Amazon Prime: Online Marketing by Prime – Amazon.co.uk

Amazon Prime: Online Marketing by Prime – Amazon.co.uk: by Jason Li 2013 ©
 

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT (For Marketeers Regarding Amazon Prime)

“Try Amazon Prime FREE for one month: Unlimited FREE One-Day Delivery on millions of eligible items; Express Delivery for £4.49 per item (delivery before 1pm).”

“Over 300,000 popular Kindle Books to borrow for free, as frequently as one book per month and with no due dates.”

(Taken from Amazon Prime)

 

Amazon Prime – what you have just read is about a service that is changing the world forever.

It’s the single most important business copywriting and strategic marketing reveal that you must analyse and understand if you want your business to succeed.

So Am I Promoting Amazon As A Secret Amazon Prime Employee?

No... Although - I admit straight away: I LOVE AMAZON.

For me... first came the internet, and then came GOOGLE and Amazon as the world’s most useful internet services in the world.

And it’s going to be for the foreseeable future possibly humankinds most valuable consumer supplier of goods and services.

Here’s Why (And How Amazon Prime will do this)...

Amazon has played its card in how it is going to get even more rich, and you’re about to see why this is with Amazon Prime.

What is Amazon Prime?

There’s some clue in the opening paragraphs so I’m going to state how important it is and have you read it again:

“Try Amazon Prime FREE for one month: Unlimited FREE One-Day Delivery on millions of eligible items; Express Delivery for £4.49 per item (delivery before 1pm).”

“Over 300,000 popular Kindle Books to borrow for free, as frequently as one book per month and with no due dates.”

In summary, at the time of writing in June 2013, customers get to borrow free Kindle Books and enjoy free delivery. Plus there are streamlining movies services too.

So you see, for those who understand how effective direct marketing and strategic marketing is... Amazon is going to be

The De facto World’s Greatest Direct Marketing Business!

Here’s some stats to prove it:

Amazon was launched in the United States in 2005.

(Taken from Wired.com) In the fiscal year of 2012, analysts at Morningstar suggested that Prime members grew from 7 million to nearly 10 million. Prime membership was greatly boosted by promotions to customers who bought a Kindle Fire.

In total, Amazon had about 182 million customers during the year, so Prime members make up about 4 per cent of the total customer base.

So here is the significant bit about profit: Prime customers accounted for $78 more in profit before interest and taxes per customer than non-Prime customers, as revealed by Morningstar analyst R.J. Hottoy.

And now the comparison bit: The average Amazon customer when calculating the operating profit from the 182 million customers is $10 per customer.  So Amazon Prime customers are about

SEVEN TO EIGHT TIMES MORE PROFITABLE

than a non-Amazon Prime member.

And now for the insane bit: about a third of Amazon’s profit come from just 4 per cent of customers who buy stuff on Amazon.

So how does Amazon go on to be the de facto direct marketing business on the internet?

Amazon Prime is capturing all the people in the world:

a)      Who have money to spend.

b)      Who are happy to buy direct... that is online.

c)       By offering people with money the convenience, opportunity to save money, and the service of wider selection of goods; so that it is easy to just go to one-stop Amazon to see if what the buyer wants is listed by searching Amazon’s product database.

d)      By keeping in touch with people who keep on spending by being constantly relevant...Prime members keep revisiting... and spending.

Once you’ve got used to buying books, Amazon’s fantastic web designers and copywriters make it easy for you to notice other items in other categories by:

·         Promoting other books.

·         Promoting non-book items such as brand name watches to streaming films to baby toys.

Emails

The secret power of Amazon is in emails.

Amazon sends you regular emails on all sorts of categories to tempt you to buy special offers. It’s really hard for consumers to resist.

Just think of near enough every item that are resold in retail shops (eg. Your Armani watch or Nike T-shirt) in the most popular and largest locations. Think of John Lewis, or Oxford Street in London, or even the Trafford Centre in Manchester. Amazon will likely have the item available.

Think about it, you can kit out your whole home by buying off Amazon without having to leave the sofa.

But Amazon Destroys Business

Isn’t that what locals always say when a successful innovative business comes along.

