Marketing With the ‘Next in Line’ Principle
Archives: Daily Issues
Issue #1995
- WEALTHY: How is marketing like playing pool? (Bob Bly)
- HEALTHY: Are your bones in danger? (Dr. Al Sears)
- WISE: The Hustler on being great
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- "I’ll give you $1.6 million if you help me out…" (Suzanne Richardson)
- Michael Masterson on erfahrung vs. wissen knowledge
- It’s Good to Know… about the Influence of Influence
- Add "descry" to your vocabulary
It’s OUR Birthday… But YOU Get the Presents
“My goal is to get you to understand something, remember something, realize something and (ultimately) do something that will make you healthier, wealthier and even wiser.”
With those words, Michael Masterson kicked off the very first issue of ETR back on June 5, 2000… and now, nearly seven years later, we’re celebrating ETR’s milestone 2000th edition by offering you some of our best programs at very deep discounts.
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"You know, anything can be great. I don’t care, BRICKLAYING can be great, if a guy knows. If he knows what he’s doing and why and if he can make it come off…. It’s a great feeling, boy, it’s a real great feeling when you’re right and you KNOW you’re right… You make shots that nobody’s ever made before."
Fast Eddie (Paul Newman) in The Hustler (20th Century Fox, 1961)
Marketing With the "Next in Line" Principle
By Bob Bly
A reporter once asked legendary pool player Minnesota Fats what made the difference between a great pool player – which Fats was – and one who was merely good. "The good pool player makes the shot," said Fats. "The great pool player not only makes the shot, but does so in such a way that the balls are lined up for the next shot."
I think the same applies to marketers.
Are you a good marketer… or a great marketer?
A good marketer creates a product, runs a promotion for it, gets a healthy response rate, and makes a nice profit. A great marketer does all that too… but he also designs the product, promotion, or both in such a way that the next sale is ready to be made.
Example: A good Internet marketer I know came up with a 40-page e-book that he priced at $39 a copy. He paid a freelance writer a flat fee of $700 to write it.
The first time he sent an e-mail about the new e-book to his list, he sold 154 copies, bringing in a quick $6,006. But he made that six grand within three days of sending his e-mail blast. After that, the orders from that promotion – and cash flow – dried up.
A great Internet marketer I know created and marketed his new e-book differently. Instead of paying a writer, he e-mailed a few dozen experts he knew and asked each of them for a contribution. About 30 responded, and this marketer simply cut and pasted their replies into a Word document to create the e-book.
More important, the experts the great marketer asked for contributions were all marketing their own high-priced information products at the time – products that he knew would be of interest to his customer list.
So here’s the deal he made with them. At the end of each of their chapters in his e-book, he included the expert’s bio and a description of one of their related products, along with a "live" link to the landing page where the product could be ordered online. And whenever a buyer of the great marketer’s e-book clicked on one of those links, read the landing page, and ordered the contributor’s product, he got a cut.
Like the good marketer, this marketer too sold thousands of dollars worth of his e-book within a few days of notifying his list about it via e-mail. But, unlike the good marketer, the great marketer continued to get orders from the product links built into it.
Result: The great marketer’s campaign brought in many times more revenue than the good marketer’s campaign for a similar product.
Why?
The good marketer was only trying to make the shot – creating a product and selling it to his list. He made nice money. And he was content.
The great marketer put more thought into the project, and did a little more work up front. He too made the shot and sold his product to his list. But by building a "back end" directly into the product he was distributing, he also lined up his customers to make the next sale.
Friendly’s restaurant chain, regardless of what you think of their food, is often a great marketer.
Yes, when you walk in, there are always specials, enticing you to buy more during your visit. These specials often include an ice cream dessert, which many customers are too full to eat after a big meal. Instead of letting those customers walk out without getting their dessert – which would slightly increase the restaurant’s margin on the meal – my local Friendly’s gives away a certificate entitling you to a free ice cream on your next visit.
Are they being generous?
Yes. But they are also being smart. Because when you return to claim your free ice cream, you will most likely buy additional ice cream for the people who are with you… or pick up a quart to take home… or stop and have lunch.
Friendly’s is thinking ahead to the next sale – not just focusing on today’s transaction.
How about you? Are you a good marketer… or a great marketer?
Good marketers focus on the front end – the immediate sale. Great marketers strategize ways to maximize revenues from every product, promotion, and customer.
Good marketers make a good living. Great marketers make a great living – and become rich beyond the dreams of avarice.
[Ed. Note: Learn how to market your business quickly, cheaply, and easily with ETR's Direct Marketing Masters Edition. And get free tips for doubling your response rates with Bob's Direct Response Letter (bly.com/reports).]
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Anti-Aging Tip: Is Your Doctor Increasing Your Risk of Osteoporosis?
By Al Sears, MD
If you go to a doctor for anxiety or depression, chances are he’ll hand you a prescription for an antidepressant drug, like Zoloft or Prozac. As popular as these drugs are, they have dozens of unfortunate side effects, including impotence, weight gain, and low blood pressure.
Now there’s another one: osteoporosis. Researchers in Canada recently discovered that people over 50 who take antidepressants have double the risk of this bone-loss condition. The study – published in the Archives of Internal Medicine – found that the pills may have a direct effect on bone cells, decreasing bone size and strength. The result is an increased risk for broken bones and further loss of bone density.
