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Get Specific About Your Offer

Do you offer “quality service” or do you have a “7 Point Checklist” that shows why I should use your product or service?

Ducky WeatherHave your prices been reduced for a sale or have they been reduced by 25% for 3 days only?

Platitudes and generalities roll off the human understanding like water from a duck. They leave no impression whatever. To say, “Best in the world,” “Lowest price in existence,” etc. are at best simply claiming the expected. But superlatives of that sort are usually damaging. They suggest looseness of expression, a tendency to exaggerate, a careless truth. They lead readers to discount all the statements that you make.” ~ Claude Hopkins, Scientific Advertising

Whether we’re talking about your overall message, the sales copy for your next ad, or the content of an email blast, the more specific your message, the more weight your message will carry. A specific message is either truth or a lie. There’s no middle ground, less opinion, more fact.

If a claim is worth making, make it in the most impressive way.

Today’s Assignment: Create a checklist of specific claims that you can make about your product or service. Don’t just file it away when you’re through. Post it somewhere you’ll see it often. Add to it or delete from it as needed. Refer to it when creating your next ad or promotional copy. Turn it into a flier and use it as a “leave-behind.” Post it to your Web site as an FAQ page or as a list of reasons to do business with you.

David Daniels of Radon Specialists of WI does this brilliantly. Every customer question and its answer is posted to an extensive FAQ page. Another page shows photos of poorly installed Radon systems by unnamed competitors, each with an explanation of what was done wrong and why it matters. The end result is a site that shows his company’s expertise. He doesn’t shout “we’re the best” from the rooftops; he specifically shows how and why they excel at what they do.

Wired ZipLine Challenge Course in Canton, Texas has the right idea too. They’ve issued a charitable challenge: Fan them on Facebook from now through the end of March and they’ll donate $1 to North Texas Food Bank for each new fan. They’ve issued a press release with (you guessed it) all the specifics.

Get specific. It works!

Simply Delicious Link Building Tips

Two years ago, I wrote several posts about using Delicious.com for social bookmarking. Those posts are no less relevant today than when they were written in 2008. I still use Delicious.com as my bookmark manager because it allows me to keep one set of bookmarks that can be easily accessed from any computer. I still find the social aspect of it to be highly beneficial. In effect, it’s a human-edited search engine, only returning results that others have found useful. But sometime between then and now, Delicious.com improved its service. Now it also allows me to send bookmarks with my comments to others within my network, to anyone via email, or broadcast them through Twitter. This enhancement saves me time because many of my bookmarks are meant to be shared.

My Delicious Social BookmarksDelicious.com links are no-followed, meaning it doesn’t make any sense whatsoever to spam their system with a link to every page on your site. In fact, bookmarking your website pages to promote or advertise them is against Yahoo’s terms of service. Still, it does make sense to bookmark information that you want to easily return to and sometimes that WILL be to a page on your own site. And I don’t know how or why, but those no-followed links still help your page’s rank on the search engines results page. Confused? So are the experts. But here’s my take on it: Just bookmark relevant sites that you want to return to. Enjoy the ease and simplicity of saving your bookmarks this way, and know that your public bookmarks are visible and included in the Delicious.com search results. Check it out for yourself, and if you find this post useful, please share it with your friends and / or bookmark it on Delicious.com.

More Goodies from Google LBC

Have you checked your listing on Google Local Business Center (LBC) lately? In case you’re still not sure what Local Business Center is all about, let’s start at the end result and look at the search engine results page (SERP) for a business that’s taken the time to set one up. Notice the listings below, all adjacent to the map and at the top of page one for the keywords “hair salon neenah.” I think you’ll agree – these top listings are prime real estate.

Google results for hair salon neenah

Clicking on the map pin for any of these businesses will bring you to the Google Maps page for the same keywords. In the screen shot below, I’ve clicked on the top search result, which brings up a balloon with expanded information from the Local Business Center listing.

Google Maps Results Page

Alternatively, you could click on the “Directions and more” link in the first screen and go straight to the Local Business Center listing below. If this is old news to you … good for you! I hope you’re taking full advantage of this free listing. If not, I hope you can now see its value.

