Hola! (That’s espanol for hello).

If I were stripped of everything in my life, I’d have it all back and more within a year.

That’s not bravado, wishful thinking or theoretical confidence. It’s a fact.

Because I’ve done it.

Twice.

That’s a story for another day but I will tell you WHY I was able to do it in a very short time when it would take most people several years – if ever – to accomplish it.

How was I able to do it, and do it very fast?

The answer is: I know how to capture the mental attention rays of any human or group of humans on Earth. Once I have that, I know how to change their minds and hearts.

They way I do it is with structured sales arguments… or, copywriting for short.

There is no greater skill on earth for building income which can then be used to build wealth. (You know, if you’re into that kind of thing. :-))

If you don’t have time to learn it you can hire someone like me. I’ll charge you a fair amount of money, but it’ll be worth it.

However, I still think you should learn it yourself. Most of my absolute BEST clients were great copywriters themselves. But, as their business grew from their skill at writing, they needed more copy than they could write themselves, so they’d hire me (or someone like me).

If you want to learn copywriting whether to write for yourself or to write for others… or, you want/need a copywriter like me to help your business email me and let’s talk. My email is jason@jasonbedunah.com.

Jason

… This is a post from 2013 from my old blog. I’m reposting it here only because it STILL gets tons of traffic. The ideas are still valid and the contest was a success … 

Recently, I put together a Facebook contest for ModernGreetings and we had a blast.

The contest did a lot to drive awareness for ModernGreetings.com and they went from a few hundred fans to nearly 8,000 in about 5 weeks. Not bad at all.

I’m sure a few competitors raised their eyebrows as well!

Now that the contest has been over a while and I’ve got some distance from it I have boiled  down what we’ve learned from it as well as a few things to watch out for so you don’t get taken advantage of…

1. When picking a prize go big!

Many companies make the mistake of trying to give away a product or money. I don’t think that is the best option. You want people to become aware of your company so they’ll buy your product. Don’t cheapen it by giving it away.

Also, a product is not something that is going to generate a lot of buzz or make people expend much effort.

Think about how they’ll use the product or make a list of people who are interested in the product or service and ask yourself what they would want.

One of the primary segments for ModernGreetings.com is “Soccer Moms.” They are usually married, have one or more kids above 5 years old and live in Suburbia. (I won’t reveal the exact Prizm codes here, sorry!)

We could give away a photobook (yawn) or free birthday invitations for their kid’s next birthday (bigger yawn) or we could ask ourselves what would really move them?

What would get even other people, non-Soccer Moms, to send messages to the Soccer Moms saying, “Hey, did you hear about the contest? You should enter!”

After some brainstorming we came up with an idea… What soccer mom wouldn’t go nuts for a 2nd Honeymoon? It has a direct tie-in to ModernGreetings.com because we also gave away free photobooks to commemorate their 2nd honeymoon. That ties in perfectly.

But, we didn’t stop there… We decided to give one 2nd Honeymoon away every week for 4 weeks.

Each contest would require them to engage in social media activities to get the word out which would continue to build momentum for the contest.

Which brings us to the Second Way…

2. Make Participation Forward Your Social Presence to Get Even More Engagement and Awareness

We really wanted to get the word out, not only on Facebook, but on Twitter and Pinterest as well.

So, we designed contests to have a social component. The first contest was a funniest wedding photo contest where the contestants had to post a photo and get their Facebook friends to vote for it.

On Twitter we had them tweet a short summary of their proposal using the hashtag #MGTakeUsAway.

On Pinterest we had them create a board of their favorite destination and pin pictures of the sights, sounds and food they’d enjoy. We pinned a small infographic describing the contest task.

The last contest was a video of a wedding moment or of them recounting a wedding moment.

Each week we posted a different task. Each week we announced the winner in a recap video. Anyone who didn’t win could also participate in the next task. Many people participated in all four.

3. Give Frequent Updates via Email, Twitter, Facebook and Video Posts

The LAST thing you want someone to do is enter a contest and then forget about it. What you really want is to get them coming to your Facebook page often to check up on their stats, encourage friends to help them and also to see your OTHER non-contest related information.

The best way to do that is with frequent updates. We updated nearly everyday in some way and often several times in a day.

The day before the end of the contest we’d do an update were we highlighted who the top performers were and encouraging everyone to give one last push. This created a nice flurry of extra activity to our SM properties.

