Read this, this guy is smarter than your or I..... or maybe just me

Here is a copy of what I recieved from:

http://www.firedrummarketing.com/public_message_view.jsp?s=5lrizmg0xd

A Testimonial Ad Writes Itself

Not long ago I met with an electrical contractor in a midwestern town. The company had been advertising on television for a couple of months and hadn't seen any results. They were running a testimonial spot, featuring an actual customer. Because I don't have permission from the station or the client, I'm disguising the name of the contractor. Otherwise, here's the customer testimonial, word for word: "I had an electrical issue that needed repair, so I called MyTown Electric. My great experience started right away. What really impressed me was that even though it was a Saturday, my appointment was set up for the same day, at no additional charge. The technician even wore shoe covers to protect my floors, which was a really nice touch. He fixed my issue right away, and I couldn't have been happier. When it comes to customer service, MyTown Electric really stands out."

This is an example of what Bill Glazer, in Creating Copy That Sells, calls a "meaningless testimonial." There is nothing in this story that communicates the problem that this customer was having, how the technician solved the problem, or why this particular electric company is the best one to call. In fact, the only reason you would know that this was an actual customer is that a graphic under her face said, "Monica -- actual customer."

Glazer says that to be effective, a testimonial must do one of two things:

1. Relay an outcome. In the case of the electrician above, this could have been, "My power went out Saturday morrning, and there was no way I could wait until Monday to get it fixed. The first electrician I called told me they couldn't get to me over the weekend. So I called MyTown Electric. The technician was there in an hour, found some faulty wiring behind the wall, and got things running in time for me to have guests over that afternoon. All for no extra charge!"

2. Overcome an objection. "I thought you had to pay an arm and a leg to get an electrician on the weekend -- if you could get one at all. So when my power went out on a Saturday afternoon, I braced myself for the worst. But when I called MyTown Electric, they were at my house within an hour. They fixed some faulty wiring behind the wall and had me up and running in time to make dinner. And there was no extra charge for the Saturday call!" Here's an outcome-based testimonial that isn't currently in a commercial -- but it could be: A woman I know recently replaced the windows in her 1920's-era home in my hometown of Portland. A couple of days after the installation, I happened to be in her office when the owner of the window company called to see how she liked them. Here's what she said: "Yesterday was garbage-pickup day in our neighborhood... and the garbage truck didn't wake me up. My bedroom faces the street, and that's the first time in 16 years that I've been able to sleep past 6am on a Wednesday!" She had bought the windows to make the house warmer, but she'd gotten another benefit she hadn't even considered -- a decent night's sleep. This is one testimonial that practically wrote itself. All you'd have to do is bring a crew to her home and have her tell the story while the camera rolled. If you're considering a testimonial campaign, look for stories like that one -- stories that relay an outcome, overcome an objection, or both.

Boost New Media Effectiveness With.. Old Media

I recently received a pitch from Google, inviting me to try their new Adwords Express program. The pitch began like this:
"Did you know that 58% of Americans search online to learn about products and services they're thinking about buying? Wouldn't you love your business's message in front of the people who are searching the web for what you're selling, right when they're searching for it?" How did Google deliver this message to me? A banner on one of my favorite marketing web sites? Nope.

A text ad on Google when I searched for "advertising"? Wrong again. I found it in my mailbox. Not my email box... my actual mailbox. In a paper envelope, delivered to my by the United States Postal Service. It looked like this: Google, the new-media goliath whose GMail program is one of the nails in the Postal Service coffin... uses old-fashioned snail mail to reach out to new clients. Google used an actual printer to put ink on paper, stuffed it in an envelope, and had someone deliver it to my office. Marketing guru Dan Kennedy, who also received a letter from Google, had this to say: "Even the company that dominates online advertising is unable to rely on online advertising to get its new customers... And by the way, they didn't just mail a simple postcard and tell folks to go online to get te sales letter or watch a video or whatever; they enclosed a 2-page piece laying out their full sales presentation." Here's another example of "new media" companies using "old media" to bring in customers: a recent one-hour episode of the ABC-TV show Castle had commercials for: The iPad 2MicrosoftDroid Razr smartphoneNook TabletAtt Wireless/iPhoneKindle Fire TabletAmazon, maker of the Kindle Fire, has millions of email addresses on file, along with an enormous amount of information on the purchasing habits of each customer. They can, and do, push the Fire every time someone logs onto http://www.amazon.com/. They can, and do, email their customers to promote the Fire. The marginal cost to Amazon of either of those approaches is close to zero. In addition, they have lots of other inexpensive online and mobile ways to target customers. And yet, as holiday purchasing decisions were being made, Amazon opened its virtual checkbook and wrote a nice fat check for a commercial on... The ABC Television Network. The same ABC Network that brought us Howard Cosell, Harry Reasoner, and The Courtship of Eddie's Father. So did Apple, Microsoft, and AT & T Wireless. Maybe they know something.....