Vampires, Werewolves, Zombies, & Choosing The Right Weapon

[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Michael Hartmann, Eric Graham. Eric Graham said: By @johncarlton007: Vampires, Werewolves, Zombies, & Choosing The Right Weapon: Monday, 11:34pm Visalia, CA “I nev… http://bit.ly/axXRu3 […]

Thank you so much for this. I am struggling with writing *right now* and this is extremely helpful to me, as was “Confessions of a Story Junkie Part One”.

John, you keep sending me exactly what I need at exactly the right time!

Well done. Words of wisdom each and every one of them.

Yoav

KILLER post, Jimbo! Great lesson we all need to hear over and over… and you picked the perfect analogy.

I was in a restaurant next to the movie theater the night “Eclipse” opened and there were not only plenty of 16-year-old girls in there giddy for the film…

… but an equal amount of cougar babes. All decked out in their Edward t-shirts and too much eye-liner.

Those crafty movie execs managed to tap the self-identity vein across generations with this film. Brilliant.

Very kind of you to take that silver bullet for the sake of your granddaughter, btw.

So, tell us… are you a werewolf or a vampire?

Kev

Love this post! Great choice for a guest post.

Too often, we don’t realize that we’re not necessarily our customers, either. Sometimes we’re selling to a radically different group than we are in personally. And that’s okay…it just means we’ll have to take extra precautions to completely understand our target market. I wrote a funny post about this on my blog recently called “Warning: Your Customers May Be Stupider Than You Think!” 🙂

-Erica

Amazing post…
Seriously this is kinda coincidental, I got given similar advice from my friend and teacher in marketing about this.

Will be applying this more so, just so I nail it.

Thanks again for the lesson and entertainment 🙂

Adil

Hey! Where is the weapons locker!

This post is a breath of fresh air. Reminds me that it’s all about remembering that good relationships and trust are always the foundation for good marketing, especially in my area where what I offer is in the area of personal and spiritual development.
Understanding what people would like most to receive from me is the key to delivering good, useful and profitable things to the people who choose to stick with me. Thank you.

Oh damn-it…I’m will now have to play my sons games to see if I can find the right gun to shoot at the “sweet spot” hopefully I will hit my “target audience” without having to reload or find bigger more powerful guns. Man…I hate zombies.
Paul

Awesome post, Jimmy. You’re so right…you can’t GUESS who your target market is. And often YOU are not your target market. It takes due diligence which pays off in spades (and dollars) when done right. Thanks for this!

Lo

Jimmy,
Enjoyed reading ~ very entertaining.

Thanks John:)

Nice post! The really cool thing is that where there are young girls (or older ones too) intensely interested in something it won’t take long for the young and old of the opposite sex to get interested as well; well that’s how it worked in my day. Heaven knows I feigned interest in something to hold a girls hand in my youth. Anyway the question is what can we sell these poor fools (chasing their target market) now we the attention of our target market … or do rules of marketing suggest we can’t be everything to everybody so don’t try 🙂

To often we get a bit squeamish about going for the jugular… we are in business to create the income and lifestyle that we want…forgetting that the best way to do this is to give the customer what they “Want” not what you think they need.

Love this stuff…digging down exploring the dark side of human nature. Why the hell do they buy “A” but not “B” when in my opinion “B” is the better buy etc etc. It has taken me years to work out that my patients are not me…now I play dirty so they can get better:)

Jimmy, great stuff and very relatable to the times. I haven’t seen any of the Twilight series, but my daughter goes crazy over that stuff. I may have to go to this latest one since Kevin did mention some cougar babes there? ( : Why is it when we finally think, “we’re it” or have “arrived” we are always humbled and reminded we have a long ways to go. We need to treat customers like our wives. Stop assuming we know what they want. It frustrates both parties and costs us money. Unfortunately for some, if you don’t give them what they want, they go looking elsewhere until they find it. Nine times out of ten, if you ask someone what they want, or if what you have is what they want, they will tell you. On the other hand, nine times out of ten, if you don’t ask they won’t tell fearing they will hurt your feelings and they feel it’s easier to look elsewhere than to just speak up.

Top notch marketing tips Jim.

Your advice about letting the research guide your marketing campaigns and product development is spot on.

It is reassuring to hear a real pro like yourself never assumes but instead does the real work of asking the target audience.

