Gotta have a Guarantee

Alright, so before we took a short break last week for the holiday weekend we left off with a discussion on guarantees. We talked about the 3 mail different types of guarantees you can use, satisfaction, results, and perception as well as using multiple guarantees to boost your response. To review click over to my blog here.

There are two more big ideas I have to share before we move away from guarantees. First is the length in time of the guarantee. In almost all instances the longer the guarantee, the less refunds you’ll have. I know that may go against conventional thinking, that the more time they have with a product/service the more likely they will realize they don’t like it or don’t need it.

It’s actually just the opposite. The more time they have to use your product or service, the less likely they are to ask for a refund. Here’s why. When you only give someone 14 days to use it, at day 12 if they haven’t used it, or are not seeing results, they’ll ask for a refund.

If you give the same product 90 days, the chances that they actually will remember and use the guarantee goes way down. Now, you need to be honest and have integrity with this. If they ask for a refund on your guarantee within the time allowed, your darn well better honor it.

Finally, we’re left with unconditional vs. conditional guarantees. Last week I left you with our Triple Your Money Back Guarantee that reads:

Triple Your Money Back Guarantee - If you use both of your 30 minute One-On-One Coaching sessions, and your 2 Critique Certificates within the first 3 months, and you can show that you actually used our advice

It’s obvious now that this is a conditional guarantee as well. These can be used to bolster your “regular” guarantee, and really give you an added punch that can spark additional sales.

Here are a few examples of great guarantees I’ve seen and some I’ve written for myself and clients.

This is an unconditional guarantee used by Victoria Principal selling facial cream. It’s a whole lot better than just saying, “money back guaranteed”:

“If your friends don’t accuse you of having a facelift return the empty jar and we’ll give you all your money back.”

Here’s another I wrote for a client, a perception and unconditional guarantee in one, I call it the “You’ll be a Star” guarantee:

“If you don’t think my show wasn’t the most amazing you’ve ever seen, and people are not coming up to you after the show patting you on the back for having such a great event, then you don’t pay a dime.”

I can hear a lot of you out there saying you can’t guarantee your products or services. If you’re a doctor, you can’t guarantee patient health, if you’re in weight loss, you can’t guarantee that they’ll lose weight, if you’re a financial advisor you can’t guarantee monetary success.

But there are a ton of things you can guarantee. The doctor can guarantee that he’ll see you within 5 minutes of your scheduled appointment time. If you sell weight loss, you can guarantee that their coach will call them back within 45 minutes of receiving a call, a financial advisor can guarantee something similar to the doctor, or guarantee returned phone calls (wish my advisor did that!), or any number of things not directly related to the product or service, but to the quality of service they’ll receive.

What can you guarantee?

Last week we hit the tip of the iceberg with headlines. A conversation that, quite frankly, could last a whole year. To see that post click here to my blog. For the next few days we’ll discuss guarantees, another vital role in your copywriting and marketing.

First some guarantee ‘basics’ that we must address. There are three chief types of guarantees, with a very quick blurb on each. We’ll expand on them later.

• Satisfaction Guarantee
• Results Guarantee
• Perception

How you phrase the guarantee is nearly as important as having on at all. It’s best when it has a name. I recently wrote a guarantee for a promotion of our own and named it the, “The “You Cannot Fail With 3D Mail, $500.00 In Your Pocket” Guarantee. And here’s how I worded it:

When you place your first order of 3D Mail over $100 and use my FREE 30 minute consultation, if you’re not extremely happy with your mailing, I’ll refund 50% of the purchase of the 3D mail items up to $500.00.

As you can see, it’s a strong guarantee, but when you give it a name, it adds something extra to it. I’ve also used the “You’ll be a Star” guarantee and, “My Personal Make-You-Happy Guarantee” both with a great deal of success. My mentor Dan Kennedy, has used, “My personal, Big, Bold, Iron-Clad Guarantee” on many of his products for years, again with great success.

In addition, multiple guarantees almost always outperform single guarantees. Here’s an example of a multiple guarantee that we use when we go and speak at seminars and boot camps:

Money Back Guarantee - If you are not delighted with your results or not happy in any way what-so-ever return the system within the first year and I’ll give you your money back.

Triple Your Money Back Guarantee - If you use both of your 30 minute One-On-One Coaching sessions, and your 2 Critique Certificates within the first 3 months, and you can show that you actually used our advice when you created your campaigns, and you actually mailed at least two campaigns, and you’re not absolutely delighted with your results I’ll give you 3 times your money back.

You see, we gave a one-year, no questions asked guarantee (my favorite) but then added to it by adding the triple money back guarantee. Does it work? You bet. When we first offered this at a live event, we sold 83% of the room!

There’s also one more element to this guarantee, but you’ll have to wait until later in the week for me to reveal that one. See you then.

Where do you get good headlines?

So, where did we leave off after answering Steve’s Question on Tuesday… Ah yes, HEADLINES! The most read part of any ad, thus the most important.

Your headline needs to answer:

• Who cares?
• So what?
• What’s in it for me (WIIFM)?
• Why are you bothering me?

No small task by any means. Keeping those four bullets in mind, how long should your headline be? I’ve heard many answers, and some even put a number on it, like no more than 12 words.

Here’s my answer. If you can answer all four of those questions above in 12 words or less,then do it! If you can’t, and it needs to be longer, then do that, too ! So my headlines are as long as they need to be to get the job done. I’ve written headlines as short as 5 words, for example:

FREE Lunch on December 29th

And I’ve written headlines as long as 48 words when using our x-ray letter to sell computer systems to retailers:

“Why The Heck Is Travis Lee Sending You An X-Ray To Tell You How Happy Alice Balbi, the Manager of Mementos Gift Shop at the Clark Fork Hospital in Plains, MT is After Her Team Started Using The SmartRegister Point-of-Sale Computer System from American Retail Supply?

So where do you get these good headlines, as my mentor and friend Bill Glazer says, you ethically S & D (swipe and deploy) them of course! And one of the best ways to S & D headlines is to use proven fill-in-the-blank style headlines.

Here are a few:

How Often do You Hear Yourself saying: _________________________________

If you___________, then you’ll love our _______________________.

Who Else Wants _________________________ (I’ve probably seen this one S & D’ed more than any other)

______________ That other Retailers Don’t Want You to Know.

We could spend months on headlines alone and still not even scratch the surface, but I think you’re getting the idea. Next week we’ll hit on guarantees. Have a great week!

White space in emails

I’m going take a quick break from our discussion on copywriting today to answer a question from a client regarding my “white space never sold a thing” tip last week. Here’s the post at my blog to review.

Here’s the question from Steve Hyslop of Chuck's Waterfront Grill & The Endless Summer bar-café:

If white space never sold a thing, why is there all the white space at the right of the e-mail below? As I'm sure you know, others do this too, although interestingly, some do not. I would assume it increases readership. Just wondering. Happy Holidays to you and yours. Others may find this of interest too.

Thanks for the great question, and good job not taking something at face value, but questioning it. Everybody should be doing that with everything they come across (even my posts). Here’s my response to Steve today:

Great question and I’ll probably bring it up this week in my tip. Email is a little different. In the most recent studies I’ve read, readership is better when lines are about 55-65 characters long. I’ve heard this form a couple other internet marketing guys I trust, so I take it at their word.

The reason is everybody’s monitor has different settings like width, fonts etc. The 55-65 characters virtually guarantee that your lines will ‘break’ where you want them to.

Plus, the shorter lines make the text/copy seem shorter. You’ll notice I usually on use 1-3 sentence paragraphs as well. In general, people want quick and short emails, and this gives that appearance.

So I hope I didn’t disappoint you now that the cats out of the bag and you know my dirty little e-mail secrets. But, I do think it’s important, and that’s why I was willing to share this all with you. We’ll pick back up later this week with our copywriting topic. See you then!

Message to Market Match

Last week we started our discussion on copywriting that’s going to take us through the next few weeks. To see where we started, visit that blog post below. On Tuesday I left you with some Copy Kryptonite. Today we’ll move on from our Copy Kryptonite (Thanks again to Bill Glazer for the copy kryptonite) and talk about your message to market match.

Message to market match means your matching what you’re selling, the media you’re selling it through, and the words you write to very precise and targeted prospects.

When I say media, I’m talking about the format, and is that appropriate for the task you’re trying to accomplish. For example, sending a ‘stand-alone’ postcards for a retailer holding an event in the Mall is probably OK (though just OK). If you’re sending a ‘stand-alone-postcard to doctors about advanced laser equipment they should have in practice…BAD!!

I’m not saying the postcard doesn’t have a place in your marketing funnel (for more on creating a marketing funnel, (see this past post) to the doc’s for laser equipment, it may very well have its time and place. But to expect a postcard to do the heavy lifting is not smart.

Second, you want to start with people you already understand, and for the vast majority of you that will be your niche. I know we have some freelance copywriters and consultants out there, and so your best bet is to write to those niches where you have the most experience and expertise.

For example, I write to other business owners and salespeople who obviously are interested in growing their business with direct mail and doing it creatively (or why else would you be getting this!). I know and can speak our language, can identify with you, and thus can make a stronger connection with my copy. The same should go for you, when writing to your own niche.

