In the words of Jerry Maguire “Show Me The Money!” and that’s exactly what we’re going to do in this week’s blog!

If you want to have an unfair advantage over any and all competitors then keep reading…

You see, most business owners and entrepreneurs we meet don’t have an efficient, affordable, and revolutionary system working in their business to magnetically attract their ideal customers, clients, or patients.

Which is a shame, because they’re actually great at what they do!

And it’s only a matter of time before they struggle to pay rent!

In fact, according to research from Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Employment Dynamics.

Roughly 20% of new businesses survive past their first year of operation. That was the case two decades ago and is still the case today.

However, around half of all businesses no longer exist after five years.

Only one-third make it past their 10th anniversary. These statistics have been remarkably consistent through the years.

I’m sure you don’t want to be apart of those stats!

And you want to ensure your business thrives.

So let’s get stuck in shall we?

One way to succeed is to build a database of potential customers.

To do that you need to have a system that collects information from your prospect.

For example, let’s take a really basic system of collecting the details of a customer that would be useful for future marketing efforts.

Imagine entering a coffee shop, when you buy a coffee, the barista offers you a delicious mouthwatering cake in return for filling out a simple card that asks for some details: Your Name, Email and Mobile number.

A very tempting offer isn’t it!

The reason why it’s important collecting this type of information is so the coffee shop owner could use ‘text and email marketing’ to keep in contact with you.

They could send you special offers, promotions and hopefully increase their lifetime customer value.

Let’s look at an online example…

Q: How many times have you visited a website and made a purchase on the spot?

OK let me ask you this another way…

Q: How many times have you visited websites and NOT entered your credit card details.

Most people would have visited more websites than made purchases. I’m sure you can relate.

Why is that?

In the coffee shop example, most people are already sold on buying coffee before they enter the shop… the buying decision has been made; it’s just a matter of where they want to spend money.

But, when the buying process is moved online, customer behavior changes…

You see, most people shop around online for the best prices, coupons and deals. Think price comparison websites, checking eBay, Amazon and more…

Now let’s see how much competition is online…

Imagine looking for a dentist in Chicago, a quick Google search will reveal 22,800,000 results.

Let’s try a deeper search:

Less hits, but still 390,000 results all screaming for attention!

So what was the point of showing you those Google searches and how does this relate to you?

Look, it doesn’t matter what ‘niche’ you’re in, or how customer focused you go…

There will always be competition.

Lot’s of it!

And if there isn’t any competition, chances are there isn’t a list of hungry buyers waiting to spend money with you!

So what can you do?

A good place to start and focus on is building your email list. This article will show you some great ideas to get you started.

Because if you don’t make the sale on your first, second or even on the third attempt, you can keep following up till your prospect is ready to buy from you.

There are hundreds of ways to GRAB attention and win new customers, clients and patients.

Would you like to find out how you can fast track your success?

Well, imagine having 213 examples and samples from actual, real life businesses, entrepreneurs and sales professionals that have been proven to attract ideal customers, clients or patients so YOU can magnetically attract your own…

Imagine how much time that would save you.

And imagine having Dan Kennedy’s marketing secrets by your side to help grow your business, multiply sales and boost your profits.

Well, you don’t need to imagine any of this because you can experience it for yourself.

Because If you want to forever end the drudgery of cold calling, cold prospecting and costly, unpredictable and wasteful advertising with a PROVEN system that Predictably Delivers Customers, Clients, and Patients All pre-determined to do business with you, then you must read this page!

P.S. – If you haven’t already got your ticket for IS17 – There’s still time and a few remaining tickets right here! – This is your opportunity to Spend Four Incredible Days With 20+ Of The Most Successful “Superhero” Info-Marketers On The Planet And Discover The Right Strategies To Completely Transform Your Life & Business In 2017 And Beyond!

CALL TODAY On: 800-871-0147

 

Source: Dan Kennedy

As an entrepreneur or small business owner, to thrive in this uncertain economy you need to keep your marketing interesting.

You need to be looking for ways to boost your response.

And you need to create better relationship with your clients, customers and patients.

