Stupid Marketing Mistake from the Pros

I got a subscription card in the mail for
Rolling Stone magazine the other day.

Normally I don’t pay a whole lot of
attention the copywriting on these things
because it’s usually not very compelling.

…but for some reason this time I did.

And boy did Rolling Stone screw it all up
this time!

It showed a deal for 1 year of the magazine
for $15 and 2 years for $26.

…so far so good.

Usually these things show the newsstand
price and how much of a discount you are
getting by subscribing.

Oh no, not these geniuses.

This one had nothing about the newsstand
price.

It only said “1 Year FREE!” in huge letters.

Now, I am a real piece of work when it comes
to math…

I can barely add things on my fingers, but I
do know that $4 difference you save by getting
a 2 year subscription is not equal to a free
year.

More like a free issue.

Now I understand what they were TRYING to say,
and most people wouldn’t have noticed, but
this was a real mistake.

Especially for such a big magazine. The copy on
this things stinks like a fart in a car.

So why in heck and I blabbering on about this?

You need to make sure that you marketing message
makes sense before you send it out to the world.

Try to stand back and really think about how a
customer is going to react to this thing.

Read it slowly.

Have another person read it for you.

Have your dog sniff it once or twice.

Just make sure it says what you mean it to say
before you send it out.

You never get a second chance to make a first
impression on people, and hurrying through
your copy only brings about re-work and apologies
later to fix it.

I know I’ve done it.

So learn from Rolling Stone and my mistakes.

Make sure your marketing message is right.

You also need to make sure your sales message
is right. for 37 different tips that you can
use to develop ethical relationships with your
customers, check out: http://www.closing-the-sale.com

Until tomorrow,

-Joshua Black

P.S. You can now follow me on Twitter in case
you just can’t get enough of me