What would you do if the Freddy Krueger of blogging asked if you’d like to interview him? “No pressure or anything,” he says, “but if you do I’d be happy to help.”
Danny Iny of Firepole Marketing is everywhere in the marketing blogosphere. His book, Engagement From Scratch! (free download link!) reflects the wisdom of a blogger who has thrived on community-building. I’ve been subscribed to his marketing newsletter for months, but you never know what you’ll get if you attempt to directly contact someone who’s obviously so busy. So his offer was a delightful surprise. And he was incredibly accommodating, polite, and (most of all) patient with this amateur interviewer.
Read on to find out how to shape your sales offers, Danny’s thoughts on “power” words, and plenty of resources.
1. How do you ensure copy balances well with images and design for your ads and landing pages?
By starting with the client first; think about what the client needs to know and believe in order to make the purchase, and then think about what the best way to communicate that to the client is going to be (that will depend on who the client is, of course). The general rule of thumb is that copy should be the core, and should be supplemented with images on an as-needed basis. There are exceptions, of course, as in the case of Apple’s iPad ads.
2. You’re right, Apple’s iPad ads left out words entirely. What was the wisdom behind that, and how can other businesses apply it?
Those were fantastic ads that worked very well, but in a way that’s very hard for other businesses to pull off. Remember that there was a lot of context already created around the idea of the iPad before it was released; people knew what to expect from Apple products, and they had already seen iPods and iPhones, so the functionality wasn’t new. The only thing that was really new or special about the iPad was its size, and that’s the sort of thing that is easiest to communicate visually. On top of that, a big part of Apple’s appeal is the aesthetic and design of their products, which is also very visual. So it was enough to just show the iPad, and that’s it.
3. So “buzz” is a big part of an ad’s impact as well. What are some creative ways to build that buzz?
Yes, it’s a huge impact of the ad’s impact, and that’s a function of how valuable/interesting/exciting it is to the audience. There are six “buttons of buzz” that a marketer can push quite easily. If you’re interested in learning more about them, check out a post I wrote about that on Ana Hoffman’s blog, or check out the book Buzzmarketing[SD NOTE: don't be shy, it's just a plain old Amazon link], by Mark Hughes.
4. Are there any “power” words businesses should be sure to use in ads, landing pages, or sales letters for an instant effect on sales rates?
There are two categories of “power” words: the words that relate, and the words that direct. On the relating side, the key is to use the same language as your target reader: describe the problem the way that they describe the problem, and describe the outcome that they want in the words that they would use to describe it. The better you relate to your audience, and show them that you relate to them, the more they will trust you. On the directing side, once they trust you, you have to indicate to them exactly what they should do, so be as precise as possible telling people what they should do next (i.e. click on the link, go through the checkout process, etc.).
5. “Relating” and “directing” are useful categories, and it’s interesting that you consider both “power” words. Am I right in my own thinking that no one word has supreme power to “relate” or “direct?”
Bingo–you’ve got it. There are no magic words, because words are just tools of communication, and their meaning is defined by the audience and their context. The more closely you speak in the language that the audience will understand and relate to, and direct them to do things that actually make sense to them (sometimes based on what you’ve already told them), the more effective your copy will be.
6. Lastly, since we’re talking about sales offers, will you share your method for testing landing pages and sales methods, along with resources we can use to get started?
In a nutshell, I’d say that the key is to test the big things first, and the little things second. So start by testing the format of the offer, the price of the offer, and the headline. Then, once you’ve got good choices on those big things, you can test smaller things like button size, color, text and placement, guarantees, PS text, and so forth. I’ve written a very detailed post about how to do this on Copyblogger. Do check it out for more details.
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I'm so glad I came back to this post to read it through all the way, Shakirah and Danny! I heard about Danny in recent months, in a post he wrote somewhere about how he got serious traffic to his blog by interviewing Robert Kiyasaki (am I right?). Anyway, it looks to me like Danny is paying it forward by offering himself up to BE interviewed, and to that I say "Here! Here!"
Here's what we can all learn from Danny: people are always going to drive traffic to your blog if it benefits them in some way. And traffic is what we want, especially traffic from folks in our target audience. [Shakirah, that's exactly why I'm interviewing folks in 2012 for the blog series on professionals using social media and blogging in tandem.]
By the way, "Buzzmarketing" is a great book, and I hope everyone will check it out. We have a copy here. We contacted Mark back in late 2009 when I first started using social media for New England Multimedia's marketing campaign, and he gave me permission to use portions of his book in my first blog. Unfortunately, he's not really active on social media platforms, so there wasn't enough traffic-generating power to really do what I wanted to do. Still, it's a book worth reading if you want to get folks talking about your brand. I've used a lot of his principles, and they work!
NEMultimedia Thanks for the recommendation for Buzzmarketing, it's been on my "to read" list for a while--I'd better get it onto my "to read again" list! Providing a benefit is certainly the best way to get people to spread the word and come back themselves, and it's something I'm still working on myself. And... you were close: Guy Kawasaki (wink).
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