That’s why I want to share two powerful tips to grow your business FAST!

How fast?

That’s completely up to you.

Pro Tip 1 – A Winning Parasite Relationship For Multiplying Sales & Boosting Profit

What’s the quickest way to reach your ideal customers, clients or patients?

A: The most powerful form of this is the endorsed mailing. You will get a great response from this, provided that the person or business that’s endorsing you has a great relationship with their customers.

See, you can achieve a great response from an endorsed mailing. Almost any deal that you agree with the person or business endorsing you is worth it.

And remember to make it really easy for them!

All they have to do is say, “YES.”

You need to avoid making rookie mistakes here.

So don’t make the person or businesses you choose to partner with do any work whatsoever. Make sure that you write all the copy including the ads, emails and sales letters etc.

Also make sure all of the inquiries or responses will come back to you, so that the person or business you’re partnering with isn’t handling any of your sales.

You’ll also want to make sure that your guarantee is solid and protects their customers.

Thus reducing any risk on their part and making them more likely to agree to partnering with you.

Example: Imagine you’re a tiler and you approach a bathroom company to partner with.

You could instantly add value to their customers without stealing them (This is important) and get paid too.

How could this opportunity work?

You could design, create and print a postcard for the bathroom company to give to their customers when they place an order for a new bath or shower.

This could be physical (in a show room at the cash register) or it could be mailed direct to their customer with their order receipt.

IMPORTANT: You must make your offer so irresistible they find it almost impossible to say no!

Think of it as your foot in the door without spending lots of money on advertising! You are gaining a customer that you could potentially upsell or get repeat work.

For example your postcard could lead with:

Who Else Wants Their Bathroom To Have The ‘Show Home’ Look Without Spending An Arm And A Leg?

“50% Discount For ‘BUSINESS Y’ Customers” – Save $XYZ On Tiling Your New Bathroom!

Call Bill on 800-871-0147 to get your free personalized quote. SPECIAL BONUS: If you call before DATE – I’ll also include pro tile adhesive and mold resistant grout for FREE! Saving You Up To $xxx

Pro Tip 2 – How to boost sales instantly by entering the conversation that is already occurring in your prospect, customer or client’s mind.

Have you considered Holiday Promotions in your business?

Well you should because it can easily skyrocket the effectiveness of big money holidays such as:

• Independence Day

• Halloween

• Thanksgiving

• Christmas

And unusual holidays such as National Pistachio Day, National Siblings Day & National Ice Cream Day!

Using the specific holiday for your promotion is a great way to sell more of your products and services.

For example a dentist could use Halloween as a promotion.

“Even Vampires Have White Teeth!”

The promotion – 60% discount on teeth whitening if booked on Halloween!

If you want to forever end the drudgery of cold calling, cold prospecting and costly, unpredictable and wasteful advertising with a PROVEN system that Predictably Delivers:

• Customers

• Clients

• Patients

All pre-determined to do business with you check out Dan Kennedy’s Magnetic Marketing

P.S. – If you haven’t already got your ticket for IS17 – There’s still time and a few remaining tickets right here! – This is your opportunity to Spend Four Incredible Days With 20+ Of The Most Successful “Superhero” Info-Marketers On The Planet And Discover The Right Strategies To Completely Transform Your Life & Business In 2017 And Beyond!

CALL TODAY On: 800-871-0147

Source: Dan Kennedy

This week’s blog was written to help you to increase your productivity, boost your sales and maximize your business growth.

You see, when you pull back the curtains, almost all businesses are the same in that somebody has to generate a lead or a prospect.

The prospect somehow has to get into a sales event.

Somebody has to try and sell them something, and if they buy it, they’ve got to be developed and if they don’t, they’ve got to be chased.

But what most business owners miss out on are the concealed opportunities that could easily increase your productivity, boost your sales and maximize your business growth.

With that said…

How Can You Find Concealed Opportunities In Your Business?

Good question.

I’m glad you asked.

There are three secret ways (discovered by Dan Kennedy and based on his extensive research and project by project testing) that can help you find concealed opportunities in your business.

