The Screwtape Emails: Much About Nothing

The Screwtape Emails: Much About Nothing

Welcome to SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales, the most strategically biased B2B Marketing Agency, telemarketing services, telemarketing companies (sales agency) and digital marketing companies, serving Orange County, Los Angeles, San Jose, Sacramento and the Pacific Northwest (Bend, Portland, Seattle). We gladly serve California and all 50 United States!

There are right and wrong ways to go about marketing, and the pitfalls are many. A lot can be learned by seeing how not to manage your marketing. This original blog series weaves together an entertaining story that will help you navigate 21st-Century marketing with a view from “the dark side,” as “Screwtape” teaches his apprentice “Wormwood” via email how to sabotage your marketing. Enjoy…

PART FIVE:
To: Wormwood
From: Screwtape
Subject: Much About Nothing

My dear Wormwood,

Alright…I couldn’t resist following up my last email about wrecking the home page with tips on making the about page dry, boring and disjointed. It’s too tasty to pass up and, besides, I do not fully trust your amateur skills to thwart the Enemy’s plans to help the Patient write a good home page.

Call this Plan B…and just know that Plan C is pain and suffering for you (I say that with all due affection).

Should your efforts to geld the home page fail, you can target the ever-present about page. Here are a few tactics to employ:

  • Break the joints

The best about pages are “team” pages. They weave together the personalities of the office, with a thread that ties everyone together as a mosaic of the brand (under no circumstances allow the Patient to write as elegantly as this!). Instead, influence each staff member to write their own bio, about themselves instead of their role on the team and their relationships with co-workers. Under no circumstances allow humor or personality to make these disparate bios a joy to read.

  • Take the pictures…

…as in, take control of the pictures. Make sure some people on the team submits a clipped and grainy picture from a family picnic, or at the amusement park with awkward background props; put these next to stiff, formal suit-and-tie photos, and you’ve got a recipe for a cake frosted with suck. Do not allow the Patient to think, ‘hmmm. What if we hired a photographer to do a photoshoot where all our photos are consistent and professional quality?’ Extra points if you influence stiff, cardboard poses instead of letting each person’s genuine personality come through.

  • Keep it stale

The about page is “done.” If we add new staff at all, or remove past employees, it will be “one of these days.” And, we already paid the photographer, so that photo of you eating a corn dog on the beach will be fine. This is the usual entropy of the about page. Even if it starts high class and interesting—human nature being what it is—it’s likely to descend into mediocrity.

Mediocre is our favorite color.

Your affectionate uncle,

Screwtape

P.S. Get it? Medi-ochre…Oh, forget it.


Stay tuned for more relevant content on creating world-class digital marketing strategies and B2B telemarketing sales strategies. We at SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales thank you for joining us in our commitment to unwavering strategic planning, B2B brand marketing and B2B sales execution.

Call today and our “high-touch” dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals to tailor our marketing and sales tactics to your specific needs.

SalesFish B2B Telemarketing Services

SalesFish Net of Sales Services:

  • B2B Direct Sales, Channel Sales and Marketing Strategies
  • On-Site B2B Presentation, Negotiation and Sales
  • B2B Telemarketing and B2B Telesales Services
  • Cold Calls and Appointment Setting
  • Online Presentations and Webinars
  • Product Awareness and Announcement Calls
  • Primary Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Surveys
  • Experiential Event Marketing
  • Pre and Post-Event Calls
  • Audience Acquisition, Exhibit Sales and Sponsorship Sales
The Screwtape Emails: Homepage Wrecker

The Screwtape Emails: Homepage Wrecker

Welcome to SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales, the most strategically biased B2B Marketing Agency, telemarketing services, telemarketing companies (sales agency) and digital marketing companies, serving Orange County, Los Angeles, San Jose, Sacramento and the Pacific Northwest (Bend, Portland, Seattle). We gladly serve California and all 50 United States!

There are right and wrong ways to go about marketing, and the pitfalls are many. A lot can be learned by seeing how not to manage your marketing. This original blog series weaves together an entertaining story that will help you navigate 21st-Century marketing with a view from “the dark side,” as “Screwtape” teaches his apprentice “Wormwood” via email how to sabotage your marketing. Enjoy…

PART FIVE
To: Wormwood
From: Screwtape
Subject: Home Wrecker

My dear Wormwood,

Do you know how to be a “home wrecker?” Ah, it’s not what you think. We’ve mastered the art of interpersonal conflict and infidelity, but that’s not your area of assignment. I’m talking here about the ubiquitous home page of the Patient’s website.

