When the Marketing Response is Disappointing

In the online marketing class I'm currently teaching, someone had sent a pitch to a number of prospective clients and was unhappy with the result. Given that many writers send out letters of introduction to multiple companies as part of a marketing push, I thought it would make sense to address the issue.

Although this seems to be a basic type of marketing, it actually falls into an advanced form called direct marketing. Yes, all the junk mail and spam you receive and all the infomercials and full-page pitches in magazines and newspapers you see are actually advanced forms of marketing. They use varying degrees of marketing savvy, mathematical analysis, writing technique, and design innovation to be effective. Your success depends on the following:

• Picking the right target audience.
• Identifying the specific members of the audience to contact.
• Finding some hook or offer that will be compelling to them.
• Creating materials that adequately present the offer and overcome objections.
• Dealing in larger numbers.

That last point is the focus of this post. When you undertake direct marketing, there are a number of places where things can and will go wrong:

1. You may not be able to identify people who would be the perfect fit.
2. Those who would be a good fit might have no need for what you're selling at the moment.
3. They might have a need, but your pitch might not provide an offer that pushes them into action.
4. There may be something off-putting about your marketing.
5. They might not even look at what you sent, assuming it to be "junk" or "spam."
You could be targeting the wrong person at the prospect company.
6. You might do inadequate follow-up to close any business.

Any of these can kill off the chance of getting work from a particular prospect, and a number of them may be a problem at some times but not at others. For example, even if you reach a company that needs writers and somehow find the person in charge of retaining their services, that person might have just hired a few writers for all the projects they have over the next few months.

Direct marketing is generally judged in terms of the percentage of desired responses that you are trying to get. You've probably heard of the "two percent" rule of thumb. Toss that out the window. There is no single rules of thumb. Some campaigns would be doing fabulously well to get two percent of the recipients to respond. For others that are more narrowly targeted, that amount might be failure. That is because direct marketers analyze how much profit the client is likely to bring in over time and the cost of reaching each one. If the total profit from the business is larger than the total cost of the campaign, you're making money. If it's lower, you're losing money. Then it's an issue of whether you're making enough money for the expenses and time you're putting into the project.

To even begin judging how your campaign went, you must ask a number of questions:

• Who was your target audience?
• How did you select the companies?
• Who did you target within the companies?
• How much research did you do on these companies?
• How many pitches did you send?
• How many companies did you contact?
• How many of these companies gave you at least one assignment before you followed up?
• After the follow up, how many had given you at least one assignment?

If you've sent out 20 LOIs and received two assignments, you're getting a ten percent response, which would generally be considered very healthy. Even if you get one assignment from an email campaign this small, you are doing well. If you don't get one, it might be that there is a problem with your letter, but that is hard to say because you aren't sending enough to measure your success. I can't stress that enough. Say that you have a campaign that we know from extensive past experience would get a three percent response - out of every 100 contacts, we've seen that you get about three assignments. Send it to 20 people, and the numbers say that you'd get 0.6 assignments. You're sending it to so few people that even if the campaign is successful, you might get no assignments on that round.

Until you start to understand the dynamics of direct marketing and look at your results in context, you may be doing better than you think.

Two Principles to Get Control Over Your Business in Bad Times

In various freelance forums and message groups, I've been hearing an increasing number of people feeling as though they have no control over what happens to them. As a result, they begin to take every setback personally and wonder who to get out of the emotional rut.

There is much in business that is beyond personal control - always. Even in the good times, you might be buoyed by a run of luck or economic conditions where companies are doing things because they think the entire nature of business has changed. We're just getting out of a long run of that. To have a sane relationship to your business, and not go through cycles of elation and depression, you have to start thinking and working above momentary events.

Rejections are almost never personal, and when they are, you wouldn't want to be working with that client anyway. While you cannot control how people react, you can influence it in two ways. One is to focus on how you market and the way you structure pitches and introductions. The more you can figure out what prospects need and focus on that, the more likely you'll catch the group that is willing to do something. You won't get every assignment; you never did. But remember, even when budgets get cranked down, companies still have to do business and publications need material.

