Posted by: Troy White
July 31, 2007
Issue #191

It May Be Killing Trees But It Will TRUMP Any E-Mail Results

In this issue:

• How to get other people to pay for ALL of your marketing …

• The 12 cent miracle cure to slumping sales …

• How BIG is the difference between digital and print? Why should you care?

• $250,000 in 5 months is very possible … how?

• And much more!

Fellow business builder,

To me, internet-only marketing is missing the boat. Focusing all of your marketing effort online may be doing you much more harm than good. Yes – e-mail is ‘free’. Yes, websites are next to ‘free’. And yes, you can test much faster and with more detail than doing offline marketing.

But, when I personally get 420 – 550% better results using print … my radar tells me that something is amiss in cyberworld.

I’m talking about the lowly piece of paper that people have to actually touch. That thing that wasn’t supposed to exist in the ‘paperless’ office – HA! I have more paper now than ever before.

Anyhow, for my clients and prospects … I opt to not only send them e-mail newsletters – but to also send them print newsletters.

Why?

• They can’t delete in a nanosecond.
• They have to physically handle it (even to throw it out).
• They can pass it to others.
• There is MUCH more perceived value in paper than on the screen.
• There is less competition in the physical mailbox than in the e-mail box (I don’t know about you – but I don’t get 500 pieces of stuff in my physical mailbox to deal with every day – I do in my inbox).
• They are much less likely to get upset with you abusing their mailbox than their inbox.

And …

• The results speak for themselves!

When I run a print newsletter I use different links I can track back to the specific source of order. And the numbers speak for themselves. From a print ad I ran in one newsletter, I saw a $8.61 per click return. From the same ad in my e-zine I saw a $0.76 per click return.

Well over 1,000% better … same ad … same product … many of the same contacts. But print converted exponentially better.

I go with what works – and this works.

So, I thought I would share with you one of my newsletters and how I structure it (and how you should too).

First, hokey and silly WORK!

My experiences with cartoons for the Wild West Wealth Summit gave me more than enough proof that you should be using cartoons in your business.

People ate it up and wanted more of it.

Which is why I have a team of cartoonists (which you can get for next to nothing on elance.com) working on a number of projects for me.

It stands out in an environment that is incredibly difficult to stand out in.

I use my kids in some of my articles. Having twins puts me in the 3% bracket of families with young kids. And people are fascinated with this. I share success secrets I learn while watching them play – and people love those articles.

But, you may not want to use kids
in your newsletters
– your staff, partners, suppliers, or customers
will work just as well.

Share success stories.

Share funny stories.

Share sad stories.

Share NON-WORK RELATED ARTICLES.

That is one of the keys to making newsletters work.

At the Summit, I had my twin daughters Hailey and Katrina come up on stage and present a check for $5,000 to the Ronald McDonald House as part of our giving a portion of seat sales to charity. Some definite tears shed (by those in the audience – maybe even me as well).

There was a very personal reason for this which is revealed on the Wild West Wealth site at the bottom.

I am a real person too …
and my clients like to know and see that.

You should share more about yourself as well.

I met last week with a father-daughter team who run a successful promotional company. We were discussing how to improve their business using newsletters. At one point they started talking about the challenges they face working together in the same office, with grandkids running amuck.

Those stories they told are pure gold!

And I told them to promise to use more of that kind of story in their newsletter … their clients will LOVE it. Guaranteed they will see a big boost to sales when they start using print newsletters.

Here are some of the parts I recommend you include in your newsletter:

1. Introductory rant: a small section devoted to what’s on your mind this month. Your personality can shine here and you can get people looking forward to your next rant.
2. Case studies and testimonials: your time to show off and strut your stuff. This is your chance to share your clients with your prospects. This is your chance to show off how good you are. This is your chance to make your clients devoted fans for life (why would they go anywhere else when they get free publicity from you?!)
3. Funny sayings, signs, bumper stickers, or strange facts: everyone loves a good laugh and a good read. Your clients are no different. Give them some good material that makes your newsletter a MUST read.
4. Usable content and articles: Start writing how-to tips and stories about your product or service, it’s history, how to use it better, advanced tips … etc. If you refuse to do this yourself, hire it out (which may not be a wise move as writing is the BEST move you’ll ever make as a business owner).
5. Calls to action and some advertisements: the real key to making your newsletter profitable. Don’t over do it – but make sure you do it! Consider it a MUST to have at least 2 offers in your newsletter. One proven one – and one new one you want to test.

