Break the Rules – Part 4

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Welcome to the latest edition of our brand new weekly series, Break the Rules. Each week our plan is to highlight something you will have heard from some marketing expert as a best practice to be disobeyed at your peril. And we’ll tell you why it’s a rule you should break.

Last week’s rule was Lower Your Prices.

This week’s rule = Keep Text Short and Sweet

The conventional wisdom these days when writing copy is do everything in your power to keep it short. People don’t like to read, they have no time for it, so you need to present something to them that is easy to grasp in a hurry.

Shorter = Better.

But it’s been too long now that we (read “marketers”) have been saying shorter copy is better. Too many of your competitors are receiving the same advice from the same group of people. And today, everyone writes short form copy. Whether it’s on their website, in their ads, in emails or direct mail pieces, companies are rapidly moving away from longer form copy and into bullet points, headlines, and lists.

So why should you buck that trend?

Because you want to stand out from the crowd. That’s what marketing is all about. Do something different and unique that gets people’s attention.

If you have something to say, say it and don’t worry how long it takes you. If you don’t have something to say, find something to say very quickly.

Give more detail than your competitors do on your product pages. Get more personal in direct mail and email. Don’t stop at five reasons to buy from you, give me ten.

In a world where everyone is speaking in tweets and vines, be the company who tries to forge a deeper connection with the marketplace. And don’t worry if it goes against the advice of marketing experts telling you to make it shorter, because your goal is to stop doing what everyone else is doing and be on the front lines in a shift back to long form copy.

Have a “rule” you think we should write about? Share it with us in the comments below or post it to Twitter @zheller using #marketingrules

Break the Rules – Part 3

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Welcome to the latest edition of our brand new weekly series, Break the Rules. Each week our plan is to highlight something you will have heard from some marketing expert as a best practice to be disobeyed at your peril. And we’ll tell you why it’s a rule you should break.

Last week’s rule was Don’t Mention Competitors.

This week’s rule = Lower Your Prices

Price is a major factor in any buying decision. And when your company is facing stiff competition, the pressure to lower prices to compete with or undercut those competitors can be high.

You’ll hear marketing experts and consultants telling you to make special offers, limited-time discounts, offer free shipping, or simply cut prices across the board to sell more at lower margins. And in the short term, that can be a great way to boost sales and take business away from your competitors.

But over the long term, lowering prices can be very dangerous. You can only lower your prices so much before you start losing money on each sale. And, if your competitor is smart and sells a similar product, they can simply match your lowest price. Then, when both prices are as low as they can go, and you’re barely breaking even, you have to figure out another reason why consumers would choose you over your competitors again.

Instead, what if you raise prices?

Scary, right? But think about it this way. When you’re competing against other companies that offer similar products or services, the important thing is to stand out. Be different. By being different, you can carve out your own place in the market that your competitors can’t compete as aggressively.

It’s not all about price. If it was, Apple wouldn’t sell any phones. Mercedes Benz wouldn’t sell any cars. And Harvard wouldn’t have anyone to teach.

So approach your competitive strategy from this new starting point – how can we offer more value? What can you do to change your product or service and add more to it? What can you build into a higher cost product that your competitors don’t have or can’t offer?

Instead of trying to be the low cost alternative, take pride in being the company that offers greater value. When you offer more, you can justify higher prices.

Have a “rule” you think we should write about? Share it with us in the comments below or post it to Twitter @zheller using #marketingrules

Break the Rules – Part 2

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Welcome to the first edition of our brand new weekly series, Break the Rules. Each week our plan is to highlight something you will have heard from some marketing expert as a best practice to be disobeyed at your peril. And we’ll tell you why it’s a rule you should break.

Last week’s rule was Use Shorter Subject Lines.

This week’s rule = Don’t Mention Competitors

Mentioning competitors in your marketing is considered taboo. Most marketers will tell you to avoid it for various reasons.

The first reason, they’ll say, is that when you name your competitors, you are clueing your consumers into the fact that they exist. Maybe your consumers had no idea there were other companies out there that offer what you do. Why would you do them a favor and promote them, even if it is done in a way to show that you’re better?

The next reason they will give is that when you call out your competitors, they will do the same to you. When there are multiple companies competing for the same customers, most times none of you will mention the other by name. But once one company breaks the silence, others will join in the fight. It will get more personal, and the competition will get even more competitive.

Most times I would give this same advice. But in the interest of trying something new, we must break the rules. And this is one rule I think you should break.

How you break this rule is up to you, but here is one suggestion. Create a page on your website that people will frequent and create a simple chart that compares your company to others in the space. Pick the most popular or biggest brands in your space. Illustrate what you do that is better than them.

For example, if your prices are lower, show them side by side. If you offer better service, more value, longer hours, etc. show it all. Any way that you’re better than they are is worth calling out in your chart. This will give customers a side by side comparison that they might be looking for. And it will clearly demonstrate the value you offer better than you could ever say otherwise.

However you choose to do it, start calling out your competitors and shake things up in your market.

Have a “rule” you think we should write about? Share it with us in the comments below or post it to Twitter @zheller using #marketingrules

Break the Rules – Part 1

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Welcome to the first edition of our brand new weekly series, Break the Rules. Each week our plan is to highlight something you will have heard from some marketing expert as a best practice to be disobeyed at your peril. And we’ll tell you why it’s a rule you should break.

This week’s rule = Use Shorter Subject Lines

If you’ve ever read anything about email marketing, you’ll be familiar with this rule. Heck, it’s even one of my 50 Golden Rules of Email Marketing.

The concept is simple. Subject lines get cut off after so many characters when viewing them in many different email clients, such as Gmail or Outlook. So in order to get your message across, you should deliver it in as few characters as possible. I usually recommend no more than 60.

But more recently, studies have shown that better subject lines get more clicks, no matter how long they are. Subject lines that are “too long” often get more clicks if they are more meaningful than their shorter counterparts.

As it turns out, length may not be the most important characteristic of subject lines.

The goal of a subject line is to get people to open your email. Think of them as a headline, and the content of your email is the article that follows. You want the headline to get someone to read the article. So it has to promise value and be enticing. If you can do that in less than 60 characters, do it. But if you can’t, you should ignore that rule and use as many characters as you need to.

Next time you send a marketing email, A/B test two different subject lines. One should be short and sweet, and the other should be longer and more descriptive. Then tell me which one gets more people to open the email.

Have a “rule” you think we should write about? Share it with us in the comments below or post it to Twitter @zheller using #marketingrules

New Series – Break the Rules

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If you read the books, follow the blogs, and listen to the experts in the marketing world, you will invariably come across a large number of “rules”. These are the best practices that we preach to newcomers and non-marketers to help them achieve the results they’re looking for.

But in marketing, as in many other areas, rules are meant to be broken. Some of these best practices only apply to certain industries, or only work for certain companies.

And so, starting next Monday, we’ll be bringing you a new weekly blog series devoted to one thing – Breaking the Rules. Each week we will introduce one of these so-called rules, and then tell you why it might be a good idea for you and your company to break it.

So if you’re a rebel, a trouble-maker, and a rule-breaker, we’ll give you something to sink your teeth into each and every Monday morning for the foreseeable future. Hope you enjoy!