(Hey... there’s nothing better than a local business with tradition and history.)

In fact, we’re lucky we live in a free market system and innovation is here to improve customers’ buying power, or else monopolies can dictate products and prices.

So yes, you may not like your Tesco’s taking customers from local businesses, but look at it this way... if there are two restaurants on the same street, and one is busy and the other hardly has any patrons...

Is It The Restaurant That Is Struggling That Is Wrong

Or Obviously It’s The Consumer Who’s Wrong?

So the question must be posed? Is it big businesses that destroy local businesses, or consumers who are not considerate and change to shop at big businesses; or the local business who cannot be bothered to innovate and improve? Hold that thought.

Amazon Prime Innovation

Remember the paragraph describing the services of Amazon Prime?

Amazon would have spend months analysing the customer research data to come up with their new compelling strategy of capturing the segment of

The world’s most CONSISTENT SPENDERS in the online direct marketing category

During a history of innovation and technology to improve humankind, humans cannot resist technology.

You see – humans choose the easy option when faced with similar choices (a consumer psychology tip that can help you win orders by just mastering this technique alone – it’s in the ebook The Goose Bump Effect in more detail.)

Here are some examples to prove it:

·         We wore clogs and moved onto shoes.

·         Transport was once by horseback, now it’s by car, bikes, trains, airplane (and skateboard).

·         Messages were sent by letters, and now sent by text, social media or email.

·         Once we drove into town to buy books or a film... now you just search Amazon.

And this is where we are today: Innovation, convenience, better pricing, wide selection of goods and so on and so on.

That’s why Amazon Prime is the most important development in direct marketing.

Scared by Amazon Prime?

You don’t have to be. You just need to keep being systematically pro-active.

Here’s some ideas that might help your business:

·         Don’t ever stop innovating even if you are top of the tree.

·         And don’t forget the importance of direct marketing. Keep in contact with your customers.

·         Make sure you systematically collect data and research your customers.

Thanks for reading. Please share this article with friends who like Amazon.

 

Read more ...

Call to Action Best Practices (including Buttons)

Call to Action Best Practices (including Buttons) : by Jason Li 2013 ©

Call to Actions (CTA) are really important...

In fact critical...

Whether it’s on a web page, sales letter, or email...

Get this wrong and sales conversions will be low...

Get good at it and your enquiries and sales conversions will allow your business to grow.

How else does Call to Action affect business?

Call today to register for the ‘Annual prize draw’ ***01234 5678910*** It ONLY takes 40 seconds! Registrations end 5pm this Friday 31st

·         Call to Action affects how many enquiries you get.


·         Call to Action provides better qualified leads.


·         (It’s unusual – but yes, Call to Action) Reduces labour costs. You see, sales people spend lots of unprofitable time cold calling or visiting prospects at the very earliest stage of the sales cycle with no idea if the prospect is ready to go all the way to conclude by making an order; especially in business-to-business and complex sales. This means working with a prospect at the low interest/enquiry stage leads to low response rates and makes the business inefficient.


·         Call to Action brings forward interested buyers because they are not sold to. Buyers can sniff out a sales pitch all day long... because they get pitched all day long. But after reading your copy, prospects that contact you have decided they want to seriously consider working with you. Otherwise, why would a CEO of a business with legal, operational, human resource, turnover, logistics, product, brand, Inland Revenue issues, and so on make an enquiry?


·         Call to Action provides your sales people more productive time on working on seriously interested prospects.


·         A good Call to Action can determine whether a prospect makes an enquiry today or in 6 months. (However, you may need to provide an incentive to bring forward an enquiry.)


·         A good Call to Action motivates interested prospects to consider if they are ready to take action now (or very soon after assessing their own situation on the spot.)

Case study: Email Campaign business-to-business using Call to Action

I manage an email campaign to certain businesses. Many businesses that receive emails from this campaign usually have a professional gatekeeper (I call them pro gk’s – I imagine if they had goalie gloves they would be brilliant because nothing would get past them). Therefore by telephone the owners are always out of reach. (It’s like trying to contact Richard Branson you would think sometimes for some sales people due to well trained gk’s.)