SECRET 1 – USE A SYSTEM

You need to use a system for frequently, constantly hunting for and identifying concealed opportunity.

You really need to build a regimen that you go through methodically; that you take your business and run it through.

PRO TIP: “Create a checklist for your business that you use repeatedly and methodically run everything through.”

You must revisit, which might be every quarter, it might be every year, it might be every day, depending upon how screwed up your thing is or how unsatisfied with it you are.

But you really need to build a regimen that you go through methodically; that you take your business and run it through the same meat grinder every so often looking for concealed opportunities.

So a lot of what you’re going to get can be assembled into that and then you really ought to think it through and have a way that you and/or your team periodically approach:

• Question everything you’re doing.
• Try and see what you’re not seeing.

SECRET 2 – APPLY FOCUSED INPUT

You need a lot of focused input. By that, I mean input that is directly related to your business. For example, Dan Kennedy, reads trade journals in, give or take, 20, 25 categories. Not that he reads them all word for word and not that he reads them every month.

PRO TIP: “You only need to read two or three journals that are in your particular industry to know what’s going on.”

People are surprised by stuff they should not be surprised by and they miss stuff they should not miss because it’s laid out right down in front of them in what Dan calls focused input, in the journal that is assembled for them about the particular industry or business or profession they’re in.

If you’re not even reading that… if you’re in Dan’s business and you’re not reading Ad Age, Target, DM News, Response, you’re really not in the game.

You don’t even know what’s going on. You need focused input.

SECRET WAY 3 – APPLY RANDOM, ECLECTIC INPUT

You need some time where you go to places that are not directly related to your thing and poke around because, sometimes, that’s where you get it.

For example, a good day for Dan is:

• Go to the bookstore
• Go to the shopping mall; watch people
• Get somebody to pitch me on some product
• Go see what they’re selling in Bed, Bath and Beyond
• Spend an hour at the Dollar Store

PRO TIP: “Create a list of 3 to 5 places you could visit that are not directly related to your thing and start poking around.”

Go here for even more ways to develop your business, multiply sales, and dominate your market.

Before you go make sure you check out ‘The Advanced Business Development Secrets Academy’ on this page where you’ll learn: seven keys to business development… the theory of business… how to solve the problem that can never be solved… 15 transformation strategies… how to not buy a business but get it’s customers and much, much more.

P.S. – IMPORTANT: The price deadline for IS17 is right around the corner. Get off the fence; time to register before the price increases $200. Call: 800-871-0147 (Office hours 9.30 – 5pm) or you can go here to register online.

Source: Dan Kennedy

If you own a business you may have wondered whatever happened to the freedom, money, success, and prosperity you always desired — which is why you got in business in the first place…

…But instead it turned out being a 60-80 hour non-stop grind where you’re working all the time and always stressed out about where the next customer, client or patient is going to come from.

Barely being able to pay for basic expenses, always struggling to pay the bills, and coming to grips with the realization that you may have gone down the WRONG path.

The good news: In this week’s blog we’re going to show you how these problems can be solved.

And in true Dan Kennedy fashion, they can be solved fast!

How fast?

That’s completely up to you.

With that said, have you ever considered creating your own information product?

You see, Information marketing allows you to leverage your expertise to create a lucrative business where you can make money from a spare room with no employees or overhead.

Take Dan Kennedy for example, he’s already created hundreds of information products (take a look here) that have made him millions of dollars in extra revenue.

Yes, that’s right he also runs an info marketing business alongside his copywriting and consulting business.

Would you like to create your own 6,7 even 8 figure info marketing business on the side?

Of course you would right?

But if it was that easy to do everyone would be doing it, wouldn’t they?

The first step is getting started THE RIGHT WAY…

First, you must research your market and decide if what you want to sell actually has buyers waiting. If not move on!

If it has the potential of known buyers…

How could you reach out and get them to spend money with you?

How could you solve their problems?

One example is by creating a written report to attract potential customers to you. This will also help build your email list for follow up marketing purposes.

Let’s take the property niche for example…

You know from your research there’s is a huge market for property investing. There’s a huge market for newbies getting started.