Thanks for passing along the benefits of your extensive real world experience.

Hi,
Alright I’m game, I would LOVE to learn soemthing about marketing. I’ll share what I’m doing about one of my products to be launched soon: male innerware….or undies (as even some sites call it).
I’ve ben coltivating this idea for quite a while and now that I’m learning IM from a pro (John Carlton) I’ve decided to go for it. My team in Italy are masters of undergarments (another way to call it). They know everything about material, printing, label, elastic band, packaging etc. I’m a “designer mini boxer” buyer of this stuff for more than 20 years. Always the same brand: HOM. Now here it comes to the point of an almost critical mistake (I didn’t launch yet). I thought that since I’m a buyer I know it all, right? ……..wrong! Just last week I went to study my competitors and got the shock of my life. Where I thought there si no competiton there are hundreds of brands and sites. But the good news is that HOM is one of the biggest but not THE biggest……and the biggest has sold 1 B pieces in over 25 years. So the market is there but there is a lot of competiton. Moreover, the other brands seem to be selling to the ….I don’t know how to put it without getting blasted……the not so man, MAN. In short to a man that has a “femminine” taste. But all this thought me that there is a HUGE market in the developing world. These are MAN and want man stuff. They are hardly being exposed to good and affordable products and have just now discovered colors. So my current strategy is to target the MAN with a manly product and a manly marketing campain. Before I launch it though I will study much better the market and – thanks to today’s blog – ASK them. Since I live in India I’ve already started and am discovering some good information. And please advice me of anything I can do better to hit the “soft spot”………..The only drawback of my product line is that I HATE asking men about their underwear…..yukk! I should have created ladies stuff.

Jimmy this is a TOTAL home-run post !! The timing for it couldn’t have been better. I am working on a new project and I have MORE research to do.

I’m a great Chef, but I was NEVER able to sell my best steak to a vegetarian.

Love your style Jimmy. Simply taking the time to look at HOW you wrote this is an invaluable lesson in marketing and copy writing!!

Thank you and many thanks to John !!

[…] on your mind with everyone !! Be sure to come back again !! What can we learn about marketing from Vampires, Werewolves and Zombies ? Alot more than I ever thought […]

Awesome post! So unbelievably true too – if you don’t know who you’re talking to… you’re NEVER going to be able to write targeted, hard-hitting copy.

I’m about to go into a new niche (personal, not for a client) with my partner… and we’re spending an entire MONTH analyzing the competition, looking for marketing holes that we will fill, studying the prospects, etc. etc. etc.

Then I’ll probably spend a week writing the letter – and have the best written letter in the industry 🙂

Jeremy Reeves
http://www.ReevesCopy.com

Jimmy,
You really have a way of hitting the nail on the head.

Like Germain, I have a client right now who’s more concerned with how he wants to present his product than what his target market is looking for.

It’s going to be a battle…

But what you said about John is 100% right. Just when you think you’ve got it down, he peels off another layer of the onion, and you see there’s a whole new depth of writing to penetrate.

Wild.

Awesome. Motivates me to do what I don’t do enough of – research! Thanks.

Thanks for this post guys. Looks like marketing is a fluid ever changing market. which is why I can’t make up my mind what market to go into. Research,
Research, Research.
Thank you for this post Jim&John
I’m swimming

Wow… this is simply IT!!! Looking at the world through the eyes of another, not just considering who those “others” may be, but getting behind their eyes and into their brains, is the ultimate weapon. This is a learned skill. I honestly think it’s easier for women because we are wired to nurture, to think about and fulfill the needs of our family. Guys are genetically disposed for hunting and killing, predators observing the behavior of prey in order to stalk and kill. This is not sexist, it’s genetics. All this stuff has to happen for survival, meaning staying alive and prospering as a group. I just love your examples in this post. May we all survive as a group of writers!

Dammit Jimmy don’t leave me hanging….
So who does buy these self defense products for women? -Fear obsessed Fathers (me), paranoid BF/Husbands suffering “Chuck Norris Complex” issues (also me)?

Great article BTW -but you made me feel old with your Twilight analogy and I’m much younger that you and less fertile!

