Glenn Livingston was arrested for drinking on January 4th, 2012, and you can see his mugshot here.

It’s pretty scary what you can learn using Google Alerts!

Like most marketers, I have routine alerts out on my name, and for just a moment when I saw this come through I wondered if perhaps I’d been out on a bender I’d forgotten last week (even though I haven’t had a drink in 20+ years… not ’cause I’m an alcoholic–I detest that term–just because I find life more interesting and satisfactory without screwing with my mental state)

I also learned, of course, about the myriad of people stealing my products (we pursue them legally now), and a few things about yet ANOTHER Glenn Livingston who’s a pastor in Illinois up to some interesting things from time to time.

But none of these rather mundane results from Google Alerts come anywhere close to the REAL power of this FREE utility…

(Even though tracking your namesakes’ activities can from time to time generate an attention getting headline)

Because most marketers have absolutely NO idea how to use it…

The REAL way to leverage Google Alerts is to first know with crystal clarity EXACTLY what keyword defines your ideal prospect, plus a very small set of related keywords which surround it.  Taken together these become your “archery target”… the small space which defines EXACTLY WHO YOU WANT TO BE on the internet, and allows you to more or less ignore everything else.

Once you’ve done that, you can combine Google Alerts with Google Reader Feeds (and some anti-RSS-spam code) to automatically collect pretty much EVERYTHING that happens on the internet that’s relevant to you…

And stop getting distracted by everything else…

Which is the ONLY way to build a hyper-responsive marketing system in my humble opinion.

Have any of you found effective-yet-novel uses for Google Alerts we should know about?

Tell me, I’d like to know!

Dr. G

PS – I’m considering organizing my network and resources to build a “performance-pay-based-conversion boosting-done-for-you” service.  Curious if that’s of interest to any of my readers today

Seriously though, there are a few things I think marketers casually banty about as if they were psychological fact which really bother me… And there are others which tell only HALF the story.

So let’s start there with…

UNUSUAL PSYCHOLOGICAL MARKETING FACT #1: “Impulse Isn’t Everything”

Impulse isn’t everything.

Yes, it’s true you’ve gotta appeal to the Lizard Brain with greed, lust, envy, jealousy, etc in order to induce action on your offer. (Which is one of the reasons I’m fond of saying “try to appeal to the lizard brain without seeming like a lizard”)

But the other half of the story is,  this only produces TRIAL BUT NOT NECESSARILY REPEAT…

Satisfying the lizard brain is only PART of what we need in this world…

As sappy as it sounds, the other half is help mastering our environments, our relationships, our place in society, and life as a whole.

Don’t get me wrong, you won’t get ANYWHERE trying to sell people self-actualization, self-improvement, or simple self-mastery solutions unless you can link them to the lizard brain…

It’s just that lizard brain satisfaction is a necessary but not sufficient condition for REPEAT purchase and customer loyalty.

So it’s not enough to sell luster and shine if you’re selling shampoo…

Or even to sell the emotional end benefit (I feel attractive)…

To really take the market you need to sell the aspirational character… how your product is going to MAKE YOUR PROSPECT INTO THE PERSON THEY WANT TO BE…

Think L’Oreal “Because You’re Worth It”: when a woman buys L’Oreal, she’s not just trying to look sexy, she’s supporting a character trait which translates to self-care across a wide variety of life areas… she’ll also more likely invest in vitamins, a gym membership, life insurance, a spa, etc

Or think Gillette “The Best a Man Can Get”:  a guy’s not just buying Gillette razors to get the cleanest shave possible, or to attract a desired mate… he’s partaking of the best the world has to offer alpha males, and this informs WHO he wants to be across market categories

Or Intel “Intel Inside”:  when you buy Intel, you’re not just getting a high speed processor, you’re committing (whether you know it or not) to recognizing, developing, and leveraging the value of intelligence across many areas of your life…

Or Kodak “Share the Moments, Share the Life”:  when you buy Kodak, you’re not just getting sharp pictures, or even crystallizing memories… you’re committing to family and community as a value you want to demonstrate as a person… it enhances your sense of participation in life with others, and re-affirms your desire to build more of these relationships as part of WHO YOU ARE AS A PERSON…

See what I mean?

These brands engender MASSIVE REPEAT PURCHASE and loyalty because they’ve managed to integrate themselves with the user’s aspirational self image!