That leads into the other way to control things. I remember many years ago reading the book "Rites of Passage at $100,000 to $1 Million +". It is a book about executive job change written by an experienced recruiter. He made the point that if someone really wants to get a job, the person should do direct contacts to literally 1,000 firms. The reason is timing and the law of averages. At any one time, a candidate is only going to be a good fit for only some percentage of companies, and at any one time, only some fraction of them will be interested in hiring. By sending out 1,000, candidates start to statistically ensure that they'll get interviews and, likely, a position (assuming that they have the experience and talent).

The way you deal with questionable conditions is to increase marketing. The more feelers you have out -- not even necessarily full-blown queries, but checking with potential clients to see what they are doing these days -- the greater a chance that some of your efforts will turn into sales. Between incresaing your contacts and honing the approach you take, you can start to control things because you're not letting yourself be dependent on what any one given client or prospect might be doing. This will probably mean more diversification in the past, but it will keep the business going well and put you in a position to do that much better when the economic cards turn a different way in the future.

What Webcast Would You Want?

Apparently the technology that Columbia's J-School uses for webcasts is free. I'd like to try it out, along with dialed-in questions and the lot, and am wondering what topics readers might find of potential interest. Marketing? Business planning? Writing technique? Markets? Technology? I'm looking for suggestions and will put together something appropriate as part of my testing the system. Feel free to email me, or you can post a suggestion as a comment.

Sree Sreenivasan podcast of Twitter for journalists online discussion

For those who don't know about him, Sree Sreenivasan teaches at the Columbia School of Journalism and is highly regarded as someone who gets how to use technology well in the pursuit of journalism. He does occasional webcasts now - I just got an email about one on LinkedIn for journalists today at 3:30 to 4:30 pm Eastern (at the link and available afterward). But right now I'm listening to the archived version of the webcast on Twitter for journalists. It's got an interesting set of speakers, and it's free. One reason to catch the webcasts as they happen, though, is that you can dial in (instead of coming in over the web) and ask questions. In today's economy, who can't use a good deal?

Joss Whedon's Top 10 Writing Tips

Apparently this article first ran in a paper publication and a blogger got permission to reprint it. A good thing. Joss Whedon is a very sharp writer who gave ten great pieces of advice. Although he's specifically talking about screenplays, there's a lot to be said for adapting his points to almost any type of writing.

Finding Your Emotional Bottom Line

Heather Boerner, who has taken my business planning class, has done some smart thinking in planning her marketing work. If you find that you freak out about what you think you need to do, this is worth reading:

Now I have a better idea of the number I need to send before I make a sale. But for me, there's a difference between what I know I should do and what I'm capable of doing. To me, three queries a week seemed doable, it didn't overwhelm me and it seemed like it might be enough to make a difference.

That is the type of insight that can shake you loose from things that are holding you back. It's fine to talk about what your goals need to be. But what if you can't make yourself get there? Do you give up? No, because that's guaranteed failure.

What she addresses is that even if you can't do what you'd like to do, any progress toward your goal is better than no progress. Write that on a piece of paper and stick it to your monitor, because it's critical. Climbing a mountain is a combination of many steps upward (and a good number sideways and even backward at times). Some people can race along the side. If you can't move as quickly, move a bit more slowly.

That does bring some problems. You're out longer, and so you are more exposed to the elements. You need more supplies to keep you going over the longer period. But you will eventually get there. And here's a second benefit: you build muscle and strength. Keep working at this, and you'll find that the time to climb starts to drop. In other words, you'll be able to query more frequently, or write more articles, or whatever it is you need to do.

On White Papers

There is some white paper "summit" that a number of people who sell books, courses, and consulting to writers are promoting. Now, this can be a good area in which to work. I know of one writer who has pulled down close to a half million a year at times writing white papers. Sound good? Yes, it does - but he had a deep technical knowledge of the topics he covered and was particularly good at writing about them. His background was not in copywriting, but in journalism.

Some of the points in the summit advertisement -- such as "painlessly" creating white papers, learning "closely guarded secrets," and "discover the deadly mistakes that will bar you from success" -- make me suspicious. They are straight out of copy writing 101, and exactly the sorts of things that won't work in white papers.

