How many times a day do we assume?
How often do we verify the accuracy of our assumptions?
Listed below are examples of common assumptions:
~ You already know that your customer can’t afford to buy what you’re selling – so, why bother.
~ You know without asking that the person you’re talking to is the only one making the buying decisions – so, why qualify?
~ You know that your boss is mad at you by the way he is acting – so, you avoid him/her hoping it will all go away.
~ You know that you’re never going to get that promotion – so, why try?
~ You know your significant other so well you don’t need to ask him/her what’s wrong when they seem bothered.
Its human nature to assume. Each and every one of us engage in a number of assumptions daily. Then we hold our assumptions to be ‘accurate’ and conduct ourselves according to our ‘assumed beliefs.’ Think about the impact of that. What if our assumptions are wrong?
How many Sales have you missed or lost because you assumed you knew something? How do you ‘benchmark’ the accuracy of your assumptions? Wouldn’t it be important to know if they are accurate?
What if:
~ You spent the next 24 hours evaluating your assumptions?
~ You applied dogged determination to know for sure if your assumptions were accurate?
~ You found out during that time that some or most of your assumptions were wrong?
To exemplify this thought – what if your assumptions have been wrong over and over again on the same issues until your assumptions formed an “unbreakable belief system.”
~ You assume you know what the customer wants – do you? How do you know? Or, are you just assuming?
~ You assume the customer can’t afford what you’re selling. How do you know? Did you ask or assume?
~ You assume you’ll never get that promotion. How do you know if you haven’t even tried? And, if you tried and didn’t get the promotion, at least you will know what to do differently to get the next one.
~ You assume that your significant other just had a bad day at work. How do you know, did you take the time to ask?
~ You assume you know what motivates your current cusomters to buy but you haven’t made the sale. Why? Maybe your asssumptions are wrong.
I’m sure you’ve heard this statement before but if you haven’t you need to:
ASSUME NOTHING
When you assume nothing you ask lots of questions; When you ask questions you get responses; When you get responses you qualify for accuracy; When you qualify for accuracy you’re better prepared to understand your customer; When you truly understand your customer the better your chances of making and keeping the sale; – And if you don’t make the sale, at least you’ll know for sure why you didn’t.
Stop assuming and start asking! You’ll be amazed by the results.
Just what is a promotional article? You happen to be reading one. A promotional article is an article, just like you would find in any magazine or newspaper, except it is written to promote the author and his or her website. Promotional articles are typically distributed freely to website owners. It is truly a win-win situation for the website owner and author.
Today’s Internet revolves around content and promotional articles allow website
owners to fill their website with great content on a variety of topics. Writing and
distributing promotional articles is the single best way to market a website today.
As you read promotional articles, you will notice the wide array of writing
abilityor lack thereof. For a promotional article to be successfully
distributed on a wide scale, it must be written and presented well. In this article, we
are going to begin talking about some simple tips you can perform to ensure that
your promotional article rises above the masses.
Tip One: Titles
A title can elevate or destroy a promotional article. If the title is great, more people
will take interest and proceed to read your article. However, a poor title will drive
people away. So what makes a good title?
- The title should not be too long. Keep it to the point.
- The title should be very descriptive. Since we are writing a promotional article
for marketing purposes, cute titles need not apply.
- The title should catch the eye. Play around with different titles and see which
one grabs your attention the most.
Example One: Writing a Promotional Article is pretty easy to do.
Example Two: Promotional Article Writing 101
Which is best? Example One is a sentence not a title. In my second example, the title
is to the point and you know what the article entails right from the start. Could I
have come up with a better title? You bet. While this title is good, there is always a
better title out there. Take your time and exhaust yourself seeking out good titles.
Tip Two: Outlines
Having solid flow to your promotional articles is an absolute must. Without it, your
article will appear to be choppy and your reader will become confused and
eventually drift off. Creating an outline is really simple. The amount of effort you put
in is up to you. Following is an example of a simple outline for this article.
- Title
- Introduction
- What is a Promotional Article?
- What are the benefits?
- Tip One: Titles
- What makes a good title?
- Tips
- Examples
- Closing thought
- Tip Two: Outlines
- Why should I make an outline?
- Example
- Closing thought
- Conclusion
Your outline might be more involved, but the above at least shows what needs to be
written and in what order they need to be written in. By outlining, it is easy to find
errors in flow before time is wasted in the writing process.
Today, we have looked at two important tips for writing great promotional articles.
If you are interested in reading the rest of “Promotional Article Writing
101″, please visit my website at JasonAMartin.com. More tips wait to be
discovered and applied. Following my advice will allow you to create promotional
articles that stand out and do their marketing job more effectively.
Jason A. Martin is a Journalism major and has over a decade of successful Internet
business experience. His informational articles can be found at Jason A Martin (JasonAMartin.com). He owns a marketing company
(MarketJunction.com) that specializes in copywriting & copyediting, article writing &
editing and search engine optimization & marketing.