Month: June 2017

What if I told you there was a simple marketing strategy you could use to…

• Stop prospects from price shopping
• Convert more prospects to customers
• Pre-empt your competition

You’d want to know about it right?

It gets even better. Because you don’t have to be a great writer… or even a great marketer… to put this strategy to work in your business.

Just so you know how powerful this particular strategy is, let me tell you a story…

Before I became a freelance copywriter, I was the sole copywriter and online marketer for a well-known home schooling company.

I’d been mulling over how to use this strategy in the business. One morning, it clicked.

I spent 4 hours writing 8 brief emails. I plugged them into our email system, posted the opt-in form on the web site, and waited to see what would happen.

The results?

Nearly 20,000 subscribers the first year and $115,168.09 in revenue.

The email series continued to produce revenue the second year, the third year, and on and on. All from less than a day’s work. Pretty amazing, huh?

The strategy I used is called:

“Setting the Buying Criteria”

A clearer way to say it is: setting the criteria by which your prospects make a buying decision.

In a nutshell, here is how it works. In your marketing material (emails, brochures, web sites, sales letters, etc.), you want to define what makes a good buying decision. And in your defining, you want to make sure that your company, product, or service is the only one that fits the definition.

This is setting the buying criteria.

When you set the criteria, you always want to do it in such a way that it excludes your competitors. They should not be able to qualify based on the criteria you’ve set.

This is why the criteria you use should always be exclusive to a greater or lesser degree.

Let me give you a quick example…

Assume for a moment you’re a car manufacturer who specializes in sports cars. One of your criteria might read like this:

“Whatever sports car you choose, make sure it has at least 250 horsepower. Any less and you’ll be sacrificing speed, acceleration, and performance, all of which are critical to the pleasure you’ll get from your new sports car.”

You’ll notice I set the criterion (250 horsepower) high enough that it eliminated some cars, but not so high that it eliminated all cars. No matter. The important thing is, I’ve narrowed the field.

As we move on, we layer additional buying criteria:

“Once you’ve found a sports car that has at least 250 horsepower, you’ll also want to make sure it has a 6-speed manual transmission. At least half the pleasure of a sports car is being in total control. An automatic transmission just won’t cut it.

“Rear-wheel drive is a must for a true sports car. It gives you the best cornering power possible, without feeling like you’re going to run off the road (as you might feel with a front-wheel drive vehicle).

“Also look for fully independent suspension, so you get the best road feel. Each wheel will move on its own, independent from the other wheels, giving you maximum traction and performance.

“Lastly, be picky about the kind of engine your sports car is equipped with. The best sports car engine is a boxer engine. It’s perfectly balanced and produces no vibration. You can set a quarter directly on the engine while it is running and it will not fall off. Plus, boxer engines sit low to the ground and provide a lower center of gravity. Boxer engines can be found in flat-4, flat-6, and flat-12 configurations.”

By shrewdly selecting these and possibly one or two additional criteria, I can make my sports car the only logical choice in a crowded market.

It’s the same with your product. If you shrewdly define the criteria for buying, you’ll create a scenario where your product is the only one that can possibly qualify. All competitive products will fall short.

Why Setting the Buying Criteria Works

Setting the buying criteria works for 3 powerful reasons:

1. You’re seen as someone who can be trusted.

By telling your prospects what they should look for when they make a purchase–or conversely, telling them what to watch out for–you become a trusted advisor.

Your prospects believe you have their best interests at heart (and you do), so they are more likely to buy your product instead of the competition’s.

2. You’re letting your prospects come to their own conclusions.

When you set the buying criteria, you’re not saying, “Buy my product because it’s got X, Y, and Z.”

Instead, you’re indirectly guiding your prospects to the conclusion you want them to reach. You’re saying, “When you make a purchase of this kind, make sure you get one with these things…”

Your prospects run down the checklist you’ve created and decide–on their own–that your product is the best choice.

3. You’re doing something different.

If you examine your competition, you will be lucky if you find even one business taking advantage of this strategy. That makes it easy for you to stand out.

