Smart Biz Internet Marketing & Copywriting Blog

Are you experiencing the ever increasing fees of your bank account.  Are you like me, looking for accounts that charge lesser fees or preferably no fees? Of course, you are! Every dollar counts in our lives and in business.

Today however, I am going to introduce you to a new kind of bank account. An account that can cost a business lots of $$$$$ in lost productivity and lots of heartache in our lives. This is the Emotional Bank Account.

I worked for several years in various large organisations. I observed many “costly” situations an example is illustrated below:

Jane promised to do a training session for Elizabeth pertaining to a “Leadership and Management  Program”. As Jane agreed to be the key speaker for that particular session the program was built around her presentation. Over several weeks Elizabeth enquired how the training presentation was progressing and if handouts were ready for participants.  The reply was always the same “I am working on it”   Two days before the course Jane told Elizabeth she would not be presenting  the session for the “Leadership and Management Program”. Her excuse was “not enough preparation time. She had 8 weeks preparation time.

What happens in situations like this, is what usual happens in organisations and that is the ….costly part.

Elizabeth, extremely upset as her reputation as a training co-ordinator was on the line, came to me to spit out her gall. This took 2 hours out of my time and her time to calm her down – 4 working hours altogether. Then Elizabeth was forced to change the program and had to find another presenter willing to step into the program. Another few hours wasted time……$$$$$ in productivity down the drain again.  Elizabeth was required to be accountable to her immediate manager, more unnecessary lost productivity.

Well, you get the picture it goes on and on.

We are able to minimise situations like these in our business by paying more attention to the Emotional Bank Account of the people we work with.
In any bank account we make deposits into it and build up a reserve from which we can make withdrawals when we need to.

I changed my job and became a manager in a rather large organisation. The first Christmas I was there I presented each staff member with a beautiful handcrafted bank book and explained that this was their emotional bank account. Inside the bank book were pages with the following columns: date, description, deposit and withdrawals. Staff were asked to keep track of the deposits and withdrawals their colleagues made. They were informed that at staff meetings I would ask about their “bank account”.

It worked out really well as people became conscious of the things that make deposits and would sincerely apologise for the withdrawals that were made.

In ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ Stephen Covey says the following about the Emotional Bank Account:

“If I make deposits into an Emotional Bank Account with you through courtesy, kindness, honesty and keeping my commitments to you, I build up a reserve. Your trust toward me becomes higher, and I can call upon that trust many times if I need to. I can make mistakes and that trust level, that emotional reserve, will compensate for it. When the trust level is high, communication is easy, instant, and effective.

But if I have a habit of showing discourtesy, disrespect, cutting you off, overreacting, ignoring you, becoming arbitrary, betraying you trust, or threatening you, eventually my Emotional Bank Account is overdrawn. The trust level is very low. Then what flexibility do I have?

None. I’m walking on mine fields. I have to be very careful of everything I say. I measure every word. It’s tension city. It’s protecting my backside, politicking. And so many organisations are filled with it.”

Raising awareness about the Emotional Bank Account has made a difference in my life, my surroundings, my business, and the people I deal with. It saves me lots of time and as we know …. Time is Money!

Are you aware of the cost of the Emotional Bank Accounts in your life or in your business?

Warmly
Janna – SmartBiz Blog

PS The awareness of Emotional Bank Account greatly increased productivity in my department. My staff was aware that in relationships the big things are the little things.

It’s a proven fact that it is more cost effective to maintain the client you have then to look for and cultivate a new client.

So how do you keep track of your regular clients.

After I purchased a retail business in May 2004 which sells womens shoes, handbags and accessories she discovered there was no record of the customer base yet the staff kept telling her that they had a large clientele of very good customers.

All marketing gurus will tell you that having a database of your clientele is essential for a business to first stabilise and then grow.

