How do you keep up with your prospects and customers?

Do you know where they are?

I’ll let you in on a secret…

They are everywhere!

That’s why at GKIC we believe in a multi channel marketing approach.

You see if you’re not marketing to your customers multiple ways, you might not be reaching them.

Plus, when you consider that multichannel customers spend 3 – 4 times more than single channel customers do.

It’s worth focusing your time and effort to get this right.

More and more consumers today are becoming multichannel media users. According to research by Nielsen, 46% of smartphone owners and 43% of tablet owners said they use their devices while watching TV every day.

So what do we recommend at GKIC?

Here are a few examples…

•Print Ad – magazines, newspapers, flyers etc.

•Direct Mail – Printed sales letter mailed to your prospects.

•Phone – Never underestimate the power of picking up the phone to call your prospects. You also have the option to text and Whatsapp etc.

•Emails – Got an email list? You need one, probably the easiest way to reach your prospects and track/measure results immediately.

•Facebook Ads – Are great for reaching your ideal customers.

•YouTube Videos – Great place for cheap traffic.

•Podcasts – GKIC’s podcast is a fantastic resource with great interviews – check it out here!

In this week’s blog we’re going to look at podcasts and why you should be using them as part of your multi channel marketing.

How do you run a podcast in your business and get people to listen?

To create a podcast you need to be able to:

• Record audio files, such as an MP3. Audacity is an example of free software

• Host them.

•Syndicate these files into what’s called an “RSS feed” so that it can be distributed through iTunes as well as downloaded or streamed on on-demand.

Get your content out there!

You see, a podcast allows you to reach a brand new audience.

Pros about podcasts

•Podcasts are easy to consume

•You can listen on the go

•Can be listened on multiple devices (smartphone, tablet, computer, MAC etc.)

•It’s not a content medium like a sales letter that requires attention

•Intimate connection with your prospects/customers

•Free to create!

Facts about podcasts taken from this article

•The podcast audience is 57 million Americans in total.

•64% of podcasts are being listened to on a smartphone or tablet.

•Weekly podcast listeners consume five shows per week on average

•One in four Americans ages 12-54 listened to a podcast last month.

•Just 11% of Americans 55+ listen to podcasts monthly.

What should you talk about?

Interesting and helpful information!

It’s no good running a podcast about losing weight and advertising it to skinny people!

You can check out some previous GKIC podcasts here<Need hyperlink to GKIC podcast signup page >

REMEMBER- you shouldn’t keep all your eggs in one basket.

Repeating your sales message across multiple channels will definitely grab your prospects attention.

You just need to weigh up what works best for your business.

And track your promotions – this Google article could help you

You’d be surprised how many times I hear: “Nick, I tried running a print ad and it didn’t pull”

Or “My FB Ads aren’t getting enough interest”

And they give up.

When their lack of results are because they’re not doing it consistently.

I can’t stress this enough…

You need to:

•TEST

•MEASURE

•IMPROVE

I’d be amazed if anyone hits a homerun fresh out of the gate!

Keep working at it!

I know you have this!

Make sure you’re on the GKIC podcast list. There are plenty of business growth tips to help transform your business results. Click Here to find out more

Source: Dan Kennedy

Your headline has your prospects attention… they start to read your sales message…

AND

There goes another customer.

You have made $0!

Why is that?

There could be lots of reasons.

• Your offer sucks. (Like trying to sell weight loss to a skinny person!)

• They don’t believe what you say is true.

• Your copy is weak!

That’s why in today’s blog we’re going to inject superpowers in your copy and help you write killer BULLETS… for all your info-marketing promotions.

Bullets are important.

In fact, Parris Lampropoulos is one of the most successful copywriters in the world today.

His record number of controls, and revenue generated for Boardroom using tons of bullets is proof he’s the real deal!

He says: bullets are the reason why he has so many winners under his belt!

For example he’ll write hundreds of bullets for a single copy package that only needs 50.

I’ve also heard his copy cubs are almost sick of writing bullets!

So why does he spend a huge part of time writing bullets?

Because a bullet’s job in your copy is to deliver a clear benefit and promise to your reader…

TIP: Think of BULLETS in copy as mini-headlines. (read a recent article on headlines here)

You see, the job of your Bullets is to get your reader (prospect) to go back into your content, or go move closer to your CTA.

Let’s not forget bullets can create winning controls!

Here are some bullets featured in a well known magazine MensHealth:

TIP – Start collecting bullets that grab YOUR attention. You could choose to write them on a pad, and keep it somewhere near your desk. Then when you need inspiration, flip through the pad and read the bullets. Or create a digital bullet swipe file on your computer.

Let’s move on.

Great… Enter John Carlton. John is well known for his bullets. Some of his classic sales letters are jam-packed solid with pages upon pages of bullets!

Here are some bullets from his “One Legged Golfer” Sales letter…

• The one mistake even pro golfers make that kills the power in their downstroke… and how to use a simple, easy “adjustment” that will instantly increase your power by 200% or more! (Imagine consistently hitting 300 yard drives, and nailing greens from 150 yards out with a nine iron!)

TIP: Swipe and deploy – let’s take the above bullet and borrow the structure for writing a bullet for a realtor.

• The one mistake even realtors make that kills the sale over the phone… and how to use a simple, easy “negotiation” tip that will instantly increase your discounts by 30% or more! (Imagine consistently getting the best deals on property from the realtors bottom draw!)

Note – we don’t support plagiarism. But swiping copy can help you get started.

Here are some more of John’s awesome bullets to get your creative juices flowing:

• How to master this new swing in the shortest time possible… while you improve your current game with every stroke! (You’ll learn everything those rich guys paid thousands of bucks for!)

• Why “beginners” are able to use this swing to quickly surpass more experienced golfers… even if they don’t play every week! (In fact, the less you understand about what the “experts” try to tell you, the faster you’ll be shaving off strokes and getting distance you could only dream about before!)

• How a “secret” 5-inch change in your hip placement translates into massive power for your stroke! (Not one pro in a thousand even suspects the potency of this simple adjustment!)

• How to avoid the power-sapping problems of “classic” swings — and guarantee yourself repeatable accuracy, tremendous “punch”, and the most comfortable, natural swing you’ll ever experience!

• Exactly where each of the six simple segments of the Triple Coil Swing begin and end — so you’ll be able to spot-check your progress… and master the swing faster than anything else you’ve ever attempted in sports! (And repeat your perfected swing every time, without a shred of second-guessing!)

• How to use the secrets of “loading” your body for maximum power! (Traditional swings rob you of this potential power — while the Triple Coil Swing actually increases it two-fold!)

• Why the new “lag” in your swing will cause your buddies to shake their heads… until they see you consistently out-drive them by 40, 50 and 60 yards off every tee! (I guarantee they’ll make you play with one of their balls, just to make sure you aren’t cheating somehow!)

• How to use simple “double checks” (like the “visible knuckle” rule) to instantly make sure you’re prepared for any shot… so you’ll always get a repeatable result no matter what the conditions are! (Even if you’re playing a strange course, in the rain, with your partners coughing and dropping bags to distract you!)

• The truth behind “follow through” — and why 99% of all golfers completely blow it right after they hit the ball!

• How to instantly diagnose mistakes in your swing — so you’ll never have back-to-back misfires again! (This is a comprehensive list of the most common mistakes you’re likely to make… a complete “fail safe” system of correcting yourself during your game!)

• How to practice at home — using props that won’t cost you a dime — to increase your learning curve 10 times faster!

• How to use the secret of “choking down” to master any club in your bag… no matter how horrible you were with it before!

To save you time, this old article will help you craft your own bullets…

In fact, it walks you through 8 ways to write bullet points that work.

TIP: When writing your bullets – you won’t go wrong if you treat them as a possible headline! Which means if each bullet passes the “headline” test (Is it readable and does it pique curiosity?)

Now, you won’t create winning headlines with every bullet you write… but if you follow this tip, you’ll be writing winning bullets faster! Plus your new bullets will keep your readers eyeballs ‘super-glued’ to your copy!

URGENT: The huge savings for the 2017 Info-SUMMIT disappears at midnight – NO EXCEPTIONS! And if you have any questions, our team will make sure to get those answered. Email us at [email protected] or call us at 800-871-0147

Source: Dan Kennedy

Batman: I’m not sure info-marketers are ready for this…

PAUSE

Jim Gordon: Shouldn’t the people know the TRUTH…

…In today’s blog we’ve pulled a FAST one on Batman, and borrowed a blueprint from the Bat Cave!