The title of your report could be:

“The 3 Common Pitfalls Most Newbie Investors Make When Starting On The Property Ladder And How To Succeed”

• Your report should focus on how a newbie would overcome those pitfalls based on your experience and expertise.

Or you could use something like this:

What Banks And Mortgage Brokers Don’t Want YOU to Know… “How to raise finance without using banks or mortgage brokers”

• Your report should focus on the insider knowledge of raising finances at better interest rates and how they can do the same.

Make sure your report has a clear call to action at the end so the reader can reach out to you for more information, etc.

Also creating a report doesn’t have to cost you the earth.

Right now you can get a high quality cover from a graphic designer created for as little as $5 on fiverr.com

You can create your report in MS Word or Pages and save as a PDF document.

You could also outsource everything, if you want.

Your report could even be your first of many digital products.

Another example would be selling a digital recording.

For example you could interview a celebrity in your market and record the conversation (obviously you would need their consent).

In fact, imagine if you asked the known celebrity in your niche thought provoking questions that you know your market wanted to know.

For example, imagine in the Internet marketing niche if you could ask Frank Kern or Eben Pagan how they come up with their profitable ideas! Or how do they build their email lists, etc.

To make your recording you could use Audacity® – which is a free, open source, cross-platform audio software for multi-track recording and editing.

You can then sell your interview as a digital download.

You could also use this as a lead magnet for potential customers.

Another option would be to burn your recording to a CD or transfer to an USB stick… and mail it to your customers.

You can publish your content on demand so you don’t have to keep masses of stock and costly overheads.

By selling your digital products by mail you’ve just started to build your in-house direct mail list of known buyers!

Imagine if you also have a backend product to sell – you could even send your backend sales letter with the product.

There are so many ways to create products and make money.

The problem most people face is wasting time and money by focusing on the wrong products that won’t sell in a million years!

Like trying to sell weight loss to skinny people… or DVDs to bookworms who refuse to use any other media than books!

Now, if you want to prevent yourself from making the common pitfalls most “newbie” marketers make, and save TONS of time, money and headaches…

Checkout these blueprints–the exact-same blueprints that have liberated a great many people from poor incomes, from frustrating businesses or jobs, from fixed-in-stone work schedules, and from outright boredom–to lives of renewed vigor, control, certainty and fun!

PS – If you want to discover the secret to creating rock-solid information products in as little as 2 hours…even if you have never created a product in your life – this is how you forever banish “perfectionism” entirely!

PPS – If you want to learn the latest info-marketing secrets from Dan Kennedy in person and hang out with the profit boosting, sales multiplying avengers he’s assembled to help you prosper in 2017 and moving into 2018… this could be your opportunity to catapult your business into orbit – go here for all the details about The Info-Summit 17!

Source: Dan Kennedy

In a recent email we sent called: The Tale of Two Coaches there was a marketing lesson embedded in the copy.

Did you spot it?

In case you missed out here’s the opening…

“One beautiful summer afternoon in Cleveland, Ohio, 27 years ago, two men attended a seminar looking to build their coaching businesses…

They were very much alike, these two men. Both wanted to make a difference in the coaching industry, both were friendly and people focused, and both had big dreams for their future coaching practice.

They vowed to stay in touch, but as the years rolled by they gradually lost contact, that was until recently when they ran into each other at the Info Summit.

They were still very much alike. Both were happily married. Both had children. And unlike many who attended the same Info Summit, both had started their own coaching practice AND were still in business, despite the ups and downs of the economy.

Both also had excellent reputations for being great businessmen.

But there was a striking difference…

One of the men worked in his business 40-50 hours a week, and made a modest income for his family. (Around $70k pa) The other spent more time with his family than he did working, and enjoyed a 7-figure coaching and consulting practice.

What Made The Difference?

So why did we use the story lead?

Why didn’t we write about the features and benefits of what we were selling?

Because we live in an overcrowded market where copy TEMPLATES are now the norm!

You have to be different if you want to be noticed.

And you have to do something different if you want to make sales.

