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News from TomatoDesign.Net
How are You Marketing Yourself This Summer?
The Fourth of July is here already! Where has the time gone?? We in the Eastern US have experienced a depressingly wet June, with record rainfall, and July looks no better. However the weekend — and my birthday, on Tuesday — promise to be sunny: hooray!
Summer is the best possible time to be marketing your business, as many people take vacations from advertising, and your message will stand out. We can help you organize and implement your summer marketing plan. Give us a call today at 212-691-1445!
This summer at TomatoDesign.Net, we are busy looking for new clients and partners who can cross-market our services to their customers, even as we reciprocate. If you have a clientèle who could use our branding, marketing, design or SEO services — or know any green or woman-owned companies who would like to do events or webinars with us — please let us know! For more information about what we do, please go to our links (below.)
Meanwhile, we received such a positive response to our "Copywriting for Business Owners" tutorial, that we are including it — in installments — in our next few newsletters (this is Number 2.) For previous installments, go to our site: http://tomatodesign.net.
NOTE: After this series on "Copywriting", only the people who have signed up for the newsletter on our site will continue receiving it! Go to:
Have a safe and happy Fourth!
And Remember, if it's bigger than a car, don't light the fuse on that sucker!
Are You Really Getting Your Message Across?
Ad & Web Copywriting / The Initial Client Meeting
You may be writing promotional copy for a client, or just for yourself. If it’s for your own company, follow these directions as if you were meeting with yourself, as a client, to help you be more objective about your goals.
It is important to get the most out of this initial meeting! Your client knows their target market and their competition better than anyone. The 6 most important things you can take away from this meeting are:
1) Understanding the product;
2) Understanding the target market;
3) Knowing why this promotion is necessary, including output information.
4) Knowing where this promotion will be seen, including placement information.
5) Learning your client’s business goals and strategies; and
6) Learning what’s worked — and failed — in past promotional efforts.
To really understand your client’s product, both of you should gather any existing materials related to it. A URL featuring the product would be ideal; as would articles, ads, PR, white papers, presentations and testimonials. Have your client collect any available case studies and statistics and give them to you, also.
With the client — or on your own — review the product: find out how it works; use it yourself, if possible; and ask What needs does the product fulfill? What problems does it solve? Obtain information on price, availability, and warantees/guarantees (if any.) Then make a Features/Beneftis List, highlighting the ones that are unique to this product or service.
Next, together with your client, agree on a “USP” or Unique Selling Point, as well as the one thing their customers will find the most appealing about this product. For example, the VW’s USP in the 1960s was that it was small (as well as safe and very well-made.)
Learn everything you can about the target market, including the average age, gender, education and occupation(s). A simple psychological and/or financial profile of the customer would be helpful, too. For example, the VW ads (at right) appealed to intelligent, educated people with a sense of humor, who were willing to try something new.
Make sure the promotion is on-target: perhaps another approach or medium would be more appropriate or cost-effective? Make sure your approach produces quantifiable results, if at all possible.
Then decide where the prospective customer will encounter this promotion: traditional media? The web? A doctor’s office or supermarket checkout? Direct mail to their homes? E-blasts to targeted lists are best sent after 10:30 a.m. (and before 3:00 p.m.), when the customer will have trashed all their spam. That way, yours won’t accidentally be deleted.
If your market is local, this is the best time ever to send out postcards, as no one else is doing it in this economy. Direct mail needs a real “grabber” headline to get them to read it. You only have 10 (or fewer) seconds for them to decide if they will trash it, so make it an eye-opener. If you are producing a printed piece, the number printed and the kind of paper used will determine the cost and, for a designer, will help them determine how to price their part of the project.
Finally, learn how the promotion fits into your (or your client’s) marketing strategy. Promotions that have failed or succeeded in the past will give you a major hint as to how to proceed with your marketing efforts.
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Featured Green Business:
Holy Creations
Abe Saleh began importing top-grade Palestinian olive oils and exquisite wood carvings from the Bethlehem region several years ago, but his prices have remained astonishingly reasonable. He is a former cop(!) based in Minnesota, but can ship almost anywhere on the planet.
If you check out his company's wood carvings, you will be amazed at the quality and detail, as well as the beauty of the olive wood the carvers employ.
You can learn more about Abe Saleh's family farm and their wonderful products by going to: http://www.holycreations.com; or to our Green Links page: http://tomatodesign.net/greenlinks.net.
Enjoy!
— Nancy L. Hoffmann, Founder
TomatoDesign.Net
In the Red? We $ee Green!
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