What you should be asking yourself now is, WHAT KIND OF PERSON DOES YOUR PROSPECT BECOME when they purchase your product or service?   Is your advertising set up to support this message?

Onward and Upward in 2012,

Dr. G

PS – When you join Hyper Responsive Marketing Secrets you affirm yourself as a person who gets enormous leverage for their  time  and consistently “organizes and executes around priorities” because you know HALF your profits are driven by only ONE in 2,000 visitors.   This radical paradigm shift not only transforms your business, but syncs with your commitment to apply the 80/20 rule throughout your life to achieve maximum results with minimum time.   Join now

PPS – Keep your eyes glued to your inbox for “weird psychological marketing fact #2″, coming soon.

MY DOG IS BETTER THAN YOUR DOG!  (Really he is)

In his eleven and 1/2 years on this planet…

• He’s kept me company while climbing  the highest mountains…
• He’s been by my side in the depths of anxiety and financial despair…
• He’s never even considered biting anyone (not sure he knows how)…
• He’s brought suicidal teenagers (and their moms) out of their deepest depression by doing nothing more than “knocking” on my office door and cuddling up to their knees…
• He’s learned to open doorknobs…
• He’s completely overcome his separation anxiety…
• He’s taught me (and countless others) how to smile in a whole new way…
• He’s kept me warm when the heat failed in January in New Hampshire…
• He’s sniffed out a fire before it started…
• He’s accepted a younger brother without fuss (well, OK, without too much fuss)…
• He’s helped me get to sleep many nights when Sharon was traveling…
• He’s made me tens of thousands of dollars by letting me feature his picture in various specials and internet offers…
• He survived Lyme disease (just like me)…
• And he’s still going strong after 11 1/2 years.  (I just don’t know what I’m going to do when it’s his time to pass)

When people meet my dog they say “now THAT is a good dog!”, and they really mean it.  Some people have even commented “The only way you get such a good dog is by pouring all your love into him!”  (And they’re mostly right)

See?  My dog really IS better than your dog!

“HOW DARE YOU!”, you say?

“That’s just bragging, and bragging doesn’t work in life or in marketing”

“Dan Kennedy says ‘let them say it for you’” (don’t say it yourself).

But he’s only half right…

Because if you don’t 100% believe your dog (project, business, offer, etc) is far and away better than anything and everything else out there, you’re NEVER going to get people telling you it is.

The love, enthusiasm, passion, and heartfelt 150% commitment to (and belief in) your project MUST come from you first and foremost.. to the point that you almost can’t help bragging about it, or else nobody’s gonna “feel” it or “say it for you”, despite all the best testimonial collection techniques in the world, despite all the fancy technology which gets videos on your screen for pennies, and despite all the marketing books, courses, and seminars you’ve paid for.

You’ve got to KNOW in your heart of hearts that you’ve done more work than anyone else in the market, to understand the market better than anyone else, and deliver a benefit nobody else can (or will) deliver.

If you’re not willing to get out there and tell everyone how much better your dog is than theirs… why should anyone buy it?

So, how good is your dog?

(Go on, tell me, I really want to know!)

Dr. G

www.HyperResponsiveMarketingSecrets.com

PS – In the near future, I’m seriously considering “going dark” for two years to concentrate on serving the mental health community with my marketing skills.   (I’m getting older and feel a need to make more of a contribution… plus frankly, I spend way too much time TEACHING and not nearly enough time DOING these days… it’s becoming a little bit of a burden). Not saying 100% yet this is what I’m doing, but if and when I do I’ll be taking my products off the market and only existing customers will be able to access them… so consider this fair notice.  (To head off concerns, existing coaching clients needn’t worry)

Enjoy!

But among the most powerful…

View at your own risk:

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YOU CAN’T SELL WITH
CONSTIPATED CONTENT!

It’s true…

People won’t pay consistent attention to even the best information if it’s presented in a dry, matter of fact manner.

There are things I tried telling my list for years but just couldn’t get across… like the value of coding their survey data and analyzing the relationship BETWEEN the questions, because your computer can see patterns and opportunities you’ll never pick up with the naked eye.

See?  You’re falling asleep already.

But in fact, above is one of my absolute BEST tricks… there are amazing relationships in survey data which VIRTUALLY NO ONE (except perhaps my staunchest egg-headed-spreadsheet fans) implemented for YEARS, no matter how many techniques I showed them, how many videos I made, how carefully I explained it in my professorial manner.