Finally, the best recipients of your marketing, in order, are:

1. Your list of past and current clients
2. Endorsed or JV list
3. A lead generated list
4. The ‘un-washed’ masses

There are things you need to consider when writing to each group that will take more time and room than I have here. Starting next week, we’ll dive right into headlines, probably the most important part of your advertising. See you then!

Blank Space Never Sold a Thing

Last week we started our discussion on copywriting that’s going to take us through the next few weeks. To see where we started, visit that blog post below. On Thursday, I also left you with some Copy Kryptonite. You can see that post below as well. Today, we’ll talk about two more copy kryptonite that will kill your copy.

Thanks again to my mentor Bill Glazer who has allowed me us his term Copy Kryptonite. We’ve talked about being boring, and writing from a ‘me’ perspective.

Now, another copy killer that I see all too often is BLANK SPACE. As you can probably tell from the subject line of this email, blank space never sold a thing. If you can show me where it has, it’ll be the first time.

It’s important in all your media, but especially important in places where space is at a premium, such as yellow page ads, and postcards. You just don’t have a ton of room with either one, so you’ve got to do the most with the real estate you got. The same goes for your sales letters as well.

Here’s a tip for you. If you find you have blank space in any of your advertising, at the very least, fill them up with good, results oriented testimonials. That’s the least you should be doing with blank space.

The last piece of Copy Kryptonite is placing your logo, business name, address etc above the headline. This again pertains to any media you use, postcards, sales letters, online, yellow pages etc. If your advertising does the job that it’s suppose to, you prospect will find the information as long as it’s somewhere to be found. If you can’t get by without having your name, logo, address on the letter, try putting it across the bottom of each page of a letter or postcard.

So we’ve covered Copy Kryptonite, later this week we’ll get into the nuts and bolts of copywriting. See you then!

Marketing Tip Readers Only Special

As you know, Christmas is just around the corner. If you're the forward thinking entrepreneur I think you are, you've already given some thought to sending them. You know they enhance your image with your clients and build your referral business. But some years it seems like just one more thing to do that takes time, effort and a financial investment. And, you may have to talk yourself into doing it.

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SendOutCards is an online system that allows you to choose, write and send real printed cards in about 60 seconds per card (and you can send that card to as big a list as you want!) The system also allows you to set up campaigns and select in advance the date the cards are mailed.

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I heartily endorse the program and hope you will give it a chance. In fact, if you will give it a test drive, you can send your first four cards free:

Deadline Extended:

if you do so by December 16th. I’ve had a ton of calls and I want to be sure I can get to everybody who wants a test drive.

I’ll cover the investment. Just reply to this email (be sure to include your phone number) with a good time to call you back. Be sure you have about 20 un-interrupted minutes by your computer so I can show you how it works.

Superman has his Kryptonite

Earlier this week we started a series on copywriting, and on Monday I told you the #1 marketing sin in copy, what my mentor Bill Glazer calls Copy Kryptonite. To review the tip, visit the blog. Below we’ll discuss more copy kryptonite.

Again, thanks to Bill Glazer for allowing me to borrow his term, Copy Kryptonite. There really is no better way to describe these copywriting sins. We’ll go over one that virtually guarantee your copy will suffer.

First, one that I see often and that’s writing from a ‘me’ perspective. You’ve seen this and you’ve probably even done it yourself:

“We’ve been in business for 37 years…”
“We’ve got the most state of the art…”
“We’re the #1 supplier to…”

Blah, blah blah. Boring and WHO CARES. You need to write your copy from a ‘you’ perspective, they ‘you’ being your customer. Here’s a tip, take all the ‘we’ statements and turn them into you statements. BIG tip, turn those you statements from features, to the BENEFITS your customer
will get from the ‘we’ statements.

Here’s how we do it for our retail supply business when we sell point-of-sale computer systems (POS). We’ve been selling and supporting POS systems since 1991, and have installed over 1,000 systems for retailers. Big whoop, right? We turn around and make that a benefit for the client using ‘you’ statements.

For example:

You’ll want the service and support of years of experience and 1,000’s of set up and installations so you’ll never be alone and never have to worry about your technical support abandoning you on a moment’s notice, leaving you standing around wondering what to do.”

See how we took what could’ve been a bunch of ‘we’ statements, and turned them into ‘you’ statements.

Here’s a challenge for you. Go through some of your sales material and see how many times you say ‘we’ vs. ‘you.’ Then go and turn all those ‘we’ statements to ‘you’ statements with a benefit to your client. It’s easier than it sounds and will make a huge difference.

In the Land of the Blind...

The One Eyed Man is King.”
Erasmus (of Rotterdam)

We know that Erasmus wasn’t talking about copywriting when he spoke those words some 500 years ago, but he may as well been. In critiquing many 3D Mail sales letters the past 2 years, it’s become obvious that many who do their own copywriting can be blind. So for the next few weeks we’ll discuss a bundle of copywriting topics. First an introduction and the #1 thing you can do to kill any response.

The first thing you must realize when you create copy is that it is NOT advertising, but salesmanship in print. That means you want to write like you talk, don’t write to sell. The truth is the best copy would probably get you a failing grade in high school composition class. If you’ve written copy and a high school English teacher can’t find anything wrong with it, throw it out and start again!

Second, the same principles apply in business-to-consumers markets and business-to-business markets. I hear this all the time. The B2B people tell me it can’t work in B2B, and the B2C people tell me it can only work in B2B! They are fundamentally the same. Sure, there are some slight differences, but as a whole, the concepts and ideas we talk about over the next couple weeks can be easily applied to both group.

Lastly, as promised, here’s the #1 thing you can do to guarantee to kill your response. It’s what one of my mentors, Bill Glazer, calls copy kryptonite. It’s BEING BORING! Your copy can never be too long, but it can be too boring, and we’ll discuss that a lot as well over the next couple weeks.

Diversity leads to stability

On Wednesday we started a discussion on sequential marketing and how 2 + 3 = 1. If you didn’t read it, check out the blog entry below and that will make sense. I’ll continue today with a few other strategies in sequential marketing.

This may sound a bit weird coming from the 3D Mail Guru, but you’ll always want to use multiple media, multiple different ways. That means direct mail using 3D Mail and more traditional mail, email, faxes, phone calling, voice broadcasting etc.

Here’s the reason. Different people respond to different medias. Some like email, others fax, still others direct mail. You never want to rely on one sole way to get new or repeat clients to purchase. As one of my mentors Bill Glazer says, “Diversity leads to stability.”

Second, you want to keep adding touches until it is no longer profitable or you can no longer make the offer.

For years we used a 3-step new client sequence, and that was it. It worked exceptionally well for many years. We decided to test a fourth step to see if we could again be profitable. Guess, what? It worked and
for many more years we used a 4-step sequence.

Finally, if you read my emails, you know I’m against most Madison Avenue, brand building style marketing you see. However, there is an accumulative effect of such exposure that creates additional customers
over a long period of time.

Maybe they’re just not ready for what you got right now, or, after 3 letters, if finally hits them that maybe they have a friend or relative that could use what you’re offering. Whatever it is, sequential marketing can and will have that affect on your customers.

2 + 3 = 1?

I know you may not be a math major, and I certainly wasn’t, but stay with me on this one as we start a discussion on sequential marketing.

Sequential marketing is a sequence of marketing, with each one clearly referring to the previous one, all sent in a fairly condensed period of time, usually 4-6 weeks. You’ll usually double your response with 3 touches. This is where my fuzzy math comes in. Let me explain.

We know that using 3 steps will almost always double our response. Let’s say we’re mailing out 500 bank bags as the first step in a sequence to our in-house list. We get a 4% response rate, or 20 responses. Now let’s say we send a postcard as our second step and the mini trash-can as our third step.

When you do the math and calculate response and return on investment, you’ll almost always get 20 additional responses from steps 2 and 3 combined. So my fuzzy math would mean:

Step 2 (postcard) + Step 3 (trash can) = The same response at Step 1 (bank bag)

The math may not hold exactly with each marketing sequence you do, but you’ll usually be within a few percentage points either way.

Later in the week we’ll talk about a few other sequential marketing strategies you can use.

Get Back Lost Clients

On Thursday we wrapped up our series on referral marketing (check out the blog to see the last few entries) and I told you we’d start a topic on the 3rd easiest client to sell to. Did you know who that was?

If you said reactivating your lost clients, you’re right! For my money, a lost client is the 3rd easiest client to sell to after you own, active clients, and the referral clients we just finished up talking about.

So why don’t clients return? Here’s a list I’ve come up with:

• They were dissatisfied with your product or service.
• They no longer require what you offer (they moved, retired, left the company, etc)
• It’s no longer convenient to do business with you.
• They switched to another provider of your same product/service.
• They’re embarrassed or feel they let YOU down (you’d be surprised how many fit this category).

And the #1 reason they no longer do business with you is they SIMPLY FORGET ABOUT YOU!

Starting on Thursday I’ll walk you through how you get get your lost clients back with some specific ideas and strategies that I’ve used in my businesses, and my clients. See you then.

