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Are you someone who has to write a lot? Advertisements, blog posts, books, whatever? Then if you aren’t using this simple trick yet you can easily double your productivity, today.
I’m working on a book on how to write faster. It’s focused on professional writers who are paid either by the project or by the hour for their writing. The premise is if you can write faster, you can earn more (and work less, too). If you’re paid by project you can do more projects per month and earn more. If you’re paid by hour you can increase your hourly output to justify an increase in rate. Either way, you earn more. And this gives you flexibility to say “no” to more projects and work less.
The book contains a super mindset shift that will increase the productivity of any writer, plus it’s stuffed to bursting with tips, tricks, and tactics for increasing writing output.
And here’s one of the most important tactics, as a preview to the book…
The Fodder Box. As you go through your day, you’re constantly fed little bits of inspiration that may or may not be relevant today. But you know they’re something you could include in your writing, sometime. Well, take notes, tear out the story, print it out, keep a printed record. And stuff them in a box for later. Then, when you have something to write, just sort through what’s in the box and pull out anything relevant to the subject you’re writing on.
This little trick kills writer’s block and ensures you always have something relevant to write about. Plus, because you’re basing your writing on ideas from others (interpreted in new ways, of course — no plagiarizing!) you know exactly what to write so it flows fast with minimal mental crunching.
There are three areas a business has to succeed to be healthy in the long term.
Managing people.
Managing product lines.
Marketing/sales/business development.
Managing people means keeping workers happy without letting them control the business decisions. Especially when it could be detrimental to the business. Organized labor has too much control over Detroit’s big three and have developed non-sustainable demands — they are literally choking to death the companies they rely on.
Toyota and Honda have fended off union control so far. (Keeping employees happy goes a long way.) That’s one reason they’re not in the same mess the others are.
If your business is good at managing people, you’ve succeeded at one of the three pillars of business success and are unlikely to need a bailout like Detroit’s big three.
Managing product lines means finding out what flush, hungry mobs want and giving it to them. In this green, energy-conscious world with gas prices spiraling out of control, there’s a new Hummer. Enough said there.
VW won with the ugly, cramped little Beetle when the cars of the 50s and 60s were mostly gas-guzzlers and people were looking for something different. And Honda and Toyota are mostly on target with their high gas mileage, environmentally friendlier cars. Small is big now, and if Detroit is slow to recognize that and react to the market it’s not taxpayer’s responsibility to bail them out for their poor product choices.
When’s the last time you looked at what flush, hungry mobs were asking for, and gave it to them? It’s a valuable thing to do…
Marketing, sales, and business development means taking a product that was created for a specific market, and introducing the market to that product. Then asking for the order. Not a fancy commercial produced to win advertising awards with pop-ish music and fancy graphics.
Sure, it makes you feel good when your ad agency takes you out for a $1,000 steak dinner because they won an award on your dime (and then charges it to your company in a transaction you’ll never see), but is this really growing your business?
How about a few commercials with a reason why I should prefer your product over every other one available in the marketplace, tied with benefits of buying your product and doing business with you, and finally tying in the commercial with something going on at the local dealership right now, such as an event I can go to? It’d be a start in the right direction.
I don’t have much sympathy for failing automakers. I feel sorry for people who feel they have no control, and who may lose their jobs when those companies go under. But we can’t get into the habit of propping up companies who fail on so many levels, just because the company is big. Then nobody learns and the cycle continues.
Just got notice today of a new tool from Google. It’s designed to help you identify keywords you can use to generate new SEM traffic, that you’re not taking advantage yet. But there’s another (almost secret) use this tool has.
Spying.
You see, you can enter any website into the tool and see the 100 most-commonly searched for terms that match pages on that website. You don’t have to be the website owner to do this. So you can search on your own sites. Or a competitor’s.
The ability to search on other peoples’ sites or sites you don’t have AdWords accounts linking to may be removed, if Google gets wind this is being used to gain competitive intelligence (none of the promotion materials indicate that this is what the tool is for). So use it now while it’s available.