Don’t worry; we’ll get it back before anyone notices…

Targeting and Optimization on Mobile devices!

We’re going to reveal how you can divide your audience by operating system, device, in-app vs. mobile web, and dayparting…

“POW!”

Plus how to track conversions (Google analytics) to understand what drives results, and use this information to improve your campaign…

“Holy Internet Conversions Batman!”

Operating system – Depending on your customers preference, it would be advantageous to track what operating system they’re using.

The reason why you should be segmenting your customers based on different operating systems.

Android and iOS users can behave differently.

Twitter for example, will allow you to use device targeting for creating ads. This will cater for customers who use different operating systems. This article from business.twitter.com walks you through the process.

Device – Knowing how your customer spends their time in the digital realm through out the day can add more dollars to your bank.

If you could know for certain what time of the day your customer will be on their mobile device, desktop or tablet.

Doesn’t it make sense to capture that data?

Imagine how powerful it would be if you knew mobile traffic spikes on a weekend?

Imagine if you knew what time of day to send out txt messages to phones – knowing there’s a 99% chance your customer will read and engage.

Well, this article walks you through some interesting facts on device specific PPC adv campaigns.

Which brings me to…

App Vs Mobile Web

Who’s Winning The Battle?

You should consider the web is for wide audience reach, and mobile apps are driving engagement from your loyal customers.

Both are strategic and valuable.

So when it comes to mobile, it’s not a question of web vs. mobile apps. It’s picking the right approach that will yield better results for your customers.

Have you considered creating an app for your loyal customers?

Imagine if you could have space on their mobile device that you can engage with your customer on a more personal level!

Let’s move on shall we…

Dayparting – is the practice of running you digital marketing at specific times of the day or on specific days of the week to more effectively target an audience.

This is extremely useful if you’re on a budget and you need to get your message in front of your customer when you know they will be looking!

This can be done on PPC ads, FB ads, Radio, and TV commercials.

Enter Google analytics

Mia Vallo – Sr. Director, Marketing Analytics, National Geographic says:

“Google’s analytics products helped us improve engagement by 33% and click throughs by 21% for content promotions on our homepage.”

Would your business benefit from 33% increase in customer engagement?

Don the cape and fly on over to this article all about Google analytics and the 360 suite. Which is designed to help you get the most out of your market research.

Now, if you want more strategies to profit… if you want the latest cutting edge marketing tactics at your disposal…

Why don’t you Step inside the Bat Cave at The 2017 Info-SUMMIT?

The secret entrance will open Oct. 24-26, Cleveland, Ohio For about 500 Information Marketers and Entrepreneurs.

Not to mention a smashing lineup of guest speakers and sales & marketing experts.

Yes, size matters at an event, but even more significant is the quality of the attendee! You get both here.

In case you’re unfamiliar with the Info-SUMMIT, it’s the No.1 Mecca for seasoned info-marketers and traditional business owners alike – we empower them to leverage what they know versus what they do, and parlay that knowledge into real wealth on their own terms.

This year, we’re gathering The Superheroes of Information Marketing and it’s a HUGE HULK-SIZE OPPORTUNITY for YOU to grow your info-business FAST!– find out more here!

Source: Dan Kennedy

Do you ever look at your phone, and a little voice in your head explodes with rage:

“Stop hijacking my digital space!”

Your thumb quickly navigates to BLOCK the ad, news feed, or whatever was occupying space on your screen.

That’s how a poor mobile sales process can lose customers.

Do you have a mobile optimized sales process?

Is your business ready?

Those are questions you need to answer if you want to prosper.

In today’s blog we’re going to take a look at mobile marketing/advertising and how you can amalgamate direct response copy principles to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and generate more sales.

FACT: Mobile advertising is a form of advertising via mobile (wireless) phones or other mobile devices. It is a subset of mobile marketing. It is estimated that mobile app install ads accounted for 30% of all mobile advertising revenue in 2014, and will top $4.6bn in 2015, and over $6.8bn by the end of 2019!

Mobile marketing is no different to writing direct response sales letters. The delivery of your message is what separates them.

Knowing your customer is using a mobile device you need to be smarter with your message to market.

Why?

Two reasons.

1. Space is limited. You’ve got less than 6 inches to get their attention!
2. Time. You’re entering a competition to win attention (you’ve less than a second) with every social media platform hustling for a piece of the action.

Not to mention texts, Whatsapp and more!

What can you do? You need to approach your marketing slightly different to sending a 20-page direct response sales letter in the mail… or a long email.

Here are some samples:

Text MSG Marketing

When was the last time you didn’t open a text message?

Tips for creating the perfect call to action using text messages.

Tip 1 – Use Bullets – dig through some old sales letters and look for the bullets; these are a great starting point for grabbing attention and getting a call to action.

For example,

How to Run Ads on social media platforms – (The best mobile solutions for you!)

Could be changed to: How To Dominate Social Media (Including Facebook) Using This Secret Data Hack!

Followed by your call to action. Click a link, visit a web page, and call this number.

Tip 2 – Think about how you would text a friend. That way you keep the message personal.

For example, you wouldn’t start your message saying: FLASH SALE on food at Billy’s, jump on this special offer right now!

You would probably say: Hungry? Try the Hunger Buster tonight? – Show this MSG and get an extra 20% off!

Tip 3 – Headline copy can make great texts. Check out last week’s blog: sage info-marketing advice from a marketing legend ahead of his time! You can learn the secrets of writing headlines that sell from his vault of blockbuster ads.

Let’s move on to Mobile Aps…

You should also consider getting a mobile app created for your business so you can be visible to customers at all times.

Research has proved the average American spends more than two hours a day on his or her mobile device.

By having an app downloaded by a prospect or customer you’re creating a direct marketing channel with them.

Which means you can communicate more effectively and make sure they don’t miss out on your promotions!

Also it can be a great way to deliver specific content and can promote better engagement.

Finally, we’re going to look at Image Marketing

The old saying: “A Picture is worth a thousand words” is definitely true for your customer!

You see, strong imagery can resonate with your prospect often better than words!

Especially when your customers haven’t got much time.

Even celebs are riding the wave.

Take Beyoncé for example, her Instagram posts are worth $1 million each! According to a new report from D’Marie Analytics, which tracks social media reach… Beyoncé is now the most valuable personality on social media, a feat that’s even more impressive when you consider that she’s only the 22nd most followed person online!

If you want to stay ahead of the curve, and be SEEN by your prospects… and have your customers engage with you… then you need to amalgamate mobile marketing in your business.

Which brings me to an important question:

Have you registered for the most anticipated event of the year?

If you want to learn the best ways for mobile marketing… and know what your customer wants without harming conversions or hijacking their digital space then you need to be at 2017 INFO-SUMMIT – The place for fighting poor conversions, protecting your wealth, meeting business growth allies, and battling profit-sucking villains!

Source: Dan Kennedy

He sold stoves to nuns, drunkards, and everyone in between…

“Now, You Can Learn The Secrets of Writing Headlines That Sell From His Vault of Blockbuster Ads!”

Hidden in ads, is a ‘Secret Selling Formula’ proven to skyrocket your sales…

Read on To Double, Triple Even Quadruple Your Turnover…

If you want your business to explode out of the gate with maximum success then keep reading because you’re about to experience.

A secret selling formula responsible for making business owners, entrepreneurs and info-marketers seriously wealthy!

And this selling formula has worked in many different markets, such as:

• Motor vehicles
• Oil
• Clothing
• Beauty
• Finance
• B2B
• Travel
• Food
• Hotels
• And has done so for years

Since everyone else in the INFO MARKETING space are using the same marketing tricks and lame gimmicks…

There has NEVER been a more important time to STAND OUT from the noise and get your messages read and acted on.

The proven, time-tested way to grab your prospects attention and turning them into customers (buying from you) is through the written word.

Introducing copywriting!

Mores specifically, direct-response copy!

So what is direct-response copy and why should you care?

Direct-response copy is basically copy designed to lead the reader to a buying decision immediately.

You see, writing copy is the most profitable and useful skill any business owner, entrepreneur, and info-marketer can master.

If you want to increase your response from an advert in a local paper…

If you want to increase your response from an online blog post…

If you want to increase your response from website visitors…

Having the ability to produce good copy can make you wealthy!

Not only do you need to learn about writing good copy for:

• Email marketing
• Free reports
• Blogs
• Web copy
• Press releases
• Direct mail
• Flyers
• Business cards
• And more

You also need to be able to SPOT good copy at a glance.

