There’s a wonderful European-style market and bakery in the Oak Lawn area of Dallas. They serve everything from made-to-order salads and sandwiches to chef-prepared, ready-to-eat meals.

But what I love most about the place is the sign on the door when you leave. It’s classic.

The sign doesn’t read “Please Come Again” or “Thank You for Your Business” or some other typical exit sign platitude.

It says . . .

“See you tomorrow.”

That kind of confidence is compelling and downright sexy. Sure, a fantastic product, service, or experience is the starting point from which confidence comes, but too many people play it scared and safe even when what they offer is truly great.

I’m not talking about arrogance. Arrogance is an indication of fear, not assurance.

Too many people, however, approach copywriting from a defensive mindset. You’re already back on your heels from the start, instead of proudly sharing your excellence with the people who can benefit most from it.

After all, if you’re not confident in your product or service, why should anyone else be? Confidence is a strong attractor because it assures people they’re making the right choice.

So, check out these tips for confident writing.

And we’ll see you tomorrow.

About the Author: Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and wants you to know that Thesis + Scribe = SEO Made Simple. Get more from Brian on Twitter.

Want lots more tips for producing confident copy and content? Sign up for the Copyblogger newsletter. It’s free, and it’s the smartest way to get the very best advice about how to effectively market online.

There are two kinds of people on the Internet: the greedy and the generous.

The greedy want you to pay for everything. Every link is an affiliate link. Every recommendation has a profit motive. The really good content is locked away until you fork over some money.

The generous want to give you everything free.

It never occurs to them that their time or expertise has value. They’re kind, selfless, giving, and (too often) dirt poor.

But there’s a third kind of person on the Internet. And yes, they belong to the Third Tribe you’ve been reading about.

This person understands that you can’t be greedy and build a following. But you also can’t just throw all your treasure to the wind. This is the person who understands the power of focused generosity.

To help understand this and get a little perspective, let’s look at how this works in the real (non blogging) world. It’s an idea that has been used by savvy marketers forever. Here are just two examples.

Example 1

The first act of generosity happened one December. I had recently ordered holiday gifts from Amazon. A package arrived in the mail from them, with a letter inside signed by Jeff Bezos, the company’s founder and CEO:

Dear Friend,

With the holidays approaching, I wanted to thank you for making this year such an exciting time for Amazon.com. We really couldn’t have done it without you.

As a small token of our appreciation, we’d like you to have our special coffee tumbler (I’m particularly fond of this year’s quotes). May you use it in good health.

Thank you again for all your support, and best wishes for a holiday season filled with family, friends, and happiness!

I don’t drink coffee very often, but this little thank you struck me as particularly effective. You’ll notice that nowhere is there a solicitation for more business, but I felt so good about Amazon, I wanted to immediately log on and order a book . . . or anything.

Example 2

The second act of generosity came in the form of unexpected customer service from Current, a printer online that specializes in bank checks.

For some time I had been struggling with an ancient, plastic checkbook cover which was slowly deteriorating from hard use and age. (My wife is responsible for most of the “hard use,” but that’s another subject.)

It was a small thing, but I didn’t know how to go about getting a new one. So I wrote a note to Current explaining my problem.

To my surprise, a brand new checkbook cover arrived a few weeks later with this note, signed by the customer service manager:

Dear Check Buyer,

Thank you for your recent inquiry about Current Check Products. Enclosed are the materials you requested.

Current offers a full line of check products including checkbook covers, address labels and stampers. We also have a complete line of business checks — 3-on-a-page, laser/ink jet, continuous checks, and more. Call us for information.

If you have any questions or would like to place your order by phone, please call us TOLL FREE at 1-800-204-2244, Monday through Friday, 5 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. and Saturday 6:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Mountain Time.

Once again, thank you for your interest in Current Check Products. We look forward to serving you in the future!

Cool! I had expected them to send me a web address or catalog so I could order a new checkbook cover. The fact that they just sent me one — placing my problem above their profits — impressed me greatly.

The note was clearly written for general inquiries. That suggests that sending my checkbook cover wasn’t part of their corporate policy, but instead a judgment call, a pure act of generosity for a loyal customer. A personal letter would have been a smart addition, but the gesture on its own works pretty well.

The power of focused generosity

You might shrug off these two small acts of generosity. But there’s something important going on here. And it’s related to the principle of reciprocity. Someone does something for you. Then you feel obligated to do something in return.

It might or might not translate immediately into a purchase. Instead, it could be tweeting your content, recommending your email newsletter, linking to one of your blog posts, or otherwise getting the word out about what you have to offer.

Researchers — and yes there is an entire field of study dedicated to such matters — have referred to this idea of doing for others and getting something back in return as a “web of indebtedness,” a form of social interaction that is “central to the human experience, responsible for the division of labor, all forms of commerce, and how society is organized into interdependent units.”

In other words, being generous is a very big deal indeed. It’s the ultimate in guerrilla marketing. Much more than simply being nice, it’s a central, essential, and incredibly potent way to do business.

You might say that there is a “payback” urge hardwired into our brains. And it’s very difficult to resist. Remember the last time a friend insisted on paying for lunch? (No? Maybe you need new friends.) When it happens you immediately swear you’ll pay for the next one, don’t you?

Which is why you should spend more time thinking about how you can be generous on your blog or other online ventures, and a little less time thinking about how to bludgeon people to death with requests to buy, buy, buy.

Those who get the most tend to be those who give the most, while also keeping a few desirable items that they aren’t afraid to sell.

