Unique Selling Propositions – A Quiz of Famous Marketing Lines

This article is about famous marketing lines often called taglines or slogans. This week I finished the 6th lesson that’s part of my opt-in bonus, an ecourse, 9 Steps to Finding Prospects Who Want What You Provide. This lesson, “How to Stand Out in a Cast of Thousands,” describes how to Identify Your Unique Selling Proposition.

Writing that article inspired this blog post. Here are some of my favorite taglines for you to match up in a little quiz. To keep it interesting, I researched a few movie taglines too. These slogans become brief statements of the company’s or movie’s unique selling proposition. Notice that some describe very minor differences between the company whose slogan it is and its competitors. The key point is that they are establishing their position in the minds of the public. Not all of these statements are taglines. Some will be identifiers I think you’ll recognize because the company’s branding is so [...]

Soft Sell’s Not for Every Customer

When you really believe in soft sell sales and marketing, it’s hard to admit that the soft sell approach is not for every customer. While most people I know love it when they find a salesperson they can come to know, like and trust, strange as it may seem, some customers actually want hard sell salespeople.

The choice is yours how you want to handle prospects who prefer hard sell salespeople. But remember, you will never sell everyone. This is part of being selective. I’ve written a lot about identifying your ideal customer profile because people like your best customers are most likely to want and need what you provide. Moreover, there is a price to pay for trying to accommodate a customer by becoming hard [...]

Three Tips to Prevent Feeling Overwhelmed with Your Ezines

A friend of mine asked me an important question today about an opt-in I’d sent him to Judith & Jim’s free teleseminar tonight – Tom Justin is a partner with them on this preview call for First Step Internet Marketing. My buddy gets so many emails, he was about to skip a potentially valuable program to avoid the hassle of lots of emails afterwords. As the idea of putting on a teleseminar is to build a mailing list of people interested in the speakers’ subject, yes, you will get at least one email after signing up to listen to what they have to say. In Internet marketing, we want to attract customers. Nevertheless, I understand the issue of a lot of emails so I’ve discovered three solutions to manage the issue. Using any one of these approaches or all three will allow you to feel freer to check out something that might be of value to you without concern about getting [...]

Squeeze Pages – Are They Just Business Tools or Are They Manipulations

For a lot of people, it’s not an issue at all. For me and for some of my friends, it’s been a quandary. I don’t like squeeze pages. In fact, I think the very term reeks of manipulation. Squeeze pages are designed to give you two choices: opt-in to my mailing list or leave. Invariably there is a sense of urgency, like sign now for this limited time offer or lose the chance to get this information that will help transform your life. The offers of free information are seductive. And as a result, I’m on numerous mailing lists. By the way, I’ve found some wonderfully helpful material this way.

Yet, I’ve been puzzling over using them myself. In fact, I have one set up on my Smart Money Websites site. Despite that, something has bothered me about them. I teach that a salesperson should help the customer buy through selling as a service. Although few things in life are really black and white, there is a difference, and it lies in the attitude and in how they approach the prospect. Judith & Jim’s blog post “Soft Sell Squeeze Pages? A Contradiction?” shed light on my inner turmoil. They stated the issue clearly. It comes down to power, “their intention is to assure that choice will be obedience to their command,” versus [...]