Why you may ask?

There may come a time in your business that you have to outsource copy projects…

This could be due to business growth.

You may pass this work to someone in your office

Maybe a freelancer…

Or even hire an agency…

You’ll want to know if the copy meets your high standards.

That’s why we’re going to explore the world of direct response copy…

…And who better to give you a lesson for boosting conversions and multiplying sales than the remarkable David Ogilvy. He was an marketing legend ahead of his time!

In case you’re not familiar with David Ogilvy, he built an advertising empire, known today as Ogilvy and Mather!

In his agency’s first twenty years, Ogilvy won assignments from Lever Brothers, General Foods and American Express.

Shell gave him their entire account in North America. Sears hired him for their first national advertising campaign.

“I doubt whether any copywriter has ever had so many winners in such a short period of time,” Says David Ogilvy.

Around 1965, Ogilvy formed a new international company. One year later the company went public. Soon Ogilvy & Mather had expanded around the world and was firmly in place as one of the top agencies for hire!

To Sell More, Earn More, and Build a Truly Successful Infobusiness in Any Market.

We’re going to look at the mechanics behind some of his remarkable ads, so you can add them to your swipe file, use for inspiration, and start to think like David Ogilvy when you write copy.

David Ogilvy’s says this was the best headline he ever wrote…

Not only was this headline a huge success for Rolls Royce. David Ogilvy mentions that Shell put Ogilvy’s agency on the list of agencies that they were considering because his Rolls-Royce advertising impressed them!

Shell Oil Ad

Marketing lesson 7 – By getting your content out there, you NEVER know who could be reading! And just like Ogilvy, you may attract your ideal customer without looking for them!

Let’s Take A Look At His Dove soap Ad

 

Can you see how he uses a strong picture of his target market?

And the headline copy is in a conversational tone.

Could you model the style of this ad in your business?

Can you start thinking what conversations your customers and prospects are having? Then when you tie that into your copy it can make it powerful.

In the next ad Ogilvy uses a strong picture with a short headline. Yet this ad is extremely targeted and very powerful!

I’m sure you’ve come across the term pattern interrupt?

If not, a pattern interrupt is a way to change a person’s state or strategy.

We all have behavior patterns that are habit sequences or mental pathways. It is also a great way to induce trance.

Marketers like Frank Kern have been known to use pattern interrupts in copy to GRAB attention in a crowded market.

Well, can you spot how Ogilvy uses it in this ad?

Can you spot it?

Yes, it’s the eye patch!

Let’s take a look at how you can write some compelling headlines for your business.

As Ogilvy says: “On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar”

So how do you approach writing a headline?

Research – This is the most important part of creating a winning headline. You need to put yourself in your ideal customers shoes. Imagine what they are thinking. Imagine what keeps them awake at night. You need to read what they read. A good starting point is checking out the forums that your ideal customers hang out. This may give you some clues to how they talk and what interests them.

Benefits To Reader – Ask yourself does your headline offer your reader benefits. The more you can cram in the better!

Interesting – does it peak curiosity? – This is very important. If your headline doesn’t stand out, it will get lost in all the online noise screaming for your customer’s attention.

Here’s what Ogilvy says: “What do work are photographs which arouse the reader’s curiosity.” He glances at the photograph and says to himself, “What goes on here?” Then he reads your copy to find out. This is the trap to set.

Problem/Solution – what problem are you addressing and what solution are you offering your customers?

Guarantee – how will you guarantee your product or service? Money back? free trial for X days?

With that said, here are five headline templates you can model to grab your prospects attention…

The “If-Then” Headline.

Example: If You Can Read A Magazine, You Can Write Better Headlines!

Example: If You Can Use A Keyboard, You Can Write Copy!

Example: If You Can Use Your iPhone Camera, You Can Record Sales Videos!

The “How-To” Headline.

Example: How To Write Headlines That Sell

Example: How To Collect Sales Letters That Sell

Example: How To Double, Triple Even Quadruple Sales

The “Reason-Why” Headline.

Example: 5 Reasons You Should Be Focusing On Your Headlines

Example: The Reason Why Your Copywriting Needs These Powerful Bullets

The “Question” Headline

Example: Do you make these mistakes with your headlines?

Example: Do Have The Courage To Write Million Dollar Headlines?

The “Who Else Wants” Headline

Example: Who else wants to write headlines that sell?

Example: Who else wants to own a 10 million dollar swipe file

Example: Who else wants to become an Internet millionaire!

Now it’s time for you to

PRACTICE

PRACTICE

PRACTICE

If You’d Like To Multiply Sales, Boost Profits And Increase Productivity…

You also need to start building your own swipe file today. (If you have, that’s great keep up the good work) And it doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg to do it!

So what’s a swipe file?

It’s where you collect tested and proven adverts, sales letters and emails.

You can also check out our vault of proven swipe copy here!

You can study your swipe file and refer to them for ideas when creating your own sales materials.

What’s amazing about owning a swipe file is its perfect to refer to, no matter what you want to sell—books, newsletters, cars, DVDs, memberships, financial advice, e-books, beauty products… almost anything in INFO MARKETING!

Owning the right swipe file is priceless, and I guarantee you’ve never seen those ads from anyone else, ever, no matter how many ads you’ve read or collected!

GKIC is coming to you LIVE from Cleveland, Ohio on October 24 – 26! This is THE place where the Superheroes of Information Marketing – led by Dan “Batman” Kennedy himself – reveal the secrets of their success and actually transfer their superpowers to business avengers like you! Take cover in the Force Field of Financial Freedom so YOU can achieve maximum and sustainable success in YOUR information business. The best “early bird” discounts are happening right now, but they fly away forever on July 2! Don’t throw money away by waiting till the last minute to claim your seat. You know you need to be here, so head over to http://info-summit.com and get it taken care of today.

Source: Dan Kennedy

The marketing world is changing at a frightening pace. The IGENERATION has taken over mainstream marketing.

Google state 96% of consumers now research products or services on their mobile phone.

Facebook released statistics that 1 billion of their 1.3 Billion users access their accounts via mobile each month!

You’ll see it for yourself, the next time you visit Starbucks, almost everyone has a mobile devices glued to their hand while sipping their coffee!

With Facebook, INSTA, Twitter, Messenger, and Whatsapp screaming for your prospects attention… How do you get them to take notice of your business on the small screen?

In todays noisy, over crowded ‘digital world’ with everyone jostling for your customer’s attention… the delivery of your message is critical.

Get this wrong, and it will cost you business… that said, there are four essential elements to running a successful mobile Direct Response campaign you must follow:

1. Targeting – A well-defined target market should be the first element of your marketing strategy.

Knowing that your customer is highly likely to be on their mobile device.

What platforms should you be marketing?

• Text
• Facebook
• YouTube
• And more!

Let’s study Facebook and their custom audience feature; this is a great tool for reaching your ideal customers – here’s how you can set this up from you mobile app.

In a nutshell, the benefits of using a custom audience in your marketing efforts, you can create Facebook campaigns targeted directly at them… and there’s a strong possibility your customers will be sharing your content! Which is free referral marketing!

2. Optimization – Software platforms like Facebook allow you to monitor your ads performance.

Other options include Google analytics. Once you know which stats you need to measure your ad performance. You can use that data to improve your performance. For example, you find a winning headline for an ad, now you can optimize your campaign based on your budget constraints. Your main priority is improving your conversion through attracting the right customers to your business.

tttt3. Scale – To reach the most possible customers based on budget, scale is important. From the information and research you collected during your targeting investigation. This will help you strategically create the best approach for delivering your message across multiple platforms.

However, your research may suggest your best customers only hang out on Facebook and nothing else! So you may want to focus all your marketing efforts there! Once you have the stats you can scale your business accordingly.

4. Mobile-optimize conversion flow – you need to know past performance so you can measure improvement. You also need to monitor your customer’s journey through your funnel/sales pages.

This will arm you with important information on determining why specific parts of your funnel/sales process are not converting.

Also consider what your customers want to see when they click to visit your site and does your site actually deliver on your promise.

Remember almost everyone jostling for your customer’s attention!

Once you have a winning control (a mobile funnel that’s converting) you need to keep tweaking and testing variations.

For example split test ‘A v B’ headlines.

Split test offers.

Run trial offers and referral campaigns.

Ask your customers about their experience of buying from you!

Source: Dan Kennedy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sounds simple, but I can tell you now there is a whole lot more to keeping your customers engaged than what meets the eye.