Making generosity work for you

Okay, so how does this work as a business strategy online? Here are a few pointers.

Offer something free. It can be an ebook, a blog tool, a product sample, a subscription to a genuinely terrific newsletter, or any form of valuable information. It can be anything really, as long as it’s free and relates to your core product or service.

One newsletter I subscribe to used to barrage me with products to buy. I was just about to unsubscribe when suddenly the publisher started being generous, sending occasional emails with valuable information and tips with no hard sales pitch. That made the other more product-focused emails a lot easier to swallow, and I remain a loyal subscriber to this day.

Give something beneficial. Of course you have reasons for being generous, but don’t make people feel manipulated. Do something for the recipient’s benefit. No conditions. No self-serving verbiage.

Allow the “payback,” if and when it happens, to come naturally.

Not only does this make you more likable, it can actually change the way you think about people. They stop being “marks” or even “prospects,” and start being real people you honestly care about. And that will come through in your content.

Give something of value. What you give should have real value for the person on the receiving end. If you run a blog on financial planning and want to “upsell” your readers to a paid online seminar, don’t just give them a self-serving “tease” that piles on the sales patter . Offer an informative sample of the course with solid value even for those who don’t sign up.

Put a personal face on your gift. Take off the corporate suit and tie. Don’t have the gift coming from your “business.” It should come from you personally. It is much easier to feel indebted to a person than to a faceless, formal company. And people are more likely to be loyal to you as a person than to your business empire.

Nice guys finish first

Here’s another classic example from the offline world, and this one may be revealing my age.

Ever heard of Amway? Years ago, some bright business person got the idea to have distributors go door-to-door and give homeowners a package stuffed with cleaners, deodorizers, and other product samples.

They called this package the “BUG.” The distributor would leave a BUG with a homeowner for up to three days with no cost or obligation. They only asked that the homeowner try out the products.

Later, the distributor would come back to pick up the BUG and, of course, to ask for orders. By this time, having used the products for free for so long, the homeowner felt obligated to buy something from this generous distributor who seemed almost naive in his trust and generosity.

Just how successful was this nice guy approach? As one Amway distributor put it, the response was “Unbelievable! We’ve never seen such excitement. Product is moving at an unbelievable rate . . . .”

The point is that you should consider what people really care about. Instead of always asking yourself, “How can I squeeze more money from people?” occasionally ask yourself, “How can I help people?” In most cases, focused generosity ends up being more profitable in the long run.

About the Author: Dean Rieck is one of America’s top freelance copywriters and publisher of Pro Copy Tips, a blog that provides copywriting tips for smart copywriters.

This is the final installment of a three-part series on how to translate advice from marketing guru Dan Kennedy to a new online environment.

One of the smartest things any online marketer can do is to study the “old school” guys who wrote direct mail, magazine ads, and other artifacts of advertising history.

Why? Because it took a tremendous understanding of the psychology of persuasion to make those tactics work.

When you pair shiny new communication technology with tried-and-true methods to persuade and sell, you hugely increase your odds of success.

So let’s continue exploring what old-school guru Dan Kennedy can teach us about 21st-century marketing. This week we’ll cover lessons 11 through 14 from Kennedy’s book The Ultimate Marketing Plan.

I can’t promise these tips will make cash start spewing out of your laptop. But they do represent a lot of sound business thinking.

(Incidentally, the links to the book are Amazon affiliate links, which means if you buy it, I’ll be able to buy a pack of gum! Put any of this advice into action and you should get quite a lot more out of the deal.)

11. Create a short-term sales surge

One of the factors that plagues most small businesses, especially when they’re starting out, is a shortage of cash.

Creating quick “sales surges” is one of Kennedy’s specialties, and he has a lot of suggestions for how to do that. (For more ideas, I can strongly recommend picking up his book.)

Essentially, though, all the variations come down to one basic strategy:

1. Make a great offer.
2. Limit it in time, number of copies you’ll sell, or both.
3. Make sure you come up with a good story or reason for the promotion.

Kennedy, as you can imagine, gives some rather old-school ideas like red tag sales or “My accountant thinks I’m crazy!”

He also likes to pluck interesting themes out of current events. For example, at a recent conference he invited loyal customers to bring old copies of his products in a “Cash for Clunkers” promotion.

Kennedy’s creativity is mostly involved in coming up with a reason for his promotions. But if selling information is part of what you do, you can also create a brand-new product for your “cash surge.” It doesn’t have to be extensive (it’s annoying how often we’re short on both cash and time). In fact, you can offer something that you develop over the weekend.

These “surges” can help any business, small or large, get through the lean times and amplify earnings during the best. And not only do short-term surges bring in cash, they also build your list of customers, strengthening your business for the long haul.

12. Take Advantage of New Marketing Technologies

As you might imagine, readers of Copyblogger are well ahead of the curve here. If any of these are missing from your current communication mix, you can very profitably add them to make your business stronger.

Audio, Video and Webinars: Record a meeting, training or presentation and post it to the web where you can repeatedly benefit.

Autoresponders: With a great autoresponder series, you can write copy which is delivered in a sequence, regardless of when a prospect signs up. This will enable you to automate your marketing and free up time to refine other aspects of your business. And they’re great for creating rapport and trust with your customers.

The next hot communication technology. Kennedy is a notorious technophobe; he doesn’t personally use email or the web at all.

But like many smart businesspeople, he’s willing to make money with new technology even though he personally dislikes it. In fact, Sonia seemed to have experienced a warm reception when she recently spoke at one of his conferences.