When your prospects see that you’re looking out for them… and none of your competitors are… then it becomes exceptionally easy for you to turn them into customers. Prospects will be drawn to you, and will gladly give you their business.

More Examples To Illustrate Buying Criteria

I don’t know what your product is, so I’m going to use a few more examples to illustrate this process. So let’s assume you’re selling a high-end ski jacket.

Your criteria might look like this: zippered pockets, hood, removable liner, snow skirt, goggle pouch, season pass window, and a new proprietary waterproof/breathable fabric.

As you look at your competition, you find that nearly every single ski jacket on the market has “zippered pockets,” and yet this is a feature that many skiers are looking for. “Zippered pockets” alone will not set you apart, so you go further.

Now you add the “hood” to your buying criteria. There are fewer ski jackets with both zippered pockets and a hood, but there are still many.

As you layer each additional feature of your high-end ski jacket, you notice there are fewer and fewer jackets that meet all the criteria you’ve defined.

By the time you add your proprietary waterproof/breathable fabric to the mix, there is only one ski jacket still in the running. It just so happens that it’s the one you sell.

Is this starting to make sense?

If you run an accounting practice, your criteria may be: monthly statements (including P&L, trial balance, assets & liabilities, itemized expense reports, etc.), quarterly tax filing, daily backups to prevent lost data, and free tax planning twice a year.

If you sell a cleaning product, your criteria may be: kills bacteria in under 30 seconds, uses all-natural environmentally friendly ingredients, makes everything smell fresh, is packaged in an easy-to-use ergonomic container, and comes with a 90-day full money-back guarantee.

You may need more criteria; you may need less. Only you will know for your particular niche.

How to Define Your Buying Criteria

To begin defining your buying criteria, list all of the features of your product or service. Do it quickly without thinking too much. Simply write down all the different features that come to mind.

After you’ve captured all the features you can think of, review your list. Circle some of the core features that are always expected with a product or service like yours. Also circle the features that are the most unique.

Now you have the raw material you need to create a marketing piece that sets the buying criteria. The next step is in how you position these features–how you present them to your market.

This is a very important step. Position your criteria the wrong way and people will ignore you. Position your criteria the right way and new customers will flock to you.

How to Position Your Criteria

When you set the buying criteria, there are a number of ways to position them. How you position them is important, and one may work better than another for your business.

The email series I wrote for the home schooling company was positioned like this: “The 7 Essentials That Will Inspire Your Children to Learn.”

Many people (nearly 20,000 of them in the first year) subscribed purely out of curiosity. They wanted to know what the “7 Essentials” were.

With another client, I used a similar approach and wound up with “The 7 Essentials of Any Ecommerce System.” If you’re in the market for an ecommerce system, you’ll want to find out what the “7 Essentials” are. After you’re done reading, my client’s system will be your only choice.

With my copywriting services, I position the criteria inside the sales letter. As you scroll down the site, you’ll see a subhead that says, “The One Thing Your Copywriter Must Have.”

In this case, the one thing is so rare, I don’t feel the need to have a laundry list of criteria. Just the one is sufficient.

Another way to position your criteria is as a warning: “Don’t Even Think About Buying _______ Until You Read This…” or “How to Buy a ______ Without Losing Your Shirt.”

A warning is a more direct approach because it often acknowledges the prospects’ desire to purchase a particular item, but the approach can still work very well.

Joe Polish is famous in part for his method of setting the buying criteria in Consumer Awareness Guides. These little guides educate consumers about what they should look out for when they hire a carpet cleaner and other service professionals.

The possibilities for positioning your criteria are virtually limitless. Once you fully understand this strategy, you will begin to think of many ways to position your criteria.

But remember this: the most effective way to position your criteria will always be from an angle that educates and protects the consumer. You cannot say, “5 Reasons To Buy My Product.”

Yawn.

Your prospect doesn’t care about you or your product. At least not yet.

That’s why you need to speak to your prospects with care and concern, as a trusted advisor to a dear friend. This is how you reach them. So make sure that you position your criteria with this in mind.