The home page is often the first impression, that critical influencer that (to our great glee) so many people take for granted. Let me walk you through some of the best ways to wreck the patient’s home page!

1) Make it about him

It’s a great temptation to start this conversation by talking about oneself: your services, your reputation, how long you have been in business. Keep the patient under the delusion that this is the best foot to put forward, and it’s sure to boot the website visitor right off the page—bounce!

Under no circumstances can you allow the Patient to come to the realization that the best way to start any conversation is talking about the person on the other end.

2) Don’t get to the point

Rambling narratives are always best. Long stories about what you’re interested in (throw in a football story), droning on about your history, detailed explanations of how you operate—all of these are gold. Making the reader wait to even figure out what the heck you can do for them is what we’re after.

3) Leave them hanging

I’ve saved the best for last. It’s something I’ve seen so many times, and it’s delicious! Even if the Patient writes an excellent home page, focused on the audience, clearly explaining their value proposition, all hope is not lost. Try to get the Patient to provide no next step, no “call to action.” With no lead-in to the “sales funnel,” the reader gets a nice read, but nowhere to go to stay engaged. That’s pure gold!

Wreck on!

Your affectionate uncle,
Screwtape

P.S. If you fail to wreck the home page, the about page is usually an easy kill (insert evil laugh here).


Stay tuned for more relevant content on creating world-class digital marketing strategies and B2B telemarketing sales strategies. We at SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales thank you for joining us in our commitment to unwavering strategic planning, B2B brand marketing and B2B sales execution.

Call today and our “high-touch” dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals to tailor our marketing and sales tactics to your specific needs.

SalesFish B2B Telemarketing Services

SalesFish Net of Sales Services:

  • B2B Direct Sales, Channel Sales and Marketing Strategies
  • On-Site B2B Presentation, Negotiation and Sales
  • B2B Telemarketing and B2B Telesales Services
  • Cold Calls and Appointment Setting
  • Online Presentations and Webinars
  • Product Awareness and Announcement Calls
  • Primary Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Surveys
  • Experiential Event Marketing
  • Pre and Post-Event Calls
  • Audience Acquisition, Exhibit Sales and Sponsorship Sales
Brand vs. Branding: It’s Important to Know the Difference

Brand vs. Branding: It’s Important to Know the Difference

Welcome to SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales, the most strategically biased B2B Marketing Agency, telemarketing services, telemarketing companies (sales agency) and digital marketing companies, serving Orange County, Los Angeles, San Jose, Sacramento and the Pacific Northwest (Bend, Portland, Seattle). We gladly serve California and all 50 United States!

What comes to mind when you see an image of the Nazi swastika, or Coca-Cola bottle? Chances are, those symbols elicit fairly strong associations in both your heart and mind. What you’ve just experienced is a “brand.” So, why do we have these reactions? Because we’re human. We all think, we’re all hardwired to reason, discern, and make choices, but more importantly, we all FEEL. And, when bombarded daily with a litany of messages and choices all screaming for our attention, our minds side-step the melee, and our hearts respond to the messages which resonate most with our ideas about ourselves.

Your brand, and how you communicate it, is paramount to your business success. Your brand identity accounts for 50% or more of a company’s market value, according to marketing Guru and author Peter Fisk. Your brand is who you are as a unique business–as a culture, and is symbolized by your logo, company name and tagline. It is what makes you different and worth a second look. In simplest terms, however, a brand is not what YOU say your company is, it’s what your audiences THINK and FEEL you to be. A brand is embodied in an amalgam of perceptions, feelings, impressions–a gut reaction that people have formulated about a particular product, service, or organization. Your internal brand may be quality service, but a Microsoft clip art “logo” will not engender this feeling or perception.

There is, however, a difference between branding and a brand. Quite simply, a brand is reactive–your audience’s perception of you. Branding is proactive–encompassing all of the actions your organization undertakes to influence those audience perceptions. Branding efforts seek to create an appropriate, overarching voice, a personality; that voice is communicated through symbols such as logo, tagline and company name, extending to advertising and marketing strategies, customer service and personal contact–collectively known as “touchpoints.”