As long as a marketing tactic is ethical, be willing to consider it even if you aren’t personally a fan. If you hate Facebook but that’s where your customers are, you may want to suck it up.

13. Avoid employee sabotage

For those who use VAs or other employees (whether they’re on a contract or a regular payroll), there are some special areas to watch out for.

Employees are a reflection of both you and your business. Whether they are ringing up sales or answering email, they are ambassadors for your policies, and for how you feel about your customers.

In my first business, there were times when I would leave my shop on an errand only to come back to a rather unpleasant surprise.

“You said WHAT?”

“To who?!?!”

Delegating is a great thing (and usually necessary if you want your business to grow). But you must be the captain of your own marketing ship, as well as the navigator and the crew.

Even the most valuable employees are still just that — employees. And no one will ever care as much about your business as you do.

This is one reason the Partnering Profits model makes so much sense in the online world. Small businesses are easier and easier to create. It makes perfect sense to partner with people to run them with you, sharing the workload and the profit.

14. Hiring and firing experts

Learn from the best, but take everything with a grain of salt.

I’ve bought and absorbed numerous info products over the last year. Some were good, some were great, and a few were barely better than lousy.

Nevertheless, even the worst has taught me something.

You won’t learn it all in a day or a download, nor should you expect to. Someone asked an awesome question in Sonia’s Remarkable Marketing Blueprint forum the other day. They wondered, “What’s the point in having memberships in different sites, like Lateral Action, Third Tribe Marketing, and the Blueprint?”

I’m a member of all three, so I’m happy to share my thoughts on that.

There isn’t a single download that holds all the answers. Like life, we pick up a bit here and a bit there, all of it blending to make us who we are. We experience things differently at different times. True success is a slow and steady climb, rung by rung.

When you involve yourself with quality people who are putting out quality information, you get a better ladder. You still have to do the climbing yourself..

There is no guru or authority who can give you all the answers.

Not Dan Kennedy, not Brian Clark, not Sean Platt.

That said, you want to make sure you’re taking advice from someone who’s walked the walk.

In Cameron Crowe’s much-quoted movie “Say Anything“, there’s a scene where the hero, Lloyd Dobler, is standing at the gas station listening to a handful of lonely men handing out relationship advice. To which Lloyd says:

If you guys know so much about women, how come you’re here at, like, the Gas ‘n’ Sip on a Saturday night, completely alone drinking beers with no women anywhere?

Good question.

I would strongly recommend Dan Kennedy’s Ultimate Marketing Plan as a powerful resource that should be in any copywriter’s toolbox. He’s “walked the walk” and advised thousands of traditional businesses. And with a little creativity, his advice works just as well in the new online environment.

Obviously, the book contains more information than I could squeeze into a few thousand words. But I hope the “Cliff’s Notes” version has been useful!

Read the other posts in this series

• Lessons from one of the World’s Highest-Paid Copywriters: 1 – 5
• Lessons from one of the World’s Highest-Paid Copywriters: 6 – 10

About the Author: Sean Platt writes direct response copy, as well as helping authors write, publish and promote their book. Follow him on Twitter.

I want to share a video with you. It was created for current Scribe customers to let them know what’s coming next month, but I’m going to hook you up too.

It’s a preview of the Scribe web-based application. So while you can use Scribe right in your WordPress interface, you will also be able to use this web-based version to analyze any content before posting it online on any platform. Or analyze and optimize older content for any platform. Total freedom.

This is especially useful for professional web writers who create content for clients. The Scribe web version even generates an SEO analysis report that you can deliver to your clients along with the content.

This video preview was made by Sean Jackson (one of the technology ninjas behind Scribe) for our current customers. So trust me, it’s not a sales pitch. But it’s very useful for getting an idea how the Scribe web-based application works.

And if you decide to hop on board nowr, you’ll get Scribe Web during your very first month as a customer at no extra charge. You’ll also get every other version of Scribe we develop, all inclusive.

Check out the video preview of the Scribe web-based version here.

• Take the Scribe for WordPress tour
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Take Scribe WP on a Free Test Drive

About the Author: Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and wants you to know that Thesis + Scribe = SEO Made Simple. Get more from Brian on Twitter.

Just a quick note to let you know we’ve extended the Scribe introductory offer – where you get the Advanced Plan for the Starter price – until this coming Friday, February 26. So you still have time to take Scribe on a free test drive and take advantage of a great deal.

• Take the Scribe tour
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Take Scribe on a Free Test Drive

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, check out Introducing Scribe: SEO Copywriting Made Simple.

If you’d like to know why we’re extending the offer, keep reading.

So, we had an unexpected hiccup last week. While we did extensive beta testing, a problem with a third-party data provider led to end-of-day outages after we added in a whole bunch of enthusiastic Scribers to the mix.

The good news is that we corrected that issue last week, and we’re actually happier with the revised solution than we were with the original (even if the original had worked like it was supposed to).

Still, people who were test driving Scribe had a bit of a bumpy ride. So, in addition to fixing the issue and offering our sincere apologies, we decided to extend the introductory offer an extra week to February 26, so people didn’t feel pressured into making a decision simply to avoid missing a great deal.

That also means others still have time to take advantage of that great deal. Check out Scribe for yourself.

That’s it for now. Remember, if you have any issue whether with a free account or a paid subscription, make sure to login to your myScribe account and submit a support ticket.

About the Author: Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and wants you to know that Thesis + Scribe = SEO Made Simple. Get more from Brian on Twitter.

