Issue #2613
- WEALTHY: Are your products and sales copy in tune? (Michael Masterson)
- HEALTHY: 3 ways to counteract cancer causers (Kelley Herring)
- WISE: Shunryu Suzuli on possibilities
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- Success doesn’t mean being good at everything (Bob Bly)
- A kick in the pants from the CEO of eMarketer
- It’s Good to Know… about fonts
- Add “confrere” to your vocabulary
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Dear ETR: “How do we keep our customers happy and minimize refunds?”
“What do you do when you’re an info marketer with a product that people are eager to purchase… however once they buy it and find advice that tells them to do something they don’t want to do, they’re unhappy?
“For example: My wife is a career counselor. One of the things that really works for her clients is ‘networking.’ However, people hate to do this. So an info product telling people to network in order to increase their chances of getting a good job is likely to turn them off.
“My question has to do with two points:
“Q1: how do we keep our customer base happy so we can count on them for repeat business?
“Q2: how do we minimize the refunds once they find out the advice they’ve purchased is distasteful to them?”
Pete P.
Fort Collins, CO
Dear Pete,
The problem you are having is typical of old-school information marketing: Copywriters sell a product by emphasizing its quick and easy results. Then editorial people give buyers the “real deal” – which disappoints them because it’s not quick and easy.
The solution is not to tell people up front that the advice you’re going to give them is hard and time-consuming to follow. You’d never make a sale if you did that. The solution is to have your editorial content and marketing copy work in harmony. Challenge yourself to come up with a way to teach people how to network (in the case you mentioned) in ways that are not tedious and emotionally challenging.
Here’s an example of what I’m talking about: Instead of advising would-be job seekers to network by going to events and glad-handing (which many people find repugnant), suggest that they write personal notes to influential people they admire. Writing one personal note a day takes about 10 minutes, including addressing the envelope. If they send out six out a day, they will have made 180 contacts a month and 2,060 a year. Imagine the results if only 10 percent of those 2,060 influential people agreed to help!
By digging more deeply into coming up with solutions to your customers’ problems, you achieve several significant benefits:
• You develop ideas that are more interesting and more useful than the ideas your competitors are producing.
• The details of these better ideas make for much stronger advertising copy.
• With stronger advertising copy, you will get higher response rates.
• When your customers read your better solutions, they will be more satisfied and request far fewer refunds.
The trick, as I said, is to get both your advertising and your product in harmony.
Set higher standards. Provide information that is more valuable to your customers. Communicate with your customers more frequently. Answer their most frequently asked questions in your promotional copy and on your website. Help them solve their problems quickly and easily. Your refund rate will practically disappear.
- Michael Masterson
[Ed. Note: Get more of Michael's surefire strategies for getting ahead in business in True Path to Profits: A Master Entrepreneur's Guide to Business Success. Find out more (including how you can get a bonus subscription to Michael's VIP newsletter, Ready Fire Aim) here.]
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few.”
Shunryu Suzuli
The Power of One Thing, or What I Told My Son About Success
By Bob Bly
The other day, my oldest son expressed his concern that he would not be successful as an adult. Why? Because (in his mind), there are a quite a number of things he isn’t good at. (Math is at the top of the list.)
I shared an encouraging success secret with him that I now pass on to you…
To be extremely successful – in business, career, and wealth building – you don’t have to be good at a lot of things. In fact, you can attain an extremely high level of success even if you are really good at only one thing.
Warren Buffett made this point some years ago in a lecture to a group of college students. He told his audience that he is not very strong, not very fast, not very physical, not very athletic. “If I was dropped in the middle of Africa, I’d be eaten by a lion within two minutes.” However, because he is good at one thing – investing in the stock market – Buffett is an extremely wealthy man.
In my neighborhood, parents worry incessantly about whether their kids will be successful. They fret over the kids’ grades… piano lessons… sports. Even how many friends the kids have… summer camp… you name it.
My kids have it easy, because I don’t worry about any of those things. As long as they do their best, I don’t obsess over their grades or what extra-curricular activities they should be doing but are not.
I tell them what I just told you. You don’t have to be good at a lot of things. Find one thing in life that you love – that turns you on, that you are passionate about – and keep doing it. The more you do it, the better you’ll get at it.
With an early start and years of practice, your kids will get extremely good at something they love, and will, therefore, never have to worry about supporting themselves or being out of a job.
Of course, to ensure financial success, that “thing” – that singular passion – must be something others will pay money for. To paraphrase Aristotle, “Where your passions intersect with the needs of the public, therein lies your vocation.”
Like Warren Buffett, I am not good at most things. The list of what I am mediocre or bad at is very long indeed. I’m incompetent at fixing things around the house, for example. And I have a depth-perception problem that makes me lousy at tennis, baseball, or any sport where you have to hit a ball with a stick.
But I was always a voracious reader. I love books, reading, and writing.