So I thought I'd offer a few points that might be helpful to those who want to work in the area:

1. You really need to understand the topic. Forget about faking it, because these papers are usually written for business-to-business marketing. The clients and ultimate target audiences know far too much and want some understanding.White papers are far closer to articles than marketing copy. So forget the hype and focus on the details of the message that you have to get across.These things take time to do well, so plan and price accordingly.Bring some marketing expertise. Help the client remember that they have to consider the audiences they must reach and the messages that might work. After all, you're there to help them communicate, so don't be shy.
2. There are three general sources of white paper business that I know: direct assignments from corporations (which means developing clients the way you would for other corporate work, usually focusing on the corporate communications department); custom publishers (including magazine publishers that have associated custom pub arms; and marketing and advertising agencies.
3. When looking at custom publishers and marketing or advertising agencies, find ones that focus on the industries in which you have some expertise.

Harlan Ellison on Being Asked to Work for Free

If you're a writer, you need to listen to Harlan Ellison. This brilliant author and speaker (I had the pleasure to hear him lecture, if you can call what he does "lecturing," in college) has one of the best understandings of value paid for value received in the business. Much of his

"They always want the writer to work for nothing. And the problem is, there are so many writers with no goddamn idea that they're supposed to be paid every time they do something. ... I sell my soul, but at the highest rates, the highest rates. I don't take a piss without getting paid for it." Much of his industry reputation for being difficult is a direct reaction to his refusing to smile while being screwed. (Many who have worked with him have said that he's far more mensch than maniac.)

The next time you feel yourself weakening when asked to give more rights, take on spec, and otherwise bend over for the convenience of some corporation with an immense income and highly paid executives, listen to this.

New Google Search Capability

Google apparently has started heavily providing semantic searching. In a semantic search, a computer must understand how to put information into various contexts to answer questions. And Google is now doing a lot more of that has been apparent before. For example, the link above shows a search for "what is the captial city of oregon?" and the answer:

Now, if you searched for the terms "capital" and "oregon", you'd come up with Salem. What's noteable here, and suggestive of future power, is that the information is framed in such a way as to explicitly answer your question.

This doesn't work regardless of your syntax. I tried the search phrase "what is the capital of oregon?" and got some very different search results. So clearly you have to include enough information in the query so Google can "understand" the type sof relationships you're looking for. But this could be useful.

Borders is Hurting

It's prudent to keep an eye on the companies that sell what you produce. And Borders continues to be in trouble that is so bad that the company has bounced its CEO and other top managers. Borders has also close to being delisted from Nasdaq. If you don't follow business issues, then you might not realize how big a problem this can be for the following reasons:

• Credit rating agencies will degrade the credit status of the company, meaning that getting the money it needs to operate will be more difficult.
• Delisting puts vendors on guard, so the company will likely also have bigger problems getting the stock it needs to sell.
• Loans and other financial agreements often have financial covenants, or agreements that certain measures of company performance will not fall below certain benchmarks. That can include keeping the stock listed. If the company breaks a covenant, it can find itself suddenly owing a lot of cash, which isn't good if you're short of cash to begin with.
• Although a delisted stock can still be traded "over the counter," practically speaking, it's far less liquid and, therefore, less attractive. Lower stock price means a harder time raising money through issuing more stock.
  

Ron Marshall, who is a private equity firm founder and someone with experience in turnaround situations, is now in place as temporary CEO. But that's not necessarily going to help:

Before his tenure at Pathmark, Marshall held senior management roles at Dart Group Corp.'s Crown Books unit and at the college bookstores unit of Barnes & Noble Inc.

That book retailing experience might be a little dated, said Michael Norris, a senior analyst for Stamford, Conn.-based Simba Information. He said he believes Jones' approach had been effective, but that investors must have thought it wasn't working rapidly enough.

The final straw was likely that the company's sales dropped this holiday season by 11.7 percent compared to the same time last year. Same store sales - a big measure of how well a company is doing when established for at least a year - dropped by 14.4 percent at Borders locations and by eight percent at Waldenbooks.

That's even worse than you might think, because retailers typically make 60 percent of their sales at the holidays, so the impact is magnified. Not that the stock can drop that much - it's under 60 cents a share, compared to the $11.60 a year ago.

