The Ad Critter

I found the best social media plugin!

You need to implement social media into your site or blog, but you don’t know how and certainly don’t want the headache. Neither did I. Fortunately I came across this…

I found a social media plugin for WordPress that is:

• Consolidated AND Comprehensive: It has all the social sites you’ll want – all within a single wp plugin. (So you aren’t juggling a dozen social media plugins like I was!)
• Easy to Customize: You can choose which social networks you want to display and even where in your blog post to display them.
• Easy to Use: You DON’T have to know code.

Have you experienced this?

You’re searching online for a solution to a problem. You quickly find a post and notice it has 71 retweets and 35 facebook shares. Your prospective of the blogger instantly changes and you start reading carefully…

Social media votes (on facebook, twitter, linkedin and others) are an obvious indicater of valuable content. Votes ignite curiosity making the bloggers content magnetic! … which doesn’t exactly hurt the bloggers authority ; -) As you write good content, you’ll want to make it easy to share online. I stumbled across a plugin that will make this easy for you.

What’s the plugin called?

It’s called Digg Digg. Like most wp plugins, it’s available for free install from the backend of your WordPress blog or site. Simply search “Digg Digg” under the plugin section. Select it from the results, install it, and then activate it. You can read more about it here.

This video is kind of rough. But it may be helpful. It was posted by a young blogger at macslice.info – which is

Optimizing your landing pages is obviously important. The last thing you want is to drop loads of (your or your clients) cash – driving traffic to a page that isn’t optimized and doesn’t convert. Part of this process is…

Good landing page design

If you’re like me, you’ve experienced the frustration of having your team prematurely critique your landing page design. This can drive you bonkers!  Especially when your intent was to whip out  mock up  so you can discuss copy, pictures, and forms as team – not worry about the final design.

To solve this problem…

• First, make sure your team or client understands the intent of the design before discussing anything.
• Second, and it might seem obvious, but don’t spend too much time designing mock ups. The more you design, the more they’ll focus on it and get distracted with the really purpose at hand. The tools below will give your mock up a “mock up” look that can’t be argued over.

Use these Free Landing Page Mock up Tools

1.) Cacoo - I use personally Cacoo. It’s my favorite. Cacoo’s the most option-rich and extremely easy to use mock up tool I’ve found. And you can do a lot more than just landing page mock ups with it. Try it at cacoo.com

Landing page design is quick and easy with Cacoo. And it's free!

2.) Lumzy - I have also used Lumzy. Although I prefer Cacoo, Lumzy might be a better fit for you. It’s also free. Try it at Lumzy.com

If You Need More from a Mockup Tool…

I’ve heard good things about both of these paid tools. (And no, these aren’t affilate links : )

http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mockups

http://www.hotgloo.com/

Happy landing page creating! If you know of other good tools include links to them below.

You’ve heard it before… “We only buy from people we know, like, and trust.”

In this video you’ll see how Coke plays by this marketing axiom. When you’re done watching, share your insights by answering these brief critique questions in the comments section below.

Critique Questions to Answer:

1. What was Coke’s objective with this promotion?
2. How did this video make you feel?
3. What have you done / are you doing to get your market to know, like and trust you? –  what will you do next?

Copywriting hype can be a huge turn off that creates doubt and kills response.

I discovered a pretty neat product yesterday…

Just before I was going to buy – I decided not to. Why?  I’m about to tell you. But I’ll also share how you can avoid the same mistake this marketer made…  a mistake that convinced me NOT to buy – even after I had already sold myself.

There I Was…

Sold as can be.  Ready to click the ORDER NOW button – when the testimonials in the sales letter actually convinced me to back out.

It wasn’t what the testimonials said. It was how they said it.

Until that point, I trusted this guy and was in love with his product. His approach was bullet proof and spot on. But his hype filled audio testimonials sounded so canned…  so cheesy… so fabricated  that my confidence in buying his product was immediately destroyed. Hype has “to good to be true” written all over it. And customer know that it usually is.

The Difference Between Hype and Excitement

• Copywriting Hype -is making a big promise and not backing it with proof. It has a cheesy tone to it that exudes empty confidence.
• Copywriting Excitement – is making big promise that is backed by plenty of proof. The case is made and excitement can be celebrated because the writer and the buy know that the claims actually are true.

One of our greatest fears is being taken advantage of. I don’t like looking stupid. Neither do you. “Hype copy” makes the process of earning customer trust all the more difficult.

Two Reasons to Avoid Hype  in Your Marketing

The word “hype” has a lot of baggage for both the reader and the writer.

1.) No buyer likes getting an ear full of hype. They just want to solve a problem. And if you can’t help them (hype-free) and in a timely manner, they’ll go elsewhere. Hype invites skepticism, which leads to loosing the prospects trust, which lead to loosing the sale (which is exactly why I didn’t buy).

2.) No writer likes to take on the image of a slimy car salesman. No one likes to be that person. No one likes to be looked at AS that person.

Let’s discuss how to avoid writing hype copy. Better than that, let’s talk about how to make your copy arrest your readers and prove to them your product is the answer to their problem.

6 Ways to Remove Their Doubt with Proof

• Use specific names, numbers and percentages
• Use authentic narrative testimony ,with details that resonate with the buyer
• Show real pictures of your customers
• Get endorsed by an industry watch dog
• Give value information (things they don’t already know) to your reader to gain expert status
• Share a list of your clients using your product if they are noteworthy

Remember hype filled copy:

• Lacks enough sold evidence
• Has a cheesy tone and uses entirely too many exclamation marks

Personifying these Principles…

Hype is like that kid in high school everyone knew because he was always talking big, but could never actually back it up. He simply tried too hard, which made him look desperate. This gave him poor posture. Sure… maybe everyone knew him, but no one – not even the freshman – were dumb enough to actually believe him!

Do you remember this kid? What did he lack? Why didn’t people follow him or take him seriously? Worse yet, why did he actually repel his peers away? It wasn’t because he wasn’t trying.

On the other hand,

Excitement is like the perfect High school quarter back. He’s proven himself through hard work practice. Everyone knows him and trusts him because he backs up what he says. People follow him and take what he says seriously. He has a reputation, and he’s not about to ruin it by saying or doing something stupid. He doesn’t “try to hard” because he didn’t have to.

He encourages others, while retaining a strong position himself. He’s confident and in control. Not desperate.  At the same time, he still has a pulse. He still gets excited, but over good things.

Is Your Copy Hype-Free?

It should be.

Hype will typically kill your response rate. I say typically because I’m a believer in testing. Sometimes things can’t be explained. That’s why we test. I am NOT saying you shouldn’t be excited. Enthusiasm sells… we just need to back up that excitement with proof.

To find out if your copy is laden with hype consider this ratio formula:

Compare your big promises with the evidence (or proof) you’ve present. It should be about 1:1 ratio.

Is there a balance? Do you need more evidence? Do you really have to be sooooo excited!!!! Or could your proof do more of the talking?

What challenges have you faced that have to do with hype? How do you respond to hype? Have I missed anything?

The floor is yours…