Which means, you must look for ‘brilliant Ideas’ in your marketing… because this is the ONLY way to make your copy stand head and shoulders above your competitors and most importantly… convert like crazy.

The Tale of Two Coaches was modeled on the Wall Street Journal sales letter!

Why?

Because we we’re able to model the ‘BIG IDEA’ and adapt it for our market in minutes…

Can you imagine how much time you could save using this method?

How many promotions could you create?

Dan Kennedy is a master of this process.

And in this week’s blog we’re going to show you his secrets to finding BIG IDEAS and how to create practically any marketing message in any media to get more people to say “Yes” to working with you—or buying your product.

3 EXAMPLES OF THE “BIG IDEA”

1. The “Buy It Now Before It’s Too Late” Idea – There’s nothing like firing the fear of apocalyptic advertising into buyers like there’s no tomorrow. Because literally… THERE IS NO TOMORROW.

Send your buyers into a frenzied rush as they’ll fight to the bitter end to snatch up your “limited” one time offer.

Or even use the oldie, but goldie: ‘buy it now… before prices increase!’ People hate to miss out on something. So you’ll be really playing right into their psyche by using this well regarded school of thought.

2. “The Created Problem” Idea – Now this is good one if you like to get creative… and you love stirring things up.

You see, in advertising, wherever there is a problem – there’s gonna have to be a price-tag on the solution.

And if you can create the solution to a BIG problem, people will flock like sheep to purchase your goods.

Now when I say you’ve got to find solutions to BIG problems, I’m not referring to World Hunger or any kind of Financial or Economic crisis. Those I’m afraid are to be solved for another day.

The problems that you need to solve are all those ‘annoying’, ‘peevish’ or unimportant problems that we face daily.

So before somebody told you that you needed to get just one cup of coffee at a time,
everybody was perfectly content making a Mr. Coffee pot of coffee. Most people
drink three, by the way, at a time, so the Mr. Coffee pot was actually about right.

Now you’ve got to make three cups with three Keurigs.

By the way, all of you people that sort your trash and have five different trash cans and all that stuff, may I point out to you, you’ve gone from throwing away one bag of coffee to throwing away 5,622 little plastic cups a year, which are not biodegradable.

So 1000 years from now, when climate change finally does kill everybody, it’ll be because of your damn Keurig little machine things, and mine too.

So now hot issue topics like “Climate Change” get to form part of the problem. Which are usually the main vehicles of persuasion when you’re trying to convince someone of a problem that might not yet even exist in your buyer’s mind.

It’s pretty much another advertisement fear tactic, but you get to reap the biggest reward by offering your shiny new product or service as THE solution.

And boy, do people beg for solutions to their non-existent problems that you’ve creatively escalated by comparing to a World Crisis!

That’s money straight in your pocket AND you get to win the hearts of the people.

You absolute advertising hero.

3. “School of Curiosity” FINALLY an idea of thought without inflicting fear tactics on your audience – or is it?

Well, they do say that Curiosity killed the cat. So maybe there still is an element of danger with this one. And good use of this school of thought should really get your buyer’s hearts thudding and eye-balls popping.

See if you can arouse people’s curiosity, then they will definitely be paying attention to your advertising. People are pretty odd when it comes down to working out what really makes them tick.

We love to be thrilled. We love to be shocked. And we love being gripped by fear as we pace our way through any sort of electrifying literature.

So if you can set the pace for people in your ads… then you’re onto a real winner!

So yeah, get deep with your audience. Slice right into the human psyche.

Because it’s our deepest FEARS that elicit action. And if you want successful ad copy, then you’re going to need to dig real deep into your market to find out EXACTLY what makes them tick.