(At this point I also urge you to open our previous blog post ‘Follow The Rules Of Engagement’ in a separate tab…)

We say this all the time; there will always be someone who responds to your marketing efforts. Always. But that doesn’t mean your efforts are making you MONEY.

So, how can we make sure we get optimal response and maximum profits?

As a busy marketing champion, we get that you’re uber busy. You’re probably on the go, so why not take a moment to digest these three simple points that can make a BIG difference to your business?

This week’s post offers you some bite-size information that you can take away and quickly implement into YOUR marketing efforts today…

1. Keep Up To Speed With Digital Processes

Utilize the platforms where most people go. Take to the crowded stages of Facebook and Twitter to get your message across and publicly engage your customers.

This is also a fruitful opportunity for you to reinstate the strength of the customer relationships you’ve already built.

All conversations on public platforms like Twitter are viewable to the public. When anybody posts a query, it is visible to everyone in their following.

Responding to these quickly depicts you in a positive way; you CARE about your customers and how they feel, which (even if there’s an issue that needs resolving) enhances the KNOW, LIKE and TRUST elements of your relationship. They are more likely to come back for more, knowing you’re a sound logical choice.

2. Post Regular Podcast Episodes

Podcasts are easy to record and produce, and provide an opportunity for you to meet your customer (or listener) on a personal level by literally speaking to them inside their ear.

With digital marketing evolving every day, people are keen to stay up to date with the latest trends and popular social media platforms. Podcasts make the daily commute less boring, they are largely educational and easy because people can tune in WHENEVER and WHEREVER they are. Cooking dinner? They can have a podcast on in the background. Getting ready in the morning? Time to stick a podcast on.

Not only do podcasts make reaching out to customers easy, but they also give you a chance to collaborate with other big marketing names.

At GKIC our podcast ‘Small Business Marketing Hour’ features many other business renegades. We have episodes where Dan Kennedy collaborates with people like our CEO A.J Mirabedini and elite direct-response executive Jay Abraham. We have an episode where our president Nick Loise speaks with the famous Doberman Dan Gallapoo.

We aim to produce high-level content in our podcast in order to keep our listeners engaged, and coming back each time we release a new episode. Check them out here <<<

There’s nothing stopping you from advertising an offer over your next podcast episode. While you work towards solidifying customer relationships and boosting your credibility, give them the opportunity to invest in you too.

3. Keep Offering Valuable Information

You can leverage different content channels here.

Aggravate your customer’s problem and offer them a solution (lead magnet) in a downloadable format. Free to download, but once they’ve harnessed everything your lead magnet has to offer, make them an even BETTER offer (one that requires them to pay).

Your lead magnet could be fashioned in a range of different formats:

• eBook
• PDF
• Postal audio CD
• Free guide
• Toolkit
• Resource list
• Training video

People love videos. You could even (if you haven’t already) set up a YouTube channel to run alongside your business, that lets your viewers and subscribers see you at your most vulnerable, in raw impromptu videos that let them connect with you personally. Trust me- if people can connect with you personally, they are MUCH more likely to keep coming back for more.

Source: Dan Kennedy

Writing copy to boost conversions is not something that comes easily without practice.

There are a number of things to consider when undergoing the task of writing copy. And the things outlined in this week’s post are NOT necessarily things you may have considered before…

Let’s talk about psychology-based copywriting tips. Tips that make your words latch onto your reader’s subconscious, which solidify the connection between you as you become the best provider of the solution to their problem… and thus the only logical choice.

First of all, your copy needs to be coherent. That’s a given. However, to make sure your words and syntax tally up to keep the reader interested and your connection strong, you need to include things I like to call ‘Coherence Flags’.

1. Coherence Flags

These are ‘connections’ within the copy. They connect ideas together for the reader, which prevents them from getting overwhelmed or simply bored when reading your copy.

Here’s an example from Nick Kolenda’s Psychology & Marketing article:

“Your skin’s natural oils keep it silky and supple. As you age, it becomes less elastic and the production of oil slows down. Aging can cause dull, dehydrated skin.”

“Your skin’s natural oils keep it silky and supple. But as you age, your skin becomes less elastic and the production of oil slows down. That is why aging can cause dull, dehydrated skin.”

Read those aloud and you’ll catch my drift. The second phrasing is much more intriguing and interesting than the first. Coherence Flags are casual reminders within a sentence or paragraph that keep the reader on track, and (if you’re encouraging them to buy your product or service), more likely to choose you as the solution to their problem.

2. False Truth

The false (or illusory) truth concept keeps our brain from becoming overwhelmed with day-to-day decision-making by providing a smooth, easy alternative. Simply put- repetition matters.

The more you reiterate the same concept within your copy, the more accurate it becomes in the mind of the reader, thus causing them to invest their belief.

This isn’t just about truth and lies… this is also a direct link to the know, like and trust elements of our relationships, or connections with our customers. Repetition also solidifies TRUST.

The next time you write a piece of copy, repeat the phrases you want your readers to BELIEVE and invest their time (and money…) in. Keep doing what you can to strengthen the connection between your words and your reader’s psyche.

3. Positive Energy

This first tactic can be used by ANYONE if they want people to think about them in a positive manner. Even dentists use this as a calming mechanism when conversing with their patients (particularly the nervous Joes).

Your customer’s name.

Kolenda states that as human beings we have “implicit egotism, a natural tendency to be self-centered”, and so when we are addressed with our own name, we become naturally drawn to the source and thus more likely to pay attention.

Using your customer’s name when addressing them directly in your copywriting efforts will trigger positive energy, which engulfs your entire pitch and is proven to enhance the message you’re sending out.

One quick way to incorporate your customer’s name is in email subject lines. Say you’re sending an invite to your next Webinar, and the event takes place the following day. You could have the subject line as “Join me tomorrow, “~Contact.FirstName~?” When people look through their inbox, they are more likely to open an email that contains their name in the subject line.

Another way to evoke positive energy is to offer freedom.

Sure, you’ve already got your OFFER, which is what you’re trying to sell using these psychological tips in your copy. But you can make something I like to call a ‘ghost’ offer; FREEDOM.

When your customers have freedom to choose, they feel less pressure, and are thus more reasonable when it comes to making buying decisions.

Typical ‘freedom’ phrases include:

It’s entirely up to you…

It’s your call!

The decision is yours…

Does [OFFER] meet your needs? You decide.

Can [OFFER] do this for you, too? That’s up to you…

People like to be completely in control of where they send their money. By appealing to them on a personal level AND giving them choices, you’re onto a winner.

4. Rhetorical Questioning

We learn about rhetorical questions at a young age, but I cannot stress how important they are when you’re trying to strengthen the connection with your customer. They work. All the time.

They’re devious little phrases that jump out from the shadows acting all innocent in their endeavours, when in actual fact they’re accelerating the persuasive, trusting nature of your copy by miles.

They generate an immediate response from the reader by causing them to question themselves.

This isn’t a bad thing; human beings love questions. It’s weird.

Questions provide us with a narcissistic opportunity to clarify MORE about ourselves.

In your copy, rhetorical questions like ‘do you ever feel unappreciated at work?’ get us thinking, and we are more likely to read on to find out what the copy suggests as a solution (if the answer is yes, of course). Rhetorical questions can always be less specific, such as ‘do you see what I mean?’ (the reader then thinks ‘do I?’ and peruses the content AGAIN to make sure they do).

In his Innovation Insights article, Josh Little says; “Beyond being fun, quizzes are helping people simplify a complex world, understand their place in that world and convey their personal narrative.”

The bottom line is, questions increase engagement.

5. Texture

If you harness the power of textural adjectives, you give your copy more than just ‘body’. You give it physical ‘touch’. Want your words to grate your reader like sandpaper? Throw in a ‘coarse’ or ‘rough’.

In Kayleigh Moore’s Entrepreneur article, she explains the fMRI data collected from experiments shows that activity jumps in the somatosensory cortex when textural metaphors are used—but is quiet when literal meanings are used in their place.

This where you can consider the ‘surprise’ element of your copy. Surprising your readers with a textural adjective will trigger a better response than a bland colloquialism that they would probably be expecting anyway.

There are countless psychological techniques that you can apply to your copywriting. As long as you harness the above correctly and avoid overcomplicating your prose, you’ll definitely start seeing a difference in the response your copy generates.

