Is Your Marketing Killing Your Product?
Issue #2196
- WEALTHY: A 4-step program for (investing) success (Rick Pendergraft)
- HEALTHY: Killer microwave popcorn? (Jason Holland)
- WISE: Alfred Whitney Griswold on bad ideas
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- How to sell a $200,000 product (Clayton Makepeace)
- How to find the right person to talk to (Paul Lawrence)
- It’s Fun to Know… about homing crocodiles
- Add "avoirdupois" to your vocabulary
He’d Have Called Them Crazy - Or Worse!
With the Internet, it’s now possible to spend no more than a few dollars, write a couple of very basic ads, and have instant access to millions of potential customers all in a matter of minutes.
If anyone had told Jim Sheridan he could bank thousands in just 24 hours… without any product of his own… without spending a penny on getting it or promoting it, he’d have justifiably said they were nuts.
But Jim made a decision that he would overcome his skeptical nature and give it a go. Boy, is he glad he did! That one deal alone banked him $187,296 in one day.
Take a look at how Jim brought in over $187,000 in a single day!
What Works in Life, Works in Trading
You may know Tony Robbins as a life coach, motivational speaker, and author. But while listening to one of his CD programs the other day, I realized that what he was saying about being successful in life is a lot like being successful in trading.
Robbins gives four steps you should take to achieve success:
1. Know your outcome.
2. Take action.
3. Track the results of that action to see if it’s working.
4. Change your approach if it’s not working.
And here’s how those four steps apply to trading:
Knowing your outcome in trading isn’t always possible, but having a plan based on potential outcomes is critical. You must know what action you will take depending upon which way a particular stock moves.
Taking action is a two-part tool in trading. Most people work very hard on timing the entry of their trades, but it is just as important to time your exits. When it is time to enter a trade, set your exit points - both on the winning side and the losing side. When the stock hits one of those exit points, take action and close the trade.
Tracking whether or not your trading system is working is easy: If your account is growing, it’s working. If you are losing money, it isn’t.
If your trading system isn’t working as well as you would like, change your approach.
[Ed. Note: Rick Pendergraft, a two-time winner of the "Top Trader" award at Schaeffer’s Investment Research, is a contributor to ETR’s free investment e-zine Investor’s Daily Edge. Learn how to protect your portfolio and multiply your money - in any market - by clicking here.]
"The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas."
Alfred Whitney Griswold
Is Your Marketing Killing Your Product?
Last week, I invited members of our EasyWriters Marketing Club to ask me anything they liked. And I personally answered every single one of their questions in a marathon two-hour live webinar.
One of my beloved EasyWriters - a young copywriter - had just invested several weeks of his life in creating a one-shot direct-mail promotion. Its purpose was to convince personal trainers to buy a $200,000 franchise in his client’s fitness business.
The client mailed about 400 of his sales letters, then sat back, expecting a tsunami of simoleons to come crashing in.
But instead, they received:
* Fewer inquiries than you have toes on your left foot
* Zero sales
Now, I never saw my EasyWriter friend’s copy. I don’t have to. Because even the best sales copy ever written in the history of direct response would have failed miserably in this case.
Fact is, there’s so much wrong with this marketing model, I hardly know where to begin.
For one thing, 400 sales letters to sell a $200,000 product? Let’s think about that for a moment…
A single order would give you a 0.25 percent (one-quarter of one percent) response rate. Now, that’s a reasonable response to expect if you’re offering a $200 product and IF your prospects are crazy qualified. But it’s not even conceivable with a hard offer and at a price that’s one thousand times higher.
And I seriously doubt that my friend’s prospects were anywhere near qualified to spend even two dollars with him - let alone two hundred thousand.
See, I’ve had a few personal trainers over the years. And every one of them had one thing in common.
Care to guess what it was?
Bingo! Every one of them was flat broke. None of them could have shelled out $200,000 for a fitness franchise if you’d held a gun to their heads.
In fact, I’d be willing to bet most of my friend’s prospects have second and even third jobs just to make ends meet. Heck, I met my favorite trainer the night she served me a margarita at a tiki bar.