So here is my story–

I implemented the process of collecting a database by:

• Advertising in local paper

• Finding a copywriter

• Data collection forms at point of sale

• Running a competition in conjunction with end of season sale

• At a later time putting up a website with an opt in page

• Direct Mail

First thing I did was create a new style of advertisement with a data collection form at the bottom.

I ran this advertisement once and collected some 400 names.

Having done this I wondered what the next step was as I am not into copywriting.  (I confess my daughter wrote the first advertisement for me).

So you might ask how does one find a copyrighter without paying the earth.

Well I did find a copyrighter and his services were not cheap but I realised to increase the database more effective copy would be needed.

So I took the plunge and spent $3,000 for one letter and one advertisement.

Headline read –

“Win FREE  Shoes For A Year!”

This headline incorporated into both the letter sent to existing database and advertisement bought a fabulous result and left me with a database of a further 500 names.
 
Added to this I put a data collection form on the shop counter and instructed staff that they must collect clients details with every sale.   This has been most successful with names being added to our database everyday.

I went from a small database of 300 to a database of 4,000 within twelve months
with 1500 names being collected within a two month period.

I have gone on to change my style of advertising and using direct mail together with establishing a website and holding promotional nights.

Guess what, you don’t have to hire an expensive copyrighter because Janna and I have purchased the resale rights to my copywriting programme which teaches you to do it yourself.

As my copywriter friend Trevor Crook says and I quote this programme will teach you –

“How to Write A Sizzling Headline That Grabs Your Prospects By the Throat And Rips Into Them Like a Gaff Hook Ripping Into A Shark”.

I have learnt that before you can truly write a headline which will grab your clients attention you must be very clear what your offer is.

If you don’t do this ….your headline will not work and so your sales will suffer.

The difference between a good headline and a pathetic headline is the difference between Success and Failure in advertising.

It’s really commonsense that when I look at an advertisement I only look at the headline.  If it grabs me then I read further, if it doesn’t it goes in the garbage bin.

So it’s obvious that your headline’s job is to grab your reader’s attention so that they want to read further and know more.

It doesn’t really matter how good your product or service is or how good your advertising copy is……………your ad or sales letter will end up in the garbage bin if your headline sucks.

I have been given many rules by various people for creating headlines and know I would like to share with you the very best of these attention grabbing headlines that will increase your database and your turnover:

12 Rules to Follow When Creating Sizzling Headlines:

RULE  #1:
Your headline must appeal to your readers self interest. Tune them into to everybody’s favourite radio station . . . ‘WIIFM’ which stands for What’s In It For Me? YOUR headline should answer this critical question.

RULE  #2:
Your headline must reach out to your prospect, grab them by the throat . . . and shake ‘em as though you are saying – Hey!!! I’m talking to YOU!”

RULE  #3:
Your headline must deliver a clear and understandable message. If you headline doesn’t make a complete and compelling statement you will fail to get the rest of your copy read.

RULE  # 4:
If you have news, such as a new product, be sure to get that news into your headline in a big way.

RULE  #5:
DON’T try and be cute or clever. These types of headlines are a waste of money as they will NOT get read.

RULE # 6:
Include the words ‘quick’ and ‘easy’ if it fits with what you are trying to communicate.

RULE #7:
Be specific in your headlines and not use generalities. For example, “Stops You Smoking In 3 Days” is a much better headline than “Stop Smoking Fast”. Specifics are believable.

RULE  #8:
Always test at least 2 headlines against each other to see which one pulls best. This is called an A/B split test.

For example, let’s say you wanted to send out 10,000 letters to your customers. Traditionally you would send them all out at once, using letter ‘A’ and wait for your responses . . . if you get any at all.
Instead, this time you follow my advice and just send out a test of 1,000 letters to your prospects/customers.

You send out 500 of letter ‘A’ and 500 of letter ‘B’ instead of what you would normally do. The body copy of each letter is identical, it’s just the headline that’s changed. 

Your responses come in and 7 people responded to ‘letter A’ and 21 people responded to ‘letter B’. You now know that 300% more people responded to ‘letter B’ and you can safely send out the other 9,000 letters - all because you decided to test and measure.