 

Source: Dan Kennedy

In the best interests of your business, your marketing follow-up strategy needs to tick a number of boxes. The real money is in the follow-up. As a business renegade you need to focus on more than just your product and its sales… how you reach out AFTERWARDS is also crucial to success.

Bob Stone once said, “A follow-up to the same list within 30 to 45 days will pull 40% to 50% of the first mailing”. HOWEVER… sometimes, the follow-up can outstrip your initial sales efforts!

Here’s four pointers I think are important to consider when implementing your follow-up process.

1. Relationships

Building long-lasting relationships is key to any business in our over-competitive marketing world. Simply having ordinary testimonials and case studies makes this difficult, because they are both quite impersonal.

You could send your customers social proof that increases the value of what you’re selling, such as video testimonials. Teach your customers about your business THROUGH success stories, and you’ll guarantee they’ll start coming back to you for more.

Calls work, too. When people can hear your voice, they are automatically drawn to you. Videos are more personal because people get to put a name to a face AND a voice.

We always remember the ‘know’, ‘like’ and ‘trust’ elements of building customer relationships.

Following up with people on a personal level adds to each of these three elements, which boosts the value of your products and YOU as a business owner.

By considering this point, you can extend your customer relationships past the initial monetary exchange for the product. Who knows- further down the line you may hold a special offer, and the people who you spent time following up with could be the first to click ‘buy’.

2. Direct Mail

If you’re sending offline follow-up, take our founder Dan Kennedy’s advice and DON’T re-fashion it this way:

“It never makes sense to me to denigrate your message by putting it into a “junk mail” format”.

A traditional envelope will do the trick. Humble, handwritten envelopes work, as do quirky wax seals and ribbon, and of course you want to make sure your direct mail stands out from the rest of the pile on the doormat. Size-wise, 9”x12” tend to work best, and also 6”x9”.

“A white envelope is hard to beat. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to beat it, because if your envelope doesn’t get opened, your package doesn’t get read…“—Malcolm Decker

Think about it- how many times have you personally ignored an envelope addressed to you? Envelopes outperform other mail a staggering 80% of the time. Even if your recipient picks up their pile of mail and your envelope falls out, you want to ensure it isn’t left on the floor, or immediately discarded.

You don’t necessarily have to be offline for your whole campaign, either. A customer may have bought from you online, but sending an offline follow-up could solidify your relationship with them on a further scale.

And vice versa; your sales letter may have gone out in the mail, but your follow-up could be an automated email sequence.

The possibilities are endless.

3. Q&A Option

No matter how thorough and concise you are in your sales efforts, there will always be questions customers have that you can’t cover initially.

Why not follow-up with a ‘Q&A’ process? If you have a customer care team, this can work perfectly to your advantage because your customers will feel able to reach out and find out more, they’ll receive personal treatment and thus will be more likely to remain a loyal customer.

For example… your customer buys your product. Wait a couple of days, and then send out an automated email that ‘checks in’ to see how they’re getting on.

Make it clear that if they have any further questions, they must feel free to contact your customer care team.

4. Most Importantly…

Nurture your growing fan base, or leverage an affiliate/membership system.

If you’re following up with people and building all these solid relationships, why not create a place for them to interact?

At GKIC we have a Membership program AND an Affiliate program. Our Membership spans over Gold, Diamond and Platinum tiers, for savvy marketers who want to get the very best out of themselves AND the GKIC learning experience.

Our Affiliate program gives marketers a chance to boost their income and success rates by selling GKIC products, which lets them profit from our founders’ high-profile reputations, ongoing support and perks such as weekly mailings and competitions to help them stay on top of their game.

So there you have it, food for thoughts during your next campaign setup. DON’T hold back on the follow-up, as you can guarantee it will outstrip your original sales pitch at some point!

Source: Dan Kennedy

Crafting sales letters is something we are all largely familiar with. I’m sure you’ve buried your nose in plenty of materials guiding you through the standard ‘how-to’ steps that form the basic shell of your next sales piece.

(You can also refer to last week’s post, where I included reference to Dan Kennedy’s ‘The Ultimate Sales Letter’…)

Now for this week’s post. Which, I can tell you now, will NOT give you steps like headline, problem, solution, bullets etc. What I’m going to explore is the nucleus of the sales letter form, the technical stitching and underlying layers that add substance to what you already recognize as the steps to writing a sales letter… and how to tailor it to an EXACT audience.

Quite simply, your sales letter must be readable. If it doesn’t make sense, you won’t sell anything.

You need to consider a number of different factors when it comes to your sales letter’s readability:

*Sentence length: what’s going to read better? Reams of long sentences with too many clauses and badly-formed syntax, or short, easily-digestible sentences that get straight to the point?

*Correlation: how well do your promises correlate to what your customer avatar desires/needs?

*Paragraph length: note: lengthy paragraphs aren’t visually appealing to people who want to read through your letter and still have time to eat their dinner.

*Vocabulary choices: do your words paint a compelling and irresistible picture in your reader’s mind? Do your words pack a punch? Can readers still understand what you’re saying?

When you sit there and think about your audience, do NOT (I repeat- DO NOT) assume they’ll understand your letter at the same level you do when you write and edit it.

Remember- not everyone in the world is a competent reader… while you may have majored in English at university, others may have found their niche elsewhere, such as math. Some people will read your letter and struggle with some of your phrasing.

This where you need to find equilibrium between your words and their effect. Use power words in your marketing efforts, but make sure your writing isn’t over-complicated.

Words matter. So many people I speak to who studied English at college say the same thing; there’s always a better word. For example, why label your lead magnet as merely a ‘workbook’ when you could probably sell more if you called it an ‘expert guide’?

Think about your verbs. If your offer includes a set of DVDs that help people learn more about starting their own bakery business, don’t say ‘learn’. Say ‘discover’, so when people read it they think less about ‘learning’ as they did at high school and more about ‘discovering’ something new and awesome that can make them lots of money.

Now, reiteration is something that constantly crops up when it comes to selling. Reiterating the offer, reiterating the unbeatable price if taken advantage of today, reiteration of why this product will solve all their problems.

When writing a sales letter, reiteration can prove to be successful when harnessed and leveraged in the right way. Again, I urge you to find dynamic equilibrium. Repeat, but not to the point where your reader gets sick of your words and promptly discards your letter into the trash.

You could make your claim in your headline. That’s the first instance taken care of. Then, you can reiterate in the following examples:

*In the bullet points (re-phrased)

*In the testimonials

*In the offer

*In the guarantee

*In the title for the order form

*In the P.S

 

Finally, I bring your attention to a major factor that influences the writing of a sales letter for a specific audience. Dual Readership.

You’ll find half of your recipients will fall under the ANALYTICAL category, where they take the time to read through long copy, make logical decisions based on statistics and facts, spend time musing over the testimonials and only take action when they’ve been provided with an avalanche of information.

The other half are IMPULSIVE; people who skim read, look out for the large bolded headlines, highlighted words and phrases, photographs, celebrity social proof and are stirred by emotional pulls.

Got an important promise embedded in a short paragraph? Underline it. Maybe highlight it too. Every heading and subheading can benefit from being emboldened. Italicize other words and phrases that you feel serve a bigger purpose in your selling endeavours.

In order to appeal to both readership paths, you must again search for and nail the appropriate balance. Your sales letter should offer enough information to satisfy the analytical readers, but not so much that the impulsive readers give up.

I recently sent out a piece of sales copy to a list of people, who we at GKIC have invited to attend our upcoming bootcamp this month. How did I lay it out? Completely handwritten, with titles written in a thicker pen. In fact, my opening headline was ‘I Don’t See Your Name On The GKIC Bootcamp List???’

 

 

Every so often I underlined words and phrases, such as ‘HUGE mistake’ and ‘This really is for everyone’. I even added appropriate strikethroughs when explaining how much money people have made from our bootcamp strategies. It’s these little touches that both the analytical and the impulsive notice.

As my P.S, I used the reiteration tactic; ‘you’re probably wondering why I sent this as a handwritten letter? In a plain envelope? I did it because it’s one of the most successful formats that has now been used in over 100 different business categories… at the bootcamp, I’ll tell you more about it.’ A successful way to drop the subject of my entire letter into the close!

I’m going to leave you with two things.

Firstly, a quote. Sean Platt discloses in his article ‘5 Reasons Why All Freelancers Should Learn To Write A Sales Letter’; “Sales letters are roads paved with words which lead buyers to solutions, sellers to profit, and writers closer to their happily ever afters”.

You, dear friend, are both the seller AND the writer. Get your sales letter right and you’ll profit AND live happily ever after.