(It was an interesting relationship. Every weekend, she’d keep my glass full of high-calorie booze. Then, Monday through Friday, she’d come to the house and beat me mercilessly, cheerfully exacting sadistic revenge for every drink she’d served me.)
But even if every one of the 400 folks who got my friend’s sales letter had 200,000 buckaroonis burning a hole in their pockets, he was still screwed. He was screwed the minute he accepted the client.
Because, frankly, the franchise owner was an idiot.
See, my friend tried to tell him that you don’t sell $200,000 products with a single sales letter. Your prospect doesn’t know you from Adam - and you expect him to read a few pages of sales copy and then cut you a check for one-fifth of a million smackers?
Sorry. No matter how hypnotic your sales copy may be, the world doesn’t work that way.
Because all things being equal…
As your price rises, so does your prospect’s skepticism.
Most folks will spend $9.99, $19, or $29 with a total stranger without a second thought.
If they’re well-qualified for your offer, they’ll spend $49, $79, $99, even $199… so long as they see a few reasonable proof elements and a convincing guarantee.
But if you want a prospect to cut you a check for much more than that, you’ll need to do more than just answer every objection and erase his skepticism.
You’ll need to establish a trusting relationship with him.
If your price is $200,000, you’re going to have to work to get it. You’ll have to mount a multi-step marketing campaign that uses the mail, the telephone, and maybe even a one-on-one meeting. You have to move the prospect, one careful step at a time, from where he is now to where you want him to be.
Or it could be an intense online blitz. A blizzard of e-mails and banner ads, a pay-per-click campaign, and maybe even offline media like TV, radio, and direct mail to drive prospects to a search-engine-optimized landing page that produces a lead. That’s followed by, maybe, a direct-mail kit, one or more phone conversations, and perhaps the face-to-face stuff.
So how would I have done it?
Well, I would have started by asking myself, "Who’s most likely to buy a $200,000 franchise?"
And I’d probably have answered myself, "I’m not certain. But it sure as heck ain’t poverty-stricken physical trainers!"
So I would have beat the bushes for mailing lists, magazines, and websites that deliver the eyeballs of people who have proven that they want to go into business for themselves.
I would have tested, for example, lists of subscribers to magazines that target folks who want to start their own businesses. And I would have run lead-producing ads in those publications as well. Biz-op book and product buyers would have been worth a direct-mail test, too - especially folks who have inquired about or bought other franchises.
If I wanted to spread a wider net, I would have done it on the cheap: With lead-producing inserts in card decks, other people’s product shipments, and other media that let me solicit inquiries for $5 or $10 per thousand eyeballs. But never, never, never in a direct-mail package that costs me fifty to one hundred times more to mail!
In my first communication with my prospective buyers, I’d set out to seduce them with vivid mental pictures of life as a business owner. I’d romance the freedom, the prestige, the money.
I’d demonstrate that the business I’m selling is easy, fun, and a great way to meet interesting people.
And I’d load my promotion with case histories and testimonials from people just like my prospect who have used this franchise to become wildly successful.
I wouldn’t even come close to naming my price in my first contact with the prospect. But I would trivialize it by demonstrating how buying this franchise is like buying thousand-dollar bills for a penny apiece. Or better yet, by pointing out that our easy financing plan will put him in business cheap and have him earning big profits fast.
Then I’d add an urgency motivator - like mentioning that only one franchise will be granted in his city, on a first-come, first-served basis. And I’d ask him to call or maybe write his phone number and e-mail address on a reply card and return it to me NOW.
The ones that respond, I’d qualify on the phone. The ones that don’t, would get a second "Why haven’t I heard from you?" letter. Or, if the list is responding well, an outbound call from a franchise rep.
That’s how I’d do it. And that’s how my EasyWriter friend wanted to do it.
"But no-o-o-o," says the client. "I don’t want a multi-step marketing model. I want you to sell a $200,000 franchise in a single sales letter to people who probably can’t afford one."
Sure, pal. I’ll get right on it. Soon as I part the Red Sea, turn a few cases of Dasani into Cristal, and raise a coupla dudes from the dead.
[Ed. Note: Clayton Makepeace has spent the last 35 years creating direct-mail, Internet, and print promotions that have sold well over $1 billion worth of products. He publishes the highly acclaimed e-zine The Total Package to help business owners and copywriters accelerate their sales and profits. Click here to check it out.]