Find out exactly what puts the fear of the lord and above inside of them so that you can set a deep-seated desire into all of your buyers and prospects…

However, if you don’t have time to waste figuring out your Market’s Fears and you want to FAST track the process and have more ammunition so you can create killer ad after killer ad using time-tested and PROVEN copy angles that there is no way you could ever think of all by yourself – Check out Dan Kennedy’s 43 Advertising Tactics You Can “Legally Steal” To Easily Create Powerful Sales Messages That’ll Make Your Prospects Buy Now

P.S. – If you want to learn the latest profit boosting, sales multiplying secrets this could be your last opportunity to save money on a ticket for the Info Summit 17… This is important because in 2017, and as we move closer to 2018, only entrepreneurs and info-marketers who employ the most cutting-edge sales and marketing tactics will make the grade. EIGHT out of TEN info-businesses fail in their first year, and of those that stay afloat, many struggle to make a profit. Click here for all the details!

Source: Dan Kennedy

Important message from Dan Kennedy: “While most sales professionals are knocking on doors and cold calling, I have prospects pay me up to $19,000 to come to ME for consulting days in my home office in Cleveland, Ohio.”

In this week’s blog we’re going to show you how to sell at substantially, even SHOCKINGLY higher prices than your competitors…yet immunizing your customers, clients, and patients against sticker shock.

This is a powerful strategy for price presentation that prepares the client to accept a price he would likely find outrageous without this “warm up”.

Experts like Ramit Sethi have already mastered the sales process and are HAPPILY reaping the financial rewards. This article reveals some sales closing tips from Ramit.

Moving on… I want to introduce you to a system that will allow you to engineer the natural and automatic sale without using barbaric “brute-force” old school tactics your prospects are immune to and recognize immediately.

In fact, in true, renegade entrepreneurial fashion… Dan Kennedy says: “This blog might tick off a lot of my “guru” counterparts in the sales and marketing industry, but you know what? I don’t care.”

That’s one of the many reasons why we love DAN at GKIC!

You see, what you’re about to learn has nothing to do with “smarts” or talent. It just has to do with learning a specific set of skills you can easily implement.

It starts by learning the sales tactics that separates the top 10% of income earners in ANY field (heck, even the top 1%)…from the bottom 90% of entrepreneurs—or what we at GKIC call the “mediocre majority”…

One of these secrets is the “Three Tipping Points”…where your potential client, customer, and patient is immediately moved to trust you and accept your advice and recommendations at the drop of a hat.

And another one is a single, incredibly, irrationally powerful “status-lift” you can use to instantly “be taller” in your market—more important, more trustworthy, more expert, and more influential in the eyes of your prospects, clients, and patients.

Seriously, you could triple your income with just these 2 weapons…that is if you just take action on them.

These weapons have allowed Dan to earn a solid $2 million dollars per year copywriting for clients.

Can you see how powerful this system is?

Selling can be a pleasant experience that’ll make you wake up in the morning looking forward to going to work.

And it all starts with the Sales Mastery Unleashed Home Study Course.

This course will show you:

• How to sell at substantially, even SHOCKINGLY higher prices than your competitors…yet immunizing your customers, clients, and patients against sticker shock. This is a powerful strategy for price presentation that prepares the client to accept a price he would likely find outrageous without this “warm up”.

• The 2 fastest paths to getting the other person to immediately confide in you and TRUST you. The more you immediately earn rapport, the closer you’ll have a sale.

• The 1 secret tactic that’ll allow you to sell more. The best part? It doesn’t require you to do any work. Just ask your prospect this simple question and they’ll take it from there.

• The easiest way to get in the mind of your target prospect. Nope, there’s nothing manipulative or “shady” about this. Its just good detective work so you can discover ways to sell to them effortlessly.

• The 4 pillars of choosing prospects to work with that’ll make your life a lot easier. This will automatically weed out the “looky-loos” who will simply waste your time.

• How to choreograph the perfect sale before you say a single word to the prospect. This is applicable whether you sell online, face-to-face, or in groups. This takes the pressure off the face-to-face sales presentation and shifts the power to YOU.

• How to avoid the three giant mistakes too many salespeople make with ‘price’. Most salespeople under price, negotiate away profit, tremble in fear over price, and lose sales because of “price”.

• The keys to using “ethical manipulation” to boost sales. This powerful tactic is a secret you have to promise to use for the forces of good—not evil.

• The REAL reason why your customer makes a price decision. If your customer shops prices, questions price, compares you to lesser-priced options, then there is a reason…within YOUR control.