Make Sure You Give a Reason Why

Before I turn you loose, I believe it’s important for you to understand one more thing… that is, the importance of giving your prospects a reason why.

When you list out your criteria and position them in way that appeals to your prospects, you still need to make sure–with each and every criterion–that you are giving your prospects a believable reason why it’s so important.

In my sports car illustration, I listed a reason why each criterion was important for the consumer to consider when choosing a sports car. I explained how the fully independent suspension was necessary for “maximum traction and performance.” I mentioned that a 6-speed manual transmission was important because it gives you “total control.”

If I had not given any reasons why these criteria are important for the consumer to consider, my case would have been very weak. The same holds true in real life. You must give your prospects a strong reason why.

Review your criteria. If you list a criterion for which there is no good reason why you’ve mentioned it, then it shouldn’t be included. Get rid of it or find another criterion to replace it with.

Evaluate Your Marketing

As you evaluate your marketing, ask yourself this question: Am I setting the criteria by which my prospects make a buying decision?

If you are not, it is time for you to seriously consider how you might use this strategy in your business. It takes very little time to do and it is highly effective.

Once you implement it, you will stop prospects from price shopping, convert more prospects to customers, and–best of all–pre-empt your competition so you become the one and only logical choice, even if you’re competing in a crowded market.

Outsourcing is a bit of a gray area among many small business owners. On the one hand, it’s cheap, reliable work, on the other hand you might not always be sure you can trust the worker to complete the work assigned to them. Juggling the outsourcing pros and cons is a daily habit for some people, so here is a short list of both the advantages and the disadvantages of outsourcing.

Pros of Outsourcing:

Advantages of outsourcing include:

1. Specialized skills– Unlike in-house employees, outsourcing companies and freelancers have finely honed skills relevant to their craft. When you hire a freelance writer for article marketing or link building for example, you are getting a persona who writes every single day for their living.
2. Lower Cost- A lot of people are under the impression that freelancers and outsource specialists cost a lot of money, when in fact the opposite is true. Also consider the fact that to write a lot of articles yourself takes too much time, and hiring a staff to do it in-house is hardly cost effective anymore.
3. Contracts– Worried that hiring someone in Costa Rica or the Philippines means that you will have no control over the way they work? Think again. Going into a contractual agreement protects both you and the freelancer, so you both get what you want.

Cons of Outsourcing

Outsourcing disadvantages include:

1. Language Barriers– One of the only issues or problems with outsourcing would involve different languages. This is becoming less and less of a problem though, because a lot of freelancers and outsourcing companies realize how important it is to be fluent in English in today and tomorrow’s business world.
2. Lack of Quality Control– Sometimes it just isn’t possible to control how a freelancer will behave. You can minimize your risk though by using a company like Freelancer.com that features a rating system. You can choose to hire only freelancers that have good reviews from past employers. It is nearly a foolproof system.

In the end, looking at outsourcing pros and cons shows that the advantages of outsourcing far exceed the outsourcing disadvantages. This is of course only true most of the time, and as with everything there will be exceptions to the rule. You might experience outsourcing problems when you look in places like India or Pakistan, so always be sure to clarify that you need someone who speaks and writes English very well.

Think about the last time you started a physical activity, one using muscles you had not used much before. You started out feeling fine, but the next day, you were sore. Those muscles were protesting their initial use. But you enjoyed the activity, so you continued to use those muscles. And gradually or quickly, the strain decreased, the muscles grew stronger, and you were able to do more.

Writing is like a muscle because writing involves many developing many skills — from understanding grammar to understanding purpose and audience — skills that need practice in order for you, the writer, to become proficient. When you start writing, your writing muscles are unaccustomed to that activity, so you ache afterwards. This ache could translate into over critical evaluations of the work produced (probably valid), unfulfilled expectations that the writing would be easier than it actually was, or frustration that the activity took so much more time than expected with much less produced than hoped for.

IN THE BEGINNING, YOUR RESULTS ARE AWFUL

Lew Hunter talks of “training-wheel screenplays”: those first four or five screenplays that are truly awful but that you need to write in order to learn enough to write a fairly good script. These first scripts should never be shown to anyone because they are embarrassing.