It fell on deaf ears because it was… CONSTIPATED CONTENT.

It didn’t matter that you could double your conversion rate with the information…

It didn’t matter that you could make markets profitable which otherwise seemed hopeless…

Constipated content doesn’t even sell well to constipated people.

The antidote?

Stories!

Many of you may recall one of my first successful MP3s…

Sharon helped me tell the STORY of “putting the soul in the machine.”

You see, back in graduate school I looked down upon this one Ph.D. researcher who was observing mothers and infants with a piece of graph paper.

I may have the details a little fuzzy since it was 20 years ago, but essentially this crazy doctor was making her students record–every 5 seconds–exactly how far the mother’s face was from the infant’s and whether they were (a) gazing at each other and (b) vocalizing or cooing.

“Idiotic!”  I told Sharon at the time.   It’s just a form of  ”intellectual masturbation”… they’re trying to  ”get the soul inside the machine and it can’t be done!”   I was SURE the mother infant bond was beyond such trivial analysis.  It hurt me to my core that anyone would think otherwise… I was ashamed to be at a school where this kind of research was going on.

But you know what?

I was wrong.

Turned out those stupid 5 second tick marks predicted all sorts of things going forward, like social skills, grades in school, etc.   And she was able to make concrete suggestions about distance, gazing, cooing, and general attachment for parents.

The computer had discovered patterns NO human was able to see in the most meaningful form of human intimacy we know… the mother infant bond.

She DID get the soul inside the machine.

And once I started telling this STORY, people got motivated to buy my survey research methods… in droves.

What story are you telling to sell your product or service?

It’s worth taking a few minutes to think about tonight… don’t you think?

And if you want to learn how to find the exact right story for your marketing, I’ve got two things to recommend for you tonight:

1) Get on the Total Conversion Code pre-launch list and make sure you’re watching for the free conversion webinars we’ll be doing in early March.

2) Watch carefully for the next opening in Sharon’s new multimedia marketing service.  She’s swamped right now from yesterday’s broadcast (so I promised I wouldn’t give the URL again), but there’s no-one I know who can pull emotional stories out of people better than she.   In fact, Stephen Covey engaged her to help with his website, and there’s a big fat testimonial from him (on the URL I can’t give  you today). But you already know what a powerful force Sharon is in her interviews because you’ve heard them.  And now YOU can leverage it for your follow up sequence too… OR to make products…or videos for your site, etc.

All my best,

Dr. G

That is, until I realized (in the course of developing the Total Conversion Code with Terry for the last few months) that copywriting is a big hairy myth.

It’s really not about writing…

It’s more about listening and “detecting”

A great copywriter looks at the market more like a sculptor looks at a block of marble…

You listen carefully (research), then chip away what doesn’t belong until the beauty comes out.

Yes, there are words to be put on the page (or in the video, or the audio, etc)…

But those are the words the market gives you… they’re already there, you don’t have to be some Hemmingway with a glass of brandy sitting in a snowy log cabin toiling away the hours by the fireplace.

And depending upon the market, a Beavis and Butthead personality might suit you better (seriously)

Which is not to say I’ve lost any respect for copywriters… to the contrary, it’s an extraordinarily valuable skill worth every penny you pay for it when you find a good one!  (Really – they’re the life blood of any direct response business)

It’s just not what you think it is, that’s all.

OK – enough rambling for today, just wanted to share my short thought with you.

Copywriting is a big hairy myth.

So let’s all stop being so frightened of it and get out selling!

Dr. G

Follow my logic for a moment please.

The Unique Selling Proposition (a term first coined, if I’m not mistaken, by Rosser Reeves), is the reason your prospect should do business with you as compared to every other option in the market. (For example “Guaranteed First Page Video Rankings for the Keywords of Your Choice on Google” or “Double Your Visitor Value or Double Your Money Back”)

Given this definition, it follows a USP should be built upon the strongest “point of difference” benefit you can offer your market (as compared to the “price of entry” benefits every other vendor provides just to get into the running).

Which is why my research methods have always been centered around finding points of difference.

But to truly leverage your USP, you need to know the emotional environment it operates within… what human needs does your real point of difference fulfill?  What heartstrings does it tug on?

And you need to know THAT because you’re going to have to support your USP with a full set of advertising materials.  That starts with a full sales presentation of course (whether in long copy, short copy, video, etc), but extends to every word you communicate, every image you select, every person you choose to represent your company… everything about your “brand”.

