Today, I want to give you some concrete ideas for building greater value in your offer – product, service, information, physical goods, whatever it is that you sell…

In my last post, we talked about the difference between Price and Value and how easy it is to get caught in the “discount trap”. Cutting your prices can often have precisely the opposite effect that the “price leader” is after. 

When times are tough, consumers are not so much after low prices as they are demanding of greater perceived value for their dwindling stash of money. 

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Today, I want to talk about a critically important issue as we head into 2009 and what many are worried will be a tough year financially.

What I want to discuss today is the difference between PRICE and VALUE.

In times of economic uncertainty, it is a common reaction for many marketers to start driving their prices downward. The hope is that by discounting their prices, they will appeal to the more frugal and cost-concious sensibilities of the financially strapped consumer.

On the surface, this can seem sensible. The thinking goes that if A costs less, more people will be inclined to buy A because B and C cost more.

However, what is not always self-evident is the unfortunate truth that competing solely on price rarely appeals to the BUYERS in most markets — at least not the ones that you REALLY want.

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When I was a kid growing up here in Miami, my dad used to take me to watch the insanely popular local sport and parimutuel Jai-alai.

Now, if you’ve never stepped foot inside a Jai-alai fronton before, you’d be in the solid majority…

Jai-alai is played with a small as a golf-ball, hard as a rock “Pelota”, a ball that is caught and thrown using a “Cesta”, a woven basket worn on the hand.

The ball is traded back and forth like, sort of like psycho handball or racquetball on steroids at 100 mph+ speeds(!), bouncing off of an enormous 3-sided granite court with a wood side-court and netting to keep the ball from going into the audience.

Speaking of the audience, a Jai-alai audience is a betting audience which means it leaps to its feet at least 400 times a night. It’s THAT exciting, really.

So, what exactly does Jai-alai have to do with selling, you ask?

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This is the first in what I intend to be a series of posts where I will offer up some fertile swipe file material for those of you banging your head against the wall with your copy.

Eventually, we’ll have covered all the different areas of your copy where you might get stuck or be searching for a little creative mojo…

The idea here is to use these snips as a spring board and then season them to taste based upon your subject matter. Of course, some of these are simple and powerful enough that you can just plug them right into your copy and they work over and over again.

Here’s the first installment: Read the rest of this entry

Here’s a fun story about an interesting experiment.

A world class violinist decided to see what would happen if he took his $3.5 million dollar Stradivarius and went outside to play for people on the street. He was completely ignored…

Absent the framework that accompanied his typical command performances, people were completely oblivious and disinterested.

In the context of “street musician”, the the most finely crafted instrument of its kind known to man, played by an absolute master of the art was decidedly unappreciated and almost completely TUNED OUT.

Can you think of any aspects of your marketing where your buyer’s experience is incongruent with their expectations? If you’re honest, you surely can. And there’s money there for you…

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“I’m new to copywriting. I’ve seen a lot of people talking about how direct response copywriting was different from every other form of writing.

If you had to make a list of the “fundamentals” of direct response copywriting, what would they be?”

I don’t have a “list” per se… But here’s a couple of random thoughts that could prove invaluable to you as you try and turn words into dollars for yourself and for future clients:

 
1) People don’t buy things; people buy imagined future experiences of using those things.

2) Attention, Interest, Desire, Action – in that order.

3) Headlines have only ONE purpose, make the reader continue reading.

4) In your calls to action, state SPECIFICALLY what you want people to do and EXACTLY what they can expect when they do as you’ve directed.

5) Always be “one thought ahead” of your reader, then blow their mind by answering their questions right as they form them.

Continuities are the flavor of the month in Internet Marketing circles at the moment. 

Consequently, we’ve all seen a wave of emotionally charged discussions about the concept, as if continuities were a new discovery.

Nothing could be further from the truth…