Every writer has a time of producing training-wheel material, whether short stories or novels, articles or books, or short stories or novels; however, we are so proud of our accomplishment — we actually finished something — that we show it to everyone. Most readers are polite, perhaps even encouraging (mothers can be like that); some will say, “It needs work.” That is all part of building the writing muscles.

Realize that practice is essential to building muscle. That practice takes time and effort, focus and concentration, and much patience on your part. You must allow yourself time to grow those skills and confidence to the next level. Proficiency only comes with much dedicated practice and focused effort.

Refrain from too much self-criticism at the beginning stages of your development. Do not become discouraged at your first feeble attempts at your craft. We all start out as poor writers; with practice, we become better writers. Eventually, we can become professional writers, if that desire is strong enough.

Do not make the mistake I did. In my early writing career, when I was trying to decide the genres to focus on, I would write something and send it out. The rejection came back with boomerang swiftness. With each rejection, I would jump to another type of writing, figuring that rejection indicated my talent for the genre. The result was that I never stayed with any one kind of writing long enough to become proficient in it.

I finally realized that all this jumping around was not the best course of action, so I chose a few types of writing that I had enjoyed (writing books, writing about travel and writing, writing screenplays) and focused on developing those muscles (skills) specific to each type of writing. Eventually I became good enough to be published or to win awards, but I worked hard, spending a lot of time and effort to reach that point of proficiency.

One benefit of all that jumping around was that I learned about many types of writing, and I learned to write better out of sheer practice of writing. Writing is always good practice for better writing, no matter the genre you write.

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE

The more you exercise that writing muscle, the stronger it becomes. The more writing practice you put in, the better writer you will become. The stronger the muscle becomes, the more you will be able to perform more complicated, challenging tasks. You will feel confident at tackling larger and more complicated projects. So you can move from writing short blog posts to short 10 page e-books and eventually to writing 100 to 200 page book manuscripts.

The old adage is true: “practice makes perfect.” For writing, since no writing is ever perfect (a topic for another article), we will amend the adage to “practice makes improvement.”

Exercising the writing muscles is hard work, at least at first, but the whole process does become easier — with practice. The key to success is constant, daily (or as often as possible) writing. And write projects that really spark your interest, so you can sustain your writing efforts through the frustrating times.

Granted, some people do hit success with their first attempt at a genre, but most of us need that practice before we are good enough to be recognized for our accomplishments.

EVENTUALLY, YOU BECOME A PROFICIENT WRITER

As you become a better writer, you will find other writers who agree to read and critique your efforts (I am not talking about your mother or close friends or relatives, unless they are truly qualified). You may join a writing group, or you may just find friends who are also good writers.

As your writing is critiqued by these qualified readers, you will learn even more, especially about those issues particular to your writing — your “favorite” grammar errors or lazy ways you put words and sentences together. You will learn to tighten your writing. You will learn techniques to create better ideas and better ways to express those ideas.

Regardless of the pain and frustration of building up your writing muscle, trudge on. Continue to write; play with different types of writing; play with writing for different audiences and age groups; eventually, you will stumble upon your best fit for your writing. Actually writing is the only way you will achieve that level of proficiency so that your writing is taken seriously.

To get to that level, practice writing– stretching the writing muscle is essential. Write in a journal or write a blog about your hobby or passion. Write novels and stories and screenplays for you alone as the audience. But write. And then write some more.

The Magnificent Tomb of Boy King Tut – Fleshing Out the Biblical Exodus Story!

When the tomb of Tutankhamon was discovered in 1922 it caused a world-wide sensation, the splendor of its death mask of pure gold becoming a centerpiece display of the wealth and opulence of ancient Egypt. In addition, extensive in size, it contained much jewelry of turquoise, lapis lazuli, carnelian, also articles of gold, silver and bronze, plus numerous objects for the Pharaoh’s journey of death. Egyptologists, however, puzzled over how Tutankhamon, but eighteen and only the heir to Egypt’s throne, could be buried in so magnificent a tomb – the established tradition being that reigning Pharaohs built their own tombs during their lifetimes. The size, grandeur and ornamentation of each Pharaoh’s tomb and the splendor of its contents, reflected upon the length and wealth of his sovereignty.

