Business Marketing Performance Objectives and Indicators

(download a pdf version)

This diagram needs an orientation...

First, the diagram shows different types of coloured box that have different labels:

• Objectives


• Goals


• Indicators


• Propositions


• Knowledge


• Preconditions

Business Marketing Objectives

Your objectives can be represented by the 3 areas of:

1. Find new customers


2. Keep existing customers


3. Grow your 'share of customer wallet' through cross-sell or up-sell to existing customers

The goals of your promotions relate to total revenue per customer, average order value, profit per customer, frequency of sales per customer, and recency of the last sale per customer. (You may have spotted the traditional model of RFM.)

Each objective has a different focus for creating your offer, based on your value proposition and the market intelligence you must have for success.

This makes up the lower half of the diagram:

• Proposition - The proposition (or value proposition) is a statement of what your product will do, who it will do it for, and why it is relevant and valuable to them.


• Precondition - required to deliver each proposition.


• Knowledge - the insights you need to form an effective proposition.

Let’s whizz through them one at a time:

• Lead Generation - Preconditions to a successful lead generation campaign include identifying the right target segments, and having the right marketing channels to contact them by. This will depend on your knowledge of current alternative suppliers (your competition), and knowledge of the needs of your market. From there, you can create a plan for how to attract leads, and where to find them.

• Front-end sale - After generating a new lead, the key precondition to your front-end sale is having a highly relevant product offer. This depends on your knowledge of your prospects motivations.

• Re-sell - A loyalty program will depend on your knowledge of how customers use the product

• Reactivation-sell - When you combine all of the points represented in this framework, your churn rate should be low enough, and opportunities easy enough, that you wont really have to worry about customers you have lost, as many will return as a matter of course whilst your marketing program improves.

• Cross-sell and Up-sell - This depends on your product portfolio which should evolve from the behavioural insight you gain through customer research.

Marketing Metrics and Performance Indicators

The Indicators (or Key Performance Indicators) will give you the reporting fire power to demonstrate your results, and to help guide your next campaign and tweak your entire marketing engine.

• Cost Per Lead - CPL is the average cost of a lead after dividing your marketing cost by how many leads were generated  (Cost Per Opportunity - CPO can be calculated if your sales process involves a few steps, where after you have got a lead, you then qualify that lead, and thus classify the lead as an opportunity - popular with CRM / sales teams)


• Cost Per Acquisition - CPA then is the average cost of a new customer after deducting marketing expenses


• Churn Rate - The amount of customers that do not turn into repeat buyers


• Average Deal Time - ADT is the average time it takes from generating a lead to making the initial sale


• The ‘M’ in RFM can split into 3 different views:
  
  
  
  • Average Order Value - AOV is the average revenue per sale.
  
  
  • Total Purchases - This shows the average running total spent by your customers.
  
  
  • Profit Per Customer - Customer profit refers to total income minus campaign expenses divided by the amount of new customers generated. (This helps understand different levels of profitability per channel and per product type due to differences in profit margins).
  
  
  
  


• Average Customer Life Time Value - ALTV Is the average sum total (at present value) of your customers total purchase value minus all marketing costs.

[widget id="ad-continue-management"]Ad: continue-management[/widget]To achieve those goals and excellent performance metrics, we need strong propositions for each of our products that are as relevant as feasible for the audience we can promote to.

Discussing Theory of Constraints in Service Based Organizations

In a Linked-in thread on TOC in Services, Richard said:

"...how would one apply ToC to an organization where it is project and service-based, but almost all of the services on any given "project" are handled by a single resource (a consultant)?

This would be similar to CC, but then there is the need to manage across multiple simultaneous projects where the only common resource on a group of projects is one (or a very small number) of consultants."

My reply:

The single resource (consultant) will have to apply increasing leverage of his or her own time.

Through owning 'essence work' (face time with clients?) and delegating/outsourcing the 'tail or responsibilities' (to a PA, junior partners, etc).

It might be that only 20% of their time is spent on the actual value adding insight and expertise that the client really wants or needs. Their focus will be on increasing the percentage allocation of their time spent on performing the value adding function that is unique to their expertise. I.e. How can they get from 20% to 40%?

By leveraging this single/finite resources time through eliminating lower value time consuming tasks, narrowing their focus, concentrating their value output - the breadth and depth of his reach expands through the support structure that supports him.

The picture of a multi-armed hindu god comes to mind, or Harold Geneen of ITT who successfully managed 50 companies that I read spent just 30 minutes per week on each company by reviewing a single page Tracking Report (See article on Geneen)

Leverage is not a new idea.

Maximum combined effectiveness and efficiency through personal productivity, group collaboration, and systems will always be fundamental to the knowledge worker.

And then 'consolidating, systematising, and eventually, automating or replicating' the single-resources talents.

My 2 cents.

Gavriel Shaw
www.gavrielshaw.com

TenStep for Project and Process Management Resources

[widget id="text-402250953"]text-402250953[/widget] I recently discovered an amazing resource site for project and process management called TenStep.

From the TenStep site.

All organizations have one thing in common - they all execute projects. But most organizations have another thing in common - a less than stellar record of success.

TenStep is a dynamic company that offers comprehensive, cost effective, global products and services to help you successfully complete your projects and improve your bottom line. In an increasingly competitive market, poor project management can simply no longer be tolerated. With TenStep, you can manage!

[widget id="ad-continue-management"]ad-continue-management[/widget]Use their process modeling framework to define and document business processes and drive process improvement.

Click here for ebook specials and here for a free ebook on project management terminology.

Modern Business Marketing Through Performance Based Traditional Direct Response

Through the budget squeezing economic downturn, and new global trends, companies must return to ROI metrics and an attitude of diligent optimisation for higher marketing performance.