Ask yourself this question: “Did it cost anymore to test the headline that increased the response/sales by a whopping 300%?”

NO it didn’t. Imagine what you could do for your business sales and profits by simply following this rule alone. Remember, you are not your customer and if you ASSUME (we all know what assume means) you know what emotional trigger is needed in your advertising and marketing, particularly in your headlines to get them to respond - you will continue to leave money on the table. It’s your job to test, measure and find out.

Advertising costs the same whether it pulls zero sales, one sale, 100 sales or more. WHY? because you are simply buying space and it’s up to you to make it pull like crazy, otherwise your money making abilities will be handicapped.

RULE # 9:
Use Upper & Lower Case letters for your headlines. This is much easier to read than all CAPITALS.

RULE # 10:
Use “quotation marks” around headlines as it has been long proven to increase readership.

RULE # 11:
Write at least  50 headlines . . . by hand. Don’t be lazy and don’t do them on your computer or laptop as you won’t learn too much this way.

RULE #12:
The single most critical job of your headline is to: get your next sentence read! Nothing more. Then the next sentences job is to get the next sentence read. If you have 153 sentences in your sales letter, the job of your copy is to get each sentence read.

If you bore your prospects/readers or listeners (if they are listening to a radio/tv advert) for even one second, you’ve lost them. On your website, it’s so easy for them to click off and NEVER return.

There is so much more to reveal on headlines and this should get you started.

The Judgment Day Home Study Course goes into headlines in full detail.

Click on this link to take you to our website.

Learn to write your own killer headlines that hook your client into reading everything about your product or service.

Warmly
Susan – SmartBiz Blog

(Rules copied permission Trevor Crook)

Do you ever wonder just where your day has gone?

There are days where we feel we achieve a lot and there are days when we achieve absolutely nothing.

I’m sure this is familiar to all of us whether we are at the top of the Corporate Ladder or one of those wonders of the universe – a mother

If you are in business then time is money. 

Just how valuable is your time?

As a business owner one doesn’t often even think that our time is valuable enough to put a dollar value on it.

I never did until I read Dan Kennedy’s Book titled No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreners – The Ultimate No Holes Barred Kick Butt take no prisoners Guide to Time Productivity and Sanity.

Dan Kennedy talks time truths.  I discovered that I was undermining the value of my time.

Have you ever thought about what your time is worth.  If we don’t think about what our time is worth then how can we expect the world to know how valuable our time is.

I thought about this quite a bit over the next week and discovered that what he said was absolutely true.  Because I did not put a value on my time no-one else did.  Not my business colleagues, my staff, friends or family.

I own a Ladies Shoe and Handbag Shop and realised that sales reps were just appearing at my shop and expecting that I would be available to view their  merchandise. I have stopped this and now they must make an appointment and I only view merchandise on a Wednesday of any given week.  As a result my week is becoming more structured and organised and I get more done as I have more time to be focussed on more important part of my business.

Do you ever feel drained at the end of the day.  Is this because you have allowed the time vampire to such you dry.  If you have whose fault is it?

In reading about time vampires I thought about comments that had been made about me by some of the sales reps who visit my shop.  I have been told that several of them think I’m tough.  This is because when they show their merchandise I do not wish to spend all day just chatting about every shoe/bag.  I like to pick what I feel will suit my client, make an order for confirmation then make time with my staff on a particular day to decide on final selections.  Besides this I do not like spending time viewing merchandise that I know will not suit my clients.  Sadly some sales reps do not realise that their range may have been great last season but this season it just does not stand up.  This is true of any industry not just the fashion industry.  It applies across the board.  

Since doing this I find that I am not so dry at day’s end.  And if I am it is my fault for allowing the Time Vampires to suck my blood.

How do you think you fare in this department?

Susan – SmartBiz blog

PS.  I have increased the $value of my time to my business.  I now value my time and expect others to do the same.