Dr. Lennart Moeller, medical doctor from Stockholm, but also an Egyptologist, archeologist, amateur deep sea diver, etc., developed a theory in his book “The Exodus Story” to explain the anomaly: Tutankhamun, first born son of Pharaoh Amenhotep III, dies in the Tenth Plague; later, Pharaoh, pursuing the fleeing Hebrews with his chariot army, drowns and his body is lost in the Red Sea; Amenhotep’s empty tomb is therefore available while royal prince Tutankhamun is dead and needful of a burial place.

There is much extra-biblical evidence to support the theory.

The biblical “Ten Plagues” inflict Egypt

After Pharaoh repeatedly refuses to let the Hebrew slaves leave Egypt, Moses warns there will be plagues, first the Nile turning into blood, then frogs, lice, and finally locusts, darkness, and the tenth plague, death of all firstborn, including Prince Tutankhamun.

A highly important extra-biblical source of corroborative detail – to almost all the narratives of the ten-plagues plus Exodus events (as told in both the Bible and Passover-Haggadah), is the Ipuwer Papyrus Scroll. Found in Egypt in the early 19th century, it was translated and taken to the Leiden Museum in Holland where it is still kept. Described in several archaeological books of ancient Egypt, it is a papyrus scroll over twelve feet in length, called “Admonitions of Ipuwer”, written during the 19th Dynasty by an Egyptian scribe-historian named Ipuwer. Interpreted in 1909, it depicts violent events in Egypt during the prior dynasty, which seem to parallel the Biblical plagues and the Exodus story – it describes a society in total crisis, providing essentially an eyewitness account of extreme and unusual occurrences:

• “What the ancestors had foretold has happened”, (Imhotep, the Egyptian vizier who saved Egypt from famine, 260 years earlier – thought to be the biblical Joseph – had foretold the exodus of the Hebrew slaves from Egypt.)
• “The river is blood .. there is blood everywhere, no shortage of death .. many dead are buried in the river {The first plague}.. lacking are grain, charcoal .. great hunger and suffering”.
• “destruction of grain” {The plague of locusts or hail}.
• “We don’t know what has happened in the land.”
• “animals moaning and roaming freely”.
• “darkness” {The ninth plague}.
• Deaths .. “children of princes, prisoners, brothers” {The tenth plague, deaths of all the first-born}.
• “Gone is what yesterday has seen. See now, the land is deprived of kingship. See, all the ranks, they are not in their place .. like a herd that roams without a herdsman.”
• “Poor .. have become of wealth .. Gold and lapis lazuli, silver and malachite, carnelian and bronze are strung on to the necks of female slaves.” {.. and they requested from the Egyptians, silver and gold articles. And God made the Egyptians favor them and they granted their request.” Exodus 12:35-36};
• Additional extra-biblical confirmation of the Passover plagues are the mass burial graves of Egyptians, excavated at Tel ed Daba and elsewhere, indicating a panic, no individual burials.

The Exodus of the Hebrew slaves from Egypt

After the Tenth Plague, when Amenhotep III’s first-born son, Tutankhamun dies in the tenth plague, Pharaoh finally orders Moses to take the Hebrews and leave Egypt. Later however, when he realizes the loss to Egypt of its slave people, also learning from his scouts that they are “trapped in the wilderness” (see article “Miracles, 3500 Years Ago”), he pursues them with his chariot army.

Going beyond the plagues, the Ipuwer scroll also corroborates the biblical description of the Exodus flight: “fire .. mounted up on high .. its burning goes forth against the enemies of the land” {Bible: “by night in a pillar of fire”}.

Pharaoh and his Chariot army Drowns

Pharaoh, leading his chariot army, pursues the Hebrews to the Gulf of Aqaba, where recently discovered artifacts of coral-covered chariot wreckage plus bones of men and horses – all strewn along an eight mile undersea ridge between the Sinai Peninsula and Saudi Arabia – indicate they had drowned (see Ezine article, “Miracles, 3500 Years Ago”).