Gone are the days (at least for now) of splashing money on expensive untrackable broadcast advertising.

And at the heart of modern Direct Marketing is the 150-year history of traditional direct response database marketing along with the incredible shift in what is possible through insight, multi-channel optimisation and extensive segmentation.

The modern marketer takes the traditional marketing models, and clean-sweeps a comprehensive path forwards for today’s modern 1-to-1 relationship marketing.

• If you are an experienced marketer, this site will make good sense to you and probably help solidify your approach to strategic marketing management.


• If you are newer to the strategies of traditional direct marketing, then this website can be used as a guide to scaleable marketing solutions.

So let’s get on with it...

Explore any of the 6 components in the right navigation or visit the homepage www.gavrielshaw.com

SIPOC Value Chain | Suppliers Inputs Process Outputs Customers

I really do love the SIPOC model.

It's so versatile for industry supplier chain analysis, internal business process analysis, and right down to marketing communications planning.

SIPOC is an acronym for:

Suppliers > Inputs > Process > Outputs > Customer

And think...

Who > What > How > What > Who

SIPOC reflects the value chain from converting one set of 'raw materials' into a product that the customer (stakeholder, end user, consumer) receives.

The 'process' in the middle are the steps necessary to take the inputs (ingredients for the product) and turn them into the final goods.

The process can be represented as a process map or workflow diagram within the SIPOC chart itself.

Here's a few nice examples:
[private_free]
http://www.kilbrideconsulting.com/makingbetter/samples/sipoc.pdf

http://www.isixsigma.com/library/content/c010429a.asp

http://www.isixsigma.com/library/content/c060322a.asp[/private_free]

Remember SIPOC and use it as a flexible tool for various types of planning.

More Professional Short-cuts

Life direction and a new career path

Which areas of life do you want to focus on in the short-term...

And where do you want to grow towards for the medium and long-term?

The old structures of career development, business and politics are changing. (kinda obvious but few professionals really know how to harness it for their advantage).

Under increasing pressure, you are expected to achieve more for your company, with less budget, less resource, and less time.

And a new breed of professional has risen. (They are quietly laying the foundations for rapid success when business converts from old accounting structures focussed on restrictive efficiency, to new performance structures based on open innovation and maximum effectiveness.)

There is a way to join them…

Imagine a network of new breed professionals, with access to short-cuts that can rapidly accelerate your career for higher status in your organization, more involvement with the projects that interest you, and even greater global profile.

Check out the main pages on this site for your personal strategy, professional development, and personal productivity.

And you may also find the Life Direction Clarifier to be useful.

Theory Of Constraints Marketing

If total control of professional marketing management is important to you...

...this article on theory of constraints marketing will send you head first through the rabbit hole into the wonderland of iron-grip strategic marketing control.

In fact, this just might be the greatest secret in the marketing industry.

I stumbled across this only because of my fascination of systems thinking, logic, and mind-mapping (although this is not about mind-mapping).

It's about the discipline called Theory of Constraints...

A highly streamline methodology of plotting out precisely what gaps, opportunities, constraints, and routes there are to improve the performance of a system.

Unfortunately it has been 'stolen' by the geeky engineers and manufacturing systems such as Lead Management, Six Sigma, etc.

But I believe, as did Peter Drucker, that business has 2 'basic' functions.

"Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two — and only two — basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business."

I can only dream of any global enterprise organizations that are maximising their use of the Theory of Constraints (TOC) thinking tools to tie together all aspects of BPM (business process management / mapping), and then put forward as ultimate priorities those 2 functions espoused by Drucker: Innovation and Marketing.

What makes Theory of Constraints Marketing so special?

Well unfortunately it's kinda like that bit in The Matrix when Morpheus says to Neo "no one can be told, you have to see it for yourself".

To get you started, my brief intro to TOC is as follows:

1. 
   Identify the constraints in the system


2. Elevate the constraint (meaning, improve the area that is constrained so it is no longer the constraint)


3. Rinse and repeat

Doesn't seem earth shatteringly brilliant does it?

But the devil's magic is in the details...

And that is what you need to discover for yourself.

I personally use TOC thinking tool diagrams for many projects, including the Current Reality Tree, Future Reality Tree, Evaporating Cloud, Transitions Tree, and Pre-requisites Tree.

You can see examples throughout my site by browsing through the main sections navigation.

You can read other posts I've written on TOC via my TOC tag page.

And whilst your progress with learning TOC may be a little slow, awareness of this system should act as a splinter in your mind forever forwards until you learn to fully apply the great leverage available to you in marketing, innovation and business management, through the breakthrough discovery of this brilliant approach.

Business Process Reengineering And Constraints Management

Hammer and Champy describe Business Process Engineering as

'the fundamental reconsideration and the radical redesign of organizational processes, in order to achieve drastic improvement of current performance in cost, services and speed'.

BPR has a bad rep as it has often been used as an excuse for mass layoffs.

Regardless, the concept is key to modern professional success.

Radical redesign and drastic improvement is a disruptive measure for when a major lack of competitive advantage is found.

Rather than splitting the company into functional departments (production, accounting, marketing, etc.)...

...BPR considers the complete chain of processes (the Value Chain comes to mind, or SIPOC Analysis), where materials sourcing transitions to production, moving to marketing and distribution.

'One should rebuild the company into a series of processes'.

An excellent directive.

To help achieve that in the most effective way, I recommend the Theory of Constraints (constraints management).

Constraints Management also takes a holistic approach... with the general goal of finding constraints (or leverage points) within a system, and to elevate the constraint by investing into it so that its constraint on the system is lifted.