Fortunately for you and your bones, you don’t need a prescription to get relief from depression. There’s a natural option called SAM-e (S-adenosylmethionine), which is present in every cell in your body. Scientists have been studying SAM-e for decades. In most cases, it is as effective as antidepressant drugs – and it doesn’t have the side effects.
A few years ago, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a study that compared SAM-e and a popular antidepressant for six weeks. All the participants showed positive improvement, but those taking the SAM-e reported almost no side effects. (On rare occasions, SAM-e will upset your stomach – or, very rarely, may cause a skin rash. But these symptoms disappear when you stop taking it.) At the end of the study, SAM-e had performed just as well as the prescription drug and was better tolerated.
SAM-e is widely available. You can find it in health food stores, drugstores, and on the Internet. I recommend starting with 200 mg of SAM-e per day. If my patients see little improvement after two weeks, I increase the dose to 400 mg once a day.
If your depression or anxiety persists, contact your doctor. But be sure to discuss your non-prescription treatment options before you start taking antidepressant drugs.
[Ed. Note: Dr. Sears, a practicing physician and the author of The Doctor's Heart Cure, is a leading authority on longevity, physical fitness, and heart health.]
Internet Scam Alert
By Suzanne Richardson
You’ve almost certainly received a plea from a Nigerian national, prince of Ghana, or widow of a high-ranking Kuwaiti, asking you to help acquire/transfer/invest a large sum of money in exchange for a percentage of the funds. The so-called Nigerian Money Offer scam is the fourth most common scam e-mail users see, and unsuspecting victims who respond to it end up losing an average of $3,700.
If you get an e-mail from someone in an African country (or any country, for that matter) that plays to your heartstrings… promises a large percentage of millions of dollars… requests your address, telephone number, and/or bank-account data… or just sounds too good to be true – report it to fraud.org and delete it.
(Source: Internet Fraud Watch)
Treasures From the ETR Archives: Michael Masterson on Erfahrung vs. Wissen Knowledge
[Ed. Note: Our mission at ETR is to help you reach all your goals - and to celebrate our upcoming Issue #2000, we are presenting you with some of Michael Masterson's most powerful, life-changing messages to date. To read each full article, click the link embedded in the text.]
"I went to bed that night thinking about the threat of global warming and its effects (including raising the sea level by a foot or more), and dreamed my house was being washed out to sea.
"I woke up wondering if I should sell my home and buy another one further inland. That would be the prudent thing to do, I figured. Better to get out now while I could still get a good price. If I waited until it was obvious that all these coastal properties were going to be flooded one day, I’d be out several million dollars.
"On the other hand, my heart argued, I have no reason to believe that the ocean is going to rise. It hasn’t risen in all the years that I’ve been living across from it. Chances are, it won’t rise in the future.
"Plus, my heart continued, I love this house. I love the way it looks, the way it feels, and the view I get every time I look out the window. Why give up something I truly love because I fear that one day it will be less valuable or even worthless?
"My dilemma was a classic struggle between head and heart. It was also, I realized, an example of the difference between two very different kinds of knowledge: wissen [secondary knowledge] and erfahrung [primary knowledge - the kind you get from personal experience]."
* * * * *
"I think we are all better off directing our lives based on what we know from experience to be true, rather than on what we’ve been told (by the government, by big business, by vested interests, etc.) to be true.
* * * * *
"One of the most common mistakes we make in business is thinking we know things that we don’t. I’m thinking specifically of believing we are capable of running a certain type of business simply because we have been a long-time customer of it.
"You are completely sure, given your vast experience buying or using a certain product, that you could successfully produce and sell it at a profit. Let’s call this common mistake the Conceit of Outside Knowledge. And let’s say that it is not an entirely bad thing. Even though it accounts for a great deal of confident but stupid criticism… it is also the cause – perhaps the most common cause – of entrepreneurship."
[Ed. Note: Learn how you can be part of an exclusive group of 25 to 50 ambitious businesspeople that Michael will be leading through an elite 5-day program that can help you dramatically increase the profitability of your business here.]
ETR Contributors Weigh In On Our 2000th Issue Celebration: "Michael Masterson and his outstanding staff have created an invaluable resource for serious readers."
"Happily, I always have more work to do than I can handle. Even so, I make time to read Early to Rise every day, because it’s a window to the world in so many areas – success, motivation, health, and more… much more.
"Michael Masterson and his outstanding staff have created an invaluable resource for serious readers, regardless of where they may be on the financial ladder. But what impresses me most about Early to Rise is that it never rests on its laurels. It continually evolves in the direction of being bigger, better, and more helpful to its subscribers … month after month, year after year."
Robert Ringer – author of To Be or Not to Be Intimidated? and ETR contributor
ETR Issue #2000 Celebration – It’s Good to Know: The Influence of Influence
The most-quoted book in nearly 2,000 issues of ETR has been Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini.
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Word to the Wise: Descry
To "descry" (dih-SKRY) – from the French for "to cry out" – is to catch sight of something distant or obscure. The word originally applied to shouting out the discovery of an enemy, a game animal, or land.
Example (as used by Ferdinand Mount in Jem (and Sam): "On a clear day, if there was no sun, you could descry (but barely) the ships roving out at anchor in Herne Bay and count their masts."
[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, on-sale now through the 28th to celebrate the 2000th issue of ETR.]
Michael Masterson
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2007
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