Mark Pocock's Copywriting & Marketing Blog

Who is this Weird Poster Beep.....??

2008-02-05T08:13:00.000-08:00

I see all my posts come up as

"posted by Beep"

that's a strange one.

Anyway Beep is my wife in case you're wondering.

And she's Dutch.

So until I figure out how to alter the postings they'll continue to come up as

"Posted by Beep".

Oh well.

from a slightly confused

Mark

Free Marketing Report

2008-02-05T08:03:00.000-08:00

Hey I'm writing a marketing and advertising report which I'm going to make available for FREE.

It's going to be titled...

How To Double…Triple ….Quadruple…(Or Even Higher)…The Number Of Leads You Generate From Your Marketing and Advertising...Without Spending a Single Penny More Than You’re Doing At Present

Or something along the lines of the above.

This report is going to include 37...39...47 or...x amount of marketing tips you can use instantly to increase the response from all your marketing.

If you'd like a copy go to www.markpocock.com and join my mailing list there. I'll drop you a line once the report is finished.

until next time

Mark

Red Headlines...Or...Which Colour...

2008-01-30T00:42:00.000-08:00

For years internet marketers have been writing their headlines in red at the top of their sales pages. And testing has proved, doing this has pulled the highest response. Which is great for the seller.

Trouble is web site visitors have grown accustomed to these red headlines. And upon seeing them, recognize they're going to be sold to. The consequences? They hit their 'Back' button. Not good news if you're a web site owner selling products or services.

So how to by-pass your visitors' sales letter sensor?

Well I'm now starting to see more headlines in a different colour.

Just last night an email came in from a $200+ million direct sales company selling a new investment service. And guess what?

Their headline and sub-heads are BLUE.

Perhaps they're just testing. Be interesting to see if their headlines remain blue.

Reading around in a few marketing and copywriting forums the concensus is;

Red headlines when selling to the internet marketing crowd.

Blue for everything else.

So try changing the colour of your website headlines. Doing this could improve your response.

Mark

Long Time, No Post

2008-01-22T09:12:00.000-08:00

I've been away busy creating my own info products to sell.

Using public domain books. Hence my long absence from

writing in my blog.
BUT I'm back now. And will be regularly updating here. So keep

checking back to see my updates.

until then

Mark

Secrets of Pay Per Click Revealed

2007-03-20T04:03:00.000-07:00

Do you use Google Pay Per Click (PPC)?

You know the little ads which appear on the right hand side of Google every time you do
a Google search.

Anyway if you do and you're not tapping into Perry Marshall's wisdom then you're leaving thousands of dollars on the table.

He's just written a book titled: Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords. How To Access 100 Million People in 10 Minutes.

It's extremly good. In fact essential for anyone using PPC. Since following his advice our sales have shot up.

So I suggest you buy it. At $24.95 it's a steal. And I'm amazed Perry isn't selling this for $150+. That's how good I think it is.

until next time

Mark

www.markpocock.com

The Crazy Castle Owner’s Marketing

2007-01-31T09:12:00.000-08:00

Hi and welcome to my brand new copywriting and marketing Blog.

Thanks for dropping by. And I hope you become a regular reader of my thoughts on copyrighting and marketing.

Anyway…Onward.

I thought long and hard about my first entry. And a junk email I recently received triggered a memory.

You see last August…(think long hot summer, ice creams and beach BBQ’s)…Out of the blue I received a postcard. Not just any postcard. But a 6” x 8” postcard with a picture of a well known castle down the North Cornish coast.

You see the owner had obviously bought a mailing list and was mailing business owners. To try and get them to come to his new restaurant.

What was the marketing message in this colour postcard:

Well how about this for a non-marketing message:

“Hope you are well.”

Best Wishes

XYZ Castle

PS. Please come and try our new restaurant.

Well, what a load of rubbish.

He hasn’t given me any damn reasons WHY I should visit his restaurant has he?
I mean, as someone he’s obviously identified as his target market, I’ve got a load of unanswered questions in my mind. Like:
Is the food good?
Am I going to get ripped off?
What’s the chef like?
Has anyone else eaten there?
Are there good surroundings?
Will I have a good evening?
Etc, etc,

…Yet (arrogantly) he thinks I’m going to come running….and open my wallet simply by mailing me his postcard.

Also he used a sticky for the address. And you know what that means don’t you? It screams MAILSHOT to me. Junk mail. He hasn’t tried to make it a personal mailshot.

Anyway I promptly emailed him with what was wrong with his postcard.
Didn’t hear anything back. And…promptly forgot about him.

Until last week.

Only this time I received an email. With a damn poem this time: Here it it…
TIMELESS
The rehabilitation of an eternal mind.
How do you unwind,
An eternal mind?
Do you sit in the dark with you eyes tight shut?
Or turn on the light and fight.
Do you dare your demons to come out in one day?
Or hit them with all your might.
Do you keep your shadows in yesterday?
Or do you try to recall what it meant to play.
Do you wait for the dawn of a new spring morn?
To find fresh dew on a flower.
Or do you dance in the circle in the light of the moon,
On the solstice’s witching hour?

Just how do you unwind,
An eternal mind?
John Mappin 2005

..........One way is to come to XYZ Castle at this stunning time of year.
www.XYZcastle.com

Jeez doesn’t this guy learn?

His marketing is diabolical!!

He is missing out on tens (probably hundreds) of thousands of pounds of sales by sending out this drivel. He isn’t going to last long in business is he? Marketing is the lifeblood of any business. Yet his marketing is horrendous.

So what should he be doing?

For a start he should be using direct response marketing.
He should identify his target market and craft a message to them appealing to their emotions. Remember we buy things for emotional reasons.

Have a damn good headline to force me to read his message.

He should be offering me an irresistible offer. Turn every feature of his restaurant into a benefit. And lots of reason-why copy.

Also a guarantee. Whoops a guarantee you say …what with food? Crazy you say.

But.

Go and Google Omaha Steaks, a US mail order company. I’ll wait for you. Come back yet? Did you see their guarantee? Yep you can eat their steaks…and if you don’t agree it was damn tasty …you get your money back….
(Remember there are more honest people in this world than dishonest people.)

AND he should be lighting a fire under my ass to get me there quick.

So remember use direct response marketing and watch your business profits multiply.

Until next time

Mark

http://www.markpocock.com