Secondly… an exclusive announcement.

At GKIC we’ve been working really hard to make our mark across another content channel; Podcasts.

Podcasts provide an excellent opportunity for busy business enthusiasts to tune in and listen to your strategies, whether it’s on the subway or in a cab, getting ready in the morning or relaxing last thing at night.

Introducing our very own podcast:“The Small Business Marketing Hour: Hosted by GKIC”

 

We don’t want to give too much away… so why not check it out for yourself?

Available now on:

*iTunes

*Sticher

*TuneIn

*Google Play

*Soon to be available on I Heart Radio (May 21)

Tune in and give us a listen.

gkic.com/podcast

Don’t forget to subscribe…

 

Source: Dan Kennedy

 

Please raise your hand if you have ever been personally victimized by a headline.

By victimized, I mean it’s been waiting sneakily in your line of vision with baited breath, and as you gaze in its direction, BAM! it pops out, all 72pt and bolded, and even though you may only read a random word from its imposing sequence, your moving gaze can’t help but stop.

There’s an urgency within you, a burning desire to carry on reading.

And why is this?

“Saying something of genuine importance and interest to the recipient usually succeeds. You say it with a headline”- Dan Kennedy, The Ultimate Sales Letter.

 

 

I’m not talking about the ‘how-tos’ or other generic headlines that don’t do the rest of their piece’s content justice, or in other cases are residing quietly at the bottom of the barrel.

No, I’m talking about headlines that have BODY behind them. Headlines that are so darn powerful, bound in flesh and pumped with blood that they evoke response from their recipients.

I’ll start with LENGTH. Long as opposed to short. At GKIC, we’re a fan of both. Take for instance, this long headline that was used to fill a seminar:

“In Two Breathtakingly Intense Days, I Will Present Breakthrough Income, Wealth, Marketing And Success Strategies And Honest-To-God “Secrets” Exclusively For Professional Speakers Superior To Anything You’ve Ever Seen, Heard Or Even Imagined, With Their Value To You Assured By The Most Daring Guarantee Ever Offered By Any Seminar”

… but even a two-worder ‘Stocks Suck’ reiterates the fact that idea trumps form.

But length doesn’t just apply to number of words. It also alludes to TIME.

What your headline says and how it says it are absolutely critical. You compare it to the door-to-door salesperson wedging a foot in the door, buying just enough time to deliver one or two sentences that will melt resistance, create interest, and elevate his or status from annoying pest to welcome guest; you’ve got just about the same length of time, the same opportunity.

So, once you’ve come up with an idea for your headline (whether it consists of less than five syllables or more words than the Miami Dolphins’ NFL game on Christmas Day 1971 had minutes), you need to make sure your BENEFIT is super-clear… so that when given the time, your headline doesn’t go unread.

Think about dog sleds in Ottawa. Usually they lead with the strongest canine at the front, right? Apply this rule to your next headline; telegraph your BEST BENEFIT, the one that really sells your product/service, the one that is guaranteed to get the best reaction, and whack that in there among all those power words and all that punctuation.

For example…

You’re a toothpaste manufacturer. There’s lots of benefits of your new toothpaste that you could list, like plaque-blasting stats and gum health. BUT, what do people generally want? They want white teeth and nice-smelling breath. Insert the whitening stats and you’re onto a winner.

As I read more of Dan’s ‘The Ultimate Sales Letter’, I came across another piece of valuable content: ‘How To Flag A Reader And Let Him Know This Is For You.’

“One of the simplest ways to strengthen a headline is attachment of a Flag. The Flag is brief, as brief as a single word, stuck on the front of the headline, to reach out and grab the attention of certain specific prospects, by telegraphing that the message is specifically for them.”

Here’s some headlines PRE Flag…

• Corns Gone in 5 Days or Money Back
• Guaranteed Weight Loss Up To 15 Pounds First 15 Days- With No Exercise
• 28 Days to Healthier Gums

 

And what they read like once the Flag has been attached…

• Waiters and Waitresses on Your Feet for Hours: Corns Gone In 5 Days or Money Back
• Disappointed Dieters: Guaranteed Weight Loss Up to 15 Pounds First 15 Days- with No Exercise
• Seniors: 28 Days to Healthier Gums

 

Or, to improve them even more, you can add a ‘Problem Flag’…

• Foot Pain? Corns Gone in 5 Days or Money Back
• Embarrassing Belly Bulge? Guaranteed Weight Loss Up to 15 Pounds First 15 Days- with No Exercise
• Blood on Your Toothbrush? 28 Days to Healthier Gums

 

As you can see, there are specific elements to headlines that, when considered and implemented properly, can have a profound effect on THEIR effect. We all know the rule about problems- make sure you identify your prospect’s problem, agitate it until they’re almost begging for relief, and then offer them the solution.

John Carlton reiterates my point in the 7th Step of his Simple Writing System:

‘Hooks’

And cue his famous one-legged golfer headline:

Want to slash strokes from your game almost overnight?

Amazing Secret Discovered By One-Legged Golfer Adds 50 Yards To Your Drives, Eliminates Hooks and Slices… And Can Slash Up To 10 Strokes From Your Game Almost Overnight!

John’s steps to getting that all-important hook (which, when placed in your headline, makes your sales copy so much more successful) include gossip, opinions, rumours, common wisdom, myths, legends and competition. All of these are relatable between YOU and your prospect.

If you’ve Flagged your headline, you could add in a few impressive statistics that are relative to those prospects. It all depends on who you’re targeting and how much research you’re willing to put in.

People generally will try and NOT read your headline if they can help it.

Make sure they CAN’T help it!

Source: Dan Kennedy

If you’re in the Direct Response Marketing game, and you’re not already asking yourself, “what can I do to increase revenue FAST?” every minute of the day, then I urge you to continue reading.

Freelance direct response copywriter Dean Rieck says: “Response is one of the five keys of successful direct marketing. And if you have that, the other four don’t matter.”

Simply put, Direct Response Marketing is designed to provoke an IMMEDIATE response from the customer, through clear CTAs (calls to action) and other techniques, in order to generate reactions and feedback while encouraging decision-making.

That’s all well and good, and to be honest it’s pretty self-explanatory, right?

Which is why we at GKIC make it our aim to arm marketers with every single tool they need to market efficiently, because although this process sounds simple enough, the ins and outs can actually be quite challenging.

Generating a direct response from consumers isn’t as easy as it sounds. Sure, lots of people are taken in by mediocre advertising, but if you REALLY want to make the big bucks then you need to master the following 10 rules (outlined by our founder Dan Kennedy in his book, ‘No B.S. Direct Marketing- The Ultimate No Holds Barred Kick Butt Take No Prisoners Direct Marketing For Non-Direct Marketing Businesses’).

Think of these as the 10 Commandments! (in order to succeed thou shalt implement them wisely and then thou shalt get results…)

1. There Will Always Be An Offer or Offer(s)

“NOTHING, I mean nothing, goes out your door without offers.”

To generate a response from your consumers, you need an irresistible offer that is going to urge them into taking action IMMEDIATELY. What will you offer them? Is it going to be of value to them? How will it improve their current situation? Ask yourself these questions, and NEVER end a ‘conversation’ with your audience without making the offer.

Dan states that you’ll find a lot of businesses get by with ‘implied offers’. They’ll give all their details but won’t ACTUALLY say what it is they’ll do for you.

But what REALLY generates a response is direct marketing that tells the consumer how your product can enhance their life, solve their problems, make their day better etc, and the steps they need to take in order to reap the benefits.

THIS is how you make money.

2. There Will Be Reason To Respond Right Now

If you’re unfamiliar with direct-response copywriter John Carlton, I recommend you get familiar right now. A friend of Dan’s, John advises imagining your prospective customer as a gigantic sloth, unlikely to move, with its phone out of reach.

You need to think about this sloth when constructing your offer. Is a plain, mediocre offer going to cause that sloth to move, reach out for its phone and take action? Probably not.

Your offer should generate a direct response. That’s the whole point. I reiterate my point about providing value to your prospects- if you can truly convince them that investing in your product/service will answer their prayers and satisfy their current desires, then you’re onto a winner.

3. Clear Instructions

I’d like to turn your attention to Dan’s two sub-rules:

* Confused consumers do nothing

* Most people can follow directions

Anything you put together in your next strategy, whether it’s a flier, an advert, a sales letter etc, make sure the pathway to taking action is clear for the consumer…. “with high sidewalls (to prevent the prospect from wandering off)”.