(Please don’t shoot me for mentioning “brand”… brands actually DO matter online for direct response marketers… and they’re nothing more than a consistent set of expected benefits and features associated with your company due to repeated presentation)

For example, “Double Your Visitor Value or Double Your Money Back” is a VERY  unique point of difference.  And I know it captures the serious attention of anyone with a web business.

But you can’t maximize the value of that USP without knowing the EMOTIONAL REASON WHY the market desires it.  Without knowing WHY, we can’t “fortify our position” with message after message, video after video, word after word, etc.

And there could be DOZENS of reasons .

On the surface, people want to double their visitor value so they can afford to buy more advertising and grow their business.  Duh. (As an important side note… you only THINK you’ve got a traffic problem, you really have a CONVERSION problem… which you’ll realize as soon as you’ve got an extremely high converting offer and can suddenly afford to pay outrageous bounties/commissions for traffic )

Buy why does this particular market want to grow their business?  Is it for Power?  Control?  Safety?  A Sense of Accomplishment?   Independence?  Financial Security?  Adventure?  To Feel Intelligent?  To Take a Leadership Role?

I’m sure you can envision vastly different advertising messages dependent upon which emotional end benefit this particular USP was associated with.

If it were for Power, I’d highlight the ability to “make deals happen” at will, and at-your-fingers paid traffic available for the taking…

If Safety was the prime emotional mover, I’d talk about how a high visitor value site makes you immune to “Slaps”, or even the disappearance of any media, because you can afford to test and optimize multiple channels (and I’d agitate the pain of business after business failing because they didn’t diversify their lead acquisition methods)…

If it were for a Sense of Accomplishment, I’d tell stories which illustrated there was “nothing like the feeling of building something from the ground up” and seeing the fruits of your labor come to fruition in a real business, helping real people…

If it were for Financial Security, I’d talk about families which had to put their loved ones in shoddy nursing homes, or couldn’t afford to pay for their children’s college (with all the negative implications of same), simply because the bread winner couldn’t ever quite figure out how to turn visitors into dollars at a good enough rate.

Do you see where I’m going with this?

I guess what I’m saying is, a USP is infinitely more powerful when you can isolate the Emotional context in which it operates.  And your Emotionally Unique Selling Proposition is the whole package… it’s something nice you help your prospect to say or feel about themselves because of a powerful benefit your company offers which no other competitor can match.

For example you, (Mr. or Ms. prospect) will feel more powerful when you double your visitor value, and you can feel confident about this because if you don’t, I’ll give you double your money back.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This is the E-USP… a critical insight for you as a marketer.  But it’s NOT how you would present it to the prospect.  99% of the time, when it comes to delivering emotional benefits, you want to SHOW the prospect via stories, analogies, and metaphors… NOT telling them directly, because that interferes with their need to feel like a smart shopper.  (Sharon and I call this “Rational Purchasing Consciousness” and it’s the emotional marketer’s worst enemy)

How do you figure out the emotional component of your USP?

Well, first, it goes without saying that you’ve gotta have a USP!  (You DO have one, right?  If not, get thy behind into my club and learn how to identify point of difference gaps in your market!)

Once you know your point of difference, you need to talk to your prospects and customers, and use the “ladder” exercise to find out which of these 37 emotional benefits it’s connected with.   Sharon and I did two MP3s you can download (Self Esteem & Purchase Behavior Part One | Self Esteem & Purchase Behavior Part Two) to demonstrate this technique.  NOTE: these interviews are  several years old, so the audio quality isn’t great, but they’re EXTREMELY powerful and you’ll be able to hear every word if you listen closely.

There’s more material on emotional marketing in the club, and Terry and I are really going to town on this in the Total Conversion Code because emotion is  what bridges my ultimate research methods and Terry’s superior copywriting/conversion system.

Last thing… did you know most all my previous audios are available on iTunes as a FREE podcast subscription?

Onwards and upwards,

Dr. G

PS – Henry Ford once said “If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.” The older I get, the more truth I see in this, and the more I treasure the insights I’ve gleaned from others.   So please SHARE below!

Here’s one of the central obstacles I think is preventing most people from really infusing their copy, websites, and imagery with the emotional tone necessary to induce purchase:

Guaranteed Targeted Traffic |   Web Conversion Mastery |  Coaching | Club

Enjoy!