[…] http://www.john-carlton.com/2010/08/vampires-werewolves-zombies-choosing-the-right-weapon/ […]

The other great thing I like about this post was the instructional use ( for me anyway) of ellipses, dashes etc.. to make the writing flow and more conversational.
I get so worried about over doing it sometimes. It also doesn’t help when you have to get copy approved by someone who changes everything and says ” If I received this in the mail and it didn’t have proper grammer and structure I would it throw it into the Trash”

Part of me wants to say ” Well if I were marketing to a stuffy mid- level executive it would be a totally different letter”

Hey John and Jimmy,
GREAT post… this was awesome…

When I first started out writing copy, I got this one wrong so many times it is hard to fess up to making this mistake. I am going to print this one out and keep it close to remind me of step one in the process of success.

Thanks,
Jason

Darren, you are so right! And, Jimmy, I really enjoyed your post. Mostly because I’m inordinately fond of learning via good story-telling. And, of course, I’m a sucker for a good sense of humor! (Bit of vampire humor there, sorry, couldn’t resist.) (Oops! I did it again!!) So often folks tell me, I wouldn’t read a piece of junk mail. I only read emails. Or, I don’t have time for emails, I only read letters. Or, I never respond to any sort of direct marketing. And I say, “Pooh!” First off, most folks really don’t know what they respond to. They might be able to honestly tell you what they like and don’t like, so you’d better pay attention. But, it’s awfully hard to respond to something and be aware of *how* you are responding in *that same instant*. Also, as both Jimmy and John have pointed out — it’s a numbers game. Ideally I’ll deliver the same (overlapping, really) message via a variety of channels recognizing that if I catch your attention in one channel you’re more likely to pay attention to a message in a different channel. Also, if you’re not interested in my message or what I’m selling, I really don’t care. Because that just means you’re not who I’m talking to. And then I get to fine-tune the targeting of my message so I don’t waste resources on people who aren’t going to buy anyway. The real problem isn’t with the broad pool of potential buyers, though. The problem comes when you have self-styled marketing or advertising “geniuses” who think their personal reaction is the only one that counts. Those folks have no boundaries and confuse themselves with everyone around them. So they attribute their own ideas and reactions to “everyone else” because, simply put, those geniuses can’t imagine that anyone else (let alone a significant-sized group or, god-forbid, “most” people) have a different experience of the world than do they.

Thanks so much!

I’m always working on my writing skills. Writing as though I’m talking to my mom or best friend is the most challenging for me.

Although, I do have money coming in…I need to do more research. I invited my customers to join me on FB. Many responded, which has been invaluable.

I just need more avenues of revenue, since I have chosen ecommerce for the time being.

This is an awesome article! I really enjoyed it! It makes me wish I had mad skills like you guys and could write 600 word articles that suck you in like this does. I’m working on it.

Thanks for the marketing information and advice, this is excellent info. I’m going to implement the ASK campaign this week.

WOW! there is a major correlation between the writing style I just read and the 2 ton notebook filled with TRS Direct swipe ads in my closet.

Need more. Hungry, Hungry.

P.S. Still looking for those mid 90’s TRS 3-4 page ads in Blackbelt magazine. The guy on e-bay stiffed me.

LOL! I told him his salemanship sucked and directed him to John Carlton.

Hey Jimmy,

Great post indeed, big gold nuggets of wisdom right there.

I’d go as far as saying the #1 thing that stops people making money in this biz is not knowing their market well enough..

Too many of them start with a product, then try to find a market, instead of starting with a market and tailoring a product to it.

I guess it’s like the old “fish where the fish are” analogy.

Great post though Jimmy, enjoyed it.

-David Raybould

Jim Curly or John Carlton….

Question: Does that kick ass copywriting secrets still come with the swipe file of ads/sales letters?

Great post, Jim.

So many miss out on the “message to market” dynamic. When you get this right, marketing can become pretty much unstoppable.

My only question is…

So, are you Team Jacob or Team Edward?

Vin Montello

Comparing Twilight to Harry Potter is like comparing a pile of shit to a lump of gold! 🙂

And I’ve earned the right to say that? seeing as how Ive read both series… HP Forever!!

[…] Curley, 50 anos, avô de 5 netos, com muito bom humor escreve um artigo no blog do John Carlton sobre a sua visão de marketing da série […]

Hey Jimbo, I’m getting your e mails from TRS.

