Tony Attwood's Blog

You may have read my ramblings about the great value of blogs before – and if so you’ll know that I reckon a message put on a blog and also sent out to past and potential customers via email, can be a massive selling tool.

We’ve now got a way of setting up a blog for you – a blog that you can then take over and control or which can be run by ourselves if you prefer.

Better still it is at an extremely low price. There’s details on http://www.hamilton-house.com/blogs

Blog writing is something that we’ve done for a long time (based on our experiences with a wide range of blogs covering a wide range of subjects) – it is also part of the Velocity programme that we run (see www.velocity.ac)

If you would like to talk about how blogs work and why they, and their email counterpart, are so successful, please do give me a call (01536 399 000). I am always happy to talk the whole process through.

Tony Attwood

Here’s a very simple way of taking your company up the rankings on the search engines.

Take a product or service you sell, think how customers and potential customers might talk about and the questions they might ask, and then write an article along those lines.

That’s it – it is dead simple – except for the fact that you have to do it a lot. It is ok to start with the enthusiasm today, but doing it several times a week is harder.  Doing it every day is harder still – but it is possible.

The way forward of course is to talk this through with colleagues and come up with ever new ideas.  If you pick up what is happening on the phone each day, you will find topics to write about.

One thing to remember is that a lot of people will talk about “key words” but in fact the “key words” will emerge as you think about your product.  The great problem with focussing on key words if you are not a highly skilled writer, writing copy every day, is that focussing on key words will make the work very lumpy and forced.  As a result people turn away from your copy, rather than read on or return.

The only exception to the key words issue is the site name and title – you need to make this highly relevant.

To give an example from our experimental site about Arsenal football club.  We originally called this “Untold Arsenal” which was a catchy name that attracted readers.  Later we changed it to “Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News” and that instantly took us further up the rankings because people search for “Arsenal News”.

There are many other things you can do – but without a lot of copy and some attention to key words, nothing else will happen.

Hamilton House has added search engine optimisation to its Velocity programme – which means you can have a free review and re-writing by the Hamilton House team if you are in Velocity.   There are more details on www.velocity.ac

Tony Attwood

The standard sales letter that goes out with a catalogue begins…

“I am delighted to enclose a copy of our new catalogue.”

It then goes on to tell you what you will see on page 99 of the catalogue etc etc.

The Toppled Bollard blog today contains an alternative version of the letter that goes out with the catalogue. When we used it a few years back it had a huge impact.

It’s on http://www.blog.toppled.info/2010/05/19/how-to-send-out-a-catalogue-and-make-people-read-it/

Tony

I ask the question, because direct mail is now under threat from two quarters: door to door, and email.

The amount of door to door material that Royal Mail could deliver was limited to three items a week until the last settlement with the CWU. Now the amount is unlimited, and if my own house is anything to go by, firms are pouring into that market.

There’s no restriction on email of course, and once you have a mailing list of suitable email addresses, the cost can be minimal.

So, why bother with direct mail – the actual stuff that is posted, and can cost around 45p per address to deliver (when all costs are taken into account).

There is actually a very simple explanation as to why direct mail remains popular with some companies. In fact there are two answers…

Part one: Direct mail is the one medium that is easy to test. Since we are often looking for a response rate of say 2% we can find that a random test of just 300 addresses can be enough to let us know if we are in business or not.

The cost of sending out such a list will be higher (pro-rata) than incurred in doing the full mailing, because of the economies of scale that bulk mailing brings, but still the final result will be informative.

So you might spend £150 mailing 300 addresses. If you get your 2% response rate you can then go on and roll out the mailing. If you don’t you can try again. And the benefit is that you may not have lost £150 – because every sale you do make will reduce that loss.

Part two: Direct mail offers sales rates far above email and door to door. The highest I have ever got on a cold mailing is 11.5% actually buying a product. That was unusual but 3% is not impossible with a modest priced product. The simple point is that no other method of mailing can you get such a response rate, and invariably the return on investment is the best possible.

