By Andrew Cass

The more I study modern day, 21st century marketing the more I realize that EVERYTHING is marketing.

From the words in a TV or newspaper advertisement, to the words on magazine covers, to the words on a cereal box. It’s all about WORDS, right? Words designed to get you to take action. And that my friend, is marketing.

Pay close attention next time you go to the grocery store or the drug store. You are constantly being marketed to with words. From the food you buy to the magazine cover that gets your head to turn at the checkout counter.

That being said, the internet has created a massive opportunity for the skilled marketer to thrive without doing the customary legwork and engaging in personal contact with their prospects by merely using words.

So how do you capitalize? Well, the one skill you need to focus on in order to succeed in effectively marketing your home business enterprise is…

Copywriting.

It should come as no surprise that your copywriting skills must take center stage if you want to succeed long term as a home business owner and entrepreneur. Simply put, copywriting is putting your sales message into, you guessed it: words.

Since the face to face encounter has essentially been eliminated you need to be able to convey your pitch through the words on the pages that your prospects are reading whether that be an email, a sales letter or an advertisement.

A great way to polish your copywriting skills, even if you’ve never written a single word of ad copy before, is to create what’s called a “swipe file.” This is just a file of already successful ad campaigns.

Swipe files are incredibly useful tools. Every major player in the direct marketing world keeps a swipe file and for good reason. Everybody gets stuck for words and ideas at some point. When this happens it’s good to have an example of past successes to go to and freshen your creative juices so to speak, and get the words flowing again.

What should your file consist of?

You should gather any material that has spurred you to take action, whether its purpose was to get you to buy something or just leave your name and email address. Copy the good stuff and study it. Realize what was in the ad that made you take action on the offer.

Look for layout designs as well. Bulleted lists are a big direct marketing tactic along with action words, headlines and sub headlines. You’ll notice certain words popping up along with questions and statements that are all fairly alike but are tailored to specific products and services.

That’s the key to a good swipe file. Gather a wide array of different styles from different copywriters and mold the message to your particular target audience. Study the material and write out many different versions of the same ad. Practice your art and perfect it.

A word of caution though. You never want to copy an ad word for word. That’s plagiarism and it’s illegal. In other words, don’t take the word copywriting literally here.

Use your swipe file as an aid only, to sharpen your copy writing skills and make you better at marketing because remember, at the end of the day, everything is marketing.

Whatever you do, do not take copy writing lightly. It is your ticket to success in every business endeavor you will ever take ownership of.

About The Author

Andrew J. Cass is a Home Business Development Expert and Professional Marketing Consultant. He is in the top 1% of income earners in the Home Business industry. To learn insider secrets and powerful marketing strategies from the pros to help you explode your home business empire, sign up for Andrew’s FREE cutting edge Ezine at: http://www.TheHomeBusinessInsider.net

By Ann Williamson

Marketing wisdom tells us that 80 percent of all household purchases are made by women, and no business owner can ignore them. Marketers of kids gear, food, cosmetics and clothes are good at reaching women, but women buy gender-neutral stuff too, like cars, auto services, technology and just about everything except Viagra.

Yankelovich marketing consulting firm reports that 60 percent of women 16 and older are working. They comprise over half of all college students and about 38 percent of small business owners according to the 2002 figures of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A February 2002 study by Prudential Financial found that of 400 American women surveyed, 37 percent live in households with incomes of $50,000 - $100,000, and 12 percent were in the $100,000 annual income range.

No business owner can afford to ignore this market, but not ignoring them is not the same as attracting them. Attracting them is not the same as winning their loyalty, either. There is definitely a difference in dealing with women because they notice the small stuff. While men tend to make judgments based on first impressions and key interactions, women never stop gathering information.

Women develop a collage of impressions about a business from a hundred small factors, everything from its cleanliness to the design of the shopping bag. Smart business owners turn this to their advantage by investing in small amenities women can appreciate. Many young women today are much wiser than the boomers were at the same age. They have traveled widely and are accomplished and picky consumers.

The key to winning the loyalty of women shoppers and your share of this market is to offer carefully selected choices rather than a plethora of everything from A to Z. That overwhelms them Eileen Fisher, designer of womens clothes says. She adopted this strategy and offers simple clothes in a limited palette.

Furniture stores such as Storehouse Furniture in Atlanta have pared their selections to an everything goes with everything else array. Even house paint companies are adhering to this strategy of paring down and offering carefully selected choices.

Look! Women have so many work and family responsibilities they do not have time to research and ponder every buying decision. They also are not trying to impress their friends by having the most toys. While a man may want 16 different size screwdrivers in his toolbox, you show a woman a tool with 16 interchangeable heads and she will buy it. Now she has one instrument which takes up less room but accomplishes the same thing, costs less in the end, and does the same job.

Whether buying for themselves of for the business they own or manage, women make final purchasing decisions based on the relationship with the seller, not on statistics and voluminous data. Given a choice on two nearly identical products, women will choose based on customer service and relationship with the vendor.

Men want to buy the product and leave, while women want to know how it works. Prescott True Value in Arizona has a loyal following of women running households on their own due to divorce or widowhood. By having enough staff to guide the customer and answer questions they have good to unequaled repeat business from women.

Andy Andre, the owner of Prescott Arizona True Value store has learned that customer service is respect. It is taking the time to explain things to a customer and not talk down to them, he says.

Entrepreneurs assume that marketing to women is all about discounts and giveaways, but care and creativity is what really attracts women. If a man is ignored by a sales clerk he thinks, What a jerk. A woman will think, I hate this company. It is the small things, good and bad, that make the impact on women customers. Learn this, and you have got a handle on your share of a growing niche.

About The Author

For a business that caters to women, visit me here:
Posted in Online Marketing July 18th, 2007 by Sellportal | No comments