Blog Readers Only Special

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3 Ways to get Referrals

As you know we’ve been talking about getting new, fresh clients to your business using referrals. Last week we talked about the psychological reasons your clients refer, and how to tap into those. To see where we’ve been, visit my blog post from last week below this post. Today, we’ll start looking at specific ways to get referrals in your business, no matter what niche you’re in!

The best way to get referrals (but by no means the easiest) is to find ways to do what you do so well and so uniquely that your customers cannot resist telling lots of people about you.

Yeah, easier said than done, but extremely possible. I’ll tell you that it’s hard to have a truly unique product or service. Be honest with yourself, there’s probably plenty of places your clients could go to get what you do. So the best way to stand out from your competition is in the service and the way you do things.

Here’s an example. One of our businesses is selling to independent and regional chain retailers. To be completely honest, you can get what we sell online for less. But the experience you get when you order with us is second to none. From the first greeting on the telephone, to timely shipping and receiving your order on time, the entire experience is one that you can’t get from our “price only” competitors.

It’s not uncommon for us to get calls saying they were referred from a friend because they just had such a great experience with us.

A second way is to simply ask for them. It may sound easy, and it is, but timing is everything. Here’s an example from a menswear store we do business with.

You need to know when it’s the right time in the buying experience to ask for them. In the menswear example, the time was right after they made the purchase at the cash register and THEY said thank you (which they almost always did). Here’s the script they used:

“As you know this is how I make my living, and I sure would appreciate your help. If you like the way you’ve been treated and you feel a friend or co-worker could use us, I would really appreciate it if you could give me the names of a couple people you feel could benefit from us.”

And more often than not, they got a referral right there.

A third way is to have an event where loyal customers are motivated to bring their friends, relatives, neighbors etc.

I have seen and heard of this working very well for all businesses including dentist, chiropractors, tax prep, financial services etc. But don’t think it can’t work for you! I have a consulting client who owns a fishing boat (among other things), and we suggested he use a client appreciation event during the non-fishing season to get his currently clients together, and encourage them to bring a guest (after all, fishermen know other fishermen!). I have no doubt this will be a huge success in filling his fishing trips well in advance of next season.

The Psychology of Referrals

Last week we stated a topic on getting more referrals in your business, and who doesn’t want that!?! To see where we’ve been, visit my blog here. Now, we’ll discuss some of the psychology that of why people refer and how you can get more people to do it.

There are three main psychological reasons why people refer:

1. For personal gain
2. To help people they know
3. To Help YOU!

#1 is probably the one people think of the most when it comes to getting more referrals. And quite frankly I can easily see why. After all, as marketers we are constantly trying to answer the question of, “What’s in it for me (your client)?”

There are tons of ways to get more referrals through the personal gain of your clients. You can give them gifts, discounts, prizes, entries to drawings, recognition. The list is virtually endless on what you can do to get your clients to refer more through their own person gain.

#2, helping people they know, is something they usually need to be encouraged to do. It can be as simply as a mention when you have them on the phone, or a short blurb in your printed newsletter. Whatever you do, be sure you are constantly and consistently reminding your clients to tell their friends.

#3, to help YOU, is the best place for you to be in your client’s mind. Whenever you WOW them to a degree that they feel they need to repay you for the experience in the form of a referral, you know you have something special!

So, what are you going to do today to WOW your clients in order to get them to send unsolicited referrals?

Get More Referrals

If there’s one thing every business could use, it’s a fresh batch of new, ready-to-buy referral clients lining up each day. However, like most things, it’s easier said than done. For the next couple tips we’ll cover how you can actively promote and generate new referral clients in your business.

Referrals are your second easiest client/patient to sell to (#1 being your own, current and active clients) so it makes sense to nurture referrals and have marketing campaigns and systems in place in your business to first and foremost get your current happy clients to give them, and second, to be sure you get them as clients once they are referred to you.

Here are a couple of stats that may jump out at you. First, the average person has an immediate circle of influence or around 50 people. However, the average satisfied customer will only tell 3 other people about a satisfied experience. 3 out of 50!

So the important thing to understand is satisfaction is not sufficient. The secret to referral stimulus is the different between satisfaction and enthusiasm produced by either merely meeting expectation or exceeding expectations.

Think of it this way, none of your clients leave your store, practice, office, or website thinking to themselves,”how can I tell as many people as possible about this experience?” You’ve got to give them the reason to do it, and the tools and the way to do it.

So starting next Tuesday we’ll talk about six specific ways you can use to get referrals in your business.

What to do with the envelope

When I’m speaking with 3D Mail clients on implementing 3D Mail, almost always the envelope question comes up (assuming we’re using an envelope and not something like the bank bag or trash). What should I put on the outside, should it be mailed ‘blind,’ live stamp or not?? There are lot of questions. Here’s a quick read on my thoughts on your envelope when using direct mail,either 3D or ‘flat.’

There are two school’s of thought with envelopes, the ’teaser’ and the ‘blind.’ We’ll talk about the teaser first.

The teaser envelope means that there is “teaser copy” on the outside of the envelope. This could be a message about what’s inside, testimonials, a quote, etc. You’re essentially revealing that the contents are an advertisement.

As a general rule of thumb, you’ll want to use the ‘teaser’ with a group of people who already know you and are interested in what you offer. Your in-house list of buyers or prospects would be great for this.

Also, you want to be sure that if you use teaser copy, you really use it. There’s no sense in putting just one thing on there, you’ve already revealed it’s an ad, so go all out, and use every inch of that envelope. Remember, it’s another sales opportunity

The second way is the ‘blind’ approach. This is best when for a list of people who don’t already know you. There are no labels, and is typically address by hand or a very good handwritten font.

However, this isn’t always the case. Here’s a true story. For many years we used the Million Dollar Bill with great success in our business, and we always addressed the envelopes by hand. However, we finally tested a regular courier (type-writer) font, and guess what?? While our response dropped a tiny bit, our return on investment actually we UP since we were no longer paying for the extra time to handwrite every envelope. So, while the general rule is to use a handwritten font, be sure you test!

However, we always followed these rules to a ‘T.’ We never used any labels for the prospects address or our address, there was no company name in the return address, just our address, there was no teaser copy, and we always used a live, 1st class stamp, and usually a commemorative stamp.

Find the hidden money with a newsletter, Part III

Earlier in the week we talked about all the great reason you should be doing a newsletter. To see where we’ve been, check out the blog below. Today, we’ll cover the $10 Million question that I know is on your mind, and that’s content!

There are essentially two different kinds of content you can use. Content that is relevant to your business, niche or clients. And content that is non-relevant.

You’ll want to strike a good balance between the two. It needs to have enough “on topic” material that your clients will enjoy reading it, and so that you can position yourself as the expert in your area of expertise. If you’ve been in your industry for more than two weeks, you probably know it very well, and in most cases better than your competitors,so the relevant content should be fairly easy. Pick a topic in your business and niche and start writing. You’ll be shocked at how much flow out on the page when you start.

But as I said, you need to strike a good balance between relevant and non-relevant content. So
what do you write about there?

Here’s just a shortly list I’ve put together of topics I’ve discussed in my newsletter, and a couple that I haven’t used yet, but will!

• Family
• Customers
• Celebrity (there’s a reason National Enquirer has the largest circulation in the world!)
• Pets
• Human Interest Stories
• Your staff
• Travel
• Humor/Entertainment
• Recent developments/current event

If you’re still stuck and can’t get over the hump, there are a couple of businesses that write and mail your newsletter for you. All you need to do is send the list!

The best one I’ve seen (and used myself in the past) is Jim Palmer. Jim is known internationally as The Newsletter Guru and is the president of No Hassle Newsletters.

For information on his Done-4-you newsletter system, (key word: System) in which he writes, produces and mails your monthly newsletter FOR YOU, just click on this link.

Find the hidden money with a newsletter, Part II

Last week we started a new segment on finding the hidden money in your business, and we started talking about monthly newsletters. To see where we’ve been check out this post. Today we’re going to cover 3 more advantages of using your newsletter, and why it should be seen as an income producing asset, and NOT an expense.

Once you start doing your newsletter and get good at it, it’s actually very enjoyable to do. I can speak directly from experience on this. I knew for about a year that I needed to do a monthly newsletter, but I kept putting it off. Layout, content, printing, it was too much of a hassle. Finally, last October I just decided to do it.

Yeah, it was hard at first, deciding what articles to put where, the layout, images etc. But after about 3 months I got pretty darn good at it. And truth be told, its one of the most enjoyable things I do each month and actually gives me a nice little break from the day to day grind we all feel.

Since you’re on this email list, you should also be receiving me monthly print newsletter, if you’re not, email me your mailing address and I’ll get you on the October list.

Here’s another great tip, I recently did this over the summer and had great success with it.

You can test offers to roll out into solo campaigns or mailings. I will often throw an offer into the newsletter as a “Highlighted Item” or “New Item.” If it does well, I roll it out as a solo campaign.

For you members of the 3D Mail Insider’s Circle, that’s exactly what I did. I put it in the newsletter, it got a good enough response, so I rolled it out as a solo direct mail piece. There’s lots of campaigns that I thought would be big winners, and I tested it in my newsletter and decided to move on to the next thing.