Either way, here’s where it gets interesting. Just this month Google added a new feature to their Local Business Center. Now you can post short snippets of information directly to your LBC listing as frequently as you like.  Whatever you post will show up where the arrow is pointing, below. Wouldn’t that be a handy way to keep your listing fresh and updated with the latest information?

Google Local Business Center page

The “Post to your place page” box is in the upper right of your Google LBC dashboard. You’re limited to 160 characters, so you’ll have to be brief, but that’s plenty of space to post a note about a sale or an event.

Post to Google LBC page

Today’s Assignment:

If you don’t yet have a Google Local Business Center listing, log into your Google account and set one up. For detailed instructions on how to do that, please see Have You Claimed Your Google Local Business Listing. You’ll need to complete this quick and painless process before taking the next step.

If you DO have an existing Google Local Business Center listing, log in from your Google account, then post your first update. Add a reminder to your calendar to update it at least within the next 30 days.

This feature is not yet widely known about. I believe it has great potential, but only time will tell. What do you think? Do you agree that it’s worth a try?

Link Building Tips – Your Facebook Page

With 250 million+ active users, it’s safe to say that at least a portion of your customer base is on Facebook. It’s no longer the domain of college students, but the online hangout for moms, dads, grandparents, and more importantly – people of all ages and interests from your locale. Real people and organizations are on Facebook – that’s their USP and that’s why YOU need to be found there. Being on Facebook shows that you’re real – and makes great strategic sense at the same time.

Maybe you’re already using Facebook to stay in touch with friends and family. That’s a great place to start, but I encourage you to take it one step further and set up a business page. A Facebook business (or fan) page offers the same easy-to-use, easy-to-look-at functionality, but it’s all business.

Your business page can sport up-to-the-minute status updates that any “fan” will see on their own news wall. You business page is public and you’ll find that it’s quickly indexed by Google.

Think of your status message updates as tiny blog posts because not only will your Facebook fans see them, but they’ll show up in the search results on Google and Bing. Be sure to link back to your main company web site from within both your personal and business page profiles.

Today’s Assignment: If you’re not already on Facebook, sign up at www.facebook.com. Begin with setting up a profile. Take a few minutes to fill out your basic information. Add only the personal information that you’re comfortable sharing with everyone in the universe. Upload a photo. Update your status with anything you like, then search for a few friends. I’ve found friends on Facebook that I haven’t seen since I was a teenager. That’s the fun part!

Next, create a page for your business. That’s easiest to do if you start from another business page. You’ll find ours here: www.facebook.com/ZeroToSixtyMarketing. Go ahead and click the “Become a Fan” button at the top of the page if you’re so inclined, then scroll down the left side of the page to the link “create a page for my business.” From there, follow the on screen directions for the basic setup.

Want to learn more about marketing your business with Facebook? Check out these resources:

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Where Should I Advertise My Business?

We talk a lot about online advertising here, but conventional, print advertising is still the life blood of many brick and mortar small businesses. Some of you are reaping the results of well-written, well-placed advertising. Others are frustrated by a lack of results.

I will advertise my business to an individual, not the crowd.My question to you today: Are you paying enough attention to saying the right thing to the right people? If not, the wrong people are hearing your message, meaning nothing you could say to them would induce them to buy. Even if the right people (your target audience) hear your message, if it’s the wrong message for them, it’s of no value to you.

So the answer to where should I advertise my business?” is –- it depends entirely on where you’ll find your customers. But you knew that already.

Today’s 30-minute challenge: Take pen and paper and write down everything you can think of about your ideal customer. Just as an author develops specific characters for a story plot, I want you to develop a persona for your ideal customer. Is it a man or a woman; what age, where does he live; where does he work; what’s important to him; what does he read; does he watch TV; why do you like him as a customer? Give it a full 30-minutes, then stop.

Later today or tomorrow, write your fictional customer a short note. Tell him what’s in it for him to do business with you. Come at it from his own perspective. Remember that he cares nothing about your interests or your profit. Answer the question we all need answered, WIIFM (what’s in it for me?)

I hope this is an idea starter for you. By the time you’re done with this exercise, you’ll have a stronger image of who your ideal customer is and how to frame your message to reach him. From that jumping off point, deciding where to advertise is relatively easy.

For Further Reading:

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