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Web News & Tips - Issue #265 $7.00 per month web hosting from MateMedia Web News & Tips Published by MateMedia, Inc. Your Partner on the Web Providing quality Web services at affordable prices since 1995 MateMedia provides the following services: * Small Business Web Hosting (Shared & Managed Dedicated Servers) * Web Design & Development - Custom Web Applications * Database Development & Hosting * Website Maintenance & Webmaster Services * Search Engine Promotion (Optimization & Submission) * E-Commerce - Shopping Carts - Sample Shopping Cart * Domain Name Registration * Domain Name Affiliate Program * Web Hosting Affiliate Program * FREE Website when you order a web hosting account! For more information about our services email sales@matemediainc.com or call us at 877-309-7521 - Read what our clients have to say about us IN THIS ISSUE: Become a MateMedia Domain Name Affiliate Become a MateMedia Web Hosting Affiliate Free Webmaster Tools Free Scripts for Your Website Are You Asking the Right Questions in Your Copy? Web News A Step by Step Guide to Getting Started on the Web Recommend this newsletter to a friend Advertise in Web News & Tips $7.00 per month Small Business web hosting from MateMedia Are You Asking the Right Questions in Your Copy? By Karon Thackston It’s a common approach to writing copy. You begin by asking questions. Why? To evoke thoughts in your readers' minds, to stir up emotions, and to get customers thinking in the way you want them to think. But have you ever thought about how you phrase your questions? Are you doing it in a way that will have the greatest impact on your readers or are you just throwing questions on a page? Behaviorally speaking, not everybody responds in the same way to the same questions. Those with different communications styles will relate in a variety of ways depending on how you phrase your sentence. Using the DISC Behavioral Profile, let me explain what I mean and show you how you can start asking the right questions in the right way to suit your customers. D = Dominance Those who fall in the Dominance category of the DISC profile are described as: in control, powerful, confident, visionaries, and risk takers. These people can be managers, CEOs, high-ranking military personnel, entrepreneurs, and the like. Those who are considered high in Dominance want to stick to business. They expect the facts to be presented logically. They want presentations to be clear, specific, and to the point. This group of people will respond better to specific “what” questions. For example, let’s say we’re developing a headline for an ultra-fast printer. You wouldn’t want to write a headline that asks, “How Do You Cure a Need for Speed?” That question is vague; it’s not specific, and it begins with the word “how.” CEOs, upper management, and others in this category aren’t the least bit interested in “how” you do anything. They are visionaries. They look at the big picture, not the little details. Details are somebody else’s job! Instead, try rewriting that headline to include the word “what” and to be specific, like this: “What Cures a Need for Speed?” You can see a similar relation in other behavioral styles (I, S, and C) and the types of questions people in each prefer. I = Influence Those high in Influence are generally found in the sales field or other fields that require a lot of people/social interaction. They move fast and want to focus on people-oriented tasks. They love to give their opinions and to be asked for their thoughts on a matter. They love to be the center of attention. This group responds well to “feeling” questions. Not just about themselves, but also about others. For example: “Remember the excitement you felt when _____?” or “How would your child feel if _____?” S = Steadiness Those in the Steadiness group want to be seen as people - not a number. They appreciate logic, a touch of personal interaction, and they are detail-oriented. They are generally slow decision-makers and are not wild about taking unqualified risks. Those who fall into the Steadiness category make up 40% of the general population and come from all walks of life. People high in steadiness would be likely to respond better to questions beginning with “how.” Possibilities include “How many times have you wished ____?” or “How often do you ____?” They also respond well to questions that make them think, like “Is your copy getting results?” They’ll likely want to know what you can do about it if the answer is “no.” C = Compliance When describing someone who falls into the Compliance category, these phrases come to mind: critical thinker, prepared, quality-oriented, incredibly detailed, specific, and slow decision-maker. You’ll generally find these types working as engineers, bankers, accountants, scientists, and the like. Those high in Compliance will respond best to questions including statistics and questions that force them to look at all sides of an issue/ problem. For example, “68% of All Drivers Pay Too Much for Auto Insurance. Are You?” Another idea is “Widget or Thingee… Which Makes the Most Sense?” Phrasing your questions in a way that allows your target customers to relate only makes sense. When you hit a nerve - people will respond. Asking the right questions… in the right way… within your copy will get you one step closer to closing the sale. E-mail: karon, marketingwords.com Author's URL: http://www.marketingwords.com Most buying decisions are emotional. Your ad copy should be, too! Karon is Owner and President of Marketing Words, Inc. who offers targeted copywriting, copy editing & ezine article services. She is also author of the highly acclaimed "Step-By-Step Copywriting Course." Subscribe to Karon's Ezine "Business Essentials" at http://www.marketingwords.com/ezine.html or visit her sites at http:// www.marketingwords.com and http://www.copywritingcourse.com. $7.00 per month web hosting from MateMedia Increase your rank in the search engines! Check out our new search engine optimization plans Become a MateMedia Web Hosting Affiliate Web News $7.00 per month web hosting from MateMedia In another sign that the behavioral targeting space is heating up, Revenue Science, which enables publishers to target ads to audiences based on their online behavior, has won two new major clients. The Financial Times, a business news organization with an audience of more than 3.5 million senior level executives for its FT.com site, has signed with the company, along with and global information company Reuters, which operates its Web site at Reuters.com. The idea behind behavioral targeting is that one can infer, by tracking where visitors go and what they do on a site, what type of advertising a person might be receptive to. For example, a user who visits the employment classifieds on an online newspaper might well be a good target for ads from employment agencies -- even if he is no longer in the employment section. Frequent visitors to the automotive area could be good targets for an auto ad. The thinking is similar to that behind growing online advertising sectors like search and desktop marketing. Observe "hand raising" behavior that seems to indicate and interest, and serve ads accordingly. Two weeks after abandoning its own broadband offering, America Online has partnered with Covad Communications Group in the giant ISP's latest effort to hold on to broadband customers. The new arrangement, announced this week, would give members stripped-down DSL service from Covad with AOL service on top, at a total price of $49.90 a month with a one-year contract. That's about $5 lower than past AOL high-speed access offerings. AOL has long had difficulty making deals with access providers that allow it to bring broadband to its members for a competitive price. Yahoo! has launched SmartView on Yahoo! Maps Tuesday, giving users an interactive and visual way to search for local content, a move with implications for the giant portal's involvement in local paid search. When a user chooses to map an address on Yahoo! Maps, the SmartView option is displayed on the right-hand side of the page. Users then have the option of plotting local points of interest on the map, including restaurants, hotels, movie theaters, parks, ATMs and post offices. Copyright 2000-2004 MateMedia, Inc. |