Finally, the #1 reason to have a monthly newsletter: It reminds your customers to come back. Most of your clients don’t return because of price, or bad service or anything like that. They simply forget about you. A newsletter is the best way to make sure that doesn’t happen.

OK, I know I promised you content ideas, but this tip ran a little longer than I thought it would. Stay tuned for later in the week and we’ll discuss content ideas… I promise!

Marketing Tip Readers Only Special

By far the biggest reason I hear that businesses don’t use newsletters is either:

1. I don’t have time
   or
2. I don’t know what to write about.

We’ll, I have good news. My friend Jim Palmer is known internationally as The Newsletter Guru and is the president of No Hassle Newsletters.

Jim's ‘Done-for-You’ no hassle newsletters will fill your pipeline with more repeat and referral business, with no cold calls, no pressure, and no rejection

For information on his Done-4-you newsletter system, (key word: System) in which he writes, produces and mails your monthly newsletter FOR YOU, just click on this link.

Find the hidden money with a newsletter

On Tuesday we started a new segment on finding the hidden money in your business. I said it all started with the right list. See that article here on my blog. Today we’ll talk about a marketing idea that will help uncover more hidden money; it’s something lots of people know they should do, but rare do it… That’s right, a monthly newsletter!

We’ll start off today with some of the advantage of using newsletter marketing, then in a future email,we’ll talk about the content you should use.

The first thing you got to get out of your head is that a newsletter is an expense. It’s been my own personal experience, and those of the many business owners and entrepreneurs I speak with, that they’re not an expense, but actually a profit generator!

Newsletter have a high readership level, and they’re not perceived as “salesy” and most people read them with their “guard down” (however, you can and should
have direct offers in your newsletter, but we’ll talk about that later). In fact, when done properly, your clients will actually look forward to getting and reading them.

Here’s another biggie, your competition probably isn’t using a newsletter, and this gives you a huge competitive advantage. When it comes time to order again, who are they going to call, the person whose newsletter is sitting on the coffee table, or “the other guy.” Easy answer.

Another reason to use them is they can actually work as a form of branding that actually works and pays for itself! If you’ve read this tip much (or my newsletter,hint, hint) you know I’m anti-Madison Avenue, golden arches and swooshes marketing. However, with a newsletter you can brand you the person (its much easier to brand a person than an entire business/industry) by becoming a celebrity and guru in your niche.

That’s a wrap on this post. Stay tuned for next week and we’ll discuss 3 more advantages for using a newsletter and start addressing the topic you all dread…
CONTENT! See you then!

Marketing Tip Readers Only Special

By far the biggest reason I hear that businesses don’t use newsletters is either:

1. I don’t have time
   
   or
   
   
2. I don’t know what to write about.

We’ll, I have good news. My friend Jim Palmer is known internationally as The Newsletter Guru and is the president of No Hassle Newsletters. Jim's ‘Done-for-You’ no hassle newsletters will fill your pipeline with more repeat and referral business, with no cold calls, no pressure, and no rejection

For information on his Done-4-you newsletter system, (key word: System) in which he writes, produces and mails your monthly newsletter FOR YOU, just click on this link.

Find the hidden money in your business

Today we’re going to start a new series on finding the hidden money in your business. This will take a couple weeks, so strap in, ‘cause here we go.

To really find the hidden money in your business,it all starts with the list, and more specifically, your own, in-house produced list. This is your #1 asset in ANY business. My mentor Dan Kennedy likes to say that if you took away his business, products and anything else he sells, but left him his list, he could build a business at least as big from the ground up all over again, with just his list. This can and should be the same for your own list.

So how do we grow you list? We’ll start with ‘the trap.’ The trap is the place where the prospects name, address, email, fax, phone, traits etc are captured using enticing ‘bait,’ like a free trial, a free report, free product/services etc.

Of utmost importance, permission to use that information is secured. This usually is done by add a short line on any form (either offline or online) that says something like, “Providing this information to XYZ Company allows them to contact you via the above methods.”

If you wish, this allows you to run smaller, simpler ads, keeping the front end cost low and investing most of your resources in interested prospects.

I often tells clients this same thing in regard to 3D Mail. I’ll be the first to admit, 3D Mail can sometimes add costs to your mailing. I using it for prospecting puts you out of pocket, use it as a step in your marketing funnel to really WOW your prospect.

The best and cheapest way to learn this methodology is by playing prospect with companies doing lead generation advertising. This isn’t a hard exercise either. Start looking around, answer ads that are simply lead generation devices and see what and how they send information to you. The ones and look the best usually are, so mimic them.

This is admittedly an over-simplistic explanation of lead generation and list building, so to find out more, visit this blog posting and go from there.

Later we’ll talk about one of the biggest ways to find and get the hidden money in your business. Do you think you know what it is?

Marketing Tip Readers Only Special

The best system I’ve ever seen for systematically and automatically implementing your lead generation marketing is Infusionsoft.

Infusionsoft’s automatic follow-up software combines email marketing, CRM & eCommerce into one, simple system, so you can effortlessly stay in touch with
prospects & customers and close more sales. With Infusionsoft, you’ll always be growing your business... even when you’re out of the office, at the beach, or asleep!

I use it myself for a lot of the 3D Mail marketing you get from me, as well as my coaching/consulting business. They even have glowing endorsements from Michael Gerber of the E-Myth and Dan Kennedy!

To get a free eBook on lead generation marketing and using a marketing funnel including 9 proven techniques to double your sales visit this site here.

They have great lead generation devices and a great marketing funnel. So even if you’re set with your CRM, email etc. you should still take a look and get on their list. They are a great company to ‘play prospect with’ as I described above. If you study it closely you’ll get a PhD level education in the topics we’ve just been discussing. Here’s that link once more.

A Huge Marketing Calendar Suggestion

Last week we started talking about using a marketing calendar. We talked about why it was critical that you have one, and a couple things to consider when you’re creating your calendar. To review, see the blog post from last week.

I told you this would probably be the shortest tip I’ve ever written, but it’s probably the most important thing you can get out of this segment on marketing calendars. It’s an advanced idea for REAL implementers. You ready?

Post your marketing calendar where people you work with can see your initiatives to let them know what to expect and… HOLD YOU ACCOUNTABLE TO GET THEM DONE!

Blog Readers Only Special

My friend and very successful marketer Troy White has created a great resource where he’s created the marketing calendar FOR YOU!

The Cash Flow Calendar contains completed marketing campaigns that guarantee to grow your business.

You will learn how to capitalize on the thousands of opportunities you have at your disposal to write new product or service launch. How to transfer an unusual holiday, even the standard ones, with a few minor changes, and one simple addition, to create monster successes with each mailer you send out to your clients.

For each MONTH of the year, you will receive countless opportunities and ideas to run month-long promotions - or one major product launch tied into a monthly event (for example, did you know that April is National Customer Appreciation Month? Perfect time for a mailer and promotion. Or that April also is the month of National Couple Appreciation Month? How easily could you tie in that to a promotion applicable to couples? Troy shows you how.

There’s a ton of done-for-you marketing in this resource. Visit Troy's site here to see it all for yourself.

If you purchase the 2009 version you’ll also the 2010 version for free. You’ll get the ’09 version shipped immediately, then the ’10 version when it is ready in about a month. It will have more dates, more templates, and more copy and paste letters. See details here.

3 things to consider with your marketing calendar

Last week we started talking about using a marketing calendar. We talked about why it was critical that you have one, and a couple things to consider when you’re creating your calendar. To review, see the blog post below.

Moving on today, we’ll discuss 3 more things you must consider when you create your marketing calendar.

One thing I always do with my calendar is, at least 3 months prior to the initiative, is I map out everything in greater detail including the specific media to use. Most of the time, I don’t choose the media right away when I put my calendar together, but I do occasionally. I also try to use multiple different kinds of media over the course of a year. I certainly use 3D mail with sales letters, but I also use email, fax, postcards, etc. I’m always changing it up so my current clients get something new and different as often as possible.

It’s also perfectly fine to periodically visit your marketing plan knowing that its O.K to tweak and adjust your plan, for whatever reason.

Finally, after each initiative is completed and the results are in, go back and analyze how you can improve it in the future. This is very important. Even if you have a winner, there’s usually something you can test or tweak to improve your results. Challenge yourself and your team not rest on your laurels and find things to test for an improved response. For ideas on testing your direct mail, see this article I wrote last year on the subject.

My next tip will very short, probably the shortest tip I’ve ever written, but it may be one of the most important. See you then.

Creating Your Marketing Calendar

On Wednesday we started talking about using a marketing calendar. We talked about why it was critical that you have one, and a couple things to consider when you’re creating your calendar. To review, see the blog post below.

Moving on today, we’ll discuss 2 more things you must consider when you create your marketing calendar.

This is a biggie. You need to agree on specific marketing initiatives that can be accomplished, with specific deadlines. That last part is H-U-G-E! Unless you have specific deadlines in which to get things done, there’s nothing holding you accountable to getting it done.

Too many marketers go at marketing half-assed, and flying by the seat of their pants. If you have a known specific goal and a specific deadline set far enough in advance, you’ll have a much better chance of reaching those goals on time, and on budget.