This is part two of a three-part series on how to profitably translate advice from old-school marketing guru Dan Kennedy to a new online environment.

Last week we looked at the first 5 steps in Dan Kennedy’s Ultimate Marketing Plan, and how you can translate those old-school ideas into an online marketing strategy.

This week we’ve got five more for you.

6. Get Free Advertising

In the book, Kennedy focuses on methods for getting free advertising through traditional media. However, times have changed. These days, it’s social media that can best butter your bread.

If you’re comfortable navigating online, you have a clear advantage here. Other than the expense of time, the majority of social media tools are entirely free. There have never been more easy to implement and widely available instruments to help you smartly promote your business.

If you’re a regular reader of Copyblogger, you already know this goes hand-in-hand with the content marketing gospel flowing from the pulpit, day in and day out.

If you deliver value on a consistent basis, eventually others will help you with the hard work of promotion. They’ll spread your influence and draw prospects to your business like metal to a magnet.

Whether you do this by being flamboyant, an expert, an observer, or otherwise, it’s never been simpler to reach a worldwide audience without having to have a war chest budget.

7. Become Hot!

Trends are great; fads are not.

The last thing you want is to be here today and gone tomorrow. Getting people engaged so they are not only talking about whom you are but also what you’re doing is a tremendous way to increase business.

Once in your sphere, you can groom your one-time prospects into evergreen customers.

Kennedy cites seven ways to get people talking:

• Gain prestigious recognition. Get name checked by someone in the know. Perhaps Chris Brogan or Darren Rowse mentions you, thus instantly putting you on the radar of a wider audience. Guest posting is a great shortcut to accomplish the same thing.
• Offer new products. Offer something new or put a unique spin on something old. Offer something decidedly different or measurably better than your competitors, and people will be talking.
• Offer new services. Find a unique way to service your clientele, or create an unbeatable guarantee and people will naturally want to share it with their friends.
• Tie into trends and news events. Always have an open ear for what people are discussing these days. This doesn’t mean you need to jump on a Tiger Woods Infidelity Special!, but you can find ways to make the headlines relevant to your business.
• Tie your business to seasons and holidays. From Groundhog Day to Christmas, there’s always a jubilee to jump on. Be creative. Why wait for a “Harvest Sale,” when you could promote your business during “Talk Like a Pirate Day?” The possibilities here are endless.
• Tie your business to movies and entertainment events. We love to talk about the latest movies we’ve seen or television we’ve watched. Even if we pretend not to, most of us glance at the tabloids while paying for our groceries. Make your business a part of the water cooler conversation.
• Piggyback off the fads of others. Fads are here today and gone tomorrow. Though you wouldn’t want to build your business on a passing whim, it can be great to ride the waves while they’re good.

8. Poor Boy Marketing

It’s easy to fritter mountains of money on poorly placed advertising, but moving your enterprise online has made it far easier to avoid this tragic mistake.

See #6 – Get Free Advertising. Get online and get going. Don’t spend tons of money on Adwords or banner ads when you’re getting started. Instead, spend tons of time making connections and getting your message heard.

9. Maximizing total customer value

The life of a customer over time is, by far, one of the biggest assets your business can have. The cost to gain a new customer is substantially higher than that to keep an old one happy. Yet a common mistake many business owners make is giving too much attention to getting new clients, rather than focusing on their existing loyal customers.

Losing some customers is unavoidable, but there are many things you can do to avoid the fallout.

According to Kennedy, businesses lose customers because:

• 1% die. Until we figure out how to cyborg ourselves, there’s not much we can do about this one.
• 3% move. Offline, this is due to geography; online, it’s due to shifting interests. You must do all you can to hold the attention of your audience. Some loss is acceptable over time, but stay remarkable and you will minimize the losses.
• 5% switch to something else due to a friend’s recommendation. There is no more valuable referral than that from a friend. Yet, if your customer is truly happy with your product or services, the odds of them leaving are slim.
• 9% switch to a better product or service. The best way to fight this is to make sure your products, services, and offers are simply the best around.
• 14% leave for general dissatisfaction. Again, it’s a good idea to trim the tribe, as you’re never going to please everyone. However, if a customer leaves, make sure you did everything within reason to keep them.

All together, those five reasons only add up to 32%. A staggering 68% of customer loss is due to indifference.

Appreciate your customers, give them value at every opportunity, and allow the relationship to grow over time.

10. Fueling Word-of-Mouth

Online, we call this going viral. The best referrals come from other happy customers. Your job as a business owner is to fuel that praise.

Kennedy suggests using the “EAR” formula:

• E- Earn your referrals. Do what you do so well that others can’t resist talking about you. Publish content that makes others eager to share.
• A- Ask. It might make you uncomfortable, but you shouldn’t be shy about asking for referrals if you are doing a job that warrants praise. Give your customers the tools they need, clearly communicate your desires, and watch your business grow.
• R- Recognize and Reward. Acknowledge your customers when they give you the gift of a referral and never fail to reward them for their efforts. Reciprocity goes a long way, both online and off.

That’s it for this week. The final four elements of Kennedy’s Ultimate Marketing Plan applied online will be in next week’s final installment of the series.

About the Author: Sean Platt writes direct response copy, as well as helping authors write, publish and promote their book. Follow him on Twitter.

Do you despise long sales letters, yellow highlighters and blood-red, hype-laden headlines?