See for yourself some of the ways I integrate this into my 4 pager.

 

 

Also note that you can get a 4 page newsletter printed for DIRT CHEAP. You can even have other people pay you to advertise in your newsletter – and have them finance the entire thing.

Aim for 30% content and 70% other.

It may sound strange – but the formula works.

If you recall a couple months ago … I shared the story of Rita who followed this formula and made an extra $250,000 in 5 months … would that help your business at all? I bet it would.

I recommend you use e-mail AND print for maximum results … never limit yourself to just e-mail though (I used to – and will never go back until the results prove me wrong)

For the print newsletters – send them to your clients AND your prospects. This is a great way to warm them up to you – and to keep them interested in what you are doing.

If you have challenges finding a mailing company to do this for you (or do it yourself if your list is small) – sign up for my newsletter at the Wild West Wealth site and I will soon be letting you know a very simple, very cool service that does ALL of this for you.

As you can tell, this marketing tool is one of my favorites.

Try it out yourself and see – but please commit to at least a 6 month trial. Every month for the next 6 months send your print newsletter out to your database. See what happens – and share your results with me please.

Doing a one-time mailing will not work – you may make some money with it – but the real money comes after you have been doing this for a few months.

The home study version DVDs of the Wild West Wealth Summit (where many more of these kinds of lessons are shared are now available for pre-order.

They are available at a discount from the release price. See more of the testimonials and get your copy reserved now before they go up.

To your success,

Troy White
Editor, Small Business Mastery
Supplement to THE TOTAL PACKAGE

Looking for resources related to this article? Try some of these.

Looking for more of Troy’s articles? Check these out.

Looking for past issues of The Total Package? Click here for our archives.

A Final Note:

If you have specific subjects you would like addressed, or have any comments on what you have seen here, please submit a comment below and I will see how I can help.

"A man to carry on a successful business must have imagination.
He must see things as in a vision, a dream of the whole thing.”

– Charles Schwab

 

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Attribution Statement: This article was first published in The Total Package. To sign-up to receive your own FREE subscription to The Total Package and claim four FREE money making e-books go to www.makepeacetotalpackage.com.

 

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No Comments »

1. Comment by John Forde — July 31, 2007 @ 8:01 am

   Troy,

   I couldn\’t agree more… great article. I\’ve been doing an online email (the Copywriter\’s Roundtable) for over six years, and you practically have me convinced on the merits of this one piece alone that I should be doing something in print.

   But even more, your quick list of things to include in both presentations and editorial is spot on. Just wanted to add that not only do your communications with customers work better when they can see you\’re a real person, but they\’re a lot more fun to deliver!

   Seriously, I used to dread giving presentations. Until I decided to be more \”present\” when giving them – that is, make sure that I offered my message interwoven with personality rather than as some abstract thing that the audiences could just get by reading the Powerpoint.

   And the same has always been true for me in the editorial of my e-letter too. The principles I\’m sharing are generally universal, but the delivery is unique to me and made alive by making it funny, personal, conversational, etc.

   So, great advice… thanks!

   John

2. Comment by Daniel Gallapoo — July 31, 2007 @ 9:10 am

   Great article, Troy! Thank you! I feel like I\’ve been beating my head against a wall trying to convince friends and clients that they need to do offline marketing in addition to their online stuff. Nobody believed me. I feel vindicated now. :grin

   All the best,
   Dan

3. Comment by JOhn — August 1, 2007 @ 2:39 am

   I do newsletter (4-pagers) for alternative health doctors. It\’s the way to go.

   Tying them into the emails is a good move though. A weekly email always ends with a PS promoting the past newsletter (to make sure they read it) or promoting the upcoming one (so they are anticipating it\’s arrival).

   Likewise, the newsletter promotes the past and future emails (to make sure they subscribe, read, and if something got spam-blocked, to go and view it on specific a blog or archive link).

   John

4. Comment by nita — August 2, 2007 @ 3:40 am

   hi,
   this was a great article.it was an eyeopener because i just read a report that said that print publications are losing revenue due to online advtg.
   sincerely,
   nita