This is known as 'global optima' (improving the whole) versus 'local optima'... where functions or departments or processes are optimised independently, regardless of their overall value contribution to the throughput of the system or business.[widget id="ad-continue-management"]ad-continue-management[/widget]

As a New Professional, such concepts and systems crucial for today's evolving business innovation.

Organizing Files in Cabinet

Joyce wrote me:

I'm usually pretty good at organizing, but I am getting my home office in order so that I can start a new project and have a stack of papers on topics A-Z.  Would like some suggestions for organizing paper files in the 3 drawer cabinet. I have lots of file folders already creates but I think that there are too many categories. I use the cabinet for all papers that I keep.

Hi Joyce,

My personal favorite way of organizing paper files comes from David Allen's book Getting Things Done.  He advises making lots of files at whim, for anything you want to file, and using a labelwriter to make a new label for each file.  Label the file whatever is most related to that particular information, and file it in A-Z order in the cabinet.

Then when you want to find something, you'll know what you called it and you'll find it in alphabetical order in the cabinet.

Of course this can create lots of files, so you just need to have a periodic clean out of anything that you really dont need to keep.

Hope that helps.  Let me know what you end up trying :)

Balanced Score Card and Theory Of Constraints

"One approach to [measuring business performance] is called 'balanced scorecard'.

This proposed solution falls into the trap of trying to measure many, many things. It violates the objective... that when we measure many things, there will be some things that will look good and others that look bad.

Depending upon the management style of the people involved, management can always find something to find fault with employees.

With TOC (Theory of Constraints), we're interested in ongoing improvement. We aren't interested in measuring what is going well as much as we are interested in measuring what can be improved."

From Dr Lisa Max Profit.

How To Read Faster | Speed Reading For Professionals

How to read 200% faster in 10 minutes

(adapted from Tim Ferris' great book The 4 Hour Workweek)

Two minutes: use a pen or finger to trace under each line as ayou read as fast as possible. reading is a series of jumping snapshots called saccades, and using a visual guide prevents regression

Three minutes: begin each line focusing on the third word in from the first word and each line focusing on the third word in from the last wor.d this makes use of peripheral vision that is otherwise wasted on margins. for example, even when the highlighted words in the next line are your beginning and ending focla points, the entire sentence is read, just with less eye movement. Move in from both sides further and further as it gets easier

Two minutes: once comfortable indenting three of four words from both sides, attempt to take only two snapshots, known as fixations, per line on the first and last indented words

Three minutes: proactive reading too fast for comprehension but with good technique for five pages prior to reading at a comfortable speed.

This will heighten perception and reset your speed limit.

Small Business Marketing Strategy

Throughout www.gavrielshaw.com you find lots on business marketing strategy...

But what about small business marketing?

First, it depends how small we're talking here. Up to 100 or so people is considered a small to medium enterprise in the business world.  But perhaps you are a solo business owner or there are a handful of you.

Either way, the overall small business marketing plan should have the same categories.

Small Business Marketing Plan

But first:

To get small business marketing ideas you need time to research (as you are doing now on this site), and also time to PLAN.

Be sure to frequently review the ever expanding content in the Preparation section of the site, and the rest of the site for tons of small business marketing ideas.  There is lots to use for developing your small business marketing plan.

Here is a brainstorm mind-map I made quite some time ago.

Lots of areas suggested by that map to consider for small business marketing strategy.

Small Business Marketing Development

On the Business Strategy page you find the main overall strategic areas that you need to account for.  Then on the Marketing Strategy page we get into more of the promotional details to consider.

Small Business Internet Marketing & Conversion

Particularly if you want to grow your business online, the Conversion section of the site will give you background information as well as process and recommended resources.

Small Business Marketing Strategy

• What to sell? (i.e. what people want, what you can deliver, what you can compete with, what will be profitable)


• How to gain leverage? (i.e. outsourcing, staffing up, collaborating with a joint venture type team, what to do yourself and what to have others do)


• What to prioritise (i.e. which projects are required to complete now, soon, after, later)

Of course, there are many 'priorities'.

If you are running your own small business, get more in-depth coverage of small business marketing ideas in the Business Owner section of the site.

Business Marketing Performance Objectives and Indicators

(download a pdf version)

This diagram needs an orientation...

First, the diagram shows different types of coloured box that have different labels:

• Objectives


• Goals


• Indicators


• Propositions


• Knowledge


• Preconditions

Business Marketing Objectives

Your objectives can be represented by the 3 areas of:

1. Find new customers


2. Keep existing customers


3. Grow your 'share of customer wallet' through cross-sell or up-sell to existing customers

The goals of your promotions relate to total revenue per customer, average order value, profit per customer, frequency of sales per customer, and recency of the last sale per customer. (You may have spotted the traditional model of RFM.)

Each objective has a different focus for creating your offer, based on your value proposition and the market intelligence you must have for success.

This makes up the lower half of the diagram:

• Proposition - The proposition (or value proposition) is a statement of what your product will do, who it will do it for, and why it is relevant and valuable to them.


• Precondition - required to deliver each proposition.


• Knowledge - the insights you need to form an effective proposition.

Let’s whizz through them one at a time:

• Lead Generation - Preconditions to a successful lead generation campaign include identifying the right target segments, and having the right marketing channels to contact them by. This will depend on your knowledge of current alternative suppliers (your competition), and knowledge of the needs of your market. From there, you can create a plan for how to attract leads, and where to find them.

• Front-end sale - After generating a new lead, the key precondition to your front-end sale is having a highly relevant product offer. This depends on your knowledge of your prospects motivations.

• Re-sell - A loyalty program will depend on your knowledge of how customers use the product

• Reactivation-sell - When you combine all of the points represented in this framework, your churn rate should be low enough, and opportunities easy enough, that you wont really have to worry about customers you have lost, as many will return as a matter of course whilst your marketing program improves.