As the email is genuinely targeted at business owners (or directors as a minimum decision making level), the emails have to be excellent in getting their attention and them to read it (and we can’t use Meercats because they don’t work for this campaign).

Criteria for success from the email campaign:

·         Business owners get 100s of emails... so they must be very interesting to get read... I can’t emphasis this enough.


·         Ensure owners see the value of the product and services.


·         To drip feed value over a series of emails.


·         Ensure the whole offer is of better value and differentiated from competitors.


·         The email is viral enough to get passed around.


·         Different decision makers see value in the email (this allows the buyers to assess the email content and if the products and services really are compelling enough for the board room to make it a priority).


·         Generate enquiries from serious prospects (The general buying and thinking process of buyers will be to go on the website, look at competitors, speak to friends – even the wife), and carry out internal investigations.


·         Get the company in front of decision makers at an early stage and build up a relationship... even if the prospective buyers already have long standing relationships or in a contract.


·         Be a means to build up a relationship with decision makers where cold calling and sales reps can’t due to little success leaving messages and voice mail with admin staff.


·         The sales staff earns more commission and have better holidays as they are spending time on closing not speculation.


·         Sales staff are travelling less miles and in better health as time is organised with serious buyers only... bordering on order taking as much as possible.


·         After all this... the call to action must draw out interested buyers to call this company, not another, and to call sooner rather than later.

So here are some Call to Action observations:

Due to writing direct response sales copywriting, and taking part in a number of marketing communications campaigns, I have gathered some interesting titbits of knowledge about Call to Actions which may be of interest (Please note your own A/B split tests can give different results):

WIIFM Value: Your Call to Action should answer why your prospect should take an action. Remember, humans are inherently selfish. Your Call to Action must answer “What’s in it for me?” better than any other competitor.

It’s easy to do: Even if your product or service is complicated. Simplify the starting process so that prospects can get up and running in a matter of seconds. (If you struggle, some tips are in the beginners guide book ‘The Goose Bump Effect’ in the top left above Services.

Urgency: Create a time limited offer. Such as 40% discount or a free matrix/chart worth £20 if you register by X date.

Bigger is better: Generally, if your Call to Action is larger than the surrounding copy and designs... your Call to Action has a better chance.

Easy navigation: Prospects who are interested will want to get going now. If they’re sat on the fence, making it so simple to start now will also help you persuade the ones who are just “so close to registering.”

Remind them what to expect: Ideas include: download a file, request information, add a product to shopping cart, subscribe to a newsletter, navigate the next page, download a trial, submit form, request a call back, register for prize draw, and so on.

Stong guarantee: Humans are risk averse because they don’t like change. We’re programmed to avert being hurt. A strong guarantee reduces this worry.

No links, ads or cluttered text (on web pages) next to the Call to Action: Humans cannot multi-task. Humans cannot focus on two complicated things simultaneously.

F-shaped Call to Actions: Humans start at the top left (in the Western world) and move the eyes to the right, then down a bit, then across again, and then down again. If your Call to Action can mimic this, if will catch the prospects eye.

Simple Products have Call to Actions above the fold: You can have the Call to Action right at the top if it is a very simple and universally known product. Many prospects won’t need to read the copy or look at the pictures to ‘get it.’

Complex products have Call to Actions delayed: The more complex and more you have to educate, add value and differentiate, the further down you should have your Call to Action. Putting your offer and what you want to be paid too early reduces your chances of success because prospects can’t understand how you are worth the value.

Colour: Orange or Red against a contrasting background can assist conversion rates. Red colours generate a feeling of aggression and increased heart rates. This is where marketing consumer psychologists will tell you that many people make decisions based on emotions. You can use red for strong actions such as ‘buy’ and soft actions such as ‘request contact’ (and use a blue colour for trust).

Copy: The wording makes a big difference to response rates. If you just have a simple ‘buy’, you are risking leaving this open to the 100% convinced only to buy this product, and from you, and right now to take action. Sometimes an 80% convinced prospect is ready to go to 100%, and your copy has to take them there.

Of course... if you’re just another HR payroll software, plumber, interior designer, or tax accountant who provides great service or other commodity out there, a Call to Action alone won’t help you too much.