Click Here And Discover The Secrets Your Competitors Will NEVER Know And You Won’t Discover In Today’s Out-Dated Sales Books!

P.S. – One more thing and it’s IMPORTANT: If you want to learn the latest profit boosting, sales multiplying secrets from Dan in person this could be your last opportunity to save money on a ticket for the Info Summit 17… why should you care? Good question… Well, Dan’s promised to reveal his most profitable Information marketing secrets and this highly lucrative business model that’s helped hundreds – possibly thousands – of entrepreneurs replicate it. It’s the promised land of ultimate business liberation that enables you to break the “work-money link.”

Which means, if you are stuck trading hours for dollars, you’ll always have a cap on what you can earn… not anymore Click here to change your financial future and grab your ticket before they vanish!

Source: Dan Kennedy

Being able to help someone achieve something spectacular… now that’s a feeling.

It’s a catching feeling too. Influencing people spreads like wildfire. And in this article, it explains why the ‘coaching’ phenomenon is rippling through the workplace at an unstoppable rate.

Have you ever considered becoming a coach?

What about a consultant?

Think about it.

The best athletes in the world have a coach to help boost their performance… for example:

• Floyd Mayweather – Record: 49 – 0 and the richest boxer in history! Has a coach!

• Serena Williams – five-time winner of the WTA Tour Championships in the singles division. Serena has also won four Olympic gold medals. Has a coach!

• Michael Phelps – former competitive swimmer and the most decorated Olympian of all time, with a total of 28 medals. Has a coach!

• And more..

Even the most successful entrepreneurs and business owners have coaches and advisors to help them grow their businesses. For example…

• Bill Gates – Net worth: 89.8 Billion USD (2017) – Forbes

• Jeff Bezos – Net worth: 86.7 billion USD (2017) – Forbes

• Elon Musk – Net worth: 15.9 billion USD (2017) – Forbes

• And more…

Can you see a pattern?

Now you may be wondering… why would a successful business owner hire coaches and consultants when they’re on top of their game?

Because even when you’re the best you need someone to help you stay there and to help you get even better.

Here’s a proven way to become a highly paid coach in your niche!

Let’s move on shall we…

Enter the profitable world of CONSULTING

Can you make money from being a consultant?

Of course you can.

Is there a demand for consulting?

Great question.

Well, in the USA over 300 million businesses ALL need consultants and good advisors.

The UK has five million businesses that need your help – and this will expand during BREXIT!

Think about that for a second.

How many businesses are in the town or city where you live right now?

Because every single one spends money on consultants and advisors!

But, if you picked up the phone and started conversations about…

• Internet marketing

• Info-marketing

• Squeeze pages

• Traffic

• FB Ads

• CPA, CPC and more

You would have most business owners scratching their head, perhaps confused, and less likely to hire your services.

But those in the know are quietly banking a small fortune for running a profitable coaching and consulting business.

Dan Kennedy for example, earns millions of dollars per year from his consulting services!

There are many more ‘known names’ banking life-changing fortunes from coaching and consulting:

• Frank Kern

• Eban Pagan

• Ramit Sethi

To name but a few…

Don’t worry, you don’t need to be a GURU or a known name (yes it helps) but as an info-marketer there are plenty of ways you can apply your skills to coaching and consulting.

You just need to know where to find clients and how to ask them for the money!

Think about this… any of your successful online and offline marketing projects, experiences and results can be transferred to most bricks and mortar businesses.

For example… you could easily consult with a dentist, chiropractor or therapist about various methods for bringing in new patients every week.

And following the right steps you could easily start landing paying coaching or consulting clients FAST.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves…

If you want to fast track your success as a coach or consultant, increase your skills, learn the systems to get clients and start earning the money you deserve while adding another revenue stream to your business then you need to check out the GKIC consulting and coaching bootcamp!

Following the advice and proven strategies you could earn $100,000.00 to $1,000,000.00 a year as a coach or consultant when Dan Kennedy pulls back the curtain and shows you exactly how it’s done.