• Cross-sell and Up-sell - This depends on your product portfolio which should evolve from the behavioural insight you gain through customer research.

Marketing Metrics and Performance Indicators

The Indicators (or Key Performance Indicators) will give you the reporting fire power to demonstrate your results, and to help guide your next campaign and tweak your entire marketing engine.

• Cost Per Lead - CPL is the average cost of a lead after dividing your marketing cost by how many leads were generated  (Cost Per Opportunity - CPO can be calculated if your sales process involves a few steps, where after you have got a lead, you then qualify that lead, and thus classify the lead as an opportunity - popular with CRM / sales teams)


• Cost Per Acquisition - CPA then is the average cost of a new customer after deducting marketing expenses


• Churn Rate - The amount of customers that do not turn into repeat buyers


• Average Deal Time - ADT is the average time it takes from generating a lead to making the initial sale


• The ‘M’ in RFM can split into 3 different views:
  
  
  
  • Average Order Value - AOV is the average revenue per sale.
  
  
  • Total Purchases - This shows the average running total spent by your customers.
  
  
  • Profit Per Customer - Customer profit refers to total income minus campaign expenses divided by the amount of new customers generated. (This helps understand different levels of profitability per channel and per product type due to differences in profit margins).
  
  
  
  


• Average Customer Life Time Value - ALTV Is the average sum total (at present value) of your customers total purchase value minus all marketing costs.

[widget id="ad-continue-management"]Ad: continue-management[/widget]To achieve those goals and excellent performance metrics, we need strong propositions for each of our products that are as relevant as feasible for the audience we can promote to.

Discussing Theory of Constraints in Service Based Organizations

In a Linked-in thread on TOC in Services, Richard said:

"...how would one apply ToC to an organization where it is project and service-based, but almost all of the services on any given "project" are handled by a single resource (a consultant)?

This would be similar to CC, but then there is the need to manage across multiple simultaneous projects where the only common resource on a group of projects is one (or a very small number) of consultants."

My reply:

The single resource (consultant) will have to apply increasing leverage of his or her own time.

Through owning 'essence work' (face time with clients?) and delegating/outsourcing the 'tail or responsibilities' (to a PA, junior partners, etc).

It might be that only 20% of their time is spent on the actual value adding insight and expertise that the client really wants or needs. Their focus will be on increasing the percentage allocation of their time spent on performing the value adding function that is unique to their expertise. I.e. How can they get from 20% to 40%?

By leveraging this single/finite resources time through eliminating lower value time consuming tasks, narrowing their focus, concentrating their value output - the breadth and depth of his reach expands through the support structure that supports him.

The picture of a multi-armed hindu god comes to mind, or Harold Geneen of ITT who successfully managed 50 companies that I read spent just 30 minutes per week on each company by reviewing a single page Tracking Report (See article on Geneen)

Leverage is not a new idea.

Maximum combined effectiveness and efficiency through personal productivity, group collaboration, and systems will always be fundamental to the knowledge worker.

And then 'consolidating, systematising, and eventually, automating or replicating' the single-resources talents.

My 2 cents.

Gavriel Shaw
www.gavrielshaw.com

TenStep for Project and Process Management Resources

[widget id="text-402250953"]text-402250953[/widget] I recently discovered an amazing resource site for project and process management called TenStep.

From the TenStep site.

All organizations have one thing in common - they all execute projects. But most organizations have another thing in common - a less than stellar record of success.

TenStep is a dynamic company that offers comprehensive, cost effective, global products and services to help you successfully complete your projects and improve your bottom line. In an increasingly competitive market, poor project management can simply no longer be tolerated. With TenStep, you can manage!

[widget id="ad-continue-management"]ad-continue-management[/widget]Use their process modeling framework to define and document business processes and drive process improvement.

Click here for ebook specials and here for a free ebook on project management terminology.

Balanced Score Card and Theory Of Constraints

"One approach to [measuring business performance] is called 'balanced scorecard'.

This proposed solution falls into the trap of trying to measure many, many things. It violates the objective... that when we measure many things, there will be some things that will look good and others that look bad.

Depending upon the management style of the people involved, management can always find something to find fault with employees.

With TOC (Theory of Constraints), we're interested in ongoing improvement. We aren't interested in measuring what is going well as much as we are interested in measuring what can be improved."

From Dr Lisa Max Profit.

Business Process Reengineering And Constraints Management

Hammer and Champy describe Business Process Engineering as

'the fundamental reconsideration and the radical redesign of organizational processes, in order to achieve drastic improvement of current performance in cost, services and speed'.

BPR has a bad rep as it has often been used as an excuse for mass layoffs.

Regardless, the concept is key to modern professional success.

Radical redesign and drastic improvement is a disruptive measure for when a major lack of competitive advantage is found.

Rather than splitting the company into functional departments (production, accounting, marketing, etc.)...

...BPR considers the complete chain of processes (the Value Chain comes to mind, or SIPOC Analysis), where materials sourcing transitions to production, moving to marketing and distribution.

'One should rebuild the company into a series of processes'.

An excellent directive.

To help achieve that in the most effective way, I recommend the Theory of Constraints (constraints management).

Constraints Management also takes a holistic approach... with the general goal of finding constraints (or leverage points) within a system, and to elevate the constraint by investing into it so that its constraint on the system is lifted.

This is known as 'global optima' (improving the whole) versus 'local optima'... where functions or departments or processes are optimised independently, regardless of their overall value contribution to the throughput of the system or business.[widget id="ad-continue-management"]ad-continue-management[/widget]

As a New Professional, such concepts and systems crucial for today's evolving business innovation.

