A Prescription in Marketing

If you’ve signed up to be on my priority announcement list for my upcoming Copywriter’s Toolkit, perhaps you’ve received a special email from me about Web 2.0 and its impact on the future of marketing.

That’s because Web 2.0 is an important part of the Copywriter’s Toolkit, even though overall it’s just one small piece of the pie.

Let me explain.

Wikipedia calls Web 2.0 a “second generation of Web-based services that emphasize online collaboration and sharing among users.” Much has been discussed online about the social bookmarking aspect of Web 2.0. I consider many of those methods to be more of a traffic generating technique.

However, for anyone selling a product or service, I also think of Web 2.0 as a new type of interactivity, designed to get your visitors more involved in the buying process. And as a result more sales for you.

In his book “Advertising Secrets of the Written Word,” Joe Sugarman discusses adding a mechanical element to your copy that involves the reader. Such devices have been shown in his tests to increase response.

Perhaps you’ve even conducted some tests of your own as well. The familiar check box on the order page comes to mind. Several years ago, top marketer Mark Joyner reported that simply including the check box (and leave it “unchecked”) has resulted in 32% more orders than the order form without it. My own recent tests have yielded me a more moderate 19% increase in orders, but I’ve never found it to decrease orders.

So it would seem to be a no-risk decision to add one.

Recently I’ve started experimenting with other interactive devices on both the sales letter and order page with some intriguing results.

Of course, not every test has yielded a big enough boost to make a difference (some responses were actually depressed), but clearly there’s some tremendous opportunity here. And a lot of forward-thinking marketers are already way ahead of the curve in testing and implementing their own discoveries (mostly under the radar, but there are methods to “spy” on them and see what they’re doing, and more importantly–what’s working and what’s not. More on that soon…)

And occasionally a new product will enter the marketplace that has the potential to take online marketing to the next level, from Web 2.0 to Internet Marketing 2.0.

See, these cutting-edge “stealth” techniques are not just for our websites. Clearly we need to take a step back and look at the big picture, and how we can take advantage of these new methods in our end-to-end [tag-tec]marketing funnel[tag-tec].

Yesterday CNBC interviewed Darin Myman, CEO of a new startup called Big String Corp. The name “Big String” refers to their flagship product, which allows you to attach a giant virtual string to any email you send and yank it back to recall it.

Then you can edit it from afar.

Like a classic stealth technique, at first this doesn’t seem like a big deal. But then you start to ponder all the things you can do with it in your marketing.

First, you’ll know that it was opened and read. But that’s just the beginning.

Imagine being able to send an email with content that changes according to your specifications. You could extend a very real limited offer, with the price and website links dynamically changing over time (or even pull the offer completely after the deadline). Such a tool could spawn some interesting new takeaway selling techniques.

You could customize an offer specifically for your “A” customers, ensuring that the email can’t be forwarded, shared, or printed (try THAT with a page on your website).

In short, you can create “Mission Impossible” style self-destructing emails (from the company’s own website) that convey your message in a very flexible manner.

Of course there are spam filter considerations and the fact that email programs may interpret the message as an image or a potential security threat to be treated differently. That’s a given.

So I don’t see such a service replacing your autoresponder or text emails anytime soon.

But is it worth a closer look? Maybe a test or two? I would think so.

You see, whether you choose to embrace it or not, the Internet is changing. And the way we sell online is going to change right along with it.

Those who adapt and try new things will get an occasional bruise, for sure. But in the end they’ll also be the ones to see their profits soar to the stratosphere, leaving their competition behind to lick the real wounds.

Which do you want to be?

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