To be effective, branding symbols and touchpoints must correspond to and resonate with target audience(s). Your branding messages must accentuate what makes you and your offerings different and unique in comparison your competitors’ messaging (the power of “different”). With so little time to make a first impression, it is essential to communicate your message in a concise, clearly articulated manner that helps your audience “see” themselves in the brand. This is one most effectively by expressing benefits as opposed to features, descriptions of services, or some wonderful quality our businesses or we possess. (Your mugshot means little to people; what you can do for them–how you can solve their problem, or satisfy their needs–means everything.)

The fine balance of branding is making an emotional impact upon your audiences, through benefits important to them, while communicating your essence with skill and subtlety (showing, not telling). To do all of this with a symbol, a few words and brief messages is challenging, but when it’s done right, you will get noticed!

Call SalesFish today and our high-touch, dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals, and the marketing and sales tactics best suited to your specific needs. And, yes, we will also advise you on the best A.I. tools that actually work and complement the real people in your business!


Stay tuned for more relevant content on creating world-class digital marketing strategies and B2B telemarketing sales strategies. We at SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales thank you for joining us in our commitment to unwavering strategic planning, B2B brand marketing and B2B sales execution.

Call today and our “high-touch” dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals to tailor our marketing and sales tactics to your specific needs.

SalesFish B2B Telemarketing Services

SalesFish Net of Sales Services:

  • B2B Direct Sales, Channel Sales and Marketing Strategies
  • On-Site B2B Presentation, Negotiation and Sales
  • B2B Telemarketing and B2B Telesales Services
  • Cold Calls and Appointment Setting
  • Online Presentations and Webinars
  • Product Awareness and Announcement Calls
  • Primary Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Surveys
  • Experiential Event Marketing
  • Pre and Post-Event Calls
  • Audience Acquisition, Exhibit Sales and Sponsorship Sales
Why Content Matters

Why Content Matters

Welcome to SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales, the most strategically biased B2B Marketing Agency, telemarketing services, telemarketing companies (sales agency) and digital marketing companies, serving Orange County, Los Angeles, San Jose, Sacramento and the Pacific Northwest (Bend, Portland, Seattle). We gladly serve California and all 50 United States!

Getting on page #1 of the search engines is a great goal; winning Facebook likes is nice. But such things mean nothing if your content isn’t engaging. In fact, any marketing medium is only as good as its content.

You’ve probably heard the oft-repeated maxim that “content is king,” and there is truth behind it. Content mainly refers to the written word, but may also include such things as images, photos and video. A lot of people focus on getting their business seen, but form without substance is dead. Even more than where you place your message is what you have to say and how you say it.

According to the Content Marketing Institute’s (CMI) blog, What is Content Marketing? If You’re Not Content Marketing, You’re Not Marketing:

“Content marketing is a…technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience—with the objective of driving profitable customer action. Basically, content marketing is the art of communicating with your customers and prospects without selling. It is non-interruption marketing. The essence of this content strategy is the belief that if we, as businesses, deliver consistent, ongoing valuable information to buyers, they ultimately reward us with their business and loyalty…Consumers have simply shut off the traditional world of marketing. They own a DVR to skip television advertising, often ignore magazine advertising, and now have become so adept at online ‘surfing’ that they can take in online information without a care for banners or buttons (making them irrelevant). Smart marketers understand that traditional marketing is becoming less and less effective by the minute, and that there has to be a better way. Thought leaders and marketing experts from around the world…have concluded that content marketing isn’t just the future, it’s the present.”

Constantly pitching your products and services will turn people away; however, if you’re educating, entertaining and engaging your audience with relevant content, you are likely to get results. “Selling without selling” is the most effective way to generate leads.

Here are a few stepwise tips, based on the “AIDA” model to help you understand how content marketing leads to a sale, without appearing to sell:

  • A: Get Attention—before anything else!

Minds are either captured or lost in the first few seconds of contact. Don’t start your website, advertising, posts or updates explaining your attributes and features you offer. Start with a great headline and an introductory paragraph that answers the question, “Why should I care?” Why are people searching for your services or products anyway, and what is their emotional state when they encounter your message? Meet them at that place.

