Thursday, June 30, 2011

Is "I-My-Mine-itis" Killing Your Business?

I just spoke with a director of sales and marketing at a very successful high-tech firm.

He wanted me to review 5 emails that his sales force has been sending to prospects.

I asked him, "Which of these emails is producing the best results for you?"

"None," he replied.

A quick glance at his marketing emails revealed several problems, each of which I can solve.

Chief among them was a problem that undermines about 75-80% of the sales letters and marketing materials that non-copywriters create.

Unless you're an experienced copywriter, it's probably wrecking your marketing materials, too -- and perhaps killing your business.

I call it, "I-My-Mine-itis."

The symptoms are a preponderance of I, my, mine, we, our, and ours in your marketing materials.

What's the cure? YOU.

Read any good sales letter and one of the most common words is always YOU.

That's because any good copywriter understands human nature, and how natural it is to be selfish. We simply care about ourselves -- first and foremost.

And, because your prospects are human, they care more about themselves and their problems than about you and yours.

With that in mind, you can instantly improve any sales letter, email promotion, or web page by making one, simple change: Turn all mentions of I, my, mine, we, our, and ours into YOU, as much as possible.

Example: Don't write, "Since our founding in 1997, we have diligently worked to deliver a complete service solution to our telecom customers, whether they be individuals or commercial entities."

Blech.

Write this: "You will benefit from our 14 years of experience solving every telecom problem you can imagine -- and some you can't."

It took me 17 seconds to fix that. And I can do better. But do you see the difference?

If you're going to write your own sales and marketing materials, proceed with caution. Use you, you, you, whenever possible.

Because "I-My-Mine-itis" can be fatal to your marketing.

You'll find more ideas like these in my Free Report, Guaranteed Marketing.  

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