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The Right Name Goes a Long Way
When you’re trying to make your big career dreams become reality, being able to connect with the right people in your industry can be the difference between success and failure. By doing a little research, you can discover who those people are.
Because I’m in the entertainment business, I read the trade journals every day. I check out who works where and what their function is. And the payoffs can be big.
Just this week, for example, I had a project to pitch to a major sports organization that licenses personalities to perform in movies and on television. If I had just called and asked who I should talk to about my project, I’d have been referred to their website. In other words, I would have hit a brick wall. But because I did my research and had a name, I got through to the right man right away. And he is quite interested in my project. In fact, I’ve already submitted the details he asked for, and I’m looking forward to meeting with him in the near future.
Identify and begin reading at least one industry publication in your chosen field. When you see the names of people who could potentially advance your career, make some notes about them and keep it in a master file.
In my case, I’m always on the lookout for executives who have just been promoted or hired to develop new projects for production companies, networks, and studios. And once a week, I go through my master file to see if I can match up any of my projects with what they’re looking for. If there’s an opportunity, I contact them directly or have my agent do it.
[Ed. Note: Paul Lawrence is not only the president of a successful direct-mail company, he is also a produced screenwriter. For more ideas on how to make your dreams a reality, check out Paul’s Dare to Live Your Dreams program here.]
Killer Microwave Popcorn?
By Jason Holland
Medical research has already established a link between exposure to the chemical diacetyl (a flavoring agent) and lung disease in workers at plants that manufacture microwave butter-flavored popcorn. Now a lung specialist at a Denver hospital believes he has found the first case of a popcorn fan with lung problems caused by popcorn fumes. The patient had been eating several bags of the popcorn each day for several years, and his symptoms (coughing, shortness of breath, and the reduced ability to exhale) kept getting worse.
The doctor has alerted public health authorities to this possible threat and intends to conduct more research. Meanwhile, several manufacturers have announced plans to discontinue using diacetyl in their butter flavoring.
What does this mean to you? Two things that we keep harping on in ETR: (1) As much as possible, stick with fresh, unprocessed foods, and (2) read the label.
(Source: Associated Press)
It’s Fun to Know: Homing Crocodiles
You’ve heard of homing pigeons and perhaps about household pets finding their way to their owners hundreds of miles away, right? Now researchers with the University of Queensland in Australia have discovered that saltwater crocodiles have similar instincts.
Apparently, animal control specialists have been moving the reptiles from populated areas to more isolated spots. And the croc experts have learned that some of the relocated reptiles have traveled up to 250 miles to get back home. Satellite transmitters tracked them as they swam toward their original habitats using cues that the scientists have yet to determine.
(Source: National Geographic)
Start Making Money Today
Interested in getting a nice little side-business going on the Internet? Or maybe even from your living-room table?
But you don’t have too much money, you don’t have too much time, and you’re not exactly Bill Gates when it comes to technology. Sound familiar?
A lot of people are in the same boat. The good news is that ETR has heard you. And now we’ve done something about it…
We’ve asked our colleague Marc Charles to be on the lookout for profit opportunities that can be run from a kitchen table, your desktop or out on the road.
Criteria? They’ve got to be inexpensive, easy to start, and still have great income potential, but without a lot of red tape.
They say when you’re first getting your feet wet with a side-business, the most important dollar to make is the first one. Well, Marc is an expert at taking beginning entrepreneurs and showing you how to make that first buck. He knows, because he’s done it dozens of times for himself, his family and his friends.
If you’ve been dreaming about starting your own business… now you can get started for about the price of 2 lattes.
And get this - you could be making money literally just hours from now. Imagine the feeling of finally getting a side business launched - TODAY!
- Patrick Coffey
Word to the Wise: Avoirdupois
"Avoirdupois" (av-ur-duh-POIZ) is another way to say "heaviness." The word is derived from the French for "goods of weight."
Example (as used by John Updike in The New York Times): "Yet until middle age and avoirdupois overtook her, Mary was no slouch."
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker … build your self-confidence and intellect … increase your attractiveness to others … just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR’s new Words to the Wise CD Library.]
Michael Masterson
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2007