By letting people know WHEN we were going to announce we also had quite a bit of extra hits going to check up on the results. They often interacted with non-contest Facebook posts during that time.

4. Get Permission to Reveal the Winners and Use Their Submitted Items in Promotion

One of the interesting things we didn’t expect was a lot of extra commenting and social activity around congratulating winners. By doing a contest recap, revealing the winner and showing the entry that won, we had another opportunity to get in front of all of the contestants and their friends.

5. Give a Prize for EVERYONE Who Enters

While nothing beats the Grand Prize we didn’t want ANYONE to go off empty handed so we gave everyone who entered little prizes here and there. It built good will and resulted in quite a few full price orders for the company.

6. Leave the Final Decision Up To A Panel of Judges in Your Company

Of course, with anything like a contest involving prizes of magnitude you should have an attorney write the rules. I would suggest leaving the final decision up to a panel of judges who pick the winner from a pool of the top contestants. One reason I say this is because there are “voting groups” on Facebook which are organized to all vote for each other. While not technically illegal it is on the scammy side and is NOT what you want. You want real votes and comments from contestants, their friends and family… not organized groups of “you vote for me on this contest, I’ll vote for you on that contest.” If you disallow such things in your rules then if someone uses a voting group you can simply remove them from the pool of top contestants.

7. Make it Fun!

If you make it a blast for people it will spread. We reached over 1.2 million people on Facebook each week for about 5 weeks straight. A ton more people became aware of ModernGreetings.com and we saw email optins and sales increase as a result.

And, if you or your company want to run a Facebook contest, contact me and let’s have some fun!

Jason Bedunah

P.S. Have you ever entered a Facebook contest yourself? Would you? Let me know in the comments below

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Why do people stop doing business with you? Why do they stop those recurring payments?

One of the biggest mistakes you could make is to think you can sit around a conference room table and figure it out. This isn’t an answer that can be brainstormed, it has to be discovered.

And, there is a sure-fire and direct way to discover the specific answers (plural).

Once found you can take those answers and create positive changes to reduce the churn rate in your business.

Your retention rate will increase because you are doing less to drive them away and providing a higher quality service at the same time.

This creates an impact in the referral rate, too. And, it is not hard.

The first step is to discover WHY people are leaving. The fact that people are leaving is a big deal.

Think about it… they have to research new vendors, engage in a signup process, transfer information and HOPE that the new vendor is better.

The absolute best method I’ve found for this problem has two steps:

Use The Net Promoter Score to Increase Software Sales

1. Use the Net Promoter Score (NPS). This is a very simple 3 question survey that is designed so shrewdly I am surprised every company on Earth hasn’t already adopted it.

After each sale or customer service interaction or time period you send out the following:

“On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend xyz company to a friend or colleague?”

The next question depends on their answer.

If they give a 9 or 10 they are considered a Promoter which means they will be loyal and positively recommend your company to those they know when the opportunity arises.

If they give a 7 or 8, they are considered Passive. This means they are satisfied enough to hang around but won’t give you a glowing endorsement and are susceptible to a better offer.

If they give anything below a 7 they are considered a Detractor. This means they are not loyal, will likely stop doing business with you at the next hiccup in service or performance and will most likely say negative things about you if the subject of your product or service comes up.

One of the main things that has kept them from leaving is the overall inertia and annoyance of switching vendors.

The next question is:

“What’s the most important reason you gave the score that you did?”

The final question depends on their score:

9 or 10: “If you were to recommend us to a friend or colleague what would you say to them?”

7 or 8: “What could we do to cause you to give us a 9 or 10 in the future?”

Below 7: “Would you mind someone caling or emailing you to discuss this further?” Then provide a place for their email and phone if they say yes.

This will give you a good amount of data to read through.

It is EYE-OPENING to say the least!

The data from the 9s and 10s you want to know because it shows you where you excel and what you should NOT change. Further, I like to use the statements in marketing materials. Oftentimes someone will come up with an angle/idea/statement that we (marketers) never considered or worded properly.

This is pure gold for copywriters!

The statements from 7-8 should be considered when planning improvements or changes to the product, service or operations. Don’t let it conflict with anything having to do with the 9s and 10s comments, though.

Below 7 you want to look at where you could really make some meaningful improvements.

If there are outstanding customer service issues you want to make attempts to handle them. I’ve seen 3s and 4s jump up to 9s and 10s after a quality response here.

But, the thing to REALLY look for is trends.

