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Thinking Outside The Nine Dots...by Rich Harshaw Marketing & Advertising-66 Strategies: Y2M TIP 21 There is a myth about the need to be creative in marketing and advertising. The process we've developed is actually quite scientific...and is broken down into systematic steps that you can use to make money if you can read, write, and follow directions. A great man once said that brilliance is actually just simplicity personified. The brilliant marketer is not the one who can think up something new (creative) to say all the time. Rather, he is the one who can communicate ideas in a way that they are immediately and easily understood and embraced by his audience. The difference between good marketing and bad marketing often lies in the articulation...the way you say what you say. The undisputed marketing guru of the universe is our mentor, Jay Abraham. He is the articulation master...and the master of thinking outside the nine dots (call me if you don't know what this means). Jay has an uncanny ability to make any subject, no matter how complicated, easily understood by anyone. Here's one of the more famous examples from Jay's career: A company that marketed bank financed investment opportunities came to Jay for help. At the time, they were promoting an opportunity to buy gold for only 1/3 down--they would finance the rest of the purchase for you. They ran an ad in the Wall Street Journal with the following headline: 2/3 Bank Financing On Gold The ad generated enough business for the company to do the following: continue to run the ad, pay the salesmen a decent commission, pay for their overhead, and pay the owners a small profit. But when Jay saw the ad, he immediately saw potential. Over lunch, Jay scribbled out five alternate headlines in about 15 minutes. He instructed the company to test each of the five headlines over the next five weeks--with the exact same body copy that they were already using. One headline outshined all the rest: If Gold Is Selling For $600 An Ounce, Send Us Just $200 An Ounce, And We'll Send You All The Gold You Want. The meaning of the headline hadn't changed a bit. The body copy of the ad hadn't changed either. The cost of the ad was not affected. But the results were multiplied by FIVE TIMES over the previous efforts. That's the kind of leverage we're looking for in marketing...and that's the kind of leverage that can make you rich. If you would like for us to evaluate the articulation of any of your current advertising, feel free to fax it over to our office at (972) 572-8441. One evaluation per company, please.
3 Aids To Pulling Power Y2M Quick TIP Three well-known and often neglected aids to pulling power are: 1. Short paragraphs 2. Short sentences 3. Short words Break up long paragraphs into short ones. Nothing discourages the eye more than a block of solid type. Short paragraphs are an invitation to the eye and the reader. Keep sentences short. A long sentence forces readers to do tiresome mental gymnastics. It forces them to keep your opening thought in mind while absorbing half a dozen other thoughts. As for short words, the following story illustrates their value. A publisher of children's books wanted to know the secret of the popularity among children of a certain history book. Children preferred this particular history book to any other. Some even read it in their spare time. When questioned by the publisher, the author explained that he gave the finished manuscript to a 10 year old boy. He asked the boy to cross out all of the words he didn't understand. The author then substituted simpler words.
"Nothing is more simple than greatness; indeed, to be simple is to be great." Ralph Waldo Emerson
What To Consider When Choosing A Font Y2M Design TIP 1. Which font style will best communicate the feeling of your message? Does it add or detract from your message? 2. Will two or more fonts be more effective than one? Do the styles complement each other? Will color be effective? Be careful - it's easy to overdo it on this one. 3. What size font will best convey the idea of the design? Is the size appropriate for the audience? Does it complement the other elements? 4. Does the placement of the font have the most impact possible on the reader? Does it attract the reader?
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