Apply tested principles from advertising legend Robert Collier, and you’ll never have to guess about your marketing again.<\/p>\n
s a long subject line better than short? Do green envelopes do better around Christmas? Is a postcard enough copy?<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no reason to guess!<\/p>\n
Instead, you can apply tested principles in preparing your promotional materials that increase their effectiveness. Advertising legend Robert Collier called it \u201ctaking the guess out of advertising.\u201d<\/p>\n
Related:\u00a04 Ways to Market Your Business for Free<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n Collier understood that writing advertising copy (or any form of persuasive material, for that matter) should be something of a science.\u00a0He liked to refer to the work of the Tested Selling Institute and Word Laboratory Inc., which identified words and phrases salespeople could use to get customers to buy. These \u201cTested Selling Sentences\u201d were to be memorized and used by salespeople in one-on-one interactions with customers.<\/p>\n Collier believed that taking this kind of approach to selling would be just as effective when applied to the printed word. For example, his research showed that in writing sales pieces, there were certain tested openings to letters that would invariably win readers\u2019 attention, which, of course, is the first step to making a sale.<\/p>\n Of all these openings, the word \u201chow\u201d seemed to work the best. In some cases, using the word \u201chow\u201d in a headline could greatly increase the pull of a sales piece. This rule is certainly used widely today, as \u201chow\u201d frequently appears in headlines, blog posts\u00a0and article titles.<\/p>\n This magic word seems to work no matter what product is being sold. People want practical solutions to their problems, and the word \u201chow\u201d is an immediate signal that if they will just spend a few minutes reading the sales piece or web page, they will be sure to learn something that will improve their lives.<\/p>\n According to Collier, other \u201cmagic\u201d words that impelled people to give their attention and ultimately buy were:<\/p>\n If you read magazines or surf the internet today, you\u2019ll find these words popping up again and again. They seem to be as powerful as ever.<\/p>\n Related:\u00a010 Laws of Social Media Marketing<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n Another principle Collier followed was to appeal to readers\u2019 vanity. For\u00a0<\/i>example, giving the impression that the reader has been specially selected to receive an offer because of his or her unique qualities can lead to a huge response.<\/p>\n \u00a0This approach is used a great deal today. The word \u201cexclusive\u201d appears everywhere, and people still have a positive response to it. Statements like\u00a0\u201cRead ONLY if you\u2019re serious … \u201d help pull the reader in by complimenting them, while keeping out less-qualified prospects.Can you think of ways to play up to your readers\u2019 egos? Whether your aim is clinching a sale, getting them to sign up for your newsletter or getting them to join your website, this is an effective strategy.\u00a0Make them feel that only people who are discerning, properly ambitious or with finer taste can realize the value of what you offer, and they will want to prove they have those qualities by doing what you want them to do.<\/p>\n Collier gave a number of examples of ways to open letters that proved to work very well.<\/p>\n Here are two of my favorites:<\/p>\n Do me a favor<\/b> \u201cGive me ___ and I\u2019ll give you ___\u201d<\/b> You can see how easy it is to take a good idea like this and adapt it as needed to different subjects. You just have to keep testing it and examining the response rate to make sure the approach is still working.<\/p>\n Related:\u00a0Use These 5 Steps to Create a Marketing Plan<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n It\u2019s just a question of finding the keys that \u201ctake the guess” out of advertising,\u00a0and then applying them to whatever product you\u2019re selling. The keys work because they have more to do with human nature than they do with merchandise.<\/p>\n You have to understand your prospects and their hidden desires and motivations. Then, gear your promotions to appeal to those aspects of human nature. Once you find one thing that works, keep adjusting and adapting and testing what you do so that you get a better and better response with each new campaign.<\/p>\n In addition to using the right words, another way to \u201ctake the guess\u201d out of advertising is to sugarcoat the offer by throwing in a bonus or premium.<\/p>\n The cost becomes easier to swallow when a special gift is included in the deal. This approach works with just about anything you\u2019re selling, from magazine subscriptions to dental implants. Always offer some special bonus, and you can see a huge increase in your rate of response.<\/p>\n\n
The value of feeding vanity<\/h2>\n
Successful letter openings<\/h2>\n
\nOne company he knew of received a great response with letters that began:\u00a0\u201cI wonder if you would be good enough to do me a favor?\u201d It worked so well they started all their letters using those words.<\/p>\n
\nCollier also found great success with variations on the idea \u201cGive Me Five Minutes, and I\u2019ll Give You [This or That].\u201d\u00a0For example, \u201cGive Me Two Minutes — And I\u2019ll Give You the Secret of a Goodly Profit Without Investment.\u201d\u00a0Another successful opener to a letter selling a new set of books was: \u201cGive Me Five Days — And I\u2019ll Give You the Secret of Learning Any Subject!\u201d Or there was this one: \u201cGive Me Five Days, and I\u2019ll Give You Relief from Itching Feet.\u201d<\/p>\nSugarcoating the pill<\/h2>\n