We read the data and tabulate the responses that are the same or similar and rank them. By knocking out the highest ranking issues we know we are improving the company to such a degree that we’ll have less Detractors and more Promoters.

Your NPS is something you can track and improve over time. As you knock out issue after issues you’ll see it climbing.

From the NPS website:

“To calculate your company’s NPS, take the percentage of customers who are Promoters and subtract the percentage who are Detractors.”

(PRO TIP: By the way, if you are also using my “WHO” strategy you’ll want to connect NPS scores to individuals in the segments. In this way, you can find out which segments are most likely to be Promoters and thus your best customers.)

That’s the first step… Get NPS running as a process and a Metric in your company.

The second step is based on it.

Now, we are going to recover those people who stopped doing business with you. We are going to do it with hat-in-hand.

Take the top few reasons you uncovered from the initial rounds of NPS surveys and craft a one page letter and/or email.

You are going to hit all of those top reasons head on and show that you’ve taken steps to correct them.

Let’s say the top 3 reasons people canceled were: site unavailable too often, didn’t cache so I lost my work and customer service unavailable, you’d hit those issues head on in your reactivation letter.

In emails and letters I use the headline, “Have we done something wrong?”

Dear xyz,

I noticed it’s been quite awhile since you’ve done business with us. As the head of abc Company I never like to see that so I have to ask, “Have we done something wrong?

Or goal has always been to provide software that makes it easier for our users to create amazing infographics.

Over the last few months we’ve taken drastic steps to increase the availability of our service. It now stands at an amazing 99.99% availability. Further, our caching capability is much improved so you don’t have to worry about losing your hard work.

We’ve also expanded our customer service hours by another two hours to accommodate people on the East Coast or others working later into the evening.

If we have done something wrong or you feel like we haven’t lived up to our side of the deal, I’d sure like the opportunity to correct it so feel free to email me at bob@bob.com

If that’s not the case, I’d still love to have you back. When you decide to order again here is 10% off – no expiration date but I hope you’ll do business with us again real soon.

Sincerely,
Jason

Now, what do you think a person is going to do when they get a letter like THAT in the mail?

Since I’ve done this many times I can tell you: They are going to be amazed.

Who does that?

No one.

It will make quite an impression. I received letters and emails back saying it was the best business letter they’ve received. (The real ones I’ve sent not the example one above).

It has caused as much as an 18% revenue increase in a single month just based off of past customers who had not repurchased in over a year. Quite powerful.

It works because it is a reactivation program based on the primary reasons users defected in the first place. A general reactivation program will do only about a third as well.

Using the above you can reduce your churn rate and reactivate customers who have defected.

If you need any guidance I’ve done many projects like this in the past, feel free to contact me for more information on how we can work together.

Jason Bedunah

Increase Software Sales from Reality TV?

Here’s something to emblazon on your brain: People are immensely interested in OTHER people.

If Reality TV has provided nothing else of value THAT one lesson is surely worth millions. And, I’m here to tell you something you might find mind-boggling.

That little lesson can help YOU and your team increase software sales.

Here it is again:

People are immensely interested in the activities, aspirations, problems, beliefs, opinions and even drama of OTHER people. 

But, that shouldn’t be such a shock though. All of fiction, movies and most TV shows revolve around characters (i.e. people). There’s never been a blockbuster, ultra-popular movie about rocks or machines.

So, it makes you wonder why almost all software marketing ignores the PEOPLE and goes straight to talking about benefits.

The context is missing. Or, as I like to call it the “WHO.”

Those landing pages and white papers that tout benefits like “Save time” are falling far short of what is really necessary to get huge jump in conversion and increase software sales.

Why?

Well, let me ask you this question: What does it mean to “save time” to a CEO?

Is that a different meaning for a mother of five?

What does “save time” actually mean to a shop foreman?

Your software might be able to save time for each of them, but you can’t hammer home the REAL benefit, the REAL meaning of that saved time because you have a general context which means there is no meaning possible other than “save time.” Any attempt to develop the real benefits (or the AGITATION of not having enough time) suddenly collides because once you get specific it becomes UNTRUE for the other personas.

The way around this is to focus on each of the personas individually and have specific content for each which explicitly develops the agitation/needs and resultant benefits FROM THEIR VIEWPOINT.

They are interested in the PERSONAL aspect.

Once you focus on the WHO you are then able to really develop the concept and have meaningful case studies, demonstrations and testimonials. The same interest of others that makes REALITY TV so interesting and addictive can then be leveraged for your software.