Permanent Innovation by Langdon Morris

Permanent Innovation by Langdon Morris

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
You know a great book when by page 100 and flicking through the rest, you know it obsoletes most others on its topic to date, and that its almost not worth taking notes because almost every page contains golden nuggets. If Innovation in business is important to you, get this book and buy a fresh highlighter.

View all my reviews.

Copywriter London | Tales of a London Copywriter

Copywriting in London is at a cross roads...

On the one side we have a rich and mature history of marketing and advertising.

David Ogilvy himself, although not British (A Scottsman advertising legend and direct response copywriter -- founder of Ogilvy and Mathers) provides a strong voice of reason to UK copywriters, even to this day.

Yet London advertising is still awash with ATL brand awareness short copy with cutesy pictures and zero performance metrics. General advertising and direct response has a great divide, said Ogilvy.

As a London copywriter, I uphold the ethos of pure direct response. I'm a direct response long copy copywriter. I write to sell. Not to entertain. I write to persuade right now. Not in some ephemeral general 'brand building' way...

But with the advent of real-time performance analytics, all online marketing is falling under the umbrella of direct response marketing and advertising. Because each promotion is becoming trackable dollar to dollar (or pound to pound).

Copywriting in London requires the research skill, writing flexibility, and salesmanship, of the great legends of direct response copywriting that the UK and London has sorely lacked.

[widget id="ad-continue-marketing"]Ad: continue-marketing[/widget]There is great opportunity for the London Copywriter's that can demonstrate the performance of their work.

AWAI Copywriting Course | Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting by AWAI

I love copywriting.

It involves creativity, psychology, and large amounts of moolah.

And I've taken my fair share in copywriting courses.

But I have only just now started on the AWAI copywriting course called Accelerated Program for Six Figure Copywriting.

Only got to Exercise 2, about page 26, so just a general introduction about direct response marketing so far.  Nothing new there to me, but what immediately strikes me is how far reaching, thorough, and carefully developed this program is.

Just the bonuses themselves are incredibly valuable to a copywriter.

I'll blog on here about my progress with the course.  And there's plenty of sections, in fact it's huge. It's a genuine professional study program.  Not a typical book or info product on copywriting.  It comes in a premium multi-media learning environment. Here's an example screenshot:

Bottom line is quite clear:  If you are serious about developing your own or your teams copywriting skills, then get the AWAI copywriting course "Accelerated Program for Six Figure Copywriting".

Rather than sifting through the dozens of copywriting programs, books, courses, seminars, etc I've been to over the years, I can see a lot of hard work would have been saved if I got the AWAI course first.  Now's your chance.  If you get the program, I'd love to hear from you as I work with several other copywriters on Skype to share and compare ideas and give eachother critiques.

Top Copywriting Courses To Learn Copywriting For Fast Copywriting Training

How long will it take you to learn sales copywriting?

It really depends on several key factors:

• How flexible you are


• What copywriting courses you use


• How much time you put into practicing

Today I am doing some of the exercises in the AWAI copywriting course called Accelerated Program for Six Figure Copywriting -- and yet again wishing I had started with this, rather than spending the past years on everything but.

From my main copywriting courses page:

It's a genuine professional study program.  Not a typical book or info product on copywriting.  It comes in a premium multi-media learning environment. Just the bonuses themselves are incredibly valuable to a copywriter.

Here's an example screenshot:

Bottom line is quite clear:

If you are serious about developing your own or your teams copywriting skills, and looking for one of the best copywriting courses available, then get the AWAI copywriting course "Accelerated Program for Six Figure Copywriting".

Become a Freelance Travel Writer

If you love travel, and have a flare for creative writing, then maybe you too should become a freelance travel writer...

Do you have experience in journalism? Copywriting for websites or email marketing? Writing short stories or poems? Then you're way ahead of the game.

But if you do not have 'formal' training or experience in writing, yet read magazines, perhaps used to write a diary, ever blogged about a holiday experience, or anything else, then you probably have what it takes to become a freelance travel writer.

You can literally earn your living by taking holiday's and getting your 'travel diary' published in magazines, papers, and travel websites...

The secrets of some of the world's most successful travel writers have been revealed in a program that I am currently reading.

Not so much because I want a career move.  But because my general self-education in sales copywriting gives me the opportunity to enjoy learning about different styles of writing.

And I have to say, what I've read so far in AWAI's Travel Writer program, is incredibly exciting...

Check it out:

• Thirteen ways to parlay your travel writer status into travel experiences most folks only dream about… stay at the world's best hotels, no charge… dine at exclusive restaurants, compliments of the chef… experience the world's best festivals, with a mayor's invite in hand… read the New York Times bestsellers before they hit the shelves… and more…

• A fun, easy way to turn your journal entries into articles you can sell. Plus how to get them from inside your notebook to inside a glossy magazine… with your name right there under the headline.

• The three most important things to remember when you're positioning yourself for offers of hospitality -- ignore any of the three (as lots of people do) and you'll doom your chances of getting perks. But put them into practice, and you'll be traveling like a celebrity in no time.

• The one person in your hometown you want to be sure knows your name… because -- without question -- she'll pass it on to the folks who can hand you paying assignments and free travel perks.

• Train yourself to see story ideas in every place you look -- on a cereal box, at a coffee shop, while you're gassing up your car -- you'll never be at a loss for inspiration.

• How you can use photos to immediately increase your article sales (and the dollar amount for each one) -- and even develop a second income stream.

• A simple four-step formula that makes it 100% more likely you'll land a by-line and a check.

• Get the insider's list of what NOT to do (you'd be surprised at how many writers have no idea what makes editors crazy … ).

• A simple technique for tripling your travel writing income… with almost no additional work.