I began to write early – short stories in junior high, articles for the school newspaper in high school and college. I spent so much time writing for our college paper – it was a daily, and I became the features editor – that my writing began to improve significantly. I realized that was the one thing I love to do, have an aptitude for, and am good at. And when I discovered copywriting, I found a type of writing where I could be paid handsomely for my efforts.
A mistake many people make is to work to improve themselves in areas where they are weak. What you should do instead is work to improve yourself in the one area where you are strongest.
Why? Because we are a society of specialists.
When I was a kid and the tiles in our bathroom began to crumble, my dad strapped on a tool belt and fixed them. Now, when my bathroom has a cracked tile, I call the tile guy and pay him to fix it.
Success does not come from being a Jack of all trades and a master of none. It comes from mastering a skill or body of knowledge that others – employers or customers – will pay you to share.
If I were to take a course in tiling, I would learn a little… but my abilities would be nothing compared to the skill of my tile guy, who has been doing this for 40 years. So I spend my time increasing my knowledge of marketing, which helps me make more money in my freelance copywriting and Internet marketing business.
Society admires the Renaissance man, the well-rounded individual. But more often than not, it’s the singularly focused person – Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Tiger Woods – who reaps the greatest rewards.
[Ed. Note: Bob Bly has spent the past 30+ years mastering the art of selling. Next week - March 20-22 - at an exclusive event in New York City, he'll be revealing hundreds of his top secrets to making money by selling on the Internet. If you want to become a master at one skill - a skill that could help ensure a lifetime free of financial worries - you need to join Bob and the ETR team at this special event. Get all the details here.
In addition to being an expert marketer, Bob is the author of more than 70 books. To subscribe to his free e-zine - the Direct Response Letter - and claim your free gift worth $116, click here now.]
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Worth Quoting: Geoff Ramsey, CEO of eMarketer, on Being Positive
“Don’t let yourself succumb to the pervasive negativity, which can easily become a self-fulfilling prophecy. In this economy, your business’s or brand’s market share may – or may not – go up. But you will assure yourself of the latter result if you do nothing but wallow in the mire of ugly headlines.
“Marathon runners and Tour de France racers know it is on the steepest hill, when the challenge is most difficult, that leadership changes hands. Such is our opportunity now.”
Enjoy Grass-Fed Steak… With a Side of Spinach
Do you have to abstain from juicy steaks and seared lamb chops to lower your risk of colon cancer? Maybe not. Enjoying antioxidant-rich side dishes when you eat red meat could do the trick.
Recent research shows that antioxidants have the potential to neutralize the health-harming effects of both the iron and the oxidized fat. In fact, a 2005 study showed that eating spinach along with red meat eliminated all irritation of the colon that can set the stage for cancer.
Along with enriching your plate with antioxidants, there are three additional things you can do:
1. Choose ONLY Grass-Fed: Grass-fed beef is 300-400 percent higher in conjugated linolenic acid (CLA) – a natural fat that promotes weight loss and reduces the risk of cancer.
2. Drink a Glass of Pinot: Drinking wine with your steak neutralizes the harmful cancer-causing agents formed when red meat is being digested.
3. Cook Slow & Low, & Marinate Well: Some of the most potent cancer-causing agents are heterocyclic amines (HCAs).You can avoid their ill effects by marinating your meat with antioxidant-rich spices and herbs and then slow-cooking it.
Most important, enjoy your healthy, grass-fed beef, buffalo, or lamb in moderation. That means about 3 ounces (a piece about the size of a deck of cards) a few times a week.
[Ed. Note: One of the best ways to stay in peak condition is to eat good foods. Nutrition expert Kelley Herring has collected dozens of her healthiest and most delicious recipes in her e-book Guilt Free Desserts. Pick up your copy today.
For more advice on which foods you should - and shouldn't - be eating to stay in top health, sign up for ETR's free natural health newsletter.]
It’s Good to Know: Clear Fonts Get Things Done
Do you send out e-mails to co-workers in “cool” fonts? When you write marketing copy, is it similarly attired?
If so, you could be sabotaging your efforts. University of Michigan researchers have determined that when people are given instructions written in an easily readable font – like Arial (Arial) – they are more likely to complete the task… and do it well.
Participants in the study were divided into two groups. One group was given instructions in Arial on (1) how to do an exercise and (2) how to “build” a sushi roll. The other group received the same instructions in a “handwritten-style” font.
The results? You guessed it. The Arial group made better sushi rolls and were happier about exercising.
So don’t use Bauhaus (Bauhaus) to ask a colleague to run some numbers for you. And make sure when you’re writing, whether it’s an article, advertising copy, or to-do list, that you stay well clear of Viviendi (Viviendi).
(Source: Lifehacker)
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Word to the Wise: Confrere
A “confrere” (KON-frare) – from the Latin for “brother” – is a fellow member of a fraternity or profession.
Example (as used by Jaroslav Pelikan in Commonweal): “At Father Kilmartin’s death the book was left unfinished (a sign of the times: not in manuscript, but on his laptop); and the arduous but also extremely delicate task of putting it into publishable condition was carried out by his Jesuit confrere, Robert J. Daly.”
[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.]
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2009
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