This is one reason why I like holiday marketing so much. There’s a specific day you must meet to get the promotion done. Once it’s gone, you can’t use it again for another year.

Next, you need to space out your marketing initiatives where your clients regularly hear from you throughout the year.

Let’s take our holiday themed marketing we touch on above. It’s great if you want to run a Thanksgiving promotion, and a Christmas promotion, but that better not be it. Your clients will only hear from you twice in a 30 day period, and then wait for 11 months. You need to have those, and a Labor Day promotion, an Independence Day sale, Women’s History Month (March) etc. Clumping your promotions together is not the way to go.

For more information on Marketing Calendars, be sure to see the Blog readers only resource on the post below.

That’s a wrap for this week. We’ll pick up on Tuesday of next week. Until then, keep on marketing!

Use a Marketing Calendar

Creating a marketing calendar is perhaps the single most valuable time you spend “on” your business each year. But why should you have a marketing calendar?

Most businesses have no marketing plan at all. To compound things, they make plans based on whoever is trying to sell them the next shiny object. In speaking with business owners and entrepreneurs daily, I’ve found that less than half Of all business actually do it, but those that do have a HUGE competitive advantage.

Below are a few things to consider when creating a marketing calendar. We’ll do a few each tip for the next week or so.

First, you need to devote specific, uninterrupted time each year when you create your calendar. I like to use the time near the end of each December. Things seem to slow down a bit then. The phone doesn’t ring quite an often, and there’s less demands on my time. While this may not be ideal (the phones ringing less, etc), it gives me that uninterrupted time that I need to get it done.

Second, you want to solicit information and help from key people in your business. Do have sales reps? Get them, or their manager involved. Want to run a specific campaign that requires accounting/book-keeping to get involved, do. In fact, I just met with our VP of Operations regarding a “Pay Later” campaign I want to run. Her input on the implementation of it, from an accounting standpoint, was invaluable.

If you’re a sole proprietor, you may want to meet in advance with your vendors who will be helping the campaign along. See that they can meet your deadlines and that they can implement what you want to do. You don’t want to get to the time to implement, and then get stalled because a vendor or key person can’t get the job done in time.

That’s it for today. Later in the week we’ll discuss three additional things you need to consider when creating your marketing calendar. See you then!

Blog Readers Only Special

My friend and very successful marketer Troy White has created a great resource where he’s created the marketing calendar FOR YOU!

The Cash Flow Calendar contains completed marketing campaigns that guarantee to grow your business.

You will learn how to capitalize on the thousands of opportunities you have at your disposal to write new product or service launch. How to transfer an unusual holiday, even the standard ones, with a few minor changes, and one simple addition, to create monster successes with each mailer you send out to your clients.

9 success keys to making any promotion you send a money maker

For each MONTH of the year, you will receive countless opportunities and ideas to run month-long promotions - or one major product launch tied into a monthly event (for example, did you know that April is National Customer Appreciation Month? Perfect time for a mailer and promotion. Or that April also is the month of National Couple Appreciation Month? How easily could you tie in that to a promotion applicable to couples? I show you how.

23 different ways (and reasons) to stay in touch with your customers and prospects (each on of them can make you a bundle if you use them).

And tons more. Visit Troy's site to see it all for yourself.

Real World USP Examples

Last week I gave you three questions you should consider when you craft your own unique selling proposition. I also told you I’d dissect two “real world” USP’s that I use in two businesses that I’m involved with. To see where we’ve been, see my blog here. For the 2 real world examples, read on.

We talked last week about some of the most effective USP’s I’ve seen and we mentioned Domino’s and FedEx. Those were short, sweet and to the point. However, there is value in USP’s that are not short. Now I’m not talking about long-winded, totally-drawn-out USP’s that nobody can remember, but a longer one can have just as much meaning and value as a short one.

Here are two examples I hinted at last week. Here’s one for our retail supply business, American Retail Supply:

Everything you need to run your store – on time, every time, from the people who know only happy clients come back.

To you, that may not mean much, but to the independent retailer or regional chain (our bread and butter clients), this has tremendous value.

Here’s one that may have some meaning to you:

Helping direct mail marketers increase their ROI with creative, unique and clutter busting 3D mail products and grabbers.

That’s ours at 3D Mail. I admit I don’t use it nearly enough, but now that I’ve shared it with all of you, I’ll certainly start using it more.

You’ll notice in both USP’s we’re not trying to be everything to everyone. In fact, it’s just the opposite. If you don’t have a store, the American Retail Supply USP means very little to you, in fact, you’d probably stop reading after the first line. But if you own a store, it speaks directly to you. Every store owners hates having multiple PO’s with multiple vendors. They hate when their supplies don’t arrive when they’re told they will. They can relate to it.

The same goes for our 3D Mail USP. Right off I state that we help direct mail marketers. If you don’t use direct mail, it’s not for you. But if you do, you certainly keep reading. We even make a promise of increasing the ROI of those who use it. No a bad USP if I may say so (I did write it, so I better like it!)

Here’s a litmus test for you. Ask your clients what they think your USP is. If they can get close, then you’re on the right track. It may not be exactly phrased right, but if they get the big picture, you’re doing something right.

That wraps up our series on USP’s. We could go on and on with USP’s, you could spend an entire seminar on the topic. We’ll march on later in the week with our new topic. See you then!

Finding Your USP, Part 2

On Tuesday we talked about the ways you can find your own, unique USP. Some of those included product or price advantage, or a process advantage, plus a few others. To review see that blog post here. We’re going to go over some other methods you can use to create and craft a winning USP for your business.

Here are three questions you should ask yourself before you start tackling your USP:

1. What do you do better than anyone else in your category?
2. What can you do better than anyone else in your category?
3. What should you do better than anyone else in your category?

Some of the best USP ever took those 3 questions and created entire businesses around them with short, memorable and descriptive USP’s. Domino’s is probably
the best example out there:

Fresh, hot pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less or it’s free.

Notice there no mention of good pizza, quality ingredients,or anything else. Just hot pizza, FAST. FedEx’s is no slouch either:

When is absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.”

Here’s another one. As amazing as it sounds, a COMPETENCY USP actually works now. Most business are so incompetent at what they do (however, those business are finding it a bit tougher now days). Here’s a great example of one I read in a newsletter not too long ago:

What if you actually liked your Attorney? We listen, we respond. We return your phone call.

I want to track this attorney down and give him my business! On Tuesday we’ll wrap up our discussion on USP’s, and I’ll dissect two USP’s we have for two businesses I am involved with, and I’ll give you a few more examples of great USP’s. I’ll talk to you then.

Blog Readers Only Special

Bill Glazer is one of the top Marketing Strategists in the world and one of the highest paid and OUTRAGEOUSLY successful copywriters alive today.

In fact, he’s written 23 sales letters that have EACH generated one million dollars in sales.

If you’d like to get a copy of Bill Glazer’s most OUTRAGEOUSLY SUCCESFUL sales letter he’s ever written and now used by business owners and entrepreneurs in 67 different business categories (online and offline) in association with the launch of Bill’s JUST RELEASED new book “OUTRAGEOUS Advertising That’s OUTRAGEOUSLY Successful” then click on the link below:

www.outrageousbook.com/keith

If you are ever dissatisfied with the results you get from your advertising or marketing dollars than this is for YOU. Plus you should grab a copy of his new book while you’re at it. IT HAS MY HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION!!!!

www.outrageousbook.com/keith

Finding Your USP

We kick off a new segment last week on Unique selling propositions, or a USP. To review click over to me blog below and see what you may have missed on Friday. Today, we’ll discuss a few different ways to find your USP.

My marketing mentor, Dan Kennedy, defines a USP as:

“Why should I, your prospect, do business with you verses any and every other option available to me in your category?”

So how do you answer that question? Here are a couple ideas. First, you can have an advantage in price. Personally, I think this is the last place you want to be. Frankly, the track record of the “low cost leader” in just about every category lasts only so long. There’s always somebody out there will to do something cheaper than you are.

But, there are plenty of other ways to go. For example, you may have a product that is unique only to you, and that doesn’t necessarily have to be the next wiz-bang, cutting edge toy. It can be something as simple as the way you package your product that your competition doesn’t do, or refuses to do.

You have a process that’s different that everybody else. Ivory soap used the USP, “99.78% Pure” for decades, so everybody assumed they had the purest soap. We’ve come to realize over the years that most soap are 99.78% pure. But they brought the process of creating the soap and used it as a USP.

Third, do you provide a service or a level of service that no one else is providing. I know of many doctors who have practices that have limo service pick up, grand piano players in the “waiting room” (a barely dare call them that), dentists who have private patience rooms. They have a level of service the average doctor doesn’t meet.

I have some more ways to help you answer the USP question. I’ll be back on Friday for more examples.

Your Unique Selling Propsition

We’re going to start down a new road today. We’re going to be starting on the topic of a USP, your unique selling proposition. This may be opening up a BIG can or worms, and it can be one of the hardest things you do with your business. But it’s well worth read.

A USP is made up of all the things that your have say and offer. But a true USP is the thing or things that differentiate, that you do differently. That are different by personality, price, offer guarantee, whatever, so you stand out in a positive way.

Why should you develop a USP? There are many reasons. Just a few of them include.