• Write a five-sentence email that will put your name on the invite lists for gallery openings… private museum tours… resort galas… concerts… and more…

• Travel to "forbidden" destinations… places like Cuba, for example, and experience them fully… even though most U.S. citizens couldn't get by the border patrol.

• Play the best golf courses and ski the hottest slopes. You needn't be Tiger Woods to find yourself walking on at Carnoustie… and you don't have to ski bumps like Bode Miller to spend a few charmed days in Vail…  Find out how to land a sweet deal for a fraction the usual rate, and possibly for no charge at all.

You can get the AWAI Travel Writer's program here.  How's that for a possible career change?

Long Copy is King - Short Copy Kills Sales

Imagine trying to sell a product through pictures alone.

Snazzy billboard adverts. Flashy TV adverts. Creative attention grabbing magazine adverts.

Big on 'big ideas'.  Short on copy.

Do they sell?

Who cares?! They win awards for the creative agencies.

But a certain type of copywriter does care.  They care about your bottom line as a client. They care about the prospect, because they will put together a good case for why the prospect should buy. They will run split tests. They will even suggest weaknesses in the product offer so they can be improved.

What kind of copywriter sweats bullets and bleeds onto a blank canvas, cares little about awards, and avoid the word 'creative'?

A Direct Response Copywriter.

The mirror opposite of a creative short copy copywriter.

The DR Copywriter wants a 100% market to message match.  To make the sale.

A short copy creative copywriter wants to entertain his audience, and win his agency an award.

I think the opposing philosophies can be made clear with this one simple test.

Creative copywriting wants big pictures, and very few words.

Direct Response Copywriting uses long copy, and only images where they can directly support the text.

So which is more important? Pictures or words?  Are pictures worth a thousand words?

There are 2 ways to find out.

Test 1:  The Logical Test

Imagine trying to sell a product through pictures alone.  If there was absolutely no text whatsoever, just a big bright entertaining picture, would anything get sold?

Only the most simple of products.  And probably only the products that have already had untold millions spent on building 'brand awareness'.  Coca Cola could do ads without words.  Would they help sell more coke?  Perhaps. But who cares, the ads look cool!

Well, smaller companies, with more complex products, could they rely on ads without words?  Just the pictures?  Absolutely not.

So for most products (if not all), the words are by far more important.

But it's test 2 that really takes home the money...

Speak to DR Copywriters, and they'll talk about split testing and conversions.

• They'll talk about features, benefits, and advantages.  The gains made by the prospect.


• They'll also talk about possibly buying objections, providing guarantees, removing the risk, adding bonuses (premiums).


• They'll ask to see previously run ads.


• They'll ask about USPs of the product or company, and they'll actually probe it to clarify and expand on them.


• They'll ask about the history of the product.  It's origins.  How it came to be. The full story behind it.


• They'll ask about the media in which the adverts need to run in.


• They'll ask about front-end products and back-end products.


• And much, much more...

Bottom line, they'll ask a great deal of questions.

The creative copywriter will be different.  He'll want a creative brief, not too long though mind you, life's too short for reading lots of text.  He'll want to know the USP, the main benefits, and then he'll go to work scratching his head with his friendly Art Director, watching cartoons, scribbling slogans on a pad, and trying to be... well, 'creative'.

Rosser Reeves, one of the greats of Direct Response Copywriting said:

"Creativity is one of the most dangerous words in advertising"

I obviously couldn't agree more.

Short copy loses sales. Long copy is king.

The chasm between general advertising and direct response is wide - David Ogilvy

Watch the great David Ogilvy explain the difference in value between ATL general brand awareness advertising... and BTL direct response marketing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br2KSsaTzUc

Transcript below:

[mc src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br2KSsaTzUc" type="youtube"]Ogilvy[/mc]

I wish I could be with you today, in the flesh as they say. Unfortunately, I’m in India. Ever been in India? It’s very hot. If you don’t mind, I’m going to take off my coat.

You know, in the advertising community today, there are two worlds — your world of direct response advertising, and that other world, the world of general advertising.

These two worlds are on a collision course. You direct response people know what kind of advertising works and what doesn’t work. You know it to a dollar. The general advertising people don’t know.

You know that too many commercials on television are more effective — more cost effective — than 10 second commercials or 30 second commercials. You know that fringe time on television sells more than prime time. In print advertising, you know that long copy sells more than short copy. You know, that headlines and copy about the product and its benefits sell more than cute headlines and poetic copy. You know it to a dollar.

The general advertisers and their agencies know almost nothing for sure because they cannot measure the results of their advertising. They worship at the alter of creativity, which really means originality, the most dangerous word in the lexicon of advertising. They opine that 30-second commercials are more cost effective than two-minute commercials. You know they’re wrong. In print advertising, they opine that short commercials (whoever prepared the teleprompter presentation goofed, obviously he meant ads) sell more than long copy. You know they’re wrong. They indulge in entertainment. You know they’re wrong. You know to a dollar. They don’t.

Why don’t you tell them?

Why don’t you save them from their follies?

For two reasons:

First, because you are impressed by the fact they are so big and so well paid and so well publicized. You are even, perhaps, impressed by their reputation for creativity, whatever that may mean. Second, you never meet them. You inhabit a different world. The chasm between direct response advertising and general advertising is wide.

On your side of the chasm, I see knowledge and reality. On the other side of the chasm, I see ignorance. You are the professionals. This must not go on. I predict that the practitioners of general advertising are going to start learning from your experience. They’re going to start picking your brains. I see no reason why the direct response divisions of agencies should be separate from the main agencies. Some of you may remember when television agencies were kept separate. Wasn’t that idiotic? I expect to see the direct response people become an integral part of all agencies. You have more to teach them than they have to teach you. You have it in your power to rescue the advertising business from its manifold lunacies.