If you haven’t changed the way you speak with customers and potential customers in the past 6 weeks or so, you better.
Or this recession is going to turn into something much, much nastier for you. (This headline from yesterday is telling: “Soros says deep recession inevitable, depression possible.”)
Take this lead for a letter I’m writing for a product that has nothing to do with investing or the stock market:
It’s no joke. We’re in tough times.
As I write this, the Dow’s been pummeled — it’s down 59% off its 52-week high. Major tech player Cisco’s stock is down 54%, despite sales increases. Microsoft is doing worse than Cisco — down 56%.
The banks that aren’t bankrupt yet are too scared to lend. And all our houses seem to be losing value by the day.
And the economy’s biggest gurus are saying we’re either headed for recession or depression.
Is there any bright spot?
Listen.
All this crap going on with the economy is what’s on people’s minds. It’s on your mind. It’s on my mind. And it’s on our customer’s mind. It’s likely these last 6 weeks or so have been hard on your business. And the next few months aren’t going to be easy either.
(It’s a completely normal human reaction to cinch those purse strings tourniquet-tight when you’ve just lost 30% to 50+% of your nest egg. That’s real dollars, folks — most of your customers have lost between $10,000 and $100,000 in the past 6 weeks.)
But now is also a time of incredible opportunity for heads-up marketers and sales people.
Right now you can bring your tribe, your group, your teeming mob in close.
You can speak to them in the language they’re using. You can continue the conversation going on in their head right now.
And they will listen.
They will bond with you.
And they will, sooner or later, buy.
It may not happen in a flood once you connect with them. But building rapport by sharing in their sorrow now — saying “I understand you” without saying it directly — will lead to more sales sooner.
You’ll get the rebound purchases and “stretching the budget” buys that putz marketers still singing jingles like everything’s okay won’t get until things are actually okay again.
Sure, the great depression sucked.
Murderously high unemployment (yes, people died). Failing banks, businesses, and financial futures.
It changed the way an entire generation looked at jobs, money, employment. And then sent shockwaves through the generations as everyone adjusted and reacted to the norms the great depression created.
But even in the midst of the great depression smart companies were growing.
New companies exploded in new profits.
And there were many who actually lived well —
Still eating at fancy restaurants…
Still driving fancy cars…
Still buying fancy houses…
(And actually living within their means while buying these — but that’s another topic for another day.)
There is a calm in the chaos, and opportunity in the desert. It just takes some thinking on your feet. Some adjusting. Some taking a moment to lift your head up, surveying the landscape, seeing where people are still hungry and ready to invest in a good, reliable way to satiate their hunger.
Don’t make the mistake of acting like nothing is happening. Because things are happening. And they’re huge.
Now you get to decide what impact it’ll have on you.
Most people know GoDaddy.com for their raunchy Super Bowl ads and don’t realize how much advertising it really takes to make them as successful as they are. And they’re no chumps when it comes to advertising either.
What I didn’t know about GoDaddy.com is how much CEO and founder Bob Parson’s philosophy of advertising lines up with mine.
Watch this video and learn his 9 rules for advertising that works (I’ve included my notes below):
GoDaddy.com CEO and Founder Bob Parsons’ 9 Secret Rules for Successful Advertising
Start small. Don’t blow a fortune on advertising that hasn’t proven itself in smaller tests first.
Exit strategy required. Don’t get yourself into a situation where you’re locked into an advertising contract when the advertising isn’t working. There are plenty of places to blow your budget. Take your advertising dollars elsewhere.
It works now or never. If your advertising isn’t bringing returns today, don’t believe the ad salesperson when they say, “Customers won’t respond until the 7th time they see it.” Sometimes customers will, sometimes they won’t. But if your ad works today it’s certainly worth running again.
Effective advertising pays for itself. If you can’t trace returns on advertising to prove it’s paying for itself within days or the first couple weeks, it’s not effective advertising. Even GoDaddy’s Super Bowl commercials play this out — I read once that each time GoDaddy has run a Super Bowl ad they’ve been able to attribute a significant long-term increase in business to their campaign.