• It will give you an incredible marketing advantage over your competitors.
• Those that create a USP experience huge growth over a relatively short period of time.
• Without one you are extremely vulnerable to competition.
• It will create clarity in your business and in your mindset. It’s what you are about and what you want people to think about you.

Here’s the biggie lesson of the day. Only you can create your USP. You can’t hire a consultant to do it, or a coach, only you. And I’m not going to lie, it’s not an easy thing to do and it requires a lot of thought and work. But over the next few marketing tips, we’ll get you well on your way if you don’t yet have one. If you do, this will hopefully bring some further insight if you wish to revamp your current USP. I’ll see you next week.

Why You Should Use a Marketing Funnel

Over the past several weeks, we’ve been talking about lead generation marketing, how to use it, and how to integrate it into your marketing funnel. To see where we’ve been, see my blog posts from the past couple weeks below. Today we’re going to wrap up our discussion on these two topics. Today we’re going to answer that burning question, ”Why should I use a marketing funnel.” Here’s my $0.02.

First and foremost, you just get more sales when you use a marketing funnel! That should be reason enough, shouldn’t it! There’s the short answer, but why do we get more sales when we use lead generation marketing, with a systematic
marketing funnel as well?

We’re able to do what I like to call, lead nurturing and maturing. Frankly, most of your prospects simply aren’t ready to buy at this very moment. However, they will be ready to buy down the line. Each prospects timeline for
a purchase is different, so we’re able to give them the time they need to move from a “Luke-warm” buyer to “Ready to buy!”

You’re also able to provide education, and prove to your prospects that you’re a ‘Guru’ in your industry (Hey, a lot like this twice-weekly tip!).

Further, they get to know you as a person. They get to know you, trust you and learn about you. If you read my monthly print newsletter I send out, you already know a ton about me.

Finally, you’re able to position yourself, and answer the, ”Why should I choose you” question that always burns in the back of your prospects mind. You can position your pricing and justify it, and position your ‘rules of engagement’ on how your business is run.

That puts a bow on this topic. We’ll start a new one on Friday. Until then, keep on marketing!

What’s in Your Funnel

We’ve been discussing lead generation the past two weeks, and earlier this week I introduced you to the idea of a marketing funnel and using it when you use lead generation marketing. To see that post just scroll down to the posts below.

Today we’re going to talk about what is included in your funnel and why it’s important to use a funnel, especially when using lead generation marketing.

So you’ve used lead generation marketing to get your ideal prospect to raise their hand, and identify themselves as someone who is interested in what you sell. That’s a GREAT first step, but now what?!?

Your marketing funnel is a systematic approach to everything your prospects sees, hears and receives from you after they’ve raised their hand. The keyword is SYSTEMATIC. It’s even better if its semi or fully automatic.

Here’s a simply funnel that you could easily use when someone response to your lead generation ad:

Day 1: Send your free guide you advertised
Day 2: Send email confirmation that you mailed the Guide.
Day 5: Phone call to see they received the guide
Day 7: Follow up email to be sure they received the guide.
Day 10: Sales letter to sell your product/service
Day 20: Postcard to sell your product/Service

So you’re starting to get the idea. There’s also things that should be continually doing each month, like newsletters, new offers/opportunities, promotions tied to holidays or current events. The list could go on and on.

We’ll wrap up our talk about lead generation and your marketing funnel next week. I’ll see you then.

RESOURCE FOR YOUR MARKETING FUNNEL

The best system I’ve ever seen for systematically and automatically implementing your marketing funnel is Infusionsoft.

Infusionsoft’s automatic follow-up software combines email marketing, CRM & eCommerce into one, simple system, so you can effortlessly stay in touch with prospects & customers and close more sales. With Infusionsoft, you’ll always be growing your business...even when you’re out of the office, at the beach, or asleep!

I use it myself for a lot of the 3D Mail marketing you get from me, as well as my coaching/consulting business. They even have glowing endorsements from Michael Gerber of the E-Myth and Dan Kennedy!

To see a demo video, and get a free trial visit this site. They have great lead generation devices and a great marketing funnel. So even if you’re set with your CRM, email etc. you should still take a look and get on their list. If you study it closely you’ll get a PhD level education in the topics we’ve just been discussing.

Lead Generation With Your Marketing Funnel

Last week I left you off with the virtues of lead generation marketing. To review, see my blog post here. Now we’re going to move on to using lead generation in your marketing funnel. There are tons great reasons to use lead generation marketing. We’ll cover a couple here.

As we discussed before, with almost all marketing, you’re severely limited with the amount of information you can send or use in a cost effective manner. How much can you possibly say in a 30 second TV or radio spot, a yellow pages ad (even in a full page ad), a billboard, or a postcard?

With lead generation marketing, you’re able to move your client or prospect to another media in which you have more cost effective means to tell your story. You can move them from offline to online, and vice versa, move them to an audio CD, DVD, print and just about any other type of media.

One very popular technique I’m seeing a lot is to send an inexpensive postcard, and lead them to a personalized website, or PURL, which has, theoretically speaking, unlimited space.

You also have the ability to spend more money per prospect. Let’s take our PURL example from above. You send your client to a unique webpage that is only
for them, and you’re able to track it. You know this person is at least slightly interested in whateverit is you’re offering.

Now, you’ve ‘shrunk your universe’ to only include those people who visited their unique webpage. They obviously have an interest in what you’re selling,
and you can spend more per qualified lead, and actually end up spending less overall in the campaign. This would be a great time to send them clutter busting 3D Mail!

However, you must know your total lifetime value of both a prospect and a client. That’s a discussion for another day we’ll get to down the road.

www.3DMailResults.com

The Virtues of Lead Generation Marketing

We’ve switched gears here a bit, after earlier this weekdiscussing what business you’re really in. Now, on to lead generation marketing and what you need to do for it to be effective in your business.

Lead generation marketing is the ultimate ‘pull’ marketing strategy. It allows people who are interested in your product or service to pull information for themselves about you and your business, rather than the usually ‘push’ marketing that you usually see. Almost all “Madison Avenue” marketing is push marketing.

What you need for prospects to ‘pull’ information from you is great bait, or a lead generation magnet. This is something that you’re prospects request from you. They come in many forms, but the most typical is free information about your niche. They can include:

• White Papers
• Free Reports, such as:
• “The 7 Questions You Must Ask…”
• “9 Secrets They Don’t Want You
• to Know About…”
• Free Recorded Messages
• And other types of gifts appropriate for your niche.

The biggest thing to keep in mind is that the more desirable your ‘bait” is, the better response you’ll get. The 3D Mail Results webpage is a great example of ”bait,” with our free Guide to Using 3D Mail, Swipe File CD, and tons of free information and videos to get you started.

Next week we’ll talk about the different ways you can use lead generation marketing for maximum effect.

The Business You Should Be In

Last week we started a conversation on lead generation marketing vs. one-step sell marketing. For a review of where we’ve been, see my last couple blog entries here. I also left off saying I’d tell you what business you’re really in.

Answer that question to yourself. What business are you in? If you’re like most, you’ll say something like mortgage broker, dentist, restaurateur, coach, chiropractor etc.

If you answer was something like this, I’d say you’re wrong. (Hang in here with me; I’ll get to the point in just one minute.)

If you’ve been reading my tips, newsletter or have heard me speak you may be saying to yourself, “I’m not falling for that one Travis, I know I’m in the Marketing Business.”

To that I say you’re closer, but still not quite there.

You’re in the list building business.

There is nothing more valuable to your business than a list of names and contact information of your most targeted prospects and clients.

You want to capture names and market to them continuously. As my Marketing mentor Dan Kennedy says,”Till they buy or die.”

So how do you build your list? Through lead generation marketing, of course. You’re essentially getting permission to market and sell to your ideal prospect or client, over and over again. How great is that!

In case it isn’t obvious yet, I’m a big fan of lead generation marketing. In fact, since you’re on my email list, you’ve been privy to lead generation marketing already! So over the next couple weeks we’ll talk specifically about lead generation marketing (i.e. List Building) and how you can benefit and profit from it. See you later in the week.

One Step Selling

On Tuesday we started our conversation on one-step selling vs. lead generation marketing. To review where we left off you can see my blog entry below. Today, we’ll talk a bit more about one-step selling.

Most advertising and marketing you see on a daily basis is what we call one-step marketing. In fact, most of the “institutional” and “Madison Avenue” marketing you see is one-step. Its only job is to get a sale right then and there.

There are certainly some drawbacks to this. First, you’ve got to be there at the exact right moment, when your prospect is hot and bothered about what it is that you sell. It needs to be perfect timing. Research has shown that only about 20% of the people who are even interested in your business, are ready to “Buy Now!”

Further, your time or length of your message is severely limited by most one-step sale strategies. How much can you possibly say in a 30 second TV or radio spot, a yellow pages ad (even in a full page ad), a billboard, a simple postcard? Can you really sell your product in that limited amount of space? If so, you’re probably in a highly commoditized business. To that I say “GET OUT, AND GET OUT QUICKLY!”