When I was 25, I took a correspondence course in direct mail. I bought it out my own pocket from the Dardanelle Corporation in Chicago. Direct response is my first love, and later it became my secret weapon. When I started a Ogilvy & Mather in New York, nobody had heard of us, but we were airborne within six months and grew at record speed. How did we achieve that? By using my secret weapon, direct mail.

Every four weeks, I sent personalized mailings to our new business prospects, and I was always amazed to discover how many of our clients had been attracted to Ogilvy & Mather by those mailings. That was how we grew.

Whenever I look at an advertisement in a magazine or newspaper, I can tell at a glance whether the writer has had any direct response experience. If he writes short copy or literary copy, it is obvious that he has never had the discipline to write direct response. If he has had that discipline, he wouldn’t make those mistakes. Nobody should be allowed to create general advertising until he has severed his apprenticeship in direct response. That experience will keep his feet on the ground for the rest of his life.

You know the trouble with many copywriters and general agencies is that they don’t really think in terms of selling. They’ve never written direct response, they’ve never tasted blood. Until recently, direct response was the “Cinderella” of the advertising world. Then came the computer and the credit card, and direct marketing exploded. You guys are coming into your own. Your opportunities are colossal. In the audience today, there are heads of some general agencies. I offer you this advice; insist that all your people, creative, media, account executives, that they’re all trained in your direct response division. If you don’t have such a division, make arrangements with a firm of directing marketing specialist to train your people. And make it a rule in your agency that no copy is ever presented to clients before it has been vetted by a direct response expert.

Ladies and gentlemen, I envy you. Your timing is perfect. You’ve come in the direct response business at the right moment in history. You’re on to a good thing.

For 40 years, I’ve been a voice crying in the wilderness, trying to get my fellow advertising practitioners to take direct response seriously. Today, my first love is coming into its own. You face a golden future.

4 P's of an Advert

There are many formulas for writing an advert, sales letter, optin page, etc.

One from AWAI is the "Four P's."

As follows...

1.  "Picture" - spark a picture in the readers mind that grabs their attention
2.  "Promise" - point out the benefit you are offering
3.  "Proof" - then demonstrate credibility for why and how you can deliver on the promise
4.  "Push" - then get them to take the next action now

Pretty straightforward right?

The Art of Writing Advertising

Book available on Amazon.

Here's one of the interviews, with famed Advertising Man Leo Burnett...

Well, one of the things I wanted to ask you, Mr. Burnett – touching on what you’ve said – did you find writing ad copy more difficult than writing newspaper copy?


Much more difficult, yes, because it has to be so much more compact and yet it has to deliver the facts, too. I learned a lot from newspapers as to how to communicate and how to put color and interest into advertising copy. But finding the magic things to say about a product that would interest people and evoke their interest and lead them by the hand to the conclusion that they should buy something – that was another art, really.

When you went from the editorial side into the advertising side, did you find that your newspaper experience was helpful to you?

Yes, it was most helpful, because I think it taught me the importance of curiosity about things. I didn’t know beans about automobiles, but I became very curious about what made a motor run and all about it. I wrote a lot of fairly technical stuff in a popular way.

I had at least acquired the facility for putting words together and organizing facts and finding things that were most interesting to people.

Now, after all your years of experience, do you think it’s more difficult to write copy for one product over another? Like an automobile over a refrigerator, say?

No, I don’t think it makes very much difference. I think if you find the right appeal in a product – one that you can focus on – you can develop it on any product. I know in the experience of our own agency, some of our best successes have been in industries that I knew nothing about. Often our agency didn’t know anything about the project until we started with them.

We knew nothing about the railroad business until we got the Santa Fe account. We knew nothing about the petroleum business until we got the Pure Oil. We knew nothing about the shoe business and so we got the Brown Shoe Co. account. We knew nothing about the food business, until at Erwin Wasey I started learning about the food business, about the Green Giant Co. – and was responsible for all the Green Giant advertising, practically from the time it started.


Do you think a copywriter must have experience in a certain area?

Knowledge and experience aren’t nearly as important as his expressiveness, his ability to think and to marshal his thoughts into persuasive English. These things he can learn.

Do you have any specific approaches to the problem? From a copywriter’s point of view? Do you have any rituals you follow, any special methods?

No. My technique, if I have one, is to saturate myself with knowledge of the product. I believe in good depth-interviewing where I come realistically face to face with the people I am trying to sell. I try to get a picture in my mind of the kind of people they are – how they use this product, and what it is – they don’t often tell you in so many words – but what it is that actually motivates them to buy something or to interest them in something.

Mr. Burnett, you’ve talked with many people and you’ve edited many pieces of copy from many different writers. Have you ever discerned any thread winding its way through all these people? Do you see any qualities common to all of them? Or do you think copywriters are made up of all sorts and all types?

Well, I think they come from all sorts of places and are made up of all types, but I think among the best ones there’s a flair for expression, of putting known and believable things into new relationships. We try to be – which I think typifies the Chicago school of advertising, if there is one, and I think there is one – we try to be more straightforward without being flatfooted. We try to be warm without being mawkish.

I believe that today visibility, sheer visibility, is more important than it’s been, speaking of printed advertising – and that applies to television, of course, too. Sheer visibility is important with today’s rising advertising costs; if you don’t get noticed, you don’t have anything. You just have to be noticed, but the art is in getting noticed naturally without screaming or without tricks.

Putting eye-patches on fire hydrants?

Obvious tricks, yes. Of course, we, over and over again, stress this so-called inherent drama of things because there’s usually something there, almost always something there, if you can find the thing about that product that keeps it in the marketplace. There must be something about it that made the manufacturer make it in the first place. Something about it that makes people continue to buy it… capturing that, and then taking that thing – whatever it is – and making the thing itself arresting rather than through relying on tricks to do it.

