HOW TO CREATE MARKETING THAT SELLS IN 2020

1. The most important decision. We have learned that the effect of your marketing on your sales depends more on clearly defining your message in the marketing place. What’s your USP? Are you confusing your audience?

Do you say clearly and simply how you will solve your buyer’s problems, or do you confuse them with industry jargon and fancy words Like “Forward-thinking?”

The results of your campaign can be enhanced if when you create a simple one-liner that anyone can understand.

Spread your one-liner through your ads and company. Position yourself in the market place.

Get clear on what you bring to the market place before you leap.

2. Large Offer or Guarantee. The second most important decision is this: What’s your offer and your guarantee to the customer? What’s in it for them?

It pays to create a unique and competitive offer that’s a benefit to your customer and backed with a guarantee.  Most marketing campaigns have no offer and are doomed to fail in the marketplace.

Create an offer nobody can refuse and deliver on that offer!

“Promise, large promise, is the soul of an advertisement” – said Samuel Johnson.

3. Brand everything. Every Marketing piece should contain your brand. Logos in the corner of your videos, brand colors on your Instagram posts, USP on your social media cover images.

Most posts, videos, and campaigns lack any consistent image from one post to the next.

“The manufacturer who dedicates his advertising to building the most sharply defined personality for his brand gets the largest share of the market. — David Ogilvy

4. BIG IDEAS. Unless your marketing is built on a BIG IDEA it will pass like a ship in the night.

It takes a BIG IDEA to jolt the consumer to take action — to make him notice your marketing, remember it and take action.

BIG IDEAS are usually simple ideas. Do not confuse your audience. Your idea can be BIG and SIMPLE at the same time.

For example, Tim Ferris created the “Four Hour Workweek” from the idea of, “outsourcing your business.” Same concept…Tim found the BIG IDEA.

5. Image of Quality. Quality matters in today’s connected world. Bad reviews can pile up and ruin your business.

When you paint a picture of quality and delivery, people buy.

RED Digital love to create a quality look and feel for customers especially on the Instagram Platform. Pretty pictures do matter.

If your marketing looks ugly, consumers will conclude that your product is shoddy, and they will be less likely to buy it.

6. Don’t be Boring. It pays to entertain your customers. With so many advertisements competing for your customer’s attention, you should entertain them.

Most marketing campaigns are impersonal, detached, cold — and dull.

Instead, speak to their interests, make them smile, appeal to their intellect, educate them, and get them to participate.

Have you ever seen Facebook quizzes or games? Those are all Marketing Campaigns hidden behind entertainment.

7. Be Innovate and Start trends — At RED Digital we helped create Ydraw. Ydraw started the Whiteboard Animation trend in 2011. It launched them into the INC 5000 in a couple of years.  It pays to innovate, to blaze new trails.

Trends do end and innovated ideas may never catch on. It’s risky, but the risk is worth it.

If you try enough times and you may start a new trend.

8. Don’t be fooled by shiny objects. Marketing companies seduce businesses into the latest and greatest marketing channels which distract them from the pursuit of sales.

There are no shortcuts or hidden techniques. Marketing takes time, money and expertise. More on this later.

Successful advertising will work if you give it time, and adjust as you go. It takes time to rivet your customer’s attention to your product.

At RED we spend a lot of our time researching and testing what actually works and less on flashy marketing gimmicks.

9. Built your avatar and segment your audience. With YouTube, Facebook, and Google you are able to drill down on everything about your future customers.

What do they like? What do they read? What’s their job title? Who do they follow? What are they searching for? etc.

You have to do your homework to find out everything about your potential customers.

No shortcuts, just work.

At RED we have found that spending a few hours to identify your exact audience can lower your cost per lead and save you a lot of money.

“People will do anything for those who encourage their dreams, justify their failures, allay their fears, confirm their suspicions, and help them throw rocks at their enemies.”– Russel Brunson

10. Message above the fold. Maximize what appears above the fold on your website. Above the fold just means what they can see and interact with, without scrolling down. A website needs to pass the 5 seconds test and the best way to do this is by putting your most important message above the fold.

When you have a good USP (unique selling proposition) and a great offer above the fold, you will make an impact on your sales.

BOOM-BOOM

11. Keep it simple stupid – KISS. Most advertising campaigns are too over complicated. 

Every day I see ads that are trying to sell too many products, have too many offers and are way too confusing to understand.