Next week we’ll talk about business you’re really in. I know some of you may think you know the answer to this, but my answer may surprise you. Until then keep on marketing!

www.3dmailresults.com

Lead Generation vs. One Step Selling

We finished up our talk on the 13 top copywriting mistakes I often see when critiquing sales letters. Today, we’re going to move on to a new topic,Lead generation vs. one step selling and tie it back to 3D mail as well. We’ll start off with an explanation of each.

First, one step selling. In one step selling, the only job of your ad, whether that is a sales letter, post card, website, yellow pages ad etc, is to sell your product or service. It requires an immediate “Buy Now” reaction whether that be pick up the phone and order, visit our website and order, come in for an appointment etc.

This biggest drawback to one step selling is it only works if they want it now. We’ll talk about some of the other elements of one step selling later in the week.

With lead generation, you’re able to grad the attention of the prospect if they’re ready to buy (usually less than 20% of all who are even interested), or even if they’re luke-warm or just slightly interested in your product or service.

With lead generation, all you’re doing is getting your prospect to raise their hand, and say, “Yeah, I might bet interested in what you’re offering.” Then you’re able to put them in your marketing funnel (a whole other topic for another day)

OK, so there’s our introduction to one-step and lead generation. We’ll be moving on next time and dig in deeper to the pros and cons of each one. I’ll see you then!

How to sell a pencil

I had a tip for today lined up, as we just finished up our last series on copywriting mistakes (see past posts below). However, I received this tip from my friend Zach Entwistle, who got it from Mike Brooks.

I usually talk about marketing and advertising in my emails, but we often sabotage our own marketingwith piss-poor sales training. We’ll get back to our new topic on Monday, but I really wanted to share this with you this morning.Here it is:

If I gave you a pencil and asked you to sell it, how would you go about it?

This is one of the most basic of interview questions for sales reps, and the answer reveals so much about your previous training, your understanding of the sales process, and ultimately about what kind of sales rep you are.

So, what is the most effective way to sell a pencil? Well, first let’s look at how most sales reps go about doing it. When I’m interviewing sales reps I love using this technique. After letting a rep tell me how good of a closer they are, I pull out a pencil, hand it to them, and tell them to sell it to me. And off they go!

80% of sales reps start the same way – they start pitching. “This pencil is brand new, never used. It has grade “2” lead and a bright yellow color so it’s easy to find. It comes with a built in eraser,” etc.

Some reps can (and do!) talk about it for 5 minutes or more before they ask a question or ask for an order. As the sales rep rambles on, I begin to yawn, roll my eyes, etc. Amazingly, this just makes them talk even more! “What’s wrong with these people?” I think.

Now let’s look at how the top 20% go about selling a pencil. As soon as I give a top rep the pencil, they pause, and then they begin asking me questions:

“So how often do you use a pencil?”

“How many do you go through in a month?”

“What other locations does your company use pencils at, and how often do they order them?”

“What quantity do you usually order them in?”

“Besides yourself, who’s involved in the buying decision?”

Quite a difference, huh? I’ll tell you right now, I listen to hundreds of sales reps in a month and they can easily be separated into these two groups: Those who pitch, pitch, pitch, and those who take the time to understand their prospect’s buying motives, and
properly qualify to understand the entire selling process.

Now let’s see which category you fit in. When you speak with a prospect for the first time, how much of your script is focused on describing and pitching your product or service as opposed to questioning and uncovering buying motives?

If yours is like most scripts I review, then it’s filled with descriptions of what you do and how your product or service helps them. Most scripts attack the prospect with a barrage of “value statements” that turn people off and make them want to get you off the phone as quickly as possible.

Want a better way? Then take a tip from some of the best “pencil sales reps” and change your script and opening to focus more on questioning - discovering whether you’re dealing with a qualified buyer, and what it might take to actually sell them.

Without knowing this, you’ll just end up with a lot of frustration and a lot of unsold pencils at the end of the month.

Don’t do too much

For the last three weeks I’ve been discussing the 13 big mistakes I often see when critiquing sales letters. Below are the final two BIG mistakes I see every day. To review the previous 11, see my blog posts here.

12. Trying to Do Too Much
You are not going to sell a house with a post card. But you may get someone to raise their hand and say I want to find out more about that house with a post card.

You should also try to do one thing and only one thing. If you want them to call you, everything should lead to them calling you. If you want them to send back a post card to get the free DVD, everything should be about getting the DVD.

Tip: Determine what you want to accomplish and be sure everything in the letter supports that one thing.

13. No Double Readership Path and Poor Cosmetics
There are two types of ‘readers’ who will read your sales letters, post cards, print ads, etc. - skimmers and readers. If your headline does its job (see rule #1), then the readers will read every word that write. Skimmers, will NOT. You want skimmers to be able to make a buying decision by just reading:

• The Headline
• Subheads
• Captions
• Order instructions
• P.S.

While they may not make the buying decision based on the 5 bullet points above, if you’ve told your story well enough with your headline, subheads, captions, order instructions and P.S. they will often go back and read the entire letter.

With that said, we can enhance the sections above, and our copy with cosmetics. Cosmetics can be bolds, underlines, italics, CAPITALIZATION, a different font, SIZE, Colors, etc.

Cosmetics enhancements are used to increase readership among skimmers and help readers follow along. Cosmetics are used to cover key points and they make long copy seem shorter to the reader, and thus increase readership.

Tip: After you’ve written your sales letter, go through and use cosmetics to enhance your key points. The key points being your offer, reason why, guarantee(s), testimonial(s), deadline, and call to action. Then, have someone read just your headline, subheads, captions and cosmetic enhancements. If they can repeat your entire story just reading those areas, you’ve got yourself a double readership path with great cosmetics!

Don’t forget the P.S.

Testimonials – Don’t forget the P.S.

For the last two weeks I’ve been discussing the 13 big mistakes I often see when critiquing sales letters. To review where we left off, see the blog posts below from earlier this week. Below are the next two mistakes copywriters often make.

10. No P.S.
The P.S. is the second most read part of any sales letter. Many people read the headline and then turn to the end of the letter to see who it's from when they read the P.S.

My strong recommendation is to never send out a letter of any kind without including a P.S. This includes personal letters. Make it a habit from which you never vary. So when
you are writing to your mother, father or friend, end the letter with a P.S.

Tip: When preparing a P.S. for a sales letter, a good formula to follow is to simply restate the biggest benefit of the product, the guarantee and the offer. How about a second P.S.? So that’s P.P.S. – Or even a third – P.P.P.S.

11. Write Like You Were Taught To Write in High School Composition.
High School Composition has Absolutely-Nothing-TO-DO with effective sales letter writing. Oh no! I can’t capitalize Absolutely Nothing in the middle of a sentence – and there’s no rule about bolding whats-ever – and TO-DO certainly is not all caps! And my GOD what are all these dashes! Hey, only the G is capitalized in God. And what am I doing starting sentences and ending sentences with prepositions – Ohhhhhhhh – I got an F.

Get it? Most people’s writing is boring and stuffy at best! Most people are not boring and stuffy. Write like you speak! Punctuate for effect not to follow rules!

Tip: Want to write a great sales letter! Sit down with a good friend and a tape recorder and tell him why you and your product are so great. Transcribe the tape – add the #1 benefit at the top in a headline - and restate the biggest benefit, guarantee, and
offer in the P.S. – You’re done.

www.3dmailresults.com

Testimonials – You Can Never Have Too Many

For the last week I’ve been discussing the 13 big mistakes I often see when critiquing sales letters. To review where we left off, blog post below from last week. Below are the next two mistakes copywriters often make.

8. No testimonials.
Customers who rave about your product or service are extremely effective and should be included in every sales letter. The words from the mind and heart of customers build your credibility.

However, most marketers waste the potential impact of testimonials. Common mistakes include using initials rather than the full name, as well as omitting city and state or country.

Tip: When getting written permission to use a testimonial in advertising, also request a photo. Most will happily agree. Photos help to add power.

9. No money-back guarantee.
Your response to any sales letter will be significantly higher if you include a money-back guarantee.

Tip: The longer the guarantee, the more sales and less returns or refunds requested. For example, 30 days works better than 10 days, 60 days works better than 30 days, etc. A full year "no quibble" guarantee works very well.

The more you tell, the more you sell

For the last week I’ve been discussing the 13 big mistakes I often see when critiquing sales letters. To review where we left off, blog post from last week. Below are the next two mistakes copywriters often make.

6. Your copy is too short.
As the old saying goes, “The more you tell, the more you sell.” Tell the complete story of your product. Include every benefit you can. Copy can never be too long. Some of my sales letters are as long as 56 pages.

But you can be too boring. The biggest sin of any copywriter, even in a two-paragraph letter, is to bore the prospect. The secret is to tell a complete story, but in the fewest words possible. Eliminate every single unnecessary word.

Tip: Write only to those who are interested in what you are selling. Do not be concerned whatsoever with those who are not interested. Those who are interested need enough information to take the next step. Give it to them!

7. Large blocks of copy and few subheads.
Lengthy paragraphs without frequent subheads make copy intimidating to read. This discourages reading and response. Place at least two or three subheads on each page. Plus, keep paragraphs and sentences short. Paragraph length of no more than five sentences or less should be your goal. Some paragraphs can be one to three words.