Writing News Roundup (1/5/2009)

A look at publishing, writing, and freelancing:

• Wedding Copyright Cops -- An artists' and musicians' rights group in Spain has been crashing weddings in an attempt to document unlicensed use of music. But the group got fined for violating the privacy of the bride and groom. (Ars Technica)
• E-books Slowing Gaining Ground -- Widespread use of e-books probably won't occur until the devices are much cheaper and the experience better. (BusinessWeek)
• New York Times Sued for Copyright Infringement -- GateHouse Media is suing the New York Times because the Boston Globe's community web sites are allegedly using material from GateHouse without permission. (AP)
• Holocaust Memoir Cancelled -- Because of strong public skepticism over the book's authenticity, Berkeley Books is cancelling the publishing of a Holocaust memoir and demanding its money back. (Publishers Weekly)
• Online News Rockets Ahead -- According to a recent Pew pole, online news reading has pulled ahead of newspapers for the first time. (Ars Technica)
• BBC Review Fakes Car Battery Failure -- A review of a Tesla electric car on the BBC's Top Gear program took a big hit when it turned out that the reviewer had allegedly misled viewers into thinking that the car ran out of power when it hadn't. (The Guardian)
• E-books Hit Cellphones -- The cellphone-delivered novel is nothing new in Japan. Now people are starting to use cellphones as readers in other parts of the world. (BusinessWeek)
• New York Times Trying to Raise Money -- To stave off the problem in meeting more debt payments than its cash flow will allow, the New York Times is selling its headquarters, the Boston Globe, and its stake in the Boston Red Sox (oh, will Yankee fans ever forgive them for owing the share in the first place). (Silicon Valley Insider)
• Amazon Author Stores -- Amazon is launching new Author Stores with some name writers, and might expand the program to all authors whose books it sells. (Publishers Weekly)

Negotiating Client Budget Reductions

Yes, economic times are tough. Yes, some industries are particularly hard hit. Yes, some number of clients are going to push back on rates, crying that they are in budget difficulties. And, yes, it's true: many are and might not have more money to spend.

But, as I've written before, no, your first reaction should not be to drop your prices in a bid to make clients happy. There are a few reasons:

• Some clients may be desperate, but there will also be many interested in knowing how much they can save by crying poor.
• Anyone who wrote for technology publications in the late 1990s knows that when the dot com bubble burst, specialized magazines were going out of business right and left, and the remaining ones reduced their rates. (To be fair, the rates were related to high demand for writers and their relative scarcity to the work load.) If a client says, "We'll pay less until times are better," realize that the probability that times will get better enough for them to raise rates is about zero.
• Clients often talk, and once you're known for writing for those who pay less, the ones who pay more may want to revisit your rates.
• The more you give in on pricing, the more you have to work to make your living. Eventually your life is there to support your work, not the other way around.

To reduce your rates is to devalue what you are doing. There may be times it is necessary, but that is probably a rare occasion. More often you can try renegotiating to balance out the value you are giving up. Here are some approaches that can work:

1. Reduce what you offer -- Look to see where you can scale back what you provide to the client. Mind you, this is something you do out in the open so they understand that they are getting less because they are paying less. Maybe you don't search for art, or write something shorter, or provide fewer options.
2. Better payment terms -- If budgets are smaller, it might be that the client can pay faster or pay for a bank transfer instead of your waiting for a check to clear. Be careful, as some clients will promise anything knowing that the accounting department will work on its usually time frame.
3. Get regular work -- It takes a certain amount of time to find work. Get to some reasonable estimate of how long that is, and you can use your bottom line hourly figure to determine how much that time is worth to you. Discount an assignment by less than that, and you're actually ahead because you open more time for assignments and other marketing. So trade off a somewhat lower fee for guaranteed work.
4. Improve other terms -- There may be other conditions that, if changed, either improve cash flow, open time, or provide some other benefit whose financial value you can calculate. It may be that having more time to work on an assignment lets you manage your schedule more effectively. If you're doing work that requires outsourcing sections, it could be that you can have the client directly pay the other people (though you do face the potential risk of their making deals independent of you, which may or may not be a problem, depending on your business model). It might be that you can get money forwarded for expenses, rather than receiving payment after the fact.

As with all forms of negotiation, creative problem solving can take you a long way and even turn what could have been an income drop into a net gain.