I enjoy reading them. It’s hard for me not to

buy all of the things you are promoting.

Do they let you write whatever you want or

do they review and cut your stuff?

Earnst

hey john… some people think your copywriting is humorous.

here, take a look:http://www.budoseek.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?17838-Please-Tell-me-this-is-a-SCAM!!!!!!

What do you think?

Jimmy brilliant and entertaining post. I’ve always wondered if you can get the answers you want by simply “asking” your target market.

Does this really work? I do like the “ask campaign” idea and very well be the way to go compared to the ususal survey.

I very much believe before you write a word of copy you’d better know exactly who they are and what they want. But I’ve stumpled too many times trying to figure out what they want. You’re post has cleared much of the fog in my brain! Thanks man!

Emette

Jim, I do enjoy reading every article John publishes on this blog but your post, containing an outstanding marketing lesson, has earned you an unconditional admirer. I sincerely wish I had just ten percent of your writing skills.

Excellent points on marketing within comfort zones vs market sweet spots, I’ve made that error numerous times, and still do to this day.

For example in the dating industry, the market for guys is how to pick up women; for women the market is for how to enhance your relationship and keep the guy, not vice versa.

In the trading industry, the current market is for forex, options and eminis, eg leveraged inexpensive (but in some cases high risk) trading, versus straight stock trading, which is my specialty.

Not developing products aggressively enough, and affiliate marketing them within those markets, was a strategic error on my part I’ve been working to rectify.

The challenge, maybe you or others have insight into this, is HOW to be the frog that jumps out of the still-warm pot of water before being boiled, analogy — How to quickly, thoughtfully shift strategic focus as an entrepreneur to a) identify, correctly the sweet spot, b) match it to current capabilities, then c) produce and market product/service to achieve message to market match in those arenas, WHILE maintaining ongoing revenue streams from current business model.

As an army of one that’s a big challenge for me personally as an entrepreneur, it would be great to hear any ideas from anyone… thanks!

to focused profits,

ken

Love the insight into the human existence… 😉
Maybe copywriters should spend more time people-watching. Definitely do the “real” research. Every time.
But learn to “see” people–and it will be so much easier to “speak” to them, yes?
It would actually make the whole world go ’round much more smoothly, imho. And avoid the height of arrogance that the movie-reviewer-guy so aptly displayed.
Have done it all my life, just hoping to get paid for it now. HA!

I enjoyed the post. Lots of good stuff in there. I got your point in this blurb …

Seems that Germain doesn’t understand that the recently-filthy-rich producers of this movie series couldn’t give a rat’s-ass what a middle-aged man thinks.

But, in the haste to make your point you may not have understood that Germain is writing to (targeting) middle-aged men and couldn’t care less about the filthy rich producers. His review was probably written for his audience — who likely aren’t teenage girls.

Other than that, I think your post was excellent.

[…] Vampires, Werewolves, Zombies, & Choosing The Right Weapon […]

John,
Sorry to have to point this out, but “Trust, but verify” is Ronnie’s (Ronald Recall, if you lived in California when he broke the state’s bank) trademark meme, not Bill’s…

This resonates with me.. We think we know what the customer wants, because of our own perceived ideas. We know to ask, to survey, but I know I forget to ask..

Thanks for the wakeup!

I believe that JK Rowling, and the author of the Eclipse series knew their “market,” because they were the market. Young girls grow up to be “Adult” girls, and never forget those adolescent dreams. We guys forget them, as we “grow older.”
If you want to know more about different markets, find small businesses that need temp help. Make friends with them, and help at their weekend shows. You will meet a cross section of people, and learn a lot about “average” people.:-) BTW, Men buy the lessons for their wives, girlfriends, daughters, etc. Women are less likely, as that’s a “guy’s” area.

Impressive copywriting, enjoyable and to the point. But it was already quite clear to most of us that pinpointed research is the key to growing traffic and sales. The big question is how to achieve this accuracy in ‘fluid’ markets. Anyone out there who can enlighten us on the best ways to DO the research?

[…] Take this example from expert copywriter Jim Curley who recently wrote a guest post for his copywriting pal John Carlton’s blog. […]

[…] busy writing and making money. If you do a Google search you can find some rare gems including this guest post for John Carlton and this interview with Kevin […]