These tried and true copywriting tactics are proven winners at converting “cold” traffic into paying customers – and $10,000-a-page copywriters use them without hesitation because they appeal to the baser instincts of the easily swayed. They may be embarrassing to look at, but historically, they’ve just plain worked.

But if you’re a Third Tribe type of marketer, you’re in a quandary because you know these push-comes-to-shove sales page tactics just won’t work in your case.

They won’t work for you because you won’t be able to sleep at night. They won’t work for your audience either, because they’re smart and savvy, and they’ll lose faith in you and go off in search of someone more professional.

But these cheesy tactics are tempting nonetheless, because you’ve seen them on pages that you know are converting a lot of customers. Against your better instincts, you might feel a pull to use just one or two of them to stack the deck in your favor – especially if your current page isn’t converting as well as you’d hope.

There’s good news, though – you don’t have to sell your integrity to sell more of your products. All you need to do is learn how to use some semantic aikido to harness the power of these psychologically effective strategies – all the while saying “hold the cheese.”

Let’s take a look at 5 “hard sell” tactics and apply some Third Tribe magic to make them feel better for you and your future customers.

The “Everything Will Be Better In A Week” Tactic

You see this one all the time, online or off. Online it’s usually “Give me 7 days and you’ll have a horde of customers trampling each other to give you their money!” Offline it could be more subtle, such as the SlimFast slogan “Give us a week – we’ll take off the weight.” The promise is significant (as it should be in a headline) but it’s not realistic.

Sure, it works on those desperate for results, and that’s why it will never go away. But your customers are smart enough to know that they can’t really get those results, and that hurts your credibility. They know they’re not going to go from zero to $20,000 in a week or go from a complete unknown to A-list blogger in 7 days, no matter what people tell you.

But it still works on the easily swayed, because they’re desperate for results. Your audience may be desperate as well, but they’re just too darned smart to fall for the idea of an “instant solution.” So what can you do?

Take The Third Tribe Approach: Instead of promising instant victory over a situation, promise them immediate progress instead. For example, “Give me 7 days, and you’ll have a detailed and doable plan of action for getting more customers in the door this month.”
You’re still making the implicit promise of getting more customers, but you’re explicitly promising something more realistic in the short term – a sense of certainty about what actions to take next. That’s what gets product sold while protecting your credibility.

The “Set It On Autopilot” Tactic

I’m seeing this more and more online, and I’m sure you are too – phrases like “The Lazy Marketer’s Guide To Building an Email List” or “(result happens) automatically while you sleep!” Again, this tactic works on the easily swayed, because they are likely to, well, be pretty lazy people. They don’t want to do the work. They want to push that big red magic button and get their results.

But when you’re pitching to a more savvy, successful audience, this tactic backfires almost immediately. They know that success takes hard work (because they worked hard to be successful!) and that there’s very, very little in life that falls into the “set it and forget it” realm. And beyond that, they know if something seems “too easy” it’s either not legit or something that’s bound to be ineffective.

But in reality, there may be things about your product or service that for the most part have a “hands-off” aspect (for example, building a fantastic landing page that brings opt-in subscribers to your list day in and day out). How do you position these types of things without resorting to cheesy language?

Take The Third Tribe Approach: Instead of using words like “lazy way,” “autopilot,” or “does the work for you,” focus on how this aspect of your offer is truly something that streamlines a process that your reader knows is time or effort-intensive. Then follow up with the measurable benefit they receive.

For example, an email autoresponder service that “pulls in new subscribers like clockwork” sounds corny. But a service that automates opt-in form creation and has reporting statistics frees you from coding so you can spend that time tweaking forms for higher conversion.

Now you’re talking about automating one aspect so you can redirect time to higher-value activities … and that kind of benefit-driven description makes for a stronger selling point.

The “You’re Lucky I’m Talking To You” Tactic

This off-putting tactic is a staple of someone following the heavy-handed marketing techniques that by and large, have worked on the easily swayed in the past. You’ll see it in phrases like “At my normal hourly rate of $2,000/hour (if you could even get me!) …” and implies authority (based on the price) and a tension-inducing scarcity of the marketer’s time.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with stating your rates – mine are fairly high, and I use them as a selling point – but when you use it as the predominant selling point, it can work against you. This is especially true if you bring it all up before you’ve made your other, more significant selling points. And talking about how you don’t have time for clients can come off as reputation-diminishing bragging.

Savvy audiences don’t fall for this – they know that bragging is usually a sign of insecurity. And who wants to buy from someone who’s working so hard to try and impress you?

Take The Third Tribe Approach: Instead of leading with how in-demand you are and how expensive your rates are, save this selling point until later and gently position it in terms of the overall value you’re presenting and how the delivery medium causes a change in pricing.

There’s nothing pushy about saying “This workshop represents what I would cover in a ten hour, $2,500 one-on-one consulting package. But since I can only offer a large package like that to so many people, I’ve distilled those ten hours of consulting into a self-paced workshop that you can purchase for $197.”

With this approach, you’re not making a in-your-face statement that can turn off savvy customers, but you are effectively communicating the true value of what you’re offering in a way they can respect.

The “You’re Dead Meat If You Don’t Buy” Tactic

Since fear-based selling can be such an effective tactic, marketers often paint a post-apocalyptic picture of what will happen if you don’t buy their products. You may be told your business will fail, your competitors will eat your lunch and your spouse will leave you for a smarter, younger version of you who knows these “insider secrets.”

The idea is that if the sense of panic can be cranked up, the urgent need to find a solution will appear. And in 99 cases out of 100, you’ll find that same marketer telling you that only their product can save you from certain doom.