  • I: Develop attention into Interest

Leverage the attention you’ve gained with compelling content. “According to the Roper Public Affairs, 80% of business decision makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus an advertisement. 70% say content marketing makes them feel closer to the sponsoring company, while 60% say that company content helps them make better product decisions. Think of this—what if your customer looked forward to receiving your marketing? What if when they received it, via print, email, website, they spent 15, 30, 45 minutes with it?” (CMI)

  • D: Lead the visitor to a Decision.

Make your content so compelling and informative that the reader will want to know more, that you have the goods or services to meet their needs.  They may not yet be ready to buy—they may not even act for some time—but if you can get them to decide that you are worth further consideration, then your content is working. You will have Top of Mind Awareness (TOMA), so that when they are ready to buy, you’re foremost in their thoughts.

  • A: Stir them to Action.

Provide a simple and non-threatening way for visitors to get more information; offer them an exclusive benefit such as a free white paper or webinar. Make it easy to take advantage of your offering, but don’t always go straight for the “Buy Now” button. Some people act in small steps, nibbling before they bite, so don’t try to set the hook too early.

Content marketing is a specialized skill, so hire a great content writer, not just someone who knows how to build a pretty website or who knows Facebook inside and out. A skilled content marketer will turn your marketing to gold.

Call SalesFish today and our high-touch, dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals, and the marketing and sales tactics best suited to your specific needs. And, yes, we will also advise you on the best A.I. tools that actually work and complement the real people in your business!


Stay tuned for more relevant content on creating world-class digital marketing strategies and B2B telemarketing sales strategies. We at SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales thank you for joining us in our commitment to unwavering strategic planning, B2B brand marketing and B2B sales execution.

Call today and our “high-touch” dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals to tailor our marketing and sales tactics to your specific needs.

SalesFish B2B Telemarketing Services

SalesFish Net of Sales Services:

  • B2B Direct Sales, Channel Sales and Marketing Strategies
  • On-Site B2B Presentation, Negotiation and Sales
  • B2B Telemarketing and B2B Telesales Services
  • Cold Calls and Appointment Setting
  • Online Presentations and Webinars
  • Product Awareness and Announcement Calls
  • Primary Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Surveys
  • Experiential Event Marketing
  • Pre and Post-Event Calls
  • Audience Acquisition, Exhibit Sales and Sponsorship Sales
Can Instagram Really Help Market Your Business?

Can Instagram Really Help Market Your Business?

Welcome to SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales, the most strategically biased B2B Marketing Agency, telemarketing services, telemarketing companies (sales agency) and digital marketing companies, serving Orange County, Los Angeles, San Jose, Sacramento and the Pacific Northwest (Bend, Portland, Seattle). We gladly serve California and all 50 United States!

Can Instagram Really Help Market Your Business? Yes.

Enough said.

But in case that isn’t good enough for you…Instagram is an engaging social media platform that can help build a following of loyal customers for your business. The best advice is while using this platform is: Don’t be boring. The beauty of Instagram is because your content is primarily photo and video, you can be as creative as you’d like, have some fun, and play!

Here are five ways to use Instagram to help grow your business:

  1. Tell a story. (Anyone worth their salt in marketing won’t be talking in ads about how great their own product is.) Take the opportunity to tell engaging stories in your photos and videos to connect with your target audience.
  2. Hold a contest. Instagram is a great place to hold a contest to give something to your followers to build trust, and to help grow your audience. You can use a rule in the contest such as, “Tag three friends who might like our product.” For every entry, you get three new sets of eyes on your product or service.
  3. User generated content is king. You’ve already got loyal customers; ask them to tag your business in one of their photos with a testimonial (this could also be a part of a contest!). You can ask customers to take photos of your product while in use (or an after shot), and you can use this content on a regular basis to help your audience see why your product or business is so beneficial to real people. Not just because you say so in your marketing.
  4. Use stories and live videos to engage with your audience in real time. Stories are small video or photo posts that go onto your profile and disappear within 24 hours. (The newest feature of stories is that you can highlight select stories and keep them on your profile as long as you see fit.) You can post live videos during events to help connect with your audience that isn’t local to your area. And stories are simply a fun and engaging way to take polls and test content that could go on your profile.
  5. LET LOOSE. Have some fun! We all have to work for a living, but hopefully by getting creative with Instagram you can have a little more fun and find more meaningful ways to connect with your customers and audience.

