Creating Marketing Magic
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Welcome to the October 2007 issue of
“Creating Marketing Magic.”

Resisting the irresistible…. or how NOT to be a victim of a really great sales letter.

I got an email from one of my blog clients about a new service that promises it will do the following:

• It gets you traffic to you(r) blog

• It adds fresh, relevant content to your Blog

• It ads (their spelling, not mine) new and constantly changing content

• It makes your visitors happy

Not only does this wonder product do ALL OF THIS, but you get even more:

•  It is 100% F.ree

•  It is easy to use (all you need is a blog or website)

•  There is NO up-sell or after sign up offer

When I get these emails... I am quick to point out that this is TRULY an awe inspiring work of art in the form of a marketing piece because it inspired my client to action. Our job is to create a marketing piece that inspires the same reaction in my client's target audience.

The story continues here....

To begin the analysis, let's look at the offer.  In this case, the offer is truly irresistible.

The product developer truly knows his audience.  He knows what they want, he knows what they're willing to pay to solve their problems and he is there, the business/ marketing guru/savior to the rescue.

The product he's selling promises to solve a myriad of problems faced by the typical web site or blog owner and all for no investment on the part of the web site or blog owner! 

My first task at hand is to calm my excited client.  The last thing I want is her to RUIN her blog with syndicated content!  

I began by pointing out to her that this offer is only an irresistible if you DO NOT KNOW how Google works.

There is a thing for which Google will penalize your site and it's called "duplicate content".

What that means is that if the content that shows up on YOUR site is showing up on other sites as well, Google has to make a choice on WHICH content it will feature. If you're lucky, and it's YOUR content being featured on other sites, Google will recognize YOUR content as the originator and your content will be featured while the other copies are doomed to the "supplemental index" (Google's version of Hell.)

Knowing this bit of information will help you to understand the glaring FLAW in the product's business model. 

However, and this too is another facet of beauty in this product offering, THIS GUY's MAILING LIST DOESN'T KNOW ALL THIS ABOUT GOOGLE!  (That's why I try to educate my newsletter readers instead of dupe them!)

From a marketing stand point…. his product and his promise are nothing less than brilliant. He's providing a solution to a problem EVERY blog owner faces at one time or another and taps into the blog owners' deepest desires:

1. Effortless quality content.

2. Effortless quality visitors.

3. All of the above delivered for free.

However, while this product will probably be a HUGE success for the developer…it will do little for the countless throngs who sign up to allow him to syndicate his content via their blog. Those who sign up should not be surprised if adding his content to their site does NOTHING for their traffic or their customers.

I guess that's why my clients have me on retainer, to help them see BEYOND the hype!

In this case, learn from a truly BRILLIANT marketing piece. It does a MAGNIFICENT job of defining a problem and presenting a solution. Not only is it brilliantly crafted, but it was then TIGHTLY targeted to a mailing list filled with web site and blog owners who signed up to learn more about marketing their small business via the internet.

I always tell my clients to look at what artists like this are DOING to promote their product instead of getting caught up in the sales frenzy being generated. In other words, keep your eyes GLUED to the marketing guru's feet as he dances, just don't listen to the song!

When you get anything that catches your attention and gets you to read more, step and catch your breath.  As yourself, "Why is this SO appealing to me?"

Your goal is to create content that is EQUALLY appealing to YOUR target audience.  The only way you'll be able to do that is to TIGHTLY target your audience so you can TIGHTLY target your content.

Want to learn more about creating tightly targeted content?  Pick up a copy of my book: Beyond the Niche: Essential Tools You Need to Create Marketing Messages that Deliver Results

Questions, comments, rants, raves?  Feel free to . 
 

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Find My Niche and Creating Marketing Magic  are written Kathy Hendershot-Hurd who is the founder of Virtual Impax, a small business marketing  consulting firm and the author of "Beyond the Niche"  available at online book stores everywhere.