You’re too smart for this “Chicken Little” sales tactic, and since your customers are too, you need an approach that can boost the feelings of urgency and desire without resorting to panic.

Take The Third Tribe Approach: Instead of saying “all is lost” and pulling out the melodrama, paint a picture of how a particular product will be harder to solve without your product (and easier with it).

For example, you could say “It’s certainly possible to network with other savvy online business owners simply by participating in blog comments and using Twitter, but that can be a slow process with uncertain results. Being in the Third Tribe forums, however, means you’re immersed in the highest concentration of willing-to-network entrepreneurs you’re likely to find on the Internet – and that can take your business to the next level much faster.”

Could you write an effective sales letter without this tactic? You could, but you’d have to work a lot harder. (Get it?)

The “There’s No Good Reason Not To Buy” Tactic

I recently read a sales letter with this message at the bottom and shook my head, knowing that a few easily swayed individuals would fall for it. Certainly, it stands to reason that this line could work, because it’s one of those “proven” staples of a “good sales letter.” But it falls flat when selling to a savvy reader. (Which is a shame, because this marketer had a relatively savvy audience).

Why is it such an off-putting phrase? For starters, it’s insulting. It implies that whatever reason you have for not buying isn’t a reasonable one, and calling your potential (and intelligent!) customers unreasonable is a sure way to lose the sale – especially since the marketer doesn’t even know the objection.

And that’s where it gets embarrassing – because when readers realize they do have valid objections, it’s the marketer who looks foolish. Goodbye sale.

Take The Third Tribe Approach: Instead of trying to push your customers into this kind of hard-line close, do a little up-front research and discover as many potential objections as you can. Take each one and build a pre-emptive response into your sales letter.

For example, if price is an objection, remind them of how your product can pay for itself quickly. If satisfaction is an objection, re-emphasize how strong your guarantee is. The more thoroughly you defuse potential objections before the close, the less you have to work to close the sale.

And instead of bullying customers into having “no good reason not to buy,” you’re reminding them of all the very good reasons they have to give your product a shot.

What’s Your Sales Page Personal Pet Peeve?

These are only five old-school tactics that make your sales page unattractive to the Third Tribe type of customer – and as a savvy entrepreneur you’re likely to have your own set of sales page elements that drive you crazy. Share them in the comments below – and if you don’t mind, briefly tell us what you see as the “Third Tribe” alternative.

About the Author: Dave Navarro is a product launch manager who proudly wears his Third Tribe colors – and invites you to join the thousands of people who have downloaded his free workbooks in the Launch Coach Library (no opt-in required). There’s really no good reason not to.

You may have noticed I’ve been writing a lot about SEO copywriting lately. More than that, I’ve been working on a content optimization software solution for the last 6 months with a team of very smart people.

It’s called Scribe, and it makes SEO copywriting simple. Creating search optimized web pages, blog posts, and press releases used to be time consuming at best and mystifying at worst.

Not anymore.

What is Scribe?

It’s an SEO software service for WordPress that analyzes the content of web pages, blog posts, online press releases, you name it… at the click of a button.

The API then reports back to the WordPress interface and tells web writers, bloggers, affiliate marketers, and small business owners how to tweak their content to get more search engine traffic, all while maintaining quality reader-focused copy.

It’s like having an SEO expert as an editorial assistant.

How does it work?

Right now Scribe works through a WordPress plugin combined with an API (tech jargon for saying one piece of software talks to another). The Scribe API key you’ll receive when you sign up allows you to tap into our content optimization algorithm on our servers right from your WordPress interface.

Scribe works with WordPress if you’re able to fill in a custom title tag and meta description for the post or page. While the technology was originally inspired by the Thesis Theme for WordPress, it also works with the free All in One SEO plugin, the Hybrid theme, and the Headway theme.

We’ve got other platforms coming soon, including a standalone web version next month, and you’ll have access to all of those additional platforms at no extra charge when you sign up for our great introductory offer.

Why is this different from other SEO tools?

What’s innovative about Scribe is the way it differs from typical SEO tools. Instead of asking you for a keyword phrase and then pushing you to construct content around it, our software service:

• Analyzes what you’ve already written, preserving your natural flow
• Reveals what search engines will think you’re writing about
• Suggests changes to better reflect the language searchers are using
• Guides you through remaining content elements based on SEO best practices

With Scribe you’ll:

• Optimize content faster
• Eliminate guesswork about keywords
• Employ SEO best practices
• Preserve people-focused copy
• Increase targeted traffic!

What’s this Going to Cost Me?

As many of you know by now, I like to reward early-adopters with the best pricing, unlike general business “wisdom” that says you extract the most cash from the most willing.

The service is available in 3 plan levels at 3 different monthly price points:

• Advanced: 300 evaluations a month (around 100 pages or posts) for $97
• Publisher: 120 evaluations a month (around 40 pages or posts) for $47
• Starter: 30 evaluations a month (around 10 pages or posts) for $27

You can see what our customers think by checking out these Scribe SEO reviews.

• Take the Scribe tour
• Buy Scribe Now
• Who’s Behind Scribe?
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Take Scribe on a Free Test Drive

About the Author: Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and CEO of Unglued Media. Get more from Brian on Twitter.

This is part one of a three-part series on how to profitably translate advice from old-school marketing guru Dan Kennedy to a new online environment.