There is actually a third benefit in all this. Once you have got your enquiries and sales, you can add these people to your email mailing list, and then for future promotions you can cut the price of promoting once again.

If you are interested in mailing lists for B2B and B2C mailings we have links to all types of list at http://www.hamilton-house.com/gateways/buyinglistsonline.html

Or please do call me or my colleagues on 01536 399 000.

Tony Attwood

I think it must be about ten years ago that I first came up with the notion that there were only five ways of writing adverts.

In those days I used to mention it so often it got a bit boring, I felt, but I was giving a little talk at the end of last week, and when I mentioned it I noticed many in the audience were either drawing cartoons of each other or making a note of my list.

So maybe its time to bring it back again. The five ways of selling that work, and the one that doesn’t.

1. Sell by price
2. Sell by benefit
3. Sell by asking an interesting question (What’s the simplest way of increasing your response rate in direct mail?)
4. Sell via emotions
5. Sell through humour

That’s the list – I’ll write a little about one or two of them in the future.

And the way that doesn’t work at all…

Selling through making an announcement.

More anon.

Tony Attwood

As I began to feel the pull of retirement (it happens to us all, so stop sniggering please) I decided that each week I would make the effort to take one of the readers of my occasional meanderings  out for a meal.  I used to do this sort of thing as a regular occurrence, but my doctor warned against too much excitement in my old age.

But then I realised that I would  not only reach retirement long before I had met even 10% of those I wish to entertain – I would also be shuffling off this mortal thingy (as the bard said) before I got to everyone, even if I lived to a ripe old age.

So on the basis that I can’t get to everyone thought I would send you the meal to enjoy in the comfort of your own home.

Unfortunately (and I really am very sorry to report this) Securicor today declined the chance to deliver to you the Beef au Rutland, Spotted Dick and a couple of glasses of rather interesting Chilean Chardonnay which I had chosen.

I’m devastated. I really am.  And I have been thinking all day of what I can do to make this up to you.   So I’ve decided the only thing to be done is to send you a brief summary of my rather entertaining sales patter on these occasions.  In this way you can select your own treat at your desk, and munch and drink at will while being enthralled by my words of wisdom and occasional wit.  So here we go…

“In the last ten years,” (I say) “my company has written well over half a million words spread out over sales letters, brochures, emails, and blogs.  You may wonder why.”   (Inevitably a glazed look settles over my guests at this point.  Don’t worry – it gets better.)

“There are,” I announce with due ceremony, “eighteen possible reasons.”

Now I must I admit I have lost a couple of clients at this point as they suddenly remember urgent appointments in Uzbekistan.  However I quickly add, “but I shall restrict myself to one,” and that seems to calm them down.  So here it is.

“People use these forms of communication because they make money out of them.”  This is a good one I always feel.  Straight, to the point.  It gets a nod.  Sip the Chilean white.

However some people object at this point, saying that it hasn’t worked for them.  And I hit them with the coup de grâce.  “In our group of companies,” I say, trying not to look smug, “we have a publishing house, and each week we send out a range of emails.   We analyse the results and we know they work.  Additionally I write a few blogs a day for the company (the numbers are not included in the half million) and I check the audience figures for these regularly.  People read the material, and then contact us.

“Indeed,” I add a little later, leaning back imperiously over a rather eccentric cup of Columbian coffee, “there are no secrets.  I’m really happy to take a look at your product, website, email or a leaflet you’ve produced, and give you some thoughts on how our techniques could be adapted by you.  If you think what I suggest is a load of tosh, you can ignore it – there’s no charge so there is nothing to lose.”

So there you are.  The free lunch exists after all.  I’m just so sorry that you weren’t able to share it with me.

Tony Attwood

PS: If you would like us to review any leaflet you want to put in a shared mailing just send it to me.  Or if you prefer, give me a call.   This really is a free service, but you don’t have to take my word for it.  Oh actually, yes you do.   Email Tony@hamilton-house.com

Sometimes one can get so far into running a business, or a particular aspect of the marketing, it is difficult to see the overall picture.