Spend a bit of time improving the product so that you are more helpful (of value) and differentiated than other competitors, and your conversion rates will naturally improve.

My call to action to you: Share this with another person who likes business articles about sales conversions right now. 

Time to do this: only 30 seconds so start right now.

Karma points: plenty (and you’re friend might be delighted you thought of them too.)

Further reading:

How a counsellor like Oprah Winfrey will outsell a salesperson: trust and buying psychology

Read more ...

AIDA Marketing Model: Sex Sells The Test

AIDA Marketing Model: Sex Sells The Test: by Jason Li 2012 ©

Sex sells is a long known myth in advertising...

But is it really true?

I’ve found some evidence it does...

And how you can apply this method to reap rewards.

The method to prove if sex or any other subject sells

If your business is struggling, what is one of the best ways to find out how to get more people interested in what you offer? It can be a problem as you search around and pitch to new people. They go “hmm” in a kind of interested-but-they’re-not-too-sure-if-they-are way.

The answer is to read magazines on your subject field, whether it’s from your local store or an emagazine.

Magazines tell you the current trends, and what your prospect is into, and what messages are swaying them.

And what is the best way to see what subjects interest your customers in each magazine? The main headlines on the front cover. Great copywriters spend days agonising over the right headline and subject to attract prospects.

Testing adverts

All the great marketing businesses are amazing at direct response marketing, creating copy that attracts buyers who read the copy and then like shopping-drunk-prospects go on to buy. The reason for this is plain and simple, if prospects scan the front cover and no-one goes on to pick up and flick through the magazine, it’s like prospects have said: “I’m not interested.” The death phrase of all sales people. No sales means no magazine business.

So the beauty of looking at magazines in your field is that people have done a lot of the testing and leg work for you. What sits on the shelves and catches people’s eyes are proven subjects that your prospects are interested in.

In order to get the best results, many businesses test the different subjects until they find a hot button that gets the prospect excited. Once you discover this hot subject, you then put it in the most prominent place to attract prospects.

Simply put, your most attractive subject headline in the right area of your magazine front cover generates sales.

So taking this methodology, you can apply this to your business.

Let’s see some test results

Without doubt, a magazine that finds this formula will keep on rolling out headlines based on the same subject if it works month-on-month.

So I’ve found two magazines that is focused on the activity of sex and improving sex appeal.

As you can see, it’s no coincidence that the best subject headlines are in the top left corner because most people look at the top and to the left in the western world at the start of a new page.

Click on the magazines below and have a good look at their front covers.

Cosmopolitan

Men’s Fitness

AIDA Marketing Model:

Marketing  uses the AIDA  model to take prospects from Attention, Interest, Desire and Action – where the prospect buys and becomes a customer.

Advertising, one of the main marketing communications tactics in marketing; uses the advertising AIDA model to generate interest. The whole point of advertising is to get your attention and sell you the desire to buy the product; not to entertain you with award winning art which is the biggest misconception sold to businesses.

So have a look at magazines covers. Do they pull you in. If they do, then look at your marketing. Is it just fancy art work that has no copy (writing).

I’ve been providing sales copy for a while and it’s always been the writing that people read that got responses rather than the graphics.

In fact you can test this yourself. Just put the best ever picture/graphic you can find with minimal or no copy on your web site, on a leaflet or in a magazine and check your response verses an ad with lots of writing on. You’ll see a big difference.


Can pictures get your interest. Absolutely. Will they persuade you to buy. Less likely. Words help buyers get over their sales objections in the most efficient and effective way. Always has done. For further proof, watch the charity events such as Children in Need and Red Nose Day, they all have written words and celebs verbally pitching people to open their wallet. The campaign can't leave it to just pictures only.

Your take away:

1.         Find the most important subject that will catch the eye of your prospect in your advertising.

2.         Put it near the top left hand corner.

3.         Test it for a few months with different headlines.

4.         Use the winning subject and headline.

5.         Pat yourself on your back for making your business more appealing to your prospects.

6.         Share this article with other people who might find this of interest.

 

 

 

Read more ...