If you’re currently sending things out WITHOUT clear instructions, STOP. Make some changes.

4. There Will Be Tracking And Measurement

Dan says; “you need real, hard facts and data to make good, intelligent marketing decisions.”

Do you want to make unintelligent marketing decisions?

Didn’t think so…

When making marketing decisions, it doesn’t matter what you and your colleagues think/feel etc. It matters what your AUDIENCE thinks and feels.

“Tracking means accurately collecting all the information you need to determine what advertising is working and what isn’t, which offer is pulling and which isn’t, what marketing has traction and what doesn’t”.

Ultimately, you’ll be able to know what your ROI is for each dollar. As long as you get systems in place to capture all the data you need, and make the time to get a thorough analysis underway, then what seems as a confusing drag will start to become profitable and easier the more you do it… especially if your employees have a tendency to become lazy with or confused by the whole concept.

“From now on, ye shall spend no dollar without tracking ROI”.

5. Branding As By-Product

If you’re the CEO of a giant company that is recognized worldwide, then by all means invest in brand identity. If you’re an entrepreneur investing your own capital, then take Dan’s advice- “focus on response and sales”.

Sure, you may actually build your brand without knowing along the way, which is awesome. But don’t spend time doing it on purpose. Dan states that there are many types of direct response ads that are designed to motivate qualified leads to step forward and take action, that succeed WITHOUT branding. All they need is a clear CTA and BAM, sorted.

6. There Will Be Follow-Up

There are fortunes in the follow-up. Most marketers make the mistake of only following up with a lead on ONE occasion.

But to be a SMART marketer, you need to build out a way to continue this follow-up with your prospects.

Imagine somebody refers you to one of their closest friends. Or a business fellow, perhaps. What are you going to do? Simply say ‘thanks’ and move on?

NO NO NO!

You speak with the person who made the referral, and you ask them for their closest friend or business fellow’s details, so you can approach them personally. Start up a sequence that involves a letter or email, with something free and valuable that is going to kickstart this new relationship.

No response? Send another letter or email. Keep at it!

7. There Will Be Strong Copy

I love this quote from Dan: “you can’t send a shy, timid Casper Milktoast guy out into the street to knock on a door of a home or walk into a business and beg in nearly a whisper for a few minutes of the prospect’s time. So you can’t do that with ad, flier, letter or postcard either. Send Arnold Schwarzenegger instead.”

In a nutshell, your copy must be compelling enough to get your prospects to take immediate action. Your vocabulary choices should aggravate your prospect’s problems so much so that they can almost FEEL the pain, and then soothe them immediately with whatever it is you’re offering, and how it can solve their issue.

Think about your audience. Speak to them like they’re human beings (which they are…) in a conversational tone that hooks them in with power words, packs a punch and sticks in their mind.

(NOTE: for further information on kick-ass sales copy, I urge you to read another of Dan’s books “The Ultimate Sales Letter.”)

8. In General, It Will Look Like Mail-Order Advertising

Dan says that David Ogilvy once admitted: “only direct-response guys really knew what they are doing” and that HIS guys were guessing. Who would you copy?

The ‘G’ in GKIC, Bill Glazer, is a ‘master’ at using mail-order style advertising. Our two founders suggest making a swipe file of mail-order newspapers and magazine advertisements that show clear calls to action. Next time you construct an offer, flip through the file for inspiration.

9. Results Rule, Period.

From this moment forth, you are (if not already) completely, wholly, ultimately results-driven.

Nobody EXCEPT your customers is going to put money into your business and personal bank account. NOBODY ELSE. All that matters, is what your customers think. If you make sales, then your strategy has worked. If it doesn’t make sales, scrap it.

10. You Will Be A Tough-Minded Disciplinarian And Keep Your Business On A Strict DIRECT Marketing Diet For At Least Six Months

Last but not least…

Think of this as a regular diet.

Cut the crap.

Purge the junk.

Stick to a new regime guaranteed to get results.

If your new business diet consists of nothing but the previous nine rules, I promise you that your direct response marketing efforts will pull through. Don’t let anything toxic slip through the net.

As Dan says, “anything that doesn’t conform to the prior nine rules, do not let it in at all. Just say no. And bar the door.”

Source: Dan Kennedy

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This is a continuation of last week’s blog The Value Of Being An Extremist. This week we’ll be focusing on the most common things that can drain your productivity and what you can do about that.

Common Productivity Drain Holes

• Doing the wrong work
• Poor priorities, ranking, organisation
• Not know where the money actually comes from
• Some things should not be done. Some things should not be done now
• PROCRASTINATION IS BEST AT CERTAIN TIMES
• Others’ urgencies VS. your agenda

Failure Environments (VS. Success Environments)

• Workplace VS. Social Club
• Temptations
• Absence of needed resources
• Not conducive to efficiency or effectiveness
• LOSS OF ABILITY TO FOCUS

Here’s your most common productivity drain holes. Number one doing the wrong work altogether. A lot of people don’t know where their money comes from so they’re doing low money work. It’s surprising how many people don’t know where the money is in their business. They may have opinions, they have ideas, but they do not have facts. And that means more often than not they are doing the wrong work.

I start asking math questions. How many calls? How much is it costing us to generate a call? What is each call coming into the office costing you? That’s simple math, ad budget, PR budget, everything you’re spending out there in the marketplace divided by the number of calls you get– now we know how much each call cost. My next question is conversion percentage. How many of these calls get converted to appointments? Which obviously tells us how much it cost to get an appointment. And then how many appointments turn into clients?

Which gets us to cost per sale, which is where we want to get. What’s your call-to-appointment success rate? What are we doing about the people we don’t book appointments with? Now there’s the big opportunity.

Second big productivity suck, your environments. For me it’s donuts. Candidly, like anything else, if I made that my life’s work, and dedicated all my mental and emotional resources to creating disinterest in or aversion to donuts I know how to do that. And I know the NLP stuff, I know the pressure points stuff, I know the visualization stuff, but here’s a truth for all of you: no matter how much willpower and self-discipline and motivation you have, there is a cap. You’ve only got so much and what you choose to spread it around on and use it on ought to be important. For me this is too difficult a hill to climb, it will suck up too much of those resources, and take them away from more important things so it’s easier just not to put myself in a Dunkin’ Donuts. It’s easier for me to just try and stay out of the environment. I just try not to go where they are right in front of me.

Your environments are full of temptations; everybody has their own problem with this. For you it might be your iPhone, for me it’s donuts. You’ve got to know what it is, you’ve got to be in a place that is conducive to what it is that you want to accomplish.

There are now resources for your internet addiction. I’m serious. There is a thing now called Rescue Time, which is an online time management tool which you can pre-engineer to nudge you back to work. When it catches you at YouTube, you can tell it only let me be at YouTube for three minutes and then shock my testicles. That’s actually how it ought to be read in my personal opinion, but it doesn’t to that. It just shuts down YouTube and beeps at you or something. Or you can block the internet altogether for a pre-set period of time so you can manage to actually work on your computer without running around the internet.

Common Productivity Drain Holes

• Poor, undisciplined work habits
• Lack of preparation
• Too often starting from scratch & blank state
• Disrupted rhythm (VS. clumping like activities together)
• No-appointment access
• Unscheduled work activities

No rules & no training for those who you interact with

• Reluctance to making demands on others… to be perceived as tyrannical, arrogant, unreasonable – reluctance to be criticized
• Tolerance for Time Vampires
• Inability to say No or “This is UNACCEPTABLE”
• Standards, procedures, process (VS. random or situational)
• Incompetent and/or ineffective people around you
• Emotionally needy people around you

Three, poor undisciplined work habits. Lack of preparation, all sorts of people show up unprepared. They get on the phone unprepared. They go to meetings unprepared. They go to conferences unprepared. Who am I trying to meet? Go to their website or their Facebook site, get their picture so I can find them when I’m in a big crowd.

I have more, but these are my three basic schedules. I have an official calendar that we let people see. We don’t let the whole world see it, but we let people I work with see. I have weekly to-do list, monthly and daily and most importantly stuff that’s assigned to a date with start and stop times. Stop time real important. Most people have a start time for a call, but they don’t have an end time for a call. They have a start time for somebody coming in their office to meet with them, but they don’t have a stop time for somebody coming in their office to meet with them. And then the daily script, here’s how the day is going to go hour by hour by hour, minute by minute by minute by minute. If I’m doing copy writing today and I’m doing a sales letter for you and I’ve allocated 9 to 11 for it, it has to be because something else is scheduled to start at 11:01.