Do some research on Instagram (it’s a great way to kill thirty minutes…or three hours…). Find some brands that you connect with and see what they have the most success with, and what resonates the most with you. This can help you to fuel the fires for good Instagram content for your own business.


Stay tuned for more relevant content on creating world-class digital marketing strategies and B2B telemarketing sales strategies. We at SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales thank you for joining us in our commitment to unwavering strategic planning, B2B brand marketing and B2B sales execution.

Call today and our “high-touch” dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals to tailor our marketing and sales tactics to your specific needs.

SalesFish B2B Telemarketing Services

SalesFish Net of Sales Services:

  • B2B Direct Sales, Channel Sales and Marketing Strategies
  • On-Site B2B Presentation, Negotiation and Sales
  • B2B Telemarketing and B2B Telesales Services
  • Cold Calls and Appointment Setting
  • Online Presentations and Webinars
  • Product Awareness and Announcement Calls
  • Primary Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Surveys
  • Experiential Event Marketing
  • Pre and Post-Event Calls
  • Audience Acquisition, Exhibit Sales and Sponsorship Sales
Three Ways Your Blog Can Generate More Leads

Three Ways Your Blog Can Generate More Leads

Welcome to SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales, the most strategically biased B2B Marketing Agency, telemarketing services, telemarketing companies (sales agency) and digital marketing companies, serving Orange County, Los Angeles, San Jose, Sacramento and the Pacific Northwest (Bend, Portland, Seattle). We gladly serve California and all 50 United States!

Have you asked if blogs are really effective, if they’re worth the time? Consider your print advertising, perhaps you use mailers, or TV and radio advertising. You’re not going to sit idly by and hope your clients just walk right into your door without any prompt–they’ll go straight to your competition. The same goes for your website. If you’re not blogging yet, or not frequently enough, you’re not using your blog effectively. Here are some compelling reasons to incorporate blogging into your marketing strategy:

  1. Your website will rank higher on search engines. Websites do better on search engines when there are more indexed pages. If you have a company website with just 10-30 pages, you’re missing out. Frequent blogging adds more pages to your website for Google to index. Adding just 50-100 pages to your website via blogging can increase your lead generation in the double digit range. (Source: https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/5806/Study-Shows-More-Pages-Indexed-by-Google-Means-More-Leads.aspx)
  2. Build trust with your leads and customers. A blog gives your leads and customers a reason to continue to return to your website. This is your area to shine on the Internet: Write your blog in a way that shows your expertise in your field, be interesting about the content you offer, and they’ll continue to return. This will build trust with your leads, and will help nurture current customer relations. It is less expensive to retain a customer than it is to search for new ones.
  3. Use your social platforms to promote your blog content. You already have a pool of customers and leads watching your social media accounts. Post your blogs onto your Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram to generate more traffic to your website. This casts the net wider than just posting the blog alone, and even better, to an already-captive audience.

Blogging doesn’t need to be a daily activity, but it should be frequent enough to add pages that Google can index. If blogging isn’t’ a regular activity yet, shoot to post at least three blogs per week until you’ve added 50+ pages to your website. At that point you can slow down to something that suits your company’s needs. Your blog will soon have leads coming back for more, and keep your current customers interested in what you have to offer.


Stay tuned for more relevant content on creating world-class digital marketing strategies and B2B telemarketing sales strategies. We at SalesFish Brand Marketing & Sales thank you for joining us in our commitment to unwavering strategic planning, B2B brand marketing and B2B sales execution.

Call today and our “high-touch” dedicated team will assist you in assessing your strategic sales goals to tailor our marketing and sales tactics to your specific needs.

SalesFish B2B Telemarketing Services

SalesFish Net of Sales Services:

  • B2B Direct Sales, Channel Sales and Marketing Strategies
  • On-Site B2B Presentation, Negotiation and Sales
  • B2B Telemarketing and B2B Telesales Services
  • Cold Calls and Appointment Setting
  • Online Presentations and Webinars
  • Product Awareness and Announcement Calls
  • Primary Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Surveys
  • Experiential Event Marketing
  • Pre and Post-Event Calls
  • Audience Acquisition, Exhibit Sales and Sponsorship Sales