Corroboration of these events comes from several sources – firstly, the Ipuwer scroll: “See, he who slept wifeless, found a noblewoman ..” Written long afterwards, it obviously describes conditions after the loss of the Egyptian army, composed of upper-class males. Secondly, this also supports the request of the “royal” widow of Pharaoh, in a remarkable (clay cube) Amarna letter to the King of the Hittites- asking for one of his sons to become her new husband. It was sent to King Suppiluliumas, “He who was my husband is dead and I have no son. People say you have many sons. If you send me one of your sons he will become my husband .. repugnant to me to take one of my servants .. since most ancient times .. never happened before .. write to a foreign country .. humiliating to me and my country.”

The loss of the mighty Egyptian chariot army seems to be supported by various items of evidence – Josephus, the Roman historian, quotes Monetho, an Egyptian priest, circa 300 BC, regarding the “easy” conquest of mighty Egypt by the Hyksos. (Egypt’s loss of its entire chariot army at the Red Sea seems a corroborating explanation.)

Also, Tel-Amarna letters have been found from cities dependent on Egypt for protection from invaders, begging Pharaoh to send troops – saying “no help has come”. Historians note that Egypt having lost its powerful chariot army was now incapable of sending military protection, and recovery of a demoralized Egypt would take a long time – per Dr. Moeller, it was “the beginning of the end of the 18th dynasty”.

Tutankhamun is buried in the tomb of his Pharaoh father

With Pharaoh Amenhotep III drowned in a far-off sea and his magnificent tomb completely furnished but absent a body, but with the body of royal Prince Tutankhamun needing a burial place, the obvious apparently took place, the Egyptian court deciding that Tutankhamun would be buried in his father’s tomb. The only personal item was the magnificent death-mask.

One direct reference is cited by Dr. Moeller, ” .. young king .. buried in tomb originally prepared for ‘Ay’.”

What do you look for in a web host? A low price? Reliability and good support I hope. If you’re anything like today’s ambitious webmaster, you’re on the hunt for the best features. There’s a lot of programs and management tools available to make your site standout but I bet there are some features you pay no mind at all. Often overlooked but one should never forget about critical security features as they will help to keep your web hosting environment protected from an array of threats. Security features are abundant but here some you simply can’t do without:

SFTP

Short for Secure File Transfer Protocol, SFTP is more efficient and secure variation of FTP. In its purest form, FTP only has the ability to transfer files, leaving them vulnerable to a range of security breaches such as eavesdropping, tampering and even interception of the entire file. A web hosting company offering SFTP provides you with the ability to secure your files in transit with SSH (Secure Shell Host), a protocol that protects data with government recommended 128-bit encryption.

SSL

Secure Sockets Layer or SSL, should be incorporated on any website that sells products or services. SSL is a standard encryption protocol designed to keep internet communications secure. If a web hosting company doesn’t support a shared or private SSL certificate, you need to turn in the opposite direction and find yourself another provider.

Data Backups

Data backup and restoration is not only something that should be practiced with the files on your hard drive, but those on the web host’s server as well. All it takes is one technical difficulty or natural disaster for the web hosting company to lose a server and all of your website data. The good thing is that most providers perform redundant backups to ensure that your data can be restored in the event of a failure. To be on the safe side, I recommend looking into a web host that offers a utility that allows you to backup your own data.

Network Security

Aside from protecting your files and website transactions, you also need to keep an eye out for security features that protect the web hosting company’s network. Do a little research to learn how the web host is protecting their infrastructure, keeping in mind that intrusion detection systems, firewalls, DDoS protection, virus and spam filtering are common features. Servers are prime targets of hackers and malicious code writers so if the hardware is breached or goes down, your website will suffer right along with it.

These are just a few of numerous security features a web hosting company should offer to ensure the safety of your website data. Hackers are constantly trying to crack into web servers while malware writers are releasing new infectious strains everyday. A web host that doesn’t take this into mind is essentially leaving you wide open for exploitation.