Dan Kennedy is the Sovereign of Sales Letters. (Or maybe that’s the Duke of Direct Response.) He knows exactly how to deliver a marketing message with maximum clarity and zero confusion. As he’ll readily tell you, he’s one of the world’s highest-paid copywriters. His classic book The Ultimate Marketing Plan promises low-cost ideas and high-profit results.

This book delivers on both counts, and it’s well worth the read. But it was written in 1991, and at first seems like it’s more relevant to a restaurant or dry cleaner than it is to an online marketer.

If you have a hard time translating bricks-and-mortar advice to your internet business, well, just be glad we’ve got Copyblogger.

The Ultimate Marketing Plan walks you through the 14 steps Kennedy considers necessary to build a bulletproof marketing plan that can help you to explode your business.

And this post will tell you how to translate those to what you’ve been up to.

Dan Kennedy’s 14 Steps to the Ultimate Marketing Plan

1. Putting together the right message

This is your business’s Unique Selling Proposition, boys and girls.

The principles behind the USP have been talked to death. You can call it the Purple Cow, your market position, your winning difference, or just the answer to Why Should Anyone Read Your Blog?

The reason the USP has been talked to death is that this core idea is essential to effective marketing.

Even though defining your USP is one of the best places to start when you’re building a solid marketing plan, it also seems to be one of the easiest places for people to get lost.

Kennedy defines the USP this way:

When you set out to attract a new, prospective customer to your business for the first time, there is one, paramount question you must answer:

“Why should I choose your business/product/service versus any/every other competitive option available to me?”

Kennedy, in his characteristically cranky style, has also been known to call this “justifying your reason to exist.”

You must know the facts, features, benefits, and promises that your business makes — inside-out, upside-down, backwards, forwards, and sideways. Because if you can’t clearly articulate what makes your business unique, how can you expect anyone else to care?

You will need to crow about your business if you expect it to expand, but it’s pivotal that you are trumpeting the right things.

The right USP coupled with the right offer, especially at the right time and place, is important for any business. For a business fighting for attention with millions of other blogs all over the world, it’s essential.

2. Presenting your message

Regardless of where you choose to market your product or service, there is a right and a wrong way to deliver your message.

According to Kennedy, the customer has five mental steps to take between first contact and completing the sale.

• Awareness of a need or desire
• Picking the thing that will satisfy that desire
• Picking the source for that thing
• Accepting the price/value argument
• Finding reasons to act immediately

Let’s say your particular product is a vacation package that includes a seven-day cruise.

Pictures of an island paradise might spark initial desire, while shots of a cruise ship will put a finer point on the new longing. Information about what makes your company’s cruises different will let the prospect know that you’re the right source to satisfy their craving.

Copy that paints a picture of all the fun to be had as well as the tremendous value of the package, backed by proof (user testimonials and pictures both work great), will serve to convince your prospect that his money will be well spent.

Finally, a special, a limited time offer, or perhaps a coupon or room upgrade, will help to get the deal done today rather than . . . never.

Whether you’re online or off, it’s your job to lead the prospect through these five points. Without clear road signs, your prospect will get lost.

3. Choosing the right audience

Who you don’t serve is every bit as important as who you do. It is always okay to trim the tribe.

Let’s say you’re planning to open a steakhouse. What do you think is most important to a spectacular opening day?

• Elegant decor?
• A well-trained staff?
• Ample parking?
• A robust menu?
• Reasonable prices?
• Delicious food?

The answer: None of the above.

The best thing you could possibly have when cutting the ribbon at your new steakhouse is a starving, steak-hungry crowd with a growl in their collective belly.

Which means you don’t want to send your marketing message to vegetarians or calorie counters.

When it comes to reaching your audience online, you’ve got to find the equivalent of those hungry carnivores.

A blog that tries to speak to everyone will find few, if any, readers. It’s always smart to choose a general topic that’s got wide appeal. But within that topic, the tighter your focus, the easier it will be to grow an enthusiastic base of readers, then customers.

4. Proving your case

It seems every decade makes us more jaded. The Internet has only accelerated the process. Your marketing messages needs to survive a lot of cold, hard skepticism.

Some people might argue that you should never put negative thoughts into your customer’s head.

You won’t be.

You’re simply addressing what’s already there.

You cannot ignore this step. Proving your case will get you a lot farther along on your way to making the sale.

Address objections. Your prospect may desperately want your fantastic online cooking course, but she’s got a list of objections holding her back. Fortunately, we’re no longer in Kennedy’s 1991, where you had to use a photocopied 16-page letter to tackle each objection. These days you can do it in blog posts, email autoresponder sequences, and with virtually any form of social media.

Social proof is key. You’ll notice up there in the left-hand corner, that Copyblogger proudly advertises its 100,000-plus subscribers. That’s not bragging. It’s a decisive emotional trigger. Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd.

Gather testimonials. Happy, satisfied customers can be a magnet for more. What others say about you will always carry a much higher impact than what you say about yourself. While it’s a great idea to put customer testimonials on your own site, you also want to always be aware of what people are saying about you off your site.

Pictures tell a story. Before-and-after, shots of the product in use, or bright smiles on the faces of satisfied customers. Seeing is believing. If you can prove your point with pictures, you’ll go a long way toward silencing the skeptic. Images can also set a powerful mood, which gives your copy an instant emotional charge.

5. Putting your best foot forward

Like it or not, first impressions matter.

If you run a brick-and-mortar business, make sure your store is squeaky clean. Freshly washed windows and a floor you could eat off of will help to create an environment that’s conducive to sales.

Believe it or not, the same holds true online.

