The Fuzzy Dice web secret explodes sales

The US Dept. of Defense spends over $2 billion each year for advertising its recruiting efforts to customers. Which means the Armed Forces has 3 things Librarians do not.

I'm a copywriter. And this is my confession:
The Fuzzy Dice web secret explodes sales.

Sometimes what I think is fuzzy the most is our thinking. For instance, last month I offered (pro-bono) to review your marketing collateral, dear Readers. And received none. Nada. Zippo.

Meanwhile, the Armed Forces is making the CEOs of six very big ad agencies toss and turn each night while they dream of winning a mega $$$$ account. So the way I see it, the U.S. Armed Forces has three things U.S. Librarians do not.

#1. A product --that I'm distilling down to its simplest: the intent to kill -- to advertise.

#2. Two billion dollars to advertise that product.

#3. The knowledge that advertising works.

Somebody's playing La Dolce Vita. But is it the military? Or the library?

Maybe you think I'm treading murky water. But the way I see it, the library has a product that's priceless (so I just blew #1 in the list to smithereens). It's item #3 that, to me, seems to be what's killing libraries (because I do have a U.S. Postal Worker who's apt at delivering my packages).

Which leaves us with what's behind door #2. Today, then, I'm going to share with you a secret of Top Gun marketeurs. It's one I learned from a man who's created a sprawling real estate empire of 80+ websites that sell everything from information to electronics to $7,000 a pop armored suits (and not to the military). His name is Andy Jenkins. So he can take the credit (I'm always happiest just taking the cash).

What exactly is the fuzzy dice web secret and how can you make it work for you?

Here it is: you lasso more customers by greeting them wherever they are looking for someone like you.

The smartest and simplest way to sell (or tell) anything these days is online. Adopt Andy's way to sell online.

This means matching the way people search online to your sales process.

Suppose you have a library with many products. You might have a huge portal, linked to all your product lines (services, seminars, special events, book sales, catalog, etc.).

Trouble is, people don't go online searching for "a product line." When I typed "library" into my search bar, I got 1,520,000,000 results!

Yet almost nobody searches for "library."

But people do search for a single product. Like "Fuzzy Dice" (you probably know one library pal who has those spongy over-sized dice dangling from the rearview mirror right now).

Or they'll search specifically for "story-time for children ages 2-5." Since that's how people search, I suggest that's how you should sell. Have the producer of your website create landing pages specifically devoted to each of your spectacular products. Fuzzy Dice. Lambskin seat covers. Low ride wheel covers.

How to take Fuzzy Dice to market

You don't need a ton 'o Uncle Sam banknotes to support your star products' mini-web sites. Your equally vertical, dedicated, specific online ads and ezine marketing campaigns (intercepting your customer where s/he is ALREADY) that drive traffic directly to your product sites can now be supported by the age-old winning marketeur's tactic: go vertical and go deep.

Do you know the secret space on the web where your customers take cover? That intimate space read by the hyper-literate, highly networked, influential and sometimes affluent? Where the fanatics, pundits and even journalists, go daily?

The Blog.

Now you can target select spheres of New Yorkers, lawyers, evangelicals, gizmophiles, gays, conservatives, baseball, fans, foodies, liberals, scientists and dozens (perhaps billions) of Fuzzy-Diced (niched) bloggers.

More than click-thrus. Mindshare.

The best thing about advertising on blogs is that the bloggers are a close-knit community of regular readers, seeking information. (So for some of you, I've just axed your ad-guilt factor.) Rather than click-thrus to links touting free trips to Iraq (in exchange for say, blood), or soulless banners and ads regurgitated from giant random databases, use your relevant, smart ads on blogs to:

• Combine an image (up to 150X200 pixels) and text (up to 300 characters) and multiple links.
• Appear among peer content, increasing audience engagement with your message.
• Sponsor influential blogs for a fixed period, saving money on longer sponsorships.

And to help you get out of the trenches, and onto the front line, here are tactics for writing your blog ad.

6 steps to writing a killer blog ad

1. Think: Headline + image + text block. Design your ad to use all 3 elements. Think of your ad as a text newsletter ad, plus an image, plus a headline.
2. Pop your words with formatting. HTML is easy peasy to bold and italicize words for quicker/scan readability. Choose to use on the words that might attract the right readers' attention.
3. Get hyper. You want people to click-thru to your product page. Use hyperlinks.
4. Provoke with image. Book covers and library posters are seldom the best image to draw readers' in (exceptions: combining elements of the two, a best-selling title). Still of the human face and locales are the #1 image sellers. Keep logo size small and text sans serif font for legibility. Keep images: big 'n easy. Uncomplicated close-ups.
5. Keep it short 'n sweet. Sometimes. The size quoted above is large. You can choose shorter (or no) images, call to action in a single text line or bulleted list. Web publishing is infinitely more flexible than the printed page.
6. Stir it up! Got a complex story or multi-faceted campaign? Create a few ads and change 'em out on the same blog in the same place. Create a control: your master ad, measure response. Then change just ONE element (i.e.: one word) and run it again. Keep beating your controls.

Intercepting your customers

The homework this month Readers, is for you to intercept your customers by traveling where they are. You may think it will cost $$ to place your blog ads on blogs. Maybe. Try this: creating blog ads (to start, you can build them in PowerPoint, then save them as a .jpg and program a click-thru website page in the image) and posting them: to your own company website and your own blogs.

If this is too much advertising, try taking the family to see "The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio." Or take a peek at the Library of Congress' video-online ads [http://www.instream.com/instream/inStreamDemoMovie/movieloader_content.html]. If they can get the Ad Council to produce them for free, I've no doubt you'll find a way to negotiate your public-service ads for free all over the web.

Long live the library!

Let me know how it grows.



Tia Dobi is a copywriter and library fanatic living in Los Angeles. Reach her now at tiad@earthlink.net.

This article is a replica of what appears in publisher Marylaine Block's elite e-zine: "Ex Libris." Subscribers include: librarians, library directors, teachers, professors, analysts, information science students, and computer techies. A former columnist for Fox News Online, super-sonic information-world consultant known as the 'Librarian without walls,' Marylaine's work was mentioned in a "Wired" magasine article (penned by the tech reporter to the Los Angeles Times). Like bees to honey, 1500 persons added their name to her (already huge) e-zine subscription list. A perfect example of the power of the press. Why not put it to work for you today?