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Chapter 16 – Leaning On Dealers
This chapter is just for information only. But be a student of marketing and see how you are being used by your vendors, because you are their dealers.
Chapter 17 – Individuality
As stated about Chapter 2, ads should not be written to the masses – they should be written to one person, because that is how the message is received. This chapter goes a bit deeper and you can personalize the ads. I’m not necessarily saying mail merges, but even from your end – add your own picture and signature to the ad. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, people make arrangements with people – not buildings or logos.
Chapter 18 – Negative Advertising
Hopkins is not fan of negative advertising – pointing out the bad instead of the good. You would be pushing the boundaries – especially with the sensitive nature of our profession – to picture a distraught family who didn’t pre-arrange their loved one’s funeral could have compounding negative effects. However, in a follow up campaign where someone has requested pre-arrangement information, conveying the urgency to pre-arrange so that their family wouldn’t be saddled with the burden after they die, would be the proper place to compel them to take action.
Chapter 19 – Letter Writing
This is a very important skill to master and as mentioned before, you don’t need to be a literary great or an English major to write compelling letters. Plus this skill is used daily when replying to inquiries – even on a one to one basis – but it is still marketing.
Keep things simple, both your language and your stationary. Don’t worry about using gold embossed letterhead because as Hopkins proclaims, the whole appeal lies in the matter – which is the written word.
Also remember to keep your message congruent – meaning make sure that the conversation stays consistent. If they are asking about cremation, don’t respond by trying to argue the merits of burial.
Hopkins also suggests to insert if possible, curiosity as well as scarcity as an inducement to take action.
Chapter 20 – A Name That Helps
This is a good chapter to apply its teaching to both naming your service offerings as well as naming your business – especially if you are starting a new company or expanding with a new business model.
He warns not to go with coined names as they are meaningless and they take a lot of effort and money to promote. Use names that are easy to pronounce and spell – you don’t want to give your potential client any reason not to use your company.
He wraps up this short chapter by stating, “When a product must be called by a common name, the best auxiliary name is a man’s name. It is much better than a coined name, for it shows that some man is proud of his creation.
Chapter 21 – Good Business
Hopkins closes the book by reminding you about the importance and the power of advertising in a scientific manner. He claims that most advertisers have little or no idea of their advertising results – and I can echo that is still the case today, even with most funeral homes.
He charges you to become a student of advertising and watch other ads and see which ones repeat, and if they do – especially if they are traced ads, you will know that they are successful.
At the end of the book, Hopkins predicts that all advertising will be measured and thus ending the guessing game of advertising or frivolity of image and brand advertising.
I am sorry to report that a century later those unmeasured advertising practices still exist. I believe there are two reasons for this.
First, as I stated in the beginning, this type of strategic marketing is not for wimps – its tough work – but in the end it is worth the reward – more business.
The other reason, and this probably doesn’t apply to you, but it does to many funeral home owners and managers – it is a lot easier for a marketing company to get a business owner to buy off on a branding or image campaign – because it stars the most important thing in the world to them – themselves. There is no better example than the ego maniac realtors with their faces and names plastered all over the place – ask yourself, what do those realtor ads do for you as a potential client?
The great thing is that you are well on your way of looking at your marketing with a completely new mindset. And while you competition is going to be worried about how they look, you will be flying under the radar, slowly amassing an inventory of marketing materials that keep getting better and better, and more importantly growing a larger market share, garnering more profit and ultimately serving more families. And that’s what it is all about anyway – it is the reason why we do what we do.
Thanks for joining me on this journey with the master marketer, Claude C. Hopkins. Please let me know what you thought of his book and also my interpretation is his great work. If you would like to work together on applying his principles to your marketing, email me at robin@funeralfuturist.com
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Congratulations! You have made it to the end of this Marketing Master Class by Claude C. Hopkins. Some parts may seem confusing at first or even non applicable, but remember, this is your first step to becoming a master marketer. And as a student you need to see the big picture so that you can then zero in on your market and apply what’s applicable.
Now before you go, I have an offer for you. If these philosophies resonate with you and you would like be interested in having a brainstorming and planning session with me about how they can be applied to your exact situation, we can get on the phone – together with anyone else from your management team that you want, for about an hour and get you on the fast track.
Normally these sessions are $247 for the hour, but since you have made a commitment to become a master marketer by completing Hopkins book and my interpretation of it, it will only be $97 for you. I will also record the session so that you can listen to it later with your team as well.
And since I am so confident that this will be the best $100 you have spend about strategic marketing, I will offer you my double your money back guarantee. If you don’t think that our session measures up to my promise – I will send you $200 back for wasting your time. I think that is pretty fair – don’t you?
So since you don’t have anything to lose, here’s what I want you to do: Go to: http://www.funeralfuturist.com/hopkinsbrainstorm and register now.
Thanks for your spending your time with me and Claude Hopkins and I look forward to brainstorming with you in the very near future.
Again go to: http://www.funeralfuturist.com/hopkinsbrainstorm and register now.
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