Measure and test. This is critical for that last rule to work. If you’re not measuring you don’t know what’s effective and what’s not. And testing lets you compare what works and what doesn’t and apply your learnings for future success.
Effective advertising must be coupled with a good ordering process. Whether it’s your website, your sales call center, or customer service, the customer must feel comfortable responding to your advertising and placing an order. You can kill the order as soon as you thought you had it by failing here.
Make it stand out. To be effective your ads have to get noticed. And to get noticed they have to stand out. Whether you go the bikini-clad women route of GoDaddy.com or choose another method of standing out is a personal and business choice. But no matter what you choose, this rule is crucial.
Controversy is good. GoDaddy.com has found that about 15% of Super Bowl viewers are offended by their advertising. But that’s why I’m talking about past years’ commercials right now in mid-November. Because controversial draws attention and gets remembered. And… As Bob said… Controversy has translated for them into sales — the most important figure to track.
You can’t please everybody. Try to be all things to everybody and you’re nothing to anybody. Find your tribe, your raving fans, your teeming horde — and serve them well. They’ll serve you well in return.
As a player in the local adult hockey league, I occasionally get emails from the league coordinator. And a recent email he sent was accidentally one of the best marketing emails I’ve seen in a long time. I got his permission, and I’m going to break down why I think this is such a powerful marketing email for you right here (using Gary Bencivenga’s “Problem, Promise, Proof, Proposition” Persuasion Equation).
First, the email itself:
Subject: How drop-in helps your game!
Players,
A glance at the 1st weeks stats shows 7 of the top 10 scorers are regular drop-in attendees! Getting sharp on your skills on Thursdays turns into goals and assists on Sundays and Mondays!
Tomorrow is our next drop-in at 9pm-10:15pm. Should have two goalies and lots of skaters, come join us regulars and get your game revved up!
jon
Now here’s why I think this is such a powerful email.
First, let’s look at the internal motivation and emotional state of people who get this email. For most of us, our pride is on the line when we play. We want to win, because we’ll feel good about ourselves. We don’t want to lose, because we’ll feel crummy. And we know the more goals we score, the more likely we are to win.
So here’s where it gets interesting. Proof.
Proof is the hidden factor in the world’s most successful marketing.
I say hidden because most people skim right over it, even as it builds the credibility of the marketer in the reader’s mind.
Plus it’s hidden because most marketers don’t know to include it. And when they do know, they’d rather make a stronger promise than do the legwork required to dig up proof showing they can live up to their promises.
That’s why so much of the marketing you see is stuffed to the brim with promise after promise, with little proof backing it up.
It’s not the number of exclamation points!!! Or ALL CAPS… It’s the overwhelming number of promises — coupled with a proof vacuum — that make most advertising look like empty hype.
But one good solid proof element, coupled with one strong core promise, and your advertisement packs a wallop.
So where’s the proof in this email?
It’s in the first line: “A glance at the 1st weeks stats shows 7 of the top 10 scorers are regular drop-in attendees!”
You can deduce the connection there but let me put this in perspective. There are 6 teams, with 10 possible goal scorers on each team. That’s 60 players. Each week’s drop-in can have up to 20 skaters. So 33% of the league — max — can be a regular drop-in attendee. The real stat is probably closer to 15%. But they made up 70% of the top 10 scorers.
The point is driven home with the next sentence: “Getting sharp on your skills on Thursdays turns into goals and assists on Sundays and Mondays!” That reinforces the proof element, plus contains a promise that if you come to drop-in hockey, your games (played Sunday and Monday) will benefit for it.
But… Let’s not forget the pulling power of a strong promise.
Which takes me back to the subject line: “How drop-in helps your game!” That simple “How to” headline set up the promise for the entire email — which was paid off as soon as you opened the email. (A good way to break through the clutter and ensure your marketing gets read is to make it valuable and telegraph the value in the headline — or subject line, in the case of an email.)
