Posted by:
Julie McManus
August 31, 2007
Issue #218
Dear Business Builder,
Happy Friday and welcome back to In The ‘Net Trenches. My does time fly. I can hardly believe another week has come and gone.
Many of you may be startled to read today’s headline – “Direct Mail is Dead” and I certainly don’t mean that literally. I picked the headline writing technique up from my good friend Bob Bly. You see Bob has a love of controversy … he thinks it’s a good conversation starter to point out something that is quite contrary to common belief. And I agree. In fact, one of his most recent headlines proclaims “3 Reasons Why Online Advertising Doesn’t Work.” In actuality, his headline sits atop a promotion for his most recent “how to” e-book on that very same topic. He most certainly got my attention!
Although direct mail isn’t dead, it’s certainly getting tougher to make the numbers work. I spoke to two different veteran direct mail marketers this week and both were interested in making the transition to the web. And both were very concerned about the mail.
Direct Mail Crisis
The rising cost of paper, printing and postage combined with a shrinking universe of direct mail prospects is of huge concern to the industry I specialize in … health and financial information publishing. This is an industry that has been direct mail dependant for over 20 years. But in the last several years, direct mail hasn’t been working quite like it used to.
Fewer prospects equal less possibility – An aging direct mail universe is a huge factor in what’s happening to our industry. Our demographic is typically older … okay I admit it, they’re really old. And our prospects are getting too old to care or they’re dying – there’s no nicer way to state that. And, they’re not being replaced at anywhere near the same levels as in the past.
Production costs are rising – Every year the cost to produce direct mail increases. And a postage increase earlier in the year certainly didn’t help. When you combine that with a smaller universe, it becomes harder to break even. It takes volume to make the numbers work.
Because of that, our industry is moving its marketing budget to the web in a big way. But if you’re an info-publisher that has yet to make that move, just how do you get started?
A Switch in Marketing Model
Imagine your marketing efforts as a funnel. Your lower-priced, acquisition-type products are the wide opening of the funnel. As you move further down into the funnel, you’ll find your more mid-priced products. And then moving further down, the narrow tip of the funnel would be your highest-priced, most premium products.
In direct mail, the goal with the wide-end of the funnel is to pull in as many new customers as possible by promoting a product that is priced at the very low end of the scale – less than $100. Then once that new customer becomes a part of your house file, you promote increasingly higher-priced follow-on products in an attempt to upsell them and increase their lifetime value. These follow-on products are referred to as your back end.
The beauty of direct mail is you can rent a customer mailing list from your competitors and mail your promotions to prospects that have demonstrated they’ll buy a product like yours. These “A” prospects should be the highest responders to your direct mail promotion.
But, on the web you don’t have the luxury of renting a competitors mailing list and knowing you’re only promoting to your very best prospects. So, the funnel model doesn’t typically start with a paid product. It starts with a free e-zine or e-newsletter.
An e-zine becomes a prospecting tool – it gives you the ability to introduce your company and products to less qualified and less targeted web prospects. It’s a lead generator. Coupled with additional free bonus reports or white papers, an e-zine gives you the ability to add large numbers of new prospects to the wide end of your funnel.
Through the inclusion of product ads in the e-zine, it becomes the first line of promotion you’ll use to start to convert those prospects into paying customers. And then through ongoing e-mail marketing, you’ll continue to move them down into narrower parts of your funnel – upselling them to even higher-priced products.
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Posted by:
Carline Anglade-Cole
August 30, 2007
Issue #217
Who’d a thunk that being a mom would be the secret to becoming a million dollar copywriter?
After all, I had no idea what copywriting was when I was squeezing out my 4 little puppies.
But you know what?
Each of those 4 personalities taught me important lessons in the art of copywriting. I think you’ll find them valuable too!
Kid #1 – a lesson in overcoming
objection and skepticism!
Man! My #1 daughter can drive me crazy! She’s stubborn … hard-headed … skeptical … and full of ATTITUDE.
This is a kid – who at the age of 6 months stared me right in the eyes while nursing and bit my nipple so hard my toes curled!
My husband said she didn’t know what she was doing – but I KNEW she knew – so I closed down her “cafeteria” immediately!
As she got older, we couldn’t just tell her what to do, we had to spend time to explain, convince and persuade her. If she didn’t believe you, she would find a way to rebel. But when she was convinced, she followed instructions to a T.
Guess what? Your market is the same way.
Don’t ever think you can get away with delivering copy that’s lacking proof elements and other forms of credibility. And don’t ever try to over-hype your product so the B.S. detector goes off in your prospect’s mind. You’ll lose the sale and you’ll end up in the poor house!
So make sure your package is loaded with:
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Posted by:
Daniel Levis
August 29, 2007
Issue #216
In this issue:
- One of the strangest days of my selling life …
- What your prospects silently crave but seldom get – give it to them and the world is your oyster …
- One of the biggest reasons copy fails …
- How to create truly empathetic marketing …
- And more!