Here’s another aspect: You can use that same principle to capture the interest of ALL of your target “whos” by letting people see into your company, into the activities of your employees and offices as a mini reality tv show.

This doesn’t have to be super-high quality. Over 50% are going to watch the videos on a 4-5 inch screen. Nor, do they have to be long and involved.

photo credit: JustForSneaks Ent. via photopin cc

Increase software sales with Funnel Vision

The CEO leaned forward in his chair. Our food hadn’t even arrived and we were already deep into conversation.

“I don’t understand.” he said. “I’ve given them everything they’ve asked for… money, tools, people. Instead of results, I just get excuses.”

I’ve been in these types of conversations countless times over the last ten years and, especially, since Google’s updates wreaked havoc on many.

And, I know what often came next. A blood bath. Budget cuts. Marketing people getting axed. But, the problem wasn’t the people or the budget or the tools. It was something else.

The waiter, sensing a deep conversation in progress, lightly set our food down on the table attempting not to disturb us.

“Ok,” I said. “I’ve taken a look at everything and your best chance doesn’t lie in Google SEO or adwords or an increased budget or anything along those lines.”

He looked at me, still perplexed, but was listening intently so I continued, “The internet has shifted on us again in the last few years. When you started this business in 2008 you could buy Adwords clicks for about a dollar or less. Now, you’re paying between $3 and $6. It’s no longer profitable to treat strangers as almost-buyers.”

He swallowed and put down his fork, “Ok, but if we don’t buy clicks and fix this SEO situation how in the world are we going to get growth?”

“We have to shift your focus to the WHO… and instead of marketing to a problem which ANYONE could have we have to focus on the people who have those problems. I know it sounds like splitting hairs but it makes a HUGE difference.” I answered.

The CEO looked even more confused. “This is your big idea? We already do that. On our website we have the customer personas. Nine of them, in fact. The case studies and testimonials are grouped by the personas, too”

I knew I had to tread lightly here (sometimes I have a tendency to be too blunt… even for Executives).

“Right. But, the fact that they are all there together basically says, ‘Our general solution also applies to you.’”

He gulped down some water and gave me a worried look, “We can’t afford to serve just one group. Besides, our offerings DO work for all those personas.”

“I got that. But, the problem here is NOT that you serve all those personas. It’s that they see the persona, think you have a special solution specifically for them but then get stuffed into the same funnel as everyone else. Context is everything.”

The CEO’s facial expression softened a little bit but he still looked slightly perplexed. I continued, “The funnel is designed specifically for WHO and needs to evolve given feedback from the WHO. If you are making changes on a general funnel one change that could INCREASE conversions for one persona could DECREASE them for another.”

The CEO leaned forward, he already looked a little more relieved, “So, we build unique funnels for each major persona?”

“Yes!” I said enthusiastically. But, I had to tell him it is just a little more complicated than that, “You’ll need unique content and social media for each one as well.”

Get Funnel Vision

We’re now in the process of building out these funnels and, while it does take some time and upfront investment in specific content, it doesn’t require a major investment – especially if you consider the payoff.

The upfront content, aka ‘Lead Magnets’, need to be geared specifically and ONLY for the personas (the WHO). The Lead Magnet brings them into the persona specific funnel which drives them to a specific goal: Trial Offer, Lead Form, A Sale, a Phone Call, etc.

With this setup, optimization of the funnel can provide huge gains because any insights you gain and test on the funnel have the best chance of applying to a significant percentage of the people in the funnel! This isn’t true of a general funnel.

If you don’t do it this way your optimization process will be confusing and essentially grasping at straws. Analysts will look at pages and essentially GUESS what to test and see only moderate increases in conversion.

But, if you connect and focus on personas and build specific content and funnels for them then their feedback, specific problems and benefits provide more than enough ideas and insights to create truly meaningful tests. Those tests can turn into a real boost in sales.

If you think some Funnel Vision could help increase your software sales reach out to me.

Jason Bedunah

Nail the WHO and You’ll Boost Software Sales

When you discover WHO you are targeting everything becomes much more clear. I often come across software sales pages or other marketing messages that describe WHAT problem their software solves but gives hardly an inkling of WHO it solves it for and that can make a HUGE difference.

Take this quick example: You feel like you need an energy boost because you really notice yourself fading in the afternoon meetings with your junior staff. You don’t want to drink any more coffee because that has diminishing effects and you loathe the crash. You think, “Maybe I’ll take some vitamins!”

