend or trusted business advisor? It is. Think about
this in your own life. When you need an accountant, or an
attorney, or a doctor, or for that matter a hardware store
in a new town, you'll probably turn to someone you know,
whose judgment you trust, to refer you to the service or
product provider you're looking for.
OK. But what does that have to do with direct mail and Web
promotions?
A lot. People are always on the lookout for sources of
advice they can trust. However, since you can't always rely
on giving every prospect for your business personal
recommendations from the prospect's friends, neighbors and
advisors they actually know and trust, you do the next best
thing: You give them copy with recommendations from people
who seem like the people they know and trust.
How? By putting testimonials and case studies in your copy
involving people who will fill the role of trusted friends
and advisors.
Many marketers do this but they don't get the desired
effect. Why? Because they haven't put enough productive
effort into the research that pays off. This is in-person
research - especially one-on-one "casual" research, as
opposed to formal focus-group research - with their actual
customers, and people who are a lot like their customers.
This high-payoff research gives you in-depth working
understanding of how your prospects think and act in the
world - and how they look at things and make decisions.
When you have this understanding and you weave it into the
language of your descriptive copy and your testimonial
quotes, it's called "empathy."
"Empathy" - that's the first meaning of "The E-Factor."
Increase empathy in your copy and you'll increase sales.
· Profit from the second meaning of the "E-Factor" as well
There's another, equally important meaning. Before I tell
you what it is, let me give you a big, fat hint. In his
book The Entertainment Economy: How Mega-Media Forces Are
Transforming Our Lives, author Michael J. Wolfe points out
that American consumers put 8.4% - about one dollar out of
every 12 - into some form of entertainment. Currently, that
adds up to $480 billion a year.
As a side note, Hollywood productions - films and TV shows -
bring in the second largest amount of money from overseas
back into the U.S. economy, after aircraft sales.
Yes, the other meaning of the "E-Factor" is entertainment.
It's huge. And it applies to marketing and selling. As the
late (and great) David Ogilvy reminded us, "People will not
be bored into buying."
But beware. Many a copywriter less talented and, more
importantly, less thoughtful than Mr. Ogilvy has made the
fatal error including humor, fantasy, drama or thrills in a
promotion in such a way as to not specifically move the
sales process forward.
And that's dangerous. Even deadly, sometimes. Here's why:
When you include entertainment, people's attention will
invariably be drawn to it over anything else. And when
entertainment does not directly support moving the sale
forward, then it automatically detracts from the sale.
There are dozens of examples. The lying Isuzu salesman.
Sales went down. "Plop-plop, Fizz-fizz." Sales went down.
I'm sure you have your favorites of entertaining ad
campaigns that bombed. Now you know why.
Entertainment isn't bad. But not painstakingly linking the
entertainment to the forward motion of the sale is bad.
Very bad.
So... how do you add entertainment value in such a way as to
increase the sales effectiveness of your promotion?
Several ways:
· Tell a dramatic story where your product is the hero and
saves the day for the human involved. My favorite example
of this is the newspaper ad for Joe Karbo's legendary book
"The Lazy Man's Way to Riches."
In the ad, Mr. Karbo talks about his "Lazy Man's Way" which
he promises to reveal in the book he's selling. He tells
how, before he knew the "Lazy Man's Way," he used to work
18-hour days, 7-day weeks and was still perpetually in debt.
But after he learned the "Lazy Man's Way," he became
financially independent by working less and in fact became
very wealthy.
This incredible ad combines drama with sales power in an
unbeatable way. And it worked! The ad sold 3 million books
by mail order!
· Use humor that adds emphasis to the value of your product
or service. When you get past the laughter, most humor in
ads just shows off the cleverness of the creative team who
created the ad. (You might say it also shows off their lack
of concern for creating sales.) A positive example, where
the humor shows how the product is so worthwhile, is the old
(and very successful) series of Seinfeld commercials for the
American Express Card.
· Use exciting, colorful language in testimonials when
customers are talking about the virtues of your product.
But make sure it's believable. And don't make fun of the
fact that you're selling something, any more than you would
go to target practice and fire the first shot into your own
foot. At all times, keep your eye on the target - increased
sales!
So let's review. How can you use this information to make
more sales in every promotion? Take stock of its Empathy and
Entertainment Value. Be single-minded. Take out everything
that takes away from the sale, and keep in - or boost and
strengthen - everything that furthers the sale. Build the
strongest possible promotion at every point along the way...
and watch your response rate soar!
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David Garfinkel & Jim Edwards are co-authors of the NEW
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