Common Productivity Drain Holes

• Cheap & penny-wise, pound-foolish; unwilling to buy time – Insufficient value of your time
• Mental & Physical fatigue and burn-out – The sense of slogging through mud because you are slogging through mud
• Staying stuck VS. Swift Sword – Unproductive SITUATIONS rarely improve/usually get worse – the willingness to EXIT is essential

We’ll finish with some cool rules for you.

Best Extreme Measures I Know

• Schedule and script your daily activities
• Minimize discretionary time
• Play to your strengths
• Immunity to criticism
• Reputation for intolerance for being screwed with

Best Extensions of Productivity

• Replace manual labour every way you can
• Multiplication
• Replacement
• Leverage of …
• Well-chosen and properly prepared prospects (Role of superior marketing)
• Avoid one-and-dones

Here’s my approach, the three biggest things to extreme productivity. Number one if I’m going to go to work, by God I’m going to work. I want to use every minute, I want to squeeze every drop of juice I can squeeze out of it. I’ve done it at everything I’ve ever done. Speaking engagement? Man, if I’m going to go speak I’m going to scheme. What can I do before that engagement to make it as productive as possible? What am I going to do during it? What am I going to do after it? Can I squeeze in a meeting with somebody else? Scheme, scheme, scheme, scheme, scheme.

The script is, everything by appointment with yourself. Lunch break, there’s a timeframe for that on my daily scripts. There’s a start, there’s a stop. And then there’s another thing starting. Tight time allotments.

Source: Dan Kennedy

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We’re going to talk about the process of extreme improvement of productivity. The first thing I would say about it is that we mostly talk about it as being a time management issue. But is this right?

About Ambition

People are less productive than they could be because:

Bad methodology – 10%
Insufficient motivation – 70%
Insufficient pressure – 20%

…but when discussing this, we go to “time management” and focus 90% of the discussion on 10% of the problem.

Truth be told, it’s mostly not a time management problem, it’s mostly an insufficient motivation problem. It’s mostly not sufficient drive, determination, and reason. My original mentor said the number one reason there aren’t more millionaires in America is because most people haven’t come up with enough reasons to do what’s necessary to be a millionaire. Same things are true with being productive.

Most people are just not sufficiently motivated to do everything that’s necessary to be super productive.

This is from Harvey Firestone’s 1926 autobiography titled Men in Rubber, which had a much different connotation in 1926 than it would now. Here’s a couple of things that are significant. The first story is: I was on the hunt day and night for men to buy our stock. It was no easy matter to sell stock in a company that had no assets except on a patent on which it was losing money. For years I never saw a man with money without turning over in my mind how I could transfer some of his money into our stock.

What he’s just described is specific ambition. That was Harvey Firestone every minute of every day. If extreme productivity is your ambition, that’s how you have to approach that too. You’re on the hunt night and day; you’re trying to control every single minute, every interruption, every person, every everything.

Second then, part of the game plan is self-awareness. Tyson used to have two people whose job was to follow him around all the time; walk behind him and say, “You’re the man Mike, you’re the man.” This goes a long way to explaining Tyson’s current financial position. What would be more useful is having someone walk around behind you all the time with a baseball bat and every time you were acting in a way grossly incongruent with your stated goals, just haul off and whack you.

We’re not going to do that as a practical matter, so we’ve got to do it to ourselves mentally. And we have to do it on a real-time basis, not a retrospective basis. The time to determine whether or not your behavior is congruent with your stated ambitions is not at the end of the week, not at the end of the month, not at the end of the calendar quarter, not in December—it’s real time minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day. What you can’t measure you won’t be able to manage. We have to have measurement benchmarks of our productivity and of our congruent behavior.

Again, if you want an extreme result you’ve got to go to the extreme. You’ve got to be very aware of leverage, value, use of time. Like on the dress thing, today if you were going to meet with somebody who might be worth a million dollars to you, would you look like you are? No, no, of course not. You might run into the guy in the checkout line in Wal-Mart that’s going to be worth a million bucks to you and you can’t be looking like you’ve been working on your car, that doesn’t work.

The Value of Being An Extremist

• You cannot have extreme productivity without taking extreme measures.
• Those who most ardently advocate “tolerance” need your tolerance.
• Extreme Productivity can bring with it Zero Tolerance for unproductive activity

The other awareness is what you are permitting to happen around you, with you, it’s getting in your way, and kill it. If you aren’t willing to defend your productivity violently, if necessary, what exactly are you willing to defend? Somebody is screwing up your productivity, how tolerant of that are you? First of all, how aware of it are you? Then, secondly, how tolerant are you of it? I will suggest to you that there is a direct correlation between high income and low tolerance for anything that is screwing up one’s productivity; something they are doing to themselves or something other people are doing to them.

Third, very specific decisions over how you are going to control these things. What you do, where you do it, if you do it, who you do it with, and how you do it. Most importantly here is “the who.”

I want to make it very clear the very first thing on your job list is to facilitate my maximum productivity at my best mental attitude so I can be productive. That’s your job. That’s who you want around you and there is no neutral, spouse, staff, friend, there ain’t no neutral, they’re either helping or they’re hurting.

When you talk about going home and getting to work and making things happen, there’s eight specific types of actions. One is immediate. That’s start. General Schwarzkopf, who I was on programs with for quite some time in his leadership talk, he always said it’s better to get started in the wrong direction than it is not to get started. Because we can fix the direction, we can’t fix the not starting. And he’s right about that. One of my premises is I’ve got four or five things as a result of my being here that I want to do. I know that the best odds of them ever getting done is if I start something having to do with them immediately, immediately. No matter how ill prepared you may be to follow through, start matters.

So Carville says the best time to plant an oak tree was 25 years ago, the second best time is now. That’s true of everything. The best time, if you can’t do it last week, which you couldn’t because you didn’t, so the next best time is now. There is enormous power to starting.

Second is visible. Puts you on the spot and conveys certain things to others so visible actions matter from two directions.

Third, renegade millionaire principle “simultaneous, not sequential” and you really ought to watch yourself on this. It’s hard not to slip back because you’ve been conditioned since birth that everything ought to be sequential: step one, step two, step three. A then B, and walk before you run, first grade, second grade, third grade, blue badge before you get red badge, etc. You’ve been conditioned since birth to do everything sequentially. There’s two problems with that. One, that’s not how high performers and rich people do anything. If you’re trying to get extreme results that’s not what they did; they run around and make all kinds of messes and start 500 things at the same time, that’s what they do. They live in perpetual controlled purposeful chaos, that’s how they live. Secondly, the problem with sequential behavior is that in many cases nobody ever completes the sequence. Financially here’s what everybody thinks, here’s how all poor people think about money; they think I’ve got to get a job, then I’ve got to get my basic stuff taken care of, I’ve got to buy a house, I’ve got to get some furniture, I’ve got to have some appliances, etc. If I’m making enough money to take care of rent, car payment, movies, beer, stuff I’ve got to do, my iPhone, my cable TV, which all of that adds up to 30 bucks here, 30 bucks there, before you know it you’re a trillion dollars in deficit. They’ve got to get all that taken care of—then if I’m making enough money, I’ll start saving some money. When I’ve saved up enough money to make it worthwhile, I’ll start worrying about investing the money. They never get there doing it that way. Never, never—in part because nobody ever has any money left over. Nobody ever has any time left over, either. And if you’ve got any lying around, time or money, that you have left over, that you’re not doing anything with, somebody will take it.

So simultaneous, not sequential. Massive, not dinky. You put a lot of stuff in motion all at the same time with urgency.

Everybody understands that they perform more under urgency. I’ve always been amused in pro football at the two-minute drill. These guys haven’t been able to move the ball for two hours past the fifty and all of a sudden, even with no possibility of winning the game, in the two-minute drill they come down and screw up the spread and I lose a thousand dollars. How come nobody plays the two-minute drill every two minutes?

Congruent– is your behavior congruent with your stated specific ambition? Synergistic, so we’re looking for leverage. How can we make the same piece of work do more than one thing? How can we make the same relationship do more than one thing? How many ways can you get productive benefit out of each act? Out of each conversation? Out of each relationship?

From here the next thing you’ll want to consider are the most common points that drain your productivity, and how to avoid them. But don’t worry I won’t leave it all down to you, come back here next week for the second part of this series on Extreme Productivity where I’ll talk you through drain points and how to avoid them!

Source: Dan Kennedy