Dear Business Builder,
When I was a green-as-a-head-of-cabbage commission sales rep, I made a startling discovery. My job was to barge in on local industrial, retail, and service businesses and extract a small check for $30 and a signature that meant the local gas utility would deliver their natural gas through my company’s supply contracts.
One day, while driving from one town to the next I came upon a very large building sitting by its lonesome on an almost deserted stretch of highway. I detoured down the lengthy service road to check the size of the meter and piping on the outside of the building. It was HUGE!
What this meant was I could earn a fat commission if I could get the owner of the building to sign up. I went inside and inquired as to who was in charge, and was directed to an address nearby in the countryside. I found the man’s name on a mailbox on a narrow and heavily wooded side road in the middle of nowhere.
I entered the long winding driveway and eventually came upon an extremely large stone home and guesthouse that could only be described as a mansion surrounded by wondrous gardens, duck ponds, and what must have been no less than 5 acres of beautifully landscaped grounds.
I rang the doorbell, and was met by an elderly man who turned out to be the man I was looking for. I introduced myself, and was about to make my customary pitch, when somehow at the last second before I opened my mouth I sensed that the man wanted to talk to me. Instead of speaking, I simply looked at him, and waited for him to speak.
Sure enough he invited me in, offered me refreshments, and began sharing his various hobbies and interests. And for the next couple of hours I barely said a word. I simply listened to him and nodded occasionally. Eventually he said, “I know you’re busy, you mentioned you where here from the gas company …”
I told him what I was selling, and asked for his signature and a check. Without hesitating, he complied. I thanked him, got in my car, and left.
In those two hours, I made more commission than in the previous two weeks, and I hadn’t said more than a few words to get it. The whole experience was surreal.
What your prospects silently crave
but seldom get – give it to them
and the world is your oyster …
Here was an extremely wealthy man who had everything except someone who would listen to him, and make him feel understood. Something about my countenance made him believe I was that person, and I had enough intelligence to play along.
Later, when I got involved in high ticket technology sales that involved multiple interactions, I always remembered this strange lesson, and it paved the way to tens of millions of dollars in sales.
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Posted by:
Troy White
August 28, 2007
Issue #215
In this issue:
-
How free publicity can do you more damage than good
-
The story of my 3 pound miracles
-
The questions you need to ask yourself before launching a media blitz
-
And much more!
Fellow business builder,
This week I want to share with you a very personal story that happened to me, almost 7 years ago today. This event changed my life forever … and it taught me a very important lesson about the media.
Free media publicity is GREAT, but it isn’t for everyone at all times.
It all started at around 12:15 pm on October 8th, 2000. A warm weather October day, we were sitting around the kitchen having some lunch. My wife Kari was 31 weeks pregnant, with our twin daughters tucked away safely inside her.
My life changed right then and there.
She went to the washroom and came out looking VERY pale.
I’ll never forget what came next – “I think my water just broke!”
I thought she was kidding
– the babies weren’t due
for another 2 MONTHS!
She wasn’t.
Off to the hospital we went. Unfortunately our regular doctor was on holiday (why is it they are always on holiday when you need them most?). The doctor that saw Kari did his evaluation and went off for a few minutes.
When he came back, my life changed again!
“I’m afraid we have a problem” he said in a thick British accent. “There are no incubators left in the entire province – we are going to have to send you to another province.” A province of 3 million people and hundreds of incubators for premature babies – and they are ALL full.
Next thing we know, less than an hour and a half later we’re on a Lear Jet with a medical team at our side – on our way to Vancouver.
By this time we are scared to death
on what is happening
and what state
the babies are in.
We get to the BC Women’s Hospital in Vancouver to a very welcome reception and prepared medical team. They do their thing and inform us on what is happening. Kari’s water had broken – 9 weeks early. They want the babies to stay inside as long as possible to help their lungs develop further. So they give Kari some kind of steroid shot specifically designed to help premature babies lungs develop faster than usual.
The next 2 days were pure torture … Not knowing what was happening … how the babies were … and what would ultimately happen.
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Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
August 27, 2007
Issue #214
In this issue:
- Response Device 101: The Four Types of Order Forms and When to Use Each One …
- 12 Qualities Great Order Forms Have in Common …
- The #1 Blunder Marketers Make With Their Response Devices …
- And MORE!
Dear Business Builder,
Can you believe we’ve published 213 issues of The Total Package without so much as a whisper about how to create response devices (order forms) for maximum response?
Go figger.
OK, so order forms aren’t sexy. You’ll probably never see a long thread on a copywriting forum about “My all-time favorite response devices.” Or “World’s greatest order form writers.”
But when done intelligently, these afterthoughts of the direct response copywriting world can be response-boosting dynamos. Done poorly, they can cost you response points and lower your average sale – or worse, make ordering next to impossible.
So today, let’s consider the humble order form …
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