There’s an implied problem that your game is never as good as it could be (an absolute guarantee up to the highest level of sports). The promise is that coming to drop-in will help you play better. The proof is that 7 of the top 10 scorers come to drop-in regularly.
And finally, what’s the proposition?
The proposition of this marketing message is that you should come to drop-in tomorrow from 9pm to 10:15pm. The people getting this email know where it’s at, and that it costs $10 to come. All they need is a reminder that it’s happening, and many will go.
And for a final push
You never know with drop-in if there will be enough players and goalies to give you a real-game scenario. So this email concludes ensuring that there will be enough goalies to play, plus enough players that you won’t be stuck on the ice until you’re dog-tired. And it reinforces the promise. All in a single sentence: “Should have two goalies and lots of skaters, come join us regulars and get your game revved up!”
This email is also a great example of how short copy can pack a punch, as long as it hits all the points of a good marketing message. If your market knows you, and the basics of your offer, sometimes all it takes is a little push to get them over the edge.
Which is exactly what this did — because I know that drop-in session after this email was full!
Aside from the loaded half-truths, scientific irresponsibility, and one helluva sales job that went into Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” that movie moved America… and the world… to take action on global warming.
But now there’s an even bigger crisis facing us — a crisis that all sides now admit is nothing short of Earth-shattering.
It’s called debt.
A culture of unaccountable spending has put our National Debt above 10 trillion dollars. That means if we were to reduce the debt by $1 every second, it would take over 316,000 YEARS to pay off the national debt.
For 2 years in a row American’s savings rate was negative — meaning we spent more than we made. The last time that happened was the Great Depression (and at that time this piss-poor economic trend happened AFTER a stock-market crash). When the savings rate is negative, less is invested in long-term improvements of the quality of life, and more is invested in paying down debt. By living high on the hog this year we’re setting ourselves up for bread lines and soup kitchens in the years to come.
Social Security is currently running at a surplus — this means more money is being brought in than is going out to pay for the program. Unfortunately, that money is being spent elsewhere within the federal government. When that surplus becomes a deficit (when the brunt of baby boomers retire) by 2017, Social Security will start sucking funds away from other federal programs. Then, this culture of unaccountable, irresponsible spending will get really nasty.
And those are just the beginning.
For one, we’re borrowing that money from somewhere. And no, it’s not Americans, like we did with bonds during World War II and before.
Nope, we’re borrowing the money from China and other economic super powers who at some point may come knocking. And they won’t be nice when we’ve screwed ourselves into a position where paying is too difficult. (They could bury the value of every penny of our currency by maliciously off-loading our debt.)
Listen, it’s your responsibility (and mine, and everyone else’s) to really start to think about whether or not we should be accountable for spending less than we make, and storing away the extra to keep ourselves solvent and our economy strong.
It’s also our responsibility to look at what goes on in Washington D.C. and decide if we want to continue to put up with politicians borrowing money from sources that may not have our best interests at heart, to pay for bloated programs that may be causing more harm than good.
That doesn’t even get into the businesses that take advantage of irresponsible borrowing (such as the banks and lenders that sold ARMs as ways for people with bad credit patterns to buy a home they couldn’t afford).
And the challenge is to do it all in a socially responsible way — that doesn’t just lop off support for those who need it.
We’re coming into some tough times here, folks. And we’re going to have to hunker down and maybe not get everything we want, when we want it.
But the end result will be a better life, a better country, and a better world.
I don’t have all the answers, but at least I’m asking some questions.
Which leads me back to the movie that started this rant — “I.O.U.S.A.”
By all measures I can come up with, it’s more important for Americans to see “I.O.U.S.A.” than it ever was for them to see “An Inconvenient Truth.” It’s more pertinent to our sustained health and that of our children. It will matter more in the short term… and if we can manage to really get its lessons and apply them in our life, it will matter more in the long term too.
It may not be available in theaters near you right now, but you can go to the website http://www.iousathemovie.com/ and watch a “Byte-Sized” 30-minute version. Do it now. For my sake, for your sake, and for the sake of our children.
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