Tip: When you write subheads, strive to make them short and benefit driven. If the subheads are well done, readers with short attention spans can simply read the headlines and subheads and make their buying decision on those alone.

Don’t Exaggerate

For the last week I’ve been discussing the 13 big mistakes I often see when critiquing sales letters. To review where we left off see my blog posts below from last week. Below are the next two mistakes copywriters often make.

4. Exaggerated Claims.
Many copywriters and marketers think the more astonishing your claims are the more persuasive. This is a fallacy. If a claim is exaggerated, it seems and feels untrue. You thus lose that all-important credibility.

Tip: First you should dramatize your advertising claims with the help of short emotional words. Then prove each claim. Expert comments and testimonials can be a big help. Give a reason why.

In the headline from last week, the roofer is giving away a big screen TV because his crew usually doesn’t do anything in January and February and his suppliers are slow also. He explains that in the letter.

5. Confusing offer.
So many sales letters do not make a clear, easily understandable offer. The result is few or no orders. Reason? When consumers are confused, they don't act--they do nothing. Confusion always breeds inaction.

Tip: Think through your offer very carefully and write it down before you prepare a single word of your sales letter.

3D Mail Success in Real Estate

It seems a real estate agent out there, who's also a coach in the niche, found out about our products and used them with some great success. See a video by Jay Kinder right here. I guess I'll need to get him on the phone and work out something with his members!

Don’t be Full of Yourself

On Tuesday I started out with the first big mistake people make with their sales letters. To review, see my blog post below. Now are the next two mistakes copywriters often make.

2. Copy is full of "Me" messages.Some examples: My products are terrific. My company is wonderful. We've been in business for 15 years. We have a long tradition of quality, blah, blah, blah.

So much advertising is full of this drivel. This is all about you. No one in the world cares besides you. Your prospects want to know exactly what benefits they will get from your products. In other words, if you sell grass seed, don't dwell on what it's composed of. Instead describe how beautiful their lawn will be.

TIP: Here is the fastest way to improve your copy. Review the first draft of your copy. Eliminate all these words--I, our, we, my. Substitute you and your. I promise you'll be amazed and truly gratified with the result. It's sure to blow your mind!

3. Copy fails to answer the question "What's in it for me?" The process, of course, starts with the headline. An excellent copywriting technique is to prepare bullet points. These should consist of all the benefits a buyer of your product will get.

Tip: Your benefits should be stated in headline format. The secret of making benefits even more powerful is to describe the benefit of the benefit.

B-I-G Sales Letter Mistakes

I often get asked to critique sales letters, and I come across a lot of the same mistakes nearly every single time. I’ve condensed it down to 13 of the biggest, most glaring mistakes I often see. Today we’ll start with the first one, and it’s probably the most often made mistake.

1. Poor Headline. Or what's even worse, no headline. The most important part of sales letters is the headline. Unless the headline immediately attracts attention and generates interest, your prospect will stop reading right then and there. This means you have no chance -zero- to fulfill the purpose of the sales letter, which is to make a sale. Your headline should communicate the strongest customer benefit(s) of your product or service.

TIP: Creating a great headline. This is entirely contrary to what many “experts” say, but it is what most experts do!

Headlines are critically important and yes you can spend hours, days, even weeks if necessary, creating headlines and then testing one headline against another. You can create at least 15 to 25 and test the strongest ones. You can write as many as 200 to 250 before choosing two to four to test against each other to find the most profitable.

Or you can do what most copywriters do when they critic someone’s copy. They read the copy and pick out a biggest benefit and make it the headline. Then they look for one or two other big benefits and make them sub-headlines.

Here’s an Example:

“How To Get a New Roof,
And a FREE 42” Flat Screen TV Just in time for the Big Game”
I Really Don’t Want to Lay Off My Crew this Winter
I only Have 10 TVs – Call Now To Be Sure Your Get Yours!

On Friday I’ll cover 2 more mistakes I often see. Stay tuned!

www.3DMailResults.com

Questions to ask Yourself about Premiums

We’re winding down our segment on the power of using premiums in your marketing. For a review of where we’ve been, see my last blog post below.

The first thing you need to do it you haven’t already is find out the lifetime value (LTV) of your average client. You need this vital information about your business. Going into a marketing campaign without knowing your LTV, is like entering an archery contest and not knowing where the target is located! How do you know where to shoot? How hard? How high? How low? Pretty tough.

For example, Let’s say, my average sale from a first time client is $100.00. I know that they’ll be worth $200 each year for 5 more years, the average length of a professional relationship in my business. That client is worth $1,100 to me. I now have a basis of where I can start my marketing campaign.

It is also vital to know your average sale. $5, $50, $5,000? How much of that are you willing to give away for a purchase? Or an appointment? Do you close well? If so, you just need to
get more appointments and premium may be just what you need to give you that bump. You simply need to find the premium to match your budget. If your LTV is smaller, use an appropriate smaller premium. If you have a large transaction size, a more lavish or expensive premium may be in order.

Here are some questions to ask yourself when adding premiums to your offer.

• Do(es) the bonus(es) have a high perceived value?
• Can you make bonuses by breaking out parts of your product?
• Are you going to use non-linked bonuses?
• Are the bonuses set up to be more desired than the product?
• Are you using bonuses to enhance purchase of upgrade (deluxe) product choice?
• Are you creating or buying multiple bonuses, instead of just one?
• Can you link bonuses to fast response? (time, limited quantity, first time buyers, etc)
• Are you offering unannounced bonuses either at purchase or after?

www.3DMailResults.com

The Premium Can Be the Focus of Your Sales Pitch

We’ve been talking about immense power of using premiums (free gifts) in your marketing. On Tuesday we talked about related and unrelated premiums. to review, see the blog posts below. We’re going to pick up our conversation below.

If the right premium is matched correctly with your list, your premium can often drive the sale. World famous retailer Murray Raphel called this the “psychology of second interest.”

Selling the second interest can be included in many sales processes, but it extremely applicable with premiums. How may Cracker Jack boxes did you buy as a kid (or for your kids) just to get that cheap little toy inside, or how about McDonald’s Happy Meals just for the prepackaged toy?

Premiums can Boost Your Referrals

As marketers, you know (or should know), that youwill almost always get a better ROI from your current clients. Knowing this, you can ask your current clients to refer their friends, family and business associates to you! You can offer a FREE gift for each new client they refer. The best place to start to get new business is to ask your current happy and satisfied clients! Offer them something of high perceived value, and they’ll refer their friends to you!

www.3dmailresults.com

Related or Unrelated Premiums?

Most people think their premium needs to be something they sell. This is a myth that needs to be addressed and debunked right now. In almost all instances, a premium unrelated to your product will outperform a premium that IS related to your business.

Here are a couple examples. For years in my main business I have sent out a free Big Key Calculator to responders to my mailing. I sell to independent retailers and I don’t sell calculators! Yes, they could use it in their store (or home, or wherever), but it is in no way related to what I want to offer them.

For years, Sports Illustrated gave away sneaker phones. This is in no way related to what Sports Illustrated offers, a weekly sports-news magazine. They simply matched the premium with their target demographic. They didn’t offer two month’s free of the magazine, or a free report about sports. IT’S A CHEAP, BARELY SERVICEABLE PHONE! It’s not a product they sell!

Have you ever received an offer from Omaha Steaks? They almost always offer a premium with a purchase, and it’s an unrelated product. I don’t know about you, but I sure don’t want a free report on how a cow goes
from the pasture to my plate. However, a free meat thermometer might be just the ticket to make sure my steak is nice and rare!

You should know enough about your target niche to offer an appropriate premium. Some will obviously work better than others. If you’re selling a high end, high priced luxury car, a $25.00 gift card to Wal-Mart probably isn’t the right premium. However, a leather briefcase with a perceived value of $125.00 (your actually cost is probably less than the $25.00 you’d spend at Wal-Mart) could probably do the trick!

www.3dmailresults.com

Why do Premium Offers Improve Direct Mail Response?

First and foremost, everybody wants something for FREE! It is a simple human instinct that appeals to our need for self gratification. That’s the simple answer.

Premiums cost very little, but have a high perceived value. You can very often offer premiums that your prospect perceives as very valuable but costs you very little in ‘real’ dollars. Remember, you are only sending a picture of the premium to the whole mailing and then giving the actual gift only to those who respond!

With this in mind, you certainly don’t want to alienate a customer, so make sure your premium (free gift) is as described in your literature.

Premiums can Lower Your Cost per Transaction!

This is a very interesting thing about premiums. And you’re probably thinking it’s counter-intuitive that a premium would lower your costs, but here’s how it lowers your cost per transaction.

Let’s say you mail out 10,000 sales letters, with no premium and you get a 2% response rate. That would be 200 responders. Let’s further assume you can be profitable with 200 responders. Now let’s say you offer the premium, and response goes up to 3%. This is not an out-of-the-ordinary response when you offer a premium. You now only need to send out 6,700 pieces of mail to get the same 200 responders as you did without the premium. And, for easy math, let’s say each mailing cost $1.00. You would save $3,300 on just the single mailing. If you assume your premium cost you $5 each for the 200 responders for a total cost of $1,000. You’re still saving $2,300!