In fact, you’ll learn the simplest and fastest route for getting clients, maximizing your fees, delivering your services, and getting repeat business and referrals from booming coaching and consulting businesses, including Dan’s.

Even if you’re a total newbie, you’ll be equipped to handle all aspects of marketing, compensation, delivery and management with all the information necessary to launch a lucrative consulting or coaching business.

Avoid trial and error pain.

Leap to the big money fast.

Earn more with less stress.

Your journey to prosperity as a coach or consultant starts here!

Source: Dan Kennedy

When it comes to crafting messages that resonate with your target market. You need to stack the deck in your favor. The best way (backed by extensive testing) is to carry out research.

More specifically, researching your customers.

This step takes time, energy and focus.

If you could dissect a winning marketing promotion, or spend time with marketing greats like Dan Kennedy, you would understand the importance of researching your customer.

Imagine you are selling a $1,997 product.

Now imagine you’ve just written the best sales letter… it follows the normal structure of writing a winning sales message.

You think the headline rocks.

And NO response!

Why is that?

A few reasons:

1. They don’t believe what you say is true for them.

2. Your offer is way off mark.

Imagine if you got the world’s best living copywriter to run your promotion?

You start to make sales!

So what made the difference?

RESEARCHING THE CUSTOMER!

Any respected copywriter with many home runs under their belt will swear under oath research is the most important part of any sales message.

Think of yourself like Detective Columbo when you approach any sales message.

The 8 step Columbo guide to researching your customers – get a pen and notebook ready…

1. Find out where your customers hangout.

Which social media platforms do they engage? You should join them. Study them. And see the feedback. This can arm you with some great insights into objections and fears your customer has.

For example, if you read a blog on weight loss, hiding in the comments could be a busy mom of four children complaining about having no time to go to the gym.

Now imagine if your sales message addressed her specific problem; and imagine if your solution was a ‘Workout At Home Program For Busy Moms’. Do you think you would have her attention?

2. Do your prospects read newspapers and magazines? If so, start digesting them.

3. Read any reviews about anything (for example; in a newspaper you may discover articles with plenty of questions and answers, or magazines may have a dear Jane section – read it!)

4. Buy data – more specifically, you can now rent mailing lists with relevant data for just about any niche in any town. For example, known buyers in the last 30 days of a similar product or service to yours. Better still, you can rent lists based on gender, age and interests etc.

5. Investigate where they live, it’s good to have an idea of your customer’s lifestyle. Why is this important? It’s no good trying to sell affluent products to poor people.

6. Create your ‘Columbo’ customer profile (Gender/Age/Address/Likes etc.)

7. Step into your customer’s mind for the day. Try and act out their typical day.

8. Try and think like your customers do. Try and discover the problems that keep them awake at night.

Now you have your customer’s profile.

You can begin to write about your product in a way your customer will relate.

This is one of the most important steps. You want to win trust as soon as they lay eyes on your sales message.

Here’s an example of an Ad written by John Carlton. Notice how the lead, headline and subhead are loaded with facts and information targeted to the prospect reading it.

It’s not a typical “How To Master Your Swing And Out Drive Your Competition Every Time You Tee Off!”

 

Another famous ad by John was the “One-Legged Golfer”…

When John was interviewing the expert who casually mentions he developed his amazing new swing after watching a one-legged golfer bounce up to the tee and launch one of the longest, straightest and most impressive drives he’d ever seen.

John says: “It took me nearly an hour to pull this little factoid out of the expert — to him, the story was old news, and who cared about one-legged golfers, anyway?

I knew I had the greatest hook in golf the second I heard the tale.

The key, again, is to have a legitimate payoff in the ad when you use sensational headlines. The payoff here comes on page 2, when Milt describes feeling sorry for the guy … until he realizes the truth: The one-legged man actually had an advantage over normal golfers. It’s all about balance.”

Special Bonus Tip – Check out amazon book reviews on your niche. Go to amazon books, search the top 10 best sellers in your niche and read the reviews good and bad. Think of the bad reviews as potential objections that you could handle when writing your copy.

Source: Dan Kennedy

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