Wizard Wisdom

Craig Arthur's weekly email:

Dear Scott, Take my seat. Would you like to attend the upcoming Wizard of Ads, Marketing Performance Seminar? Due to client commitments I am unable to attend, so I am offering you my seat (sorry business owners only). Go here to find out how. You had better be quick! In This Issue: Scroll down to read the full story Customer Experience Matters Most... Is Your Business Still Delivering? How to Advertise in a Recession - Substance Over Style Articles I Like: Click the link to go to article. Using Facebook to Build Customer Loyalty Small Business Branding Branding Through Reverse Camouflage Upcoming Seminars: Marketing Performance Seminar 19-20 Feb 2009, Denver, Colorado. 2 days of marketing wisdom for only $99 (if you are a business owner). Books I Recommend: buy.ology How Everything We believe About Why we Buy is Wrong by Martin Lindstrom Customer Experience Matters Most... Is Your Business Still Delivering? By Mike Dandridge "Customers gauge their emotional connection to anyone with whom they do business and the deeper the emotional connection, the deeper the loyalty to the business." A playground stands beside a sunbeam-yellow and grape-purple building. Step inside and enjoy fresh-baked cookies, gourmet coffee, a 50” HD television, and if you’re the type who can’t stop working long enough for an oil change, free WiFi. Oh. And a complimentary carwash on the way out. The owner of this one-of-a-kind oil change station has managed to infuse charm into a business not known for its charm. But, that was a year ago. Yesterday I pulled into one of the bays in the sun-faded yellow and purple oil exchange. Absent were the coffee canisters (at 9:30 in the A.M.). A few stale, broken cookies sat on a dirty counter top. The TV was silent and dark. A sign hung from the chain link fence surrounding the playground. Closed for Repairs. It’s a natural fact. Paint fades along with enthusiasm. It starts slowly. One day you come in and a couple of customers are waiting for you to open. No time to make the cookies now. The early birds are the first signs of a busy morning. The action doesn’t stop. You look up. It’s 10:30. Haven’t even made coffee. And you know this because a few customers grumbled about it on their way out – in a good-natured way, of course. The next morning, the phone is ringing when you walk in the door. One thing leads to another, but no thing leads to cookies and coffee. After a while, it becomes part of the routine – no coffee – no playground - no charm. Business is good. Why spend the money? No one seems to notice. I mean, after all, none of our competitors do it. And gradually, suddenly, it’s not a one-of-a-kind business any more. It’s just an ordinary, average lube joint. Or retailer. Or office. Or restaurant. Or hotel. Or "________________." Customers gauge their emotional connection to anyone with whom they do business and the deeper the emotional connection, the deeper the loyalty to the business. That’s the whole idea behind the Personal Experience Factor, PEF. Most business owners intuitively know this and they start out doing their best to surpass their customers’ expectations, to raise the needle on the PEF meter. But, over time, they get busy and forget. And before long, they begin to take their customers for granted. K-Mart and Sears used to dominate the retail landscape. Didn’t they see Walmart coming? Or, did they just stop doing the things that made them successful in the first place? You must remember this: Work as hard to keep your customers as you did to gain your customers and you will always have your customers. To keep a high PEF score in the eyes of your patrons, the experience has to stay polished and shiny. Things have to be renewed, repainted, replaced. Refreshed. Need some new ideas to refresh your business? Come to the Marketing Performance Seminar Feb. 19-20 in Denver... Fresh ideas abound. How to Advertise in a Recession - Substance Over Style By Roy H. Williams From the editor: This is a MMM you really should hear. Click here to listen. Specifics are more powerful than generalities.“If you say that there are elephants flying in the sky, people are not going to believe you. But if you say that there are four hundred and twenty-five elephants flying in the sky, people will probably believe you.” - Gabriel Garcia Marquez, winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature Ah, the power of details. Every ad has style and substance, cheese and meat. Most ads are cheese because ad writers are rarely given meat. Style cheese includes layout, angle, tone of voice and hyperbole. Substance meat is provable fact and concrete detail. My success as a writer is due to the fact that I demand meat from the business owners I serve. I’d much rather fight over meat to put in their ads than apologize to them for their ads not working. Style affects how people feel. Cheese. Substance changes what they know. Meat. Is your advertising meaty or cheesy? Here’s an example of a 146-word, cheese-filled ad: Continue reading... How to Advertise in a Recession - Substance Over Style Previous stories, just in case you missed them: How Can I Get More Customers? Business Predictions for 2009 Develop Your Business Experience Using The Five Senses The Secret of Success Connection Vs. Control A Closing Thought Deliver a positive and memorable customer experience. When marketing, always start inside first. “In the traditional optometrists, there’s just the technical guru in the consulting room and then a receptionist. These days people expect optometrists to be offering fantastic service, and I believe all this has been missing. People want an enjoyable experience.” - Doug Perkins, Specsavers You can read the full interview here… Craig Arthur Wizard of Ads PS. Need help to attract more customers and grow your business? Australia Call (07) 4728 4866 or email craigarthur@wizardofads.com North America Call 308-254-2732 or email daveyoung@wizardofads.com Call 440-610-9746 or email tomwanek@wizardofads.com We will never try and sell you. You may punch us in the arm really, really hard if we do. Call or email to book a FREE alignment meeting. No obligation. No pressure. It is at this meeting we both decide if there is a fit between our 2 companies. It is only then can we explore your options. We will never try to sell you. Call (07) 4728 4866.

Wizard Partners Australia. Call Us: (07) 4728 4866

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