Attempting too many things, and sadly they achieve nothing.

One message, one offer, one call to action works the best.

It pays to boil down your strategy to one simple promise – and go the whole hog in delivering that promise.

What Works Best on YouTube and television.

12. Testimonials and Social Proof: Placing testimonials and social proof in your videos and on your landing pages almost always increases conversions

Real authentic customers can work often times work better than popular celebrities.

13. Problem-solution (don’t cheat!) You set up a problem that the consumer recognizes.

Then you show how your product can solve that problem.

And yes, you actually have to provide the solution.

This technique has always been above average in sales results, and it still is. But don’t use it unless you can do so without cheating; the consumer isn’t a moron, she is your wife.

14. Show them, don’t tell them. When you show how your product works and give your audience a visual demonstration you will increase sells.

It pays to give them a visual.

15. Open with a bang. The first job of any video is to grab the attention of the viewer. If you can get them to stop what they are doing and pay attention, you have won half the battle.

On YouTube you have 5 seconds before they skip your ad. Make it count!

16. Say it quickly. If you can say it in 10 words, no need to use 20.

Make your pictures tell the story. What you show is more important than what you say.

Quick note — YouTube ads should be longer than 30 seconds to allow the user to skip your ad — FREE branding.

17. Authentic vs professional. Creating ads using a simple smartphone with the business owner talking can do significantly better than expensive productions. People are drawn to authenticity.

18. Musical backgrounds. You don’t need background music on every video. It has its place, but can be distracting and may cause an issue with recall.

If you are using music, make sure it don’t drown out the speaker. They want to hear what the speaker has to say, don’t make it easier for us to ignore you.

19. Simple script A who, what, why, and how script works. Who you are, what you offer, why it matters to them and how to get take advantage of your offer is a simple formula that will get results.

“The stand-up pitch can be effective if it is delivered with straightforward honesty.” –David Ogilvy

20. Stand out and stick The average consumer now sees 100,000 commercials a year. Ouch!

They ignore 99.9% of all advertisements.

Create a video that will stick in the consumer’s mind. Some big brands are really good at this.

15% could save you……

See what I mean?

21. Animation & Cartoons. Animation and Cartoons have their place and can be very effective.

They can be entertaining and grab attention.

At RED we have found animation videos allow you to do things you can not do in real life.

A great story mixed with animation works best.

Beware of Animation in certain circumstances. Cartoons are hard to relate with.

22. Go back to the drawing board.  Commercials should be tested and Youtube makes it easy to do.

If a commercial fails, go back and make the necessary adjustments.

Just plan on creating an alternate beginning and an alternate ending to each video.

Very doubtful you will get it right the first time. Don’t quit!

23. Factual vs. emotional. Factual commercials tend to be more effective than emotional commercials.

It’s hard to create an emotional video. There’s just not enough time to build the plot and gain an emotional connection.

Some get lucky.

24. Avoid viral We all want a “viral video.” Viral tends to just happen, it can’t be forced.

There are a lot of Viral Videos that never produce any sales. It’s better to have a video that moves the bottom line than a video that goes viral.

If your goal is viral, you will be disappointed.

What Works Best with Social Media Ads and Print.

25. Headlines. “On average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body.”

Headlines need to be tested and optimized. Easy to do with Google Ads and Facebook Ads.

Create multiple Headlines and spend some money testing them. Pick the winner and scale.

26. What’s in it for them? Headlines that promise a benefit sell more than those that don’t.

Make it clear and concise.

“How to create marketing that sells in 2020”

27. Words that stand out. It pays to inject words that stand out. There are words like FREE, NEW, LIMITED, etc. that will catch the consumer’s attention.

We are always looking for a deal and new and improved ways to solve our problems.

28. KISS headlines. Your headline needs to be simple. You confuse you lose. A consumer doesn’t care to decipher what you are trying to say.

Simply tell them!

29. How many words in a headline? David Ogilvy did a headline test with a large department store and see how many words should be in a headline. Here’s what they found

‘They found that headlines of ten words or longer sold more goods than short headlines.

In terms of recall, headlines between eight and ten words are most effective.

In mail-order advertising, headlines between six and twelve words get the most coupon returns.

On the average, long headlines sell more merchandise than short ones — headlines like our