I have just one quick question for you. And that is: David Ogilvy says that he heard – we were talking about using vernacular and expressions like “Winston tastes good ‘like’ a cigarette should” and all that – he said that you are alleged to have a little box in your desk or on your desk, and when you run across a new figure of speech or an expression that strikes you as smart or unusual or offbeat, you write it down.

I have a great big folder – and it’s getting bigger all the time – in the lower left-hand corner of my desk. I’ve had it for as long as I can remember, ever since I started the agency, and I call it “Corny Language.” Whenever I hear a phrase in conversation or any place which strikes me as being particularly apt in expressing an idea or bringing it to life or accentuating the smell of it, the looks of it or anything else – or expressing any kind of an idea – I scribble it down and stick it in there.

Then about three or four times a year, I run through there and throw a lot of stuff out and pick out things which seem to me to apply to some of the work that is going on in the shop and write a memo about it. So my ear is always tuned for putting usual things in unusual relationships that get attention and aptly express an idea. I call this Corny Language, and I have always done that. I also have another file which is a bulging one – Ads Worth Saving – which I’ve had for some 25 years. I go through them.[widget id="ad-continue-marketing"]Ad: continue-marketing[/widget]

Don't wee all over your customers

Does your company's marketing collateral 'wee' all over your prospect?













Does it focus on 'we the company', professing how great 'we' are. How old. How experienced?

Response is totally DESTROYED when an advert starts off with 'Our company, blah blah, was established in 1890, when the railroads were built, by our grandfather. As a family owned business for 75 years we have got the experience to blah blah.'

A site visitor will stay for 4 seconds or less to decide if they are going to read the page, or LESS if they are flicking through a magazine.

The company history comes later, in the credibility block.

But first you must 'meet the reader where his mind is at'... His fears, frustrations, and desires...

The advert should often identify an actual specific benefit to the prospect immediately. Then justify credibility later.

In direct response copywriting we start off from the position that the prospect doesn't care who we are until we've attracted their attention with an offer.

First we engage their interest by demonstrating 'what's in it for them' Pinpointing the problem/pain, and suggesting/implying/claiming a fantastic solution.

After that, we have to justify why we are the one's to provide it.

Branding is fundamentally about 'positioning'. That being 'the position held in the prospects mind'.

If you company details has no relevance to their current experience, then there is no position.

If they are searching for something online to help them sleep better, and find a domain that contains the keywords of their need, such as 'sleep solution . info' with a headline saying 'How to solve 90% of sleep problems', then that is immediately recognized as the correct 'position' because that's what's in the prospects mind.

To build a brand, start by positioning your company on the solutions it provides your target customers. Grow from there. Don't start by talking about 'we the company'.

London UK Copywriter Samples

Few understand the rhythms of good sales copy.

My love of copywriting comes in part from its contrarian non-common-sense nature.

It has taken me years of obsessing about copywriting... reading adverts of 150 years ago... copying by hand examples of the greats... working my way through dozens of copywriting courses... and practice practice practice.

Visit my main copywriting page for tips on how to craft powerful sales messages in your copy.

And here are pages with copywriting samples and examples...

• …having worked with ad agencies, including as a copywriter, and in the marketing sector promoting email marketing services… War stories of a UK Copywriter.

• For copywriting examples of: Web Promotion Pages, White Papers, Corporate Brochures, Print Ads, Sales Literature, Email Marketing, and more -- see Copywriting samples and examples.

• Copywriting in London is at a cross roads… Tales of a London Copywriter.

Best Selling Marketing Book - Available FREE!

This one has really "cooked my noodle."

Mark Joyner is running a rather controversial experiment that
has already sent the marketing experts into a tizzy.

You've probably heard of his book "The Irresistible Offer" - it's
what some call "one of the top 5 marketing books ever written"
and has been one of the best-selling marketing books of the last
3 years week after week.

Mark thinks that by giving it away in ebook form he is actually
going to boost sales of the book:

The Irresistible Offer

Is he right?

Only time will tell, but he makes some really good arguments -
even if they seem to fly in the face of what many people have
been saying over the last few years about the relationship
between digital downloads and print media.

I'll be watching this one closely, and so should you.

Meanwhile, you should also definitely grab the download.

Dr. Joe Vitale said that the book is "the first breakthrough in
over 50 years" and it seems the entire pantheon of marketing
gods are in agreement.

It's a deceptively simple read, but well, that's what Mark is
famous for :-)

The Irresistible Offer

More Professional Short-cuts

Copywriters in the Health Field

Health Field Copywriter reveals an early turning point memory...

As a 5 year old wanna-be health field copywriter...

I stood before my father's superman poster at his alternative health clinic in London UK.

Looking up at that mighty super hero, I wasn't sure I was smart enough to understand the caption.

But with all my conscious intent I battled with it.

You see:

"Superman held two plates of food"

One full of junk food.

One full of healthy food.

The caption read:

"Eat to live. Don't live to eat"

How profound.

How dumbfounding for a 5 year old.

None the less...

I was imbued with a sense of choice. Good vs Bad. Healthy vs Non-Healthy.

And I was intent on getting smarter so I could understand those obscure captions I saw on posters.

As a naturopath, my father taught me about health.

In my marketing profession I applied myself to direct response copywriting.

Now as a copywriter in the health field, I still am no genius at making cutesy slogans for bill-board advertising...

...but I am able to weave a story in the mind of the target audience and compel them to buy your product right then and there, or at least click to the next page...

Check out my health copywriting pages:

• How I became a Health Copywriter.


• 3 mistakes that Health Copywriters sometimes make.