So here’s my attempt at the ten things we should all be doing all the time…

1. Marketing review – a constant look at what we are doing to see that it makes sense, and is working. As in “why are we doing that?” and “why aren’t we doing that?”
2. Writing direct mail copy, email copy, website copy – the copy that we believe work.
3. Developing and promoting the company blog, so that the emails we send out potential and current clients can be put on line and pick up more potential clients as people search every day for key words on Google etc.
4. Researching direct mail and email lists of potential clients – unless you really do have the personal email address of all your potential clients it is an on-going task.
5. Managing these lists and despatching direct mail and emails to potential clients on a weekly basis. Not heavy “buy now” messages, but background that ensures that they are interested in who you are and what you sell.
6. Research into customer attitudes to your product, so that you know what people think of you and your products or services, and you can adjust your marketing accordingly.
7. Competitor research, so you know what advertising your competitors are doing this month.
8. PR campaigns, to ensure that your company name is being featured in magazines and the press.
9. Search engine optimisation, to ensure that your company comes up near the top when someone searches in the right way.
10. Experimentation – just try something different and see what happens – but while not letting this interfere with everything else you are doing.

I hope that helps as a check list. It actually comes from our Velocity programme (www.velocity.ac) and was put together from our experience at working with clients over a period of time.

Any questions – do give me a ring – 01536 399 000.

Tony Attwood

The most commonly discussed element in marketing is obviously the issue of selling to the customer – writing the promotional material in the right way, sending it to the right people, and so on.  It’s the one bit that we tend to spend most time on.

But there are two other elements which must be taken into account if you are looking to have a complete picture of marketing.

The second element involves knowing what your competitors are doing.  By this I don’t mean having someone snooping around their offices, digging through the dustbins, hacking into the computers, and tapping the phone lines.  If you want to do that, I leave it up to you, and can offer no support.

What I mean is knowing

1. what their current adverts look like
2. what benefits they are pushing (if any) and how they are answering the point “why you should buy this product from me?”.
3. what they are doing on line in terms of web sites and blogs.

All of this information is valuable because it allows you to differentiate yourselves from the competition, and makes it much easier for you to establish your presence in the market, so that people hear your company name and then say, “oh, you are the guys who…”

Fortunately, most firms don’t do this sort of research, just as most firms sell on announcements rather than benefits – which makes your life easier if you choose to do it.

The third element is knowing what is happening in the marketplace.  For example, let’s imagine you sell a product or service to solicitors, estate agents and others whose work stems from the buying and selling of property.  Your business can have a downturn because you get your marketing wrong (the first element) or because one of your competitors gets his marketing right (the second element) or because there is a change in the marketplace.  If house sales go right down, your sales will go down.

I am not suggesting that you then act to change the economy (even I with my super human powers of marketing can’t do that) but it is vital to bring this element into sharp focus, so that you can adjust your marketing campaign to accommodate the market.

What some firms do is say, “there’s no point advertising now, the market is really flat”, while there are others who just ignore the market conditions, and keep going as before.

I think both approaches miss a trick, because it is often possible to use the market to your advantage even when it seems to be on its knees.

But you do have to be sure that you have reasonable information here.  You need to be talking on the phone to people – not trying to sell them things but instead asking them insightful questions about how their market is going, where they are finding opportunities and so on. It is interesting what people will tell you when you show a real interest in their companies and their businesses.

A good marketing campaign puts all these elements together – the way of reaching potential customers, the knowledge of what the competitors are up to, and research among customers and potential customers as to what is going on in the economy in relation to your area of interest.

I’m so certain these three elements are vital that we have put all three elements into the HHM Velocity package, so that our clients can create and disseminate the adverts as well as research the competition and the market place at the same time, all for one monthly fee.  There are details on www.velocity.ac – then click on “Business”.

Or call 01536 399 000, and ask for one of the Velocity team – we always like to chat.

Tony Attwood