If you’re using WordPress for your business, make sure you’ve got a great-looking theme that’s well optimized for SEO. (As you might guess, we’re rather partial to Thesis.) Even if you’re on a budget, you will still be able to do some basic customization.

Make sure your layout is simple and clean. Emphasize your USP with a strong tagline. Be sure your page instantly conveys how you can benefit your reader and potential customer.

When you can afford it, have someone customize your site in a way that’s unique to you and your business.

Either way, if your website is your business, it should look its absolute best. Fortunately, for a tiny fraction of what bricks-and-mortar businesses pay in rent, you can have a “storefront” that shows you’re serious, professional, and worthy of your customers’ business.

(In case you think I’m not too good at counting, the other 9 lessons gleaned from The Ultimate Marketing Plan will come in two future posts. The links to the book are Amazon affiliate links, which means if you buy it, I’ll be able to buy a pack of gum! Put any of this advice into action and you should get quite a lot more out of the deal.)

Part 2: Lessons 6-10 from One of the World’s Highest-Paid Copywriters

About the Author: Sean Platt writes direct response copy, as well as helping authors write, publish and promote their book. Follow him on Twitter.

If you’re a regular Copyblogger reader, you get good advice about five times a week. Excellent advice, really. Stellar.

Especially on days when I’m posting. (Preens.)

Wait, what was I saying again?

Oh, right. You get really good advice, for free, five times a week. Very frequently, this advice would cost you upwards of $150 an hour for a consultant to tell you the same thing.

So when was the last time you actually put any of that advice into action?

Where’s your follow-through?

Are you all thought and no action?

Many of you might say, “I put advice into action all the time. Why, just last week I read a post right here about how using social media would help my blog, and I went and got right onto Twitter and tweeted all day. And it worked!”

Good for you. But did you do it the next day? Did you do it the day after that? Did you make a plan about when you’d get on Twitter each day, what you’d Tweet about, and how you’d tie that strategy to your business goals?

(And maybe just as important, did you come up with a plan to keep you from doing something other than tweeting all day?)

What about posts that offer advice on what you work at every day?

If you thought Jason Cohen’s post on how to write more magnetic copy seemed like sound advice, did you bring his 10-point checklist to your next blog post and double-check to be sure you hadn’t missed any?

Do you have Dan Zarrella’s post on the hard data behind Twitter headlines in your bookmarks, so you can pull it up and reference it when you want a tweet to spread like wildfire?

Most people don’t actively put a lot of thought into the advice they receive, other than thinking, “That sounds like a pretty good idea.” People read quickly and move on. They have good intentions, but they never do anything about them.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions

You probably read blogs every day, blogs on marketing or entrepreneurship or Zen or gardening or getting your dog to behave.

Are you putting any of the advice you read there to regular, everyday use?

Sure, you’re reading the posts, and you’re thinking about the counsel offered. You might even comment. But you probably don’t commit to taking action and maintaining it consistently over at least two weeks to measure the results.

Think about it: Is there an action you do every day that you can trace back to a particularly savvy blog post written by a smart person giving good advice?

If you aren’t consciously putting good advice into action, you might as well not waste your time reading blog posts. You’re not getting anything out of them. Take that time and find something else to do, like shoveling snow or playing Frisbee.

Make a plan

The advice you read on blogs is, by and large, useful. Some of it may be information you already know or tricks you’ve tried in the past. But in general, most highly respected blogs offer nothing but really good advice. They have standards and stick to them, making sure they provide value for the reader.

But you’re the only one who can actually benefit from that value and follow through on that advice. Nodding your head as you read isn’t really enough.

The next time you read a blog post and think to yourself, “I should be doing that,” take action.

Bookmark the post. Stick a Post-it reminder somewhere obvious on your computer. Use red pen. Use big, bold capital letters. Grab your to-do list or scheduler and get that reminder in there.

Tell yourself that you absolutely, definitely, are going put that advice into action. And do it.

This means that if you read a smart blog post about how to write more powerful sales copy, and you know you don’t write very powerful sales copy, you bookmark that post. You take your schedule and block out a 15-minute practice session on powerful sales copy for every single workday for the next two weeks. And when you sit down for that session, go back and look at that post.

Step by step, line by line, apply the words of wisdom to the task at hand. If the post says to check for passive language, check your sales copy for passive language. If it says to use dynamic verbs, check every single verb in that copy to be sure it’s dynamic enough to compete in the next Summer Olympic Games.

Quit thinking about posts and start putting them into action.

Go a step beyond

Got the little stuff down? Scale it up.

I know at least three marketing blogs that, if you were to take their entire archives, have basically given their readers an entire executable marketing plan. The only work is putting all that advice into the right order.

Get a pen and a notepad (or open up a word processor) and start putting the advice in those blog archives into an order that makes sense. Go through every post, and leave out anything that you don’t think will work for you or that doesn’t mesh with your business.

By the time you’re done reading through those posts and putting the advice into action, you’ll have a free marketing plan that would have cost you thousands of dollars for a consultant to lay out for you. And your business will certainly already be benefiting from your active efforts.

That’s the ironic part. If you had had to pay for this advice — if you had laid a cool three grand on the table and received this marketing plan in return — you would damn sure have put at least some of it into action.

Lucky you: you can get that advice for free. But it’s by no means worthless, so put it into action while you can.

About the Author: Start rifling through the archives at James Chartrand’s blog, Men with Pens, for great action-minded freelance writing business advice. You’ll find what you need to rev up your freelance business.