You get to the drug store and are overwhelmed by the choices. You decide on a multi-vitamin to see if that helps and are faced with 5 choices:

• A-Brand General Multi-Vitamin
• B-Brand General Multi-Vitamin
• C-Brand General Multi-Vitamin
• D-Brand General Multi-Vitamin
• E-Brand General Multi-Vitamin

You pick them up and have trouble distinguishing them from each other. Some brag about their quality, one of them says they’ve been in business over 50 years, another says they use state-of-the art equipment. As far as you’re concerned they look the same so you decide to grab the next-to-cheapest and be done with it.

But, before heading off to the cash register something catches your eye. You see another row of vitamins.

• Multi-Vitamin for Active Teens
• Multi-Vitamin for Executives
• Multi-Vitamin for Seniors 65+
• Multi-Vitamin for Bodybuilders

You think, “Hey, I’m an executive… but this is more expensive than the General Multi-Vitamins, why?”

You look at the bottle and see a couple of blurbs:

• “Extra B12 For All-Day Energy”
• “More Vitamin D to help get a good night’s sleep.”
•  “20% more B6 to help you keep calm under pressure.”

Suddenly, the Executive bottle looks a lot better… I mean, it’s mentioned you by ‘name’ and hit on your top 3 needs! It no longer looks expensive. Now, it looks like the only sane choice.

It was specially formulated for YOU.

Any of those other General Vitamins could’ve had the same blurbs on them but they would have had MUCH less impact.

Why?

The answer lies in Context. It is not enough to know it internally. Everything in your marketing and advertising must bear it out. This is specifically for YOU.

The Context must be unmistakable. If you can swap out benefits and have it still apply to non-targets you don’t have it down yet. While the feature might be the same, the benefit, the language, the viewpoint will all be different depending on the Context, the WHO.

Now imagine the Context is Multi-Vitamin for Husbands (or Wives). There’d be a whole DIFFERENT set of statements on those bottles, wouldn’t there? Maybe something having to do with *ahem* performance?

The WHO, the Context, makes the benefits seem more real, even more believable. You suppose if it was built/designed/engineered with YOU in mind and it mentions your top concerns and benefits, why consider anything else? Any vendor who has taken the time to do that has a better shot of actually helping you. They get the nod even if they are more expensive.

Any haggling on price is an indication that the WHO is not well-established and the context-specific benefits have not been thoroughly ferreted out. Price sensitivity means they have others to compare your offering to… but when those two things are nailed and communicated properly, there is NO competition. (Price sensitivity can also be created by HOW you are selling but that is a subject for another post).

Context sets you up to get to your prospects early and educate them right into the sale. Further, by creating quality content explicitly for them you can BE FOUND instead of using expensive advertising dollars to compete for their attention along with everyone else.

Which are you more likely to download and actually read, “How Executives Can Have More Energy Throughout the Day” or “How to Have More Energy Throughout the Day?”

How to do this wrong.

I’ve seen sites that had a “Who Is This For” type section which listed all of the WHO’s the software could be used for… I won’t call them out, that’s not my style, but it is rampant.

And, it is weak. In fact, I know it to be detrimental. When they connect in the Context, they shouldn’t see “How Busy Mom’s Can Have More Energy Throughout the Day” with your formula on it.

That destroys the magic.

Is it for me? or Not? If the magic is destroyed then they’ll assume it’s not. The connection is dashed and now they know it was just a cheap marketing gimmick. You want to create a different formula for Busy Moms? Fine. If I’m a Male there should be almost no chance I ever hear of it. If I’m an Executive AND a Busy Mom I might come across it but it should look VERY different or the magic context is destroyed.

Pick your WHO and dive in. Commit! Build everything in that funnel to that WHO.

Most are too scared. They think they are leaving money on the table. On the contrary, you will be penetrating deeper, your cost of acquisition will be low and you’ll be able to charge a premium. If done right, you will have NO direct competition and it will be easy to show why the alternatives are a poor choice.

Picking your WHO makes everything easier. The best time to pick your WHO is before you even have a product.

Second best is right now.

Lackluster, acquisition cost high or you discount consider you dont have the WHO nailed down.

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If your software sales are lackluster. If it feels like the cost of acquisition is high. If you have to discount, engage in sales, negotiate on price or do special deals to close a sale consider that you don’t have the magical context, the WHO, nailed down.

Jason Bedunah

photo credit: Frédéric Poirot via photopin cc